The morning in Huston, which was really just an extension of the night before, turned into another rowdy breakfast free-for-all. Rick made a bag of frozen french fries explode all over the kitchen, but we just picked them out of the plant pots and the sink and put them in the oven.
I was starting to notice a lot of the band members didn’t seem to be changing their pants so I did some scietific research.
The Teeth said a tearful goodbye to their Shreveport fan base to head for Fort Worth, the last gig on the tour before South By Southwest. There was a huge pileup on the floor as The Big Positive tried one last time to keep our whole Philadelphia caravan in town for another night.
Being on tour was all about waiting. Every day there was waiting for everyone to wake up and get in the van, then there was a whole day of driving, waiting to get to the next venue. Wait after soundcheck, wait after the set to be paid. The days were just big long waits perforated with random bursts of manic activity.
I rode to Fort Worth in National Eye’s van and found out that their traveling style was very different from the Teeth’s. Where The Teeth were quiet and regimented, mostly reading and listening to talk radio, usually only stopping once in a day, National Eye just operated on whims. They ate all of my crackers, stopped three times for subs, bathrooms, coffee, and played road trip guessing games.
Before the sets, after playing pool and a really dissappointing game of video poker to pass the time, Jonas said he was really glad that National Eye was on the tour with them. Having more people to talk to other than just their bandmates made tour more tolerable for both bands.
The headliners at the Wreck Room in Fort Worth were a punk band on tour from New York called the Sex Slaves who were in the parking lot partying in their van through both the National Eye and The Teeth sets. Knowing that they were opening for a punk band, National Eye pulled out a rare idiotic rock set. After the Teeth played we stuck around just long enough to watch the Sex Slaves set up their giant, shiny white and chrome amps before leaving. I was dying to poll the Slaves to find out how many vests they brought for my clothing chart.
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