Well, the crazyness of the tour is over … for now.  There were so many good memories along the way that it’s hard to do a thorough recap of everything that happened.  I’ll start with the last few shows and work way backwards.

Charlotte was amazing, thanks to the overwhelming support of our friends.  It seemed like everyone we knew in Charlotte came to support us including Chris, Meg, Alan, Brent, Heather, Justin, Jonathan, my Mom, Jillian, Erin, Joseph, Jason, Katie, and Wes.  It was kind of like an Anderson Reunion of sorts.  It was great to catch up with everybody and play in a new venue.  Our opening group, Alex Radus, also showed out some great talent with their soft jazz stylings.  What a sexy voice that man has.

Our next stop was the Preservation Pub in Knoxville on Friday.  We had some loyal supporters come out for that show as well (Rhonda, Sarah, Matt, and Stephanie) which made it worth while.  It was another new venue but we really loved it.  The sound was fantastic (thanks, Darrell!) and the people were pretty attentive and responsive considering most of them were there to socialize, drink, or eat.  Because of a small misunderstanding we ended up playing our longest set (two sets, rather) of the whole tour but something about the impromptu nature of it inspired everyone in the band to put on an awesome show.  We had improvised solos at the end of songs, different versions/lyrics to a few songs, and an all around “rocking” time.  Also, Dustin Hammond opened up for us and had one of the coolest and unique song stylings that included mouth trumpet solos and yodeling.  Plus he has an awesome beard that puts all other beards to shame.  Rock on Dustin.

The last show of the tour was at the Go Bar in Athens with our friends from Union.  Though we didn’t have the same numbers that we did at other shows we still had a great time and got our first chance to rock out under a disco ball.  It was a fun way to close out the tour.  We also got a chance to all ride in one car because Union let us rock out on their equipment.  It was the first time we had ever ridden together for a show and inspired us to try to commit to getting a trailer of huge van so we can do it more often.

A short recap of my favorite non-music moments: playing some sweet xbox 360 (courtesy of Jamie and the Rameys), crossing 100,000 miles in the trusty Malibu, our extended rap sessions, pranking Sam while he was on the phone, the video tour diaries, becoming “The Fire Tonight”, bringing down the maturity level every time we entered a room, the hospitality of everyone we stayed with (Russes, Martin’s, Cox’s, and Havey’s), watching drunk people, and many more.

Some of my favorite performance moments: pulling off a Radiohead cover set, rocking out for the first time to “Fast Song”, playing to our biggest crowd of fans yet at McGee’s, playing for our friends in Charlotte, getting people to turn around every time we played “Pay the Waitress”, playing in a foil covered room, and everything else.

While I should probably save it for another post, we did brief sandwich tour as well covering Subway, Firehouse, Publix, Main St Deli, and a few others.  For vegetarian fare Subway was actually my favorite.  Feel free to comment with your favorite sandwich experiences.

The tour was a great experience and, I think, taught us a lot about ourselves and our band.  While it wasn’t always fun and games we did have a fantastic time and are committed to making some awesome rock music together.  We look forward to seeing everyone in the near future at one of our upcoming shows.  Also, I have attempted to tag everyone that I remembered coming to a show in this note so if I left you out please tag yourself!