We Are The Union – 1st ROAD BLOG from their Summer Tour with I Call Fives

The punk/ska band, We Are The Union, from the Detriot, MI area is currently on their summer tour with I Call Fives, Handguns and The Story So Far. On this tour, the band will be writing periodic updates for your reading pleasure. The first of those updates is available after the break.

Friday, June 10th, 2011
Day 1
So I guess what I’ll be doing in this here tour blog is trying to recount anything semi-interesting that goes on in the day-to-day of We Are The Union for the next 8 weeks while we tour with I Call Fives, Handguns and The Story So Far.
We left Michigan late on Thursday, and drove through the night to our good friend Erica’s house, and got there at the wonderful hour of 8:30am. We pretty much slept and lazed around all day until Erica made us vegan cheese steaks!
As soon as we were done eating, we headed to The Barbary. We managed to roll up half an hour late to load-in, even though Erica’s house is legitimately a two minute drive away. We are professional. We spent a lot of our time enjoying The Barbary’s bad ass air conditioning system. It was like 55 degrees in there, and 85 or 90 outside.
After we loaded in, I had to retube my amp, but the tube set I ordered came with something called a phase inverter tube. I had no idea what that was (and…still kinda don’t…), and spent the next hour or so calling everyone I know who plays guitar to try to find out what the hell I was supposed to do with it. Brian Forst, a good friend of ours from the florida punk band Protagonist, came to my rescue and told me to try putting it last in the preamp chain. My amp didn’t blow up or sound like garbage, so I assume he was right. Thanks, Brian!
It was an early show, and it was admittedly a little weird to play while the sun was still shining into the venue, but we had a great time regardless.
It’s always cool to play with a band like Handguns in their home-area. I know they’re not from Philly but it seems like they have a hometown-like crowd there. People were so stoked on their set, it was awesome. I Call Fives killed it as well, we hadn’t played with those guys since mid 2008, if I recall correctly.
All in all, we are way excited for this tour.

Saturday June 11th, 2011
Day 2
We woke up around noon, our friend Matt came over to hang out with us, and Erica made us all delicious vegan biscuits and gravy, potatoes and tofu scramble. Matt has been hanging out with us since we first started touring in 2006, so it’s always awesome to see him. Definitely a solid start to the day.
All of us, including Erica and Matt, piled into the van to start the short drive to Wilkes-Barre around 4. Right as we pulled up, the Handguns dudes were about to head to Sheetz. Sheetz being the greatest thing Pennsylvania has to offer (besides maybe Punchline), I naturally hopped in their van to go get some Faygo and Herr’s chips.
When we got back, Ricky and Brandon were doing what they do best – playing hockey in the parking lot.
It started raining during the show, so we had the pleasure of loading out down a muddy hill. Shoes and pants were stained. Tears were shed. Trailers were packed and we were off.
I played Pinball HD on my laptop and listened to The Swellers’ new record on the drive back to Erica’s. I can’t get enough of that record. It comes out Tuesday, buy it. For now, it’s streaming at their Facebook page.

Reed
We Are The Union