We Are The Union – 2nd 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.

Sunday, June 12th
Asbury Park, NJ
Day 3

We showed up just under half an hour after load-in to find the first band already set up on stage and over 100 people inside the venue. Not sure what happened there, but we just loaded in our merch and didn’t think too much about it.
Since this was an all day show, we spent a good portion of the afternoon hanging out with our buddy Steve. Steve has an office job and says that
clientsfromhell.net pretty much sums up his everyday life. We got a game of catch going, which turned out to be rather hilarious because neither of us had touched a baseball in years. Our friend Matt, who was still tagging along for the third day (that guy can’t take a damn hint), took over for me at some point. After a horrible, uncatchable throw courtesy of Matt, some crazy lady STOLE OUR FUCKING BASEBALL! ARE YOU SERIOUS? She picked it up and scurried off! If you’re reading this, lady, WATU’s coming for you. Next time we’re in Asbury Park, you’re going down.
Who steals a baseball?
As if that wasn’t enough to make for a super weird day, a homeless guy with expensive sunglasses walked up to the van where we were hanging out, asked everyone for a cigarette, and then looked at Ricky and/or Steve (we’re not sure which one) and said “what’s up Jackie Chan?”
Asbury Park is not rad.
We played, loaded out, and drove back to Erica’s. Drew from I Call Fives tagged along with us. That guy totally sucks and ruined our night.

Monday, June 13th
Baltimore, MD
Day 4

We locked Erica out of her house.
After staying with her for four nights and eating all of her food, we forgot to leave the door unlocked and locked her out of her house.
I dunno if she ever got in, but I think it rained that night, so I hope so.
Anyway, we drove to Baltimore, loaded in, and sat around for a while. I played Brandon’s ukulele in the van until it was time to hit the stage to play my secondary instrument. Ukulele is my true passion. Our set was one of the best of tour so far and easily the most fun.
After we got off stage and loaded out, Barney (our new trombone player!!!!ska!!!!) and I had a loud conversation with some guy outside the venue about Star Wars. JJ Abrams needs to reboot the original Star Wars series and include Shadows Of The Empire, for the record.
When we were packed up and done yelling about Star Wars, it was time to head down to Richmond to stay with our favorite married couple, The Maxwells. We showed up at about 4:30 am and watched America’s Funniest Home Videos until we all passed out.

Tuesday, June 14th
Virginia Beach, VA
Day 5

We left The Maxwell residence in the afternoon and made the short drive to Virginia Beach.
The venue was a church, but the fact that it was across the street from a 711 more than made up for the awkwardness of being an atheist performing in a building dedicated to religious worship. Slurpee heals all wounds.
Rick and Tif, AKA The Maxwells, drove out from Richmond which was awesome because we didn’t get to see Tif the night before.
After we show, we headed to Taco Bell with them. The lobby was apparently closed for the next six weeks (we thought it was a joke on the phone – it wasn’t), so we went for the drive through. I won’t type out a full transcript of our order, but basically it went something like this:
“I’d like two fresco bean burritos.”
“Four fresco bean burritos?”
“No, two fresco bean burritos.”
“Okay three fresco bean burritos.”
“No, TWO of them. Just two.”
“Okay two fresco bean burritos. What else?”
“One soft taco”
“Three soft tacos, anything else?”
“No, just one soft taco”
And so on.
It was excruciating.
After we ate, we exchanged tearful goodbyes with Rick and Tif and drove to the nearest Wawa to gas up the van. Of course Rick and Tif were there getting gas as well so we had tearful goodbyes round 2 and headed to Raleigh to stay with our friend Krissy.
Krissy knows Jim, Ricky and Brandon from their high school days. She’s rad and lets us stay at her place every time we’re in the area.
As usual, we showed up at about 4 or 4:30 in the morning. Barney and I argued about auto-tune for half an hour until we fell asleep.

Reed
We Are The Union