Miracles of Modern Science

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Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Miracles of Modern Science orchestral cover)

[miraclesofmodernscience]

Our beautiful day in the Rocky Mountains of Utah behind us, we made for Denver - our show that evening was at a venue called The Walnut Room. No strangers to shows at high altitude by this point in our tour, we barrelled along in our trusty MOMS mobile in search of our destiny in new and mile-high lands. Defying expectation, The Walnut Room specialised in gourmet pizzas - the venue part of the establishment was loosely partitioned from its restaurant part, and we were treated to one of their specialty creations on the house. Arriving at our destination, we were greeted by the friendly and well-organised man who would be our sound engineer for the evening. The sound at the venue, while not particularly live in the room, was extremely clear - the latter being almost a requirement for us, given the kind of music we make. We had a lot of friends in Denver who we hadn't seen in quite some time. They made the effort to correct that grievous state of affairs, and along with the lovely food and excellent sound, the evening was a special one for us. It was a good way of easing the pain of having abandoned our Utah sanctuary. The next day we were bound for the Replay Lounge... Lawrence, KANSAS!

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Our day off.

Good friends of the band very generously offered us the use of their cabin in Utah's stretch of the Rocky Mountains for the day and evening. We were very grateful for the experience and the chance to really unwind.

At 7800 feet above sea level, surrounded by snowy mountain tops, in a warm wood cabin (complete with the associated comforting wood smell that always follows these places), the experience was breathtaking in every way.

Driven slightly loopy by the altitude and our desire to play hard, we went on a cross-country hike further up the mountain.  My hands have been splinter-free for far too long and I wasn't about to just sit around and tolerate that sad state of affairs any longer. I had to DO something. Our seasoned hiking skills meant we had boundless confidence in making what was certainly a conscious choice to avoid anything that looked like a trail or ground at less than a 45 degree incline for as much of our jaunt as possible. The sliver shaped void in the spirit of my hands was soon filled.

The view was glorious though.

At sunset we returned to our fortress of solitude - victorious. Our shoes forever carrying half the mountain's mud and water as a trophy and memento.

We made up a batch of ravioli followed up with hot chocolates to accompany the  cookies and ice cream that would see us through our Jason Bourne double feature.

We'd be lying if we said we were ready to leave first thing in the morning, but some respite was definitely better than none (and WHAT a break!), and in the end, we still had a show to look forward to!

[miraclesofmodernscience]

Though the tour is over, the travelogue continues! I hope you enjoy the account of the rest of our adventures - rest easy, my notes are copious. Next up was Utah. We were spending two days in Salt Lake City, the second of which was the one complete day off we'd scheduled for the tour - no driving, no shows. With the exception of one day at SXSW, every day up to that point had been one or the other, and usually both. As great a feeling as it is to perform and make music every day, it's also a very draining experience - we were all looking forward to the chance to have a bit of a relax. We drove into Salt Lake and went straight to the venue: Kilby Court. We'd heard great things about this place, but pulling up we were initially skeptical. To our untrained eyes, Kilby Court's context was a cocktail of anxieties: equal parts unintentional-cul-de-sac and uninhabited, with a twist of unrealised potential. How very (and happily) wrong we were. The all-ages venue has been running for more than a decade, it is a cornerstone of the local music scene, and has seen more than its share of bands that have gone on to become massive acts. The sound was among the best we'd had all tour, balanced and mixed well for the room (they'd also just upgraded their equipment), all run by an exceptionally competent sound man. We knew early on that this would be a good show. Kilby Court was an amazing venue - the crowd were friendly and attentive, the sound was just right, and the place was very well run. All in all, Salt Lake was a great experience for us and we're looking forward to coming back as soon as we can!

[miraclesofmodernscience]

We were on the road to Boise, Idaho, to play a venue called the Red Room. This marked the first show on our road that led slowly back to home base Brooklyn town. We were down a man, but we’re scrappy. We switched gears and shifted into our 4-MOMS alignment, like a less shiny and slower Batmobile transforming from normal into thinner. (I want to take a moment to make sure it’s clear we’re not Batman in this simile, collectively we’re just the car - and it’s one of the older models. She still goes though… oh, she goes.) The Red Room had a relatively sizeable stage and an impressive lighting system - complete with lasers. Despite the venue’s apologetic and beleaguered sound man explaining it was his first day back at the venue in 2 years (with house equipment not in a state he was particularly proud of), and being newly Geoffless, we were very well received by the crowd at Boise.

The next day, we began our drive to Utah…

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It was our first time in Seattle and our hopes were high. Continuing our attempts to score our traveling experience with a geographically appropriate soundtrack, we drove northward to the sound of Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. We had business in Seattle. We were playing a private function for our friend Nadine (who also put us up), who was showcasing her work in high end pastry. This was the classiest show of our tour and we wanted to maintain the illusion we belonged for as long as possible. We were playing a set that hovered somewhere between background music and a regular show, tending towards the latter for what turned in to an attentive crowd as the night went on. The next day we were playing at the High Dive. A bittersweet experience given that this was our last show with Geoff for a while - unfortunately he had to head back to the east coast to fulfil his conducting obligations. Our efforts to drag him slowly but surely to the dark side was put on hold... momentarily. It's an important point to note that our stay in Seattle was accompanied by perfect weather. This was turning into a bit of a theme for our tour, in sharp contrast to our home shows in New York where MOMS shows are the most accurate precipitation predictor. Everywhere we went, we always took the weather us. (Thank you, Crowded House) Seattle was good to us, completing what had been a perfect run up the coast. Well played, west coast. Well played. We'll be back as soon as we can!

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Portland, Oregon. This vegan, sustainable, organic, free-range, commune-friendly, plaid-encrusted, blossoming, hippy hipster Mecca was a highly anticipated stop on our tour. We played at Bunk Bar a lovely sandwich bar, saw some goats fighting on a roof, this amazing cat, this more amazing dog, all of which helped us come to the understanding that Portlandia is a documentary. Laura our lovely hostess put us up for the night and looked after us very well, taking us out for a bit if breakfast and to see the local sights the next morning, before we headed off for our next port of call: Seattle!

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We played 3 more shows in our remaining 2 days in San Francisco. Our first was a private show at the Pines residence for friends and family, outdoors on a beautiful sunny day by the pool. Tyler’s family had put together an amazing assortment of food and refreshments for the day - based on our performance Bob Athayde, the passionate band director at Tyler’s old middle school, invited us to play for his students and do a Q&A the next morning. We were happy to oblige - Geoff and I work in music education and relished the opportunity to talk to the students about what we do with the band in particular! We had the chance to see the band in action before we performed for them - the level of musicianship and ability in a group so young was extraordinary. A testament to Bob’s obvious dedication and the quality of the program as a whole.

Later that day, our last day in our all-too-brief time in San Francisco, we were scheduled to play at Google. We were looking forward to meeting Ray Kurzweil, the lead proponent of the idea of a “technological singularity” on which our song The Singularity was based and the new Director of Engineering at Google, who’d expressed his enthusiasm for meeting us as well. Unfortunately our hopes were dashed when he regretted to have to inform us he’d been pulled away at the last moment on business back to the East Coast. Ships in the night! Nevertheless, you could totally palp our excitement at being at Google. They’d made up an amazing poster for us and took us on a tour after our show for their employees.

The next morning we said farewell to the fairy tale that was San Francisco, as we prepared to break more new ground, heading to Portland, Oregon…

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We were playing at Hotel Utah our first night in San Francisco to a sold out room. The venue had a history to it. It had opened over 100 years ago, and the reputation surrounding it had run the full gamut of possibility - from dangerous and seedy to where it currently stood at respectable (despite booking us). Two sets of stairs connected the bar room to the venue: one which ran up to a balcony that looked down onto the stage, and another that went down into a space just below the slightly raised stage. The place was abuzz. Lots of old friends living in San Francisco had made it along that evening, making what was already a big evening for us, that much more meaningful. Local acts Caldecott and The Tet Holiday opened for us, the former was composed of old friends of Tyler's. Sound was a little difficult in what ended up being a very packed room, but the energy in the room more than made up for it in terms of our overall experience. The west coast continued to endear itself to us.

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San Francisco was an amazing experience for us. Tyler is from Lafayette, just outside of the city. His parents spoiled us rotten, denying us the romance of being a band roughing it on tour... we briefly considered feigning reluctance at being made to give up on that image before we remembered we'd made a previous commitment to trying to give up being idiots. We were grateful for individual beds, home cooked meals, and beautiful walks through the wilderness behind the house.

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The next day we said farewell to our lovely hosts, Matt and Julie, who'd very generously put us up in their apartment for the 2 days we were in LA. Thank you! We were headed for San Francisco, playing that evening at Hotel Utah to a sold out room. We'd budgeted a bit of extra time in our drive up the coast - it was something that we'd been looking forward to for a while and we didn't want to rush it. The California coast is something special. As a foreigner, I feel I can say that with a reasonable degree of confidence in my relative impartiality. We stopped in Santa Barbara on the way up because it was just far too beautiful. Next time we'll build in even more time so we can get one of the brightly painted multi-pedal powered buggies that families would hire for an afternoon, so we can hoon up and down the shoreline in style.

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We were playing at the Hotel Café in West Hollywood that evening, a venue which seemed to be neither Hotel nor Café but had a reputation for being an amazing spot for music. Purely by chance, we found ourselves sharing the evening of music with Brooklyn-based friends Charlene Kaye & The Brilliant Eyes, on tour with Alexz Johnson, who were playing immediately before us. We were excited. In stark contrast to the occasional platform/stilt-stiletto'd look-alikes and matching gawking Jersey Shore nightmares we saw walking the street outside in perpetual search of an LA "Stefon" to point them in the direction of the next hottest club - the venue itself had a great vibe. Heavy red Lynch-esque drapes framed the stage; an even smattering of tables, chairs, couches, and standing space in the audience; and sound that not only resisted the temptation to blast the audience into oblivion, but was of a very good quality (we've been generally pretty lucky throughout the tour on that front - many thanks to our sound engineers!). We were very warmly received by a large audience of locals and we had a great night all round. We'll be back, LA! Hopefully soon!

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With the day to ourselves through until our show in the evening, and still geed up on all the California music from the day before, we headed down to Santa Monica beach to soak it all in...

[miraclesofmodernscience]

The next day we were off to LA: Hollywood... Beverly Hills... swimmin' pools... movie stars... We had 2 days and 2 gigs in our time there. First up was a gig at a place called Origami, a vinyl-only record store. We'd had a great experience in Hattiesburg playing at T-Bones, so we were looking forward to it. Origami was a much smaller establishment than T-Bones, and we were performing for our audience from a great height. Reachable by a narrow iron spiral staircase, we were playing some 12 feet above our audience. Our stage up there wasn't particularly spacious and there was no railing - it was high stakes performance. Performing in any situation is never risk-free, but paraplegia isn't usually on the table. Life, limb, and hyperbole would all be on the line for our art. It was a fun show, playing for as many familiar and unfamiliar faces as could fit in the shop, and we were treated to some headphones as a thank you for playing from Origami.

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San Diego. Beautiful, sunny, Pacific Ocean'd, San Diego. We cruised into California, to the tune of every bit of California themed music our collective stream of conscious could muster and, in a couple cases (I'm looking at you, Ms Perry), force upon us as a kind of rite of passage. We pulled up at UCSD's The Loft with intent. Our first time out to the West Coast was going to be memorable. That evening we had the great pleasure of being reunited with a number of old friends who were based in the area (and in a couple cases, only in town very briefly) playing for them and a solid contingent of students we'd lured away from otherwise promising academic careers during their finals week - guilt-free. Jordan, a close friend of ours, put us up in her family's home - we were wonderfully well looked after.

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Our show in Tempe that night was at Long Wong's Firehouse. The implications of the name of that establishment were difficult to digest, especially given that the venue was neither a firehouse, nor as far as we could tell was it owned by an individual named Long. Or Wong. It was difficult to decide whether Long was part of that person's name, or just a description of someone named Wong. And if the latter..... in what way? Leaving the details out of it for just a moment... was this person somehow longer than any average person, or just longer than other Wongs? What kind of person would take it upon themselves to establish that, and how?... WHY? I was riding a train of thought that runs express to the idiot land which seems to be an increasingly frequent destination for me... pulling out from a station which had long since stopped offering service to any useful locations. I was jolted back to reality by the realisation that it was important we play a show at some point. And play a show we did. An enjoyable show. We were grateful for the generosity of strangers that evening as friends of the promoter, Gage and Maggie, put us up in their place (thank you very much!). We were kept company by their cats affectionately named Bitchface and Asscat. The next day we were off for San Diego, to play at UCSD's The Loft...

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MOMS exploring the stunning Painted Desert and Petrified Forest...