#joseph lazzari

[johnvournakis]

Hitting the road once again with my very good friend Joseph Lazzari. We just put out a new split EP, check it out at my bandcamp.

[unsaneasylum]

May 12th & 13th 2012

This is what spontaneity is all about... A week before this I bought round trip megabus tickets for Atlanta. There weren't any shows. Wasn't planning on meeting up with anyone besides Joel to work on the 40 Hells cover some. Basically just wanted to get out of town for a while. The day after I bought the tickets Bryan posted an event where he was playing at a pizza joint less than 2 miles from the bus stop. It was also supposed to be a record show too! Score. So begins another Atlanta adventure. I arrived at 10:30am so the first thing on the agenda was breakfast! An apparent homeless man started talking to me as I was walking away from the bus and pointed me towards Peachtree Center... And, man, was that ever the saddest little mall I had ever seen! At least I had quiet surroundings for my footlong BLT from Subway though, right? After finishing the first half it was getting near time for me to start the 2 mile walk towards Jack's Pizza for the show. And the lonely walk that was. I figured it would be like most of Atlanta with busy streets and lots of people around but mostly I was walking through suburban areas on a boring Saturday morning... I couldn't even find a gas station to get a bottle of water!

I was sitting across the street from Jack's finishing off the rest of my BLT when Bryan arrived. He was afraid I would be the only person to show up for the gig too. He had been trying to get in touch with Parking Lot Paul, the guy that booked the show and was bringing his distro, but just kept getting his voice mail. Turned out he had gotten hit by a car while riding his bike the night before! It was really funny when Bryan got excited seeing there were friends near him while checking his facebook trying to get people to come out though. Seeing as I was sitting right next to him at the bar...haha! But everyone started to relax after Joseph arrived and was just like "Fuck it! We don't need a PA let's just walk around or play outside!". No sense stressing over bullshit. Joseph ate a slice of "soulfood pizza" while we were waiting on more people to show up too. Which, in theory, sounds amazing with fried chicken, collard greens, mashed potatoes, and gravy on it. But after I tried a slice there was about 17lbs of pepper in it which, not only overpowered all of the flavor, it completely ruined everything. I'll try concocting that myself at home and leave all the pepper out! The show as still fun even with all the hiccups. Bryan and Joseph just chilled on the back porch drinking and playing to the crowd. I enjoyed it.

After they left I sat waiting on someone... For something that was never supposed to happen. Meaghan and a friend of hers came to pick me up and hang out for a while. I couldn't have waited much longer either since I had to pee really bad and the wait staff kept thinking they needed to bring me some water or offer me a menu. Nope, just had to pee really bad! After they arrived, and relieved ourselves, we walked around trying to figure out what to do until Joel got off of work. Then made out way to Little Five Points where they had some coffee and then went to eat. A bum almost got himself curbstomped while on the way from the coffee shop too... He said something like "donate for my movie" to which we kept walking. Then he mumbled "your girls can suck my dick too". If I were a violent man, or if they had heard what he said, dude would have been in trouble. After walking back and forth we settled on The Porter for dinner. I got a reuben with fries, and oh my word, those fries were amazing! It's like they sprinkle cheese on them or something. Andrea got more of her mac and cheese on her face and hair than in her mouth. And Meaghan proved that she's a blithering idiot.

Then I got dropped off at Joel's for the evening. I kind of expected things to end there but it got even more awesome! Davey Burdon had drove in from Atlanta with his friend Todd, who was in one of the first Black Cougar Shock Unit incarnations, to see Mastodon. Who I could hear playing soon as I got to Joel's house! So we went down to the bar next to The Drunken Unicorn, The Local, to hang out for a while. I hadn't seen Davey since he was over here on tour with Leatherface and Former Cell Mates so it was really rad to see him again. Kelsey from All Night Drug Prowling Wolves also showed up after a while. So we just chilled out, caught up a little bit, and told lots of old tour stories. It's always a little bit crazy when a group like that gets together. There's so much history and so many places they've been to together on tour. I pretty much sat there in awe soaking it all in and enjoying all the tales they regaled each other with. I'm pretty lucky to know the people I do. It wasn't long before everyone decided to leave though. It was getting pretty late, Davey and Todd had a long drive ahead of them, and Joel and I were pretty tired.

The next day started off with going to band practice with a new unnamed band that Joel's been playing with. The guitarist Pete was in BCSU, like half of the people in Atlanta were, and the other guy Stone was from Russia. Nice dudes. After that we tried to work on the 40H cover but lacked the technology or original photo... So it was time to locate some food and, of course, record shop! We went to Mediterranean Grill for a falafel which was pretty fucking amazing! Happy now, JDM? Then it was off to Wuxtry and Book Nook. I spent way too much money on CDs but found so much great stuff like Void, Husker Du, SNFU and Sebadoh. Wuxtry wasn't very well organized so I only got a Nina Hagen and Tom Waits record. Then it was time to gather my stuff, grab some of the new 40 Hells records and some other stuff Joel gave me to sell, and head back home. I really love going to Atlanta. I almost always have a good time and Joel always takes such good care of me when I'm around. Anything that guy wants, he gets as far as I'm concerned! Until next time brother.

http://unsaneasylum.com/photoblog/2012-5-12