Space Carnival Fall Tour Log

Space Carnival recently wrapped up their first extensive tour, taking them down to North Carolina and West Virginia, and back to the Northeast to Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut. While on the road they kept a tour log of each city they played in and shared the experience with NYS Music.

The One Stop, Asheville, North Carolina

Do roads end? Not likely. Anyway, we made it. Asheville, the first stop. After eating at Waffle House and drinking craft beer in the hotel room with our friend Khalil, we took the bus to downtown Asheville. What a gem, downtown Asheville is like a winning hand.

We had a blast at the One Stop. Our first show of tour gave way to new exploration in a familiar set. Nothing off the charts but great ideas are coming out. A day off tomorrow and we are heading up to Mace manor to hang and do some grilling. Its gonna be a fun day off.

Space Carnival Bus Fun

1st Day off

Hitting the Moog factory was a highlight because we all love to turn knobs. We jammed for hours at Nic Nac’s mountain hideaway. Such welcoming friends and she even turned us onto her amazing poetry. This inspiration is gonna last me all the way into Boone and beyond.

Murphy’s Pub, Boone, North Carolina

Asheville to Boone was a sweet little ride. Boone is a cool college town. We got in with half a day to kill before our show starts which should give us enough time to fowl up a college restroom.

We had a nice set in Boone. 3 hours went by very quickly and our sound guy pulled out all the stops for us. Some new stuff we are working on is coming together and Boone seemed like the perfect town to take a risk or two. Its nice to be finding our rhythm. It’s the beginnings to communicate well. Sleeping on the bus is gonna be interesting tonight, right on the main street in Boone, hiding in plain sight.

The Purple Fiddle, Thomas, West Virginia

Winding roads and a white knuckle ride for me as I drove the bus to Thomas. I took as many wrong turns as I could and found ourselves driving Gus (our bus) up many mountain roads. The Baked Potatoes used this bus before us and they averaged one breakdown a day. With a grand total of zero so far we are looking good.

Thomas is a small town in the middle of a small state. The local population is dwarfed by their weekend population and it was a Wednesday night gig for us. I hope we can pull some magic and get a good turn out.

The Purple Fiddle was a great room to play. I instantly fell in love with the charm and vibe of the small cafe/venue. Despite being a small town there have been some major artists that love to play here. With a hostel right above (band stays free!) I’m happy to call this place home for a few days. Though our turnout was small it was very receptive. The locals loved us and one went as far as to say we were the best he’s seen in a while. I’ll take a small warm response to a large tepid response any day.

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Kungfu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA

With two days off at the Purple Fiddle that consisted of pool, watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and catching up on a whole lot of sleep, we headed off to Philadelphia. We were really excited to be playing with Tweed and Flux Capacitor. Really awesome people and even nicer people! It was a Halloween party just a few days before the actual holiday. Labeled as an 80’s night we decided to play Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” to mark the occasion. We had an awesome turnout for our first Philly show and got to record our Indie GoGo campaign video with a friend from the area.

The Dock, Ithaca, NY

After getting out of Philly right after our set we made the long drive to Ithaca for our first show back in about a year. We love Ithaca and were so happy to be back at The Dock. We rode this energy all the way through set and really broke through with our jams. This show saw us really take our jamming to its tightest point of the tour so far. Our communication has really come together on this run of shows and we are starting to really click. I would say that this show really defined the rest of the tour for us and set a tone and energy that we wanted to match each night after.

Cyber West Cafe, Binghamton, NY

Binghamton was up next for us and after a sweaty performance the night before we drove our increasingly smelly bus to Cyber West Cafe. This show was a perfect compliment to the night before. Free espresso led to a really quick start. We were off with a bang and really brought the room alive with even more concise playing. I’m growing increasingly happy with our sound and our pallet is growing. We are breaking new ground and spirits are really high. Our next show is Halloween and we are poised to really bring the energy to the Oneonta Theatre.

The Oneonta Theatre, Oneonta, NY

This is the big one for us. The Oneonta Theatre with Consider the Source and Kung Fu. We really admire these bands. Our bassist has been listening to Consider the Source for quite a long time and pulls a lot of influence from their bassist. Our set was an hour and as the home town band we had an amazing draw early on. We put on a a great set for 150 fans and friends. We were beyond thrilled with our performance and felt like it was a stand out set for our tour. We nailed the set and came away feeling great!

The Stomping Ground, Putnam, CT

After 3 days off we came to Putnam, CT to play a small bar venue called the Stomping Ground. We had an old friend in the audience and he has seen us many times early in our bands history. He said that this was by far his favorite set he has ever heard. As a fellow musician he had nothing but good things to say about our execution and prowess. We went long with “Shakedown Street” -> “2001” and kept it very interesting. We’ve really been exploring the funk the last 4 shows and Jeremy and Ron have really locked in with each other.

The Spot, Providence, RI

With Putnam behind us and another great show in the books we headed to meet up with our buddies from Colorado, Yamn. Taylor Frederick in Yamn is a fellow Oneonta State Alumni and its always great to see him shred the stage. We opened up for YAMN with high energy set that set the tone for YAMN to knock the audience over with their sound. We are pushing further into a wimpy sound and have moved away from our funk disco blend. I like the new ideas we are developing and we are taking more risks and seeing them pay off.

BRYAC, Bridgeport, CT

A quick ride over to Bridgeport and we land at BRYAC for our first show in CT this tour. We arrived early and took advantage of BRYAC’s amazing green room. We rehearsed for a long time and got a lot worked out for our set. We had a 3 hour romp ahead of us and we nailed it. We played two sets and kept the crowd interested well into the night. We were really pleased with our playing tonight and everyone was firing on all cylinders. BRYAC yielded the tours best Plibt and our own personal favorite set as a band for this tour.

The Black Oak, Oneonta, NY

We came to The Black Oak do our only totally improvised set of the tour. We packed out our favorite hometown venue and gave the audience a psychedelic performance they wouldn’t forget. It was our most experimental set of the tour and saw our fans seeing a new side of us. We all felt that we really pushed ourselves to make this show special and the results were exactly what we wanted. Being in front of all our friends made this one extra special.

Electric Haze, Worcester, Massachusetts

Electric Haze was an easy drive from Bridgeport. We got to the Hookah bar early and partook in a free Hookah and wrote a new setlist for the show. We had our drummers friends come and pack the room. Our 2 hour set went off without a hitch and we had a solid performance through out. Worcester was a great time and Electric Haze is a great venue with an awesome staff. The crowd loved our sound and we can’t wait to go back!

Pacific Standard Tavern, New Haven, CT

No riots this time but we had a blast at PST. This is our favorite CT venue and we hadn’t been in almost a year to the day. Our favorite CT venue led us to really put on a show. We had a high energy crowd and pulled from our recent experimental improv set in Oneonta to fuel the jams for the evening. Taking the best ideas from the previous shows we played a well rounded set of jamming and well executed songs. We were all happy to be back at PST and cant wait to play there again soon.

Napper Tandy’s, Miller Place, Long Island NY

The last show of our three and a half week tour took place at Napper Tandy’s in the hometown of our guitarist Jeremy. This show was a great time that left us feeling really positive about what we had accomplished. No tour is perfect and each one has its own set of ups and downs. We have grown so much in this last month and after the last note was played we reflected on our accomplishments as a band thus far. Each tour gives us a new sense of accomplishment and keeps us fueled for more creation. We love this band and we love each other. We stoop together for three and a half weeks and we did it our way. No flat tires, tons of roadkill and even more memories. This is what life on the road is all about.

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