Conversations with Locals: Tour Journal Week 1

When you’re on a long tour like we are, it’s difficult to appreciate each place. Drive. Eat. Load in. Show. Load out. Party. Sleep. Time rolls by faster than our minivan eats up stretches of American highway. Throw in a hundred names of bands and venues, a little sleep deprivation, some time zone shifts and you start forgetting where you are. For me, every place has a strange sense of familiarity and I often have to remind myself I’m somewhere new.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to appreciate about the places we’re visiting – but it’s like what Vincent Vega says in Pulp Fiction about how Europe is cool because of the little differences. Any cross-country traveler with a keen and experienced sensibility will detect a great diversity of food, accents, architecture, etc., but those are little differences.

In my experience so far on this tour, I think a lot of the bigger, more important stuff is the same for most people of our generation all over the country. The same topics – like figuring out life after college, trying to improve the hometown, fighting social pressure to retain personal integrity – keep coming up in conversations with locals and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. It's a camaraderie I have with other members of my generation facing similar issues and striving to reach similar goals that makes places I’ve never been before seem familiar.

Anyway, we’re a little over a week into the second leg, so check out the dates below or visit www.liketrainsandtaxis.com and come out to a Like Trains & Taxis show near you! Speaking of familiar places, If you’re in Seattle, we’ll be playing at Café Venus, Mars Bar tomorrow night at 9 p.m.