this is johnathan. i play drums in parking brake. brad aaron plays guitar and sings, dominic harless plays bass, i hit things. we're from lincoln, nebraska. we play fast, loud, catchy songs about cars and girls and being bored in lincoln, nebraska, which is a lot of material.

in july we did our first tour. eleven all-ages shows in fourteen days in dominic's mom's old van, booked by phone and e-mail with the kids who put on shows in their towns. basements, a vfw hall, a coffeehouse, a record store after it closed. we sold tapes out of a shoebox. we came home fourteen dollars ahead. it was the best two weeks of my life and i want to write all of it down before i forget, so here it is, show by show, with the pictures off the three disposable cameras we bought at a gas station in lincoln.

>> THE TAPE
six songs, recorded in april in brad's parents' basement on our friend thad's four-track. dubbed one at a time on brad's stereo, covers photocopied at the library, $3. side one: cul-de-sac, learner's permit, viaduct. side two: dad's cardigan, o street at 2 a.m., tread lightly. we took 100 on tour and came home with 39. still have them. e-mail me.

>> THE VAN
dominic's mom's old conversion van, maroon and silver, with a fold-down bed in the back that we took out to fit the drums. 150,000 miles. it got us there and back with one exception. see day 3. thank you mrs. harless.

5:40 a.m., friday july 9, my parents' driveway. not one inch to spare.
the cooler rode on top of the bass amp for two weeks.

SHOW BY SHOW

DAY 1. FRI JULY 9. OMAHA.
left at dawn so we could get to omaha by noon and drop off tapes and flyers at the record stores. omaha's an hour away. we were excited, ok. show in lewis's parents' basement. about 45 kids. two local bands. we played 25 minutes and broke a string and a stick. lewis's mom made sloppy joes.
PAID: $40. SLEPT: lewis's basement floor.

DAY 2. SAT JULY 10. DES MOINES.
a vfw hall. jamie booked it and rented the hall out of her own pocket and charged $4 at the door to cover it. 70 kids, the biggest crowd we'd ever played to at the time. the old guys from the post sat at the bar in the back the whole night and one of them gave brad a thumbs up.
PAID: $60. SLEPT: jamie's apartment floor.

DAY 3. SUN JULY 11. OFF (THE ALTERNATOR).
twenty minutes north of des moines on the interstate the battery light came on and then everything else went off. dominic stared into the engine for a long time like it owed him money. a state trooper stopped and gave us a jump, and we made it to ames on what was left in the battery. it died for good in the parking lot of the parts store, which was the luckiest thing that happened all week. they had a rebuilt alternator and dominic put it in himself right there in about an hour and a half, with brad holding the flashlight and me reading the manual out loud. we got to minneapolis at 11 at night. day off well spent.

dominic, engine. brad, despair. iowa, corn.

DAY 4. MON JULY 12. MINNEAPOLIS.
marissa's basement. 60 kids on a monday night. minneapolis kids know every word to bands they've never heard before. marissa's mom fed all three bands spaghetti.
PAID: $55. SLEPT: marissa's parents' living room.

DAY 5. TUE JULY 13. OFF (THE LAKE).
marissa's family has a cabin on a lake in western wisconsin and they took us. we jumped off the dock for about six hours. after supper her dad asked if we'd play for the people at the other cabins, so we set up on the grass by the van and played our whole set to eleven people in lawn chairs and a dog. it was one of the best shows of the tour and it doesn't count.

me (cannonball), brad (star), dominic (nose). marissa took it.
that's the gear set up on the lawn behind us for later.

DAY 6. WED JULY 14. MADISON.
an all-ages coffeehouse near campus. 25 people, half of them there for the coffee. they were nice about it. the guy who ran it, bryan, paid us out of the tip jar and gave us all the day-old muffins.
PAID: $30. SLEPT: bryan's porch, on a couch with a hole in it.

DAY 7. THU JULY 15. CHICAGO.
a record store, after it closed. benjamin works there and talked the owner into it. they pushed the bins against the wall and we played in front of the cash register. 35 kids. i have never been so nervous in my life, those people KNOW music. a girl bought two tapes. the drive into chicago took longer than the drive from madison.
PAID: $25. SLEPT: on the floor of the record store. benjamin locked us in.

DAY 8. FRI JULY 16. CHAMPAIGN.
the best show of the tour. diana's basement, low ceiling, christmas lights stapled up all over the pipes, a bare bulb, 80 kids packed in so tight they were standing on the stairs. it was so hot the walls were sweating. people sang along to cul-de-sac, which they could only have known from the tape somebody dubbed off somebody, which is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. diana's little brother took the picture from behind me.
PAID: $70. SLEPT: diana's living room.

champaign. that's the back of my head.

DAY 9. SAT JULY 17. ST. LOUIS.
started the day like this:

the morning after champaign. they did not move till noon.

then st. louis, in a church basement michael set up. only 20 people, because there was a big show across town the same night, but the 20 were great and the church ladies had left us lemonade. this was the night we started a rule about always playing like there's 200 people there, because the 20 paid the same as everybody else.
PAID: $15. SLEPT: in the van in michael's driveway. 92 degrees at midnight.

DAY 10. SUN JULY 18. COLUMBIA, MO.
kathy's basement, a house she rents with four other college kids. 30 people, a sunday night in july in a college town with no college in it. they danced anyway.
PAID: $35. SLEPT: kathy's floor, with her two cats on my head.

DAY 11. MON JULY 19. OFF.
laundromat in kansas city. slept in a park. ate barbecue we could not afford and do not regret.

DAY 12. TUE JULY 20. KANSAS CITY.
kristy's basement. 40 kids. the outlet the amps were plugged into blew a fuse twice and kristy's dad came down in his bathrobe both times to fix it and did not say one word.
PAID: $40. SLEPT: kristy's basement.

DAY 13. WED JULY 21. LAWRENCE.
robbie's basement. 55 kids, really good bands, really good town. we sold eleven tapes, the most of any night.
PAID: $50. SLEPT: robbie's couch (brad), robbie's floor (us).

DAY 14. THU JULY 22. LINCOLN.
home show at the youth center. james booked it. 110 people, our moms in the back, everybody we know. we played every song we have twice. then i slept for two days.
PAID: $100. SLEPT: my own bed. weird.

THE MONEY
people ask if you can make money on tour. no. but you can not lose any.

570 people came to see us in eleven nights. we split the $14 three ways and brad got the extra two dollars because he sang.

RULES FOR TOURING
we didn't make these up. other bands told us, and they were right.

1. thank whoever booked you. out loud, from the stage, and again at the end of the night. they did it for free.
2. help the other bands load out. even if you played first and you're tired.
3. leave the house cleaner than you found it. it's somebody's mom's basement. fold the blankets. take the trash out.
4. eat when food is offered. you don't know when the next time is.
5. our own one: play like there's 200 people there. see st. louis.

if you want to put on shows in your town, read All-Ages Shows: The Church Basement Circuit. nate hollis has been doing all-ages shows in a church basement every other friday since 1998 and he wrote down how: the room, the booking, the door, the rules, how to start a scene. every band that wants to tour should read it too, so you know what the kids who book you are going through.

>> WHAT'S NEXT
brad and dominic are back at school and i'm working at a tire place. we're writing songs for a real recording over christmas break. next summer we want to do the whole country. dominic's mom says we can have the van if we change the oil this time.

you are kid number



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last updated sat aug 28 1999