The Tour Times #01
featuring words from Gep, Ben & Matteo, and Trevor
Today we present the first issue of The Tour Times, a way to capture our fleeting thoughts on the copious amount of stimulation we experience on the road. This issue features Gep’s favorite food spots from our last leg, a tale of Gearscrolling from Ben and Matteo, and a love letter to reading on the road from Trevor (our beloved tour manager). Without further ado…
Finding Good Eats in the Northeast
by Gep Repasky
Being on tour might as well be a race between time and health. Aaaand, good food...finding good food on the road is one of the most important things when the day begins. Food has a significant effect on our mood, feelings, and attitudes; if you start the day with a bad meal (or no meal,) the rest of the day can feel strange or off, which, on tour, I like to minimize. I need to have some sort of routine or normalcy to prevent burnout. So, dear reader, welcome to my section of the Substack.
Here are some stand-out restaurants that we will definitely revisit.
Soba Asian Kitchen in Cleveland, OH
Right down the street from where we were playing (the Grog Shop,) we wandered into this place and had the perfect meal for our first snow-show experience.
I got the traditional soba noodle bowl with tofu and half sriracha spice, half sesame garlic sauce.
The Cleveland Bagel Company in Cleveland, OH
Great option on our way out of Cleveland. We made it in right before their bagels sold out.
I forget what it was exactly, but I got one of their specials. I'm thinking a rosemary sea salt bagel with egg, cheese, avocado, chorizo chipotle schmear and probably (definitely) bacon.
Kismet Bagels in Philadelphia, PA
Bagels were a hit on this tour. But funny enough we didn't get bagels while in NYC...there's always next time. If anyone has the best NYC bagel spot send it my way. But anyway, we got bagels at Kismet in Fishtown on our way out of Philadelphia. The snow wasn't too bad here.
I got a Lox rosemary sea salt bagel (becoming my favorite bagel flavor) with a dill pickle schmear and I think cucumbers, tomato, and arugula? Something like that. But god that pickle schmear was next level. I've started chopping up and adding some dill and a pickle to my cream cheese... yum
Thai Station in Carrboro, NC
I think it's clear to all of us that Thai Station was the ultimate winner of the tour. As I'm writing this, I keep getting flashes of my noodle dish...
I got the House Duck Noodle which had the best rice noodles in broth topped with sliced duck, cilantro, Chinese broccoli, and bean sprouts.
We head to the West Coast in a few weeks so please leave food suggestions if you have any <3 peace
Gep
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Gearscrolling: Matteo and Ben’s Experiences on Facebook Marketplace…
by Ben Wulkan and Matteo De Lurgio
Ben: Being on the road is a great opportunity to track down rare and obscure gear from across the US. One of our tour rituals is changing our Facebook Marketplace location to an upcoming city in hopes of stumbling upon something special. I picked up this habit from Ramsey Bell of The Slaps back in 2022. It is now an essential part of touring for me.
On this past run, Matteo and I had our fair share of Marketplace wins and losses. Early in the tour we came across some vibey vintage Electro-Voice dynamic microphones from the early ‘60s in Louisville–cool, but nothing compelling enough to make us detour and pull the trigger. Throughout the rest of the tour, I saw a handful of interesting guitars, drums, and pedals, but nothing that truly grabbed me.
Then, as we got closer to the Northeast something special appeared. A listing popped up for a 1960s Beyerdynamic M 130 ribbon microphone–a mic I had always been fascinated by but had never actually seen for sale online. The M 130 features a bi-directional (figure 8) polar pattern, a classic characteristic of ribbon mics, and is often used for drum overheads, guitar cabs, and acoustic instruments. My first introduction to the M 130 was through a YouTube video from Electrical Audio, where Steve Albini (rest in peace) demonstrated how to record guitar and vocals simultaneously. Back when I was first starting my recording studio, that skill felt essential. In that video, Albini used the M 130 on acoustic guitar, and I’d never forgotten it.
The listing looked too good to ignore–the mic was in incredible condition and had been purchased from Coles Picks Vintage, a Nashville-based repairman with an incredible reputation for restoring vintage microphones. I felt as if this was a reliable microphone priced reasonably and decided to purchase it. The only catch was it was in upstate New York, an area not a part of the tour–so I asked the guy if he could ship it and he agreed. A week later, I arrived home and there it was in all its glory, a piece of recording history in great condition ready for use!
Matteo: Next in the saga of online gear shopping: a listing for a pair of Zildjian K Light hi-hats, sixteen-inch diameter, popped up for sale near Charlotte, NC. As we were already passing through the area to drop off our tour manager at the airport, with a few days of warning I requested the band to add a stop on that drive, to meet the owner of the cymbals and hopefully purchase them. The K Lights are some of my favorite sounding hi-hats with great high-end sizzle, without being overly bright, second in my opinion only to the Zildjian K Sweet hi-hats. Sadly, it was all too good to be true. After confirming with the seller and receiving the address of the meetup spot, we arrived at the specified time, but he went radio-silent on me. With little extra time to get to the airport, and members of the band needing to pee, we could only wait a few minutes before I unfortunately had to make the decision to abandon the deal. The lesson I learned? Get the seller’s phone number when you agree to meet! Lucky for me, when we returned to Atlanta I found a pair of the K Sweet hi-hats, the ones I truly wanted, for a great deal only thirty minutes out of town.
Despite the allure of a good deal, it must be mentioned that this platform is designed to feed your dopamine response and can be quite habit-forming. After making these relatively large purchases, it is best to force ourselves to take a break from scrolling the app, lest we get too carried away.
Reading on Tour: A Love Letter
by Trevor Stovall
Alone time can be like gold dust while on tour. You gaze upon Texaco signs1 and billboard lawyers together, route to the nearest Love’s together, and redeem those sweet, sweet Dunkin rewards together. Enduring these experiences can become quite taxing over the length of an entire tour, even if you are the world’s proudest extrovert. Reading can be an excellent remedy for alleviating the symptoms of eternal interstates and claustrophobic green rooms.
It’s important to preface by saying that I’m privileged to be able to read in the van without becoming nauseous and can also read in loud environments. I feel like this letter would be deemed half-assed if I left that information out. For those who do get nauseous… I’m starting to come around to audiobooks. But that’s a whole other conversation.
It’s also important to note that I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an avid reader. I regularly fail my annual Goodreads reading goals. I don’t owe a damn Kindle. I house books on my bookshelf that are unread and dog-eared. Yet, I power through books while on tour. Specifically on tour.
While on this February run with Lunar Vacation I read John Williams’ Stoner, brought James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room from home, and picked up André Breton’s Nadja while in Lexington, KY (shoutout SQuecial Media.) All relatively short, I’m eager to see if I’m now outpacing my dad and the speed at which he consumes Lee Child and Tom Clancy novels on a regular basis.
I devoured Stoner, and as of this Valentine’s Day, am almost finished with Giovanni’s Room. I was totally infatuated with Stoner and it inspired me to write this letter, truth be told. I read it in three days and the tender hole it left in my heart has not subsided. Despite there being a relatively flat character arc, Williams writes Stoner as if he were building and lighting a warm fire for you. It’s not particularly happy or uplifting per se… It’s just wholly human. And Williams gets that. He understands our delicacy and indecisiveness without judgment. He communicates emotion with great respect and regard for the pace in which we discover ourselves. It’s a masterpiece in expounding upon the human condition and the complexities of love (how fitting for the 14th).
Books like Stoner are why I find joy in reading on tour so much. I’ve found that the act of touring is so linear on a day-to-day basis. So, it’s easier to surrender myself to a novel rather than becoming captive to the many errands or thoughts or actives I’d have in a day at home. It’s almost like I recharge through story, and in turn am able to be a better friend and to those around me. You don’t have to read three books or even finish one. There’s no goal or Strava for reading (I guess it would be Goodreads but that interface was sent straight from hell, so it’s disqualified) so do it yourself. Do it for discovering a new perspective or simply for the joy of it.
Williams loved the study of literature. In a 1986 interview, he was asked “And literature is written to be entertaining?” to which he replied emphatically, “Absolutely. My God, to read without joy is stupid.”2
Courteously stolen from Silver Jews “I’m Getting back Into Getting Back Into You”
I read lots of Wikipedia pages and yes I took this from his page I’m not going to act like I was in the library digging this quote up for hours searching for the perfect quote to end my AP English paper, hope you can forgive me.
Wow, that was nice. Let’s do it again sometime! Hope to catch ya on the next tour. <3
i would love to donate some arcs that i’ve collected from working at a bookstore when i see u guys in san diego if u guys are interested! loved tuning into this, so excited to see u guys soon! ⭐️
see you divas in la and san diego 🪼🪼