eclipse records. tuesday. april 23, 2024. 9pm.

following a spectacularly fun show at big v's, we got to sleep in at chris's cousin's place. little did we know that we'd be hanging out there for a long, long time without food. none of us knew where we were, and chris's cousins were at work, and we couldn't really leave without keys to the garage (their apartment has an enclosed parking space. wow.) for some reason we were incapable of getting the leftover baked goods (given to us the previous night at big v's by the super-buff sound lady) out of neckface for a really long time. then we did, and it was amazing. it was a very confusing morning, and now i can't even remember why. eventually, everyone but me (travis) went to chris's aunt and uncle's house for boating, hot dogs, real dogs, and extra special good times. i went to hang out with my good friend brett from high school, who lives in st. paul now, working for minnesota public radio. his cubicle is right next to garrison keillor's. seriously. garrison's got a lot of puppy calendars. we had lunch at this great vegetarian friendly restaurant (a far cry from the greasy catastrophe that was denny's the day before). we caught up on old times and i got to complain about my lack of a love life. we hung out at his awesome loft space where he makes art projects and severed hands that squirt blood for a play about zombies. man i wish i could have seen that.

it was while i was playing some game cube back at brett's apartment before the show that i realized something. while i always want to be good at the newfangled complicated video games, i'm just not. i peaked at super nintendo. maybe even regular nintendo. everything after that just requires too much of a time investment, and damn. there's just too much rock music to play. speaking of both video games and rock music, if you're ever in minnesota, eclipse records should definitely be a stop on your tour. it is one of the coolest record stores i've ever been to. a pretty damn nice selection of music, but more impressively, they have a number of pinball machines in their entryway, and a whole mess of classic video games in the basement. i spent $3 on galaga only to learn that my very own roommate loren had the high score on that machine from when starlister played there earlier that summer. man. chris got his ass kicked at punchout (not mike tyson's punchout, mind you - just punchout) while gabe played dig-dug and robert played crystal castles.

anyway, the autumn leaves were great. nice and mellow music perfect for a lazy afternoon. again with borrowed instruments (seriously, a pox on the washingtonian gear thieves - may all their hair grow inwards and tickle their insides until they just can't stand it anymore) and drastic changes in humidity, all the guitars had serious issues staying in tune. we also had managed to forget all of our guitar cables and tuners at chris's aunt and uncle's house, which left us borrowing from the autumn leaves, who were very gracious and generous. but rock was rocking nonetheless. and of course, neckface kept it so real in the parking lot, and again on the way home the next day. we stopped at some point for dairy queen and i damn near killed myself on a large soft serve cone. good times.

more amazing things about this show: