FUTURE 86 Southern East Coast Tour Journal Day 2, December 3rd, 2005 -Armand Chris, our newly acquired Virginia tour manager, had arranged sleeping quarters for us at Hampton Roads Recording & Rehearsal Studios in Norfolk. Hey, a band just isn't a band as far as I'm concerned until they've spent a night or two on the floors of their recording or rehearsal space. And this certainly would not be the first or the last time for us. Besides, something about being surrounded with the finest in vintage Mesa Boogie and Hi-tech Line 6 amplification and an oversized 1970's Fibes drum kit with that ultra-sexy 24"x14" while I lie sleeping next to my two bandmates, just gets me all worked up. Studios and the instruments within them tend to embody the spirit of the musicians who create music within their confines, and there were definitely some great spirits embodied in this studio, which we were all thankful for because it would be our sleeping quarters for our two night stay in Virginia. Our room was prepped and ready for us with the heat nice and toasty, some blankets, and two twin size air mattresses we all slept on horizontally so instead of one of us getting stuck in the crack, all three of our butts were stuck in the crack. Aside from the room having no windows, and us having no idea what time it ever was, we crawled out of bed around eleven, ready for the adventures of the new day before us which would begin with the operating of the shower which was an adventure in itself. We were instructed that the shower was prone to flooding, so there was a pump hooked up to the shower drain with a hose running across the hallway and into the toilet. So if you had to use the toilet while someone was in the shower, well, then you were shit out of luck. The trick was that the pump couldn't be running if the drain was dry, which happened every 75 seconds or so. So taking a shower consisted of turning the pump on and off continuously while you had soap in your hair. We didn't have any confirmed gigs for the night yet, but Chris was working on getting us into Paddy O'Brian's, while Dave from one of the bands the previous night was working on getting us in at the Tap Room... so we were facing a potential double header. In the meantime, we decided to step back in time and visit Historic Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg to spend the day, learn a few things, and see what all those commercials on TV are all about. Having been a history major in college, I love historical sites and re-enactments and visit them every chance I get. And this place was the mother lode, like the Disneyland of all historical sites. At Jamestown we observed what day-to-day life in both an Algonquian Indian Community, as well as an adjacent James Fort was in 1607. We witnessed re-enactors building a dug-out canoe using the traditional methods of taking huge 25-60 foot long tree trunks, and burning away sections, with a controlled fire, letting the fire do most of the work, while they helped along by digging out the weakened ash and wood remnants. I must have forgotten much of what I learned since I graduated summa cum laude from Ramapo College. This was readily made apparent when I excitedly volunteered to answer several of our tour guide's questions regarding tobacco growing in the Jamestown colony, and things of that nature. I was eager to show off all I learned as a history major. Our guide was unimpressed with my answers to say the least, and with responses like, "Well, not quite" or "Yes, but moreover" she was looking to hear something else, and there was this over zealous "know it all" type nine year old kid who would volunteer to correct me every time. And every time, this nine year old would recite some bland text book type answer, and every time, the tour guide would commend him. After about the fourth time this kid had to either correct or embellish my answer, he looked at me with disgust like I was an idiot and said, "This is so easy, the answers to all her questions were in the video we just watched, duh." I was sick of this kid being such a wise-ass, and making me appear stupid in front of the tour group, so I explained to the kid, that my friends and I missed out on the video segment which kicked off the tour because we were in the van enjoying a relaxing drink of Virginia's finest corn whiskey instead. Bewildered, the kid stared at me and asked, "Why were you drinking whiskey?" With a huge smile on my face I told him,"We were drinking whiskey in honor and celebration of the first distillation of corn whiskey taking place in the Jamestown Colony. I bet that bland instructional tour video you were watching didn't tell you that did it? Besides, whiskey also gives us a warm fuzzy feeling and also makes this tour a whole lot more enjoyable". Later on while exploring re-creations of the ships the colonists used to sail to Jamestown, one of our more jovial tour guides interrupted his presentation to reprimand me for wearing my Pea Coat incorrectly. "If you're gonna wear a Pea Coat, wear it like it was meant to be worn; put that collar up!" Ridicule seemed to follow me today, and that little 9 year old punk was sure getting a kick out of it. While we left Jamestown for nearby Williamsburg, we received the updates regarding our confirmed bookings for the evening, and alas it would not be a double header as we had anticipated, rather Chris had secured us the middle slot of three bands performing at Paddy O'Brian's. In the meantime, we decided to dine at Chownings, one of the many wonderfully re-created colonial taverns and ale houses which line the streets of Williamsburg. The sun had just set and we had an hour to kill before our reservation, so we decided to snoop around Colonial Williamsburg a bit. It was much chillier than we had anticipated, but we bundled up as much as we could, and took advantage of the many inviting camp fires set ablaze on street corners every few blocks to provide warmth to passersby as well as loiterers. We stumbled upon a dry goods store in Market Square where I purchased a tavern pipe. "Would you like to try some of Virginia's finest weed with your new pipe sir?" asked the clerk from behind the counter. For a moment we didn't know what to make of this guy's comment and Larry's eyes opened up wide as if to say, what is this guy talking about? Then the clerk reached for a twist of Virginia grown, tobacco leaves and instructed us on how to use our new pipe, while the small group that had gathered around us began to question whether or not this tobacco was to be inhaled, and a slew of rock n' roll and pot jokes followed. We packed a fat bowl in our new tavern pipe, and made our way back to Chownings Tavern which was a true 18th century rum and ale house, to enjoy what we anticipated to be a lively evening of balladeers rousing guests in period sing-alongs, while costumed servers played popular bar games of the day. All of that did happen, although we were cursed with the most lackluster, uninterested, dull, and boring waitress we have ever encountered. Our neighboring tables on the other hand had entertaining waitresses who had taught them 18th century games of dice and chance. So while they were all boisterously enjoying themselves, drinking and laughing we were cramped into the corner, literally begging our waitress to teach us the games they were playing and serve us some fine colonial style ales. By the time she taught us a dice game, it was time to leave in order to drive back to Norfolk to play our show that night. We got to Paddy O'Brian's and there was about 500 people standing in the rain outside, waiting to get in to the club that was already full to double its legal capacity limit with Future 86 fans. I guess some people told some people, who told some people, after seeing last night's performance at The Half Shell. Not bad considering we were only added to the bill a few hours ago. No, in reality the place had a good sized crowd, and once again, Chris had outdone himself by getting us into another great club at a moments notice. I commend him for that, and we capped the night off with some superb everything pizzas from Paddy O's grill, as we watched the last band of the evening, Red Metric. After that, it was back to the studio for another good night's rest to prep us for another day's adventure on the road. The quote of the day (found on the bottom of the Paddy O's food receipt) EAT WELL & ENJOY LIFE. Still keep those Coronas on ice, and for day three, click here!