Bellows Tour Diary: The 2024 Terror Pigeon Team-Up
Fives on Friday 8/16/2024
Happy Friday! I spent last week on the road drumming for Bellows as we opened for DIY lifer and activity rock maestro Terror Pigeon. As is my custom, I kept a tour diary. Here’s what I saw, heard, and experienced on our brief trip around the east coast.
Day 1 - Washington DC
The first day of tour never really feels like tour. I’ve said this before. I think I say this every time. But it’s doubly so on a tour like this. We’re only joining Terror Pigeon for a run of six shows, all closer to New York City than any city in Texas is to another city in Texas. Our drive down to DC is the longest of the run. Even with the crawl of DMV traffic this trip is light work.
Bellows has toured this part of the country a lot. The rest stops that dot the highway through New Jersey and Delaware are as familiar to us as any of the venues that we’ve played over the years. We lift off early enough to have lunch at a massive Jersey rest stop that we also stopped at on the way back from DC to end our last US tour. Touring is a deja vu conveyor belt. I sit outside with my gatorade and protein shake watching the anonymous masses of America pass in and out in endless droves. Oliver remarks that like a highway, crowds will grow to fill whatever size you make your rest stop. Inexplicably, “Cattails” by Big Thief plays on the speakers.
Once we’re back on the road we put on the new album by Why?. Touring with Bellows is how I find out about new Why? albums. As the landscape drifts by I keep thinking about how strange it was to watch the characters in Civil War travel this same part of the country. I have the same two reactions that I’ve had to every Why? album that Oliver’s put on in the car. First, “wow this is well made”. Second, “wow does this guy sound exhausted about still making music at this age.” Felix (Told Slant, Sisters, ex-Bellows) gives us a call to wish us well on the road. Drifting past Baltimore I reflect on how long it’s been since the first time I toured with Bellows (12 years), how long it’s been since the last time I toured with Bellows (2 years), and how long it might be until we tour again.
We arrive early enough in DC to grab a quick dinner before loading into the venue. We eat at Bell-Boys And Poets, a restaurant/cafe/book store named after Langston Hughes. I have a falafel sandwich and watch the American Women’s Beach Volleyball team trounce the Italians at the Paris Olympics. The restaurant is on the edge of DC and Maryland. Literally crossing the street will take you across the border. After we eat we drive back to the venue, a ranch house with a surprisingly big yard called, appropriately, Cool Ranch. The hosts are chill, and by sheer chance it turns out that one of the other musicians had previously hosted Bellows at a different DC house venue called The Beehive all the way back in 2012. He remembers the tri-color pasta that the house made us that night.
Once Neil (Terror Pigeon) arrives we help him load his comically large amount of gear into the basement. The guy builds out a whole lighting set up for every show, swapping out different elements to fit each particular room. I am eaten alive by bugs in the yard. The show itself goes great. The vibes are immaculate. We bust out “McNally Jackson” and “Dark Heart’” two of the hypest tunes in our long-list and they go over swimmingly. After the show we drive over to David Combs’ (Dim Wizard, 1/4 of Bad Moves) house. We also crashed here at the end of the last tour. This time David sets me up with a basement bedroom that he swears was not recently occupied by crust punks. I pass out quickly.
Day 2 - Baltimore, MD
By the time I wake Oliver is already out of the house, presumably getting coffee. Jack is asleep. I dust off the ol’ tour workout, some pushups, some squats. Oliver gets back right as I’m about to switch to bicycle crunches. David comes down and gets started on his famous vegan breakfast scramble, featuring vegetables straight out of his backyard garden. I make coffee with a french press. We shoot the breeze about David’s upcoming record with Bad Moves, the cost of music videos, and the allure of moving out to the country.
After breakfast we laze around the house. I sit outside on the porch reading The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Birds bustle in and out of the tree in the yard. An older guy a few houses down says pleasant hellos to passersby and takes occasional swigs out of a handle of vodka. When we finally get around to leaving we still have time on our hands so we take a detour out to an Egyptian themed movie theater connected to a casino. Jack and I see Trap, the new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Fun movie! Allison Pills’ delivery of the line “What’s it like doing concerts??” rattles around in my head for the rest of tour. We stop for dinner at a Wendy’s on the way to the venue. We eat in the car and feel briefly wretched. Goblin mode.
When we arrive at the venue, another house situation, we discover that a storm has knocked half of a tree down right in front of the door. Neil arrives shortly after us and helps us drag the fallen branches out of the way so that Oliver can park and we can load in. The house only started throwing shows two months ago. Everyone is very friendly. The hosts make watermelon juice with mint and a tray of taco dip with chips. A small cat on a leash passes through the living room every now and then. I make small talk with an Irish couple about traveling, real estate, and the joys of playing a Wurlitzer electric piano. Somehow we were booked under the assumption that Bellows was a solo act, so we play a more subdued set. During Neil’s set he convinces a large chunk of the crowd to pile on top of him on a couch. I cram as much taco dip into my mouth as is socially acceptable before we load out. The show ends early enough for us to drive home to New York. The Bellows method for surviving these nocturnal homeward trips is to keep the stereo off and chat nonstop. We talk about guitars, about working out, about relationships, money, the shows so far. By the time we cross over the Verrazano I’m not sure if anything I’m saying makes sense. I pass out immediately when I reach my bed.
Day 3 - Philadelphia, PA
Sailors take warning. Being able to return home instead of sleeping on the road yields its first unique wrinkle. Leaving Brooklyn for Philly we pass through the same exact route we took to DC. Tour is a deja vu conveyer belt, and we’re all Charlie Chaplin. Henry (Swimmer’s Choir, ex-Bellows) sends us a playlist that we play on the drive down. Between this playlist and Felix’s phone call I can’t shake that the feeling that we’re in a JRPG and all our old party members are coming through to help for the final battle. Our drive takes along the edge of a huge rain storm. Rain and sun intermingle. The cars in front of us explode moister into the air that glitters and instantly vanishes.
We enter the heart of the storm. After a loud, wet half an hour we spot clear skies on the horizon and eventually burst free. When you’re stationary you experience a storm as an event, a state of being. In motion, you realize that a storm is a physical object. The cashier at the rest stop where we grab lunch asks whether the storm’s on its way. I say that we just passed it but that I think it was heading in the other direction. Nature proves me to be a liar.
We pull into Philly. I joke that you aren’t truly in Philly until you pass a giant pile of dirt. We pass the house that I played with Shalom in 2023, which means we aren’t far from the house Bellows & Sharpless played back in 2015 while suffering from food poisoning. I think to myself about how hard it rained when Shalom played there. We arrive at yet another house venue. The hosts tell us that the house has been throwing shows for over a decade but they’d only just took it over from a previous generation of tenants. When we get into the basement I begin to wonder how bands and audience members could endure such low ceilings for a decade plus.
Our soundcheck is awkward. The sound person is insistent we use their gigantic amps. After politely declining the offer three times, Oliver eventually puts his foot down. No one other than the other bands and the house’s residents show up. After the opener, we discover that the storm has caught up to us. I slip into a deep melancholy. We play fine but who cares. When the local closer finishes playing too long for too few people we pack up our stuff as quickly we can and drive back to Brooklyn. On the drive home I ask how we can find the passion to keep playing music after shows this disappointing. Once again I pass out the second I touch my bed.
Day 4 - Boston, MA
For this drive Neil joins us in the Bellows-mobile. We all take the opportunity to get to know each other better. Neil’s story is as wild as his live show. I won’t tell it here. Hopefully I’ll get Neil to tell it himself on a podcast sometime. It’s nice to have a new voice and personality in the car. We reminisce about DIY bands long lost to history. The drive to Boston is long and uneventful. At a Connecticut food court I am overcome by the desire to eat Chipotle. I inhale a burrito and don’t feel great about it, but at least the portions were normal? Neil and Jack try and fail to win a giant Pikachu toy from a new fangled variation of the claw game.
Our show is at O’Brien’s in Somerville, a staple in the Bellows tour itinerary. The Red Sox play the Kansas City Royals on the TV. Oliver tells me that he and Jack and leaving in search of wonton soup which starts up Lil B’s “Wonton Soup” in my mental jukebox. I take a walk around the block and then read more of The Double at the bar while people slowly fill out the room. Pink Navel opens the show and within seconds my melancholy from the previous night vanishes. It simply rules to watch someone who knows what they’re doing make dope music. Neil’s set is just as good, proving that he works as well in rock bars as he does in living rooms. The Royals win. The sound guy is rude to Jack during our line-test, but we power through and play a great set.
After the show we crash at friend of Oliver’s. A rotund cat snuggles up to each of us before settling in with Jack. As I’m dozing off I hear our host mention that he’s reading Gravity’s Rainbow. I push myself back into the waking world to encourage him to keep with it even if he’s struggling. Then I pass out for real.
Day 5 - Highland Park, NJ
We eat breakfast at a cafe where we can only order through our phones. The Don Omar version of “Danza Kuduro” plays in the background, sparking a long conversation about The Fast & The Furious movies. We hit the road. When we stop at a Dunkin for a bathroom break we witness a high speed car chase playing on the news. In the parking lot Oliver panics about misplacing the tour money only to find it in his toiletry bag. Crisis averted.
Our drive takes us back down into bad weather. We listen to a mix of rap music, Charli XCX, and Lily Konigsberg. We trade tour slang with Neil, who keeps a note on his phone with the best phrases he’s heard over the years. We stop for lunch at a different giant New Jersey rest stop. I buy coffee and spill a bunch of it on my pants in the car before even taking a sip. Neil offers me a hotdog as conciliation. My NBA group chat explodes with reactions to the USA vs Serbia game at the Olympics.
We arrive in Highland Park, a small town just outside of New Brunswick and part of the broader Rutgers constellation. We eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant around the corner from the venue. I reflect on the passing of Jack Peter Karlson, the subject of an ancient viral video from Australia. It drizzles as we load our gear into the venue. By the time we’re all set up the drizzle has increased to a full on downpour. Luckily it’s cozy inside. The venue is a recording studio with signed records from famous-ish emo bands hanging on the walls. The staff are friendly and help us load in from the car. I make small talk with the team that booked the show about the state of the scene in the area. They’re eager to talk about Jeff Rosenstock. I’m not, so I drift back to the live room where the first band is playing. At first it looks like we’re in for a repeat of the Philly no-show situation, but by the time Bellows starts playing a decent number of people have filtered in. The atmosphere is casual and relaxed and we play well. During Neil’s set he drags a fainting couch into the hallway and serenades the audience from a therapy patient pose. Bubblegum Octopus, a cyber-grind act that’s legit been around since the MySpace era, closes the show with a set that blows our minds.
We load out in the rain. Jack jokes that at least my pants won’t smell like coffee anymore. Sadly the inside of the car still does. We drive back to Brooklyn and drop off my drums at our practice space since we don’t need them for our show the next night. It’s the shortest drive home yet. I don’t immediately hit the hay upon getting home.
Day 6 - Brooklyn, NY
I wake up in a great mood. I fire off my newsletter (the one from last week). I do my laundry. I putter around the house getting my life back in order. The day zips by and before I know it Oliver is outside in his car ready to head to the venue. Before we pick up Jack we both express optimism about that night’s show at Purgatory. Purgatory is one of the rare spots in NYC that has a built in crowd. People just like going there, even if it’s hard to get to. Not only that but Bellows and Terror Pigeon both have actual crowds in New York. And our opener is cool! To enhance the already good mood in the car Oliver puts on Invasion of Privacy by Cardi B. That record rocks. Wild how Cardi B dropped one great album and then mostly vanished out of popular music.
The rain follows us to Purgatory. Its not too bad though. We load in and set up on the tiny upstairs stage. Without Frank “Friend of Music” Meadows and his Nord keyboard, it actually feels pretty spacious on stage. At least until Neil sets up his lights and amps. For the first time on tour Neil busts out a camping tent, half way sets it up, and hides it behind his merch table. He asks if I want to pantomime with a wooden saxophone during the coda of one of his songs, a nightly tradition usually reserved for Jack. I say yes. While Neil sound checks I celebrate the end of tour with a frozen mojito. I resist doing a bad Irish accent and telling everyone I meet that “I’m a fiend for mojitos”.
When I go back upstairs the room is packed. I bump into Mike from Here For You. I also bumped into him at a Told Slant show. I guess he’s a big Epoch guy. Somehow I gather that the show is straight up SOLD OUT. Hell yeah. We play great. An old friend from high school and his buddy chat me up for a bit. I implore them to stay for Terror Pigeon. Halfway through Neil’s set he convinces the audience to finish setting up his tent and then gets a bunch of them to join him in it for a song. Jack and I play tandem pantomime saxophone. When I spot my high school buddy during the closing number he’s completely drenched with sweat and smiling bigger than his face.
We pack up quickly. Oliver’s got a flight to catch in a couple of hours. We leave Neil to fend for himself. I do not understand how he has the energy to load-in, perform the way he does, and load out every night all by himself for months on end. Godspeed you crazy bastard.
I’m home before 10:30pm. Early shows have their benefits. It’s all over so much sooner than I expected, but at least it ended on a high note.
# # # # # The Self Promo Zone # # # # #
Tomorrow night! Laughing Stock join a flotilla of local openers including Shira, A Sword, and French Kiss, to open for The Living Memories at Stone Circle Theater in Ridgewood! Come through to jam with us!
Speaking of Laughing Stock, we just dropped a brand new project. It’s called After Nature and it features three songs that we recorded in our rehearsal space. Originally we planned on just using the sessions for pre-production, but the takes sounded so good that we went ahead and mixed them, sent them off to Will Killingsworth at Dear Air Studios for mastering. These three songs showcase the balance between Laughing Stock’s reckless punk side and our melancholic goth side. I’m really proud of these tunes, and I hope you enjoy them too!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Listening Diary ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Here are five songs that I enjoyed listening to recently! You can find a Spotify playlist with all of this year’s tracks here, new tracks added every Monday through Friday.
“Quantum Mystic” by YOB (The Unreal Never Lived, 2004)
I’ve been revisiting some records that I haven’t listened to in years to break up the diet of new music. I love how this song starts off in a recognizable doom metal mood before gradually wandering off into the unknown. I think I had a hard time appreciating how cool YOB were until I got acquainted with more doom bands that lacked their creativity.
“Blackout” by Gorod (Leading Vision, 2006)
2000s tech death. Compared to their German contemporaries this French band always approached the style with a playful attitude and something approaching a sense of humor. I love all the little dynamic dips in this tune, you rarely hear that from bands this intense. Is it just me or did BTBAM cop a lot of their style in the post-Colors era from Gorod? Probably not intentionally, but if that kind of prog metal is your bag you might get a real kick out of this.
“When We Do The Dance” by Why? (The Well I Fell Into, 2024)
I prefer Why? when he’s in his sexually forthright register, as opposed to the painfully sentimental aging indie dude mode. “I want to bust into your great great grandmother’s uterus” is such a wild lyric, lmao.
“Long Love” by Terror Pigeon (Bat Out of Heaven, 2024)
The highlight of every Terror Pigeon set I saw on this tour. This is when Neil would get buried on a couch, drag furniture around the venue, climb stairs, build a tent, urge people to get down on one knee “like football”. Every time the line about garlic sauce would take part of the room by surprise. What took me by surprise is how reserved the vocals are on this studio version compared to the live performance. One of the defining songs of summer 2024 for me.
“Bad Idea” by Ravyn Lenae (Bird’s Eye, 2024)
Bubbling, percolating, high energy R&B. Lenae is inching closer to straight up normal pop music, but keeps coming at it from just an odd enough angle to keep nerds like me interested.
\ \ \ \ \ Micro Reviews / / / / /
Here are five micro reviews from my high school and college collection of burnt CDs. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in 2021, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.
A Parade of Chaos by Zao (2002) - Metalcore
A record thrown together in a few weeks as a way to get out of a shitty contract. The way the band tells it they were barely a band at this point. It is not a fan favorite, but I think this record is pretty cool. There’s “first thought, best thought” looseness to it. Nonessential, but an interesting example of metalcore at the turn of the century.
L’entremonde (2001) & Sumphokeras (2005) by Amphitryon - Death Metal
The only two releases this French death metal band put out before breaking up in 2010. Dan Muller of Wilderun burnt me a CD with both on one disc. Not sure how he heard of them. They only exist on YouTube now as far as I can tell. Very creepy, lots of ominous chanting and avant garde instrumentation. Feels like exploring an ancient crypt. If you’re into gothic death metal stuff it might be worth hunting this down.
Ride The Lightning by Metallica (1984) & Reign in Blood by Slayer (1986) - Thrash Metal
My 8th grade math teacher found out I liked Metallica and burnt me a disc with both of these albums on it. This was my first exposure to Slayer. I remember thinking “how did he fit an entire second album on this disc?” Little did I know what I was in for. Two of the best metal albums EVER back to back, both with very different vibes. Metallica at their grandest and most most mystical vs Slayer stripped down to their fastest, nastiest tendencies. I prefer Ride The Lightning, but man is Reign in Blood a blast. Dave Lombardo’s masterpiece on drums.
Tender Prey by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1988) - Goth Rock
Given to me by a high school bandmate. I think I only listened to this once and moved on after it didn’t click. I thought “Mercy Seat” was pretty cool, but in 2008 I was trapped in a shred mindset. I still don’t think I’ll ever be a Nick Cave guy, but I have much more respect for what he’s going for now. “Mercy Seat” is still the song that sticks out to me, but “Slowly Goes The Night” is also very pretty. Cool record.
The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw by Pelican (2005) - Post-Metal
After getting into Isis and learning that bands were mixing post rock and metal I needed to hear as many of them as I could. Pelican were the next group to lodge themselves in my rotation with this album. I don’t know if others feel this way, but in my opinion the shorter tunes at the end of the record are the standouts. I love the loose “live” sound on this record. Probably their best full length, although the extended version of “March To The Sea” is my favorite release of theirs over all.