Posted by Ellen on September 17, 2008 at 09:51 PM
Roger Williams University is located along the water and across a really cool bridge in Bristol, Rhode Island. The day was kind of rainy out, so the show got moved from a field outside to the gym inside the rec center. It was a lower turn out because of it, but it was still a good show!
When we got there, we unloaded and then went to the dressing room to hang out. They stocked it with all kinds of food and (non-alcoholic - damn!) drinks for the bands. There was also a poster for the event sitting there with markers. I figured it was implying for the performers to sign it, so I asked the guys to. 
Grafton signing it.
Jake signing it. (He signed and moved too fast )
After we were done hanging out, we got to unpacking and setting everything up.
That was a flashing sign near the band’s dressing room advertising the show.
The table set up with free stuff that was next to the merch table.
My merch set-up.
The lighting in the gym was so great! A lot of the staff had gushed about the band, saying they were listening to their CD all week, and it showed when the band hit the stage. Everyone was dancing and having a good time (if they didn’t choose to sit in the bleachers, ha).
Oneside.
Chris.
Jake. (This picture came out AMAZING, no?!?! It’s my favorite shot from the night!)
Grafton.
Ned.
No artsy pictures from that night, and also, we never ate a meal together since we all went straight home, so no Ned’s chicken sandwich review for this blog either! Sorry to disappoint. At least I gave you some pretty pictures to look at until next time. 
I do have a video for this night, but YouTube is under maintenance so I’ll edit it in once I get it uploaded!
All of the pictures from the night can be found here:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n280/musiclover224/Oneside%20Tour%202008/Sept%2014th%20Bristol%20RI%20at%20Roger%20Williams%20University/
If you’re reading, comment with your thoughts! What do you like? What do you not like? What do you want to see pictures of the band doing? Let me know!
Check ‘em out here:
http://www.onesidemusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/oneside
cross posting of the blog is here:
http://www.theywillrockyou.com/blog
Cheers! :D
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Posted by Ellen on September 17, 2008 at 04:40 PM
We got up kind of late on this day since we only had under a two hour drive to the venue from where we stayed. When we were finally all awake, we got clean, went out for breakfast. We got two tables in the corner, acted like idiots the whole time (which is probably why they stuck us in the far corner, we joked) and by the time we left the whole place probably hated us, but we didn’t care! We had quite an entertaining breakfast. Then it was time to get on the road!
The views off of the briges in Maine are really pretty!
We got to Camden in no time, and searched for a hotel. We ended up staying in one that the guys stayed in last time they played there. It was a cute little hotel that was right on the Maine coast. We got a room with a “partial view” of the ocean, and it had a wet dog smell. (Just felt that needed to be mentioned. ) I really don’t think hotels should allow pets after this.
Looks cute, eh?
Theres a shot I snapped of Chris from down the hallway. I think he was admiring the partial coastal view. 
After a few hours of down time, AND Ned writing his chicken sandwich review, it was time to do a little practicing before heading off to the venue. They all played their instruments in the hotel room, although the only one you could really hear was the banjo since the rest of them need amps and Jake obviously couldn’t set up a drum set in the room.
Ned practicing.
Chris practicing. Photo credit to Jake, he took these last 2 with my camera.
the whole band practicing.
Once they were done practicing, we sat around the hotel for a little longer watching a Rocky marathon. Rocky is not my favorite movies to watch, but the guys made it so funny! They were making comments about everything the whole time and cracked me up.
We headed to the venue, which was only about ten minutes from our hotel. It was raining again as we loaded in, except not as much as it was the previous weekend!
There’s the sign and outside of Gilberts.
After we loaded in, Grafton and I decided to play ping pong for a little bit before he unpacked his stuff. I honestly don’t know the rules, and Grafton didn’t enforce them, so really we just hit the ball back and forth, ha.
Once they were all set to go, the guys played some ping pong too, but actually played by the rules.
Jake and Grafton playing.
Ned played the winner which was Grafton.
After playing a few more games, they had to hit the stage. Here are some of the pictures from the night!”
Oneside. That pole placement on the stage was kind of awkward. At the end of the night Ned wrote “oneside” on the back of that pole in chalk.
Chris.
Jake.
Grafton.
Ned.
Ned and Chris.
In the middle of the show, guys who had been dancing all night disappeared for a bit, then returned looking like this:
THAT was my favorite part of the night! The guys sure didn’t know how to feel about that, but i LOVED it. Ha.
There was a disco ball running for almost all of their set too, so of course I took the opportunity to take a shot of that.
After they were done playing, we hung out for a bit and then played our usual van Tetris with the gear after packing it up. We got back to the hotel and went to sleep not too long after, considering we were all exhausted! At 7:30 AM, there were kids running up and down the hallway making a ton of noise and waking us all up. It was quite frustrating, and we really wanted to find their parents and teach them a few things. So, if you’re reading this, keep your kids quiet at 7:30 am in a hotel hallway on the weekend, geez!
I took a few photos before we left of the coast a little closer up:
That’s my favorite shot.
And here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, Neds chicken sandwich review of the day!:
The Black Bull, Camden Me
Margarita Chicken Sandwich
Very clean, subtly sneaky sandwich, with a long finish due to ample
fresh pico de gallo sauce . The fresh ciabatta was a good choice of
bun, if they were looking for something not to interfere with the
sandwich’s subtle flavors.( But I doubt much thought was giving to
that) The bread could have been slightly warmer.Not very innovative
but flavorful, light and refreshing 7.8 out of 10
and again, your guide to the ratings:
5-6 gut rot
6-7 does the job if your starving and really craving a chicken sandwich
7-8 pretty satisfying choice if nothing else on the menu looks good
8-9 worth a try even if you are not particularly in the mood for a
chicken sandwich
9-10 must haves
And I shall leave you with a few videos I took that night!:
Got To Go.
You Can Call Me Al.
All of the pictures from the night can be found here:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n280/musiclover224/Oneside%20Tour%202008/Sept%2012th%20Camden%20ME%20at%20Gilberts/?start=0&mediafilter=images
Leave me some comments! And be sure to check out the band! I’m gonna keep reminding you like I said I would!
http://www.onesidemusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/oneside
and the blog is cross posted here:
http://chroniclesofatouringgirl.blogspot.com
cheers!
Posted by Ellen on September 15, 2008 at 10:01 PM
My second night of touring didn’t involve buckets of rain like the previous weekend, but it was still equally as exciting! These guys are so much fun to be around, and their music is so fun and enjoyable! I love spending time with them!
Alright enough of my gushing, I’m sure you came to see my blog told mostly by pictures, so here we go!
We hit the road a little later then expected, and ran into some traffic on I-93 along the way.
The traffic didn’t help, considering we were already late and crunched for time!
There’s Grafton driving the van. They take turns driving it. I’m the only one who can’t! I have no idea how to drive a van at all, and they say they’d never ask me to anyhow.
There’s Chris in the van. He’s reading a book called “This Is Your Brain On Music”, which I actually read a little of during the weekend. It’s really interesting, it kind of dissects the way we listen to music. It’s scientific, but if you have ever played an instrument, you would totally understand the technical lingo in it.
Ned, Chris, and I hadn’t eaten yet, so once we got to the venue and loaded in and had everything set up, we went out to dinner down the street. Ned told me he ordered a chicken sandwich every place they went, which eventually turned into us joking around about writing a review. Eventually that joke turned into a reality, and we have made it a goal of the tour for Ned to write a review of the chicken sandwiches he eats. We might even start taking pictures of them, we’ll see! Later on in the blog, you will get his review of the food from that night.
They played close to where they had played last month (I believe it was) at someone’s wedding, so I got to meet a lot of the people who had been at the wedding who came to see the band again. Everyone was really sweet, and they were fun when Oneside hit the stage. It was cool standing in the very back and watching every single person in there dancing. It was a good size crowd too, so it was amazing to see that everyone was into it!
Here are some of my pictures from the show:
Oneside.
My attempt at getting the people dancing from almost the very back.
Chris.
Jake.
Grafton.
Ned.
After the show, we hung out for a bit before packing up. The bartender offered to help us find a hotel outside of Portland, which was wicked nice of him. Yes, I used wicked in that sentence. That’s my Boston accent coming out in text form. Once we were packed up, we waited to get the hotel booked on the phone and hung out on the empty stage.
Chris chilling on the empty stage. Don’t mind the crappy quality, I took this one with my point and shoot.
Ned on the empty stage. Again, ignore the quality.
Once we had the hotel booked, it was time to load the van up with the gear. They play Tetris pretty much every night when packing the van.
Oh and Jake raises his hand when volunteering to do things!
Don’t ask. Haha.
All of the pictures from the night can be found here:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n280/musiclover224/Oneside%20Tour%202008/Sept%2011th%20Portland%20ME%20at%20The%20Big%20Easy/
And, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Neds chicken sandwich review of the night, written and e-mailed to me by Ned himself!:
Sabago Brewery, Portland, ME
Big Daddy’s Hot Chicken Sandwich
Not so hot. The chicken was reasonably well cooked and tender. The
bacon added some much needed crunch and smokiness. This sandwich
could have benefited from some avocado to give the texture some
fullness. No spice up front and a fairly bland finish too. Tangy but
forgettable sauce. Not unenjoyable but fairly boring.
7.2 out of 10
And here is your rating guide:
5-6 gut rot
6-7 does the job if your starving and really craving a chicken sandwich
7-8 pretty satisfying choice if nothing else on the menu looks good
8-9 worth a try even if you are not particularly in the mood for a
chicken sandwich
9-10 must haves
So, there you have it!
I leave you with a video of “The Letter” live from the show that night.
Leave me some comments! And be sure to check out the band! I’m gonna keep reminding you!
http://www.onesidemusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/oneside
and the blog is cross posted here:
http://chroniclesofatouringgirl.blogspot.com/
cheers!
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Posted by Ellen on September 07, 2008 at 01:40 PM
I just started working with a new band called Oneside, and I am going to be touring with them and selling their merch, as well as photographing and recruiting for their street team that is up and coming. With this being said, I decided to start tour blogging for the site! You can see what it’s like to hang with this band through my perspective, and hopefully it will help you get to know them and love them!
Last night was the start of my touring with Oneside, and man what a night it was to start on, with Hurricane Hanna bringing torrential downpours and strong winds! It makes for a good story now, though!
After traveling from Boston to Hartford against the rain, we finally arrived at The Half Door a little later then we expected. As soon as we walked in, we discovered they had put a new gaming system in! We just HAD to test it out.
There’s Chris taking his turn bowling.
Grafton taking his turn bowling.
That machine was so fun! It took me a while to get the hang of it, but soon after I was hitting strikes over and over! I didn’t win the game, but it was a fun little competition. We DID beat high scores, so Grafton put “Oneside” for all of our names!
After eating dinner, it was time to load in. This would be a challenge, considering Hanna was bringing down buckets of rain! We stood outside with Grafton’s giant umbrella until we came up with a game plan. In the end, we tied a tarp from the van and attached it to the ceiling of the bar.
Here’s (from left to right) Grafton, Ned, and Chris underneath the tarp.
And here’s the whole band (from left to right again) Grafton, Ned, Chris, and Jake.
Once everything was loaded in, it was time to get down to setup. I setup and organized the merch while the guys got ready to go. Below are the pictures of my merch setup!
One half.
The other half! Ta da!
oh, and just to throw this in here, I couldn’t help myself and took a sweet picture of the candle on the table in front of me.
Jake and I loved that picture.
They took the stage around 10, and people all around were into them instantly. It was really great to see that people actually came out during the hurricane rain and saw the band! At first people were reluctant to dance, or they danced right near to their tables and seats, but eventually people migrated to the front of the stage and danced. I even got suckered into dancing with people. When someone comes up to you with their hands out asking you to dance, you can’t exactly say no!
During one of the band breaks, Jake decided to take a nap on stage…
Here are a few pictures from their set:
Oneside.
People dancing to Oneside.
Chris.
Jake.
Grafton.
Ned.
And of course, my favorite shot to take, a view from behind!
All of my pictures from that night can be found here:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n280/musiclover224/Oneside%20Tour%202008/Sept%209th%20Hartford%20CT%20at%20The%20Half%20Door/?start=0
They played until about 1:30 am, we hung out for a bit, and then packed up. Thankfully by the time the show was over, so was the rain! The wind was a little bad coming back, but other then that it was smooth sailing!
I hope you enjoyed this first installment of my tour blog! Be sure to leave comments, and make sure you check out the band (especially since you’re getting to know and love them through my blog!)
http://www.onesidemusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/oneside
and this blog will be crossposted here:
http://chroniclesofatouringgirl.blogspot.com/
until next time, cheers!
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Posted by Mary on October 22, 2007 at 11:42 AM
When I recently read the blog posted by Amber Pacific about their run in with the law in Philly, I wasn’t surprised. What I was surprised with though was how much it mirrored a few of my past experiences with the cops in Philly. It’s obvious there’s some gross misuse of power coming from those parts....let’s start out with Amber Pacific’s specific incident aken from their MySpace blog:
Hello all, it’s Rick! For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been tagging along since April with the A-Pac guys, mostly just beating Greg in Halo and melting faces. Oh, and I also play some guitar. To those of you I’ve met over the last 7 months, thanks for being great and welcoming me into the “family!” To those I haven’t met yet, well get your butt out to a show and say “Hi!”
Now that we got that out of the way, I’m writing here to set the story straight about an incident a few of you have heard about after our show in Philadelphia at the Fillmore this past Tuesday, the 16th. A basic summary of the night would be our drummer Dango was a victim of completely unnecessary force used by a Philadelphia Police officer for absolutely no reason. If you are queasy about swearing, as used by this officer and others, you can stop here. If you want the whole story, read on!
After our show, as we always do, we waited by our merch table to meet anyone and everyone who would like to say hi, get a picture, or get something signed. We were told after a few minutes by venue security that there wasn’t enough room near our merch area, and that we would have to go outside to the sidewalk. We went outside in front of the venue to meet and greet. After a few minutes, a Philadelphia Police officer came by with his bike, and threw his bike in front of the kids waiting in line, and gruffly told everyone to move, as blocking the entrance was a fire hazard. We moved about 20 feet down so we weren’t near the door anymore. We continued to sign, and then that same cop came back a minute later, very agitated, and said “ Did you not hear what I said? I told you guys to move!” He then very angrily yelled at the kids waiting “ get out of here!” We felt maybe we could just move behind the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ trailer, where we couldn’t be blocking the sidewalk. As we did so, The officer was following us the whole time, and Will told everyone “ Ok, let’s move down here where there aren’t rude cops” Apparently, that touched a nerve. He yells at Will, word for word, “ What the fuck did you say, you little faggot douchebag???” Will spins around, and asks him “ What did you call me???”
Here’s where it gets weird though. The cop grabs Dango, who hadn’t said a word, and yells at him “ DO NOT RESIST!” several times, really loudly, as he spins him around and throws handcuffs on him. As we start to protest, he grabs Dango and throws him violently up against Red Jumpsuit’s trailer, and then starts to rummage through his pockets, throwing his stuff to the ground. He then goes through his wallet, and throws that stuff to the ground too. Dango, who hadn’t said a thing this whole time, finally asks “ Sir, why am I being handcuffed? I haven’t said a thing.” He wouldn’t give him an answer, just more profanities. Meanwhile, another cop comes over and tells us to step back. We ask him why Dango has been detained, as we’re just signing autographs for kids. He just proceeds to tell us to “Shut the fuck up and step back!”
It finally ended when the cop let Dango go about 15 minutes later, no explanation, no reason why he was detained in the first place. After that, I asked the first cop for his badge number, and we told him we were going to file a complaint with the city. He got angry, but then he laughed and said “ it wouldn’t be the first time, bud, I’ve been around the horn.” I then asked who the supervisor of the group was, and it so happened to be the other cop. I asked him for his badge number, and he refused to give it to me. I ended up seeing it on his shirt, so I wrote it down. I told them to expect a complaint, and the first cop then said “ Let’s just take them all away.” Luckily another cop there said “ no, we can’t do that, they haven’t done anything.”
Dango’s wrists were very visibly bruised, and none of the officers could or would give us a reason for their actions. A complaint is being filed with the city and Philly PD Internal Affairs. Hopefully the cops receive some sort of reprimand, but I’m not holding my breath. We hear this thing happens a lot in Philly, and that the cops arrest people all the time for no reason.
So that’s it, sorry for the length and profanity, but the story had to be told in it’s entirety. But thanks for reading this far!
On another note, the show was great though! Thanks to all the people in Philly who have supported us! And we’re about ready to head into Canada on the amazing Red Jumpsuit tour, with Monty Are I (tour bus bretheren!!), New Year’s Day (amazingly cool people and new friends!), and Red Jumpsuit (whom we’re definitely going to beat again in football.) So come out to a show and say hi!
Until next time,
-Rick
Now, if any of you have ever met Dango, you’d realize how absurd all of this is. And if you haven’t met him, check out the interview Stacie did with the band about a month ago to get a feel for what these guys are all about. Violence and abusing the law don’t really come to mind.
Now, let me run you through a few of my own personal experiences with the cops in these same parts. Both of my experiences occurred outside of the TLA in Philly, which is on South St. If you’re not familiar with South St., it’s a thriving metropolis of nightlife and activity. There are shops, restaurants, clubs, etc. It’s well lit, people everywhere, and MOST people are just minding their own business having a good time - except for the cops.
Flash back to a few years ago...Butch Walker was playing the TLA. After the show, everyone is filing out, having a good time, talking about the show. We’re met directly with a barricade of cops standing outside yelling at people to keep moving. Fine...don’t block the sidewalk, we get it, we’re not robots, we’re people. As one guy was coming out, he met the cops with a comment - the exact words don’t come to my mind at the moment but it wasn’t anything outlandish or rude, it was just a remark made to their overtly aggressive behavior. You’d think they were transporting people in a high security prison from their cell to solitary confinement...sorry dudes, we’re just a bunch of rockers leaving a show. Anyway, before the poor kid even finished his sentence, they had his face bashed up against the wall of the building, smashing his camera as it met the building with the same force. They “cuffed” him with their zip ties (I guess the big boys haven’t graduated to real cuffs yet) and started screaming at him. I walked away because I knew if I said anything, I’d be thrown into the same position, and frankly, I don’t look fashionable in cuffs. Many people stood around basically telling them they were a little out of control and the guy didn’t do anything...I don’t think it made much of a difference.
That was my nice story. The next story is even more absurd. Julie and I drove to Philly to see our boys in The Lashes. After the show, I had a bag of things in my car for the band, so I ran to get them, and came back. They wouldn’t let me back in the club at this point though so I was standing outside just waiting. A cop came over to me....and stood about THISCLOSE to my face and yelled in a voice not unlike that of the devil himself “KEEP MOVING YOU CAN’T STAND HERE”. Mind you, I was the only soul standing in front of the club and it didn’t really look like I was holding up any major traffic or causing any sort of problem. As I took about half a second to process the information and decide what I was going to do..he got EVENCLOSER to my face and yelled..."WHAT, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH!?!?!?!” I was sort of horrified and shocked..and just kinda looked at him. I usually have a mouth that doesn’t stop but I think I was just a bit shocked by his behavior...so...we started to walk around the building to go find the band. As we were walking, he yelled that we couldn’t go behind the club....we sorta shrugged and went anyway. I had had about enough of that guy.
We finally reached our happy place when we found the band loading out behind the club. Nate was playing his accordian (which he does after most shows and people hang out, sing, dance and LOVE it!) and everyone was just having a good time hanging out. There was nothing going on - no tomfoolery, no hullabalou, no shenanigans. The opening band had their van parked behind The Lashes band and they were hanging out with their friends as well. Before we know it, cops on bikes come at us from all angles and there was nowhere to escape. They are screaming and yelling and you’d think there was a murder in progress - no....just a bunch of hooligans hanging out. Before we could even look at each other, they had pulled all the girls sitting in the opening band’s van out of the van and had them face first up against the wall. These looked like 18-22 year old girls..you know, the real dangerous type that go to rock shows and support bands. We were all sort of just looking at each other like what the fuck but before we could even say “what” the cop was giving Nate shit telling him to put his accordian away and that he couldn’t play it in public, that it violated some “no having fun in public” law that they seem to have in Philly. Ah..dude, no offense but we’re in a dark alley behind a club and the only public here is US and we’re certainly not offended by Nate or his accordian. Nate looked a bit bewildered but...put it away without so much as a peep. While they were using their zip ties to tie up all of the dangerous teenage girls we thought best to split the scene. We hadn’t done anything but by this logic, they’d be locking up Ben for wearing too many belts at the same time any minute now. So we round the corner and head for cheesesteaks...but before we get there, we run into cops on bikes who have some helpless dude laying IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD hog tied. And by hog tied, I mean hog tied. He was laying on his belly and his hands were cuffed behind his back and his feet were tied together. We all sort of looked at each other and I think we all simultaneously just said RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!! It was like we were in some bad B movie. Scotty wanted to fight back but...we thought the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt he was wearing might break a law of some sort and we weren’t willing to let him get sent to the clink for that. We had to hold him back though, he was ready to rumble with the law. We sat there for hours just saying.."did we really just see all of that absurdity?????” I think we reinacted a few of the busts as well..you know, just for fun.
The bottom line is, this kind of behavior is tolerated by the city of Philadelphia, and has been tolerated for quite some time. Perhaps it’s time something is done about it. You can’t just decide that because you have a badge and a cruiser that you can muscle innocent people around at will because you’re bored with your job..oh wait..strike that, these boys don’t even have cruisers, they have bicycles...maybe THAT’S why they are so mad. They haven’t worked their way up the big boy ladder yet to four wheels instead of two. The point is, people need to start fighting back against this sort of injustice, not in the physical sense but by reporting these incidents, getting badge names and numbers, writing to the Philly papers, talking about it online, etc. Remember...the power belongs to the people…
If you live in Philly or go to the clubs in Philly, we’d be interested in hearing your experiences with the men in blue.....
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