Dispatches: White Wives (Episode 1)

Greetings all! My name is Josh Massie. I play horn/keys and sing for the band White Wives.
We would like to thank Punknews.org for hosting our tour blog. We hope you enjoy it.

We’re currently rolling deep into day 2 of this short 6-day string of shows alongside the mighty Tigers Jaw. Kite Party and Three Man Cannon it’s been a great time! All of the bands here are really solid and though it’ll be short lived, the rest of the tour should be great.
So let’s rewind a few days.

Early early morning on the 14th, I rode up to San Antonio to the airport to catch my 6:15 flight. Got to watch the sun rise over the horizon on the way to Dallas which is always an experience in itself, especially with a full moon still in the sky. I was laid over in Dallas for only an hour which was awesome. I had been awake the past 2 days on account of last minute hangs with great friends back home, so I managed to sleep a little on the flight to Pittsburgh.

We were on a bit of a tight schedule since Roger had to get to work so I met up with 2 and we went straight to the practice space. A quick tune-up and some quick discussion, we got into rehearsal. After practice, we even quickly went over a brand new song which is always exciting. Then, the rest of us stayed around to discuss plans for more rehearsal the next day and 2 and I soon began our trek back to his house.
We were greeted once more by 2’s wife, Amanda and their most lovable dog whom you may meet in an upcoming tour video. It was early yet so we decided to go into town to get some tour supplies as well as have a quick dinner at a great Mexican restaurant called El Campesino.

I had been awake for the past two days so my sleep was quite heavenly. I awoke a little earlier than expected, but soon enough it would be time to run last minute errands for tour kickoff the next day. 2 and I went about the day picking up repaired guitars and grabbed a quick lunch with Chris Stowe before practice. We had the van and the trailer and would be ready to load out after we were finished. Practice went well, though it seemed that the rainy weather had put us in a lazy mood and some of us were feeling drowsy. We finished up and proceeded to pack the trailer after taking a quick inventory of the merch. All that was left was to decide to what do for the rest of the evening.

I opted to tag along with Stowe and Roger and we made our way with our friend Zoe to the strip where we had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant called Kasaab’s. We treated ourselves to some hummus and beer before taking back to the streets to another nearby bar, the Lava Lounge. We met up with Roger’s friend, Kumar, in the backroom where they were hosting a spelling bee contest. I never would’ve suspected that a spelling bee could ever be fun again, but when drinks are involved… well, you know the rest. A few beers and shots of Jameson later, Stowe and I made our way back to Roger’s place. There, we attempted to stay awake until our 4:00am takeoff, though unsuccessful.

4:00 came too soon and we all piled into Stowe’s car to meet up with the boys at 2’s house. Amanda had prepared a breakfast of bagels, tacos, and muffins as we gathered our things into the trailer. In no time we were off to Chicago. The reason for our early take off, even with gaining an hour along the way, was that we were scheduled for a radio interview at Fearless Radio. With a few driver shifts, we made it with time to spare. The folks at Fearless, along with their awesome pug, Joc, were very kind and the interview went smoothly with some great tour stories. The interview itself should be available on their website soon if you were unable to catch the live broadcast.

After the interview, we made our way to the Beat Kitchen. A quick load in and we all made our way down the street to Andy’s Music in hopes to get my trumpet repaired. Smashing around on the stage has certainly proved quite damaging and on the last tour, I managed to get the mouthpiece stuck which requires a special tool to remove so that I can fit it in its case. Wouldn’t you know though, that their horn repairman was out on vacation, just like ALL of the repairmen I’ve ALMOST found. Regardless, we got to spend some time exploring the vast amount of world instruments Andy’s carries including sitars, human bone drum sticks/percussion and a wild array of stringed instruments.

Returning to the Beat Kitchen, we met up with our tour mates for the week, Tigers Jaw, Kite Party and Three Man Cannon. After being served some pizza, compliments of the Beat Kitchen, it wasn’t too long before the show kicked off. Tigers Jaw, Kite Party and Three Man Cannon played great sets and I became stoked to be apart of such a great tour already. Our set was very well accepted and we played to an almost packed room. Chicago was out in full force and overall the first night was a success.
After mingling some more with our tour mates, we made our way across town to our friend, Toby’s, place. The night concluded with drinks and meals at the bar downstairs while watching the ridiculously extended Indians v Sox game. 14 innings I believe. Regardless, we had been up and driving the van half the day. Exhaustion finally kicked in and we called it a night.

Today was yet another great day. Needless to say most of it consisted of driving all the way to Detroit. We arrived to our venue, Magic Stick Lounge and were greeted by our tour mates. MSL is a great place, save the load-in going upstairs. That’s never fun. But we had the big show room all to ourselves as a backstage area, so that’s a plus. Tonight’s set got off to a little rough start before it even began. Equipment suddenly decided to go on strike and we had to fix a couple of things before playing. But once we were back on our feet, we played a great set and the Detroit kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy each moment.

We concluded our visited to Detroit with a quick game of bowling downstairs. We split the band into two teams: Stowe, Rog and 2 made up one team while Chris Head, Tyler and myself made up the other. Unfortunately, I still suck at bowling, but it turns out that Stowe is really good. Too bad we weren’t teammates. His team took the win 304 to our 260. Come to think of it, those are terrible combined scores. I guess we all suck. No punk rock bowling for us.

Now, we’ve set a course for Ohio where today we have a FREE in-store at Magnolia Thunderpussy Records before our show at the Monster House in the evening. Thanks for keeping up with tour blog. I’ll be writing them up every 2 days for this tour since it’s only a week long.

Be well, friends!
Josh & White Wives