We had an excellent time at Sixthman, but after we left Atlanta we had a 13 hour drive to Ocean City, Maryland for a morning radio show at 8:30 am. You don't need to have Albert Einstein around to figure out it was a heck of day of driving. For other people it may sound daunting, but that is why this band is so special.
Even though we were already tired, there was no complaining, no whining, just a great attitude of getting on to the next thing and performing like true professionals. Instead of a daunting task, this band pulled together to make it into a great day. Not only did we create the Tour Bus decathalon that included sit ups, planking, bench press and arm wrestling (we dropped the marathon, which would have required something like 12,000 laps in the bus), but we wrote a song, napped and made excellent time, arriving in Ocean City at 3 am. The 7:30 alarm was the most unfriendly sound we may have ever heard. As we shuffled out of our condo/bus with the sun barely shining ... you could hear "zombie Will" groaning "Staaaaaaarrrrrrrbucks" as we pulled out of the driveway. With time slowly ticking we only made it to a Dunkin' Donuts, which surprisingly had no donuts. Go figure. Still undeterred we made our way to the WOCM studios at Seacrets in Ocean City.
Seacrets is one of the Top 10 grossing bars in all of the United States. There are currently 21 independent full-service bar areas, four stages and around 10,000 non-native plants, including palm trees that are shipped in every year to create the jungle paradise feel of the area. Within the Seacrets complex is WOCM or irieradio.com, which is owned and operated by the same company. WOCM is a AAA station that plays by its own rules and was the first station to play our record. We stumbled our way through the maze of the complex and opened the door to the studio to find an energetic, magnanimous man named Bulldog (we were forbidden from using his real name, FBI stuff). As we set up for our live set on his show, he consistently was cracking jokes and keeping us laughing as we prepped to perform. He was so entertaining, friendly and really the perfect host.
We played four songs live that went out to over 6,000 people in the immediate Ocean City area and reached all over the east coast. Quite a cool thing for our band and day we are all proud of. Thanks to those of you that tuned in!
When the radio set ended we were given a tour of Seacrets, had some 11:00 am Gin with Bulldog and then we quickly found Will some Starbucks and grabbed lunch at nearby Macky's. The restaurant is built on sand and was a 40 second swim from the condo where we were staying ... not that any of us were brave enough. We were all exhausted and just asked that all the food come quickly so we could take a short nap before we hit the road.
After lunch we made our way back to the condo and most of us took the opportunity to rest before heading to Philly. Matt and Brent took the opportunity to relax and set up the perfect shot for a Cialis commercial.
We gathered ourselves quickly and headed off through the great state of Delaware to get to Philly. In Delaware ... wait, nope, nothing here to share. Our drive lined up perfectly as we arrived in Philadelphia just in time for Phillies, airport and Peter Gabriel traffic. Benny and Matt had to do a driver swith-a-roo when Ben, yet again, poorly timed his bathroom breaks.
Finally we arrived at Rebel Rock Bar in North-East Philly. The bar was actually really nice, having been established only some short months ago. The place was clean, well-appointed with rock paraphernalia and we settled in nicely upon our arrival. We also got free advertising when everyone headed into the strip club next door had to walk by our rock show on the way in. haha.
We played a raucous set with local bands Music Box Dynamo and The Great Party, who both really put on great shows and were cool people as well. Not only that, but they both brought a decent sized group of people out to hang with us. However, it was the Zimmerman crew that took the cake. Family, friends and old college buddies swarmed the bar and we gave them our absolute best. It was a great night, good venue and a truly awesome atmosphere. It was also the first time we played Unchained as it was written with no mash-up ... more's the pity.
Such a great day overall with a TON of road miles covered. Out of it we got a great radio show, new friends in Philly and some time to sleep in at the Zimmerman's in Bellefonte, PA.
