… I remember coming into Nashville, Tenessee not really caring about the show we were going to be at. About fifteen hours before the alternator in the car shit out. The journey to Tennessee began in Westminster, Maryland, after leaving from Kyle Woodworth’s very hospitable company. Getting to that show in Westminster was even troublesome since our headlights had gone out and our thoughts were that the battery had died. So we bought a new battery.

From westminster we trekked until around 1:30 in the morning and until our headlights finally died. Going down I-81 with no headlights isn’t the best of ideas so we grabbed flashlights and aimed them out the sunroof of the car and out the windows. At least this could keep us from driving off the road. We were laughing our heads off because the situation was so ridiculous.

Fortunately someone pulled off to the side of the road after I flagged them down with my iPod. The screen on the thing makes a great flashlight (which was also used to examine the car engine on occasion). In occasions like this I imagine the first thought of someone helping you on the side of the road is “will I be struck on the back of the head with a wrench?” but fortunately this did not happen. Instead he pushed us with his bumper a quarter of a mile to the nearest truck stop where we waited in an Arby’s / truck stop until the auto-body shop 100 yards away opened. I couldn’t go to sleep. The woman cashier said “I know you’re stranded for the next four hours, but you can’t sleep in here.” but it was alright for us to sit for four-fucking-hours. I passed out at some point and all I remember was Arby’s, walking to the car then passing out in the back, to waking up somewhere else.

I remember coming into Nashville, Tennessee not really caring about the show other than just getting there. Not that I wasn’t expecting it to be a good show, it’s just that there was car related stress. It was about -2º C outside and we didn’t have properly functioning heat in the car. Our car lights went out about an hour and a half before we were supposed to be at the show and all of this was what we found out to be on account of a broken alternator. So we had about an forty-five minute delay before even getting back on the road to Nashville.

There was an auto-body shop near to where we stopped again. We tracked down via Love’s (for those unfamiliar with Love’s, it’s a one-stop-truck-stop). It was in a podunk town and operated by a fellow that was fortunately on call to come in. Him, myself, and my travel companion sat in the lobby. He sat in front of a computer and looked at internet stuff and we chatted about what we could. It wasn’t small-talk nor big-talk. It was “medium-talk”. We asked what he was doing before he came in to help us and he said something about drinking a beer and watching football. I remembered that the Fall is football season.

After this nice fellow spent 40 minutes of his time recharging our battery and watching us eat hummus, avocado, and pita bread, we drove to Nashville.

We had an incredibly friendly welcome, we weren’t even late, and everyone there was nice and the bands were great. The space looked like an garage / house / shed with a zine library in one room and two pleasant concrete looking bathrooms. Pineapple Explode was one of those bands. I felt like this seemed more of a lively place in the warmer seasons.