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Published: July 24th 2007
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Baltimore
Christoph Hall I have to say I find Baltimore a rather odd city. Ada, whom we stayed with, is the sister of V from Apocalypse Theater, a band that Brian plays with on occasion. We were told that a package had been delivered to the club for High Blue Star and that when they made a first delivery attempt there was no one around to accept it so it would be delivered in the morning. we all kind of looked at each other trying to figure out what it was and who sent it. No one seemed to know who it might be. Ada lives a block away from the club (The Depot) and is soon opening a shop above the club. Parking in the area was a little difficult because the city was having a festival called Artscape, just a few blocks away. We hog piled into her apartment and she pulled out a bunch of food for us to eat- meat and cheese platters, fruit platters, vegetable trays. We all stuffed our faces for awhile, relaxed and then hit the bar with some of Ada's bandmates and the promoter, Caroline, and her husband. Neither Martin, Brian, or I payed for
a drink all night. Ada introduced Brian and I to Van Gough Espresso Vodka. I'm not really a person that does shots but these were excellent. They were ice cold and tasted completely like iced coffee. Over the course of the evening I think I had about 5 beers and 3 shots of coffee vodka. We ended up closing the club at around 2am and went to Ada's to sleep.
Everyone that slept in the living room woke at around 10 and had coffee and waffles, checked the internet and devised a plan for the day. Ada had the keys to the club so her and her band ,Red This Ever, went to set up the PA and get sound checked. Meanwhile, Caroline, her husband, and both bands decided to take walk to the Artscape festival thingy that was causing the parking problems. There were a few artists that had pretty cool things but most were kind of so-so. Having had enough we walked back home and rested a bit before moving our equipment. The doors were to open at 9pm with High Blue Star going on at 9:30. We were all mildly annoyed that we had to go
on so early, especially since there was a lot of parking confusion with the Artscape goers parking all over the neighborhood and people were coming in late. We ended up moving the set times back 30 minutes thankfully because the room started to fill in that half hour.
At the end of the evening the owner of the club bought 4 pizzas, a bunch of salads, and a bunch of buffalo wings and fries for everyone that was working or performing. And then came more espresso vodka shots. The bartender poured out about 10 or 12 shots for the remainder of the people in the club. Ada is good friends with the owner and got the keys to the club so we didn't have to load the bus at 3am. This was like heaven to all of us. Everyone stumbled back to Ada's apartment and went to bed.
In the morning we made coffee and gather the troops, including the club owner, loaded out and went to a restraunt for breakfast. We asked about the mysterious package but were told that no one had come to deliver it. Jennifer called me and said that she had a care
package delivered to the club for me but since there wasn't anyone there she had them re-route the package to Charlottesville Virginia, our next stop.Everyone was curious as to what the package might be and made me promise to e-mail them when I opened it.
On the way out of town Brian said he waned us to see something weird. We drove through some of the more violent of neighborhoods in Baltimore until he pointed out cameras on the light poles. Little white boxes with police shield painted on them with the word "Believe" underneath. At the top of the boxes on all four sides were 2 alternating blue strobes and cameras watching the area. He then pointed out that all the city vehicles, including police cars, had stickers on them saying "believe" as well. We all found it a bit Orwellian to say the least.
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