Chicago the Double Door Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Sunday started out like any other gig day for Bear Lake. I dragged myself out of bed at 9:30, (which is like 5:30 by musician standards) met up with photographer and co-creator of the term tip stain Chris Piet, and headed out to the barn to load up the trailer and get on the road. We hit the highway in good time, and dorked out on Fantasy football while watching The Office for the duration of the ride to the windy city.
We made such good time in fact that we arrived an hour early to the venue. We sat in the van and watched several hipster types walking to and fro. There are a lot of hipster things that we get like big beards and Jeff Goldblum glasses, but why skinny jeans? They look like the denim version of early 90's sweatpants, but to each their own I guess. Anyway, we loaded in and then started with some drinks and eats. We got back to the double door in time to catch nice sets by Josh McCormick and The Workhorse Kings.
Next we played, and I think it went really well. According to one gentleman who claimed to be a chef, we were a kin to one of his own satiating creations, but in a musical way. The good news was we sold all of the CDS we brought in a matter of minutes. Conversely, the bad news was that we have seizures of idiocy and therefore only brought 7 copies of Places on the Side. After us, They all Have Legs played a killer set, and we exchanged mutual admiration after the show.
Post show is always a fun time. It's when the drinks really start to flow and this night was no exception. Most of us ended up crashing at EP's and we'd like to convey our sincere apologies to Bianca for any drunken shenanigans we may have participated in. We hope we weren't too loud. Also, if you are looking up something on the internet starting with ho and horseporn.com pops up as an option, it wasn't us. On the other hand, ninjapirates.com was totally us.
As far as sleeping situations go Keith probably took the prize for most uncomfortable. I'm not sure if it was due to Piet's goading (repeatedly calling Keith pussy dick) or Keith's general yearning for vagrancy, but Keith chose to sleep in the Van when temps were approaching sub zero. Needless to say, we were all relieved when we returned to the van in the morning and found Keith still among the living, and ready to head home.
We're taking a break for a couple of weeks to put the finishing touches on our upcoming album, but hopefully we'll see you for an acoustic set at the Crofoot on January 7th opening for Oliver Thompson and The Marvins.

Rubbles, Mt. Pleasant, and Wesley Snipes

Another fascinating night of music and debauchery with Bear Lake Last Saturday started off rather inauspiciously. We arrived suprisingly on time and loaded in without a hitch while gazing in wonder at the Ghost town that is downtown Mt. Pleasant right before finals week. We waited to play to an empty house until we saw two "top shelf" individuals approach and asked if they would like to come in with lines like "We're good, we really are" and "You may have heard of a little show called One Tree Hill" It worked thus saving the night. These two were for us that night what a skillful pimp is for their ho's. That is to say they gave us a chance, watched a couple of songs and immedaitely called up some friends turning the night into a moderate success. Mick did a nice job of manning the sound booth and the barstaff at Rubbles couldn't have been more accomadating. It wasn't the busiest night at Rubbles, but it's safe to say that those that attended enjoyed the music and will probably make for a hardier turn out next time around in MP.

Brian stayed sober that night and bellied up to the driver seat for the ride home which was greatly appreciated by the rest of us drunk dickbags. It was however this drunken dickbaggedness that lead to the bright idea of stopping by the Soaring Eagle to bet our meager earnings for the night on Roullette. We walked into the casino and headed for the roullette tables. Jon placed the bet while heeding the immortal words of Wesley Snipes in Passenger 57..."always bet on black" We did thus doubling our purse. Steve proclaimed this as an act of God and a sign that Bear Lake is headed in the right direction.

Soon thereafter, Steve tried to exchange coats with a fellow holding a cheesecake. The man declined saying he didn't want to look like Kanye, which made Steve believe he looked like Kanye, which in turn made Steve smile. After determining that the cheescake box would be "a hard open" we let the man be on his way and headed home for the two hour drive.

Next stop Grand Rapids on Wednesday. We're all hoping for another "Top Shelf" evening.

Bear Lake in Traverse City

We had a great time in Traverse City this weekend and are happy to reflect on our first successful trip with the new band van! We headed up I-75 this past Thursday in order to catch a meteor shower. We got to Keith's cabin on Bear Lake at around 2:30am. We settled in and then immediately headed out on the boat into the middle of the lake. We saw at least 50-60 shooting stars as we sat out until early morning. We woke up Friday and had a relaxed day by the lake full of waterskiing, swimming, and laying out. Saturday we slept in and headed into Traverse City around 7 or 8pm. We got to The Loading Dock with plenty of time to load and get ready. As usual, the staff at the Loading Dock was welcoming and extremely friendly, and we had a great night of playing for friends, family, and locals of this wonderful town. The trip ended with our annual "Bear Lake Classic Invitational" at Grandview golf course in Kalkaska , MI. It was a wretchid day of golf for all of us except for Stetson, who took the trophy for 27 holes, scoring a one over par (37) on the final 9. Hats off to him. All in all, it was an amazing weekend of drunken insomnia, and we look forward to getting up there again soon. Special thanks to Stephanie and Bryce, Josh, Carter, Linda, Scotty, Natalie, Jackie and friends, Pam and Andy, Jesse, Kramer, Bianca, Emily, The Pedersons, the Stetsons, the Mays, and everyone else who came out and made this weekend a memorable experience. Cheers!






Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Phonofest 2010

We were lucky enough to be a part of the Phonotropic's wicked awesome barbecue 3D safari this past weekend at the Crofoot Ballroom in Pontiac, MI. This was without a doubt one of the best gigs that we have ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Much thanks to Phreddy Wischusen for making this whole night possible. The Crofoot truly took on a surreal form this weekend passed, and every room you would enter into (of which there are many in the Crofoot) would lead you into a vastly different genre/world of music. It is rare that you see such an eclectic grouping of people get along so wonderfully, but that is exactly what happened this night. Some favorites of the night included Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas (always a fave), Dale Earnhardt jr. jr. (it was their CD release party), and The Victorious Secrets (who recently won a competition to become freecreditreport's new band). I only listed a few, but every band was great, and mixed in with 3D artwork and free barbecue, who could go wrong? I enclosed a short video below...Thanks Phreddy!!

Chicago Disaster/Stuck in Parma

We headed out to play the Elbo room in Chicago. Our new band van was finally ready to go, and the trip promised to be a comfortable, relaxing journey. The first hour and a half of the journey went smoothly; everyone was happily enjoying movies and Nintendo in the back. And then we reached: PARMA, MI. As if by some force, as soon as we entered Parma territory, the van started to get a little rocky and proceeded to die going 70 in the middle of the highway. The battery light was on, so we figured it to be an easy fix. We had it towed into a Parma mechanic, and headed out to find some food (not an easy venture in what we saw of this little town.) We had lost some time on our schedule, but we remained optimistic. This was until we returned to the mechanic who informed us that our engine had completely seized and the van would be undriveable without a new one. This was not the news we were hoping for. We scrambled around and debated throwing in the towel and calling the venue. But, once again, our personal heroes, Keith and Diane Robinson came to save us with a slew of trucks that we were able to pack into in order to get to Chicago. Because of them, we made it to the Elbo room on time (unshowered as we were), had a great show (the staff at The Elbo room are some of the nicest we've met), hung out on an art loft rooftop, met with some great people, and ended the night at a hip hop dance party in the tonic room. Thanks to our buddy Chris Fortuna for letting us crash at his place, and thanks to everyone who came out. All in all it was a great time, but it never would have been possible without Keith and Diane; thank you so much for your help and support!!




Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

New York (or at least what we can remember of it)

We were in New York City for our first as Bear Lake on May 5th. The Rockwood Music Hall was nice enough to have us and we were extremely psyched to finally get to play in the city. The voyage there was a nice 12-hour trek, much of which was through beautiful Pennsylvanian landscapes. We arrived around 6pm on May 4th, got settled into our hotel (a little Red Roof Inn in Secaucus, NJ), and made our way towards the tunnel. We were lucky enough to instantly meet up with our good friends from Brooklyn, Ebru and Shawn, who immediately showed us the sights. The show on Saturday was great. Though the venue was very small for our band, the soundman was fantastic and the staff was really nice. After the show we embarked on a drunken journey through the streets which lasted into the early hours of morn. We stayed up until 9:30am, caught the train back to Secaucus, hopped in the van, and took turns driving home. All in all, it was a great weekend! Here are some pictures, there are also videos below...



Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

Retrospective Posts

Hello all,

We recently started up our website and blog, so we will have to give you a couple retrospective posts to catch you up with the past couple months. Hope you don't mind...