The Modern Exchange (Southgate, MI) 6/11/2009

The Modern Exchange had to be the most unusual stop in some time. Vintage clothing store in the front, huge music room in the back.

It was an all ages venue. It was apparent immediately once walking into the bathroom that the female clientele was on the hunt for younger men. (more bathroom art here______)

Mike got in on the action as well…

Notice how the truck has been rapidly disintegrating since our last little fender bender on the way to Indi, Jesus what a beyatch…

Anyway, to say we played for a small crowd that night would be an exaggeration. But such is the life of an independent band looking for nothing but the good times.

After the show we went out and had drinks with an undercover narcotics agent and his wife. Now that’s the good times from the edge suckerz!

Melody Inn (Indianapolis, IN) 5/31/2009

This one started out with a bang… literally.. we got rear-ended less than 2 miles out of Chicago. Some beyatch claimed she fell asleep at the wheel cause she had been driving since Joliet…wow what is that 20 miles or something how can you stand to be in the car that long without going to sleep????

Wasn’t terrible…french fries went everywhere, and the back bumper got pushed down a bit…but its cool, we slapped her ugly mug and got back on the road.

When we pulled up to Melody Inn in Indianapolis a few hours later we were pleasantly surprised by the funkiness of the décor. It was nice to land in a legit rock club.’ This place is/was the shit.

The bathroom’s were even shittier and by shittier I mean better of course. Each tile had something profound drawn on it…this one inspired me to run for office.

See more bathroom art here ____

We had a good set at Melody Inn. We were on our own for this one so nobody got shots of our performance, however, we did have the pleasure of getting to watch one of the craziest bands I’ve ever seen kicking around the Midwest, the Trampskirts (http://www.myspace.com/trampskirts).

Ashley, the lead singer, looked like a member of the Lizzies from the Warriors (as Mike aptly put it).  She had a six pack that made me feel bad about myself.

The show was fun we danced, we cried, we saw a dude make out with a girl and then get punched by his wife. We packed up and made the four hour drive home that night.

Cubby Bear (Chicago, IL) 5/22/2009

Night two of our farewell party for Taz in Chicago.

FUN FUN FUN FUN…that’s the four words I could use to describe this night. If I had to pick one more in would be ANTI-BIOTIC.

It was at Cubby Bear during game 5 of the Blackhawks/Redwings semi-finals so it was a good ole fashion party in Wrigleyville that night. Jager-bombs were flowing, collars were popping, and chaches were a-chachin. The night was aglow with shiny gel encrusted highlights and spray-on tans.

We had a lot of help from our friends that night. Big thanks to Bethany Thomas for helping us send Taz off all proper like.

and Arman...

Taz has touched us all over the years (esp in cabs) and we are glad to see him taking a new step in life after VR; for when he emerges a beautiful new butterfly we will all gawk at his six legs with a gratitude that we knew him so well when he was just a fuzzy little caterpillar, creeping around on the floor of our apartment (5-6 days a week).

Subterranean (Chicago, IL) 5/21/2009

This was night one of our two night goodbye party for good friend and long time bassist Taz Rashid. We had a great time, and got a great slot right before a fun little band from Wales called People in Planes (http://www.myspace.com/peopleinplanes).

It was great to be playing back at home in Chicago, and as usual by the end of the night I was trying to sell my body for $10.

Ya I don't know...guess the recession  hit everyone

Points East Pub (Milwaukee, WI) 5/15/2009

This was our last show on the road with long time bassist and good friend Taz Rashid.  We had a few more subsequent shows in Chicago with his brown ass, but after that he became a giant and we never saw him again (oddly enough).

Unfortunately, all photographic records of this show have been lost.  So we hired actors to re-enact the performance.

Lizards (Indianapolis, IN) 5/9/2009

Smashed my brand new digital camera (and my hand) trying to take a picture while tripping across a two lane hwy right outside the bar.

Here's the picture I was trying to take when it happened... was it worth it?

Suck it Gorbachev!

Well we pushed through the pain and liters of blood loss, and enjoyed some rocking tunes by Civilian (www.myspace.com/civilian2006) once our set was over. Hello to Paul if you're reading, tell your Russian mail order bride hello for us too.

All in all it was awesome night and we left with much more than we came with.

After we loaded out, we grabbed our stash and booked it to a hotel.

Mike and Tony took the condom....Taz was sad :(

Rhino's (Bloomington, IN) 2/20/2009

Rhino's in Bloomington was an all ages show. And I felt a little bit like a camp counselor when I got there. But it was a lot of fun. This was the first time we played "No Way Home" and wouldn't you know it, I think the kids dug it.

This was also the first time we took Healy on the road with us. He did a good job at the booth, way to go Healy...what he didn't know was that I refuse to use hands when driving through the state of Indiana.

He didn't seem to mind...what a sport.

We didn't get a lot of good shots of the show, because up until this point we'd be using a disposable camera, which can't get a good picture unless you take the film of the camera and actually rub it onto whatever it is you are trying to get a picture of.

Anyway we met some cool people.

Chris pictured here on the right, had a great theory on how every puke can be associated with a species of dinosaur...his favorite was the T-Rex puke. It sounded pretty badass.

I told myself to pay attention to what kind of dinosaur I look like the next time I puke...so far I've haven't yet remembered to stop and think about it.

After the show we went and partied it up on IU's campus. It had been a while since we got to walk around a college campus and pretend to be rockstars. Sorry again to anyone in the Acacia house...

After that it was time to find a hotel room...only availibility was a handicap room way outside of town...Mike was so excited he could hardly contain himself...

Lucky for him the handicap toilet had handlebars.

Toledo Speedway Lounge (Toledo, OH) 1/24/2009

This was a benefit for a good friend of one our favorite Midwest bands Resonant Soul (www.myspace.com/resonantsoul). It was a pleasure to share the stage with great guys for a good cause.

As you can see they permitted us a sizeable set...how nice of them!  We returned the favor with a sizeable high-five.

We met two really cool girls that night, Aarika and Sam... Sam came out to Chicago on St. Patricks day and we we're gonna all meet up but shit got fucked up and we missed eachother.

Tony showed Aarika how a gentleman from Chicago treats a nice gal from O-H-I-O.

Alas everything remained Platonic (expect that I'll tell you when it doesn't) however, I don't want to go spreading false rumors lest Aarika has some enormous boyfriend with a light sabre.

We decided to be rollers that night and get a baller ass hotel room??? why??? I chalk it up to drinking, proximity, and the American dream.

Martyrs' (Chicago, IL) - 1/2/2009

Martyrs' was fun. We ran a big contest around our new t-shirts. The winner of the contest won a night out on the town with Verona Red...check out pics on that above...

We played a rockin set, met some cool people, and flashed gang sings when appropriate.

This was actually the first time I had the pleasure to meet a young Mike Healy (the non-retarded looking one on the left).

He complimented us on our music...so we suckered him into coming on the road with us and working our merch booth.

Like I said the show was good...but it really doesn't compare to the after party... truth be told most shows don't at least thats what I've been told.

Back at the after party Mike became increasingly irritable and began screaming into two bottles of Jack and Patron.

After that it was the hot sauce...

Meanwhile shit was getting heated...it was me or him...

Then we thought maybe we ought to just take it down a notch...then again... fuck my fingers!

The urge to remove appendages eventually wore off...and after a few more drinks I passed out in the pantry looking for my Pulitzer

Kryptonite (Rockford, IL) - 11/22/2008

Kryptonite in Rockford, IL was our first show after the Side Effects record release show. For everyone who remembers we pretty much sold out the place...maybe....but there were over 400 people there...Kryptonite was the following weekend. It was a slap back to reality.

 
This stage was about 16 inches off the ground and the room was full of people who loved to jump in front of pictures, I hate when crowds stand so close to the stage that they get in the way of a nearly perfect shot like this one...

Anyway My main man here (lets call him Paul or Jeff or Theodore) really liked us. We met him and a couple of his friends after the show they were nice.

All in all the show went well. The funniest part of the entire show was watching Taz try to hide his fat lip that looked eerily similar to a herpes breakout.

Apparently he called extremely tall/big boned girl an "Amazon" at a party the night before...so she did what any self respecting "Amazonian' would do...she popped him.

But this of course...didn't stop Taz. No fat lip that looks suspiciously like a herpe infection stops my good man Taz from working over some strange.

So This is a Band's Blog, You Say???

So believe it or not, Verona Red is actually a band.... I know I do a lot of ranting and rather unoriginal wry observation on this little blogola which was originally intended to be a place where we'd post pics and stories about our everyday band life... But the truth is that I get lazy and tired of telling everyone about all the amazingly awesome things that happen to us ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I don't post stuff about our shows because some of the stuff that happens is so cool that I can't even talk about it without taking all my clothes off and rubbing talcum (sp?) powder all over my junk.

Other times I'm just too busy loving America.

Anyway, I wanted to use the next few posts to catch everyone up with some of the highlights of whats happened since that little record release show we had at Double Door back in November....believe me there has not been a SINGLE dull moment... In fact every moment has rocked so gloriusly hard that I've had to start wearing diapers as a result of the intense intestinal vibrations.