...And We're Back

Hey ya'll, it's been a while. This is the first post in over a month. And before that you may have noticed there wasn't anything really Verona Red related since November.

Why you ask?

Well, 2011 was a whacky year (1 new record, 3 tours, 10 SXSW shows, our first Summergasm, and a whole bunch of stuff (Doritos) I don't remember anymore).

A vacation was in order, so that's exactly what we did. It's the first one we've ever taken, so we used the opportunity to do all things we've missed out on like...

Throwing back a few Green Rivers

Wearing Christmas sweaters

Visiting New Orleans

Indulging ourselves

Wearing socks

Getting felt up at a wedding

Hanging out with the guy from the Men's Warehouse commercials (back of head with the bald spot)

Beer-festing

Growing mullets

And most importantly... writing new music... okay so I guess it wasn't really a full-on vacation...

Anyway, it's good to be back in the swing of Verona Red things. We're feeling cheery and well-rested, and hoping you are all doing well too. Thank you for coming back. We missed you.

We've got some big announcements in the next few days, so keep your eyes affixed to this page please.

SXSW 2011 Recalled Kind Of

Today I woke up in my bed.  It was the second time since returning home from SXSW. I've been thinking of how to blog about the experience, and came to the conclusion that to write something comprehensive and awesome about the experience would really be impossible...for me anyway.

We played 10 sets in 5 days, at points we were playing 5 shows in less than 24 hours...to say the whole week was a blur would be an understatement.

I read the following blurb on A Continuous Lean just now, and I think they hit the nail on the head.

Resist the temptation to try to come to terms with SXSW logically. These aren’t tax forms you’re dealing with, but 2000 bands, playing in clubs, in tents, on streets, in parks. By design, it reinvents itself every year, and there are countless pathways through the mayhem, all of them leaving you exhilarated and exhausted. You face the assault on your senses and then pick your spots for visceral gratification.

Thus I decided to pick apart a few of the moments that I remember between load-ins, load-outs, line checks, broken strings, drinks, smokes, arguments, nudity, and jump farts; and to simply map out whatever things came to mind in the 15 minutes I gave myself to draw this up.

I apologize to any native Austin residents if I get the scale, direction, or general location of anything on the map below incorrect. Serioulsy people of Austin you are the nicest people I have ever had the chance to generalize...so really sorry if I fucked up your city's layout here.

The number one thing I learned at SXSW was to just take it in. It's going to be stressful, things will run late, you will lose shit in all the madness, and in general, the city doesn't seem to be prepared for it...then again neither were we. But in the end, I can say we learned a lot and we actually came out $8 ahead.

Looking forward to another 9 days of waking up in my bed... but honestly I'm already itching for Pound Tour leg 2!

Reflections: Tour Leg 1

So yeah, many of you have probably been keeping up with our show by show blogging over the past two weeks.  You are probably familiar with many of the stranger things that happened, but hindsight is always 20/20, so i figured it'd be fun to hash through all the things we learned on leg one of our 2011 Pound tour...

I didn't have a ton of time to write this since we are getting ready to leave for SXSW in two days so I may not have covered everything we learned, but here's some initial thoughts.

You can’t order a Coors in Nashville…you have to say Curs.


Dog’s love my balls….there were numerous instances most notably a dog named Caster in Bloomington, IN. He had his head in my crotch to an uncomfortable degree.


Any song about sexy panties is an instant classic.



If you rock hard enough in Nashville someone will give a you a free bag of shrooms on stage… and shout "it's shrooms!" into the mic... in front of everyone.


Driving a 15-person passenger van through NYC is hard.


If someone yells at your for looking at their dick when you walk in the bathroom ignore them...it's likely someone else will smash a bottle on their head for you eventually.


Be nice to NYC bartenders, even if they are rude, they are more likely to give you free drinks


It’s real easy to re-create the video for the Alanis Morrisete classic “Ironic” on your own, all you need is four retarded guys who grew up in the 90's.



Don't stick your finger in a rat cage, it will bite you.

Things fall apart

• Two lost coats
• One broken phone
• One lost phone
• One lost phone charger
• One broken guitar
• One dented computer
• One lost amp footswitch
• Some self respect
• One tire in the Hudson Tunnel NYC
• Rear panel scuffed against FBI vehicle NYC

Don't tell someone from Newport, KY that they live in KY.


Try drinking pickle juice after a shot of Jameson...it kills the burn..so they tell me... I wouldn't drink pickle juice if it cured cancer.


Tony can do amazing things with his ass.  I’ve never heard so many farts from one person in 9 days in my life.  He is also quite inventive.  Jump farting was all the craze on this tour, he invented the phenomenon in a Columbus parking lot where he jump farted Mike for the first time. Not only was I impressed that he could get his ass up to Mike’s face level, but that fact that he timed it so well as he ran by at full speed was equally amazing.


Paddy’s Pub doesn’t exist...saddest thing we learned


People are pretty ok.  We got offered a place to stay almost every night of the tour...coolest thing we learned.

I'm sure there is more than this...but like i said no time right now...so if I think of more I'll be sure to post...for now enjoy this photo MONTAGE!

Verona Red is Playing SXSW!

2011 has been a great year to us so far, with the release of our new record, the completion of our first kickstarter project, our first tour and show in NY, and now an appearance at SXSW! We're really excited to bring our show to Austin, so if you're going to be in town on March 15, head over to the GigMaven Showcase at Emo's at noon. We'll be sharing the showcase stage with Empires another cool Chicago act as well as Gary Lucas, Heaven, The Holidays  and Megafauna to name a few more.

A BIG thank you to everyone who helped make this happen, including MAJOR thanks to our good friends Mike H., Siiri, Blake and Bridget. We couldn't have done this without you! We had a lot of people expressing their wishes that Verona Red head to Texas next week, and some of these were just too funny/cool to not share.

Thanks again everyone, and we hope to see you on March 15!