Anarchy in Ann Arbor

We had it all planned out perfectly -- we would leave Chicago at 2pm to get into Ann Arbor at 6pm for load-in. Halfway through the trip, one of us happened to look at a cell phone to check the time -- it was an hour later than expected! We forgot to take into account the transition from Central to Eastern time when you leave Illinois!

So, by the time we arrived in Ann Arbor, the first band was already mid-set at the anarchist punk house where the show was being held. The house has been dubbed "Raw Haus" and has a sign on the front porch announcing itself as such.














Six bands were scheduled to play that night. By the time the fourth band went on, it was about 10pm and we were chatting with some locals outside. All of a sudden, a police car rolled up to the house. A nice (and, yes, good-looking) police woman approached and issued the house a noise warning. She could have written a ticket right on the spot, but said she was willing to work with us if we promised to bring the volume down. The fourth band had to be cut short because they were simply too loud. But members of the house, the remaining bands and the audience came together to put up extra sound proofing so that we and the 6th band could still go on.














Even after pillows, blankets and foam were added to all the windows surrounding the performance area, we still had to play our set at half the volume we normally would, and also had to limit our usually frantic onstage movement. Dom later jokingly referred to this as our "jazz set." Perhaps not the best venue for a subdued, polite set, but we still had fun.

After the show, we crashed over at our friend Karen's place -- right next door! While eating some much-needed pizza that we had delivered, we watched a documentary about Karen's band, The Pussy Pirates. They are fantastic -- sort of like early Erase Errata meets the Slits. Check them out!

The next day we had some time to kill, so we did a little sightseeing around Ann Arbor. It's a very quaint college town, and the U. of Michigan campus is quite pretty.














Up next: Cleveland -- the last stop on the first leg of our summer tour!