Catching Up! written by Courtney

We are way past the Redwoods now. We have since played San Francisco, Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Minneapolis, and Red Wing....I am sitting at Indie Coffee where our show is in Madison, Wi relaxing. We have been having a great time so far.

The Makeout Room (San Francisco, CA)
San Francisco was fanatastic. My friend Charles Gonzales played with us at The Makeout Room. What a beautiful venue...they even have a red velevt curtain that is behind you while you play. I highly recommend this venue if you are looking for a place to play in SF. We love that part of the country. The people were really receptive and I saw some old classmates from Interlochen Arts Academy who I haven't seen in over 10 years! All of the staff at the club were so nice to us and really liked our music. We look forward to playing there again and hopefully a few other places while we were in town.

The Hotel Cafe (Los Angeles, CA)
This is a great listening room. It reminds me of the Living Room in NYC because if anyone so much as makes a peep, the staff is quick to shhhhh them. We played to a packed room (15 of which we knew) and they all gave us great cheers after every song. It was so nice to see our friends and family out in LA LA land. We don't get to see them much. My friend Vanessa took us around to flea markets and out to good organic restaurants. I really enjoy the area of silverlake, but I am still very happy that I made my choice to move to NYC instead of LA 6 years ago. It's a different world out there.

Shugas (Colorado Springs, CO)
We love Shuga's! The owner is an ex:New Yorker, so it feels very NYC when you walk in. All the tables are made by our friend Lindsey and paper cranes hang down from the ceiling. Shuga's gave us the most wonderful dinner while we were there. We had a curry chicken salad, spinach salad, and humus with fresh goat cheese...YUM! We played with Lisa Shoenstein. Her duo was awesome and she even made us KaiserCartel commemorative glasses to remember our show! We played an interesting set as we realized once setting up that Ben had left his kick drum pedal in LA at the Hotel Cafe...Bummer! It was fun to reinvent the songs with new drums parts. I added in cymbals during The Flood to make up for the lack of kick drum sound. We sold a lot of cds and people were excited to see the brand new Breakthru Radio EP.

After the show, Lindsay, decided to give us one of her paintings right off the wall of the venue! Unbelievable! We are going to stop by Indiana in the next couple of days to drop it off for fear of the hot car ruining the oil! See the picture.....

Kinfolk (Manitou Springs, CO)
What a great little town! Everyone is soooo friendly. I did yoga in the park in the mountains with our friend and host Xanthe. Xanthe's family owns a Holistic medicine center in town so I endulged in a massage and Xanthe's mom gave me a complimentary introduction to crainial bone movement...she said that I had a blow to the left side of my head in birth. It was completely bizzare as I kept on hearing humming going on and she wasn't doing it...weird!

We played with Xanthe and Jonathan who have an amazing band! Xanthe's voice has incredible power. Plus, Jonathan was ripping the solos. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic when we took to the stage. We had our favorite new cider (Ace Pear which is where we played while in wine country in Cali) during the set. When we finished the set, the audience wanted more, so we played one more song for them. Everyone bought cds and swag. We both look forward to coming back.

Varsity Theater (Minneapolis, MN)
We always love the Varisty! Eric is a great sound man and as usual they treated us in the restaurant that they own down the block. During dinner we listened to some great jazz players! We played the show with our friend Michael Arnold from Revover Modele. When he plays, he plays all the cello parts that Nina Lee (Brentano Quartet) plays. It sounds different, but it's really nice. Behind us, we showed the moving The Boy in the Plastic Bubble which everyone said looked really cool. All the other artists were fantastic and we look forward to coming back in December.

St. James Hotel (Red Wing, MN)
So, some fans that saw us play the Varsity Theater the last two times we were in MN, got in touch with our booking agent Craig after seeing that we were playing in MN on the 13th to inquire if we could play a 60 minute KaiserCartel set at their daughter Jess' wedding. We were totally into the idea but unsure of what it would be like. Craig told them it would be tight as we had the day off to go to my brother's best friend Griffin's wedding in Northfield. We were able to make it work by leaving the wedding in Northfield just after dinner. Red Wing is only 40 miles from Northfield. It was soooo much fun. The hotel was incredible. It is really old and is right on the Mississippi River. Everyone at the wedding loved the music and were constantly dancing. It started with a circle of women and young girls holding hands in a circle swinging their arms. As our set got faster, they really started to get down and did the classic everyone in a circle while someone showed their dancing capability solo in the middle. On top of having a great time, everyone bought cds. Jim (father of the bride who asked us to play) was so pleased to have us there and really enjoyed the show.

The hotel room was beautiful. In the morning, we walked down to the river and watched the train load and unload passengers. When we got back to the hotel, we noticed a pipe organ that was over 100 years old. The manager offered to let me play it and gave me the key. I played "Lying Cats" in the lobby. What a sound! Then we went to the YMCA next door, and worked out since all we have been doing is jumping rope every other stop in order to stay healthy. After that, I went to the local antique store and bought some amazing dishes made in Red Wing, MN in 1960. I had seen this particular pattern before but never a complete set. They have lutes on them. Very cool...I will put a picture on when I get them in NYC.

That is all for now....You can check on Benjamin's blog on www.myspace.com/kaisercartel