Dylan Gilbert
@ New Brookland Tavern
Thursday, October 21
Dylan Gilbert & The Over Easy Breakfast Machine 2010 Summer Tour Diary – Part 2
Day 6 – July 12th – DAY OFF in Virginia Beach
After a party with our friends in Virginia Beach we awoke to a house full of people, but Dirty Carl was missing! After searching through the whole house we checked outside. It was scorching outside but I noticed that The Strom Trooper’s windows were all open. We found Carl curled up in the back seat.
Dylan: “What are you doing it’s like a hundred degrees out here?!”
Carl: “Nah, it’s cool I’ve got a nice cross breeze going”
The remainder of the day was spent eating breakfast, swimming at the beach and playing putt-putt. That evening we planned to take the China Town Bus from Norfolk to New York City. A couple of friends in Virginia Beach had told us that it was super cheep but it leaves for New York at midnight. We took a taxi to what we thought would be some sort of bus terminal but turned out to be a relatively sketchy Chinese Restaurant. Eventually a huge bus pulled up and we pilled in. The bus was packed. Not an empty seat on it and right around midnight we embarked on the most uncomfortable ride of my life. The bus shook and the seats were upright. It was almost impossible to sleep and if you did fall asleep you’d be woken up in just a few minuets.
Day 7 – July 13th – Spike Hill in Brooklyn, New York
I woke up the final time with the sun. You could the New York City skyline of in the distance. We were dropped off in China Town at 6 am and after being momentarily lost we found our way to subway station and took the train out to Brooklyn where our buddy Gordon was letting us stay.
We stayed in his basement and there were no windows and it was glorious. We all went back to sleep until around 1 pm and headed to Williamsburg to eat vegan pizza and find Spike Hill. We played early and the bill had about 5 bands on it. Our bartender was from Ireland and he was awesome. He kept us laughing all night long.
Day 8th – July 14th – Crash Mansion in Manhattan, New York
The next morning we all felt more caught up on our sleep and explored Manhattan all day riding taxi’s, seeing time square and eating (more) pizza. Later in the day we found Crash Mansion, which was a lot different than Spike Hill. It was bigger and seemed newer as well. There was a bigger crowed and we played with a dance band from New Jersey who’s drummer looked just like B.J. Novak (seriously).
After the show we made friends with a couple of girls who invited us to The Living Room for drinks (which are incredibly expensive in New York for those of you who’ve never been there) and then back to their apartment building. We climbed the stairs all the way up to their rooftop and hung out up there. You could see the skyline of downtown and the Brooklyn bridge from their rooftop. It was one of the best nights of the entire tour. We sang and played guitar until well past 4 am and then took the train back to Gordon’s.
Day 9 – July 15th – DAY OFF (From New York to Maryland to Virginia)
BAD NEWS COMES IN THREES
Part 1
The next morning we said our goodbyes to Gordon and headed to the bus stop around 5 pm where to China Town Bus would take us back to Virginia Beach where we’d left The Storm Trooper and a good bit of our stuff as well. Around this time the swelling in my right foot had started to go down and soon I wouldn’t need to use my cane anymore. (I used it to hobble around New York for three days). But while we were on the bus I noticed that there was a sharp pain in my LEFT foot. As it turns out at Crash Mansion when I jumped off the stage I twisted my LEFT foot. So now I have two sprained ankles that are swollen well above their normal size and I could barely walk at all without the aid of one of the other guys. I should probably go out and buy a lottery ticket, right?
Part 2
We’d been on the bus for a few hours and the ride was much more enjoyable because the ride back was mostly during the day and early evening. We estimated that we’d be back in Virginia Beach around 12:30 am and could stay at one of our friends’ houses, but around ten o’clock the bus pulled over. Without a word the bus driver pulled the bus over to the side of the highway, grabbed a flashlight and a box of tools and got off the bus. He stayed outside for around 15 min. and the people on the bus started to get restless to say the least. One woman finally shouted “Can you tell us what the hell is goin’ on cuz this s*** is ree-dic-o-lus!”. The driver turned to all of us and said “It’s the transmission, ok!”
Carl pulls out his ticket and pointed to the print at the bottom.
Carl: “Oh look it says it right here in the fine print. “We’re F***ed!”
Word eventually got back to us that we were in Maryland and that a bus that would be coming back from New York at midnight would come by and pick us up and take us on to Virginia Beach which would take about 6 hours. To bide the time my, john, carl and zach got off the bus and met a few of the other younger bus riders outside. We were in the middle of nowhere. Nothing in sight but open fields and one lone gas station that seemed to be in walking distance. We decided it would be a good idea to walk there buy a few drinks and try to make the best out of our situation. We met some very interesting people on that bus and one (who was an Army guy) invited us to stay at his house when we got back to Virginia Beach. The rest of the night is a blur.
Day 10 – July 16th – The Nightlight in Chapel Hill, NC
Part 3
I woke up in the flooded apartment of our new Army friend (I wish I could remember his name) and hung out with Smooth (by far the sweetest dog we met on tour) and rode in a taxi to an army base where his car was and then finally back to The Storm Trooper. We stopped at a gas station and stocked up on Vitamin Water (our tour drink of choice) and started heading towards the highway. We were all thankful that the broke down bus situation was past and we were heading back to North Carolina. We were riding down a four lane road and I was driving. Up ahead the road forked off in two directions with two lanes going in either direction. We were riding down the third lane from the left and I noticed we needed to merge left one lane so that we would be on the ramp that lead to NC. I turn on my left turn signal and started to look in my mirror when – BAM! – before Id even started to merge a jeep type vehicle with large wheels came around the front of us from the left side heading to the right side ramp. They clipped the front drivers side wheel and started flipping! This vehicle flipped at least seven times. This was one of the scariest moments in my life. Everything felt like it was in slow motion and silent until the other car finally slid to a stop on it’s side. We all jumped out of the car and ran across the car parts, blood and shattered glass that was littered across the highway. Finally we saw two young girls, about 16 years old I’d say, crawl out of the sun roof crying and screaming. Besides a couple of seriously bad cuts, bleeding and being badly beat up the girls miraculously seemed to be alright. The next hour was like a dream. A big blur of police interviews, testimonies, phone calls, emergency vehicle lights all around, dozens of people running to help the girls into ambulances and another group cleaning up the highway. Before we knew it everyone was gone. We were the last ones standing on the side of the perfectly swept up road. You’d be hard pressed to even notice there had even been an accident. The Storm Trooper only had one small scratch on her where the impact had been so we decided that it would be best to continue with our day and go ahead and drive to our next show. (We found out later that both girls were fine and after a brief hospital visit and some physical therapy would be back to normal.)
We slowly drove through Virginia to Chapel Hill. We were all jarred from the experience, but eventually made it to The Nightlight. Some friends from back home came, we met some cool bands and made some new friends, but were all still pretty focused on what had happened earlier that day. Also this was Dirty Carl’s last day on tour with us and we were all sad to see him and his magic beard go.
Day 11 – July 17th – The Green Bean in Greensboro, NC
The last day of the first half of the tour was a very much need quite one. It was a rainy day and most of it was spent cruising around Greensboro or hanging out in the venue/coffee shop The Green Bean where we would be playing that night. We played with our good friends The Old One Two and Matty Sheets. The show was a lot of fun, but we hurried out of the venue to get home that night to sleep in our own beds for two nights!
“we are super magic men
we stay up till 5 am
though we’re bound by shaman law
what goes on tour stays on tour”
– Board of the Shaman (The Mighty Boosh)
To Be Continued….

