poughkeepsie.

what an interesting city. actually, i'm not sure if you can even call it a city. most city's businesses aren't closed up at 4pm on a saturday, but maybe that's just what i'm used to being from north jersey. who knows. anyway, this past saturday, i took a road trip with my brother, joey ott and his girlfriend marissa up to poughkeepsie because they were playing a show. we left around 1:30 and it was shit cold from the snowstorm on friday night. it took us about an hour and a half to get there. not suprisingly, there were about 10 people in the place when we got there. i wound up talking to a bunch of kids from some band who were from rhode island and massachussetts. i talked mad shit about the red sox and they probably didn't like it too much. whatever.

anyway, if you think its cold here, its ridiculously colder in upstate new york. poughkeepsie is laden with abandoned buildings and vehicles, weird motels and motor lodges that offer free hbo and room phones. it seems like the kind of place where serial rapists grow on trees. the strangest thing is that about 90% of the businesses were closed in the middle of the afternoon on a saturday. i mean they had the metal gates down and everything. so weird.

the show turned out to be kind of a bumblefuck. we were all under the impression that these guys would be playing on the same stage as the main acts (biohazard & life of agony), which was not the case. apparently this place has 2 or 3 different stages. joey ott was under the impression that he would be using the drum kit from 25 ta life since he was also filling in for their drummer after playing with kincaid. my brother was under the impression that he would be using a guitar cabinet from 25 ta life. neither one of these things happened. thankfully some other band let them use a bass drum.

my brother's head got miked up to the pa and joey ott played a set with kincaid and 25 ta life with only a snare, a bass drum and symbols. amazingly, him and my brother killed it regardless of the shitty circumstances. my brother is always awesome and joey ott is amazing because he makes no expression when he plays the drums. like he's just playing nintendo or something. we also got a free case of beer from rick ta life which ruled. right next door to the venue was a bar called the nuddy irishman, where me and my brother got cheeseburgers that seemed like they were cooked by god himself.

this picture basically sums up the entire trip:



i also got a few of these guys playing:





all in all, if i never saw poughkeepsie again for the rest of my life, i really wouldn't be too bummed.