We Are The Union – 5th ROAD BLOG from their Summer Tour With I Call Fives

The punk/ska band, We Are The Union, from the Detriot, MI area is currently on their summer tour with I Call Fives, Handguns and The Story So Far. On this tour, the band will be writing periodic updates for your reading pleasure. The fifth of those updates is available after the break.

Saturday, June 25th
Kalamazoo, MI
Day 16

This was a house show that got pretty ridiculous. We didn’t start our set until midnight and it was pretty much just a raging party by that point. It ruled.
After we played, a bunch of us piled in a car and drove to Qdoba for late night burritos. Always a wise decision.
Once we finally loaded our gear out of the basement, we drove to our trombone player Barney’s place outside of Chicago to sleep.

Sunday, June 26th
Barrington, IL
Day 17

Today was my birthday!
We woke up and grilled a ton of food to start the day. Vegan chicago dogs rule.
After we ate, we hopped in the van and set out for Barrington. When we got to the venue, there was a battle of the bands happening upstairs. I was really confused until I realized we were playing downstairs and this battle of the bands had nothing to do with our show.
This show ended up being a really good one. The crowd seemed equally stoked on us, Handguns and I Call Fives. That was fairly awesome.
We, of course, went back to Barney’s and grilled more to finish the night. There was also delicious vegan red velvet cake courtesy of Barney’s mom.

Monday, June 27th
Off day
Day 18

This was the first official off day of the tour.
We got up around 1 and headed to Sultan’s. Sultan’s is the place to go for falafel in Chicago. It’s cheap and tasty.
We spent most of the day walking around Chicago. Some of the guys split off for a bit to ride bikes around.
We ended up at a place called Moody’s for sangria pitchers and hangs, then headed to Whole Foods to get more stuff to grill. We’re monsters. We headed back to Barney’s and grilled. Again. It ruled.

Tuesday, June 28th
La Crosse, WI
Day 19

We started the short drive to La Crosse by finding out we had blown a fuse and our turn signals and flashers were no longer working. After replacing the fuse three times to no avail, we decided to just get to La Crosse and we’d deal with it there.
We were super late because of the fuse situation, so we just loaded in our instruments and used I Call Fives’ amps. Those dudes are rad for letting us use their gear.
The show was awesome! The crowd consisted of mostly people who had never heard of us, but had heard we were a ska-punk band and came to check us out. We got a great reaction!
Toward the end of our set, I, like an idiot, fell and totally smashed two of the tuning pegs off my guitar. My arm has a noticeable bump on it and it’s kinda swollen. It doesn’t hurt too much though, so I think it’ll be okay.
By the way, if anybody out there has video of that, please send it to us.
After our set, I found a local food co-op and got an awesome tofu sandwich.
Once the show was over and we had loaded out, all three bands headed for a slumber party in St Paul.

Reed
We Are The Union