Everything I know about Baltimore, I learned on Felix Tandem’s last trip there. (I did not see The Wire or Hairspray despite a five-year career as a newspaperman and a three-year career as a high school theatre actor.) That said: I like what I’ve learned! Our last tour included a stop at Zissimos Bar in the Hampden neighborhood, a particularly charming part of the Charm City, and we were disappointed not to get a local show on the books before we headed out on tour.
The operative phrase there is “before we headed out on tour.” By a Maryland Miracle, Max got a message after we’d already hit the road that members of the local band Terrain had pulled together a show for us. The venue? Zissimos Bar in the Hampden neighborhood. We are so appreciative of Terrain and all the other bands we’ve played with on tour!
Felix Tandem Tour Fact for True Fans #11: Felix Tandem had originally planned to have a day off in Washington, D.C., so band scribe Cole Villena didn’t budget time to blog about their time there even though they ended up playing an impromptu house show. He spent most of the day on a series of adventures including trips to several museums, a remote work meeting, four train rides, five-ish miles of cycling, a reunion with yet another college friend, the return of the “No shit. Fugazi?!” lady from last tour, and a conversation about sea shanties with Brendan, the drummer from Fugazi (no shit).
All of that is to say that the band left for Baltimore from D.C., not Richmond, and Cole is sorry there’s no blog for our time in the nation’s capital. He is very grateful to our hosts, Gavin and Tracy, and to everyone who attended our little house show in Chevy Chase.
dogs
floor dog
hungry dog
no shit fugazi dog
dawgs
The drive to Baltimore wasn’t that long, but constant stop-start traffic made it quite unpleasant. We arrived in Hampden in the mid afternoon and employed an innovative strategy to explore parts of the neighborhood we’d missed on our previous visit. (We walked down the street the opposite direction we had last time.) I enjoyed some Mr. Trash Wheel-themed ice cream and tried on some sweaters that didn’t quite fit right before our dinner at The Food Market. We originally didn’t intend to have such a ritzy meal but decided to treat ourselves after a string of successful shows. The star of the show here was the crispy Brussels sprout dish, topped with bacon, parmesan, pickled red onion, caesar dressing. My very Maryland-y cream of crab soup was delicious, too.
Hats
Food
Hat
It was strangely nostalgic to load in at Zissimos, and Max even got to solve a mystery that had plagued us since our last gig there: What in the world was the song the sound guy played when we were packing up our gear last time? It’s one of the weirdest songs I’ve ever heard, and Max once described it by saying “it starts with a WOOOOOW synthy voice and then a very wet groovy grooby bassline comes in.” In a fabulous stroke of luck, the same person who ran sound at our previous gig was on duty this time around and informed us it was “Tiny Face” by Tipper. I encourage you to check this deeply strange song out. He also played “Ergen Deda,” a traditional Bulgarian song my friends performed in high school choir, as we were packing our stuff up later. He wasn’t fazed by the fact that I recognized this fairly obscure song. I was fazed by his whole deal.
Early American kicked off the night with some shoegazey indie rock topped with a healthy portion of ambient fuzziness. Next up was Startist, a band I think all of us agree was one of our favorites from this entire tour. They’ve got a math rock influenced sound that’s tuneful rather than needlessly showy, and I especially enjoyed watching Will on the bass. It’s so fun to see someone playing your instrument so skillfully and so differently — and I also appreciated him letting me use his bass amp during our set.
Terrain
Early American
Startist
I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather due to the rapidly changing weather, and this gig was the first time I felt comfortable singing throughout the whole set. I think we sounded pretty good, even if we had a few issues hearing each other onstage. A few weeks ago, this might have been more of a problem, but we feel very well-rehearsed and confident this deep into our tour. “No Man’s Land” in particular keeps getting better and better.
Terrain played a two-man set of high-energy prog punk and kept the energy high even late into a Tuesday night. It was during their set that I noticed a person using computer-aided design software from a table in the back of the venue, seemingly to design a 3D model of a whistle. I have never seen anyone do this at a rock show before and am still somewhat baffled.
We said goodbye to our bill mates — and Evan, a very old friend of Max’s who very kindly came to our show on a weeknight — before heading to Feed the Scene, a nonprofit that provides lodging for touring bands. It’s a really cool idea, and I’m somewhat shocked we don’t have something like it in Nashville. It was a perfect place to recharge for the last push of tour, and I’m grateful for host Rachel’s hospitality.
Feed the Scene
do u know what time it is
this guy!!
