Oh yeah! It’s on. The Frontalot touring machine is back in full swing for a fall jaunt around the northeast quarter of the glorious US of A. Presently greasing the wheels at the world-famous Sturgenius‘s musical fortress in Holyoke, we are prepping for tonight’s debut gig at the legendary Iron Horse in Northampton. But lo! We did not simply materialize here. An epic journey preceded our arrival – a journey which I will now recount to you in harrowing, blood-curdling detail.
It all began in Phoenix at the annual Kingdom of Loathing convention, at which players from all over the globe convene to celebrate a game comprised of stick figures and textual descriptions of booze. Sound unbelievably addictive? It is. I suggest you try it. While not attending various and sundry pool parties, we whiled away the extremely hot hours by avoiding the outdoors. To wit: Sturgis and I got our leadfoot on at the F1 Race Factory, where I outpaced a regular by a hissy-fit-inducing 0.003 seconds. We also ventured out to Organ Stop Pizza, a truly spectacular location where the food is outshone by 
the Vegas lights, dancing cat puppets and elaborate calliope organ antics. In keeping with my epic day of success, I also managed to get to level 30 on the Galaga machine.
The show itself was an excellent time, and featured the musical antics of local Phoenix band Black Carl, the elusive Minibosses, Freezepop and, of course, us. Black Carl’s lead singer Emma Pew was even kind enough to lend her truly exceptional vocals to the debut live performance of the KoL theme song. A more receptive audience for that song could literally not be found anywhere else. Good times! Three cheers for Zack, Josh, Kevin and the rest of the KoL crew for treating us like royalty. After two more days relaxing in our heavily air-conditioned rental house, we flew off to Austin to attend FantasticFest.
We were once again housed and fed by the lovely & generous Adam and Cindy Anderson. What a tremendously awesome couple! Adam took us on a shopping trip to Central Market, which for a foodie like me was akin to a child going to Disney World. Holy produce selection, Batman! That place outshines any grocery store I have ever been to in my life, including places like Whole Foods. If you’re in Austin, you have to go there, if only to buy one of 
the hundreds of different cheeses they offer.
Since FantasticFest is a film festival, it only made sense that we saw some films. First up was Catfish, a “documentary” about a guy who gets into a relationship on Facebook and proceeds to find out that (gasp!) not everyone is who they seem. Lots of people seem to love it; I found the lead character’s personality unsympathetic and teeth a bit too white. The main event was the world premiere of “Let Me In,” the American remake of “Let the Right One In.” Much ado was made, as the director and cast were in attendance. We also had to drink green vials of anti-monster syrum. I wish I had drank a vial of forgetfulness syrum, because I couldn’t help comparing the remake to the original. “Let Me In” is certainly an excellent film, but lacks the less-is-more creep factor of its predecessor.
But honestly: who cares about my opinion on films? I’m writing about music. And it was music we played for the crowd the FantasticFest opening party, held in the always-awesome Highball Lounge. We were the only act, on at 
midnight, and rocked the crowd for about 45 minutes as balloons were bandied about and booties were shaken. Many familiar faces were seen and some were missed. Eric & Stefan, where were you? Then we joined the crowd and danced the rest of the night away, taking frequent breaks to play sweet games at the Fantastic Arcade. Favorites included challenging platformer Super Meat Boy and the hyper-addictive Trials HD. A loud and sincere thanks to Tim League and the FantasticFest crew for taking superb care of us and making us part of this, uh, fantastic event. Rock!
The following morning we hopped on a plane to Hartford, which brings us to the present moment. For those of you not familiar with storytelling terminology, I started this blog entry in medias res, a technique also employed by “Let Me In.” Dammit! Was that a spoiler? I’ve been hanging out with Front for too long. But you, reader, I have not seen enough of. Come to the show tonight so that we may meet at last! We go on at 10pm.
Reading your tour diary entries makes my day :)
Mom Wa and Shadow