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Entry Eight: a summary of events from August 1 through August 14, 2004 (although most pictures are from our trip to Disney at a later point in the tour)

Dearest Tour Diary,

The rock would not stop. The rock would not stop not even for the few days where we enjoyed the peacefulness of home. On August 3, we played our first club show. We were reunited with Ernie. It was so awesome to rock with him again. So awesome that we totally destroyed Cambridge's Middle East with our wizard rock and the help of regular muggle rock from the Shenzou 5 and the Minders. Muggles rock just as hard as wizards. Sometimes harder.

We had pretty much sold out of T-shirts during July. So I called up the proletariat that is my friends, and we began crafting new garments for wizard and muggle rockers alike. Thanks again, Amanda, Kalie, Laura, Courtney, and Lauren! You are the best working class ever!

Paul took some class while we were home. I don't know what it was about. I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with rocking though. I hope he doesn't turn into the man.

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The Carousel of Progress is a boring ride. Almost as boring as summer without Harry and the Pottetrs!

We went to Curiosa during our brief stay at home. Interpol and the Rapture opened for the Cure. It was a killer line up. Interpol was totally awesome. They are very rocking.

We spent a day teaching Andrew our songs. He will be drumming for us this August. Then we held a last minute rock show in Ed's Shed. It was a party. Ed in the Refridgerators opened for Harry and the Potters. It was a lot of rocking. The proletariat returned, this time to help bathe the Potter Mobile. Many bugs we washed from the front of our Rock Transport Device.

This is Andrew ------->>>

That night, we packed the Potter Mobile for yet another trek. The next day we would venture southward into land uncharted by wizard rockers. It was an exciting feeling that night to know that once again we would be able to take the nation by storm and to help wizards and muggles rock together in harmony.

The first day of this second leg of our tour was a hardship for us. New York and New Jersey seemingly devoured the Potter Mobile in endless traffic. It took 3 hours to move about 10 miles. It was not a pretty sight. And on top of all this, Paul had eaten a bunch of Doritos and was on the verge of covering the whole car in a chunky, nachoey paste. The tension built and built, and we kicked each other out of the band about five times. We took a wrong exit and had to cheat the Pennsylvania Turnpike system to get back on track. We successfully beat the system, but were two hours late for the show. We expected to arrive at a library swarming with angry book-rockers ready to force those Doritos straight out of Paul's digestive system and all over Norristown, Pennsylvania like a human fountain of some sort.

But our imaginations were falsely exaggerating the situation at hand. The crowd was forgiving and quite a few had stayed to witness the wizard rock despite the tardiness of our arrival. It was indeed a rocking show. Thanks Lisa and Gina for putting the rock in Norristown!

That night we hung out with our cousin, Matt. We got some cheese steaks to munch on and we played some violent video game where Paul got to be a dinosaur. We fell asleep as The Meaning of Life danced across the television screen.

The next day we ventured towards Williamsburg, Virginia. Two nights earlier we had booked a show in this olde towne. AOV called us up and asked us to rock their DIY show. Needless to say, it was rocked.

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Tomorrowland is very different from Williamsburg

The show began with a sweet acoustic medley of sounds, and was promptly followed by a rock heavy performance by Ed in the Refridgerators. Whatever and whoever was not rocked by Ed in the Refridgerators was soon overcome by explosive wizard rock. Much dancing ensued and I rocked my shoes off during the Angry Song, and it looked like after the show the very walls of the temporary rock hall were shaken by the sheer level of nuclear fallout coming out of our amplifiers. AOV concluded the night with more rock and more house shaking sounds.

After the show we partied with some new friends. We went out to IHOP for dinner, and since it was Andrew's birthday, the IHOP staff gave him a free sundae! They even sang to him! It was a really special day for Andrew. They had given him some of the worst broccoli in history for his dinner. You should have seen it. Andrew said it was the kind of broccoli that grows in toilets. He later comments, "the only outstanding thing I can remember from my birthday was my dissatisfaction with the broccoli. The sundae was good too."

That night our new friend, Coleman, offered to house us and there was a big party in his living room before everyone fell asleep. The Bad Pixies played some Pixies songs poorly, and there were a few Harry and the Potters songs that were not rocked at the show that night that were sounded throughout Coleman's living room. Then we slept until we woke up.

When we woke up, we drove to Rockville, Maryland. With time to spare, we arrived in the town named after the activity we like best. We entered an Asian Market and looked at the products for sale: fish balls, squid candy, grass jelly, and all sorts of fun stuff. We ate some Thai food for lunch and then prepared to rock Rockville.

We began to rock at our fullest for we figured that Rockville, with such a name, would be prepared for it. Most everyone was enjoying the rock except for a few librarians and their hired heckling clowns. We were advised to turn down or else the rock would be stopped altogether.

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Rockville was not prepared for us to rock this hard.

We turned down a bit, but it was not enough for the librarians and their clowns who later thanked us for "taking everyone back to the 60's with that loud music." I guess the 60's were the last time they heard music. As the set continued there were more threats to stop the rock and it was getting ugly. We placated the anti-rock librarians by playing a maliciously acoustic version of "the Missing Arm of Viktor Krum" and then a rousing version of "Stick it to Delores" during which we mentally replaced "Umbridge" with "evil librarians." Then we totally stuck it to these clowns by playing a killer version of "The Weapon." We turned up all the way and the library was shaken as our message of love poured into the hearts of all who desired such a message.

Number of Shows: 35
Number of Irate Librarians in Rockville: At least 3

- Joe 08.18.04