the end of this chapter

I never bothered to officially put the tour blog to rest... it was such a good idea, right? I just ultimately succumbed to laziness, especially in the last, exhaustive days of the tour. But hey, I'm going to keep this thing around as a resource for future Mr. Invisible news / photos / tour info. When a new post goes up we'll probably alert the fanbase through myspace or something.

As a final thought (at least in the meantime), here's what I wrote on my own website:

"... if you were to ask me to summarize the tour experience, i would tell you, "it's everything." we had packed shows, empty clubs, we slept on floors, we slept in hotels, we loved each other, we couldn't stand to be near each other. it was everything. and now that i can take a step back from the overall picture... it was beautiful. out."

The Mr. Invisible saga is far from over. We've just reached the end of a chapter.

10.10-10.15 Mt. Pleasant, ATL, Houston, ATX, Denton...

The days begin to cascade and there's no way to stay above the fray. It's becoming harder and harder to keep up with all of the whirlwind craziness of this tour but I'm going to try.

This entry begins in Mt. Pleasant, SC where an unexpected (and unsuspecting) crowd were treated to One-Self, Mr. Invisible and Soul Rebel at the Village Tavern. The night began with a trivia contest, and the People's Elbow (aka Mr. Invisible plus BluRum13, an unstoppable intellectual powerhouse) narrowly lost the contest to a local defending champion. Here's a group photo of the mental giants.

From left to right: ill-use, Aswell, BluRum13 and Jason. Jason, notably, is the only one without a rapper name in this photo. J-Swan? We stayed that night at Curfew's place, nestled in the backwoods of SC. Here's a picture of his place, if only because I like the photo.

Our next show took us to Hotlanta (ATL shawty!) where we rocked the Drunken Unicorn along with Psyche Origami (big shoutout on behalf of the rest of our tour) who ripped for an animated and dedicated local following. Somehow the only picture I took the entire time we were in Atlanta was of my friend Sara, who hosted a dinner party (which we happily crashed) and put me up for the night.

We had a day off between Atlanta and Houston; we stayed in a hotel right outside of Mobile, Alabama to split the 12-hour difference. A long drive for four guys with nothing to think about except hip-hop and... food.

This next picture needs no caption except: "Flying-J Travel Stop, Alabama."

The drive to Houston took right above New Orleans, and we meditated on the Katrina tragedy for a good bit of time on the road. We're not really sure why Mapquest elected to take us ABOVE NoLa rather than through it, if it was by convention or by design, but our time and scheduling didn't allow for us to see the city.

The venue in Houston was called The Mink, and it was situated above a restaurant and bar. When we got there were totally exhausted from the drive but we tried our best to rock it.



Houston locals most definitely repped their set - peace to Brainchild and the rest of the b-boys that showed out to support the scene. We also need to shout out Daniel C., who put the four of us up for the night in his apartment.

Now it's on to Austin (ATX) and Emo's Jr. What can I say? Austin is crazy. In the best possible way. We saw it all. I'm not afraid to say it was One Self's best reception thus far, and they put their fists up for Mr. Invisible even though they had never seen us before.





One Self ripped in front of a crowd that was very, very eager to see them. The streets of Austin post-show were just as interesting as what had happened inside... we saw it all. Ice grills, all manner of tricked-out trucks, soundsystems, ground-effects, lifts, lowering, screwed-and-chopped everything, empty NyQuil bottles, and many, many U of T kids. A big shout is in order for Rodrigo, who let us four Mr. I guys crash at his apartment right off of the U of Texas campus. "What would you do..."

We left Austin around 3 today after doing a much-needed load of laundry. Here is an amazing video of ill-use and Aswell at a Dairy Queen somewhere in Texas. The floors were slick, and I couldn't resist documenting the event.


Tonight's show, which is about an hour away, is here in Denton, TX (near Dallas, I understand) at this beautiful venue called Hailey's. Nice and open, gorgeous lighting, and a rather amazing selection of beers on tap. We hope this is one of the good ones; we're kind of on a roll. OK, peace until later, and stay tuned!

D.C. delivers, Chapel kills...

... after Philly phlopped. Sunday's show in D.C. was a rolling success. After searching neighborhood backstreets for a few hours or so we found the Rock and Roll Hotel, a venue which, at only one month old, is still a newborn to the area. It didn't seem like that when we got there. Downstairs is a big standing-room-only hall with a bar lining the left side and a raised stage, but upstairs is the real experience. Apparently the venue is a converted hotel, so the upstairs hallway is lined with all of these rooms that were decorated thematically: the Presidential suite, the Valentine room, etc., but all with the soul of a music venue. The Presidential suite, for example, was lined with furniture appropriate for the White House, but on the wall are inauguration photos with faces of rockers pasted onto the Presidential heads... like Ace Frehley as Nixon during his "I am not a crook" speech. Awesome. Here are some photos:






The crowd was about 50 deep and showed love for Mr. I. We also need to give a HUGE shoutout to the bartenders and employees of the Rock and Roll Hotel - these guys were exceptionally hospitable to all of the artists involved and some even ducked out from behind the bar to purchase our CDs from the merch table. It seems like it's increasingly rare to find actual fans of music working at music venues, so this was a welcome surprise. The venue ended on an unexpected note - I played a few records while One-Self politicked with the crowd after the show and eventually the hang devolved into a full-out dance party. Hells yes.

I'm going to take a little detour here to tell you a story about Scott Blackwood. If you remember from the last entry, Scott got a speeding ticket almost immediately after we got in the road on the way to our very first show in Philadelphia. In Washington, D.C., we had a hard time finding the venue and we pulled into a CVS to ask for directions. Scott had just put his cell phone in his lap. He opened the door and stepped out of the car. His phone left his lap, fell onto the pavement, slid downhill for three or four feet, and fell into a drain. BLOOSH. It had been raining for like four hours before we got there. Hopeless. Mind you, this was the only drain in the entire vast wasteland of the CVS parking lot. Here is a portrait that dramatically recreates the despair of that moment:



Scott's OK. I feel bad for the dude though.

Seez Mics of Educated Consumers hooked us up with a place to sleep for the night and we slept hard. Woke up late, got sandwiches and coffee and the "Ray Sings, Basie Swings" CD and rocked it on the drive toward Charlotte. And that drive wore us OUT, son. By the time we got home we were all about ready to pass out... but we were greeted by the Blackwoods and chicken and dumplings. Instant redemption. We took another few hours in Mt. Holly to remaster one of the live beats and finally split off to sleep at our homes.

10-09 - Chapel-Chill son. Our show last night in Monday went down at the Local 506 on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel-Hill and it was probably our strongest yet. The bar came through and took care of us, and the sound in the venue was nicely balanced - projected a good vibe for everybody, and the lighting was dope.



I need to give a shout to Matt I and Erin W who put school on hold to come hang out at the show, and Scott I, who let me and Jason stay at his place in Raleigh. Scott took a grip of pictures at the Chapel-Hill show, so hopefully some of those will end up here.

Tonight's show is in Atlanta (SHAWTY!) home of Criminal Records and the Potassium Slappium. I'm skipping a recap of the the Mt. Pleasant SC show just because we have to soundcheck right now and I don't have time.

We are having fun. For real.

10.06, Philadelphia: First show...

Update, coming to you at Seez Mic's crib, just a short drive from D.C...

We left Charlotte for Philadelphia at around 7 in the AM, and almost immediately Scott got hit with a speeding ticket like BLOOSH. Awesome. Here's Blake chilling in the car while the citation was being issued. If you look carefully you can see Superman zipping by right outside our window.



Things went smoothly until we hit CRAZY traffic outside of Philly and our 8-hour trip turned into a 12-hour venture. We got to the North Star Bar right at 7, and chilled for a bit while waiting for our soundman. The show itself went off well, despite an under-promoted billing and a scant crowd. The venue itself was dope - a cozy, well-designed bar next door to a full-size concert partition with a raised stage and mezzanine. The pic below is the view from the stage... beautiful.



Soul Rebel, Icon the Mic King, Mr. I and One-Self rocked just the same, playing to a crowd of 15 like they were 150 strong. Some local Phillies talked to us after the show and gave us props, assuring us that the exceptionally-thin crowd was partly due to the rain. So hopefully it will get better. Justin looks optimistic:



Tonight's show goes down at the Rock and Roll Hotel here in D.C.... expect an update soon!

- Marley

things to come...

This is the spot for updates, photos, video, diaries, and other info from and relating to the Mr. Invisible tour with DJ Vadim and One Self.

We will try to update this thing as often as possible on the road, but (naturally) we might be limited by the availability of Wi-Fi in whatever borough we are rocking that particular day. So stay tuned, and stand up!