Editor’s Note: J. Tom Hnatow from These United States is writing a tour diary for DCist chronicling the band’s latest national tour.

July 26, 2007

We wake up, get ready, and go right back into rehearsing. Jason and Robby are champs…we’re throwing songs and ideas at them left and right, and they’re doing a great job of learning the material. Jesse and I are really lucky to know so many phenomenal musicians.

At the level that we’re at as a band, one of the more interesting aspects about touring is the quality of venues we play. It spans from pristine rooms like the 930 room (in Louisville) to…the Rock Room in Pittsburgh. It defines the term “dive bar”. By the time we arrive, the unmoving air is filled with nearly impenetrable cigarette smoke. They move the pool table for us and we set up the PA (no sound person) under a dirty air conditioner spitting water on the floor. There is no door person and no cover — we set up a tip jar. Despite the situation, we have a fun show. However, it does remind me that we still haven’t quite cracked Pittsburgh…maybe next time.

After the show, we set off for an all night drive to Rochester. While the patrons of the Rock Room party into the night, we drive. Trucks and fellow wanderers keep us company as we roll through the sleeping countryside. One of my favorite parts of traveling is these kind of drives — they sum up perfectly the intense feelings of solitude and movement that being a musician entails. We arrive in Rochester just as the sun is burning off the low hanging mist, and, as the rest of the town gets ready for work, we groggily pile into my brother’s apartment for a few hours of sleep.