Kicking off 2004, we ventured out to the Elbow Room in Ypsilanti. We were opening for NYC rockers Daughter and a last minute addition found Canadian rockers the Vagiants on the bill. What a surprise they were, a kick ass rock n' roll band fronted by an outrageous front woman. We hope to play with them again soon. We always love an Elbow Room show and this night was no exception. The venue filled up quickly with some of our favorite Ypsi town folk. Of course, a gig at the Elbow Room would not be complete without a trip down the street to the Tap Room for some burgers. Thanks to Leighton and the Elbow Room crew for an always fantastic time.

Once again, we took the winter opportunity to settle in to our rehearsal room for some time to write. We worked vigorously throughout the month to lay down some hard core rock n' roll tracks but made sure to squeeze in a few live gigs to heat up the bitter cold winter season.

So It's January 23 and we're on our way out to Mt. Pleasant for another stop at Rubbles. Rubbles is a great bar located near the campus of CMU, it's where all the cool kids hang! We set off for what would normally be a two and a half hour drive and were immediately hounded by ridiculuous weather and bad driving conditions. Stuck in the middle of Detroit rush hour traffic and snow coming down so thick you could barely see two feet in front of you, we trudged through the sleet and snow like the super troopers we are! It's 9 p.m., we've been driving for over 3 hours now and we've barely made it to Lansing with still another hour and a half of normal driving to go, we call the venue and alert them of our driving woes. They're understanding and wish us a safe drive. Finally, five hours from the time we set off, we pull up to Rubbles where we find our friends in the band Forge have just arrived as well. Of course, up there in md-michigan, they weren't getting the horrendous amount of snow as the lower region was so the driving was much better there.

Forge rushes in and immediately takes the stage, the venue is full and gets a grappling of metal from the boys who are back with their old drummer Greg for the first time in a year. Greg rocks, Forge rocks and their new album smokes! We finally make our way to the stage and unleash a fury of pent up road rage aggression. It was a blast. Afterwards, we hung out with our pals in Forge, some of the town folk and then made our way over to the Burger Chef for some 3 a.m. grub.

We enjoy our smart choice of laying low during the winter months and work on more new material. There's now way we could stomach another agonizing road trip with weather like that. The basement has never looked so good! See you next month.