Road Report: Dead Confederate Head Southeast and Endure 'Toothpick Surgery'

Dead Confederate have just released their new album, 'Sugar,' and are currently finishing up their run with Futurebirds before heading back out on a co-headlining tour with Alberta Cross. The band will be checking in along the way, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road, complete with personal photos and commentary.

In their first entry, frontman Hardy Morris recounts the southeast leg of their U.S. stint, offering mini reviews of the area's best venues. He even talks about the night when he got an earplug stuck so far in his canal that toothpick 'surgery' had to be performed. It was nothing compared to the procedures in their 'Giving It All Away' video, however. Read more about Dead Confederate's adventures after the jump.

BIRMINGHAM, AL - So, following our record release show in Athens last Saturday, the real touring begins. Our first out-of-town date (besides a quick in-store at the lovely Criminal Records in Atlanta) was at the Bottletree in Birmingham, AL. If you're in a touring band and you're not familiar with the Bottletree then you need to get it together. Rarely are you treated this nicely as a musician in the Southeast. There is art wall-to-wall, the folks are insanely nice, the food is stellar, the sound is rad and the backstage is an Airstream trailer park. The show was good; saw old friends, the Futurebirds were great...tour begins...Thanks, Bottletree...

NEW ORLEANS, LA - As much as we have toured across N. America, we have never played a regular show in New Orleans. It seems weird, but it just never happened. We played a festival there a couple years back, and we are playing Voodoo Fest there this year, but never a club show. Sooo, we played at One Eyed Jacks on Wednesday. It's a killer room, if you've never seen it. It's like tiny Fox Theater or something. The show was fun, people stayed out on the town till 5 a.m., of course. I stayed at the hotel and got an earplug stuck so far in my ear that Juan had to do 'surgery' on me with toothpicks to get it out. Sorry, no video of this!

BATON ROUGE - LA - Chelsea's in Baton Rouge is awesome if only for the fact that they give you a 12 oz. ribeye steak for dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right. We had a great night there a couple of years ago on the way to SXSW and Thursday was just as good. Good folks...

HOUSTON, TX - Holy Mangos! We played at Mango's in Houston with Futurebirds and our pals Tax the Wolf. It was Tax the Wolf's record release party, so needless to say it was a crowded, sweaty affair. They brought in lights and were simply great. If you haven't heard them, check 'em out. Oh, and there was a really good taco truck next to the venue selling 2-dollar tacos. Luckily there was a drunk-ass guy behind Jason in line and he said if Jason let him cut in line he'd buy his taco, so...free taco.

AUSTIN, TX - Played a day festival in Austin at the Mohawk. The Mohawk was actually the first venue we ever played in Austin when we went there to make our first record. Austin is kind of like our second home, having spent so much time there recording and SXSW, so of course we had a ball. Saw a lot of Texan friends and the show was great. Thax offered to write and read a poem just before we played, so of course, we obliged... Here it is for you to digest:

'Dead Confederate'

delving
deep into the
rock you're
relieved 'cause
you've been
wondering where
your friends
were-- these
nonsensical
forays into life
are mercifully
brief and
most of
your friends
didn't notice
you were
gone even tho
they're
ecstatic
as always
playing
football with
you in these
cavernous spaces
between nuclei again.

For our encore, we had three local kids (ages 9-12) come on stage and play 'Giving It All Away' with us. If you've seen our video for the song this makes a little more sense. We are playing Dallas, TX tonight with Futurebirds and our pals UME. Should be good....

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