Dear Amanda

Dear Amanda,

We're just writing to let you know that we had a really nice time with you the other week. When you first asked us out we thought we were dreaming, but then we actually went out with you and it was better than we could have imagined. We know you're seeing lots of bands right now, but we hope our time together was as special to you as it was to us.

We love your voice, and your songs, and the way you play piano, and the way you grope Kim while telling a story, and how you eat salad.

You're in Europe now, having a good time with Psycho and the other people who make up your wonderful crew. We'll be mildly stalking you online (blog reading and such) and missing you (but not in a creepy or codependent way.)

We'd love to have another date sometime and we sure you hope meant it when you said we should do it again soon.

Love (from the deepest darkest reaches of the Vermillion soul,)

Zoe and Kim Vermillion



******

Monday August 4th

Up at 6am to the Salt Lake City Airport to fly to LA for our first Amanda Palmer show at the Troubador. Dakota (having been upgraded from merch girl to tour manager) drives across Wyoming by herself, stopping at "Little America" for gas and soft serve ice cream - also to look at the stuffed Emperor Penguin (stuffed as in taxidermy - which reminds me that our new band name is "Taxidermy Penguin.")

At 11am we arrive in LA and find ourselves stranded at the airport because we forgot to arrange a ride and we don't have enough money for a cab. We finally take a shuttle to Julian's house and eat for the first time that day (so hungry, so grumpy.) Tristan comes to pick us up on his birthday and drives us to the Troubador where we get ready for the show.

Amanda makes us nervous and giggly. We like her stockings.

The show is amazing! And we sell a lot of CDs and make new friends and Kim has dinner with the prettiest girl in LA.

We'll be back in LA in November (no venue yet.)

*

Tuesday August 5th

Ringmaster Roger takes us to breakfast at "Urth" and then the airport (he's basically the sweetest thing in the universe.) Julian is a wonderful host and friend as always.

3pm we arrive in Oakland for a day off (minus the flying.) Kim has dinner with Carla and Matthias (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) and Meredith Yayanos (amazing person) and Kate Rannells (art superstar and bestest friend) and Myles "Supper Genius" Boisen.

Salvador (the cat) decides to throw Kim's old phone off the balcony because he's mad that she keeps leaving. The phone breaks in two, but it's ok because Kim has just gotten her new iPhone.

The new band name is "Napalm Marshmallow."



*

Wednesday August 6th

Running errands, shopping for groceries, rehearsing for the show.

5pm we arrive at the Great American Music Hall where fans are already waiting outside. We take a couple pictures with them and then set up. The staff of the Great American are all lovely people who are excited to have us back. What a fantastic venue!

7pm rehearsing with Amanda in the dressing room. We sang Creep with her at the end of the night. Epic-ness.



Our fans have made costumes and have choreographed dance moves for "Organ Donor's March." We love them. Love them!!!

Such a wonderful evening of love and music and fun.

The Great American wants us back! We've wanted to play there for so long and now we've played twice in one year and they want us back again!

We're calling the band "Goo Biscuit."

We're playing in Monterey on Sept. 4th and Santa Cruz on Sept. 6th (that's the closest we'll be to SF for a while longer.)



Each of these lovely folks had made a custom t-shirt for their favorite song: Circus Apocalypse, The Astronomer, Shark Serenade, Organ Donor's March, Global Warming

*

Thursday August 7th

Up at 6am to take BART to the airport. We fly to Chicago and get picked up by Dakota and Robert (secret mayor of New Orleans.) Dakota has driven across three states by herself. Robert has joined us to help drive. We meet our hostess Robyn, who is beautiful and gracious.

New band name - "Narcisister and the Me Me Mes"

*

Friday August 8th - 08/08/08

The luckiest day of all. Chicago proved a wonderful host city for Amanda and her Vermillions. We play at The Lakeshore theater to an enthusiastic crowd. Our set was very short (20 minutes) because the show got such a late start, but we make up in quality what we miss in quantity. We have many fond memories of Chicago now and we'll be back as soon as we can.

We sing "Creep" with Amanda again. Kim trips on her skirt again.

After the show we pack up our clothes and start driving to Toronto. It takes 14 hours.

Totally changing the band name to "Really Really Tired of Driving."

We're playing Madison, WI on August 23rd.

*

Saturday August 9th

5pm we arrive in Toronto tired and and hungry. A yummy Indian food dinner and a run through the rain. Our mother and little sister come to the venue and sit with us while we set up. Amanda has also had a long day of travel.

The show is strange and good. We are all tired and the venue is very small, but our fellow Canadians are a great little group and we all have a grand time.

We sing "Creep" again. Kim trips again.

We also exchange phone numbers with Amanda who says she wants to hang out with us. We tell her we will now call her 50 times a day. (No, we don't actually call her 50 times a day.)

The band name is "Drunk Canadians"

We play Toronto again on September 18th - Rivoli.


*

Sunday August 10th

Up at 8am to drive to Montreal for a family reunion. So good! There will be pictures soon. People ask us all the time if we are really sisters. Yes, for real. We have the same mother and father and brother and sisters. Also aunts, uncles, cousins, and tour manager.

By the way: Dakota Belle Witt is a fantastic tour manager. Also a great poet.

We put on a little concert in the park. And then we all do handstands and balancing.

At night we go out to the local bar with our brother and sister. We get "Poutine" at a Jewish Deli at 1 in the morning. We love Montreal!

New name - "Honorary Beard"

*

Monday August 11th

Up at 6am, fresh pastries and cheeses for the road, we drive to NYC. We saw a seahorse in the clouds. Skyhorse?



3pm we arrive at the Spiegeltent which is an amazing venue. This is the second Spiegeltent we've played in. If you have a chance to see a show there you definitely should. We got to watch the circus show that was on before ours and getting to see the acrobats up close was truly mind blowing and wonderful.

Everyone at the Spiegeltent is gracious and kind and professional. The program director takes great care of us. Amanda has to leave to do interviews as soon as we arrive but she sends us a text message inviting us to go out for a drink after the show. We respond "Yes! Let's drink. Also we're thinking of changing our band name to "Fagpile." What do you think?"

Amanda is not so sure about the name "Fagpile," but Beth loves it. Beth is Amanda's personal assistant and another fantastic individual. We are in awe of Amanda's ability to surround herself with such talented and lovely people (of course we like to think we do a good job of that as well.)

The show was fancy though the late start meant a very short set again. And we got to see Paco!

Reggie Watts opened the show and played the part of MC. We fell in love with Reggie who is a great performer and very open and fun human being. See him when you can.

After the show we went carousing with Amanda and her crew, we all ate salad together (and I mean really TOGETHER) and cuddled and laughed and shared stories and met new friends and kissed and talked and loved every minute.

Went to sleep at 5am.

We play NYC on October 16th - The Zipper Factory

*

The moral of the story is:

Amanda Palmer is great. Really really really great. Her songs and playing and her voice are all fantastic. Because of her recent vocal surgery and her full on singing style her voice tires easily but she really does have a very beautiful singing voice. We fell more in love with her every night, her energy and fearlessness are inspiring and breathtaking.

We saw her five times in one week and each was amazing.

On Tuesday August 12th Amanda sent us one last text message before leaving for Europe:

"You guys are amazing!"