Raymond Strife,
Stillborn Identity, and Cornelius III April 2012 tour recap.
April of 2012 I was fortunate
enough to go on tour with one of my best dude I’ve met through rap, Raymond
Strife. Ray suggested bringing his friend Cornelius the Third (then known as DMk).
At first I was pretty hesitant because over the last few months I had been
working pretty hard on getting these dates booked, and then all of a sudden
this random dude wants to show up and wants to milk me dry. Eventually I agreed
to let him come along, and luckily I did because he’s pretty rad too. This
sounds like it’s about to be some boring sentimental crap, but I’ll try my best
to not let it end up like that.
The first night we played in
Pittsburgh at Inn Termission Lounge with Amuck, Fortified PhonetX, GINO, and
Jack Wilson who showed up out of nowhere and rocked a quick set. Nothing to
eventful happened this night but it was still a rad show, the venue made us
meatballs and beans which sounds disgusting but it was delicious and those
leftovers kept us nourished the entire tour. Ray and Cornelius stayed with
Ray’s friend in Coraopolis, and I went with like five of my dude friends all
chasing one girl to Oakland where I passed out on my friend’s floor.
The second night we were supposed
to play in Cleveland, OH at Bela Dubby, but it ‘temporarily had to close for
repairs’ aka it went out of business. So we got a last minute show in East
Lansing, MI at The GTG House with some of Ray’s friends. We went there pretty early to hang out and
the entire time Ray talked about how these were the coolest people ever, after
the first or second hour I just tuned him out and read books in the back not
believing anyone could be that cool.
When we showed up at the house
venue the beers were already flowing, it was like they’d been preparing for
‘Raymond Strife’ for days. Cats were wearing his old shirt, someone brought
their leather jacket and wanted his new stencil on it. I broke my rule of not
drinking until I at least know what time I’m supposed to play and started
cheersing beers with everyone.
The Guest Stars opened, Cornelius
III went second, I was third, and as far as I know everything after that is
just hear say. Ray dropped my computer when he was using it during his set and
I didn’t seem to care at all because I was drunk. I only remember this because
there was a huge dent in it the next day. They had real strong IPA’s at the
show for anyone who donated money to the touring acts. So in some way in my
drunken stupor this made me feel entitled to all the beer I could stomach… and
more.
After drinking a river dry during
every acts set, some girl asked me if I wanted to smoke some chebba. Typically
I’d say no, but they were cute and I was drunk, and I thought being drunk was
the same thing as being charming so I accepted thinking they wouldn’t be able
to resist me. We went to a “bedroom” behind the “stage” in the basement and
smoked.
What felt like was hours later, but
was probably only 2 minutes later I emerged from the room back to the show
space where the party where was still bumping. Apparently there was a DJ who
was spinning dance music. I see Ray in the middle of the dance floor killing
it. I try to join but I’m walking all bowlegged looking like a drunken cowboy
that has just been on a horse for days falling slightly forward with every
step. I inform Ray of my problem and he tells me just to go with it. “Genius!”
I think to myself, and partner up with the wall for stability in the dance room
and start pointing my index fingers to the sky as I bob my head back and forth
like a baby without any neck muscles. Before long I realize I’m not the world’s
best dancer and somehow make my way upstairs to pass out on the couch.
Here is where the story literally
becomes hear say, but I believe every word of it. At some point in the night I
get up from the couch I’m sleeping on to look for a bathroom (so I can barf).
There is a glass table next to the couch that I knock everything off of and
then step on as the person sleeping on the bean bag next to the couch tells me
to not step on the glass coffee table, somehow it doesn’t break.
Luckily the first room I go into is
the bathroom. Except after a quick assessment I come to realize it’s not the
bathroom, but I’m already committed so I’ll be damned if I don’t throw up
somewhere in this room. I spot a window and start trying to open it so I can
throw up out of it (not being able to open windows when I’m blackout drunk is a
reoccurring trend, luckily for me or else I probably would have fallen to my
death 10 times by now). The kid whose room I’m in is outside with Ray, they
spot me upstairs stumbling around pretending to be the world’s best mime,
except there is actually a window in front of me.
He comes up (I can’t remember his
name, big surprise, I can’t remember anything from that night) and asks me if I
need to throw up. I nod and he takes me to the bathroom, where I pass out on
the cold floor. A while later he comes back and tells me he’s got a bed set up
for me. I follow him to the dining room where he laid a blanket sheet under the
table for me to pass out. To me this looks perfect; I thank him and lie down,
only to wake up a few minutes later, rush to the bathroom and puke my brains
out.
As we’re getting ready to make our
way out of town, I get informed that our show in Kalamazoo is cancelled. I
break the news to the group expecting them to be bummed, but they’re pumped to
get to hang out in East Lansing for another day while I’m worried I may have
worn out my welcome. The locals assure me that I haven’t and after a few phone
calls they get us on a show at Macs Bar for a roller derby benefit then offer
to show us around town. I guess Ray was right that these were like the
nicest/raddest people ever.
I try to stay pretty mellow this
night, but it’s damn near impossible. When we walk into the venue and the DJ
from the night before is bartending, without saying much he pours us three
draft beers, gives a convincing wink, and walks away. He must have admired my
dance moves. Plus some of the East Lansing homies held us down pretty hard at
the beer store and gave us a killer deal on a case so when we didn’t have a free
draft at the bar, we had plenty of car beers to go around
While
watching the merch table with Cornelius towards the end of the night some
maniac that’s a self-proclaimed ex-WWF bouncer for Hulk Hogan or Andre the
Giant or something like that comes over and starts chatting us up, but not in a
friendly manner at all. I ignore him, while the drunken DMk’ becomes buddies
with this roid-raging asshole. After a few minutes he asks Cornelius if he
wants to smoke some weed in his van, although he doesn’t usually smoke he
accepts the offer because he’s drunk and that’s what beer does.
this is the show we jumped on >
“He’s
dead,” I think to myself. I’m never going to see Cornelius the again. There is
no way that guy smokes reefer, he’s way to high strung. It’s a trick, he’s
going to take him in his van and strangle him with his wiener and strangle him
with his hands. All I can do at this point is hope that he kills him before he
rapes him.
To my surprise Cornelius comes back
in a few minutes seemingly unscathed. Except whatever he smoked wasn’t pot at
all, I have no idea what he was, but he started turning into a total weirdo. I
started to notice traits in him that I saw in that guy, super high strung,
abrasive , eyes totally glassed out, and just plain uncomfortable to be around.
He’s was like this for the rest of the night and part of the drive out of town
the next day.
(Appleton
flyer?)
LO Double T hooked us up with a
show in Appleton, WI. We stopped by his place before the show and checked out
some of his tracks off his upcoming release. One of the tracks Ray was on and Ray
absolutely despised his verse but LO Double T said he liked it so wouldn’t let
him redo it, which I thought was kind of funny. Mac Lethal was also featured on
the release.
Streams of Consciousness came to
the show and put us up for the night. Which ended up being a huge relief he was
able to put us up because LO couldn’t and it was way too cold to sleep in the
car. Ray and Cornelius didn’t even bring blankets and Streams only had one for
us to use in his living room. Cornelius got the blanket, and Ray got the
abnormally tall girl at the show to keep him warm. Ray has fans in every city,
for better or for worse. At the end of the night when we were getting ready to
leave the venue and Ray was trying to duck out before this girl tracked him
down I thought it would be funny to invite her (I was drunk, sorry Ray). But
luckily I did or else he probably would have frozen to death without her, or
worse yet had to cuddle with Cornelius or me to stay warm!
Bloomington,
IN was the next show. As far as I know no one we’re real tight with has played
Indiana (especially not Bloomington), so it was kind of a “milestone” even to
get a small show there. We played with some groups that were heavily influenced
by Oddfuture, and they killed it. It was one of those shows that you thought
was going to be horrible but ended up being pretty rad.
Athens,
OH got cancelled so we decided to drive through the night back to Pittsburgh. I
picked up the last shift of driving that ended when the sun was coming up. Ray
is super anal about letting people drive his car so he pretended not to sleep
the entire time and would just sleep talk to himself thinking that I was
responding. A few times when he finally did fall asleep he’d wake up for 30
seconds and rap along to the Wu-tang cd we were listening to then pass back
out.
Raymond Strife
-IG @RaymondStrife
Stillborn Identity
-IG @CodyCodyJones
Cornelius III
haha fuck yea...btw thats bull shit i drove from bloomington almost all the way to pitt...i drove untill i started to hallucenate why yall were sleeping like little baby stellas
ReplyDeleteHa, whatever dude. I know I drove the very last part of it. But I slept as much as possible the rest of the time so I have no idea which of yinz drove. Whatever, I'll chalk it up to artistic freedom.
ReplyDelete