10/1 Middle East Cambridge, MA The highlight tonight was our tour manager Jim donning a cone bra and bicycle shorts as we did a version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer". That's all I'll say. All the more reason to quit your job or drop out of school and never miss a show again.   10/2 West Strand Grill Kingston, NY Tonight we did a live radio broadcast for WDST in Woodstock. They pretty much just let us do whatever we wanted over the airwaves. Our big opportunity to swear like sailors but we didn't. Shit. Had an exciting brush with greatness today. Presidential hopeful George Bush, Jr. was on the campain trail in New York State. Here's George and I posing for a picture.   10/3 My House Boston, MA Got a phone call at some ungodly hour this morning. Turns out it was Heather from the morning show in Portland, Maine. Maybe I've still got it. We were live on the air and I had to answer a few questions (what was I wearing at the time, do I like Julia Roberts' movies, who do I like better - Backstreet Boys or N'Sync?). Was embarrassing to admit that I was talking to the city of Portland in my underwear but not quite as embarrassing as admitting that I actually like the songs "As Long as You Love Me" and "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. Love the way they rhyme "Fire" with "Desire". Pure genius. 10/8 Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY Good time. Played with the bands Guster and Jump Little Children, both of whom sounded quite good. We were gonna go head to head with Guster in the Boston bands' wiffle ball championships but somebody hit the ball on the roof and the game was cancelled. Too bad too, 'cause if we got by Guster we only had The Bosstones and Aerosmith to contend with. I guess we'll never know (though deep down we know that Steven Tyler could beat us all with one arm tied behind his back). This show was a damn fine one. You western New Yorkers are most kind to us. Thanks for (as Wesley Willis might say) "rocking like a magic kiss" and "roaring like a lion". Hope we'll get to see you again sometime soon. 10/10 MixFest '99 Foxboro Stadium Foxboro, MA This could be one of my favorite shows of all time. Seriously. Day started out pretty crappy. Was raining when I got up and I was thinking if I had bought a ticket to today's show I might have stayed in bed. We drove out to the stadium with none of us having very high expectations. Although the lineup was most impressive - Natalie Merchant, Sugar Ray, Melissa Etheridge, Blondie, The Pretenders, etc. - the weather was cruel. We didn't think anyone was really gonna pay too much attention to us but for whatever reason they did. And how. From the second we hit the stage things were pretty electric. It would seem to make sense that the folks who decided to stick around for the music were serious music fans. Damn. Won't forget this one for awhile. One of those shows where the crowd singlehandedly makes the band play so much better. Once again, somebody released a bunch of red balloons when we played "99" (looked like it was planned but we swear it wasn't). After the show people stood in the rain for an hour and a half to get albums signed. Very, very flattering. We're coming back for an all ages New Year's Eve show in Boston at Hynes Convention Center so if you're not doing anything. Anyway, a special thank you from the lads to all of you who braved the weather. Muchos gracias. 10/11 Quinnipiac College (w/Sugar Ray) Hamden, CT Our second night playing with Sugar Ray. We could get used to this. Thanks to Sugar Ray there was a fantastic crowd here tonight. We didn't get much of a soundcheck so our first song was a little rough but people were very forgiving. Take a look at some of these fine people will ya? We hung out in the lobby after the show and signed a lot of stuff, met a lot of folks from the NY, NJ and CT area. Connecticut is Alex and Brian's home state and we don't play here all that much so it was good to finally get back here. I think it's safe to say that the ladies dig Mark McGrath. And the guys too I suppose. They definitely rocked the house. 10/12 The Middle East Cambridge, MA We didn't have a show tonight so Brian and Alex went to see the great Wesley Willis at The Middle East. If you're not familiar with Mr Willis you might want to get familiar with him. He told Alex that he's going to write a song about Angry Salad and put it on his new CD "Rocktoberfest". If it makes it onto the album it will be side by side with the song "I Kicked Batman's Ass". Would be a tremendous honor.   10/29 Penn State - Erie Campus Erie, PA (w/ Train) I think we might want to propose to this city.. The show was sold out - about a thousand people there who seemed quite ready to rock. This town has become one of our favorites in just two visits. Was nice riding Train's coattails in a homecoming show for them (Train's singer Patrick is from Erie) and we got to meet a lot of new folks that we didn't get to see last time around. Did the afternoon show at The Point (WJET - the same station that The Wonders first heard themselves on in the movie "That Thing You Do".) and then raced over to the gym for soundcheck. Not a bad sounding gym as gyms go. Tried out a new song that we'll be playing on this tour and it seemed to go pretty well though the words aren't close to being finished. Can't say much more other than Erie has now rocked our world on two successive occasions. We've signed on for The Point's Holiday Party at Sherlock's on December 16th. Sadly it's 21+ (believe me, we kicked and screamed to make it all ages but came up empty). So, if anybody underage is reading this, well, get started on those fake ID's now 'cause we wanna see you on the 16th. 10/30 S.O.P.'s Peoria, IL Halloween night, or at least it was the night that people seem to be celebrating Halloween here in Peoria. Pretty funny driving by people on the highway, cruising along nonchalantly in their Ford Escorts with full-on ghoul regalia. Before the show we were hanging out in front of the club and some Peoria natives pulled up at a stop light and, in very dramatic fashion, yelled out "Hey, hey you, hey you guys. (long pause) you're gay". We were going to run after them and try to teach them a lesson about intolerance but we were weighed down by our authentic Village People costumes (The Village People were gay? Where have I been?). Show itself was uneventful. We played almost exclusively Barbara Streisand songs, a couple selections from the musical "La Cage Aux Folles" and a club version of the Cher song "Do You Believe". I still can't believe somebody called us gay (not that there's anything wrong with that of course). Incidentally, there's a, how you say, exotic dance venue across the street called Big Al's where first hand reports let us know that one of the professionals danced to "The Milkshake Song". If it plays in Peoria... Choose the next journal entries you'd like to read: