Theres also been two shows added in August, the 10th Anniversay Warped Tour show on the 20th and an Albany show with Turbo AC's, Cheap Sex, Plastic Jesus, Stand Up Citizen on the 21st.
November's European tour dates coming very soon...I promise!
"We are finally going to set up online, and mailorder merch sales in Europe through Trashmark. Stay tuned to www.trashmark.com. Also, our goal before going back in November is to see that Savin Hill is more readily available throughout the continent. Stay tuned for the photo album that Joe Sirois is putting together for the entire tour, we captured some great live shots and lots of new and old friends."
"After we kick it down for a few days of rest and relaxation we are gonna put finnishing touches on our next record tentatively called "Back To The World". We are REALLY excited about this record. Hopefully soon we will have an MP3 to post on the site, as well as on the upcoming Atticus compilation. And we will let you know when the release date is set."
On Saturday the 17th of July, Morecambe's Wasted Festival beckoned, and after a 15 hour drive the Street Dogs owned the stage. Despite the fact that "Savin Hill" was only available to the European market as an import the kids in the audience still sang along to every song, it was amazing to see our boys get such a great reaction...I was so proud!
This show, in my biased eyes, was probably one of SD's best so far...I got to meet a bunch of new people who had just been online buddies previously, plus I got to catch up with my old friends in SD and bump up my hug quota...I lost count of how many offers I got for my SD hoodie...oh yeah, and I got to see my favourite band rock out! All in all a successful day...Street Dogs sold out of the remaining copies of "Savin Hill" that they'd brought over for the European tour...and Nicola was a very happy bunny indeed!!!
Sunday the 18th - Street Dogs hit London; I actually got the chance to head home for a few hours today, which was so nice...Morecambe had been good to me but the train journey home wasn't so hot! I think I spent more time on a train this day than anything else...so weird!!! Still, I was not downhearted by this - far from it! Street Dogs were playing at Camden's Underworld and I had promised I would be there...and be there I would! I arrived to a very familiar welcome of much hugging from Johnny and the offer of selling my jacket at the merch table from Markus, I went with the hugs and declined the offer of selling my wares this time!!!
I could bore you with more details like this but I won't (not right now anyways)...lets just say that the crowd loved SD, SD loved the crowd...a couple of encores cemented this and now London officially loves the Street Dogs and wants them back for more! My only sadness over this weekend came when it was time to say goodbye...Street Dogs first European tour had come to an end, one hell of an end and one I was glad to witness...but the best thing was that it had been such a huge success and an experience that had faired the band well...and hey, at least they'll be back later in the year!!!
Sooooo, to recap - a great weekend was had by all...plenty of photos taken and I'll add links here when I get the chance to get them online. Watch this space!!! Oh...and I just wanted to give kudos to those who #1. deserve it and #2. made this weekend even cooler for me. Those people are as follows; Johnny, Mike, Joe and Markus. Alex, Matt and Steve. Cheers...I love you all.
"Speaking of records...just before getting to Europe we finished 3 weeks in the studio working on our follow up to Savin Hill, tentatively called "Back To The World" and are really pumped. We all collectively feel this is our best work ever. We are supporting Flogging Molly Sept. - Oct. in the states and then back to Europe with The Mollys in November. The record should be out sometime during that time. We will keep you posted. We are all really proud of it!"
"Thats it for now, we have August off for the most part aside from doing the Boston Warped Tour Date, so we will definately get the website up to speed really soon. Thanks to everyone checking us out while we are here in Europe and making us feel so welcome! All the best - Street Dogs."
Sooooo...this time I managed to catch two Street Dogs shows (well, I was in the country and it would've been rude of me not to!!!), the first was at Axis in Boston and the second down in Hartford, CT at the Webster Underground...fortunately Avoid One Thing were on the bill at both shows so this made me an even happier little bunny!
Anyways, both were awesome shows and I just want to thank everyone (old and new friends alike) for looking out for me, etc...firstly, much kudos to Johnny, Kirsten & Isabella (as always). Then the usual kudos goes to the mighty Nate, Mike, Joe S, Markus and Joe G (you guys ROCK!). Kristy, Nora, Chris, Sully, Marianne & James, Mike from The DP's (sorry I couldn't catch your show), another Chris (cheers...), Tom, the awesome and amazingly talented Pete, Tim from Bloodshot Hooligans and Sean (you guys also ROCK!), Denise (who I often randomly bump into...always a weird coincidence, but always funny) and a cast of what probably feels like a thousand but actually isn't - thank you all so much...I also want to thank all the people in the bands who I know and love as a friend and as a fan, I still go into this very much with the heart of a fan but feel honoured to know you all as friends too...anyone else I forgot? I'd apologise but I've been banned from saying the S word too much... ;)
Anyways, as usual (me being sooooo snap-happy) I took a shitload of photos at each show, hopefully, time permitting, these photos will be appearing online very shortly...so when I get around to finishing the whole uploading extravaganza and they're up online I'll be adding a little link! Watch this space...
On another SD related note, a BIG shout goes out to Street Dogs bassist (and someone who I'm honoured to call a good friend) Johnny Rioux, who celebrated his 30th birthday on the 9th of May...Happy Birthday JR, it's all downhill from here!!! ;)
Street Dogs have also had time to update their website too; "The Street Dogs morn the loss of Greg Riley. A good friend who we tragically lost early Wedenesday morning. We extend our sincere condolenses to the Riley family as we feel sorrow for their tragic loss. RIP Chicken."
"Hi all, sorry it has been so long since our last update! We have been really busy lately. We spent this past weekend doing what we love most...playing live! It was a great time doing shows with Avoid One Thing to celebrate their new CD. Boston was so fun as always, lots of friends travelled a long way to see the show and it was great catching up with everyone. After taking several months playing with Frank Black, and...getting married, our close friend Joe Sirois is finally back behind the kit with us, we couldn't be happier. He brings so much to the band and we are so grateful to have him with us again for good. We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday playing shows, laughing, and listening to Joes rare dub CD's as well as the new Joe Strummer CD. Speaking of Joe Strummer, Mike and Johnny are set to be in parts of the new Joe Strummer "Redemption Song" video. We are unsure of when the video is set to be released, it is the second video for the song, but we will definately let you know. When asked to do the clips for the video Mike and Johnny could only respond with when and where."
"So there are lots and lots of plans for touring this year. First and foremost we are finally doing our maiden voyage in Europe!! We will be there from June 18th - July 18th doing everything from festivals to club shows with some good friends like Blood For Blood, Agnostic Front, Kings Of Nuthing, to name a few. We currently are trying to get our record out overseas, in the meantime try to get it as an import!! Check out our tour page! Also June 3rd we are doing The Best Music Poll show in Boston at Axis with The Explosion, and The Unseen. We're playing first and I think it's an early show too so get there early!"
"We have recently amicably parted ways with Crosscheck who put out "Savin Hill" and will be at a new independant label very soon. Savin Hill is still available through Crosscheck and we are currently writing songs for a record to be released later this year. The fall will bring a major 6 week US tour with a band everyone loves! The tour will also move overseas in November. Stay tuned..."
"We will be adding stuff to the site, like new photos and even the video of Mike's national anthem appearance at Fenway Park. Thanks for your patience. We'll see you soon!" - Street Dogs
"Also, we are adding a couple of shows in May. We are gonna do 5/9 in Hartford, CT at Webster Underground with Avoid One Thing, and Long Island on 5/10 at The Downtown in Farmingdale, NY with Avoid One Thing and guests. We are gonna try to get back to Albany or NYC on the 7th...we'll see."
"So we are in the process of signing to a new label and writing tons of new songs.... We are happy to say that this year we are gonna be tour crazy. We're still putting European dates in June and July and in the fall we'll be on a full US tour for 6 weeks and have no intention of stopping there... We are gonna play everywhere and are really looking forward to it!! We have also found an awesome guitarist in our friend Markus Hollar. He came in and absolutely blew us away.... he's gonna start playing with us in May. We are so lucky to have him and want to welcome him to The Street Dogs family!"
Thanks go out to everyone who has been cool enough to add links for me...and to all of you who have viewed the photos already and given me such awesome feedback I thank you muchly...always appreciated!
As you can see from the above photo, Nate was still filling in on guitar for the band and it was really awesome to see Nate up onstage again with Johnny, brought back a lot of great memories!!!
I got to meet SD's new guitarist Markus, who was hanging out at the show...seems like a really cool guy and I look forward to seeing and hearing what he brings to the band in the future.
"Anyway, 1st up was Sacremento. The opening band, Jackass, had cancelled last minute so Whiskey Rebels ended up opening the show. We had just played with these guys on our last tour, they were great then but really great this time. A great mix of Street punk and hardcore. You'll definately hear about these guys if you haven't already. They are staples of the Sacto scene. It was great to go back there and see everyone who we had seen on our last trip. Unfortunately Pressure Point didn't play, but hopefully next time. This was our first time seeing The Briefs, who are a new wave/ punk type band from Seattle.... super good and fun, very Jam meets Buzzcocks. Our set was a lot of fun. As you may know this was Nate Alberts first show with Street Dogs and we didn't miss a beat. Nate was absolutely kick ass on the guitar. We had a great time playing with him on this trip, and we were lucky to have him. Next up was San Francisco. We had lots of friends out at this show, so there were many "bro-deos" to be done. Mike spent a good portion of the night talking to Fat Mike about politics, desert storm, and punkvoter.com. It was very interesting to say the least, and Mike volunteered Street Dogs in whatever capacity to help get Bush out of office..."
"The opening band, Jackass, was a country/ punk band, lots of fun. When you see a group of guys that look like surfers hitting the stage, you expect Pennywise not Johnny Cash on speed... They were a lot of fun. We were up next. It was a great crowd, and awesome to see many of the same faces from Sacremento. We decided instead of Boston Breakout, we would cover Black Flag's Rise Above and people went nuts. It was great. Nate was running around the stage like he was 15 and spitting out beer in my direction. He was great. After partying into the wee hours with friends we kicked it down and got ready for the LA drive."
"LA Troubador show, we knew would be great. Our last tour had the best shows there (second of coarse to Boston). This was the first time we had seen Bad Reaction. They were really good. It's great to see a punk band doing something different.We were pleased to see Angel City Outcasts playing the bill and they ripped of coarse. A ton of energy and a bunch of new songs since we last saw them. We had lots of friends there too that had not seen us play yet. We had the best time, it was so great to have people singing the songs with us and give the proper circle pit. That show was so fun. Youth Brigade were so good too. They played with all the energy and tighter than I had seen on all those videos growing up."
"The rest of our LA trip was a bit of a cluster F. We were scheduled to play Zens Sushi in Silverlake on Sunday, then at the last minute it was changed to the El Cid. I guess that same day the promoter of Jerry's pizza in Bakersfield was advertising us as playing there with Youth Brigade even though we were never scheduled and told him to take us off ad's... he didn't and continued to tell people we were playing. So when we said we would play we were told there was no room. In a nut shell.... F that guy, and hopefully nobody went to see us. The El Cid was a great show regardless. It was like a spanish resteraunt. When we loaded in there was traditional dancing and we assumed we had the wrong venue... nope. It was very different, but fun nonetheless. We cut out early to catch the Flogging Molly gig down the street."
"To sum up the trip, The west coast is great! We will be back very soon. We really want to thank Nate Albert, an awesome guitarist/friend and producer. Also Louis and Pitfire for helping us always. Jamie Vavra, Swindle, and Bill Close for letting us use their gear, Noe and Anthony's porn star friend for giving us a place to crash. And our newest Street Dog, Anthony for ripping on the drums. We have a ton of plans for the upcoming year including recording new music, and lots and lots of touring...promise. We are getting our mail order merch section of the website together, and everything will be available from t-s to hoodies to pins and music. Couple more weeks. We are also trying out new guitarists. We have 8 new songs ready to go that we can't wait to record and play live!"
"Also - Street Team...I have been requesting Street Team info. from the former Street Team leader and haven't received anything. So, if you are a Street Team member or would like to become one please e-mail your info. to [email protected]. We aren't doing much promo currently but we will be very soon. THANX! - STREET DOGS"
Both Street Dogs and The Dents are celebrating the release of a split CD/7" together on Abbey Lounge records, the show coincides with it's release. "The venue that helped launch Street Dogs has now launched a record label and the first release is the split with Street Dogs and the Dents. The record features an unreleased track called One Of A Kind and Savin Hill on Abbey Lounge Records."
Days later this update followed;
"Our guitarist, Rob Guidotti has decided to quit the band. Rob has other projects he would like to pursue and we wish him luck. The Street Dogs collectively write songs and perform as a band and we will continue to do so. Our producer, friend, and former Bosstone, Nate Albert, will be FILLING IN on the upcoming california dates we have with Youth Brigade. We truly wish Rob nothing but the best in all of his musical endeavors. We are sure that he will do very well."
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say "thank you sooooooo much" to everyone I met, hung out with or managed to catch up with at the show...old friends like Johnny, Nate and everyone who still make up the dysfunctional KO's family, new friends from the Street Dogs and the message boards, etc...special thanks to Wade and his family (for going above and beyond the call of duty...you guys rock), the Raging Geek (for just keeping me sane) and a further cast of...um...well, many more!!! THANK YOU MUCHLY!
Also, there was a little update from Mike over on the official site; "Sorry for the delay in updating our website but we have been spending time with our families, rehearsing for our upcoming tour in October and watching the see-saw antics of our beloved Boston Red Sox. You all know how frustrating that can be!"
"We are in the final stages of planning our tour. We will start our tour by playing in Boston for our record release party Oct. 11th (not Oct. 12th) and our tour will go across the U.S. with Side One Dummys, The Briggs, and wind down in Anaheim, CA with 1 or 2 Halloween shows with Flogging Molly and go through early November."
"We are also adding 2 more regional shows. September 19 we will be playing in Stoughton, MA with the Kings of Nuthin', River City Rebels, and Blue Bloods. This should be a cool show (DIY is key) and a fun set up for our record release show."
"Another New York date is the day after the Bouncing Souls NYC record release party, in Albany, September 14. Kids in Albany have been warning us as of late that if we do not come up and play a show soon in Albany that they would be forced to hit us over our collective heads repeatedly with blunt instruments. So we figured based on those warnings we should play a show in Albany!"
"GO Bosox, Patriots, Bruins and Celtics!!!!!!!! Stay tuned for tour dates, and the line up for our release show. Take care all, thanx for the positive feedback on the message board, and we will see you very soon."
Then, on the official Street Dogs website, there are updates regarding the upcoming tour and the additions to their media section. Visit the Street Dogs website and check these out...now!
...and finally, an update on the release show for Savin Hill; "Ok, we have just finished our plans for our record release show and here's the lineup; Street Dogs, Lost City Angels, Dirty Water, The Briggs and The Marvels. The show is Saturday, October 11th at The Axis on Landsdowne street in Boston. Of course it will be all ages, doors are at 4pm. Tickets are now on sale or when our record comes out September 23rd, tickets will be available free at Boston area Newbury Comics when you buy the record. We are also going to have a listening party at The Paradise lounge on September 23rd. Our record company, Crosscheck Records, was kind enough to provide everyone with beer and pizza. We are going to show some videos, play the record and drink all night. It is from 8pm to 10pm and open to everyone. Also check out the tour dates!! We can't wait to get in the van and play some shows with The Briggs!! See you all really soon... By the way the Albany show is at Valentines..."
"In the meantime, there are a couple of shows to ad to our schedule. We are also going to do the Bouncing Souls record release show at Irving plaza in NYC on 9/13 (can't wait for that). There is also talk of Street Dogs taking the operation international in November... Stay tuned for updates."
"We are also really excited for our singer, Mike, who has been asked to perform the national anthem at Fenway Park for the last regular season game for our beloved Red Sox on September 24th. It is not uncommon for Mike to be in attendance at a Red Sox game, he is just usually in a fireman's uniform working detail."
"We are also planning a record release show for 10/12 at the Axis on Lansdowne street in Boston. I can't really tell you the other bands on the bill yet, but the show should be reminiscent of the old Rat matinees we all loved and miss. Tickets will be available for free if you pick up a copy of the new record at participating Newbury's... Details soon."
"At some point, probably in October, we are gonna plan a trip to the west coast to play some shows. Anyway, enough rambling... We really want to thank everyone for making us feel so welcome on our first mini-tour."
"Buffalo won the best show award hands down, Flogging Molly wins the best live band (maybe ever) award, Flogging Molly also wins the best guys (and girl) award for the hang, Flogging Molly's guitar tech, "Badger", wins the worst blackjack dealer award, Matt Hensley, accordian player for Flogging Molly, might not have the worlds highest ollie world record anymore, but he gets the "thanks for the solid" award for playing a song with us, the drunkest band award? I don't know their name, cuz they were drunk by the time they loaded in to the Middle East, and were thrown out shortly after their set... But they were trooopers. The best Street Dog award goes to Joe The Kid, who is in my opinion, the best drummer to ever come out of Boston... And finally, the biggest idiot in the pit award goes to the guy in Cleveland with the skinhead girl fringe cut. He was yelling obscenities at us, apparently because he hasn't received the memo from Good Charlotte saying it is cool to listen to us? Or maybe he couldn't find our t-shirt at Hot Topic? Who knows... One sour apple can't spoil the whole bunch. Anyway, thanks again and see you soon. There will be lots of photo's posted soon." - Johnny
So those SD dates for your diary are as follows; Saturday September the 13th, 2003, with The Bouncing Souls, Irving Plaza, New York, NY. Then Sunday October the 12th, 2003 - Savin Hill Record Release Show, Axis, Boston, MA.
My apologies to those who are getting a little pissed off with the lack of KO's updates and the mighty presence of the Street Dogs updates...what can I say? These things do happen!!!
Now for something a little off topic...though distantly related and equally heart-warming...if not more-so? Huge congratulations to the lovely Ben and Laura Carr on the birth of their first child. Little Ellis is the first Bosstone baby and I'm sure his mighty uncles merrily wet the baby's head?
Anyways, onto the actual update...one of the Street Dogs variety! Street Dogs are playing on July 19th at the Palladium in Worcester, MA. 2pm ALL AGES, The Punk Revival Festival, with; Circle Jerks, GBH, Blood for Blood, Good Riddance, The Casualties, Murphy�s Law, River City Rebels, Tommy and the Terrors, The Bronxxx, Missing 23rd, These Lies, A Global Threat, The A-Team, The USM, Confront, None More Black, RNR, Midnight Creeps, The Prozacs and more TBA.
Also, don't forget to listen to Fighter over at Crosscheck Records (if you haven't already? AND if not, why not?), watch out when Savin Hill gets it's release on September 23rd and keep an eye out at www.street-dogs.com as the website's construction progresses...
Anyways...whats happening with the Street Dogs? According to Nate, their work is almost finished and it's sounding amazing, which is great news. They're in the final mixing stage and the master is so close to being done...plus, over at Crosscheck Records you can listen to a new and exclusive Street Dogs MP3; Fighter...CLICK HERE for more details about this and their debut CD; Savin Hill.
"WE ARE CURRENTLY IN THE MIDDLE OF A SIX MONTH LONG ANTI-TOUR. IT GOING GREAT SO FAR AND THANKS FOR ALL OF THE SUPPORT. SO, I AM TRYING TO POST ON THE M-BOARD AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MY PASSWORD IS, ITS BEEN A WHILE I GUESS. WE HAVE A BUNCH OF SONGS KICKING AROUND THAT WE'VE RECORDED AND I WANT TO PUT THEM UP AS MP3'S ON THIS SITE SO, LOOK FOR 'EM. ITS KIND OF A WORK IN PROGRESS SO IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HEAR WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF THE SONGS. BEST, NATE."
"SO, I FIGURED OUT HOW TO POST AGAIN WHICH IS GOOD. I LEFT A LITTLE SOMETHING ON THE GUEST BOOK BUT I THOUGHT I SHOULD POST HERE AS WELL. AS YOU KNOW, THE "KICKOVERS ANTI-TOUR" IS GOING GREAT. RIOUX AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE STREET DOGS ALBUM WHICH SOUNDS KILLER. I AM PRODUCING AND RIOUX IS PLAYING BASS AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW MIKE (EX-DROPKICKS) IS ON VOCALS AND SOUNDS AMAZING! OKAY, SO WE HAVE A BUNCH OF NEW SONGS THAT WE HAVE RECORDED WHICH WE WOULD LOVE YOU GUYS TO HEAR SO I AM GETTING THEM ALL TOGETHER SO THAT I CAN PUT THEM UP ON OUR WEBSITE ON MP3(I LOVE MY IPOD!) THEY ARE ALL KIND OF WORKS IN PROGRESS SO PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU THINK. WE REALLY DIG 'EM AND HOPE YOU WILL TOO. IF YOU THINK THEY SUCK, WELL HEY, THEY'RE FREE. I HAVE TO GET TOGETHER WITH THE WEB FOLKS TO DO THIS SO IT MIGHT BE A FEW DAYS BUT KEEP AND EYE OUT. IF ANYONE IS IN TOWN (BOSTON) THIS FRIDAY CHECK OUT RIOUX WITH THE STREET DOGS OPENING UP FOR "X" AT AVALON. JOHN DOE AND BILLY ZOOM BACK ON STAGE! I CAN'T WAIT. AS YOU KNOW MIKEY ISN'T PLAYING WITH US ANYMORE BUT HE IS LIVING UP NORTH AND PAINTING WHICH IS GREAT. JAMIE AND McG ARE TEACHING YOGA IN WESTERN MASS BUT AS SOON AS THEY ARE BACK WE WILL HIT THE ROAD. BEST, NATE."
For those of you who are wondering about where exactly the Street Dogs are playing on Friday...(Avalon or TT's?)...Nate did correct himself on the message board and add that they are actually at TT's on Friday and Avalon on June 16th...
STREET DOGS UPDATE; Yeah, yeah...so this IS supposed to be a website devoted to The Kickovers and for a very long time it has stuck with that formula...BUT it's also very interested in the members of this band and the other projects they're involved with too!
So...this Friday (May 30th) sees the Street Dogs playing alongside Dirty Water at TT The Bears in Cambridge, MA. It's the Dirty Water CD release show, the whole thing starts at 9pm and is 18+.
...and May also sees Johnny turning the ripe old age of 29...yup, May 9th has Rioux ageing!!! Have yourself a really happy birthday Johnny... ;)
...oh, and as for the future of the band? The future is unwritten!
This week saw The Kickovers play alongside Nerfherder AND questions arising over the band's future...a thread about this has appeared on the Fenway Recordings' message board and will probably prompt more questions too...understandabley? At this point I'm not in a position to discuss, reveal, confirm or deny anything about this current situation...but when I'm able to I will update you all...
