This past week/end, Katie + I were traveling in NYC + PA for a combination of work, fun, and wedding. The wedding was that of Jon Roth—our longtime friend and drummer in my old band, Speedwell—and his new wife, Laura Wertman.
The night before we left New York for Allentown, Pennsylvania, I received an email from Meredith—who sang and played guitar in the band and is now a talented videographer and editor—with a link to the video below, entitled ‘Best Wedding Present Ever?’
Since the band formed in a college basement in 1996 to this day, Jon’s always been our biggest cheerleader. And his wife, who we just met this past weekend, sincerely claims to be Speedwell’s biggest fan (she actually did the artwork for Speedwell’s posthumous discography, which came a few years back). So, needless to say, in addition to the blenders and jade bowls and hand towel sets, this was, indeed, a well-recieved wedding gift.
The video features one of our oldest songs—“Pacifique”—and a small, very well-edited sample of the 8 hours of terrible haircuts, über-emo kids, and the most adorable of naivety that is the footage of our ’98 tour with Engine Down, when we were all tiny, tiny children. According to Meredith, culled from that footage was also a serious discussion as to what, exactly, kale was.
Below that, I couldn’t actually find any photos from that tour, but did find some from a later tour, like this one by Jamie Brown from a show at Greensboro’s College Hill Sundries, where I look especially awesome. Thanks for that, Jamie.
You can read a long, sprawling interview I did with us all chat-style a while back on these pages…but I seriously do not suggest that you do.
