We are the leaders of the Renegade Soundsystem!

Hey everyone!! Please watch our new video for our single GIVE IN TO ME at Q101.com now.  Please leave a comment or an email for the Manno Brothers!!!

http://q101.com/videochannels/View.aspx?PostID=2602

Your help is so appreciated! Tell everyone you know!!

Heath.absentstar

Hey! Derek and Heath did an interview with the amazing Manno Brothers last Thursday on Q101 in Chicago.  You can listen to it here:

http://www.q101.com/blogs/home.aspx?BlogID=84

Just scroll down to the Absentstar interview box and hit play. There are 2 segments!!

-Absentstar

Hey friends!

So last night we played at a new venue in St Louis called the Bluebird, which is just your stereotypical rock club, except for the fact that they have gourmet food. I was starving after load in, and Marshall had the good fortitude and wherewithall to ask the friendly barmaid for a menu. I rapidly spun around on the couch (yes they even had a couch) and said "DID I HEAR MENU?" Now, she brought out these little one-page-under-plastic menues, and I immediately cringe and begin having fitfull recollections of my fried salad debacle in Middle-o-nowhere Pennsylvania. A glance around the room seemed to verify my Spidey-sense, things seemed a bit amiss, with the doorway to the kitchen that was really just a huge hole in the wall where someone had probably driven their car through there.  They had put a sliding door over the gaping void, which itself was actually just the section of wall that had been knocked down....I kid, I kid. 

Browsing the list of available faire, my fears were momentarily calmed by the first item up for bid.  Toasted ravioli in homemade marinara.  Hey, not so bad, there was hope! But the thing took a nose dive from there.  Down through the list of fried goods, breaded goods, etc etc. I play it safe and order the turkey sammich and a side of steak fries.  Marsh goes with the burger, as does Tour Manager Jay.  Derek, not seeing a choice of Veggie Burger ANYWHERE on the menu's list of 9 available items, goes ahead and orders the Veggie Burger. I start chuckling. The waitress shakes her head in a motion that indicates she does not have a Veggie Burger.  I tell her I'd like to change my order, and pointing to a blank spot on the menu, I say, "Please bring me your Beef Wellington, as well as a side of the Pad Thai Noodles in the home made Peanut Curry sauce....see, it's a $19.95 combo deal right here under the Veggie Buger."

She walks away.  Marshall and Jay (forever now known as TMJ) are laughing.  Derek is chastizing me, alluding to the fact that though the menu said burger, it didn't say explicitly that they were beef.  I point out that banks don't have signs that explicitly say you can't rob them and walk away from the conversation to set up my gear.

The fellas in Push Play (an amazing group of guys, and a heck of a good band) are setting up on stage at this point.  They have a huge fanbase of underage girls, and there is a Beatles-esque mobscene brewing outside the door. I step out for a second to ascertain the whereabouts of the van so I can get my tool kit, and with a series of shrills screams a swarm of no less than 14 girls descended on me and ripped my shirt and one of my shoes clean off, vanishing into the surroundings just as quickly.  I dart back into the door, checking myself for scratches or loss of limbs.  CJ, the singer of Push Play, feigns a nod of "I told you so man..."  Back in the early days of Absentstar, we played for some crowds that had similar scenes, only instead of high school girls clawing at us, it was one drunk man wearing a leather doo-rag named Tuna.  My how times change.

Shirtless but otherwise unscathed, I spy my turkey sando across the room.  Now, based on my knowledge of bar food, I was thinking that my sando would be the type of non-edible turkey-smeat that you get in the little plastic baggie at the Shell station.  However, this thing looked like it had been sliced right off a succulent Thanksgiving bird! Oh my! All I needed now was a pair of sweat pants, a recliner, and the Chicago Bears to go ahead and pay Brett Favre to come to QB the team next year for the Thanksgiving game, and the rest of the season.  It was top notch.  In fact it was so good, that I went to find the chef and tell him so.  He said it was an Amish recipe.

So we played our show, a stripped down set, for a hundred or so screaming kids.  From somewhere on the far left of the stage right after the third song, tiny voices ring out "WE LOVE YOU HEATH!!"  The band members all turn to look at me with faces of disgust and respect, before Derek scolds them, saying that I already have trouble finding hats that fit properly without them swelling my head any larger!

And now, just like Paul Harvey....is the rest of the story.

Earlier in the evening an amazing band called One Lone Car (Check them out!) is onstage playing.  I see a few girls sitting on one of the nearby sofas, and being the good Absentstar ambassador that I am, I amble over to make pleasantries with with, or otherwise say hello.  I ask them if they were planning to sit through our entire set too, or if they could maybe just watch a few songs.  They giggle, and say they will watch.  Then I get this idea.  I tell them "Well, if you really want to be cool, sometime in the middle of our show, during a quiet part, yell out "WE LOVE YOU HEATH!!!"  More giggles. They said they would do it, and they delieverd.  And that, my friends, is the rest of the story.  It was a pretty funny moment!

So after the show, I'm walking around, making all manner of small talk with the crowd, trying to turn on another fan or two, and I realize just how amazing all these STL kids really are.  It's always so amazing to see kids that are enamored with rock music.  Later, outside, I stood around for a good half an hour, talking with a group of about 10 kids and one ultra-cool Mom.  We talked music, music industry, candy, jewelry, etc.  I traded some pieces of my flair to them in exchange for some of theirs.  It was a really amazing experience, and hopefully we made some life-long Absentstar fans of them.  Can't wait to get back to STL and see them again!! I know I'm forgetting names, but I think it was like, Melanie, Jessica, Spencer, Casey.....ummm. I'm sorry.  I feel like I'm at the oscars and I've just won the award for best actor in a foreign cartoon, and I've lost my notes.  Only instead of just acting like I can't remember everyone's name, I actually can't.  But I remember you all!  I know I took pictures with most of you, so post them up on our comment page!!

Seriously though, St Louis has a lot of really amazing kids, who want me to pass this little tidbit of info on to all other touring bands "Stop passing STL up on your way to another city! Play shows in STL!"  There, I said it.

So with that, it's on to Chicago.  Metro show Friday night.  Can't wait. I want to see everyone there! Then another Absentstar/Push Play show in Grand Rapid MI on Saturday.

See you soon!!!

Heath.absentstar

thats right. after the show, someone left their camera, and we found it...haha. so we have been having fun taking pictures of my armpits and us making silly faces. hopefully we'll be able to return it if she makes it to the show tonight...*wink*

sounds like a good plot for a video...hmmmmm.

xoxo

heath

So I'm sitting here in our tour rig, in Champaign IL, and there is a full on HURRICANE happening.  The wind is blowing the rain sideways at a clip of about 72mph, and there is thunder and lightening. It's the rapture.

Does someone have access to a boat where they can come rescue Marshall and I????  PLEASE???

Heath.absentstar

I’m once again riding down the great American highway, now headed south into the homeland, the fatherland, the corn land, southern Indiana. Tonight we are supporting Lifehouse.

It’s a funny place, the Midwest in July. We have two things that spring up without any advance notice or warning….First is what’s known as the Midwest Microburst (aka the common North American reticulated thunderstorm) and county fairs/traveling carnivals. Some say the corn can be blamed for both of these occurrences. The corn acts as a natural heat soak and over-humidfier, which when combined tend to whip the inner-atmosphere into a frenzy similar to the fury of a toddler’s temper tantrum in the ice cream aisle when I don’t get the Moose Tracks ice cream that I want so bad. Growing up in Indiana, I learned early that when the whirring hum of an off-pitch C note breaks into normally scheduled broadcasting on the AM radio station, a robotic voice would scarily come on and either tell me that the Soviets had launched a multi-kiloton missile attack (and I should hide under the kitchen table), or a storm capable of producing quarter size hail and potential tornados was making it’s way down the road traveling at a speed not nearly as quick as the drunks that would crash their cars through the fence across from our house. I and most other Hoosier kids became immune to the threat of tornados by the time I was in Jr High. If a funnel cloud wasn’t touching down in the neighbors yard, there just wasn’t much to worry about. One year, we had a really powerful batch of storms roll through. My family was at a summer party, and when the sky turned green (a known precursor to the tornado) Dad loaded us up in the car. We stopped at a little store on the way home to grab some hotdog buns so Dad could continue grilling when we got back. In and out of the store in a flash, lightening striking all around, the sky looks the way it did the night of the Passover in the old movie the Ten Commandments. It’s like complete bedlam. The radio is blaring with the frightening pitchy whir of the off-key C note. Surrounding counties are sending in reports of funnel clouds spotted. Mom sequesters us kids, my sister and I, in the bath tub, I a calculated move that I assume would keep us safe AND clean. I mean, a TV crew would be by shortly, and it wouldn’t do to have your kids dirty on TV, even after the cataclysm.

So three tornados pass right over our house in quick succession. And where is my dad this whole time??? He is on the back porch grilling hot dogs. Steadying himself between the limestone wall of our house and a fence post, feet locked in tightly, methodically turning the hot dogs over to keep the cooking evenly, the way a master grill chef does. He calmly strolls into the panic filled house, a platter of juicy red hots with their skins cracked open in one hand, and a half eaten hot dog in the other. As he chews, he tells us that he watched the tail of the third tornado pass right over the house, and doesn’t decide to pack up the operation until the roof of a house trailer from the trailer park three miles away crash landed into the front yard like one of those Soviet missiles. Later we find out that the little store where we’d stopped for hot dog buns had been completely obliterated minutes after we’d made the condiment purchases, along with lots of other houses and businesses in the Hwy 50 corridor. We didn’t have electricity for another week, but thanks to dad’s hot dog cart, we didn’t starve. And after seeing a man that had laughed in the face of nature’s wrath, shaking his grill tongs at it with contempt. Picture the scene from Forrest Gump, where Lieutenant Dan is hanging from the top of the boat, screaming and cursing at the hurricane “YOU WILL NEVER SINK THIS SHIP!! HAHA!!” To this day that’s how I picture my Dad that afternoon, screaming at the storm, only he has legs, and instead of a shrimp boat he had a Charmaster grill. Same shirt and shorts though. Anyway, I learned a thing or two that day, and I never again feared the Midwestern Microburst.

So last night we played at Summerfest in Milwaukee WI, supporting Coheed and Cambria. It’s the biggest music festival there is. Seriously, it’s huge. It goes on for like two weeks, and there are top flight bands everyday, staggered in just such a way that you can catch them all. And the place is just for the purpose of seeing music, with big amphitheaters built everywhere. We were playing at the Miller Lite Oasis, which is a 7000 seat outdoor venue, with the big shed style stage on one end, and a bench seat pavilion ringed with booths selling, what else, Miller Lite. But Summerfest is even more than that, because of its Midwestern roots, its also the worlds largest county fair, with all the greasy rides, greasy foods, and just a general sense of down home fun. It really is awesome.

On the way to the show it was raining. The sky was beginning to turn dark and ominous. We had the radio on, listening to the broadcast from Summerfest, various band interviews and the DJ talking about all the hot shows to catch and which stages they would be on,

Then there is a pause mid-sentence. Then: ERRRRR ERRRRRRR ERRRRR ER ER ER ER ERRRRRRRRRRR WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

For some reason, even though the rest of the nation has got to the new emergency broadcast system signal of ER sounds, Indiana still plays the Eisenhower era WHIR. My ears perk up. Here comes the robotic voice. Severe thunderstorm. Quarter size hail. Chance of strong tornados.

Doesn’t mother nature know that Absentstar has a show tonight? One the Miller Lite Oasis stage, with Coheed and Cambria?

We get to the venue. As we were loading our gear onto the stage, the sky looks terrible, and it’s pouring rain on thousands of concertgoers who are standing out in the open, standing on aluminum benches, just waiting for lightening to kiss the tops of their heads. Then I can’t the aroma of HOT DOGS. I almost turned to Marshall and in my deepest voice say “The prophecy has been fulfilled.”

We take the stage, and the rain is coming down. And the crowd is so awesome. They don’t even seem to mind the rain, and perhaps it was even a welcome respite to the heat of the day.

There was a video crew there that was working the stage, pointing huge cameras at us to broadcast our images from the massive overhead projectors so the people way in the back could see. Right next to me there is a tripod set up and a camera pointing down at me. Marshall struts over and mouths “What is this??” The thing doesn’t really look so much like a camera, but more like the decapitated head of Johnny 5, the robot from the 1980’s comedy Short Circuit, starring Steve Gutenburg (sp?). Later I tell Marshall that it was the cousin of the guy that does the voice-over work for the national weather service’s emergency broadcast. I hammed it for the camera a bit, which was fun, as I don’t usually do that. The crowd got especially rowdy and into our newest setlist addition, called Slow Motion Change.

Supposedly we got a DVR copy of the performance, so I’m gonna see about getting that up online ASAP. I thought it was a particularly great show. Coheed and Cambria. Just, wow. Great band, great performers. And yes, Claudio Sanchez’s hair really is that big in real life. In fact, it’s much bigger. But man he is a monster on guitar, what a treat to watch and listen to.

See you soon! Have a great 4th of July!!

Heath.absentstar

<img src="http://a737.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/86/l_c39680b5fe7c4d776267f8e3d0e9c2b8.jpg">

Hey guys..

Check the front page at Purevolume, where they've put us up in the picks section!! Make sure and download the bootleg version of Dont Lock Me Out that I posted!

Heath.absentstar

Hey guys...

So I'm packing my bags as I type this, so forgive the misspellings.

We'll be playing at the Canopy Club in Champaign IL tonight with Lifehouse. Really hope all our Champaign friends can come out and see us!! That would rock.

Hope everyone is well!

Heath.absentstar

Hey all...hoping our new Buzznet friends can come out and see us live.  We are playing a few shows with the awesome band Push Play.  Here is the line-up for now.. More shows to be added...this is all build up for a later summer tour!
Heath.absentstar

July 2 - Summerfest
w/ Coheed and Cambria

July 8 - Champaign IL
The Canopy Club
w/ Push Play
18+
6:30pm

July 9 - St. Louis MO
The Bluebird
w/ Push Play
ALL AGES
8PM

July 11 - Chicago IL
The Metro
(w/ Empires)
18+

July 12 - Grand Rapids MI
The Intersection
w/ Push Play
All Ages

in the mornings when im browsing through all the messages i have at our litany of online sites, i like to have a bite of breakfast. usually what this entails is eating oats, but not oatmeal. i eat oats straight out of the cardboard cannister with a spoon. what makes it good is maple syrup. i keep a bottle of it on my right. so i load up a mouthful of oats with my spoon, then down a shot of syrup behind it. its delicious. i learned that trick at the kentucky derby.

whats your favorite breakfast?

heath.absentstar

So this weekend I was out jogging on the lakeshore and got trapped by another midwestern microburst, otherwise known as a thunderstorm. Came out of nowhere. So I hid under this little bridge near Lincoln Park Zoo.  Across the way the Lincoln Park arts fest was happening, and there was an 1980's tribute band on, kicking out some Whitesnake hits and other assorted sonic-torture from the prick rock era.  It was pouring rain and lightening, so I was stuck there with a few other peeps that also found the refuge. I got embarrassed when they saw me singing along the the high note section in the Whitesnake song.  I decided to take my chances with the lightening rather than stand there and be laughed at.  I know they know the words too, regardless of what they say. 

Also, I'm getting a new board today.

What's everyone else up to? How was the weekend for you??? Who is coming to the Metro show on July 11??

Heath.absentstar

Hey, they just posted one of my road stories at Downtown Money Waster, an NYC music mag! Check it out!!

http://www.downtownmoneywaster.com/MAIN/artist%20column/Absentstar/heath/road%20stories%201.html

Heath.absentstar

Hey, like I said I would, I posted up another song to download on Myspace, called Passive Aggressive.  Go get it and enjoy it!! I think you will like it a lot!

http://www.myspace.com/absentstar

Heath.absentstar

Hey, we are working up a tour schedule. If you live outside of Chicago (or even in Chicago), where is your favorite place in your town to see a show?

Heath.absentstar

I just got an email that said our song "Give In To Me" has been added to the rotation at CD101.  Awesome. Listen for it, because there aren't many more simple pleasures than listening to the radio in the summer.  Make sure and download the song from our Myspace so that you are the cool kid weeks before everyone else!!!  Im sure well be rolling through there and playing a show before too long.  I'll let ya know.

Rock Y Roll,

Heath.absentstar

http://www.myspace.com/absentstar

Hey!! I was doing a few updates here, waiting on the final cut of the new video...and I had my Ipod blasting on shuffle. It was a pretty funny mix.  But right now I've got this old Cure song on, and it's really fitting the day.  What's everyone else listening to???  Should I post up another Absentstar song on Myspace for you to download??

Alright, I have to get over to the Metro and drop off some posters...

Heath.absentstar

So I forgot to mention this....it's kind of entertaining. Last week we were working on our video for "Give In To Me", finishing up the last scenes at various locations in Chicago.  So the very last scene involves me and Andy and a homeless man.  It obviously looked like some kind of filming was being done, what with the camera crew and helpers and a bunch of long hair band dudes walking around in their stage clothes.  Totally our of place on the street, you know?  Out of nowhere this big black Mercedes rolls up and parks in the street with his hazards flashing, and a guy with a huge camera hangs out of the window. Guh-juh guh-juh guh-juh...(that's me making noises for a camera snapping quick shots.)  He stayed there for like 30 minutes.  I got my lil camera out and took some photos of him too, then he quickly rolled up his window and sped off.  Check your next OK! or InStyle magazine to see shots of us filming the video!

Heath.absentstar

they want 1200 for a board that i only gave 40 for. and when i got it, it had trucks and everything. laymo....maybe ill just pick up an old hosoi or something.  any of you skate?

heath.absentstar

they want 1200 for a board that i only gave 40 for. and when i got it, it had trucks and everything. laymo....maybe ill just pick up an old hosoi or something.  any of you skate?

heath.absentstar

Man, I used to skate a lot. I'd go through boards every month.  Trucks shot. Wheels shot.  I'd eat holes in all my shoes. It was silly. I had this oddball vintage board that was like my steed, my Excalibur. We were totally invincible together and terrorized people on the sidewalks with goofy footed tricks from my trick bag labeled "1987".  A kick flip over the fake doggy hydrant? No problem. Eat your heart out Lance Mountain....The board was the most ugly creation ever, with a weirdo skull graphic and wormy eyes and a sword going through his head. And I had these ugly neon trucks and massive old school T-bone wheels on there.  Then some idiot stole my Metallica ride.  I was crushed.  Now I need to find another and start skating again.  Because with gas at these prices......

Heath.absentstar