The summer of 2000 was almost a little tour within itself. Well, more like a tour where we had a couple weeks off at a time. Regardless, they played out more this summer than they ever had in three months. And it made them feel good.

Jay, feeling rather sleepy at IHOP.

Date: May 14, 2000

As a fitting start to the summer, Dave prepared for weeks to record Britney's big appearance on TRL, but the day of, simply forgot to.

Date: June 3, 2000  -- Location: Stratford Green

Playing thier earliest show yet, they started playing at 11:30am. Since these bums were not accustomed to getting up so early, they did everything they could to rock into the post-meridian hours. They captured the collective heart of Stratford, too.

Date: June 16, 2000 -- Location: Turner's Falls, Mass

Being the first member of the band to gradutate from an institution of higher education is a big thing! Especially for Jay, since he was the one who graduated. It was a joyous and hot day. Jay sure does take some pretty pictures.

Date: June 30, 2000 -- Location: Christ Church Hall, Stratford

Returning to the religious roots the band sprouted from... no that's not right. They sang songs about girls. Supporting SiMent at this show was 'In Progress', Vinnie's Address (ralph's brother's band), and Saffron. Ralph debuted his very own song that night, "In Your Arms", written, sung, and played on guitar all by Ralph. What a guy! The highlight of SiMent's set was Anne from Saffron unexpectedly running up and singing a duet with Dave on 'Lying to Myself'. Very unexpected. But, at the same time, very very cool. Rumour has it that Anne is SiMent's biggest groupie. Story at 11.

We canned our old guestbook, and let's just see how long this link will work, shall we?

Date: July 14, 2000 -- Location: Toad's Place, New Haven

Reprising thier role as openers for Mighty Purple, SiMent rocked Toad's yet again! Four times in one year. Not bad, eh? Sharing the bill was Anne O'Meara Heaton, and The Weighdown. This was an excellent show overall, and we had loads of fun at it. Debuting at this show is the first as-yet-untitled Jay-written contribution to SiMent. Boy that song rocks. Jay left the next day for Florida.

Date: August 4, 2000 -- Location: Little City Cafe, Middletown

Being the underage peeps that Dave and Brian were, the bar forced them to wear glowing circles which made them highly visible. This show was part of a band contest. Competing this night were Mr. Superlove, The Kelvins, The Aloha Steamtrain, and us. The Kelvin's won.

Date: August 11, 2000 -- Location: Jimmy's Seaside, Stamford

This night was the official kickoff of "The SiMent-Saffron world tour", or according to Saffron, "The Saffron-SiMent world tour". Whichever way you look at it, we both played that night. It was loads of fun.

 

This night also unveiled the official revamping of the band bass drum. Hey, it was a big deal to them, Ok?

 

Date: August 12, 2000 -- Location: Lazslo's Arts Cafe, Monroe, CT

This was the final show of the SiMent-Saffron World tour. It was sad that the world tour was over, but it certainly was a fun world tour! Scores of steel wool wielding fans grooved right along with Laszlo on this magical night. Saffron played, then Amnesty Underground played. Then us. A raging party followed. Laszlo himself benched over 200 pounds that night! Do NOT fuck with this guy!

Date: August 19, 2000 -- Location: Milford Oyster Festival

Just when the guys thought they couldn't play any earlier than 11:30, they were scheduled to play at 10. Awakening at around 6am, and loading in at 8, they discovered something new. This 'something' was called the 'morning' and boy was it weird. The PA was so huge, rumours have it that thier sounds reached Middlesex county. They had the rest of the day ahead of them to get completely sunburned!

Date: August 26, 2000 -- Location: Undisclosed Baseball field in Milford

Challenging Saffron to the 1st annual SiMent-Saffron softball game (or the Saffron-SiMent softball game, according to them) was the easy part. Winning the game proved more difficult. Final score: 26-21, Saffron (I think)

After the big game, we headed back to Kevo's for BBQ and some poorly-played music!

Ralph, getting all Vitamin Tramp on an intense game of flip-cup.
Brendan, Ralph, Josh, Marc and Anne... good times!

Date: August 30, 2000 -- Location: WPI Quad, Worcester, Mass

Every time SiMent goes to play on the Quad at WPI, they think they can play just fine without practicing a week (or more) beforehand. Boy were they proven wrong..again. Worse yet, they played a punk version of Ralph's "In Your Arms" with Dave barely keeping up on the drums. Remeber: SiMent members were collectively sore from the softball game four days prior) Favorite quote from show: "OWW MY JAW!" From Dow Jones and the Industrials, the headlining ska band.

And then Dave and Ralph went back to school...again. Well, the 30th was actually Dave's first day. And Ralph was already back at school, since we played there. Ok, so, classes began.