Long Island & Manhattan in August 2005

It is 2008. Obviously, this little tour happened 3 years ago. But, for the purposes of fleshing out the lives of the band members, let us begin the Third Class story here. Third Class existed since 1999, but this particular August series of shows marked the beginning of Third Class as an act that is commercially aware of itself. It marked the movement from playing only local shows, mostly in people's living rooms and barns, to playing out more and establishing a reputation as one of northeastern Ohio's true indie-music acts. Please go to WWW.THIRDCLASS.NET in order to hear about our origins on our biography page.
Anyhow, this series of shows was our first tour, a small tour. It was a journey away from Youngstown, Ohio. On August 18, we played in our home town's city park, East Palestine City Park with a band called The Fading and a band from a leg of The Warped Tour called Brookside. We considered this to be the kick-off show of the tour.
After the show, we went to our favorite truck stop restaurant called 7 & 14 and ate. Then, that same night, we set off for New York.
Our first destination was Long Island, more specifically, Commack, New York. We had reserved a $ 15-per-night camp ground and when we got there we slept in the grass until the night came over us. Then it was off to our first show at McCoy's Bar. The date was Aug 19. We played with a band called A-life, as well as, a now very successful band who has opened for Hanson recently, Hyjinx. And, let us not forget, Steve Boyle, our little brother. He was the one who booked us this particular show. He toured with us the whole time in N.Y. The show was pretty good, but the Long Island crowd, we had the feeling, needed some funkier licks than what we, an indie-progressive act, or Steve Boyle, an indie-pop act, had to offer. All the same, we made some new friends, performed a respectable set and hung out with the other bands.
Then, we had a few days off until the next show. We were dumb enough not to bring a tent, partially because it didn't fit into the van, so we slept on the ground the next couple nights. We also tried sleeping in the front seats of the van.
In our spare time, we played on the playground at the camp site and drove to Fire Island and swam in the salty ocean. That was, looking back on it now, the funnest part. The dunes on the beach and the huge waves made for an awesome vacation while we awaited our next shows.
The next show was at The Coda in New York City on August 22. We basically played to the sound guy and the bartender. It was a monday, but we felt pretty stupid regardless. We even had made an effort to promote a lot outside before the show. Upon arrival in the city, we went straight to McDonald's and ate the first real meal we'd had in days. We were very low on money and had been feasting on peanut butter, granola bars and dried bags of tuna for the last few days. In the city, we stayed in The Riverside Studios hotel and it felt awesome to sleep in real beds with real mattresses.
On August 23rd, we played the Mad River Grille with a small audience of regulars and headed home the same night.
Then, on August 26th, we played somewhat of a home-coming show at the Upper Room Fellowship Church in Columbiana, Ohio. It was a late-night party for a youth group and we ended up playing capture the flag and it was a good time.