Words and photos by As We Were.

This tour was our first time on the road since we got back from Europe. We picked up the van around 12 and headed straight for the border. The show was at 8 but we expected to get hassled by the border patrol especially with HEAVY1. They asked us to pull to the side, and we expected the worst, but after about 15 minutes and some odd looks from the border crossing guards, we were on our way to Montreal.

We played a club called the Katacombes with The Hunters and some other bands, show went well, ate poutine, drank a bunch of Roy Rogers. Slept at a friend’s house and made pancakes in the morning, all and all not a bad experience in Montreal and we hope to be back soon.

The next day we headed down to Plattsburg to play at the Rota Gallery, we’ve played there twice before and we have some good friends in that are who came out and partied with us. It’s always cool to pay DIY spaces that are totally independent so they can make their own rules and are very good to bands like us. After the show we went to a house in the middle of nowhere and played a house party. Small living room that could comfortably fit ten people in it had about 30 and then had four bands all sleeping in it that night. The Hunters brought sleeping bags; we took the couches and got to sleep at about 3 in the morning.

We left Plattsburg at about 9 in the morning to make it to an early show in Boston at the Democracy Center, again a bunch of friends and a really great band called Fucking (F-ing) Invincible!

The weekend with HEAVY1 was a great re-introduction to the road and we’ll hopefully be tearing up the highways with it again very soon. Thanks to Jim and Big Heavy for their continued support of us and all underground Vermont Music.

Words & Photoby Lynguistic Civilians.

“We forgot how much fun it was taking Heavy1.  With Heavy2 you have the comfort with cruise control and automatic windows and locks, but in Heavy1 you are the center of attention.  We started Thursday night here in Burlington opening up for DJ Shadow at Higher Ground.  An amazing night of music to say the least.  We then took off for Freedom Field in Harmony, ME.  We had perfect weather until half way through our set it started to downpour.  Even with the weather it was one of our favorite sets.  We then headed south to Uncasville, CT for a VH1 Save The Music Fundraiser.  We made a lot of new fans and had fun rocking for a new crowd.  Monday we took off back to VT for a benefit concert to support the Hurricane Irene Relief Fund.  We finished it off back in Burlington for an epic night at Club Metronome.  Sharing the stage with legends like Krumbsnatcha, Block McCloud and Chi-King (ODB’s brother) was beyond memorable.  Thank you to Big Heavy World for supplying us with the transportation to make this “mini” tour happen.”

Kat Wright & The Indomitable Soul Band return from tour with a BHW van today!

Words and Photos by the Josh Panda Band.

“From September 6 to the 11th we rolled through 5 states (VT NY PA OH MI), 2 provinces (ON QC), played 4 gigs, logged 2300 miles, sold out of CD’s, met Booker T Jones of Booker T & The MGs, partied with Bright Light Social Hour ’til 5 in the morning, won 8 stuffed animals in an arcade mechanical arm grab, and got pulled over and questioned one block from home after dropping the rest of the band off. Rock & roll. A big thanks to Big Heavy World for their support of local music and arts.”

Norm Nolan at Champlain Transmission. Photo by James Lockridge.

HEAVY 1, Big Heavy World’s original loaner tour van, is now back in action! With big thanks to Norm Nolan at Champlain Transmission for cracking the code and saving us over $1,000 in repair costs; to The Hub Teen Center & Skatepark & Town of Bristol for pitching in, and to Vaporizer and Lynguistic Civilians for hosting fundraising concerts that landed both transmission repairs and new tires! Vermont bands should contact info@bigheavyworld.com for more information about borrowing the BHW vans.

Words and photo by Lynguistic Civilians.

“We had a very busy weekend, rocking three shows in 24 hours.  We started Friday night at Manhattans Pizza for Walshie Steeze’s Birthday Bash.  We then picked up the van and headed down to the Magic Hat Artifactory for the Wall To Canvas Benefit.  This event was so amazing and we were so happy to be apart of it.  We then took off for Southern Vermont to rock for Hunger Fest.  We turned on “The Aztext Pandora Station” and headed down I-89 in BHW2.  We got to the show and had a great time making a bunch of new fans and being able to spread our music once again!”

Words & photo by Lynguistic Civilians.

“We took Heavy2 this weekend on a three-day tour around New England. We have to start by thanking the Funkwagon crew for allowing us to extend our van time and making our trip a lot easier. We started out leaving Burlington 8am Thursday morning, heading out to Harmony, Maine for Freedom Festival 2012. It was a beautiful day driving through the White Mountains and back roads of Maine. We got to the festival had an amazing show, meet amazing people and can’t wait to go back next year. The next morning we took off for Northampton, MA.  We were able to enjoy the day and stop at Ogunquit Beach for a bit, hit the Scarborough Go Karts and still make it to the venue on time. We opened up for The Alchemystics at Bishops Lounge and had an amazing time. Good music and good people.  We are playing with them again at Nectar’s Saturday September 1st. We finished off the trip heading back home on Saturday to rock The Vermont Pub & Brewery with our good friends The Aztext. This “mini” tour was one we will never forget. Come check us out Friday August 24th for Walshie Steeze’s Birthday Bash at Manhattans Pizza. This will be sponsored by Long Trail and will be raising money for the BHW Van Fund.”

Words and photo by Vaporizer.

“Vaporizer recently played a long weekend of shows around New England. Big Heavy World let us use their 15 passenger van for the duration of the trip, for which we are eternally grateful. In “the old days” Vaporizer would tour with the band and all our gear jam-packed into the belly of a Honda Odyssey. Needless to say, the luxury of a spacious 15 passenger vehicle was not lost on us.

Our first night was in Worcester, MA. To those who don’t know, Worcester is the home of the largest TableTalk Pie factory in the universe. The whole town smells like sweet sweet apple pie [among other things]. We played at Ralph’s Diner, one of our favorite clubs. The venue is nestled back in the bowels of an industrial area of town. There is an eatery on the first of two floors. The sole cook always makes sure to insult everyone equally and brutally. The stage is upstairs, where there is also a bar with a neon sign that reads “time to fuck.” This is a dead give-away that you are in the very room where god coined the term, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Radio Bar in Boston was next. Luckily the drive from Worcester to Boston is less than 30 seconds [perhaps the fumes were getting to me]. From the outside, Radio Bar looks like a place you might hide if you suddenly found yourself in Dresden circa February 14th, 1945. Who could have ever possibly predicted that this shitty facade would house THE BEST sound man and PA that Vaporizer has ever played through. It was nothing short of amazing… same goes for the bands that played with us. Go check out Summoner, awesome stoner doom.

The drive to Brooklyn, NY was warm, to say the least. The show was in a second floor art space/loft. Super-high ceilings and lots of mirrors in strange places. The party that followed was fairly outrageous and ended with Vern locking himself out of the building and sleeping on the street. High-fives all around. P.S. – Dear Brooklyn, never have I ever had the option of purchasing bulk quantities of socks on the street, via travelling sock-salesman. Thank you for enriching my life.

We made the six hour trek back to Burlington, VT without any major disruptions… only saw one naked man at a rest stop. So yeah, hell of a time. Thanks Big Heavy World for hooking us up. Can’t wait to play your fundraiser show on 8/23 @ the Monkey House. Over and out, Vaporizer”

Words by Lynguistic Civilians.

“We turned the corner on a quiet road in Bristol, VT and saw the new Big Heavy World Van for the first time.  Power windows, power locks and cruise control?… We have never ridden in such luxury.  As we took off down Route 7 towards Chester we were all waiting for the points and waves from by passers in awe of the phenomenal paint job, but that is not the case with HEAVY2…. at least not yet.  We got to The Pizza Stone in Chester, Vermont and had an amazing show with Burlington’s Somewhere In The Solution and Chester’s Realeyez opening the night.  We love being able to ride together in the BHW van and this van takes the comfort to a whole new level.”

Words by Janet Van Fleet

“I borrowed the van on Tuesday morning, January 17 to transport a van-full of sculpture to the Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College. My friend and colleague Ann Young helped me pack the work into the van, which involved bringing it up from basement storage in a freight elevator, rustling out one of the seats that was frozen into the van’s floor (enthusiastic mopping by a previous borrower had pooled water in the attachment points of the seats, and they were frozen in place), and packing it full of my sculpture and Ann’s paintings. It was hard to get the camera back far enough to get a real sense of how much stuff was packed into every available inch.

It was pretty nasty weather, with freezing rain (seems like freezing water was a theme here…), and we were late for our delivery due to the seat-melting activity. But Bill Ramage and Castleton student Victoria helped us unload and get the work into the gallery, where the other five artists in the exhibit had finished arranging their work.

Ann helped load the few boxes that had to make the return journey, and we made it back to Burlington in time for rush hour. Thanks so much to Big Heavy World and to James Lockridge for letting us borrow this cool vehicle!”

Words and photo by Ground Zero.

“November 19th, we took the BHW van all the way to Allenstown, New Hampshire. We packed 14 people in it and had a great time. The van really helped us out because we needed to sell 20 tickets to be able to play the show at GroundZero. So when we sold tickets to our friends, we wanted them to be able to actually go, and figured “hey, we should take the BHW van there!” If it wasn’t for this van our amazing show in NH wouldn’t have been possible. We really enjoyed using the van and we’re looking forward to hearing other band’s stories about taking the van on the road. My band wants to put on a benefit show for the van. I think when we do, each band that plays has to tell a story on stage about the van! Thanks again Jim and Big Heavy World for loaning it to us!”