it is an hour until showtime and our friend and engineer chris holmes is in rare form. here’s what he has eaten so far today:

3 coffees
2 cappuccinos
1 can of coke
1 grilled cheese sandwich
2 chocolate chip cookies
1 red bull
and a banana

chris is not a healthy man.

tonight at the show in boston +44 is going to be signing at one of the booths. it’s going down at 6:30, so get there early! see you there.

at the show tonight in upstate new york, there is a road going down a huge hill behind the venue. paul wall bet someone a hundred bucks that he could ride down the hill on a skateboard. he stepped on the board and raced down the hill full speed. he reached the bottom going about the speed of light and had to jump off to avoid crashing into a semi truck unloading gear. then he wiped out and skidded across the loading dock on his elbows and knees.

soon after this he was onstage rocking the house.

in conjunction with the fearless records may 8th release of “punk goes acoustic 2,” which +44 has a track on, here is a free track from the record. the band is alesana, and the song is called “apology.” you have to be subscribed to the hi my name is mark podcast and it will download as a single track to the podcast section of your itunes. cool.

the academy is posted a video to their site, featuring 5 seconds of some AMAZING acting from the bassist of +44. check it out here.