Welcome to the Summerlove 2007 Tour Diary!

Babes in Blogland welcome you to the Tour Diary, in order to experience the Summerlove 2007 Tour Diary in chronological order, just scroll to the bottom and begin when you see the orange Summerlove Postcard! Or really trip out and go backwards in time starting here.

Sweet Home, Half Moon Bay

We’ve arrived home from tour just in time for pumpkin season.

Sippy Paul is pictured here with big league Sippy fans, Clara and brother Finn at the annual Pumpkin Weigh-off.
This year’s winner is over 1500 lbs! Its a nice time of year on the coast and we’re glad to be back.

Spare the rock, spoil the interview

We get to meet one of our kid rock heroes. No, its not Raffi, nor is it Dan Zanes, not even Greg from the Wiggles. Bill Childs has been doing kid rock radio since before it was called that. His show “Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child” airs on Valley Free Radio • 8 to 10 am Saturdays • Northampton, Mass. • 103.3 FM and on iTunes too. He’s the co-founder of the Fids & Kamily Awards with Stefan Shepard (Zooglobble) and the Lovely Mrs. Amy Davis . We finally meet Bill in person and get interviewed by his boss, daughter Ella.

We are NOT Ben Kweller!

At the end of our astounding second set at ACL (it really was quite good . . . ) the stage is bumrushed by a tide of PWOKs (people without kids). While we really favor this demographic, truth be told, these are not the largest part of our fan base. Its an amazing moment, we all look at each other – its finally happened – INDIE ROCK CROSSOVER!!

No such luck, Ben Kweller is on the schedule 15 mins after our stop time, this crowd is just trying to get a good spot for the next show. Now we know what its like to be on right before Patti Smith at Lollapalooza. We all have a laugh over it and Sippy Mark lets the fans strum his guitar.

If you sip it, they will come . . .

Hooray, the families have arrived in full effect. We find once again
that Austin is a home away from home for The Sippy Cups. Great
families, great kids, even in this heat – a rousing good time was had
by all. This setup was the best of the outdoor festivals. The Kid
Stage was near enough to all the others to get some pass by traffic.
Lots of people brought their kids and the programming was terrific.

ACL Beach

Theres a beach set up right next to our stage with chairs, sand and
giant blowers with water schpritzers built in. This is promising –
it could attract people to this area, also if were overheated we
could just hang out here (as the Verlanders have chosen to do.) This
show typically gets into the 100+ degree range!

Austin City Limits – Part One

We arrive unscathed in Austin. This is our second time playing this
wonderfully hip family-friendly town. At SXSW we had a big outdoor
show and a great time. This one promises to shine as well. The
stage is produced by Tor Hyams who also did Lollapalooza. Tor is a
kids music producer and all-around cool guy. What will the turn-out
be like? Will people bring their kids to this big festival that
offers shows by Bob Dylan, Bjork, Spoon, Muse, Damien Rice, Crowded
House, The Sippy Cups?

Good Morning Texas

We do our second live morning show appearance (Good Morning San Diego
was the first back in April). Good Morning Texas is very
professional and beams out live from the dramatic American Airlines
Center in downtown Dallas. We don’t get to interrupt the weather
report with juggling and ad lib as we did in San Diego, but we do
have Sippy Lia and her cousin Chloe join us on air and Sippy Mark‘s
sister Cindy bakes us a huge tray of her famous chocolate cupcakes.
We perform Use Your Words, Magic Toast and tape Jingle Bell
Rock for their Xmas Eve show.

Dallas – The Belmont Hotel

We arrive at the rock star ready Belmont Hotel in Dallas and
immediately run into our favorite road warrior, the musician,
songwriter and studio owner, John Vanderslice. John owns Tiny
Telephone in SF where we recorded much of Electric Storyland, but
I‘ve never actually met him since he spends a lot of the year on the
road. He regales us with tales and economics of good road work. He
reminds us of the beauty of third cities and the warm welcome he
receives in places like Iowa and Florida. He says he could give it
up on a moment‘s notice but I remind him that he really loves it.

Walnut Creek

We return home to California and not only enjoy the embrace of our families, but a huge family theatre festival in Walnut Creek. We are the headliners for two shows and sell them out in the 800+ seat theatre. The crowd seems to know all the words and we are joined by our West Coast Springtime Fantastic, the adolescent aerialist, Anna Robertson.

Cleveland Rocks

I always knew that Cleveland was a cool rock and roll town. Disc Jockey Alan Freed coined the term “Rock and Roll” on a Cleveland radio station, WJW in 1954. Long before the Rock Hall opened, I was a Todd Rundgren fan in good ole NJ. The East Coast rock scene was pretty close knit and when Todd did his live double album “Back to the Bars” he chose the Bottom Line in NYC, the Agora Theatre in Cleveland and the Roxy in L.A. Why Cleveland? I wondered. Turns out the biggest Todd fans in the East were there. But what’s this got to do with the Cups? You guessed it, these hardcore rock and roll fans have procreated and shown up at our House of Blues gig with their little ones in tow. We had a wonderful show and play to a great crowd. We start the day off at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – best field trip on the tour!

Lollapalooza – a night off, Alison’s bday.

Tonight’s blowout was well worth the trip. After taking advantage of the ample backstage provisions including dinner, open bar and Lucky Jeans giveaways (as well as The Ice Cream Man and the most tricked out portajohn courtesy of Kohler), we hang for drinks with homies, The Hipwaders. The Cups go in two directions as some catch the vibes at Ben Harper, some rave up at Daft Punk and Sippy Alison celebrates her birthday with chocolate cake and champagne!

Lollapalooza!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, is a slideshow worth a million?

Juggling on the Radio – Part Two

If I told you that Sippy Joe actually met Howard Stern would you believe me? (Ask him yourself next time.) We play a bunch of songs for Sirius 116 – Kidstuff and have a really good time doing so! Sirius has only got wind of us in the last few months, but has been a huge supporter. They even carried “Little House of Jello” to Number Two a few weeks ago! Doug does some serious juggling, but you’ll have to tune into 116 to hear what it sounds like.

Central Park Summerstage, NYC

We try out the old West Coast kidrock psychedelia on a “95 degrees in the shade” urban audience. Surprising in this heat, but they ‘throw their hands up in the air and wave them all around like they just don’t care!” We share the bill with plush preschool TV star “Hip Hop Harry”, and genuinely feel like we can’t complain about the heat compared to their crew (except maybe Tea David who wears the Skeptosaurus costume in “Use Your Words.”) We really seem to hold our own for this audience and after the show, we go out with East Coast family and friends to celebrate.

Touring the Capitol – White Buildings and hot feet.

Sippy Paul’s nephew Bob offers to tour us in his former home town. We get to see where government sometimes happens and enjoy dipping our hot feet in a marble fountain. After a crazy day and a long drive ahead of us, we enjoy this respite and follow it with some BBQ and cold beverages. Back to XM for the gear and onto the highways for the long haul up to NYC. Some of us take a day at Brigantine Beach, NJ courtesy of Sippy Nina and her local family.

XM Kids Radio

After a mad load-out and drive from Vienna, we arrive at the XM Studios in downtown D.C. for a Rumpus Room concert. A studio audience of employees, friends, fans and best of all: kids, has gathered with great anticipation. In full Sippy style, we setup a beautiful show and perform it for the studio audience. The wife of a VP of the network tells us that she’s a huge Sippy fan, the staff makeup artist wears my favorite Flaming Lips T-shirt and we get our photo taken with the goddess of kids music on satellite radio, “Absolute” Mindy Thomas.

Day One – Vienna, Virginia

The first official out of town show of the tour is here in Vienna, Virginia – a very family-oriented town just outside Washington, D.C. Despite the humble coffeehouse exterior and name, Jammin Java delivers one of the most enthusiastic audiences we’ve ever encountered. We sell the show out, pick up a great review in the Washington Post and dash off to XM Radio in downtown D.C. to do a recorded concert in front of a live audience. We promise to come back soon (Dec.2nd for two shows!)

Summerlove Begins: Marin County Fair

On the fortieth anniversary of San Francisco’s Summer of Love, a band of parents gathered together their instruments went out to America to share the celebration. We begin this summer’s story in our own back yard at the Marin County Fair. Sippy Doug was invited to put this show together for the Marin Sanitary District and they’ve called the show “Sewerpalooza!” Its a great audience, a hot day and a beautiful stage under a big top tent. We rock the ferris wheel and get ready to hit the road!