Spring Tour 2025: Week 1
Humidity 4, Gooseberry 0
Look at us! Making good on our promise to provide reportage from the road! And from a fledgling band still!
As we head into the second week of this run, we wanted to take a quick moment to reflect on the week that was. For Gooseberry, it was a week of many firsts:
First show in New Orleans
First show in Florida
And then second, and third…
First time eating crawfish1
Before we reflect, all you procrastinators: GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE REST OF THE SHOWS!!
Down on the Bayou
After a short 20 hour drive from Brooklyn to New Orleans, we were able to spend a night out in The Crescent City. This was Evin’s first time in New Orleans, so naturally we had to do all the touristy shit you do when you travel to a city you’ve never been to and completely forget all sense of self. We hit Bourbon Street. We walked around the French Quarter. We got beignets at Cafe du Monde.2 Though the sun wasn’t always present, the humidity sure the fuck was. And lemme tell ya: this New York boy (specifically, this New York boy’s hair) was not built for the swamp. Felt like I was drowning standing up. And everyone we met told us this was actually mild! Gotta love ‘em.
Perhaps our most adventurous moment in New Orleans came at the dinner table:
Can’t go to New Orleans and not eat a pound of crawfish. For the uninitiated, crawfish are the bottom feeder’s bottom feeder. They quite literally eat pieces of shit for breakfast. And yet! This mutant shrimp-lobster-crab thing is the mascot for this beautiful city. And who are we to deny ourselves the pleasure? If folks down here know one thing, it’s food. Probably because everything down here is loaded up with enough butter and salt to level out the humidity all around.
One problem: none of us had ever eaten these critters. We needed a guide. A crawfish shaman, if you will. And right as voodoo, she appeared: a thickset woman with a wrap around her hair and a thick Bayou accent. She strode in without a word, grabbed one of the crawfish from the plate, and began her lecture:
Grab the tail, twist clockwise and pull
Tilt your head back and suck out the juice (the more aggressively you hoover, the more correct you are)
Bite down on each claw and tongue out as much meat as you can pillage
Take the remaining half you just suctioned, place it in your offhand, and peel the body in that same clockwise motion
Once enough of the meat is exposed, chomp and pull
Repeat until all crawfish are gone or an artery clots
I don’t love shrimp. Lobster is fine. I prefer octopus and white fish to the options with claws. But I cannot lie: these guys were damn tasty. Best part though? The veggies and sausage that had been soaking in the juices at the center of the plate.
Our food tour would not end there for our performance the next night was at Hogs For The Cause. BBQ as far as the eye could see. A sold out festival crowd that came hungry. And all for a great cause.
This was a hell of a way to make our debut in New Orleans. We can’t wait to be back. Get the Slap Yo Mama ready.
Florida Man Returns
You can move Florida Man to Brooklyn, give him an NPR hat and a tote bag, but once he returns to his native soil, he is Florida Man once again. After talking about it for years, we finally got Gooseberry down to the Land of the Rossingtons! And Florida, you did not disappoint.
We stopped into Tallahassee to celebrate 13 years of Proof Brewing. Never before has our yearbook experienced an onslaught as it did that night.3 From there, we hightailed it on over to Jacksonville for two nights of shows: Sunday at Ruby Beach Brewing and Monday at The Walrus. Sunday night was a family affair as the extended Rossington universe came out, in addition to longtime fans and new faces too. We also had the best smash burger of our lives. At The Walrus, we finally got to jam with our friends Fortune Child and they absolutely ripped it up. Hope to get back with those dudes ASAP.
After that, we had two glorious off days in Jacksonville Beach that we spent with close family and friends, reminiscing old times and playing bumper pool. Maybe less than 5 years before the next time, eh Florida?
Reunited and It Feels So Good(seberry)
The BabyJake tour kicks off tonight! First up, Atlanta. Oh, Atlanta. How we love playing in the land of the peach. Our itinerary for the next week with Jake is as follows:
4/10/25 - Atlanta, GA - Altar at The Masquerade
4/12/25 - Charlotte, NC - The Evening Muse
4/14/25 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
4/15/25 - Washington, D.C. - Pearl Street Warehouse
4/17/25 - Brooklyn, NY - Elsewhere Zone One
4/18/25 - Somerville, MA - The Rockwell
If you haven’t already clicked at the top of this newsletter, here’s where to buy tickets:
What convenience! See what we do for you?? Can’t wait to see Gazetters at these upcoming shows. Let’s pack them out, shall we? <3
Evin was born for this.
And promptly spilled a few tons of powdered sugar onto our clothes while tired servers watched on their smoke break.
Perhaps this serves us right for leaving a yearbook and markers near an army of 6-11 year olds.
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