Hungry March Band: It's Samantha Tsistinas

other projects	Hair Stylist @ K.E.Haas, Drummer, Wine drinker, Artist, Whiskey & Whores house band
interests	Brass music, punk rock, Cymbals, taking over the world with the HMB! Beaches, Seas, Naps, Friends & Family, Art, Travel, Skiing, Movies, Writing, Deserts, Wine Country, etc...drumming drumming & more drumming then a nap and a good book and learning French & Trombone!
HMB Stories	It's a secret.

Samantha Tsistinas's HMB Web Diary

Sun, Jul 16, 2006 HMB summer tour 2006
Wow, this was a great one, seemed kind of mellow but very eventful. I'm missing the band more than ever. I has to come home early for work which in the end I did'nt have anyway so I'm super bummed out, but gotta get over it.
The tour started 2 hours outside of Berlin in an old Russian Airfield with these camoflaged airplane bunkers that were turnied into stages, theaters, a caberet, space lounge, movie theater, and dance clubs. They were cover with grass and tress so from the sky they looked like little hills. The event was called the Fusion Festival. There were lots of well known acts and performances from all over the world and we were one of them. They gave us 2 big tents with ten cots in each, one for the girls and one for the guys. We were there for 4 days. They only sold vegetarian food so we all started craving meat. There were lots of hippies. Maybe we scared them, but most people loved us. The festival gave us a certain amount of food & drink stamps per day, we felt like we were on welfare using the stamps. And the last day we were there of course the HMB collected all our left over tickets and went and got a case of beer for the bus train ride home, such hordes we are.
More later...

Thu, Apr 27, 2006 Pustule invades NYC
Ah yes, Le Pustule...
You'll be happy to know I'm trying my best to wear down the
Pustules, it almost worked, It's in your hands now...

No, no one's in trouble, don't worry. Sandra & I took 7 Pustules on
a walk through Central Park yesterday. Sandra is a fountain of
knowledge when it comes to NYC tidbits, she makes a great tour guide. I
on the other hand just point at things and say, "there's a nice
building, now let's go..."
Six Pustules ended up going to the Empire State Building and Sabine,
Sandra and I went and had lunch in Bryant Park and then went to the
ladies room in the NY public library, I love that building.
Then Sabine said she'd like to find a feminist, women's rights, book
store, so we took her to Blue Stockings and then into Babes in Toyland.
We headed over to CBGB's gallery to meet up with the rest of the
Pustules and Sara V was bartending. Ben, Jason & Sebastian eventually
showed up.
In the meantime I got a call from Jason Blackcat asking me if I
wanted to come to the Bushwick space to come collect some cheese and
also to invite me to an art exhibition there. I said "no, I can't , I
have a French Marching band ". He said bring them, they can play. So I
asked the Pustules if they wanted to play and they said yes, but some
didn't have their instruments, and the rest of the equipment was in
Sebby's house which we rushed over to get because we were to play at
10:30, and only at 9:15 did we decide to do this. Chris & Sara met with
the truck to bring the equipment to the show. We walked super fast from
the J train to my house for a quick impromptu dinner of cheese crackers
fruit & guacamole that happened to be left over from my roommates party
the night before, plus of course more wine. I lent my snare drum to
Chicken, Ben got a mouth piece for Sabine, and a pair of claves were
given to Patron.
I ordered up 3 car services at Metro right near my house. They got us
to Bushwick in no time, however Chris and Sara were lost with the
instruments in the truck. Finally, after much driving around and cell
phone conversations with my car service guy, they found their way.
We headed up stairs to a pretty empty low-key party where Jason
Blackcat said go for it. Pustule hit the stage, and brought the party
to LIFE! Oh it was so beautiful to hear them again, I forgot how much I
love them and they are sounding better than ever, plus it wasn't even
the full band! They fed us wine & beer, lots of people were dancing and
happy. A friend said to me "Sam you are the only one I know who would
show up with a French Marching Band in tow".
Yeah, and then those stupid a-hole men in blue showed up to once
again shut them down. They were told to play quieter and then one of the
cops threatened to confiscate the instruments so I told them not to play
at all. They played a good full half hour, so they were happy. They
gave us more beer and we stuck around to play baci ball but with balls 3
times bigger than basketballs and 50 pounds each, then they attempted to
play pool with a long 2 by 4. I'll send photos later.
I rounded up the troops, called for 3 car services and came back to
my place. We dropped off the instruments and went across the street to
Sputin & Duvil, my favorite beer & wine bar, where Pustule broke out
into a song. And we drank even more. They were happy, I won points, 20.
And today I had 4 Pustules with me this morning, thankfully my first
client had a late night too and moved her appointment to 4.
Pustule, coming to a theater near you!
Sam

Sun, Mar 06, 2005 Entry 2
damn I'm tired, 2 shows this weekend. Played at Tonic from midnight until 2 am, very fun show! Even did some freestyling rapping. Had plenty of beer on stage, never had to be interupted because of lack of beer. Thanks for setting that up Sebestian!
Knitting Factory was mad fun too! It was packed and people were dancing, not like that one time we played there and the audience was full of duds sitting there watching us as if they were at the theater. GET UP AND Dance fools!
Even got see Shonen Knife. Romashka were great, Illuminecnse Orchistra were fabulous too and DJ Hutz was spinning the dancing mayhem. OK, nap time.

Sun, Jan 02, 2005 Entry 1
Wow, we have a blog! Cool, just remind me to write and I will.
The end of 2004 went out with a bang, and I should also say a crash! A Cymbal crash that is, because the HMB had one gig after another starting on Thursday at Galapagos. We rocked the house with 2 killer sets. The place was packed, it was New Year's Eve's Eve. We sold all our cds. The gig was listed in the Village Voice as pick of the week, so we had new people to entertain, and they were dancing up a storm. I even made $5!
New Years Eve we played at the Knitting Factory with Frank London's Klematics and a Brazilian Samba Band. I had started out my night riding with Critical Mass through the streets of NYC. As usual, we met up in Union Square at 7. The cops were handing out fliers saying "it is dangerous to ride in a procession... bla bla bla..and you will be arrested..." That was the last thing I wanted on New Year's Eve, especailly becasue we had 3 shows to play. I took my chance and rode anyway with my cymbals in my backpack. Those things get heavy! There were hardly any cops, they were just trying to scare people away. They were all too busy up at Time Square, which was where were were headed, but in an in-direct way. We rode on some crazy route which ended up circling around the Time Square Area. You could see all the street venders selling all that crap people buy for the celebration. There were lots of pople walking around, not too many cars. People cheered us on. It was a great ride, but we had to split to make our 9:00 gig at the Knitting Factory, so we rode all theway down from 56th street along with Critical Mass until we eventually split ways...

Knitting Factory was short but sweet. All 3 band played together at the of the show. There were about 30-40 musicians. It was fun. The audience loved it.
Then it was off to The Theatre For the New City for the Feva/Rubulad party where we were scheduled to go on around 11:30. Four of us had our bikes, so we had our own mini Critical Brass bike ride. Emily, Sebastion, Shanley and I rode over together. I stopped to get some quick take out sushi and saw Jeremy and Auria sitting at the counter and they invited me to sit with them. I order some sushi and it arrived fast, they were still waiting for their food. I chowed down on it, yummmmmmmm & ran across the street to the next show where there was a huge line going around the block. Yikes, it was crowded. I found our backstage coat check area and got settled in. It was around 11:45. I was worried Nat wouldn't get in because he went to another party and I was worried I wouldn't have some champaigne for the midnight toast. I found Ben and the drink tickets. The lines to the bars were huge. I was getting anxious because we were suppossed to be playing soon and I had no drink and no boyfriend to kiss at midnight.
Suddenly Nat appeared, the barteder handed me my champaigne, the band was gearing up, everything fell into place. Sandra led us out into the crowd where we got stuck during the countdown to midnight. I don't even know if there was one. Who knew, no one seemed to know when it was and what the exact time was. I just kept kissing Nat and drinking my drink just in case it was midnight. We finally made our way through the annoying crowd up to the stage, which was not big enough for us. But we managed to squeeze in with half on stage and half off.
We played for about 45 minutes or so, the place was packed, the crowd was loving us. I was lucky to have my friend Yelena watching us because she kept passing me some Soviet Champaigne, or whatever it was, it was good.
We played and played and then when we were finished we marched back through the crowd once more, back to our coat check room. And everyone said they were leaving. What??? Why?? Wimps! It was New Year's Eve, I wanted another drink. They were all worried they wouldn't wake up in time for our gig out in Coney Island the next morning. The good thing was, eveyone gave me their extra drink tickets! Yay! But I only used 2 anyway, I gave the rest away. The rst of the party was fun. I saw lots of people we knew and hadn't seen in a while. It was the first time since 6"30pm that I could actually relax and socialize. But i did want to get a few hours of sleep too for the next gig.
I was in bed by 3:30am, I was amazed it was so early. The bike ride home was fun because I got to see the hundreds of yuppies trying to get a taxi home and they were all full. I told some of them to get a bike! I hate taking taxis on New Years.
I got up at 9am got dressed brushed my teeth and got on the bike to ride to the D train at Grand and Chrystie where the Polar Bear Express Train was to pick me up. The train was from the 1930s and they were doing a one time special ride to Coney Island for the Polar Bear Swim.
Ruth and Robin got on at Columbus Circle, where the ride bagan. Next, Jason, Rich and Julie hopped aboard at Lafeyette St. As I waited for the train to arrive, I fixed my makeup and tried to make myself look awake. I got plenty of stares sitting on the subway platfrom at 9:30am in a marching band jacket and red crinaline skirt, but I like the attention! (just kidding) By the time the right train came I was already to get on. I put my hat on and the train pulled up and I looked in the first car and didn't see the others at first. And then I heard screaming for me to get on, and there they were and everyone applauded my arrival. It was a great feeling, even though I still had no caffiene yet. We played a couple of songs and then when we hit Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn we looked for Joe and Michelle, but didn't see them. And the doors were about to shut and suddenly they appeared out of no where! We applauded their arrival and we were all happy happy!! They crowd on the train loved us. Our last song we played on the train was Choli Ke Peechhe, and we couldn't have timed it better. We pulled up to the Coney Island stop just as the last drum solo of the song ended and the doors opened. We could not ever have planned that in a million years. It was PERFECT. the crowd cheered and we all got off the train and headed towards the Aquqrium where breakfast and caffeine were awaiting us!
They had a nice spread for us, we were all very happy to eat, especially Michelle and I. Then at 11;30 they covinced us to go watch a seal show, which was very cute. i missed most of it because I was looking for the bathroom and came upon the jellyfish room which I was faasinated by, and then the sea otter who looked just like our cat Guava.
Finally it was time to play on the boardwalk. We walked toward the crowd that was formed around the Polar Bears. We plaed a bit on the boardwalk and then led a procession down to the water where there was already a huge crowd. It was a bit kaotic and un-organized, but who cares, it was still a blast.
Ruth, Robin, Jean, Rich, Al and I, were the only ones to go in, I think Sandra stuck her feet in too. I had my bikini on. I ran in up to my butt, i couldn't take it, holy shit it was cold!! It hurt, I ran right out and put some clothes back on.
HMB played some more on the beach. We had a nice big crowd around us. Veronica dn Evelyn were dancing like maniacs, Ben was passing aroubd the Danish whiskey, yikes! Rich was soaked, he actaully went under water,-no way!!
I showed eveyone my bot-fly scar. (The bug bite I had since November from Peru that wouldn't heal, so I went to get it checked out and found out I had some living larva creature using me as it's host! Fucking lovely-NOT! Nat squeezed it out for me, he had one too.)
We played more near the boardwalk on the sand. Sandra sold about 40 cds, They loved us. We played St. James and walked onto the boardwalk and towards the Aquarium and finally finished. It Was a great 3 days, but I have a cymbal hang-over- not drink related at all, I swear!