NYC (I...I...I Believe I Was Here?)

I couldn't wait to get to the City. 1 because we were playing a show with Villa Vina and 2 because we were going back to Philly afterwards. We only had a couple hours drive from EJ's friend's place so we weren't in too much of a rush waking up. we got on the road at the comfortable hour of 2PM. It was a nice drive until we got to the city limits. then traffic, lots, but not too bad.

we got lost for a while because there were two streets with the same name that threw us off a bit. but then we realized that it was actually the same street just separated by about 20 blocks, it made perfect sense. the ride was nice, i sat in the back and took in all the monumental billboards. i think i was getting hungry.

we made it to the Cake Shop and parked in a spot that provided a few inches of extra space. the venue was downstairs below the coffee shop/reading area so we hauled all our stuff down the steps. It was chill downstairs; it was a narrow hall with a bar on the side and a sound booth in the back. oh, and of course a stage that required a very tight setup with all our stuff.

we met up with Steve Hennig who was meandering around the streets. then we went and got some pizza again, probably the 10th time in 6 days. I went back to the coffee shop and fell asleep for a little while. I met up with Chris from Villa Vina again and watched some of his gear while he moved his drums downstairs. the show got started and there was a very full crowd for a tuesday night.

the first band who had a girl vocalist was a good opener and by the end of their set, everyone seemed to loosen up a bit. it took us a bit of time to get all our stuff out of the back room and onto the stage but it happened just fine. we played a solid set and once again i was dead tired afterwards. we cleared our stuff out of there becasue there was absolutely no room and we knew that the audience would most likely want to be as close to the stage as possible.

Villa Vina started as we finished loading up the Hank. I grabbed a whiskey and coke and watched the show and took some pictures too. they did a lot of cool work with the lights. the drums and bass were very clear but the guitar and vocals were uncontrollable in that space. there were a lot of effects going on too and they sounded cool when you could hear them.

afterwards we exchanged our congratulations and thank yous and hit the road with 10 of us crammed in the Hankey (us 7 Bears + Jill, Steve(scott), and Lindsey). I could not wait to get back home.

Albany

we arrived as the sun was coming up and there were cots and mattresses all set up ready to accomodate us. there was a lot to choose from for breakfast. i made a bacon egg and chee sandwhich on a toasted everything bagel. delicious. we hung around lazily for a while and eventually decided to go up to the lake to go swimming and drink some bierce.

at that point it was pretty evident that the show we were promised wasn't really going to happen so we tried to stop feeling like gullible morons and tried to enjoy ourselves since there wasn't anything we could do to change the situation. when we arrived at the lake, it reminded me of lake dunmore vt and i suddenly missed it very much. we got to watch the sun go down over the mountains across the lake. i jumped in and swam for a bit.

we drank some beers and skip rocks across the surface. it was getting dark and the mosquitoes were becoming unbearable. we made our way back to the van and drove back to the house for some dinner barbeque. i had some chicken and a couple burgers. i also made some garlic pasta and cheese.

a few people went over to check out the 'haunted' house next door but i stayed behind to rest some.

Allston, Boston

We were a little late getting in to the venue but we were scheduled to play last so we weren't overly concerned with it. We parked out back and brought all our gear into the game room next to the stage. it was a pretty nice venue and for a Sunday night there was a decent amount of people there. I got a couple drinks and hung around the merch table. Julian Peterson's set was especially impressive. it was obvious that he studied at Berklee.

we opened with Life in Hell which i thought was a very good choice and the stage really sounded good. some of the crowd at left by the time we started playing but those who remained seemed to enjoy theirselves. "sailors" got some 'whoooos' it was a fun set. afterwards, we had to decided if we were going to make the 6 hour drive back to philly and relax for a day or if we were going to head over to albany to Ej's friend's house and play a garage show the following night.

I had my doubts about the show but EJ had successfully convinced everyone that it was going to happen so we drove west instead of south. we arrived as thesun was coming up.

Montreal!

after we left Toronto, we had a few hundred miles to get to montreal. about halfway there, the majority of the signs had become french. i knew i was closer to the part of canada i was more familiar with. i ended up driving for the last part. between the frustrated canadians and the french signs, it was very stressful to find out where we were supposed to go and to then get us there. we eventually found the general area of where l'absynthe was located and found a parking spot on saint catherine.

it was getting dark so we decided to go meet up with Jill who had met a few people at the hostel. we had a nice 30 minute walk to meet her

we got to meet the travellers she had met and went out to get some food in an expensive area of the city a few blocks away. afterwards, we drank some wine by the river by the same dock i was fairly certain the river boat from my 8th grade canada trip took off from. we were trying to figure out where we were staying for the night.

we had left a message for Sergio from the Trigger Effect who had said months ago that because hehad to cancel our show at the Turbo Haus that he had no problem hooking us up with a place to stay while we were in the city. he had left me a message back and gave us the number of a friend of his who would be more than cool for us to stay at his place.

Binns left him a message but by the time it was getting dark we still had not heard anything back so we didn't know where he lived. so, a few of us had decided to pay the 20 bucks to stay in the hostel for the night and get a shower and wash some clothes. EJ, Curly, Ryan and i had thought about it but decided that we would wait until later to make a decision about it.

a bunch of us went out with Jill and her new friends to a popular club. we waited in line for a while and got to go in and buy pricey pitchers. we hung out for a couple hours and finally got a hold of sergio again. he said that his friend was actually at the same club we were at. he gave us a description of what he was wearing but it was a big place with an upstairs and downstairs neither of which we wanted to pay to gain access to so we didn't see him.

we hung out at the club for a few hours and it was slowly beginning to calm down. we got some pizza slices down the street. we walked back to the van to grab some stuff and i saw a drunk guy peeing on the side of a building as some cops drove by. they backed up and went over and talked to him but nothing too crazy happened.

Beans and I wanted to stay at the hostel so we grabbed all our stuff and walked back. we got in through the back and EJ thought we could get away without paying and i just wanted to go to bed so i didn't make a deal about it. i took a shower which was awesome and went to bed which was also awesome. EJ had gone upstairs to log on the computers they had and the guy at the desk had caught him and made him pay. but i was already in bed so i slept and didn't have any trouble.

we slowly got moving the next day. curly and i and gar too i think cleaned up the messy Hanky and i went to get some more pizza. we started to head over to L'Absynthe by 6 to set up. it was raining while we were loading in. we crammed all our stuff onto the stage and had some time to chill. since the booker at L'absynthe had been replaced some time after he booked our show, we were left as athe only band once again. So, we put together all the songs we could possibly play into two 8-song sets.

most of the local crowd remained outside while we played but there was a video projector that displayed the stage on the wall outside. some of the people we had met had shown up and we sold some shirts and CDs. After we finished theshow, it was late and I was pretty tired. We eventually got EJ to stop drinking fake absynthe and got the Hank loaded up. We were waiting for a call after Trigger Effect finished their show so we could head over and crash for the night. it was gettting later and later and we decided that since we had the address tojust go there and showup. so we did and after a 20 minute drive we got to the house. the people there had no idea we were coming but welcomed us in and set us up with places to sleep. i slept in the van cause i was feeling terrible.

i woke up and it was hot. it was about 11 and i went inside and everyone was still sleeping so i grabbed my computer and started updating my journal. once everyone started stirring, we decided to have a little barbeque and i went with sergio and a couple other guys from the band down to the grocery store and bought some ground beef for burgers. they were in a rush because they had to head to a house wrecking show in ottawa later that night.

EJ was hoping to go but was throwing up when they left so he just stuck around for the night. we played some goldeneye and picked up some beers from the store up the street. the next day we woke up and slowly got ourselves ready to head down to boston a few hours away for the show later that night.

toronto

It was still mid-afternoon as we got to the border. we had all of our licenses and passports/birth certificates handy. the lady asked for how many people were in the car and then asked for all our licenses only. she looked at each one individually i guess to check if they were real and then asked what our reason was for being there and chelsea said we had a show and sightseeing. the lady gave back our licenses and told us to go on thru. easy

so we drove for a bit and ran into some traffic because of an accident and arrive in toronto late afternoon. we took a wrong exit on the free way but eventually found a way back and turned around. we found the big bop and unloaded all of our stuff. we were going second so we just left on the side of the stage.

we parked the Hanks in a parking lot and purchased the overnight pass just in case. the big bop had a nice stage and a lot of floor space with a full sound booth and a bar. it was a bit difficult to see from the outside though, and there wasn't anyone there yet. we had been told that the local band wasn't showing up so we had been bumped up to 1st with a metal band from Maryland playing after us.

so we got our stuff on the stage and did a soundcheck which was pretty decent. then we split up, a few went to find wine and the rest of us went across the street to eat pizza. cheap expensive pizza.

we saw on the way back that the big bop was charging 10bucks for entry to the show and we realized that no one was going to pay that much to see 2 touring bands that they've never heard of. so we played the show to the other band and the bartender, soundguy, and bouncer. that's it. lots of fun and it sounded pretty decent.

the other band was supportive and we had talked to them about their difficulties getting across the border. they drove in a camper and had all their equipment in a trailer. they said that with four of them sometimes that got on their nerves. i found that kind of appalling.

but they said that they were delayed four half of the day at customs and barely made it across in time for the show. and what a great show it was.

we also got to talk to jake the soundguy for a while about all the crazy gigs he'd done in brazil and around the world. we gave him a cd for free because he said he'd play it in the club between bands.

we loaded our stuff out and took it back to the parking spot then we had a band meeting trying to decide where we were going for the night. Beans wanted to stay and get drunk in toronto because it was the first time he was allowed to legally go into a bar and enjoy a drink or two.

so we stayed and walked down the street to a bar and got some pitchers. beans and ryan dueled at guitar hero a few times. curly and i made our way back to the van first where jake and chelsea were sleeping in the back seat. i didn't even feel like cramping in the van and was still sore from that small couch from the night before so i decided that since i hadn't slept in a parking lot yet this would probably be the best time to do it. i knew i would have been disappointed if i wasn't able to say that i slept in a parking lot while on tour. I set up one of the cots grabbed my pillow and borrowed curly's sleeping bag for the night.

i woke up hot cause the sun was beating down on me. there were people in suits running off to work that really didn't even pay much attention to me. curly and i walked to get some breakfast and it was delicious.

then we decided to go to montreal and skip over ottawa because there was no show and Jill was already waiting to meet us.

greetings from ann arbour

we woke up not knowing if our scheduled show at Touchdown's was still going to happen because the booker had called curly the night before saying that the 2 local supporting bands had cancelled last minute. so we had asked cris to see if she could find someone to play with such short notice. but nothing had come up so we just drove to her place to crash for the night.

we got there after it was already dark and we picked up some beer from the store to relax a bit. I bought a six pack of Edmund Fitzgerald beer made by the Great lakes brewing company based out of cleveland. it was dark and good

we got to watch when one of cris's roomates blew up his old cell phone. i ate some gnoccis that were leftover and very good. i passed out pretty late i think, on a small couch.

when i woke up it was pouring rain. but it didn't matter too much at the time. we made some breakfast which was very good and cris mailed a letter for me when she went out because i was tired and too lazy to get up in the rain. it was the first time we had encountered rain onthe whole trip.

we wanted to leave early because we had been hearing horror stories of the difficulties bands have passing over the border into canada without a work permit. on the way, we stopped at a bank so everyone could get some american dollars. while we were waiting in the hanks in the bank partking lot, i guess our van was taking up too much space so a bank security guard, a real ass, came over and yelled at chelsea and then yelled at curly while he was directing chelsea to back up. she said he was a disgrace to society and curly yelled back something like 'i didn't ask your opinion shut up' ha. she was a joke

Chicago

we got into the city mid-afternoon. we found a legitimate parking spot in front of the Note and hung around out front for a while because we couldn't load our stuff in yet. i walked down Milwaukee and grabbed an arizona iced tea from the seven 11 a few blocks away. when i got back to the van we met up with eric who had found jake and chelsea down the street.

curly ej and i were handing out flyers to people walking around. a group of girls stopped to talk to us for a while. they were interested but were under 21 so they couldn't come to the show. they did say they wanted to party later tho. a couple of them said they had a place that we were more than welcome to stay at. they said they'd have a party. in the meantime, they suggested getting some wine and drinking it in wicker park around the corner.

eric helped us load our stuff into the corner the pool table room which was right behind the stage. we stopped by a nice italian dinner place called the Bin Wine Cafe and tried some samples of wine. i bought one of the cheapest i could find. then we headed over to wicker park and met up with the people we had met on the sidewalk. we got to talk to them and their friends for a while before we had to head back.

we walked back to the venue and got ready to play. we were third on the bill so we watched the first band, Your Best Friend, who was made up of some older folk and i was afraid we might be the oddball on the bill, again. as they were transitioning between bands, a few of us walked up the street to get a slice of pizza since the wine had made us hungry. we made it back in time to see the second band: the piano-driven local group, filligar.

as they finished up i asked them if we could borrow their bass amp since ours was constantly cutting out and was sub-par anyway considering the large stage. it was a pretty fun show and there were a few people from the audience that were dancing at times, that's always enjoyable. eric videotaped a couple songs and said afterwards that we had improved immensely since the last show he'd seen of ours back in philly.

it was pretty hot up there and i was exhausted by the time we finished up. we got all our junk off the stage and made way for the final band, 'Picture Books' who began their set with a sort of group lullaby in the crowd then made their way on stage and plugged in their acoustic instruments. they had a fair amount of supporters in the audience.




i ate some cheetos out in the Hanker and we all caught bits and pieces of picture books' set. curly and i both thought they were kinda like hoots & hellmouth. afterwards we loaded up the hanks. and curly called the girls who had offered us a place to stay. we found a place to park around the corner and brought all our stuff in.

when we got inside we realized that they had organized a small party but we low on beers and definitely didn't have enough to spare. they said that the only place within walking distance was a few blocks away and would be closing in 10 minutes. so we got directions and binns jake and i ran for it. i got tired with just a couple blocks short. jake made it almost the whole way. when we got there we didn't see any place open. there was a place that had close a few hours before that they must have been talking about but oh well.

we walked to a seven 11 on the way back but were 5 minutes past 2 am so they couldn't sell us any thing. EJ tried to get the cashier to break the rules for him but she wouldn't budge on it. meanwhile, outside, i was talking to some guy who was looking for a ride and somehow knew that we were in a band. i asked if he was at the show but i couldn't understand his response. i told him that we were just walking so he went away.

Ej found a VHS tape on the ground on the walk back and he opened it up and let the tape unwind as we were walking. it ended up stretching pretty far, around traffic lights and signs and stuff. a police suv drove past us and obviously saw him but i guess they were off duty cause they just kept going.

they later went for a drive to a 24 hour beer place and EJ picked up a case of high lifes for the festivities. we stayed up pretty late and played some card games. one of teh beers began exploding slowly and after 10 minutes resembled one of those baking soda and vinegar volcano demonstrations you saw in elementary school.

i passed out on a loveseat as the sun was starting to come up

Otto's

we came into dekalb on schedule and parked on the side of otto's to bring all our stuff in. we piled it next to the stage since we were playing second and mr gnome from cleveland was all set up. i enjoyed their set and ryan came back with some pizza that i bought from him.

we played a strong set and brought out stella which sounded good with garrett's piano part. i played binns in some pool while pattern crawler and astral guard played.

we got invited to stay with a couple guys from astral guard. when we got there there were people everywhere enjoying life. this one guy was fascinated with a fan. someone made some spicy indian food.

i crashed on the floor as the sun was coming up and ej and ryan and garrett went to some rave party down the street. i woke up as one of the roomates of the house arrived after being away all weekend. she was pissed that the house was a mess and that we were sleeping there. we realized that none of the people that told us to come over and crash actually lived there and had all left. so we offered to help clean up some.

we just had a short drive to chicago.

reverb

so we headed to cedar falls iowa and the drive was pretty par i'd say. there was a nice bright orange sunset but aside from that it was just an endless cascade of slightly different stenches of manure

we made it to downtown cedar falls which had an oddly circuitous main street. but we managed to get an awesome spot right outside the reverb bar. we loaded upstairs to what was seemingly a metal-dominated bar. there were posters for kittie and powerman 5000 later in the week.

we were the first band so we got to get all our gear on stage and go through a full sound check and then just sat back as the masses migrated in. i drank some pbrs which was questioned by a regular but that's okay.

we played a pretty decent set and a majority of the people seemed responsive. so we cleared the stage and sat back for the rest of the show. i hung around the merch area for most of the time and sold some buttons to the talent buyer for the venue who was relatively pleased with the outcome.

the other performances were interesting and the nightlife outside was even more interesting. the main street was flooded with drunk revelers which surprised me considering it was cedar falls iowa.

as we were unloading there was a scuffle going on in the street between a couple of gangstas and some anonymous vehicle that sped away. a little bit after, the po pos showed up with some blue and red lights flashing around. they didn't really do much, i'm not sure if they have much crime going on around there so the smallest thing probably seems like everything to them

we stayed at teddy boys' house which was a pretty decent sized party when we arrived. i was on the phone a bit so i didn't get in till after the place was dying down. i was drinking some rum and coke i think out of a coffee mug. then i saw that they had event horizon so we all decided to pop that fucker in but most everybody fell asleep cause the sun was already up.

so i stopped it and saved the rest for the morning.

we got to hang out with the guys a bit the next day and they showed us a great placed for sandwiches and they were good. binns got a tin for FOUR bucks. very very cool

then we hit the road again, bound for dekalb illinois and i didn't even know what to expect

the nebraska/good life

after denver we got up and drove towards omaha. i was reading on the road and as we entered north platte nebraska i read a passage describing a flashback involving the same place so that was pretty cool and pretty weird too.

we decided to get a cheap hotel again with wireless internet but no problems this time. it was a nice sleep but we had to leave by 11 which wasn't cool.

we listened to saddle creek bands the whole way -good life, cursive, bright eyes and we eventually came to saddle creek road and found oleavers pub.



we met danny the bartender and he said we would get free pbr and some shots all night. so it was about 3 at that point and he started pouring pitcher after pitcher and would get made if we didn't finish them in a short enough amount of time.

after a few hours i was pretty good and i got to talk to a few guys from local bands and met this guy that was grandaddy's tour manager for a littlewhile and also had toured with the good life so those stories were interesting. then danny got me and binns some shots of jameson and they went down like gatorade

i walked down to the post office a few blocks away to try to mail a letter but they had been closed for a long time. so i walked back and we got everything set up for the show.

we hung out a bit more and took some more shots courtesy of danny then hit the stage and played some music for a decent sized crowd. we loaded out and i felt terrible and homesick so i fell asleep on this small patch of sidewalk behind the pub for a few minutes. we had finally gotten a hold of the little brazil guys and headed over to their place after the show finished up.

they had a little party going on and i had some drinks and met some more people and at one point this group of guys came up to the porch and one of them wasn't wearing any pants and had claimed that we had his pants which we obviously didn't because if we did we would have given them back immediately but that was funny.

i crashed on the living room floor and woke up and had a great telephone call and then was told that breakfast was being prepared. i walked back inside and danny was cooking bacon and eggs and coffee was brewing it was a very awesome morning.

to cedar falls...

Garrrrr

so we woke up and it was pretty early. we all piled our non-necessities into the van and hit the road. we had a lot of road ahead of us. by the time i started driving at 11 or so, it was hottttt. when we hit the colorado border or maybe before i don't remember, we got to see the colorado river and i wanted to jump in. we all decided to make a stop later and ej ryan and i got to jump in. it was quite chilly and moving very fast.

there were all these people on rafts floating by and we asked some of them what river we were swimming in. they said the colorado.



so we stopped by geno's liquor store across the way fromthe gas station we were stopped at cause we saw a sign advertising 12-pack bud light for 19 something so i was about to go tell the owner that something was terribly wrong with that overcharging. but the sign was misleading - what it was really advertising was two 12 packs so i let it slide. they had single 16-oz cans for a little over a dollar so me and binns and ryan too i think bought one each and chugged him. we also met some guy that was travelling from denver to arizona or something and it was his birthday the next day so he bought a cd.

we got back on the road and after stopping by burger king made it to the airport to pick up garrett. we struggled with a plan for a while because our original idea of staying at garrett's grandmothers fell through. so the crew picked up some beers and we headed to the strip where we saw a bunch of really cheap motels.



it didn't take us long to find the la vista motel, advertising rooms for 39.99 and with half the letters on the sign with burnt out bulbs, it seemed the perfect place. so we moved all our stuff in one at a time to make sure that the lady at the desk didn't see. i had a bottle of wine saved up since eugene that i decided to pop open.

it was cool to get the whole band together finally since i'd only met garrett for a matter minutes before. at one point a few of us stepped out on the balcony and in a matter of minutes some asian guy came up to us asking if we were staying there and we said we were just hanging out to make sure we didnt have to pay any extra. he said there was no "hangingout" allowed and that we had to leave because there are drug dealers and prostitutes everywhere and that the cops will be bugging the motel if they saw us standing there.

pretty shitty but we walked away and i eventually made my way back to the room and somehow scored a bed. it was a good sleep but i got woken up by a knock at the door around 9. i was startled for aminute then realized it was probably ej or garrett wanting ot take a shower so i just kinda sat there. chelsea made it over to the door and sure enought it was that asian guy again asking if we needed towels chelsea said no then he asked how many people were in the room and if he could come in and look and tried to force his way in chelsea fought him off and eventually closed the door on him.

what an ass. that's TRASH. we paid for that room so leave us the fuck alone. if we wanna sleep uncomfrotably in there then that's our choice. anyway. i got a nice shower and got some chicken for breakfast and was ready to go for whatever the day was to bring us. we headed to the supermarket to get some foods and then started driving around hoping to find something to do with the day since we hadn't a show.

we eventually drove towards the tall buildings long enough to make it to the chinatown area and found a spot worthy of the hanker. a few of us took the free bus down to the north platte river cause it was hot and disgusting. i was about to jump in but i stepped on a small piece of glass in a shallow spot and because my foot was wet it became covered in red pretty quickly but it didn't really hurt too bad, i took the glass out and finally jumped in. it smelled weird but it was cold so it was nice.



then we got some food at a new york style sandwhich/breakfast place and i finally was able to get a bacon egg & chee on a bagel for the first time all tour. better yet it was a special so i saved some money. then me and curly stopped by a bar around the corner to try some local beer. it was okay. we found that 16th street had free wireless internet up the whole street so we checked some internet stuff.

then ej got a call from one of the guys from the rhinoceropolis which is the diy space that i had tried to get us a show at unsuccessfully. apparently one of the guys from the ss marie antoinette was impressed enough with our show to pull some strings and get the guys at the rhino to add us to the show they already had scheduled for the night. awesome!

so we got some directions and had to stop by garrett's grandmothers real quick which actually worked out quite well because as soon as we arrived his aunt was standing in the drive way with 3 pizzas. we ate them and worked on a jigsaw for a little then headed up to the rhino

we brought all our gear in then a few of us went up to find some beverage accompaniment for the night. ej and i bought a case of pbr for a prety good deal and on the way back to the space we were stuck because a long train was blocking our path and we had to wait for it to go by. it eventually stopped momentarily and then started moving backwards and then forwards again. so we decided to jump between cars while it was momentarily stationary. ej and curly got thru then as i was about the jump up the train started moving again and as i stepped up the cars' weight shifted and made this huge noise and i almost fell. so i jumped clear of the train but had spilled osme beer on myself. oh well.

all the performances were impressive, but by the time we played the place was almost empty. we had a few awesome people that stuck around and ironically one of the girls becci had heard the ukelele song on the compilation that seattle john had made a while ago so of course we had to play that one.

afterwards i was dead so i grabbed a floor mat and crashed on the floor next to the cigarette butts and puddles of dried beer



the next day i shot tabs across the road but didn't get it in any windows

Concentrate, thats an order!!

Provo was fucking awesome. i was very dead from the drive from boise but when we arrived we met up with Old Man Clark. he gave us a nice cool basement to catch up on some sleep and even drew some curtains over the windows to prevent the sun from getting in and thereby allowing us to sleep much more comfortably.

when we woke up we got to hang out with him and his wife in their party room upstairs. we also go to meet Rider, Matt, and Sara who drove up for the night. we got a campfire going in the back yard and just enjoyed a comfortable mellow evening.

as the night got late, old man clark put in 'natural born killers' and i watched a majority of it through a sleepy haze. he voluntarily offered to burn me a copy so i could watch it again when i would be more able to focus on it

the next day we split up. curly jake and chelsea went to see a harry potter movie and Ej ryan and i went with old man clark to cottonwood canyon and walked through rivers with balloons.



later that day we got to work on our vests and ej spilled a lot of red ink on my B but it looks like blood so it's actually pretty cool.

then we headed over to Muse music for our show. we met up with the guys from marks and angles. they were pretty cool guys and i enjoyed their set.

we debuted our vests and i realized that they get really fucking hot. afterwards we took some pictures with a huge bear scuplture on the sidewalk. matt and sara had offered us to stay the apartment in the basement of their house that they used to rent out to college students. they had bought us a fifth of captain morgan so we got to hang out for a bit and talk about music love life and a bunch of other stuff.

i went to bed shortly after they did because we had a big drive to denver the next day to pick up gar from the airport. i fell asleep to some low i think

3 to 2

we woke up thursday and headed up to seattle which was just a couple hours drive. curly got a hold of greg from the SS marie antoinette and he explained that malachi, the guy who booked us, has been out of the area for some time and he never booked any other acts to support us.



so we arrived at the venue and met up with greg to figure out a plan for the show. we decided that we'd make some myspace posts to rally some local bands and work up some show flyers to promote the best areas. we hit up kinko's and made four diferent small flyer handouts and a few 8 by 11s for posting and we set out for the best areas of the city.

we walked through this park area near the space needle and started talking to this crazy guy evan who had an acoustic guitar and was just kind of travelling around. he got all riled up throughout the course of our conversation and ran into this fountain and was running around with his guitar. Ej joined him for a littlewhile, ha



after several hours of doing that, we met up with ryans friend john who had put 'dont make up the rules' on a ukelele compilation. we hopped on a bus and went to a hardcore basement show at Camp Nowhere. curly and i picked up a 6 pack of local beers and just chilled outisde the space where we could hear perfectly clear.

we took the bus back and jake picked us up in the Hankey and we went over to hang out at greg's friend angela's house, who was nice enough to give us a place to stay. we drank some beers and shared some stories, and it turned out to be one of their friend bobby's birthday so it was cool to be around for the celebration.

we eventually helped greg move an 80s honda motorcycle from the bed of his pickup truck and realized that because it was sitting on its side some gas had spilled out so we made Ej stand back with his cigarette Ha.

the next day, we woke up and slowly made our way to Pioneer Square where Ej curly and i went on a tour of old underground seattle. it was pretty cool to see how the some levels of the city were buried. and it made sense because a few of the stores we went into had a downstairs that used to be the first floor because the city was raised up and the second floor was the one at street level.

at that point we had already gotten a hold of 5 other bands that were interested in playing the show which was impressive. however, we didn't have internet access at the time so we really had no indication of what kind of bands they were or how reliable they'd be to bring out people. but we (mostly curly) handled the line-up and it sounded like it could really happen

so we picked up some beers and waited for the night to unfold. we met up with Malenky Robot first who are on tour from New Zealand and who a few of us had met in i don't even know where but they were cool. more and more bands started showing up and we were starting to realize that the show might actually be successful.

one of the new members of the space, Sev, known as the Dead Seven performed first and it was a good way to open the show. a few of the other bands started playing and we realized that most of the people and bands there were hardcore but we've played for similar type of crowds before so i wasn't too worried bout it. definitely had some beers to get ready for it

and guess who showed up....ERIC! he walked into the room and i really didn't even know how to react he was so happy and slightly messed up ha. and Evan showed up too, which was awesome to have these people that we just randomly met going about our routine make an effort to come out to our show.

we opened with HTML because we thought it would be the most powerful way to make an impact on the crowd. and it worked to our benefit by the time we finished up it seemed clear that everyone was into the music and were actually watching us.

i poured every last ounce of energy into that set and it went over incredibly well. binns was crowd lifted around during sword it was a great time. we even got several shouts for an encore so we went into don't make up and i felt tired so after we cleared out all the gear i went out to the van to pass out for the night since i knew we had a huge drive to boise the next day and i offered to take the first shift.

curly met me out there and we watched from a distance as evan was getting rowdy and was kicking the gate to the SS which kinda sucked. they had to kick him out



so i passed out for a few hours and started the next morning with a kajunga or tujumbo or some kind of bagel from the starbucks and of course a venti coffee. we got on the road by 8 which was our plan so that was good.

i drove for a while and was feeling okay so i drove some more.

it was starting to get hot and i was started to hallucinate so i turned the wheel over to curly while we were stopped on the side of the highway for a bathroom break because there were no signs of civilization for miles, except for a "military area" but i was pretty sure no one wanted to go there.

i tried to feel sleepy but the heat was too intense and i couldn't sleep. i drifted off for a few minutes here and there but by the time we arrived in boise 10 hours later, i was pretty exhausted and soaked with heat. we loaded all our stuff into Neurolux and ryan ej and i headed up to the boise river to cool off.

the river was moving pretty quickly and it was quite chilly but it was nonetheless refreshing. beans and i tried to swim against the current but could barely stay in the same spot so i just stayed near the edge.

we went back to the neurolux and set up the stage and did our soundcheck and i grabbed some drink tickets and got a local beer called Stone, which was pretty good i guess. we played some songs for a relatively small crowd but still got positive feedback and sold a cd and a shirt and some buttons too i think.

i passed out fora while in the van while the others went out and hung out with boat who played after us then the decision was made to start driving to utah where we had a place to stay the next night. i was down to just find a nice spot next to the boise river to throw down a sleeping bag but i just claimed a window spot and started trying to fall asleep.

jake wired himself up on redbull and drove mostly the whole way to salt lake. we met up with old man clark who offered us a place to stay and now here we are in this amazing house with air conditioning, and i'm tired and have a huuuge bean bag to sleep on so i will fill in some details later but for now i'm relaxinprizactinlactinrelaxin

SF to Port

well, this is probably going to be a long post.

so my last post was when we were still in San Francisco, right now we're somewhere near Salt Lake City so kind of a lot has happened since then.

so i slept in the van after we got pizza and i drank 3 of the 6 beers that mercedes (and EJ) picked up for me. the others disappeared but hey i guess it happens. but the Hanks was a good sleep so that was cool.

so, the next day we realized that we could jump on the bill at another San Francisco venue, "The Edinburgh Castle". but until then, we spent most of the day gathering supplies including some orange juice from Trader joes. i got to deposite the remaining gas money i owed so that i could be debt-free

we got really lost for a while and made it back to bonnie and michelles with barely an hour before we had to arrive at the castle. so we gathered all our stuff because at that point we had decided to start driving to eugene right after the show. so we scrambled to get everything packed up in the hanker.

we had to get gas too on the way, so we were rushing but we made it okay. the castle was pretty cool except that it was in a very shitty area and i was asked about 13 times for money within the first hour we were there.

and it's not only being asked, they also try to give you some speil and put on this performance to make you like them, (or hate them) so you will be more likely to give them something. well that might work when the people you bother actually have money but me i don't so i was getting pretty frustrated with all that nonsense.

so we got to the show on time but the other bands were already setting up so we figured out that we weren't playing first anymore but whatefver, we were the last band to jump on the show so we had to be considerate.

we got to check out the other bands, which was definitely enjoyable, especially chairlift from nyc. we performed in dresses again which worked out i guess, it was pretty fun and we got some good crowd feedback.

i grabbed a slice of pizza after we packed up and drove us back to bonnie&michelle's where we decided that we would stay onemore night because it was late and we didn't have any idea where we could rest.

i slept in the van again because it worked out well for me the night before. that way i was all ready to go and didn't need to pack anything up. we all took shifts driving the 8 hour journey. the best part was when we were on the 5 going through the Mount Shasta and lake shasta area i got some good pictures.





then we stopped in the town of Mount shasta for gas and lunch and as soon as we pulled into the gas station some stupid lady said that we had to move our van because she couldn't move her racecar trailer if we were getting gas and we were ignorant for not realizing this, so jake allotted her the name "Mount Shasta bitch" because that's really what she was.



we had to stop for gas again at some old fashioned place in the middle of nowhere, oregon but it was actually a great spot because there was this river right near by and me and beans jumped in because the drive was so intensely hot.

we finally made it up to PJ's house in eugene before it got dark. it was a nice place with a pool in the backyard and a liquor cabinet that we estimated to be worth around $5,000+ we played some beer pong and i passed out because of the long hot day.

woke up to the sound of EJ and ryan laughing quietly and realizing that they were up to something and thought i was about to be the victim of some practical joke. but it was curly instead and i just remember hearing a loud snapping sound and then curly yelling "you guys are Fucking dickheads, you know that?" then ryan said sorry and curly responded with "no you're not. you're not fucking sorry" i didn't really know what was going on so i just stayed asleep but it all made sense when i watched the video footage.


so we did some food shopping to save money on staying alive and headed up to portland for the show.



it was amazing when we crossed over the bridge to the industrial sector we got a great view of the city and i took some awesome pictures.



finding the rotor was pretty difficult only because the road was closed but we eventually found our way around after EJ asked some guy at a factory

we hung out outside and got to meet 'lasers all the time' 'bumtech' and 'dopeness' before someone came to open up the club.



we almost got screwed again with our show time because bumtech wanted to jump ahead and push us, the touring band, to the last slot and on a wednesday night that wouldn't have been too good for our audience so curly whipped out the DA BEARS TOUR BOOK and showed it to the sound guy and said that Noah, who booked the show, set up the show with this specific line-up and that was enough to keep us on the 3rd slot.

the stage was much larger than i expected and we got to spread out and have fun while we played. there was a small crowd but there were a few people dancing which totally enhanced the mood. we weren't able to get paid but the bartender laid out a free round of shots because he felt bad.

Lee from lasers was nice enough to offer us a spot to crash in his backyard. EJ curly ryan and i set up the tent and i claimed a cot and actually slept very well.

let the days go by

after we left evan's we headed up to san luis obispo to party and crash at mercedes' i drove the whole way up and when we were about to get on the ventura freeway we noticed that the front of the Hanks was smoking, alot. so i pulled over and stoppped in a mobil station.

we once again concluded that some brake fluid or oil was burning because the breaks were heating up.

so we grabbed some food and got on our way. the drive was long and once it got dark i couldn't even see the road but we made it up and did some partying. i slept on a couch which was nice then we got everyone together and packed up the van to head to san francisco.

We stopped at the Costco to fuel up before the long drive. then we got on the road. Curly drove the whole time and i just listened to some ipod and was able to squeeze in short bursts of sleep on the window.

once we were getting closer to san francisco it was getting exciting. it was beginning to fell less like the desert and more like civilization. it felt good to get in the city. my first impression was not as i expected but once i saw the ridiculous inclines and slants it was exactly how i pictured it.



we met up with EJ & Ryan's friends Bonnie & Michelle at their apartment on Mission Ave. Then we went over to a park for a bbq to celebrate Michelle's birthday. it was awesome we got free burgers and beer before our show.

then we had to head over to the Make-Out Room and despite a minor cosmetic run-in with a Russian in a two-door Honda we got there at a reasonable time. it was a pretty cool stage, with two levels which i'd never seen. it was a bit cramped but we put on a really good performance i think. Michelle's whole crew came and were all riled up and made the atmosphere awesome. it felt good to play.

we stuck around after we played to hear the second band, Sir Salvatore, who didn't get as much of a crowd reaction as we did so that added to the awesomeness. I got to try some Boont Amber Ale which is brewed in Boonville, it was impressive and delicious.

So we eventually loaded out and i grabbed a couple quesadillas at a mexican place around the corner. then we went back to the apartment for some post-show fun but i was so tired from waking up early that i passed out relatively quickly. a good day nonetheless.

so i woke up today feeling surprisingly refreshed. we went and got some breakfast at Mel's Diner on Geary Ave. Petey had driven up for the show and volunteered to drive. i took a picture of a picture as we passed through an intersection on the way.



When we got there, the waitress had no clue what i was talking about when i asked for a bacon egg & cheese on a bagel, it was foreign diction but that's okay i made it work.

Then i got to take the first shower of tour and it was amazing. we went up to haigt Ashbury to check out some thrift stores. it was a very awesome experience, i took some pictures. we all managed to find some vests and dresses for costumes. and i bought a book about american corruption at an anarchist collective bookstore, i'll read it later. there were a bunch of people just hanging around the streets. it felt a bit like south street



got some cold medicine too so i can stop feeling so lousy all the time. it's already feeling better. some guy who looked homeless was playing an old beat-up acoustic that looked like it used to be pretty cool once.

he asked me what i was doing sitting on the grass and i explained that i was waiting for the people i was traveling with and he naturally asked where i was traveling to and i explained that we're on tour and we'll be heading up to Portland and he said he'd love to get a ride there

but although I refrained from telling him the story that we've already picked up one homeless person, i told him that we didn't have any spare room. then he asked me if i wanted to trade "bud for some crystal [meth]" and i said no for two reasons:

1.) I had no bud
2.) I do not want any meth

so he walked away and went into a church which i thought was ironic

when we got back to the apartment we all tried on our vests and were hoping to try them out for our show at the Edinburgh Castle that we got last minute when we decided not to go to Chico. Ryan realized that his vest was a bit too big because he forgot to try it on first haha



now we're hanging at the apartment just figuring out what tonight is going to bring our way. hopefully it's food because i'm hungry

warming up

i had some doubt yesturday while we were packing up the van. there's so much stuff, and i also knew that we were picking up an extra passenger on the way out of san diego.

we got everything packed in pretty tight and realized that we would have to take everything out again once we got to the show because the equipment was behind all the suitcases and stuff.

not 10 minutes after we got moving we noticed some smoke coming from the front passenger side of the van so we stopped at a mobil and checked it out. my first thought was that after all this planning and anticipation that we would be grounded for several days and would have to drive extra long to catch up with our shows.

after some collaborative thinking, we realized that it was most likely the new brakes getting broken in. so we hit the road again and made up to long beach a few hours and a gas stop later.

when we got the prospector we found out that we were playing last instead of second because we were a little late but that was a bit surprising because we were told to be there at 930 and we arrived at 925 but oh well. we just waited around for a long time. i went inside and checked out the set-up which was pretty cool. the crowd was responsive and totally into the music which is always a huge plus.

but the other bands (one of which had an ex-member of the dandy warhols, ha) played long sets and by the time we started loading in it was 1245 and most of the people had gone. so we rushed to set everything and ran through a condensed version of our already short set. it was surprisingly rewarding because the few people that remained to watch us were into it.

we ended up selling 2 cds and a shirt and got a show offer if we ever decide to play in buffalo by the sound guy. i was tired and we went back to one of ryan's friends amazing house where i got to crash on a bed inside a trailer in the driveway.

i woke up to cereal and eventually went swimming. now i'm hungry and we need to figure out what we're going to do with ourselves tonight because we were unable to find a replacement for the fresno show that was cancelled.

7/4

hey there,

so yesturday was the fourth of july which we celebrated at the Binns's's's house with lots of beer. i had some st pauli girl which was good for a change.



the festivities started off rather slow but picked up later on and Gnarly Nick even spent 50 bucks just for a ride over here from pb. and he claims it was worth it.

we saw 6 different sets of fireworks going off from the balcony even tho it was a bit hazy. it was a good way to say farewell to civilization for a while.

went to bed at a reasonable hour and got to spend time with some people before we take off.

now there's post-party cleanup, van prep, laundry, and other sorts of packing before we hit to road for the summer. jake and i had to get the rear axle of the van checked out because there appeared to be a slight leak with the gear oil, which was confirmed in a note left to us by the previous owners. so we drove down and got that all oiled up; it was the first time i drove the Hank, which was pretty fun.

i hope tonight's show is a good one, it's so hard to predict those kind of things when we're booking them from across the country.

hopefully the Prospector is prospective

the camera and the Che

jeff tuay came over yesturday to film a video for "sword in hand" original plans made use of altering the speed of the animation so we slowed the first half of the song down a bit with some windows audio program and sped the end segment up. that way when we all played along with those edited versions, the camera would film it at normal speed but then could be altered to allow for some (hopefully) interesting-looking footage.

it was a very tiring process and i don't know if we filmed enough auxiliary stuff besides just the band shots but who knows.

anyway, that whole process pretty much tired me out and i kind of forgot that we had a show at the Che a few hours away, so we packed up the Tom Hanks real quick and got over to ucsd. although we were running behind schedule we were still the first band to get there even tho we were last to play. nice. so we loaded all our gear over to the side of the stage so we could be ready to go.


then i got settled at the merch table trying to look awake but was hard to fake that with all the yawning. curly and ej arrived later with some cold ones which gave me the second wind that i needed. we hung out in the hanks for a while and met up with all sorts of friends and colleagues.


then when it was time we set up and all put on our costumes; mine was itchy and sweaty after 5 minutes but it was fine. the show was probably the best show i've ever played. it was completely fullilling and such a rush to hear the intensity of the crowd's reactions. we even got encored for ever since. lots of fun, but i was exhausted and need to go to bed to get ready for the 4th of july party at binns's, which is a bout to happen now!

TCHUS

Temecula

the first semi-formal da bears show after the merging of east & west coasts-

when we first got there i was a little confused i was told that we'd be playing for a house party full of drunks and there was no alcohol to be found and everyone was pretty sober-looking.

then not 5 minutes after the daisy cutters finished their set a black and white squad car slowly inches its way down towards the house. luckily the complaint was only about the lack of talent of the drumming so we weren't told to shut it down, but we did have to close the garage door so it was quite tight in there. playing was pretty fun tho, people looked into it sometimes which is good considering most of them didn't know us and they were coherent.

the after party was a drive over to scoot's house and as soon as i walked up i realized that his name is just right because there was a scooter lying in the walkway to the front door. he had some beers for us i got one called skinny dip made by 'New Belgium" from fort collins. it was enjoyable and chelsea helped out with some minestrone soup that curly and i split. we took a shot of vanilla vodka together as a band which was bearable merely because of the vanilla additives.

then there was a huge commotion of people scattering and running around saying cops cops. so i just sat still, knowing that i wasn't doing anything wrong after lots of knocks and those assholes shining flashlights through the windows Scoots was pushed to open the door. they spewed their typical power-ego jargon "if i come back here i will knock this door down" Nope. Wrong, that's illegal and a shame that you need to say that to make yourself feel like you're significant in some way.

so we migrated the party down the road to a much more intimate atmosphere- a 3 car garage converted into one of the most chill party spaces i've ever seen. time went by fast then slow then fast again that night and the sun came up in a matter of seconds. i didn't do much sleeping and 10 am felt like it cheated and came too soon.


it was a good chance to practice the role of being a band on the road and i got to spend time getting to know jake & chelsea better. definitely a night i won't forget

fatty and the cake

today was sort of a recovery day from last night's excursion to Tijuana. slept till 11 then woke up with the house mostly to myself so i went through all my email records and updated the tour planning documentation journal thing. also got to work on the piano parts for ever since and life in hell and when ryan and chelsea arrived for practice with garrett's piano was cool.

curly got the bank account for the gasoline set up, which is great as well.
fatty killed a rat last night and left the head upstairs on the balcony as a gift i assume then she was getting bored i guess and tore up a chair and it looked like there was cake all over the floor but it was one of those annoying kind of cakes with no icing.

the turtle outside was upset cause no one fed him so he messed on the mat right outside the door so i threw some lettuce out there for him. we had a little bit of practice and i got to try out the piano which was cool then got some carl's jr which made me full for a while.

then we tried to find a solution to the van registration situation. the Beans has work until 130 tomorrow which is when practice is scheduled to start but if he has to go to Santee to get the van registered then practice won't start until later. so we were going to pick up ryans old car from his house since we found a spare set of keys the other day. so we drove up there and pushed it over to the sidewalk so we could jumpstart it and after some discussion we agreed on how to attach the cables and for a minute the interior lights came on but the engine would not turn so we came to the conclusion that the battery needs replacing.

and now my favorite part of the evening, chelsea and other accomplices called curly's phone with under a blocked number and pretended to be random drunk girl Da Bears fans. we had been almost positive that it was madison trying to play a joke on us so we played along with it. we said we'd get them on the guestlist and backstage passes and they asked us if we could autograph their CDs as well as other things as well, but that it would be a surprise.

so it turned out that Ryan realized our guess that it was madison was incorrect when someone pronounced sam's last name properly so it turned out it was us that got played. haha nice work

so while we were trying to contemplate how to get them back, we decided that we're gonna head up to santee with jake and hit up guitar center on the way back here to the Binns' for practice at 2. but between now and then, i'm going to fall asleep listening to something soporific

almost there

we played a preview show yesturday on very short notice which was a good indicator for the remaining kinks we need to work out before we hit the road. today we acquired some supplies for the van including a cooler for food perishables and a heavy duty flashlight that can be used as a club if needed. we left a tuner behind last night which re-enforces the idea that we will need to establish a system of responsibility for all of our gear to prevent such occurrences on the road

turn of the screw

so, curly and i have been feeling quite useless with no transportation; EJ wanted to get his dad's car up in Santee so we could have some more options to get stuff done before tour. but we weren't allowed to use either the Binns van or Mercedes' suv to preserve the wishes of Mrs. Binns. we went to ryans house to get his car which hasn't been started in 6 months. when we got there we had some trouble locating the keys so we had to figure out another plan.
he offered that someone could drive his mom's mercedes benz and that someone turned out to be me. as soon as we figured out how to turn it on, we realized that we needed to get gas because the light had already been on. so we got to the gas station and put 6 bucks into it and i cleaned the windshield because i couldn't see much and i doubted that there was any fluid. we finally made it to Santee, the gas light on all the way, just hoping we'd make it. so we picked up the hocus focus from big eddie binns then got more gas and came back to ryans where i slept on the floor surprisingly comfortably but hungry.

AKA AK47 Fool

just got the blog going. this is the first but definitely not the last, just wait and see. grab a drink and listen to some good wavelenghts and frequencies