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.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
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
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
Friday, July 20, 2007
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...
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...
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
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
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
Monday, July 16, 2007
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
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
Sunday, July 15, 2007
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
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
Thursday, July 12, 2007
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.
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.
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