SoCal Leg

After a few days back at home, we left for a quick 3-day tour down South. Wednesday, Aug. 12 (I know, I'm lazy!) we were in San Luis Obispo at a great venue called Mother's Tavern. We had a good show, especially for a Wed. night in a college town when school's still out. These pictures are of "gum alley" - a narrow passage between 2 buildings (one of them is Mother's Tavern) where everyone sticks their gum as they walk through. It's maybe 200 ft. long, and literally covered with gum from the ground to about 7' high.

The drive from SLO to Victorville, CA was terrible. Because of the landscape in CA, we decided it would be quicker and easier to take the freeway through L.A. than to go through narrow, winding, single-lane highways that zig-zagged to our destination. We were wrong. Traffic was slow and shitty the entire way. Nonetheless, we got there and had a great crowd at a tiny dive bar. These pics are intended to show how crappy the air quality is in L.A. county! The second one almost looks like it's dusk, but it's really about 5 PM and there's another 4 hours of daylight left!

Our 3rd and final show of this little stint (not counting our show in Sac on Sat.) was in Bakersfield. The show was O.K. - nothing special, but when we went to leave at the end of the night, we went across a huge dip in the driveway and broke our trailer hitch off and drug the trailer about 100 yds down the street before we finally realized that something was wrong! That sounds like a long ways, and it is, but the RV is wider than the trailer, so you can't see it in the side mirrors, and there's no back window, either. Also, the RV weighs so much more than the trailer and has enough power that Jonny couldn't feel the resistance while he was driving. We heard the the jack dragging on the pavement, and that was our only clue. Thankfully, we had an extra hitch (I can't even tell you why) and we switched them out and went on our way!

We have quite a bit of time off now, so I probably won't post anything else very soon. I'll throw up an update when something newsworthy happens. Peace.

The Long Haul

Day 23 (Telluride, CO) - The last time we were in Telluride, The Fly Me to the Moon Saloon went off the hook with Subilme fans. Of course, that was a Saturday and we were there on a Thursday this time around, so were surprised when we actually brought out MORE people than we did a couple months ago! Needless to say, Telluride has quickly become one of our most favorite places on Earth! Below are some pictures of the crowd we had, and the spot in the green room where Bradly (of Sublime) signed the wall when they played The Moon back in the 90's.

Day 24 (no show): We ended up with a weekend without anything booked, so we decided to head home for a few days before our Wed/Thurs/Fri down in Southern Cal. We drove about 18 hrs. straight from Telluride to Sacramento and hot home around 5:00 A.M. I spent the next 4 days doing nothing, which is why I'm posting this blog about 10 days late. I'll post another one tomorrow (hopefully) and let you know how our trip down South went.

More of Colorado

Day 21 (Denver): Our 3rd day in Denver (the first 2 spent camping in an RV park), we got to Herman's Hideaway pretty early and unloaded. It was a really cool venue, with great built in sound and light systems and a great engineer; this place has hosted the likes of 311 and Dave Matthews (before they were huge). They don't, however, have a great built in crowd - at least on Tuesday nights! Nonetheless, we got some free booze and had a good time. Oh yeah, and I had leaned Precious Pearls up against a trash can while we unloaded and she got stolen (2 flat tires and all - there were stickers at the last RV park) within the hour! Great neighborhood!

Day 22 (Colorado Springs-ish): Ty got a voicemail a day earlier from the dude at the Thirsty Parrot in Colorado Springs saying he wanted to cancel the show. We never actually got ot talk to him, but Ty said he sounded like a douche on the phone when he booked the show. The guy never told us why he canceled on us, but if I were to take a guess, it would be because 40 Oz. to Freedom (another Sublime tribute band, out of San Diego) was playing that same night at a different club in Colorado Springs (we try to avoid other tributes while we're booking, but it still happens on occaision). Of course, we believe that we're better than them, but they've been on the road for about 2 years longer than us and have more name recognition. Plus, they were playing a premier venue and we were at some shit-hole that cancels on you in the 11th hour. We spent the day driving to Telluride instead, and found another RV park to camp out at for a day. The only bad thing is that it was waaaaay up in the mountains with no internet, cell phone service, or gas stations/stores of any kind. It was a boring day & night, though very pretty (see photos)!

Sublime (Tribute)?

Days 16 & 17 (Rapid City): Ty and myself were both pretty excited when we booked a 2-nighter at the Robinsdale Lounge in Rapid, because we both know a lot of people there (Ty has family & I went to college there). When we got to town, I jumped out of the moving RV at a stop light and walked 3 blocks to Matt Kautz's house. Within the first 5 minutes of our conversation, he brought up the fact that the radio ad on KSKY said that the 2 remaining original members of Sublime were going to be at the show, which of course, was a complete lie! Somehow (and of no fault of our own), the venue believed that the REAL Sublime was coming to Rapid City to play 2 free shows at a bowling alley lounge for $1500... seriously?!! I spoke with the radio station DJ who made the ad and he told me about his overwhelming skepticism and how the venue representative swore that it was true, and I apologized for the misunderstanding and reassured him that that's not the way we do business!

We were a little nervous at how the crowd would react when they found out we weren't the real band, but most of them didn't even notice. Many of my friends that were at the shows heard several people repeating the rumor and even adding to it! I'm sure some people noticed, but nobody said anything to us, and hey - free shows! In the end, the place was packed (sold out on Friday) both nights, everyone had fun, and we had 2 killer shows, so we're going to call it a success despite the fraudulent promotion.

Day 18 (Breckenridge, CO): Normally we try to keep our drive down to 6 hours or less per day, but today we found ourselves getting up at 9:00 A.M. (which isn't early unless you're up until 3 A.M., which we usually are) to break down and load equipment so we could start our 8-hour drive to Breckenridge. We got there just in time to load in, sound check, and microwave a few burritos before going on. The night was a little slow, but we were O.K. with that, since we were all low on sleep, low on energy, and low on oxygen (elev. 9600'). Besides, we had a guarantee, so we got paid the same no matter how many people showed up!

Days 19 & 20 (no shows): After 15 shows in the first 18 days of our tour and 3,900 miles of driving, we finally get a couple of days off in a row. We woke up in Breckenridge, drove to Denver, stopped at a grocery store, then found an RV park to camp at for 2 days. Our next show is here in Denver tomorrow night.

A packed house in Rapid City.

Ty crowd surfing in Rapid City!

The view from off stage - what a crazy night.

One of my former IE professors, Dr. Carter Kerk came to the show on Friday.

My parents came to Rapid City for both nights and we got to hang out quite a bit, and had a lot of fun.

Tom Campbell (Ty's dad) stopped on his way to Sturgis to hang out. If we didn't have to head to CO, I would have rode up with him on "Precious Pearls" (my $11 Salvation Army Special that gets me around when we have some free time).

It's a Funny Business

Day 12 (Bellingham, WA): After a slow Friday & Saturday in Spokane, we were a little apprehensive about traveling 360 miles to Bellingham for a Sunday night show. As it turned out, we had a great crowd and an exciting night at the Wild Buffalo, which is a very nice venue that tailors to a lot of touring bands!

Day 13 (no show): We headed back to the East and spent the night in Spokane with some people we met at our shows there. Nothing really exciting.

Day 14 (Missoula, MT): We had a great show at the Top Hat on a Tuesday, which reinforces the fact that in this business the best days aren't always on the weekends! One of my friends that I worked with at Granite, Jacque Chatriand (right) now lives in Missoula and came to the show with her sister, Jessi (left).

Day 15 (Sheridan, WY): We booked our show at the American Legion Post #7 in Sheridan about 2 weeks prior, and weren't expecting a huge turnout for a few reasons:

1.) It's the American Legion and not a hot spot for the younger crowd.

2.) It's Sheridan, WY on a Wednesday night.

3.) They only had 2 weeks to promote the show.

4.) Their live music schedule included the likes of the Boot Hill Band and Ethyl & The Regulars.

Despite our expectations, however, a lot of people came to the show, due to the efforts of the manager of the Legion, who did an excellent job of promoting and even put an ad on the local rock radio station. At the beginning off the night, the crowd looked like this: And at the end of the night... It turned out to be the best show of the tour so far! Thank you, Sheridan, Wyoming!! And just to recap the week so far:

Friday Spokane, WA slow night

Saturday Spokane, WA slow night

Sunday Bellingham, WA great night

Tuesday Missoula, MT great night

Wednesday Sheridan, WY amazing night!

It's a funny business!

Dance, Dance!!

Day 9 (Coeur D'Alene, ID): We played a venue called The Grail, that hosts a lot of larger national acts (Powerman 500 and King's X are the most recent). We were supposed to have 2 opening bands for the show but one of them had to cancel because their van broke down. We met the other band and they seemed nice, but then disappeared before load-in and we never saw them again! The show itsself was good but not great, though it's always fun to play on a big stage with a great monitor mix, and believe me, the sound guys at The Grail do an excellent job!

Day 10 (Spokane, WA): We got to town and met Ty's dad at his old Air Force buddy's (Jack) house. We showered there (for the first time since we left Boise 3 days prior) and spent a few hours relaxing in the shade. That night we played a place called Litz's - a smaller bar with a lot of regulars. They wanted us to play outside for the first part of the night then move inside because of a noise restriction. It was a pain in the ass, but we did it anyway. On the outside patio, there was not quite enough room for one of Jonny's cymbal stands, so we had to find a short coffee can to put under one of the leges (see the photo). We had everything plugged into 2 outlets and kept blowing breakers. By the end of the night, everything on our end of the bar was turned off except for our equipment!

Day 11 (Spokane, WA): Our 2nd night at Litz's, it was pretty much the same as the previous night. There was, however, some fat guy the had the greatest dance moves I've ever seen! I managed to shoot a video of him by placing my camera on top of my amp during our last song. The video is posted at the very bottom of this blog, but be patient, because it takes him a minute to warm up.

Old Air Force buddies: Jack (our host for a day) and Tom (Ty's dad).

Our outside setup at Litz's.

Johnny's new cymbal stand addendum.

The best dancer I've ever seen!

A Tough Couple of Days

Day 6 (Boise, ID): Monday nights are always tough! I would rather play a Sunday because all of the waitresses, bartenders, and bouncers go drinking on Sundays - we refer to it as an "industry night". Anyways, we played a comedy club and had a pretty mediocre crowd. As you'll see in the pictures, I actually got bored (drunk) enough to take some pictures of us while we were playing! It beats a night off, though.

Day 7 (no show): Nursing the worst collective hangover since we started touring, we had to go back to the club and tear down/load up our stuff, which was not-so-conveniently located on the 2nd story of a downtown building on a weekday. After holding up a lane of traffic and sweating booze for 45 minutes, we left and found a cheap RV park, showered, then plugged in and enjoyed the air conditioner for the rest of the day.

Day 8 (Idaho Falls, ID???): We got up and drove to Idaho Falls, ran a few errands (music store, internet stop), then met Jana & Tyler Petty (siblings, not spouses) for early dinner at one of the best sandwich shops I've ever been to (Mike McCroden can vouch for me when I say that). Then we rolled out to the club, said "hi" to the bartender lady that we met the last time we played there, then started loading in. Around 9:15 P.M., we had everything set up and were still waiting for our sound guy, who is also the club owner and booker. Jana & Tyler showed up and we were hanging out when the dude finally got there and told us the show was cancelled. The only reason he would give us is that the posters we sent him arrived "late" (about 10 days before) and he "didn't have enough time to promote the show". Our take on the situation is that the guy thought he could get more people out with a DJ and is, generally speaking, a dick. So we packed our stuff up (under the watchfull eye of one of the bouncers) and got the hell out of there, plotting our revenge all the way to Missoula, MT, where we stopped for the night. All told, he screwed us out of about $400 cash and $150 worth of fuel by making us drive to Idaho Falls and not play a show. Needless to say, we'll never go back to The 840, and never stop telling people how shady the owner, Shawn, is.

Ben & Jonny goofing around in Boise.

This is me getting creative with my camera.

Jana outside of the Sandwich Tree - great sandwiches!

My sandal, that Ben stepped on and broke when he was trying to ruin my picture of the Sandwich Tree.

Myself and Jana, after the show that she didn't get to see because of The 840's crooked owner, Shawn.

July 17-19

Day 3 (Mt. Shasta, CA): Another little mountain town - we had a great show despite a slow start. We needed a little morale booster after a tough night in Redding. The stage was really small and we had to set up on it and in front of it. Luckily, they put a bouncer next to us and he saved us multiple times from drunk people stepping on and spilling booze on our pedal boards.

Day 4 (Dunsmuir, CA): We got up today called some dude that had offered us a shower and we very gratefully accepted. It's been really hot the last few days (100+) and that makes showering so much more valuable! Afterwards we spent the day hanging out at Lake Siskiyou just outside of town. Dunsmuir is only about 6 miles from Mt. Shasta, which made for a nice, short, cheap commute. We had another good show and made pretty good money, which is important because our dates are going to start getting pretty far apart and we need a bank roll to travel on.

Day 5 (no show): We have a day off today, and drove about 6 hrs to Burns, OR and rented an RV campsite (showers, poopers, & electricity - very nice). We're about another 3 or 3 1/2 hours away from Boise, where our show is tomorrow night. Nothing really exciting to report (sorry), just moving along...

We ding'd up our trailer a little from trying to weasel our way out of a tight spot.

A view of Mt. Shasta (the mountain) from Mt. Shasta (the town). The elevation difference is about 10,000 ft.

A shot of the crowd at Roxy's Vet Club in Mt. Shasta.

This guy loved the show, but was really annoying and eventually got kicked out. His signature move was flipping the bird, and did it all night to everyone.

Lake Siskiyou, outside of Mt. Shasta City, CA

The First Leg

Summer Tour, Day 1 (Chico, CA): Only 100 miles North of Sacramento, Chico is almost a local show for us. As close as it is, though, we still won't be going home for another 31 days, so it makes little difference! We had a good show last night and I got to hang out with Abby Denzin, who just moved to Chico and I haven't seen since my days at the School of Mines.

Day 2 (Redding, CA): We got up this morning and drove to Redding, which only took us about 1 hour. It's kind of nice to be so close to our next show and we're savoring it, because we have a few 8 hr. drives between shows coming up in a couple weeks. We did run into a little trouble on the drive today when we came to an overpass that only had 8' of clearence (seriously?! eight feet tall?!!). Needless to say, we had to back into someone's driveway and turn around and when we did some crazy old-timer came out of his mobile home half nude and started barking orders and waving his cigarette at us. It was kind of funny - see the pictures!

On the Road Again (soon)

The next tour starts in Chico, CA on Wednesday, and it's going to be a long one! It's 32 days from first show to the last, and we're covering more territory than the last 2 times out. Check the dates posted on the "Where am I" section to the right or follow the link to our website for more info, because we're coming to a city near you!

We had a couple of local shows this past weekend, and now it's getting ready to be gone for a month: doing laundry, making sure all the bills are paid or arranged to be paid, eating all of the food in the fridge so it doesn't spoil, and etc. We're also still doing some booking for the tour. There are a lot of places we've been in contact with that just haven't confirmed a date yet, so I'll try and update the calendar as we add more shows.

That's it for now, but stay tuned because there's a lot coming up! Also, I don't have any photos to post, so here's a hand drawn picture of Sean from The Animations that I found at the show in Sunnyvale (artist unknown):

And the Winner is...

After 2 days of rest coming off our Colorado tour, we headed down South for 3 shows in San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, and Sunnyvale. They all went pretty well and in Sunnyvale we got to play with our friends, The Animations, with whom we haven't seen or done a show with for a long time (I used to work with Beau at Granite Construction). Below is a video I shot of them covering Bohemian Rhapsody. It's really crappy sound quality, but you get the idea (I love their version of the song).

We drove home after the Sunnyvale show and got back at 4:00 A.M., slept until about noon, then at 3:30 P.M. headed downtown to the Sacramento News & Review's Musicfest celebration. It was about 103 degrees out at 6:30 when we played, but it was tolerable and we were pretty much flawless (we have been playing almost every day for the last 2 months, so we should have the kinks worked out by now!). We included "Billie Jean" in our 4 song set since Michael Jackson died the other day and the crowd was really responsive to it. We also got a lot of good feedback from people and it was great exposure for us.

At 8:00 P.M. they started announcing the winners of this year's Sammie Awards. For the second year in a row, we won the Readers' Choice award for Outstanding Reggae/Ska/Funk/Jam band!! Thanks to all of you who voted - we won because of your support! It feels good to get home after a tour, but it feels even better to get home and receive an award!

Now we have a few weeks off before our next tour starts (with a couple local shows between now and then), so I may not post a new blog for a while unless something cool or crazy happens. Have a happy (and safe) 4th of July and remember to remember why we celebrate it. God Bless America.

Video of The Animations (Beau & Shawn)

A quick shot of the crowd in front of the main stage at SN&R's Musicfest. There were about 4x as many people in the beer garden!

Ben eats a sno-cone, then does his best impression of a drunk albino smurf.

Matt does his impression of a guy in a band that just won a Sammie.

Bac in Sac

We’re back in Sacramento, after our Friday show in Breckenridge, CO and our Saturday show in Salt Lake City. Neither show was exceptional, but the respective crowds were very fond of us. I was surprised to see Brooke & Quinn Herran at our show in Breck, and we had a great time hanging out and catching up (I guess Raine had to wash her hair or something else really important, because she couldn’t make the trip). We slept a little late yesterday then drove most of the day to get home; it’s about 10 hrs. from SLC to Sac. We have today and tomorrow to hang out, then we’ll gone for 3 more days before coming home again for the Sammies Award Show, which we have the honor of performing at this year and are up for an award as well – thanks for those who voted for us! After the Sammies, I have 3 days to move into our new house (our landlord terminated our lease) then I’m flying back to Nebraska for the 4th of July. After spending most of the last 8 weeks on the road, we’re going to use the first couple weeks of July to relax at home before heading out on our Northern route again. To be continued…

Curvy mountain roads South of Breckenridge.

More curvy roads South of Breck. We were kind of glad we weren't in our bus at this point in the trip because it only has 4 gears and no jake brake.

L to R: Brooke, Myself, Quinn. Two Herren girls out of three is pretty good if you ask me! I know - it ryhmes.

Beggers Can't Be Choosers

We had a decent show in Durango (pretty good for a Wed), then left that night for Alamosa because we didn’t have a place to park for the night. We got to Pegosa Springs before we pulled over to sleep. The next morning we drove through Wolf Creek Pass, which constantly reminded me of the C.W. McCall (who also wrote “Convoy”) song except that we were heading from Pegosa Springs and weren’t hauling chickens. We got to Alamosa around noon, and discovered that it’s apparently the scenic anomaly of Colorado. After pillaging the Wendy’s dollar menu Ty, Ben & Jonny laid down for a nap and I headed out on a walkabout (in the style of Brandon Lechtenburg) in search of the fabled “internet”.

After walking for about 2 miles I still hadn’t found a coffee shop (the most common source of free wifi) but realized that I was right in the middle of the Adams State College campus (had I known I would end up here, I would’ve worn my CSC FB shirt again, despite the odor). I just happened to be across the street from the library, so I went in and sweet-talked the librarian into giving me a temporary library card. After killing about 3 ½ hours cruising the net I walked the remaining mile to the venue to meet the other guys there.

We had another decent night (again, good for a weeknight), though the venue was big and open and sounded like we were playing in a tin shed. Afterwards, the owner of the bar gave us the key and directions to his “band house”, where we could shower and spend the night. The house looked (and smelled) like one of those old abandoned country houses that you sneak into when you’re a kid to look for various treasures and to break everything that’s made of glass. Nonetheless, about half of the lights worked and it had running water and beds, so we were tickled pink to be there! After crashing on a 4’6” long RV couch for 10 days, I felt like a king in the old, squeaky, garage sale special double bed that I called dibs on, and got my best night’s sleep since this tour started.

Tonight we have a show in Breckenridge, which we have fairly high expectations for. We negotiated a hotel room when we booked this show, but probably won’t be sleeping there. Since we have a show in Salt Lake City tomorrow night, we’ll most likely just shower then start driving so we don’t have to knock out the drive all at once.

Below are pictures of the Alamosa Band House: