We weren’t quite sure what to expect when we arrived as the town reminded us more of York, NE than anything we had seen in California so far. We, however, went into the Brick Oven Pub to find a nice room set aside for the concert and lots of friendly people. Johnny Mojo and his band Sol Bridge showed up a couple hours after us and we had some good musical conversations with the guys. They opened for us and watching their set was definitely a treat. Not only did the groove really well (and Mojo can rip up a guitar) but they reminded us how fun, sitting back, and just jamming with some nice dance grooves can be. We got up to play our set, a little scared that the older folk in the crowd might stop dancing now that Sol Bridge was done with their nice blues grooves. We decided to try to lay back a lot and let the crowd dance. Which they did. This small town in Cali was turning out to be one of best crowds yet. We played for about an hour and a half and invited Mojo back on stage to jam on a couple of our tunes, causing Boomer to have such a guitar on guitar bromantic moment that for a second we thought we were going to have to leave him in Placerville. After the show the bar owner sent us off with some delicious microbrews which was a pleasant treat. We found a nice place to park the van and set up to go to sleep. Unfortunately we weren’t particularly tired at this point so Aaron and I decided to go for a walk. We found a State Fair Grounds and tried ferociously to find an unlocked door to some barnyard wonder but were unsuccessful. We did however get to run around the dirt tracks a bit and eventually wandered our way off the grounds and into fast food heaven. We found a Chevron and made ourselves a FEAST of a 2am snack. We arrived at the van about an hour later and I decided to take a cue from Aaron and sleep atop the van, which turned out to be my most comfortable night of sleep on tour…of course until the police officer woke me up in the morning and informed me it was about time we move our van off the side of the road and that sleeping on top of cars was frowned about here in Placerville.
After the rude awakening we filled up on gas and headed out to our next small town destination Mckinleyville, CA. This turned out to be the most beautiful drive I have ever been on. We drove through giant redwood trees, over huge mountains, and saw some amazing lookout points, all the while never being farther than 10 miles from the shore. We arrived in Mckinleyville and were treated to a delicious meal and some amazing microbrews (if you’ve never tried beer with chili pepper brewed in, I highly suggest it). We set up and played a quiet (somewhat energyless) set to the dinner crowd. At set break we got the go ahead to turn the amps up to 11 and get the crowd dancing since dinnertime was over. We played a strong second set and people really dug our Y.E.M. cover. After the show we talked to a lot of great people, including a bartender who stomped out Adam’s cigarette (a hot commodity on tour) in an attempt to save him from the rath of lung cancer. It was a Sunday so we were done playing by midnight. We had heard about small hippie town called Arcata, just down the road and decided we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. We hopped in the car with some locals and were taken to one of the strangest scene’s I’ve ever been apart of. At 1am on a Sunday night, I walked into a full on, hippied-out, blackligh shining, neon glow-sticks flying, rave in the middle of small town California. It was GREAT, we got a chance to let loose for awhile and spent the next hour showing off our hip dance skills to all sorts of crazy hip hop and techno beats. After the show we took the van to a locals house who had offered us some couches and an air mattress. We got a good night’s sleep, ready to head to Oregon the next day. We spent a full 7 days in California and all I can say is…I LOVE IT HERE!!!
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