The band woke up after a night of dance parties in a comfortable house whose owner's name escapes me (nevertheless, we are very appreciative of the warm place to stay) and hopped in the van on our way out of California for the first time in a week. We had heard about the beauty of northern California and southern Oregon, but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw (I don't have access to the pictures right now, but I will post them soon for a more visual experience). We decided to take the long route through Redwood National Forest, which took us into Oregon. Of everything we have seen on this trip, this is by far my favorite. HUGE moss covered trees creating a forest so dense you couldn't see more than 10 feet in any direction, and then out of nowhere a break in the forest making way for canyons filled with the bluest water. Unbelievable.
We arrived in Eugene fairly late and found out that the communication we had had with the venue had been lost in the personnel changes they had underwent recently. But they were able to squeeze us in, playing first before 2 heavy metal bands. We were unsure of the reception, but if nothing else this tour has made us comfortable playing for a plethora of crowds, and by the end of our set people were up and dancing. After we played the two metal bands played, and everyone was out dancing for them as well. Gotta love metal crowds, they are down with everything.
At the end of the night we called our CouchSurfee (Richie) and packed up the van to head over there. We decided that it would be best if Boomer drove, if nothing else just start the car for someone else. Seemed easy enough. Boomer hopped into the front seat with vengeance for Lindsay in his eyes. With one swift forward motion, he turned the key forward igniting the engine, but that wasn't enough for Boom, as he held the key in the forward position the engine screeched for 10 seconds until he pulled the key back. Quite frightened, Boomer slowly put the car into reverse and started heading the 3 blocks to Richie's. When we arrived, there were cars lining the left side of the street and no cars on the right....so we parked on the right. Just as we shut the car off, Richie came outside and informed us that we had just parked on an freeway offramp and had to move it across the street. I went to the drivers seat and turned the key only to hear a 'click' sound. Quite frightened now myself, I tried it several more times, but to no avail. Between the four band members, our mechanic skills range from "pop the hood and look at the wondrous world of moving metal parts" (Boomer and I) to "I haven't ever owned a car that works but have read a lot of internet forums and handle car talk like Aaron handles sports talk" (steven) to "took a couple of mechanics classes in high school and know some things" (bird). But just as we were all about to put our mechanic skills to work, Richie jumps under the car and starts to troubleshoot. After a bit of skepticism on our parts, Richie tells us that he is a professional mechanic, that it is a starter problem, and that he can check out his secret mechanic internet database in the morning and see if he can find us a starter. What kind of luck is that? Just absurd. After 2,500 miles without a single car problem, we roll up to the house of someone we have never met, the car doesn't start, and he turns out to be a mechanic.
Well we all retired to the house with a new sense of optimism for the day ahead (we were due in Portland at 6pm the next day, so we had to find a starter and replace it before the mid afternoon). Richie showed us to our rooms (each person had his own) and showed us around his instrument room (basses, guitars, pianos, etc.) and then to his brewery in the basement....really just couldn't have been a better situation.
The next morning we woke up, called around for parts, found a starter, found a mechanic who dropped everything he was doing to work on the van, and got the starter replaced VERY cheaply around noon. As we left the mechanics place on our way to Portland, the brakes started to make some awful metal on metal noises....so we figured we should probably get those fixed at some point....foreshadowing the second luckiest/most coincidental thing that has ever happened to me.
-Aaron E.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
A(some) Small Town(s) in the Middle of California
After painstakingly forcing ourselves to leave the wonderland that is San Francisco we made a beautiful drive through mountains, redwoods, and coastline to finally arrive in Placerville, Ca.
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!!!
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!!!
Only In San Francisco
As you may have read in the San Diego post, we have been told quite a bit about San Francisco, and everything (aside from the cost of living) has been amazing. We have been told about the terrain, entertainment, diversity, festivals, etc. But nothing could have prepared me for what San Francisco turned out to be. The second I saw the bustling city on the peninsula from the bridge I knew that it was different than anything I have ever seen.
We arrived during rush hour traffic so we had plenty of time to slowly check out the city, taking care to keep all 8 eyes on the road. We arrived at the Rockit Room at about 5 and had a chance to walk around the city a little bit, mostly through Japan town, the 4x2 block of authentic Japanese cuisine. That night we played at the Rockit Room with a band call The Great Sand Waste, great band out of San Francisco.
They started around 9 and we got going around 10:30pm and were done by midnight. We had a great crowd for the show and a great reception. As we were unloading our stuff we heard music coming from the ground floor of the Rockit Room (the concert area was on the second floor). We made our way down and found a Reggae dance party with gobs of people packed into a small room dancing in probably 15 different styles and more diversity than I have ever seen in one place. This was my first inkling about San Francisco. It is pretty much 100 different cultures slammed into a 7X7 mile peninsula forcing exposure to and from every group. After the dance party we went outside to our van and started talking to a group of people who invited us over to their house to hang out and drink a bit. When we arrived, we walked through what looked like an art studio to get to the back room, which turned into a custom instrument shop. Boomer played some guitars, we passed around the guitar to a couple of people in the room who sang some original tunes, and then we sang some tunes for them. By about 4 we were starting to wear down and, knowing that the next day was a free day to explore San Francisco, we headed back to the van to sleep. A couple of nights before this, Boomer tried to sleep on the roof of the van and claimed that is both uncomfortable, and frightening given the 6 foot drop off the side. But after sleeping inside the van for a couple of hours in a very strange position, I had to give the roof a try. I jumped up on the roof with a sleeping bag and, after enough dents were made, it turned out to be very comfortable. The next morning I awoke to a lady taking a picture of me sleeping on the roof saying to herself “only is San Francisco.” 
We arrived during rush hour traffic so we had plenty of time to slowly check out the city, taking care to keep all 8 eyes on the road. We arrived at the Rockit Room at about 5 and had a chance to walk around the city a little bit, mostly through Japan town, the 4x2 block of authentic Japanese cuisine. That night we played at the Rockit Room with a band call The Great Sand Waste, great band out of San Francisco.
They started around 9 and we got going around 10:30pm and were done by midnight. We had a great crowd for the show and a great reception. As we were unloading our stuff we heard music coming from the ground floor of the Rockit Room (the concert area was on the second floor). We made our way down and found a Reggae dance party with gobs of people packed into a small room dancing in probably 15 different styles and more diversity than I have ever seen in one place. This was my first inkling about San Francisco. It is pretty much 100 different cultures slammed into a 7X7 mile peninsula forcing exposure to and from every group. After the dance party we went outside to our van and started talking to a group of people who invited us over to their house to hang out and drink a bit. When we arrived, we walked through what looked like an art studio to get to the back room, which turned into a custom instrument shop. Boomer played some guitars, we passed around the guitar to a couple of people in the room who sang some original tunes, and then we sang some tunes for them. By about 4 we were starting to wear down and, knowing that the next day was a free day to explore San Francisco, we headed back to the van to sleep. A couple of nights before this, Boomer tried to sleep on the roof of the van and claimed that is both uncomfortable, and frightening given the 6 foot drop off the side. But after sleeping inside the van for a couple of hours in a very strange position, I had to give the roof a try. I jumped up on the roof with a sleeping bag and, after enough dents were made, it turned out to be very comfortable. The next morning I awoke to a lady taking a picture of me sleeping on the roof saying to herself “only is San Francisco.” 
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Wonders of California - San Diego
Today we finally reached the border to California, the state that many of us have been looking forward to since we left Omaha on that fateful day. From the start we weren't disappointed. Right before we crossed the border, hills of sand started to emerge from the ground. To our right were rolling hills of the whitest sand I have ever seen; to our left, several rows of barbed wire fence marking the Mex-US border.
Once we passed into California we started to ascend into the mountains. About 45 minutes after we passed the California border, we saw the strangest, coolest mountains I have ever seen.
I mean, does that not look like someone just dumped huge piles of stones into big piles? It is like very zoomed in sand mountains....just insane. Evidently (from the mouth of a man who lives in the mountains near San Francisco...which I suppose makes him an expert in the subject) the mountains were formed from years and years of lava erosion.
We arrived in San Diego fairly late and had to head straight to the venue. It was a Monday, so we weren't expecting too much in the way of attendance, but it turned out to be the best night of the week at this bar because of a weekly live art showcase they do. When we arrived, there were about 5 independent artists doing everything from characatures to body painting to fork bending jewelry. We set up and started to play and got the bars attention enough to have them come over to our side and jam out. When we were done we packed up our stuff and walked around the venue taking in all of the art.
At bar close we made our way down the street to our couch surfers, Jason's, house, went inside, talked until 6am about San Francisco and music, and then crashed for the night. Really unfortunate we didn't get to spend more time exploring San Diego, since I have heard nothing but great things about it, but oh well...off to Los Angeles!!
-Aaron E.
Once we passed into California we started to ascend into the mountains. About 45 minutes after we passed the California border, we saw the strangest, coolest mountains I have ever seen.
I mean, does that not look like someone just dumped huge piles of stones into big piles? It is like very zoomed in sand mountains....just insane. Evidently (from the mouth of a man who lives in the mountains near San Francisco...which I suppose makes him an expert in the subject) the mountains were formed from years and years of lava erosion.
We arrived in San Diego fairly late and had to head straight to the venue. It was a Monday, so we weren't expecting too much in the way of attendance, but it turned out to be the best night of the week at this bar because of a weekly live art showcase they do. When we arrived, there were about 5 independent artists doing everything from characatures to body painting to fork bending jewelry. We set up and started to play and got the bars attention enough to have them come over to our side and jam out. When we were done we packed up our stuff and walked around the venue taking in all of the art.
At bar close we made our way down the street to our couch surfers, Jason's, house, went inside, talked until 6am about San Francisco and music, and then crashed for the night. Really unfortunate we didn't get to spend more time exploring San Diego, since I have heard nothing but great things about it, but oh well...off to Los Angeles!!
-Aaron E.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Pictures - Dallas and Austin
Traditional buffet in Dallas
Huge
Singing to our new friend Connie the energy bar sales lady
Dallas with Harp player we met at Whole Foods
Headhunters in Austin
Boomer on UT Campus
Sunday, April 11, 2010
A Sober Perspective on a Drunken Adventure
Austin started early....very early. After finishing our Dallas set with no one being too keen on sleeping in the van, we decided to make the 4 hour journey to Austin. Boomer promptly passed out in the back seat, Jay was in and out of consciousness, while Aaron drove like a mad man sucking down his 6th Monster, and I tried my hardest to stay awake in the passenger seat and keep him awake.
We showed up at Liz Love and Maggie Sullivan's house who had set everything up for us quite nicely. I layed down on the giant air mattress thinking I was finally going to get a comfortable night's sleep, only to be joined by (you guessed it) my usual sleeping partner (big points) on this tour - Adam Boomer. We got some good sleep and woke up early the next day to explore downtown Austin. WOW. Sixth street is a touring musicians dream, every other store is a music venue, and what isn't a venue is a music shop or souvenir shop specializing in music memorabilia. We ate a nice Tex Mex lunch, went to a nice drum shop to fix Jay's pedal, and went to scope out the outside of the venue (Headhunters).
After our morning downtown we decided heading to the UT's campus to scope shorties would make us feel better about the lack of groupie action so far on tour. We got a quick workout in (4 pull ups a piece, some of us with cigarette in mouth) on the outside track/gym and went running around the campus. I WISH I COULD GO BACK TO COLLEGE!!! I know it has been said before on this blog but every time we visit a school I get more and more nostalgic for dorm rooms, bad food, and lots and lots of (parties) studying. We explored the admissions office and almost got tackled by a security guard as we tried to leisurely stroll into the office of the University President.
After campus we headed back to Liz's to hang out with her and Maggie for a minute and catch a quick nap/shower. We got to the venue early and started setting up on the outdoor patio in a rainstorm, luckily the patio was roofed in and it was kind of nice to set up with the sound of the pitter patter above. We got yelled at by a clearly very tense sound guy who helped us set up them quickly took off. We were in competition with an open mic happening inside but throughout the night we pulled a lot of the fans outside. Our new friend Jason kept yelling things at the stage like "ya, bring that funk, get it" which made us feel nice and Boomer's new bestie Dinesh spent the night taking really cool pictures of the show which you can see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48370430@N03/sets/72157623682856963/
Liz came up with her sax and jammed with us on a few tunes, reinforcing my belief that many of the best musicians around have their humble beginnings in Nebraska. Now, being sober driver I didn't get to partake in this but some enthusiastic crowd members bought A LOT of shots for the band towards the end of the night, leading to just jovial musicians post show. After we got the van all packed up we spent some time talking to the club owner Looney who had dug the show. Looney was a big scary looking dude, the type of guy Boomer and I probably wouldn't usually mention our religious beliefs to, but he turned out to be incredibly nice and had lots of good tips for us (including don't go swim in the lake those girls just invited you to, unless you want to come out of it with hepatitis). So after Boomer did some bullet dodging to get us out of plans the band had drunkenly made, we headed back to Liz and Maggies for a wonderful party. At this point I was able to start drinking so my recollection gets a little hazy after this point but I do remember having lots of fun. The next morning we got up early and headed out for the small small small town of San Angelo, so stay tuned...
Steven
We showed up at Liz Love and Maggie Sullivan's house who had set everything up for us quite nicely. I layed down on the giant air mattress thinking I was finally going to get a comfortable night's sleep, only to be joined by (you guessed it) my usual sleeping partner (big points) on this tour - Adam Boomer. We got some good sleep and woke up early the next day to explore downtown Austin. WOW. Sixth street is a touring musicians dream, every other store is a music venue, and what isn't a venue is a music shop or souvenir shop specializing in music memorabilia. We ate a nice Tex Mex lunch, went to a nice drum shop to fix Jay's pedal, and went to scope out the outside of the venue (Headhunters).
After our morning downtown we decided heading to the UT's campus to scope shorties would make us feel better about the lack of groupie action so far on tour. We got a quick workout in (4 pull ups a piece, some of us with cigarette in mouth) on the outside track/gym and went running around the campus. I WISH I COULD GO BACK TO COLLEGE!!! I know it has been said before on this blog but every time we visit a school I get more and more nostalgic for dorm rooms, bad food, and lots and lots of (parties) studying. We explored the admissions office and almost got tackled by a security guard as we tried to leisurely stroll into the office of the University President.
After campus we headed back to Liz's to hang out with her and Maggie for a minute and catch a quick nap/shower. We got to the venue early and started setting up on the outdoor patio in a rainstorm, luckily the patio was roofed in and it was kind of nice to set up with the sound of the pitter patter above. We got yelled at by a clearly very tense sound guy who helped us set up them quickly took off. We were in competition with an open mic happening inside but throughout the night we pulled a lot of the fans outside. Our new friend Jason kept yelling things at the stage like "ya, bring that funk, get it" which made us feel nice and Boomer's new bestie Dinesh spent the night taking really cool pictures of the show which you can see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48370430@N03/sets/72157623682856963/
Liz came up with her sax and jammed with us on a few tunes, reinforcing my belief that many of the best musicians around have their humble beginnings in Nebraska. Now, being sober driver I didn't get to partake in this but some enthusiastic crowd members bought A LOT of shots for the band towards the end of the night, leading to just jovial musicians post show. After we got the van all packed up we spent some time talking to the club owner Looney who had dug the show. Looney was a big scary looking dude, the type of guy Boomer and I probably wouldn't usually mention our religious beliefs to, but he turned out to be incredibly nice and had lots of good tips for us (including don't go swim in the lake those girls just invited you to, unless you want to come out of it with hepatitis). So after Boomer did some bullet dodging to get us out of plans the band had drunkenly made, we headed back to Liz and Maggies for a wonderful party. At this point I was able to start drinking so my recollection gets a little hazy after this point but I do remember having lots of fun. The next morning we got up early and headed out for the small small small town of San Angelo, so stay tuned...
Steven
Friday, April 9, 2010
Dallas-Whole Foods Success
Woke up today after a nice sleep; Steve and I in the van, Jason and Boomer in the hotel, ready to get the day started in Dallas. We headed towards downtown Dallas with no goals in mind and ended up next to the largest building we could find ready to explore the city. We walked around for awhile downtown and decided that we wanted to get to the top of a building and see the view of the city. We walked into a really nice looking Sheridan hotel and promptly walked past the front desk acting like we lived there and rode the elevators to the 32nd floor. Jason found an employee door to a staircase and we followed that up to the 39th floor. Somehow in that shuffle we all got separated roaming around a seemingly empty top 10 floors of the Sheridan. Jason and I met in a banquet room the size of an entire floor and played on a baby grand piano for awhile, got some milk from the fridges and went down to the bar where we inevitably found Boomer and Steve talking with an old record producer. We took some pictures with the dude and headed back to the van to find the venue, The Lakewood Bar and Grill. We arrived at the venue and parked and still had about 3 hours to kill so Steve went on a walk, Jason took a nap, and Boomer and I took the old First Act acoustic guitar and merchandise booth out for a walk to see if we could drum up some support for the show. We saw a Whole Foods nearby and decided to try it out. We walked around the aisles, playing guitar and singing to innocent shopping people. We serenaded a lady and got some energy bars, some gum drops, sung to a couple of little girls (ending in a $.50 tip), and then posted up by the olives and played for another 15 minutes. At the end of that 15 minutes a couple stopped and listened for awhile and we got to talking to them Hank, the guy, said that he played harmonica. Just as he said that, one of the store clerks decided that random kids with guitars don't belong in Whole Foods and kicked us out. We decided to go right outside the doors and play, Hank with his harmonicas, and played a couple of tunes with us outside. After the , we headed back to the van, unloaded our stuff in the venue and got ready for the show. After watching the first half of the national championship game we started playing for about 4 people in the bar. At the end of the first set we had a couple of fans, one already wearing an Ave. shirt and holding 2 Ave. cds. As we started playing the second set, Hank and his wife showed up and Hank hopped up and started playing harmonica with us on about 5 tracks. At the end of the show we traded some information with the people there, got a few contacts in LA and Portland, and packed up our stuff and started on the road to Austin TX, live music capital of the world.
-Aaron E.
-Aaron E.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Dallas-slightly out of order
We woke up on this lovely Easter morning after our show in Oklahoma City with another wonderful couchsurfing family. We made some coffee, talked some religion, and were off to try and find a gold course on this, our first free day of tour. After driving around for awhile, we finally found the golf course, and it immediately became apparent that, even this public, half-yellow, half-green golf course was way too classy for us. So as quickly as we walked out in our ripped shorts and t-shirts, we filed back in the van and started the drive to Dallas. 3 hours later we started seeing strange looking signs, George Bush expressways, a plethora of buffets and more gas stations than I have seen in my life, and it was obvious we had arrived in Texas. We did what any band on the road, starting to let themselves go, really trying to watch their calorie intake, would do....we found the first Chinese buffet we could and promptly ran inside, only to slowly hobble out an hour later. From there we took the rollercoaster ride of interstate back to a $25 motel that we had found and setup our gear inside to practice. We practiced for about 2 hours and decided that it might be getting loud for our fellow patrons (we are like, super hardcore) and called it a night, which brings me here, sitting on the floor of the motel, typing this blog entry.
Boomer will be writing about Fayetteville in a bit here, so make sure to check http://boomzpicks.blogspot.com/ for the latest from Boomer. Until then, enjoy some of the pictures that we have taken so far!
-Aaron E.
Boomer will be writing about Fayetteville in a bit here, so make sure to check http://boomzpicks.blogspot.com/ for the latest from Boomer. Until then, enjoy some of the pictures that we have taken so far!
-Aaron E.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Oklahoma City, Feelin’ Kinda Shitty
So...not the ideal situation for a show last night. After a LONG good bye to our lovely hosts in Fayetteville (including but not limited to: many self timed full group pictures, window painting of the bands main girl (van) Jim, hugs, t-shirt fittings, and some awkward tension between members of each band – we all sort of fell in love with each other) we got on the road and headed back to Oklahoma. It was my leg to drive which was a less stressful activity than I had anticipated. After swerving through the rolling Arkansas Mountains (bluffs) we pulled into OK City around 6 o’clock. Boomer (who was already half-cocked at this point) called and got us directions to the venue. We showed up to one of the strangest establishments I have ever seen; A two floor, lesbian/sports/bar/restaurant/venue tucked right in the middle of nowhereville OK City. We decided to split up into two teams (Adam and Jason vs. Steven and Aaron) and go out to promote the show. From what I heard, things went pretty well for the other squad, but Aaron and I walked about 2 miles into just nothing and talked to maybe 3 people. We got back to venue about an hour before show time and said some hellos to the other band – instantly not the connection we had with Groovement in Fayetteville. We stood inside, drank slightly too much, and danced to an hour of reggae music – us and 4 other people. The few people that did show up were very into the music and extremely friendly. A nice Indian fellow guessed the song and band name of one of our covers after only hearing the first two beats. To reward him, we gave him a free t-shirt. He also bought all three albums off us and took a picture with the band. This officially makes him the biggest Andrew’s Ave. fan alive, sporting the most extensive collection of Ave. merchandise in history. After the show we stuck around and talked to the patrons and staff for awhile, payed our extensive bar tab out of the money we made that night and headed to our second couch surfing experience. No crazy coincidences this time, but nice conversations were had. Boomer and I slept in two lounge chairs sharing an ottoman, this resulted in same late night footsie. I slept well other than at one point waking up to Boomer’s whole body lunging at me – he claims my head phones were up to loud and he was coming after my ipod, but I think too many hours in Jim has made him go a little crazy. Stay tuned – dallas tomorrow.
-Steven
-Steven
Pictures
In the Hotel in Dallas
CouchSurfing in Oklahoma City
Right after the night in Fayettville with the guys and gal from Groovement
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Fayetteville - They don't kiss their sisters!
“Driving is like a video game”. That’s what I kept saying as I took the van careening through the hills of Arkansas. The van had only been up to 60 MPH previously, but when you add hills and no wind to the equation 80 MPH seems like hyper speed. While the rest of the band held on for dear life I popped on “Party in the USA”, by my girl Miley and held my breath as we went under a mountain. Boom Boom Room was the first gig that I booked for tour and I searched high and low to find a good band to play with us. “Groovement”, is an excellent funk group from the area and accepted the offer to jam with the Ave. They would also be our host for the evening and showed us southern hospitality beyond our wildest dreams. Haha that was a pretty bad sentence. Anyways, we grabbed a rather large burrito and met up with the band to discuss the plans for the evening. Groovement has a very good pull in the area and the crowd was hippin and hoppin when they took the stage. There was one guy who contorted his body in various ways and stared at Steve longingly from afar and I thought he was part of the act for the longest time. Turns out he was just a random fayetteviller who wanted to get down on the floor. The gig was a smashing success and we all went back to the lead singer and drummers house for some late night drinks and recording lessons. A mysterious smoke filled the air and the conversations got way more ridiculous and absurd. Would you ever pay to go to a venue to write things about a band and have your messages projected right above their heads? Think about a large drunken crowd ready to say evil things, and then a lonely singer song writer takes the stage. It sounds like a very lucrative business to me and when I quit the band next week I will begin that venture. The house was amazing, check out some of the pics below to see the insanity. Over all it was my favorite night of tour so far and Im not quitting the band.
-Boomer
-Boomer
A couple of pics
Just woke up in one of the most amazing houses I have ever seen right outside of Fayettville, AR after a wonderful show at the Boom Boom Room. I am going to be writing a bit about the show we played in Norman a little later today, but for now I wanted to upload a couple of pictures and videos.
Aaron E.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Norman OK, I want to be back in college
We woke up at our good friend Michael’s house and promptly got on the road to Norman, OK…and by promptly I mean woke up, watched a couple of reality tv shows, and ate some eggs. Norman is about a 6 hour drive from Kansas City, but after taking the wrong exit and a couple of other wrong turns, it took about 8 hours. We actually took an exit called “Mainstreet” and ended up in a Very small town outside of Norman looking for the venue for awhile until we asked for directions and got laughed at in a southern accent. We arrived at Brothers on the Oklahoma University campus and started unloading our stuff. We noticed that there was no one at the bar and got kind of scared for the nights turnout. Our expectations couldn’t have been more wrong. The bar was about a block away from campus and they were running a $2 all you can drink that night. We started playing around 10:30pm to about 50 people and the crowd slowly grew to about 150 at the end. It was the usual college bar show: covers, people coming up and singing on the mic, requests, girls throwing themselves at the band. At the end of the show we packed all of our stuff up and walked around the Oklahoma University campus (which is one of the most amazing campuses I have been on, and is what some of the pictures above are from) and then headed out to our first couch surfing stop. We got to the house at about 3am and somehow our hostess was awake. Craziest thing: I was wearing a Drake shirt, and the girl that we were staying with asked us if we knew someone that went to Drake. It turns out that the one girl that she knew from highschool in a Very small town in Wisconsin dated Steve in college for awhile….strange. We swiftly went to bed and got some rest to make the haul to Fayetteville AR in the morning.
-Aaron E.
-Aaron E.
First Couple Nights of Tour
First of all, we are having competing blogs among the band....and by among the band I mean everyone vs. Boomer. So make sure to check www.boomzpicks.blogspot.com/ for tour through the eyes of Adam Boomer.
Secondly: my post:
An odd, but educational way to start the tour. We showed up early to The Riot Room to see employees and patrons decked out in tattoos, spiked hair, and anything else you think of when you imagine running around a Sex Pistols concert. Since we only had 35 minutes to play we promptly wrote a set featuring our most distorted, loudest, finger shredding music. After our quick (and loud) set was up we talked it over as a band and were wondering why the now growing crowd didn’t seem particularly interested in our brand of hardcore.
We quickly got our answer as the night progressed. We watched the next two bands: one group featuring acoustic style bluegrass with a banjo and upright bass and the other, a pleasant sounding folk duet. We had just learned our first lesson of tour, which is to judge the venue based on everything, not just the giant red letters on the marquee and the slightly scary dude working behind the bar.
The night was in no way a loss however, there was a DJ on the outdoor patio and after several drinks we found ourselves being some of the only ones brave enough to dance (aside from the giant dreaded man who took a hard fall around 1:30 a.m.). After the show Mike Strong (a friend/love interest of Aaron and I’s from Drake) was kind of enough to have us at his house (thanks Mike). He cooked us up some delicious frozen pizzas and I slept on the most deceptively uncomfortable piece of furniture imaginable. Tonight, we head to Norman to creepily watch college girls from our van so keep reading…
Steven P.
Secondly: my post:
An odd, but educational way to start the tour. We showed up early to The Riot Room to see employees and patrons decked out in tattoos, spiked hair, and anything else you think of when you imagine running around a Sex Pistols concert. Since we only had 35 minutes to play we promptly wrote a set featuring our most distorted, loudest, finger shredding music. After our quick (and loud) set was up we talked it over as a band and were wondering why the now growing crowd didn’t seem particularly interested in our brand of hardcore.
We quickly got our answer as the night progressed. We watched the next two bands: one group featuring acoustic style bluegrass with a banjo and upright bass and the other, a pleasant sounding folk duet. We had just learned our first lesson of tour, which is to judge the venue based on everything, not just the giant red letters on the marquee and the slightly scary dude working behind the bar.
The night was in no way a loss however, there was a DJ on the outdoor patio and after several drinks we found ourselves being some of the only ones brave enough to dance (aside from the giant dreaded man who took a hard fall around 1:30 a.m.). After the show Mike Strong (a friend/love interest of Aaron and I’s from Drake) was kind of enough to have us at his house (thanks Mike). He cooked us up some delicious frozen pizzas and I slept on the most deceptively uncomfortable piece of furniture imaginable. Tonight, we head to Norman to creepily watch college girls from our van so keep reading…
Steven P.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Night 0, Steves Bday at Jimi D's
Hello all,
Welcome to another rendition of the Picks. You may or may not know, but Andrew's Ave. is currently on our Spring Tour around the country and so far it has been a mix of debauchery, music, and tears.
April 30 was Stevey's birthday and we celebrated the evening with friends and family at Jimi D's. The acoustics in the venue created a "panning" effect as our music was bounced around the many walls and into the patrons ears. Think loud. Almost too loud. As blood trickled out of my ruptured cochlea we took a set break and took numerous shots of vodka and other clear liquids such as water. Played another set and made our teary goodbyes and started thinking about the long trip ahead. In tours past, we get incredibly confrontational and angry at eachother by day 3, so a full month of this is gonna be awesome. As Steve drove his car out of the lot at a very brisk birthday pace (just kidding his brother David was forming sentences and driving like a champ that night), we gave him a final toast for the evening.
The next day I woke up fully energized and very excited for the day ahead. Bird and I went on a little venture to the music shop and many goodwills around town to get some jorts for the warmer states. "Jorts" isnt quite accurate now that I think of it because that makes it seem like they are hip and loose. Daisy dukes would be a better description of the shorts because 94% of my leg is exposed to the world. As usual Im kidding, but we did get some bomb shorts so come out and see them.
Packing the van was quite the task and our van is the biggest thing on the road at all times. Theres no better feeling than pulling up to a smart car and realizing:
1. How ridiculous cars those cars are
2. How our van could total that vehicle by looking at it
3. How many smart cars could fit in our van
4. How no one should ever get a smart car
5. How many people think they are offsetting our gas guzzling smoke pluming van
Now im all worked up about smart cars.
Goodbye
-Boom
Welcome to another rendition of the Picks. You may or may not know, but Andrew's Ave. is currently on our Spring Tour around the country and so far it has been a mix of debauchery, music, and tears.
April 30 was Stevey's birthday and we celebrated the evening with friends and family at Jimi D's. The acoustics in the venue created a "panning" effect as our music was bounced around the many walls and into the patrons ears. Think loud. Almost too loud. As blood trickled out of my ruptured cochlea we took a set break and took numerous shots of vodka and other clear liquids such as water. Played another set and made our teary goodbyes and started thinking about the long trip ahead. In tours past, we get incredibly confrontational and angry at eachother by day 3, so a full month of this is gonna be awesome. As Steve drove his car out of the lot at a very brisk birthday pace (just kidding his brother David was forming sentences and driving like a champ that night), we gave him a final toast for the evening.
The next day I woke up fully energized and very excited for the day ahead. Bird and I went on a little venture to the music shop and many goodwills around town to get some jorts for the warmer states. "Jorts" isnt quite accurate now that I think of it because that makes it seem like they are hip and loose. Daisy dukes would be a better description of the shorts because 94% of my leg is exposed to the world. As usual Im kidding, but we did get some bomb shorts so come out and see them.
Packing the van was quite the task and our van is the biggest thing on the road at all times. Theres no better feeling than pulling up to a smart car and realizing:
1. How ridiculous cars those cars are
2. How our van could total that vehicle by looking at it
3. How many smart cars could fit in our van
4. How no one should ever get a smart car
5. How many people think they are offsetting our gas guzzling smoke pluming van
Now im all worked up about smart cars.
Goodbye
-Boom
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Blog To Commence March 31st
Thanks for checking out the blog. Our west coast tour runs from March 31-May 1 and we will be constantly updating the blog throughout our trip. I would love to make promises about how often we will be updating the blog, but more than likely we will do it at random.
Later,
Aaron E.
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