Tour 6: Summer 2011, Western US Tour (3)
Kind strangers in Durango
This post has been a long time coming… my apologies. Been busy playing all around Texas, composing new music, booking more tours, and recovering.
This was our second time playing The Summit, and they treat us well. This time was less violent (last time a guy punched someone out for saying he didn’t like the music…) but just as dance-y. We got invited to another after party, which was full fledged; DJ, sound system, honey whiskey, and another sunrise. Hooch wasn’t feeling it so he passed out in the car while Ryan and I socialized.
One of the coolest little things about Durango was this:
Ryan and I went to a Chinese food place to get some din-din. He asked these people at a table near us, “Excuse me, what’s that dish?” They responded, “We have no idea, its not what we ordered. Would you like it?” After some more pleasantries, they gifted us the dish. Then they proceeded to load us up with their rice, and the leftovers they weren’t eating. They were a local couple and some of the most generous and friendly people. They got excited about us playing, and even came to the show and stayed for the whole first set! They like Eric Clapton so we made sure to dedicate our “I Shot the Sherif” Cover to them (although technically I prefer and tend towards the original Bob Marley style). Really cool people. I think they ended up buying up a bunch of our merch too.
All in all, Durango was a good time. Missed Jack and Kat and the two-story bikes, but they weren’t around and staying in town made a lot of sense. Our new couchsurfing host Sunny was friendly as they come. She made the best veggie burrito I’ve ever had in my life. We’re planning on coming back on our next run our West, and I’m excited to get Sunny out on some rock climbing routes.
All in all our show in Durango was a lot of fun.
Oh yeah, another interesting thing: There was a crazy bike race going on the weekend we were there called the Iron Horse Classic where cyclists race the train from Durango to Silverton. It’s some impressive distance like 40 miles and covers two mountain passes and thousands of feet of elevation, so its a big deal. The town overflowed with cycling enthusiasts, making it fun to bike on my little fold-up.
Achachay! will one day play a show like this in Durango.
Grand Junction
We’re back! Back in Grand Junction again! (Aerosmith melody here). After a beautiful drive from Tulluride we headed straight to the radio station KAFM in Grand Junction. There was a short interview and we played a couple songs on the air. Other than a little mishap with a cowbell it went very smoothly. After the radio interview we had some time to hang out around town. It was a beautiful day so I decided to relax in the park for a bit. Apparently I looked a bit too comfortable in the park because I was offered some food by a good samaritan. Musicians can often times look like homeless people and sometimes are homeless people. We fortunately are not homeless… although it does feel close when we are on the road. After the fun in the
park I headed to a coffee shop to meet up with the other guys and head to the venue. The show was awesome. Quincy’s is a sweet bar. The staff there really takes care of us and we had a great crowd. No complaints from me about Grand Junction. Even if I was mistaken for a homeless person at least the people were friendly! Gotta love Colorado…. Hooch out!
Two Days in Telluride
The view driving up main street
We had the privilege of spending two nights in Telluride this time around. Unfortunately our gig in Gunnison was canceled due to what I will refer to as “bar drama” and so we drove straight to Telluride from Park City. Telluride is a magical little mountain town on the Western Slope in Colorado. It has all the fine scenery of the Alps and close to no pretension (which can be found in some places around CO…).
My friends Kate and Wily live in Telluride and were awesome hosts once again. We took it easy the first night, stopping by the Bubble Lounge (our venue for the next night) and it just happened to be ‘open mic’ night. So we got on stage and ripped through some jams to build some excitement for the show the next night.
The next day was great: we hung out around town and basked in the sunlight and clean, crisp mountain air. The show was good, too. We once again played the Bubble Lounge, a local oxygen bar and watering-hole, and they took good care of us. We played for a small, but energetic crowd and ended up having a fun time hanging out after hours. Telluride is one of those places I hope we can continue to come back and play for a long time to come.
On the radio and in the bar at Park City UT
We’ve got a lot of blog posts to catch up on! They’ll be coming fast, so stay tuned.
We’ve played at Lindzee O Michael’s on two other tours, and we really love Steve the owner and his various employees and former employees. These guys are now old friends; we even played a quick round of beer pong during the last set break!!! The bar upgraded their performance space by adding a stage and sound system. This is a huge improvement and made the show even more professional. All in all, the night was a ton of fun and we’ll definitely be back. We’re building great rapport with the locals, and can’t wait to come back during ski season when it will be crazy packed.
Another really cool thing is that we got to play on air, on KPCW. This is the second on air radio show we’ve done so its still a pretty new and exciting experience for us. Funny tidbit – we didn’t bring acoustic guitars and this had to be an acoustic set. I called Steve the night before and he luckily came through and got us the goods. We played “Tour Song” and “Still Learning,” and they want us back. It’s rare to hear those songs acoustic. Yippee!
Vegas, we missed you.
Ashland, Oregon at the Caldera Tap House
After spending the afternoon watching some great bands play at Apple Jam we head into Ashland to play at the Caldera Tap House. We have played the Caldera two other times and they always treat us right. With 18 of their own brews on tap it really makes it easy to have a great time! My personal favorite is the Oatmeal Stout. It totally hits the spot. We had an awesome crowd that was totally into the funk and really made for a bad ass night. After the show it was back to Apple Jam to have a little more fun! Those Karrgo Bossahova guys know how to throw a party! That pretty much does it for the night. Hooch over and out!
Weed, CA It Was Dope (by Dayna)
Shasta Lake from the window of the van
Bridge where Ryan encountered a train
Hooch at the Falls
Ryan Greenblatt on a rock
Dayna at the falls
Bay to Breakers and a show in SF
It’s 8 AM and after a Red Bull I’m feeling almost normal on the ride into San Francisco. We arrived in Los Altos at 4 am the night before from Sacramento and that my friends makes for a short night…. You might ask why we are awake at 8 in the morning. There is good reason and it’s called Bay to Breakers. You may not of heard of The Bay to Breakers Race (I had not) so I’m going to give you the ‘low down’. Bay to Breakers started out as a race across San Francisco to raise the spirits of the city after a devastating earthquake in 1906. It still starts as a race for the runners at 7 am but for the rest of us it’s a huge walking costume party. The race starts at one end of the city near the bay and ends at the beach (aka ‘the breakers’). Every costume from sexy saxogram guys, balerinas, lumberjacks, superheros, flashers… they were all there. There was even a group of smoking (cigarettes and well they were pretty cute) flight attendants hassling walkers. We didn’t really know what we were getting into so we were pretty much the only people not in a costume or nude. There were 55,000 registered for the race this year and thousands of unregistered taking part in the event. We walked the 7 mile route making new friends and just enjoying the fact that we had a reason to party at 8 am with 50,000+ other people. There is really no way to describe the energy that is created and all I can say is if you get the opportunity to participate… Do it. It was the most fun I’ve had in a while and well…I have a lot of fun a lot of the time! Check out the pics below to get a little taste of the fun.
After getting some much needed rest we headed to the Grant and Green to play a show. We had a decent sized crowd for a Tuesday and the show was fun as always. It’s been another great time in the bay are and now we head north! Hooch over and out.
Bass night in Sacramento
The show was great with two bands full of incredibly talented musicians. All of the bands had ridiculously musical bassists, and all being trio these talents really stood out. The other two bands were more on the progressive rock / math rock side of funk, and it was really cool to see a crowd of Sacramentoans digging their sound. Sometimes I think that kind of groove is under-appreciated.
Tao Jiriki, the headliner, also extensively used a loop sampler, and it sounded good. It’s worth mentioning that the bassist looped the bass and then played electric mandolin.
All in all it was a wonderful night. After the show, we drove to San Francisco and slept two hours to get up and enjoy Bay to Breakers… that’s another story all together
Friday Night in Santa Monica
On Friday we played TRiP in Santa Monica. This was our 3rd time to play TRiP, and they always treat us really well. I have to admit that I wasn’t sure who was going to show up to the show, but we ended up getting a really good crowd, and a bunch of my friends in town came out.
In the past, we usually were in a ‘throw-and-go’ situation at TRiP. A ‘throw-and-go’ is where you show up a the venue, and immediately have to rush all of your equipment on stage and start playing so as to not waste any time. This time around we had the last slot and did not need to rush. We were also able to play a longer set and we even threw in one cover that we have been doing lately: “Some Chords” by DEADMOU5.
Over all the show was great, and our stay in LA was awesome as well. I can’t express all the gratitude I have for our friends who take care of us on the road with places to stay and food and showers etc. Our friends the Durlester’s, who have been great supporters since our inception, were amazing hosts while we were in LA for a few days. I also want to shout out to my friends from Tulane who came out to the show, Deyan, Pete, Evan, Emily and Westbrook, and my friend Zach from Houston who came out as well. It was great to play for all them.
Sunset on the Santa Monica Pier...pre-show
Long Beach
Last night we played in Long Beach at a bar called DiPiazza’s. DiPiazza’s is a restaurant/bar/live music venue. The bar has a good vibe and a friendly staff. Before the show we had some time to kill so we made our way down the street to a coffee shop called ‘Daily Grind’. Good coffee with a good atmosphere and most importantly good prices. We’ve always had a good time in Long Beach. There’s a nice laid back vibe and people are friendly. The show was fun. We had a crowd that I would call small but fierce. Jordan had a few friends come out and they were our ‘fierce’ fans. It was a fun but overall uneventful night.
