Tour 4: Fall 2010, Western US Tour (2)

Olympia

After a stellar night in Mt. Rainier National Park, we headed to Olympia to play a show. Olympia is a small town, but also the capital of Washington…so show some RESPECT! Just kidding, it’s a cool little town, but I can’t say there is too much going on there. This was our second show at the 4th Ave Tavern. The venue is cool because it has a great stage and a cool room, but it is not known as a “live-music” bar per se (according to locals). We were billed for the entire night, and we managed to make fans of everyone at the bar that night. I think they were all just pleasantly surprised to hear a quality band on a Thursday night. Many of them even expressed this sentiment to us.

The best part about playing at the 4th Ave Tavern is Brian the sound-engineer. We play a ton of shows on the road, and unfortunately the sound guys are typically not awesome at many of the bars we play. Many times we can’t hear ourselves on stage because of bad monitors, and some times the sound in the front of the house isn’t great because the sound-engineer. (FYI: I realize this is no easy task, being a sound engineer, and by no means do I wish to belittle or point out anyone who has run sound for us in the past. Some times the club’s soundsystem or lack thereof is to blame, but I digress…) Brian was amazing. The sound on stage was so clear and perfect in volume that all of us could clearly hear ourselves and each other, and the sound in the house was great as well. I hope we can work with Brian again in the future.

The night ended by making some new couch surfing friends, and it was off to Seattle for the next show!

Mt. Rainier nat’l park is beautiful

We took advantage a day off on September 1st (my sister’s birthday) to camp at Mt. Rainier national park. It is an amazing place.

A picture is worth 1000 words, so here are a couple good pictures to give you a better idea. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to visit this place. Big thanks to my friend evan for writing my name on his natl park card. Seriously. We watched a video about the park and it’s an amazing place. Ever heard of a lahar?

One good story from the trip was when they told us the campsite was only .3 miles away, but it was actually 4.3 miles away, and we left at dusk. Yep. Bad planning. We ended up turning around and driving to a campsite closer to the road.

Anyway, enjoy the pics and go visit if you get a chance one day.

Everett Washington, well…

Everett was a good Tuesday show (two weeks ago), but not much more can be said about it than that. The Anchor Pub was kind enough to host us on an off-night, feed and booze us, and there were a few patrons there who enjoyed our show. We sold a couple CD’s and I think maybe a T-shirt or two (go merch girl Amanda). A couple really nice guys told us that the city is pumping a ton of money into making it an artsy scene and a lot of good bands are coming up, so maybe we’ll come back on a weekend night and a crazy crowd will come out.

A funny ending to the story is that we stayed with Hooch’s cousin, who was also kind enough to host us, last minute, in his one bedroom apartment. There was almost NO open floor space. I’d step on people to get up and pee. Luckily, that didn’t happen because we had to get up and get out of there when he went to work … at 630AM. The funny thing is that none of us felt up to driving to Mt. Rainier yet, or going around the town, so we just drove around the block and decided to sleep in the van for the next four hours. We only had to get up once and move a spot forward and pay the meter again since there was a 2 hour limit.

Ashland with Karrgo Bossajova

One of the best parts about touring is returning to the same places and playing with friends (or for friends) you’ve made on the road in the past. Our second show in Ashland, Oregon was one such show. Once again we played at the amazing Caldera Tap House and with our groovetastic friends Karrgo Bossajova.

The night was great. We had a big turn out of music-loving, dancing happy shiny people thanks to the Karrgo guys and they absolutely rocked it. They have some great funky tunes including the crowd favorite “I’m Going to Eat Your Brains, and Steal Your Knowledge”. We also played a great set and managed to yet again take the 2 free drinks and stretch them into free beer!

The night was far from over after the show. We ended up partying and laughing it up with the Karrgo guys til the sun came up. Highlights included a few hysterical (and terrible) organ jams and Jordan told a few of the longest unentertaining stories ever told. He even claims to have been in a dream state while telling them.

Once again Ashland was bad ass! Check out Karrgo Bossajova on myspace.com/karrgobossajova

The Wandering Goat in Eugene

The day we played Eugene was a good day. It started with a beautiful hike in the Mt. Shasta area up to some crater lakes. Since we ended up missing the lake we initially intended to find it was certainly more about the journey than the destination. Touring is certainly more about the journey than the destination.

We played at a coffee shop / venue called the Wandering Goat, which was very welcoming. They introduced me to a mocha drink with homemade chocolate which was incredible. We discovered that there was a big festival going on downtown called “Celebrate Eugene” featuring live music and food and all sorts of fun things so our crowd wasn’t huge, but it was very receptive to our music. We also played with a good local band called “On The Tundra,” which was in the style of Explosions in the Sky and Do Make Say Think. They were loud, creative, and one guy designs pedals so they had a lot of specific and unique tones. He’s going to mod and fix my wah wah pedal, which broke a few shows ago (I’ve been substituting a light phaser ever since) so you’ll get to hear his work eventually.

We also played a few rounds of Jenga. I’m normally an ace at that game, but I must admit I knocked over the stack at least three times. I think it was all the vibrations from On the Tundra.

The night ended with Achachay! checking out our couchsurfer’s band at the Celebrate Eugene fest. They were great and it was cool to connect and stay with some other musicians, even though we didn’t play on the same bill. Our host Phil, was incredibly nice and welcoming. Couchsurfing remains the bomb. I hope we play with them next time we’re in Eugene, and get to hang out some more.

His other band, __, is also worth checking out.

In the morning, I got to cap it off by consuming some wild blackberries and visiting an old friend from Spain. All in all, good times.

Mt. Shasta… It’s not just a landform….

After a late night at the Weed Brewery we woke up at a reasonable hour so we could attempt to find a pick-up gig. The show we had booked got cancelled because the bar had been sold and was being renovated. So we went to The Vet Club downtown Mt. Shasta just to try our luck. Turns out it was our lucky day. We picked up a show for the night. With that out of the way we had some time to do some hiking and rock climbing.

When you go hiking around Mt. Shasta it’s pretty funny because people don’t really use maps. We got a sheet of paper with directions to a particular trail and climbing wall that basically said find a random parking lot and a random trail and follow it…. Pretty funny. It’s even funnier that we only took one trail that was wrong and ended up actually finding the climbing wall without too much trouble. After the climbing and hiking it was time to head back to town to play our show. The Vet Club was a blast. There was a great crowd that was up to get down and well we couldn’t have asked for a better pick up gig.   We ended up making friends with a percussionist and he sat in on a few songs toward the end of the night.  Nothing like

some auxiliary percussion to aid in the funk.   Between beautiful scenery and the awesome people it couldn’t have been a better day in Mt. Shasta.

WEED (ca)

Last week we played a super fun show at the Mt Shasta Brewery in Weed, Ca. The show originally was set up to be an acoustic gig, but after we arrived the manager encouraged us to play a legit-electric set and we were happy to oblige.

The brewery itself is this really cool, open air bar and restaurant (with the beer brewing equipment next door). They brew some awesome beers too, and we were able try each one including their specialty jalapeño beer. The first sign that the night was going to be good was that we met a fellow Austinite-musician named Johnny Barnett and his wife Eva who were also traveling the country and playing music. They were great and it’s always nice to meet another Texan on the road.

We played 2 sets, gradually getting louder and more raucous as the night went on. Actually, after our last song the cops pulled up to let us know we needed to stop playing or take it inside. By that time things were just starting to get crazy and fun. As part of our pay we got unlimited free beer, but it really seemed like everyone was getting free beer because everyone there was schwasted! I know the three of us were drinking a lot, but compared to most everyone else, we were definitely more on the level. We ended up making a lot of new friends and having a great time. Make sure you hit up the Mt Shasta Brewery if you’re ever in Weed.

-Blatt

Good times in Sacramento

Last Tuesday we played in Sacramento, CA at Marilyn’s on K. I didn’t expect to see so many homeless people. They’re not hanging in the state capital to make a political statement, it’s more because sacramento is significantly warmer- we got there on a 101 F day. Anyway the show was a lot of fun with some other good jam bands. Highlights include:

- Amanda danced on stage during “Still Learning”

- She has a crazy signature dance, that you will see if you come to any of our shows

- Jeff, the bartender/ owner, showed us a really good time

- As per usual on such a night, we started out with one free pitcher but ended up with drinks on the house

- That pic is of Jeff sporting his new Achachay! shirt. Like I said, he’s cool people

- The band stayed at Ryan’s family friend’s place. They were very welcoming and even came out to see us late on a weekday

- The band had some really good bonding moments staying up late and talking about all things Achachay!

San Jose

We played at a small club called Johnny V’s downtown San Jose. Dave and Confused from San Francisico played the show with us along with a couple other bands from the bay area. It was definitely a night of rock.

Jordan got totally over involved with watching ‘The Departed’ without sound at the bar. So basically I ended up explaining the whole movie to him while he tried to watch…. After the show we to Los Osos to stay for two nights with some of Greenblatt’s family friends. Les and Nancy were awesome. They cooked up some great food and were very hospitable.

Monday we had a day off so Greenblatt and I got to hang out in San Jose and get some much needed rest. It’s really nice to just kick back every once in a while when we are on tour. Now we are off to Sacramento!

San Francisco

We played an awesome show last Saturday in San Francisco. Personally, I love the city of San Francisco. Aesthetically it is pretty, the summer weather is mild, and it seems largely like the people there share a pleasant mind set of non judgement and awesomeness. We spent the afternoon in a local park that was full of young people playing guitar, throwing around discs, and just hanging out having a good time. Our show was at this club called the Retox Lounge. It was coupled with an art show featuring a local artist named Bonnie. She had some really rad art for sale and Jordan even bought a print. We played the show with our new friends Dave and Confused who were great.

Other highlights from SF: we feasted on the best pho I’ve ever had (props to Amanda’s friend Emily for the hookup). We played a great show and undoubtedly made some new fans!