life on the road

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.

The Spider Dome

This is a bar that is seriously about 7 miles down a dirt road off the highway, about 7 miles outside of any major town. You’re literally drinking on some farmland. It used to be a crazy little dome structure, but then it burned down. I can’t even fully explain it.

This place is unlike any other. We went there after another show about a year ago, and the bartender randomly threw on hard-core porn on the TV behind the bar. What?

We were booked to host an open jam night on Sunday. Or, so we thought. Turns out they normally have an acoustic jam. The crowd was not expecting the all out funky madness of our straight improv. On top of that, Hooch was expecting a lot more of his musicians friends to come jam. Everyone was confused. We pulled it together, it just ended up being a weird mix of achachay and jam and just having musical fun on stage, in front of strangers.

Some of our best buddies like Dom and Andre and CJ came, and we had a really good time playing with them.

All in all, it was a night befitting of the Spider Dome. To be honest, I was a little disappointed that the rebuilt bar is not a dome, and being new, has a distinct absence of spiders.

As we packed out, I looked back at the TV behind the bar. Lo and behold, a giant cock…

Gearing up for the road

Just a quick update to let everyone know that we’re getting super excited to be on the road again. We just played a great show tonight at Quoffer’s in Elgin TX and tried out a couple new covers that went over swimmingly. We also got to play some at DonJon’s masquerade, a private party we played last Friday, and people seemed to love what we’re sharing. There is a lot of new original material as well, but we’re waiting to unveil that…

I guess I didn’t even get to share how badass our “Dia de la Throwdown” party was… I’ll put another post up about that soon. In the meantime, check out what’s been going on in the tour planning.

We added some new shows, including this coming Friday April 15th in Dallas at the Trophy Room, a show at Willie’s in Stillwater OK on Wednesday Apr 20, another day in Ft. Collins CO (we’ll guest host the funk jam on Monday April 25th at Hodi’s and play across the street at The Vault on Wednesday – thanks to our buddies the Nu Classics for the spot!), and Friday Apr 29th at the Bear Creek Saloon in Pagosa Springs CO. We’ve still got a few possible shows in the works for other cities in Oklahoma, Oregon, and California, so stay tuned if you’re in those areas. As a note to our friends (such as Rachel), we tried to get a gig in Colorado Springs and for some reason it just hasn’t panned out yet… although i still have hope for that Tuesday or Sunday.

Here’s the official schedule, thus far:
Apr 15: Dallas, TX The Trophy Room, 10P
Apr 16: Perkins, OK, Perkins VFW
Apr 18: Stillwater, America, The College Bar, 9P
Apr 19: Enid OK, The Q Spot
Apr 22: Enid, OK, Fugly’s
Apr 23: Denver CO, Lion’s Lair, 10P
Apr 25: Ft. Collins CO, Hodi’s Half Note
Apr 27: Ft. Collins CO, The Vault
Apr 28: Steamboat Springs CO, Ghost Ranch Saloon
Apr 29: Pagosa Springs CO, Bear Creek Saloon
Apr 30: Boulder CO, Dark Horse Tavern, 10P
May 4: Phoenix AZ, Long Wong’s at the Fire House
May 5: Flagstaff AZ, Flagstaff Brewing Company
May 6: Grover Beach w/ Nada Rasta @ Mongo’s Saloon
May 7: Los Osos w/ Nada Rasta @ Sweet Spring Saloon
May 9: San Luis Obispo CA, Frog And Peach
May 11: Long Beach CA, Dipiazza’s
May 13: Santa Monica CA, Trip
May 14: Sacramento CA, Marilyn’s On K
May 17: San Francisco, Grant and Green
May 20: Applejam, Ashland OR
May 24: Park City, UT, Lindzee O’ Michaels, 9P
* On Air performance KPCW, 6:15 P (91.9 in Park City, 88.1 in Oakley, kpcw.org streaming on the net)
May 25: Gunnison, CO, Gunnison Brewery, 9P
May 26: Bubble Lounge, Telluride, CO, 9P
May 27: Grand Junction, CO, Quincy Bar, 10P
May 28: Durango CO, The Summit, 9P
May 29: Pagosa Springs CO, Bear Creek Saloon

See you all soon! Austin and Houston people, we’ll be announcing shows soon…

Apple Jam, the festival we're playing on May 20th

Life is what we make of it in Ypsilanti

We’re one hour outside of Ypsilanti, MI, when I get a phone call from the booking agent.

“Yeah, so the venue doesn’t have power. I’m sorry, but its not going to get fixed. Tonight’s show is canceled.”

Unbelievable. Again? Another show messed with? And this one, where my best buddy Nick lives (10 minutes away in Ann Arbor) and might be able to bring some friends?

We took this like we take the news of all the other times this craziness occurs on the road. Just an inconvenience easily overcome with some dedication and optimism. So we hit up every bar that might consider having live music in Ann Arbor to see if they had a slot for us to play that night. An hour later, no go. We drove to Ypsilanti, and started the process again. We walk into this basement martini lounge called the Keystone Underground and I start the story…

“We had a show canceled tonight, and…”

Before I can even finish, the bartender interrupts. “Wanna play here tonight?”

Yes, actually. Thanks! Great.

We ended up playing after a jazz combo, so we started later than expected and none of Nick’s hard working law studying compatriots could come out, but we had a dang good time. We made some friends, sold CDs and sunglasses, and got more people signed up on the mailing list. The bar even paid us a little and gave us free beer. All in all, a successful night.

Another reminder that life is what we make of it. We could have been bummed and complained and just sat around without a show and with no one to play for. Instead, we knew that if we tried we could some way to make the night worthwhile. We saw an opportunity instead of a loss. It doesn’t always work out – we’ve discovered that a couple of times on this tour. Yet for every time it doesn’t work out we have two stories of times it did, and often we end up with an even better crowd and pay situation than we would have in the original.

Do you have any examples of times that seemed terrible but with the right attitude you made something good out of it? Other ways you’ve discovered that life is what we make of it? Feel free to share them here.

Cleveland Rocks!

They were a great mix of polka and punk rock that made for quite a ruckus. They sang songs about cider and were spitting on stage as expected from a crazy polka/punk band. Off stage they were great guys and we had fun sharing road stories. Our second night in Cleveland we had off so we just relaxed and did absolutely nothing and it was glorious! Our second show in Cleveland was at a bar called Wilbert’s. A cool little hole in the wall on the back of a building downtown. We had some great free grub and played with a great young band called Noize From the Basement. They may be young but they still know how to rock! We stayed with Fred (Ryan’s cousin) and Allison downtown Cleveland. Fred was actually in NY on business but Allison made us feel totally at home. We couldn’t have asked for anything more from a host! Thanks so much Allison! Overall it was a great stay in Cleveland. We got some rest and played some shows and we even got to celebrate Halloween at our first show! Unfortunately my Pac Man costume was a little too large to play in as you can see by the pics… So there you have Cleveland in a nutshell. Where did I get this giant nutshell? Hooch over and out….

Crisis in Canada!

Oh man this is a story.

Friday: Toledo cancelled because of local bands backing out. Well, we always make the most of it, so we play at my best buddy Nick’s house party in Ann Arbor Michigan. It is sweet. A very fun show, with a ton of people dancing and enjoying the night. We start after the DJ at around 1AM and play until 3, when things begin to wind down. Pack up, and start the 14 hour drive to Providence RI at 4am. I know, ridiculous.

I check the route on my iPhone and it looks good. Then we plug the address into Garmin (GPS) and she shaves off an hour. Great! We’ll follow Garmin. Unfortunately, garmin doesn’t give you a macroscopic view, so I’m just following turn by turn and not thinking about where I’m going. Next thing I know I see a sign …

“Canada 7 Miles”

Canada! WTF! No way. Hooch double checks the route, and indeed it seems like Garmin is taking us into ANOTHER COUNTRY. Where is the setting which states, “no border crossings, please?”

Look at the map, and lo and behold there is an entire chain of GREAT LAKES blocking us from any other route. We’re an entire hour and a half from the other possibility which skirts south of the lakes. Backtracking at this point guarantees that we won’t make the show in time (at 7P the next day), so I tell Hooch we’ve got to try it. We don’t have passports.

Get to the border, and the Canadians are really cool about it. Yep, this is the fastest way, they tell us. Ryan, asleep in the back, has no clue what’s going on. Later he explains this is what he thought, “Man, that toll lady is really chatty!” Little did he know she was questioning our citizenship.

“Wake up Ry, time to get detained by the Canadian police.” We have to get out and go through customs while they search the car. A little delay, but relatively no prob considering its 530AM and we have no passports. I left my jacket in Ann Arbor, so I’m doing the whole ordeal wearing my halloween costume (a blue pancho-blanket with googly eyes, see the pic) to keep warm.

Our first time in Canada was relatively smooth sailing. I’m driving for three hours straight, jacked up on caffeine, energy drinks, and 5 hour energy. I think I also went through an entire bag of trail mix.

Anyway we stop for a photo shoot at Niagra Falls (badass), and then go through the US border crossing. Things are not so easy this time. For some reason an unmarked maroon van with three dirty, grungy, long haired 20 somethings wearing googly-eyed panchos and not porting passports raises suspicions.

We have to get out, hand over the keys, and are basically interrogated. They did everything short of a full body cavity search. They ripped apart the van, even going through Ryan’s boots and pouring out… yes, in the van… pouring out my oatmeal. They grill us in the interrogation room, all the while trying to intimidate us.

“I cant believe the Canadians let you through,” They repeat, over and over again. “You have all those CDs, that’s commercial merchandise you know?” Intimidation. We’ve done nothing wrong, I know, and we’re American citizens, so I’m laughing at the whole thing. They must have thought I was mocking them. It’s pretty comical, minus the hour + delay it puts on our trip.

Finally, they realize we’re not terrorists or drug runners, and they let us go. On the road again, just a little messier van. Oh Canada. Our first time on that foreign soil. Only the Americans gave us trouble.

The coup de grace is that after all of that (Exhausted from being up for at least 24 hours, I finally stopped driving and passed out in the back), we arrive at the venue in Providence about 30 minutes late.

Now we had corresponded by email, and the last one more or less said, “Get there by 7, show starts at 8, I’ll get back to you about lineup and play times.” (which they didn’t, of course).

So I assume if we get there at 7:30, before the show starts, we should be ok.

No.

The booking agent is waiting for us outside the club. He stops us, and delivers the final blow. “Sorry guys, you can’t play tonight. You’re here too late. Here’s some cash for your troubles.”

Seriously.

Gotta give them props for at least paying us. all in all it was just a fitting end to a hilarious trip.

Madison Two Times

So we had the pleasure of playing Madison twice over a few days time. Madison is a cool, little town and home to the University of Wisconsin. The first night we played at a place called The Frequency. It was a good show with several other local and touring bands. Unfortunately there were gale-force winds blowing outside, so it was hard to get people out, but my cousin and his friends hung out with us all night. The wind was incredible and while driving up to Madison we felt their full effect in the van: it was insane on the highway; you really had to grip the steering wheel. The next night in Madison, two days later, we played at a bar called The Inferno. We played really well and the crowd definitely dug our sound. We also met up with our friend Kat- a couchsurfer friend we had made in Durango on our last tour. Talk about random, she just happened to be in Madison at the same time as us as she travels across the US by bike. It was great seeing her and it was great playing in Madison. I also want to give a shout out to our Couchsurfer host Ben who was tremendous and hilarious all at once.

Late night in St. Louie

We spent the day shooting our video update http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOlOpLw-ir0 then it was about 7 pm so we headed to club. Turns out The Way Out Club is a pretty sweet venue.  At 7 we arrived at the club and were way too early…So, we headed to a vegan restaurant and waited way too long on some food that didn’t have to be cooked…  After our trip back to the club Stinkfoot had taken the stage and was rocking. There was a decent crowd and people just kept packing in. We were on after Stinkfoot and by that time a big crowd had formed in the bar. Our show was awesome. There was a great vibe in the club from all the people. It’s really a great feeling when you can make people who might not necessarily like your flavor of music dig it. That was definitely the case on this particular night. Such a great show. We made a ton of new fans and then The 7 Shot Screamers went on. They are a cool mix of punk rock and rockabilly and their bassist Chris rocks an upright which gives them big points in my book. They totally rocked the faces off of the crowd. It was really a great performance. After the show we headed to an after-party with the Screamers and mingled with their friends and fans. It was a good party. We got to the door and the door guy (yeah there was a door man at the party too) says it’s $3 to get in.   He explains that the $3 is for cleaning supplies to clean up after the party. Friggin’ hilarious… I’m talking to Chris outside and he’s like “oh Clownvis is about to start.” You may ask what is Clownvis like I did… Chris’s answer was “you’ll see.” He was right. Clownvis is a guy dressed up like Elvis with clown face paint…. It was the best performance I have ever seen through a lo-fi karaoke machine in a kitchen as you can see from the pics.  If you want to see a clip of Clownvis at his best check out this clip of him on America’s Got Talent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwIJ6InjuiU What a crazy fun night. This was my first time to St. Louis and I wasn’t disappointed.. I’ve gotta thank the 7 Shot Screamers for making our night. The crowd and the after party were both amazing. Hooch over and out.

Portland!

Portland is one of my favorite cities.  This is mostly because it has a very “Austin” feel to it.  There’s a very laid back vibe and people are friendly and well maybe just a little bit crazy.  People often move from Austin to Portland and visa versa for just this reason.  We had some time to kill in Portland so we visited the Hawthorne area.  The Hawthorne district is where I would hang out if lived in Portland. There’s about a mile stretch of small independently owned restaurants, shops, and pubs.  There’s a very free spirited vibe and it’s always a breathe of fresh air when I come across places like this.  We stayed with our friends Brad and Lois again and as always they were great hosts.  They kept us fed and just really make us feel like we have a home away from home.  Our show at the Ash Street Saloon was fun and well we couldn’t have asked for a better time in Portland!

Touring from the female perspective:

Hi, I’m Amanda, the merch girl. Slash designated dancer slash unofficial band photographer slash freelance designer slash self-proclaimed wild card. I’ve been on the road with these guys for a good four weeks, so I feel I have a pretty good understanding of the touring thing.
Honestly, I had no real expectations for this trip. I knew it would be an adventure of sorts, I’d travel to new destinations, perhaps go a day or two without a shower, eat cheap food, sleep on many couches, basically journey the ways of the traveling musician pursuing recognition and success. I understand that to most women, my mom especially, this sounds like a miserable way to spend 2 months of a summer. But it has really been quite an experience. Every day we explore a new town or city in which we meet interesting people who share an interest in music or traveling or other interesting people. We do as the natives do. We hike their mountains, drink their beer, stay in their homes. And really, we’re not that dirty. Really.
Besides being able to dance like a maniac every night to awesome funky jams with the comfort of knowing that I don’t live here and you can’t judge me, I’ve fallen in love with many cities, new friends have taught me new perspectives and philosophies, and I’ve rock climbed and camped in multiple national parks. I’ve also had the time and opportunity to pick up some old hobbies: reading, graphic designing, writing, jewelry making, photography, Netflixing…
Also, these aren’t the most difficult guys to spend 24 hours a day with; they’re actually usually quite pleasant. And they treat me like one of the guys, no holds barred… most of the time… which I can appreciate… most of the time.
I’m sure I’ll find something girly to complain about in the next few weeks; it may be getting close to that time when I can no longer stand these guys, but maybe not. So I guess the female perspective is just a perspective, from a newcomer. Did I mention the sweet funky jams?