live shows

Playing in Tulsa

Thanks to our musician buddy Trey, we finally busted into the Tulsa music scene. The cold and rain forced us to play just inside the entrance to the Hunt Club, but with all of Hooch’s Oklahoma connections we were able to bring out some friends and make it a fun night.

We had some time to chill in Tulsa, which (as I expected) is a really cool town. Did you know that since the 50′s, Tulsa has dedicated 1% percent of budgets of its major public works projects to public art to accompany those buildings? Did you know you can mountain bike, and rock climb in Tulsa? That’s exactly what Liza and I did one afternoon, meeting some cool people. I also got to catch up with some people we met in Stillwater on other trips, which was really cool.

Hooch’s buddies Kit and Natalie hosted us and really made us feel like home. We had a lot fun… there’s even a secret video of Ryan and Hooch dancing that will never be made public… oh no, the secret is out!

College Bar not just for College students….

One of my best friends Coleman and I

What can I say about The College Bar in Stillwater, Oklahoma?  Well for starters it was my favorite bar in Stillwater when I lived there... We always have a great crowd even on a Monday night which is amazing. As far as this time at the College Bar it was business as usual. We had a fun crowd including a big group of my friends. Playing for old friends always makes a show more fun for sure. The show went great aside from a moment when I was playing Jordan's guitar on 'Fight for Your Right' and it decided to stop working. Jordan and Ryan kept going with the song while I tried to get the guitar working to no avail. After the song ended Jordan figured out the issue (only Jordan knows how to fix his set up...) and the show went on without a hitch. It was once again just a great time with old friends and new friends in Stillwater and it is always a pleasure to come back to another home away from home!

Angry Ryan

Jordan and Coleman

Achachay! on a small couch

Creede

The best way to comprehend the tiny scale of Creede, CO, would be to take the trail behind the Snowshoe Lodge right up to the jagged cliffs that serve as the town’s backdrop.  The hike looks imposing but with a pair of eager feet it’s only about an hour and a half to get up and and down, that is if you don’t become completely mesmerized by your surroundings and decided to continue on the trail beyond the cliffs… which I have to say, was rather tantalizing but with the Achachay! show so near, getting lost in Creede forests did not seem like the best idea.

This is the bar

Tommyknocker’s, is a cozy bar that has a musky-fresh pinewood smell and is full of friendly folks, who recognized us as the band by the simple fact that we were strangers. The bar owners took good care of us, making sure our bellies were full and our livers working.  What’s nice about playing in a town so small is that once the musics starts, the people come- locals and travelers alike- ready to dance and have a good time.

Mango’s in Houston, Sat Sept 19th

Tonight, Saturday November 19th we are back in Houston! We love playing in Houston, with Jordan having attended Rice and Ryan growing up in Houston. Hooch, well he’s just had some ridiculous stories there. We’d love to see you out and we promise to get your booty movin’ on the dance floor! Cover is $7 Lineup: 9:30 “3″ 10:30 Achachay! 11:40 Electric Attitude 12:45 Mosby Thanks for your support! Now let’s get FUNKY!

Join the event on Facebook:

Videos from our last Mango’s show, during PRIDE fest (Thanks Hunter!)

Austin Show this Saturday @ Flamingo Cantina, 10P

Guys and gals our show has been OFFICIALLY RESCHEDULED for this Saturday. We play at 9:30 for 45 min at the Flamingo Cantina, so plan on getting downtown and parking early. We love all of our fans and friends and we thank you for your patience as we got this show sorted out! Now let’s GET FUNKY!

After party at our best friend DJ Aaron Steinman’s show at Lanai!

Gameday in Eugene with a funk jam twist!

It’s gameday in Eugene, OR and we are pulling into town from California on a Thursday afternoon. We are set to play at a sports bar, The Maize Lounge, following the game and it looks to be a fun show. Phil a friend of ours from Couchsurfing has set up the show for us. Phil plays with a funk/jam/awesome band in Eugene and he has been booking for the club for a few weeks now. The Maize Lounge is pretty much a standard sports bar. A few TV’s, decent bar food, and of course beers. On another couchsurfing front… Todd a good friend of ours we met through couchsurfing who was living in Austin for a bit ends up meeting us in Eugene to hang out. Anytime Todd is around you know it’s going to be a good time! After waiting around for Oregon to beat Cal we get to start the show. We have a small crowd of dancers that makes the show fun and we make a great impression on everyone at the bar. Following the show we hear that there is a funk jam at another bar downtown. We pack up our stuff and head to the funk jam. The funk jam was a blast! Jordan ended up jumping on guitar for a bit. I ended up getting on the microphone for a long song. Every once in a while I have to get the “front man” out of my system and jump on the microphone to do some singing. It was such a great time and such a great release to just go crazy on the microphone for a while. After the jam we headed back to Phil’s place to hang out. It seems like everyone that lives with Phil plays music and that makes us all kindred souls at least to some extent. So needless to say we had a great night of hanging out and playing music. Couldn’t have asked for a better day on tour!

Achachay! Plays Voodoo Music Experience

This Friday we play Voodoo Music Experience.

We are all INCREDIBLY excited. This is the biggest festival we’ve ever played. We get to the grace the stage with such giant musical allstars such as Soundgarden, Girl Talk, The Raconteurs, Snoop Dogg and Blink 182. I’m excited to see Givers, Ani DiFranco, the and the Meters.

In fact, we’ve already gotten a SWEET INTERVIEW available here, and been mentioned in an article with Cheap Trick. How cool is that?

We’ll be playing at 10:15 AM on the Boingo! Parlor Stage. It’s not too late to get tickets to see us ($150 weekend tickets or a $70 day pass). We’ll also be doing an on air interview with WTUL 91.5 after the show, at 12:30 P. You can stream the station live here!

Voodoo Rules
Voodoo Fest 2011 Countdown An Interview with Achachay! Plus+
Witch Doctor, October 25, 2011
“They’re new. They’re different. They’re not the most well known band at Voodoo Fest, but they’re on the adventure of their lives. They’re living the dream, traveling from gig to gig, making music, meeting new fans, and paying their dues. There may come a day when everyone thinks that these guys were overnight wonders. If they do become overnight sensations, The Witch Doctor’s readers will know the full story behind their success. So come along with me on this interview, what you’ll find is some dedicated souls, who believe in their ability to make a difference in the world.”

San Francisco embraces the traveler w/ Strictly Hardly Bluegrass

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
San Francisco always welcomes us with open arms and crazy fun free activities features thousands of people. Last tour we got to the Bay Area just in time for Bay to Breakers (see Hooch’s blog post); this time we got there just in time for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. This is a MASSIVE (ie 600,000 people), three day long music festival held in Golden Gate Park. The best part – its FREE! It’s like Austin City Limits but four times as many hippies (remember, its free), spread out over a much larger park.

Occupy Wallstreet
Liza and I got there pretty late Sunday afternoon but still got to catch some classic acts like the Dark Star Orchestra, Gomez, and Emmy Lou Harris (she’s closed the festival every year since it began 11 years ago). I also saw my first “Occupy Wallstreet” sign there. Not knowing anything about the movement yet (this was a few weeks ago after all) I thought it pretty ironic- The festival is free because its funded by a guy who made a ton of money investing in stocks. Actually, I had a great conversation about the whole thing with a buddy of mine from SF. I’ll include some of that email exchange HERE, for those of you interested in my thoughts about the whole thing.

We had a free day in the area, which gave us a lot of time to relax at Ryan’s long time family friends’ the Burger’s (who have now hosted us three times, always very welcoming!) and catch up with friends from the usual: Rice, Ghana, high school, Austin, etc.

The SHOW
Our show at Kimo’s was cool for the following reasons:

• Great surprises of people who came to see us (thank you Facebook for connecting us all)
• Delicious Indian food before hand. My buddy Chek ate lamb brain. I tasted it. Very strong flavor.
• The Official Story was funky, talented, and super fun to dance to!
• Void 808 Band- cool guys whom we played with again the next night in Sacramento
• We freakin’ rocked

That about covers it. We’ll strive to play Strictly Hardly … next year? Either way I’m sure San Fran won’t disappoint as even if there aren’t absurdly fun large and free events to attend, there will be awesome people to hang out with.

Paso Robles: It’s my birthday!

The day started off with a free birthday burger at Sylvester’s in Atascadero on our way to Paso Robles. Sylvester’s has awesome huge burgers so it was totally awesome to get a huge mushroom burger for free… After stopping by the club to set up we head over to our buddy Ruben’s place to chill before the show. After a short nap at Ruben’s place we head back to the venue for the show. This time we played at the 463 Club in Paso Robles. The 463 Club is a sports bar/music venue. We ended up having a pretty small crowd but the few that were there were our good friends and we had a blast playing for them. After the show we let Ruben show us downtown to do some birthday partying. The first bar we stop into has one of my favorite pastimes going on…. Karaoke… To say that I have a good time singing Karaoke would be a bit of an understatement. So Ryan and I sang a few songs and Liza even ended up singing a couple of songs. It was a ton of fun. After the karaoke we headed back to Ruben’s place and finished the night with a few drinks and a lot of laughs. Great food, great friends, a fun show, and Karaoke. All and all it was a great birthday!

Introductions: Liza

Let’s start with the basics: My name is Liza Mitrofanova and I’m accompanying your favorite Achachay! boys on their 2011 West Coast Tour. Why, you ask, do I have the supreme honor of making this pilgrimage? Well, it’s all quite simple, really. The only cosmic alignment that had to take place was their need to promote and sell merch on the road, my availability and pre-existing plans to forage into the West, and a tiny amount of social network intervention.

This is why there has been a random girl you probably don’t recognize popping up in the later posts by Jordan and the Ryan’s. So let’s get cozy – here are a few factoids about Yours Truly.

I was born in the wintery month of February in Siberia…. As a point of reference, pull up a map of Russia, now point with your index finger to the exact middle of that glorious country, and Voila! You have now, more or less, identified my birth place: Novosibirsk.

Three of the people I consider my parents are either biochemists or moleculuar biologists. Nevertheless, neither my sister or I have (or intend to) follow these career paths.

As is made obvious by my decision to embark on a six week tour in a van with three strangers, I like journeys, people, music, and all kinds of new experiences… preferably the ones you can’t predict. The elements just mentioned have brought me to an appreciation of Peruvian box drums and sharing yerba mate.

I don’t get homesick really ever (though I do love my family very, very much), but I do miss my 120 pound pooch. Home is where your dog is, I say.

All in all, I’m a pretty simple being, and all I want right now is to see the West the way Thomas Moran did… and despite all the domestication of the Wild that’s taken place, I’d say I’m feeling it.

Nice to meet.

-Liza-