Rock

I’m Going Going, Back Back to Teullride…

After our amazing impromptu show in Salida, we made our way back to Telluride. Telluride is a small ski town in the mountains that has an incredible view from main st and is home to some really cool people, including our friends and perennial hosts, Kate and Wily.

The show this time around was at Fly me to the Moon. Originally we had a show scheduled at the Bubble Lounge, but between December and February (we had just played the Bubble in December) something changed and the venue shut down (apparently without warning the staff or patrons). BUT luckily for us, the booker and our friend Roxy, didn’t make us cancel the show and worked out a deal with Fly Me to the Moon so that we could still play in town.

The first time we ever played in Telluride it was at FMTTM in March of 2010 and it was cool/funny to see our tags in the green room from back then. Our show went well, but we had to compete with a few other shows that night and the weird situation explained earlier causing the venue change.

Telluride is still one of my favorite places to go and to play, so I am looking forward to coming back. Hopefully next time it will be smoother!

Back in Boulder!

After our 16 hour drive from Austin to Boulder we had about two and a half hours before our show in Boulder. We took our time, set up, ate some dinner and drank some coffee. We were playing back at the Darkhorse, at least our 4th time. But this show would be different.

Us and the In Due Time Guys

I felt surprisingly well, even though I was running on only a few hours of sleep. I didn’t even get energy-drink’ed out. Boulder is always a fun show, but tonight we were bringing a surprise with us: a horn section. Two of our friends from the band In Due Time, Kyle and Tony, brought their Sax and Trombone and ripped through about 15 tunes with us. It was fucking AWESOME! I really can’t stress enough how well it went. Sometimes we manage to get all of our Boulder and Denver friends to bring out their friends and come party with us in Boulder, but this time only a handful of our friends were able to make it. The horns took care of the rest: we had people dancing, moving, grooving, and LOVING the music. It was fun, and re-energizing just when we needed it.

So if you haven’t checked out In Due Time yet, please go to their website here: https://www.facebook.com/induetimefunk and give them a listen…you will not be disappointed! Til next time Dark Horse!

Pagosa Springs

Pagosa Springs is a beautiful town in the mountains of Colorado. Because we have been to Pagosa and played at The Bear Creek Saloon several times I totally feel at home there. It’s pretty awesome in that we really didn’t know anyone in Pagosa Springs before we played a few shows and now we have a solid fans and friends that come out to our shows. There is a stange dynamic in Pagosa because it is a small tourist town. You will have a mix of people that are in town for the hot springs or the rafting as well as native ‘Pagosans’. That being said every time we play the crowd is responsive and just a ton of fun regardless of whether it’s tourists or ‘Pagosans’. This time around we met some new friends through couchsurfing. Our new friend Jarrett and his family welcomed us into their home and we had yet another great couchsurfing experience. We had great food and spent time sharing our stories about traveling and playing music. Really great times in Pagosa Springs. This is yet another one of those places that is very hard to leave… That being said we have to keep moving on to the rest of Colorado! Hooch over and out!

Q Spot Good Times Rock n’ Rooooooooollllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rockin' "Choice" at the Q Spot

In our last week on the past tour we played our favorite bar in Enid AMERICA, the Q Spot. We love the Q Spot because David, the owner, and his family take great care of us every time we play there. He also has a really nice, large stage for us to tear up, and we always have an excited and attentive crowd.

The show itself was great and well attended. We played a good long set and rocked out as usual. The night progressed to our new favorite hangout: the Lounge located in the Ramada Inn in Enid. The Lounge also has these sweet koozies (not sweeter than ours though!) that feature a “lounge lizard” in a martini glass….with a martini in hand. I really enjoy those koozies, and for those of you who know me, koozies in general. On this night, though, we found out that the bar only intends for you to use their koozies in the bar, and not actually take them with you when they give you a beer with one on. This is stupefying to me as they are the perfect way to promote a MOTHER-F’ING BAR, but as they say: to each his own.

We will be back and rockin’ the Q Spot again in the near future!

Weed Loves Boobies

After our show in Eugene we trekked back down to Weed, CA to play a breast-cancer benefit concert for some of our friends. The Weed/Mt. Shasta area has been very welcoming to us in the past, and we were happy to perform at their benefit. Breast-cancer research and awareness is important to us, as well, so all around this was a good concert for us to play.

The show was fun and everyone was in good spirits. There was a photo-booth and some where out there in the nether-regions of Middle-Earth there are some fairly incriminating photos of us playing in ours and other people’s underwear…I’ll leave it at that. In the end we helped raise money and we had a great time doing it.

I also want to give a shout out to my dear family friend Nikki Boscia Durlester who’s inspirational book Beyond the Pink Moon continues to give hope for those fighting breast cancer. You can buy her book here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=beyond+the+pink+moon&x=0&y=0

Babylon in Fresno

Unfortunately sometimes a show will get double-booked and one of the bands ,or even an entire group of bands, will be dropped from the show. A week before we left on tour this happened to us for a Saturday night gig we had in Sacramento. I thought to myself that we were pretty much SOL, but I wasn’t going to take it lying down. So I got on the ol’ interweb and emailed 20 or so places in the region just north of Paso Robles all the way to the Sacramento area. I was sure to lay it on a little thick with the “we got dropped from our show” bit to see if we couldn’t get a last-minute show, and sure enough we lucked out big time! Within days I heard back from the booker of a cool club in Fresno called the Babylon Club. They were happy to let us jump on the bill and they even offered me a guarantee. Needless to say I was ecstatic.

The show went really well too. We played last to a smaller, but very energetic crowd that hung around after the local bands played. Also all of the other bands who played were great, and actually brought out people (believe it or not this is rarely the case). So from having a show canceled we ended up making a new contact with a booker and promoter who, I feel, really appreciate good music and aren’t afraid to do some work to promote a show. Can’t wait to come back!

SLO Times

First let me say that the tour is going splendidly! We haven’t had too much time on the internet, though, and we apologize for not being better about our blog-posting. If you’d like to file a complaint, please contact your local funk-rock-band-complaint center. Thank you.

After we left the San Diego area we played a show in San Luis Obispo, or SLO. SLO is an awesome town in my opinion: it’s picturesque, the people there have been very nice and very cool to us, and it’s home to what some say is the best tri-tip in the Central Coast. A little aside here: WTF is up with Californians and tri-tip? They can’t get enough of it, and it seems like if it’s not on the menu, then the restaurant is shit! As a Texan and meat-connoisseur, I found my tri-tip experience to be very enjoyable, but nothing too special (sorry guys).

Any who, we once again played the Frog and Peach in SLO, but this time it was pint night. Pint night is where patrons can bring in their own Frog and Peach pint glasses and get beer for super-cheap. We had a great crowd for most

Playing at the Peach

of the night, and over all the show was really fun. We also stayed with Myles and his friends again and it was great to finally get to play for them.

I look forward to my next time in SLO!

Good times

O’Sullivan’s: Down with the Sickness….

I should preface this post by saying that I was suffering from food poisoning for the 2 days leading up to this show and a day or so after… so the things I remember from the show are minimal. We played an Irish Pub.  What you wouldn’t expect from an Irish pub is for the majority of the staff to actually be Irish. But O’Sullivans is different in that way. The bar staff was awesome and like I said mostly Irish. Everyone was friendly and there was good food (even though it was really hard to eat being sick and all). We had a great crowd that danced and kept the energy high to help me through a rough night. We also ran into an artist by the name of Sid who meshes together hip-hop and several other genres to create some awesome music. I haven’t been able to track him down online but once I do I will post some links to his music. After this show we had a couple days off for some much needed rest. I have recovered nicely from my little bout with food poisoning and all is well! That’s pretty much what I’ve got from that show. Hooch over and out!

Chilin in San Diego

Pic of the Pub

Random pic of Liza

Flagstaff Round 3

Ryan before the show

We have played the Flagstaff Brewery now 3 times and we have a had a great show each time! This was our second show on the this tour and we were ready to rock Flagstaff again. It was a cool, and starry night and we had an energetic crowd for a good part of the show. We also got our friend Daniel aka Danimal to come up and play a few songs with us. He is a badass harmonica player and his band 2BUKU is great!

Highlights from the show: 1. We made some new fans 2. Jordan got his jacket stolen by a drunk/cold fan 3. We recorded some amazing off-the-cuff jams with Daniel on harmonica.

All in all it was a great night, and I can’t wait to come back to Flagstaff! Oh and don’t worry about Jordan’s jacket situation: he ended up scoring a really sweet fleece coat from Daniel later that night!

Stubbs

We pull up to Stubbs running late…. I’m not going to say as usual… But well… It’s pretty usual. But anyway I’m a little bit stressed about being late and then I see the line of people out the door and down the side of Stubbs. It’s such an exciting feeling to see a line outside of a venue that you are getting ready to play! So after a moment to take it all in I have to start the pre-show agenda. Get the merchandise together for the merchandise person… Get all of my equipment together to go on stage. Run back to the van to get more CD’s, go pee, tune my bass, etc…. After all of this then we get to step on stage and that is the best part of the night (and week for that matter). Looking out to see our friends, family, fans, and soon to be new fans in front of us. It’s funny because I normally don’t have any nerves before a show. I’ve played well over a thousand shows. But when I play in Austin for the hometown crowd the butterflies are there. It’s a welcome feeling that reminds me why I do this. Why I sleep on floors and spend half of my year in a van. I love playing music. I especially love playing with Achachay! ‘my own band of brothers. So needless to say the show was awesome. The crowd was full of energy and fantastic. Full Service rocked our faces and The Rafiki Project was tasty as always. It’s only a few days before we hit the road again for a few weeks and I have to say that this was one of the best feeling shows yet. Thank you to all of our friends, family, and fans for making what we do worth it! Hooch out! (There are a few pics below and check out FB for more pics!)