shows
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!
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.
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
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.
Grover Beach
We are back in the California central coast area hanging out and playing with our good friends Nada Rasta. We have played with Nada Rasta as many times as any other band which is funny because we are based out of Austin not California. Nada Rasta is definitely a good group of guys to have as our friends. They are well connected in the central coast region and we just have a blast hanging out with them. We played 50 minute set at Mongo’s in Grover Beach then the Nada Rasta guys finished the night. It was a great night of dancing, making new friends, and fans. The blurry pic below is Blatt beating the cowbell during one of Nada Rasta’s songs. Pretty hilarious. I can’t thank Reuben and the rest of the Nada Rasta crew enough for their help and hospitality in the central coast area. Reuben has helped us book shows and has given us a place to stay both times we’ve been in the area. If you want to check out some good reggae/rock music check out Nada Rasta on the interweb http://www.facebook.com/nadarastaband. We are in the central coast area for several days so there will be more stories about Nada Rasta and of course Achachay! in the central coast to come. Hooch over and out.
Silliness in Flagstaff
The Flagstaff Brewery has two stages – one indoor and one outdoor. Yet for some reason they wanted us to play in this small corner: (pic on twitter, i’ll link to it eventually. just imagine a very small space).
Right next to the bathroom.
I couldn’t stop laughing. Their reasoning made sense – the indoor stage is too far away and no one would watch us, and the staff wasn’t prepared for an outdoor show. But still, that corner is small. Last time we played a killer outdoor set where people heard the music walking by and came in to jam.
We rocked a great set anyway.
The guys that run the place are really nice, and the beer is great. Another funny thing is that last time they accidentally paid us with a counterfeit $20 bill. Ryan was pissed, because they refused to reimburse us with real money. He wrote a pretty negative review on indieonthemove, a booking site we use. Fortunately, this has been a bee in their bonnet, so this time they gave us an extra $20 to make it right! Praise the power of the internet. And props to them to rectifying the situation.
Another really great thing about Flagstaff is Dan, our couchsurfing host. We stayed with him last time, and had a great time jamming afterwards. He plays some mad harmonica so we got him on stage and jammed out for a while on “Fever.” It was a great time. He’s an amazing host and really takes care of his guests. Even though we only get to spend a small amount of time with him whenever we’re there, we’re kindred spirits and I know we’ll be hanging again in the future. If you get a chance, check out his musical project “2 BUKU”
All in all Flagstaff was a good time. We plan on coming back.
Pagosa Springs a great success
The drive from Steamboat Springs to Pagosa Springs takes a band 8 hours. For the same band to return to Boulder for a show the following night requires another 6 hour drive. Naturally this places high expectations on a venue and a city to make such a trip worthwhile.
Luckily, we already knew we were getting a great monetary guarantee. For me, a show is worth playing if it gives us one of three things (the more the better); 1. A chance to play in front of a lot of people, 2. A lot of money, or 3. A good opportunity for a future relationship. (Note that I didn’t include the givens, such as the chance to inspire people, make a positive impact on someone’s life, get practice, and share our message. These happen no matter where we play.) So we had the money part taken care of. That’s why I booked the show. The rest, was in the cards.
We drove with the delightful vision of this beautiful valley. It also clued us into the surprising size of Pagosa Springs; 1500 people. Less than my high school. How could the bar afford to pay us what they were? Does 10 percent or more of the population go to this one bar every Friday night?
We kicked off the show playing for about 20 people. This is not too good for Friday night; it certainly doesn’t meet my first requirement. We still rocked the hell out the first few songs because we always give it our all. A group of Apaches in the front loved what we brought, and bought merch during our first set break. Cool.
Then, the show really took off. A crowd that had been watching some sort of boxing match made it to the show around 10 and we had just the right grooves to get them shaking. The bar staff later told us they hadn’t seen such dancing at the Bear Creek Saloon in at least six months! People loved our originals, and they loved our selection of covers.
It hit 1 AM and we mentioned that we only had a song left on the set list. Everyone went so crazy, so we kept playing until last call. We played our Deadmau5 song on a whim, and the crowd absolutely loved it. We got tips, we got show offers, and places to stay seemingly just from that song. Pretty cool because Hooch had just been practicing it that day to perfect it.
In the end the show was a huge success. Its very exciting because we’re going to play there again in just a month. The friends we made guaranteed us that the place would be packed now that they know who we are.
The view when driving to pagosa springs
Sidenote:
Another cool thing is that one girl saw our flyer, checked us out, and watched all of our video updates. This is cool because (1) Flyers work! and (2) She had a feel for our personalities.
Hosting funk jam at Hodi’s
We had the distinct honor of hosting Hodi’s Halfnote’s funk jam for our first night in Ft. Collins. We got to know the Nu Classics, the usual hosts, the last time we rolled through town and became fast friends. Some of you may remember – we even had them play at our house party during SXSW.
This jam is a really good time. We kicked it off with about 45 minutes of original music to set the tone, and then invited different players to come up and switch out. I recognized a few of the great guitarists from the last time we jammed there – Josh, Nick – and some of the horn players that stood out. The talent that shows up at these jams is quite impressive, and a lot of non-musicians come to just dance and groove.
People dug our music, and we made friends just like last time. We even got another show offer. We also got to get back up and improv with some of the guys later on in the night. We exchanged numbers with a few of the guys and hopefully we’ll get them to play some horn parts with us next time we come through town.
All in all it was a highly enjoyable night. If you’re in Ft. Collins on a Monday I suggest you check it out. We’ve been talking about how cool it would be to do something similar in Austin. I’m not sure we’re around consistently enough to build up the scene, but who knows it might be something we do in the future. We got to build the skills this time- we hosted in every sense of the word, with the different people who wanted to jam talking to us to find out the order of when they want to play.
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This picture is one I took with a new friend Sean who took me and some of his buddies out to rock climb in Poudre Canyon on our day off. It was really fun, and really beautiful. I’m extremely grateful to get the opportunity to take advantage of the natural beauty surrounding us on tour. We move so quickly from town to town that when we do get a chance to do something like this I tend to appreciate it even more. It’s also great to make new friends, and then be able to hang out with them again when we come back a few months later. I’m looking forward to climbing with Sean and company again one day!
Ryan and Hooch took good advantage of Ft. Collins as well, going on a brewery tour of New Belgium, Odell’s, and maybe even one other. They might tell you about it in the next post.
Fugly’s
This is our last night in Oklahoma and we are doing it right at Fugly’s in Enid. Fugly’s is 3 bars in one. There is a live music room, a karaoke room, and a room with pool tables. It’s all soundproofed and really just done right. Fugley’s is a newer bar in Enid but they have made a name for themselves quickly. Because a close friend of mine owns the bar all of my close friends and their families were out to see the show. It’s always nice to catch up with old friends and let them see what I’m doing these days with music and travel. Overall the show was great. Good friends, good venue, and just a fun night. It’s been a great week in Oklahoma but now we move on to Colorado. Good-bye waving wheat hello Rockies!
Oh College Bar… How we love thee…
Our first day technically playing in Stillwater and man has it been a blasty blast! It’s always nice to walk down “the strip” in Stillwater again. I’ve spent many a night playing solo and full band shows on the strip. It’s where I really started playing on stage and it just feels like home for me as a musician. The College Bar well… is just a great venue. Everyone in Stillwater who likes to see diverse live music comes to The College Bar. They have a great selection of beers on tap and it just attracts the kind of people that like our flavor of funky music. There were a few of my old friends in the crowd as well as a lot of new friends. By the end of the night we had a nice group of folks dancing and there was just a great overall vibe. Couldn’t have asked for a better first show in Stillwater. I’m totally looking forward to a whole week of playing music in Oklahoma!
