tour

Salida: A last minute show to remember!

Today we are traveling from Preblo, CO to Telluride, CO. We got a late start and didn’t get out of town until about 2 PM. We have a night off so we decided to stop in Salida to see a friend of ours Ty. We met Ty through couchsurfing a couple years ago and have been tight ever since. We also decided since we had the night off we should see if we could find a place to play. We hit up a couple of bars and they were all very receptive to live music but were booked. There was also a place with a patio that we could play on. But playing a show in 20 degree temperatures didn’t sound too appealing… The last place we popped in was the Tenderfoot. Ryan did the talking and the Bartender Mary was more than happy to let us play. We decided to go have dinner and make a decision about whether we were going to play a show or drive across an icy mountain pass after dark. Looking back now, it seems like the obvious decision was to play the show… The show was awesome. We had the bar packed all night. People were dancing and having a great time just like we were! It was another one of those times where we are on tour and randomly things come together for an awesome night of music. We will definitely be back in Salida. A big thanks to the Mary’s at Tenderfoot for having us play. It was such a blast!

Let’s get Motherloaded

The Motherloaded Tavern in Breckenridge was our last gig on the most recent Colorado tour. We had so much fun there that we’ll be playing it again on February 18th, around 10p.

To kick it off, our buddy Ty from Gunnison drove up to party with us. Sweet. Then right before the show started three friends from Austin surprised us at the bar! My buddies Harrison, Andrew, and Bryant, whom I’ve known since elementary school, just happened to be in town that weekend for a ski trip. They wandered into the Motherloaded Tavern earlier that day and were told an Austin TX band was playing that night, so they came back to check it out. At the time they didn’t have a clue it would be us.

This weekend happened to be the “Dew Tour” weekend, which means that Mountain Dew and a bunch of other companies build a halfpipe in the middle of town and bring in a bunch of snowboarders to do crazy cool stuff in front of audiences in town and on the mountain. It also means that Motherloaded was packed. People danced on the tables from the first song, and didn’t stop until the end of the night.

Apparently Breckenridge can be a fickle town, so the bar encouraged us to only take one small break during our three hour set. Forget that, we said, we’re playing straight through. So we did. No breaks, three hours. People going crazy dancing on the tables the whole time. Ty and his friend flipping each other around like crazy swing dancers.

We stopped playing and people cheered and cheered. “Keep going!” People, we just played for three hours straight. “Ok, if you’re still yelling for us by the time we get back from the bathroom, we’ll do one more song.” I tell them. In the toilet two rooms over, I can still hear them yelling. They kept at it. So we decided to keep playing.

One more song. “Keep going!” A guy hands some money. “At least one more!” OK, we’ll keep going. The crowd had started to thin out at the end, but now people are filling up the place again. The place packed out, so we kept playing. 45 more minutes, until the bar had to legally kick people out!

What a crazy fun night. We had lots of offers for places to stay, but at that point it was two days til Christmas and we did what we always do at the end of a tour, no matter how far we are from Austin, no matter how late in the night it is. We hopped in the van and drove all the way home.

Breckenridge – come out and party with us on February 18th! It gets better every time.

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

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!

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.

Los Angeles / Tarzana

When i think about our time in Los Angeles a few Wednesdays ago I think mostly of the great people we spent time with.

• Our gracious host James Leffler was hilarious as usual (check these vids for examples of his humor)
•  Ben Carson threw a pre-party and is now the only person to make it to all of our LA appearances.
• Surprise Rice friends I did not realize live in the area including Lila and Will
• I saw Marty who I studied in Ghana with for the first time in a couple of years
• Joe – one of our Ashland buddies we met through Karrgo Bossa Jova -was an absolute hoot to hang out with. We had some lively and engaging discussions about the purpose and character of higher education, with many references to Harry Potter. Nothing more can be said that is fit for print.

We played an awesome show, as usual. Los Angeles really reminds me that when it comes to my life, it often comes down to this: I love people. I used to hate the city because of the traffic, the pollution, and the superficiality. But the fact that there are so many people I love there – cousins with babies in the belly, old camp friends, comedian advisors – I can’t help but enjoy myself.

The intensity of travel and the nonstop social interaction of our tours challenges the psyche. Yet, I get so much energy from the good people surrounding us, that even a week of sleeping on the floor can’t suppress my almost constant giddiness. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to stay connected to these people distributed across the world.

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

Tilapia at IHOP?!?

Enid is where Hooch grew up. Fugly’s is one of his best friend’s brother’s bars – so when he heard we didn’t have Saturday booked he offered us the night. Even with only one day’s worth of time to promote, we got a decent crowd digging our grooves. We tried out some experimental new songs. They were received well. We also really enjoyed the high quality PA. It was possibly too loud because the room is a brick and tin box, but man the vocals sounded awesome.

Tilapia at iHOP?

For months, I’ve been saying I’d get the tilapia at either iHop or Denny’s. Everyone looks at me like I’m crazy. They assume I’ll have gastrointestinal issues for days. But it actually looks good to me, and its probably the healthiest thing on the menu. I like to eat healthily, finding protein on the road can be difficult since I only consume free range meat, and if I extend that to cage free eggs there’s almost nothing I will put in my belly at those all hours diners. Friday night, I finally ordered it!

The waitress gave me a horrified look. I immediately doubted my choice. “What – is it bad?” I asked. “I don’t know, no one’s ever ordered that before” she responded. The rest of the guys laugh maniacally. I mention something about fish and the waitress responds, “Tilapia – that’s a fish?”
OK i think, she really just doesn’t know what she’s talking about. My resolve is bolstered, and I stand by my decision.

Turns out, the Tilapia at iHop is good. I recommend it to anyone. Not only is it tasty, but it’s been over 48 hours and I’ve had completely normal bowel movements.

Enid, which is “DINE” backwards, I’ll always remember my for my first fishy late night diner experience.

Mini Tour to Oklahoma + Kansas + MO

We’re super excited to bring a bunch of new music back to one of our favorite states – Oklahoma – and branch out into new territory in Kansas and Kansas City, where we’ll catch up with new friends from SXSW.

Aug 15 in Stillwater, OK: The College Bar @ 10P

(invite friends to the facebook event)

Aug 16 in Enid, OK: The Q Spot @ 8P

(invite friends to the facebook event)

Aug 18 in Norman, OK: The Brewhouse @ 10P

FB

Aug 19 in Oklahoma City, OK: Belle Isle Brewery

(invite friends to the facebook event)

Aug 20 in Wichita, KS: The Pumphouse @ 9P

on FB

Aug 21 in Stillwater, OK: Ell’s #$%& Cancer benefit @ 5P

(invite friends to facebook event)

Aug 22 in Kansas City, MO: The Riot Room @ 9P

(invite friends to the facebook event)

Kind strangers in Durango

This post has been a long time coming… my apologies. Been busy playing all around Texas, composing new music, booking more tours, and recovering.

This was our second time playing The Summit, and they treat us well. This time was less violent (last time a guy punched someone out for saying he didn’t like the music…) but just as dance-y. We got invited to another after party, which was full fledged; DJ, sound system, honey whiskey, and another sunrise. Hooch wasn’t feeling it so he passed out in the car while Ryan and I socialized.

One of the coolest little things about Durango was this:

Ryan and I went to a Chinese food place to get some din-din. He asked these people at a table near us, “Excuse me, what’s that dish?” They responded, “We have no idea, its not what we ordered. Would you like it?” After some more pleasantries, they gifted us the dish. Then they proceeded to load us up with their rice, and the leftovers they weren’t eating. They were a local couple and some of the most generous and friendly people. They got excited about us playing, and even came to the show and stayed for the whole first set! They like Eric Clapton so we made sure to dedicate our “I Shot the Sherif” Cover to them (although technically I prefer and tend towards the original Bob Marley style). Really cool people. I think they ended up buying up a bunch of our merch too.

All in all, Durango was a good time. Missed Jack and Kat and the two-story bikes, but they weren’t around and staying in town made a lot of sense. Our new couchsurfing host Sunny was friendly as they come. She made the best veggie burrito I’ve ever had in my life. We’re planning on coming back on our next run our West, and I’m excited to get Sunny out on some rock climbing routes.

All in all our show in Durango was  a lot of fun.

Oh yeah, another interesting thing: There was a crazy bike race going on the weekend we were there called the Iron Horse Classic where cyclists race the train from Durango to Silverton. It’s some impressive distance like 40 miles and covers two mountain passes and thousands of feet of elevation, so its a big deal. The town overflowed with cycling enthusiasts, making it fun to bike on my little fold-up.

Achachay! will one day play a show like this in Durango.