west coast tour

Blog catch up: Pagosa Springs

We’re almost done chronicling our last tour… Just about to get into the last week. This is a stream of consciousness post…

On Friday October 14th we woke and drove 7 hours from Denver to Pagosa Springs. We’ve done this drive twice before and its pretty sweet, but this time was more ridiculous since we had already driven 12 hours from Reno to Moab, and eight hours from Moab to Denver the previous two days. Both of those shows were four hour shows too. We’re putting in our 10,000 hours I suppose, although we’ll be better drivers than players at the end of it

The show was fun. The Bear Creek Saloon always has a new crowd of people and we never know what to expect. The funny thing about this time was that we didn’t have a place to stay. Normally, we just drive home to Austin because Pagosa is often our last stop, but this time we were playing Creede the next night, and its only 1.5 hours away.

We only took one break so sourcing a sleeping spot proved fairly troublesome. Luckily Liza saved the day. What would we do without her? She befriended a traveling troupe of friendly dudes traipsing across the US and they offered the floor of their hotel.

The great stories happened at the afterparty, as they are often wont to do.

Ryan and Liza were tired, so they headed back to the hotel. Hooch and I were pumped to check out this crazy after hours secret club run by a peaceful biker gang… that our friend Justine told us about.

The place was really chill. It was kind of what you’d expect: a warehouse with a pool table, music, dancing, and “free” drinks (you are expected to tip). I got invited to play a game of poker, so I got immediately sucked in. It was sweet. I played it really cool and knocked everyone out over the course of the next three hours until I was heads up with the host. At that point it was 6:30 AM so we decided to split the pot and call it a … morning.

Hooch and I managed to find a ride back to the new acquaintances’ hotel. We stumbled around the complex toting a bottle of whiskey, searching for the right room. Upon entering, we were surprised to find that sleeping bodies covered almost every single surface in the room. I managed to curl up in the corner between the wall and the bed, but Hooch would have had to sleep halfway in the bathroom. Pretty funny situation. Last thing I remember before passing out was that he was eating a leftover Subway sandwich, both in the bathroom and in bed since they were one and the same.

Of course it never ends on the road. The party goes on. Our gracious and generous hosts had to check out early the next morning since they were hitting the slopes and moving on, so they awoke us just two hours later. Where was Hooch? We hopped over to the van and found him comfortably clutch the whiskey and a spare pillow to his breast. I suppose the bathroom floor just didn’t do it for him.

Liza and Ryan fared ok, but Hooch and I had stayed up until about 7AM partying. I passed out in the van next to Hooch and we both slept for the next couple hours. I’m not sure what the others did – I think they checked out a hot springs and got some breakfast. I think I ate some oatmeal at a gas station later that day.

Yep. That’s the deal with Pagosa Springs. We’ve never really gotten to enjoy the daytime offerings of the beautiful town. Hooch befriended the friendly biker gang (They are called something ridiculous like the “He-Devils of Grace”) and they offered us a place to stay, so hopefully the next time will be a little more restful. Either way I won’t be surprised if we end

This was not our show at Pagosa Spings, but it captures the essence of the night's energy

up with a good story to tell.

Weed, CA It Was Dope (by Dayna)

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

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!

Rocking Tour Kick-off in Dallas

Friday night we played an awesome show. The venue is great – the Trophy Room is an Austin bar with a mechanical bull that just opened a Dallas location, and its already a popping place.

By the time we sounded the first sonic waves, Achachay friends, fans, and as yet unknown partiers packed the room. We made friends quickly, and had people going crazy for the classics. No matter where we are, no matter who’s there, someone is going to get up and jump around when we play the Knack’s “My Sharona.”

The crowd yelled for us to play more original music in the first set. That’s always a good feeling. In these 3-4 hour shows we often play a mix of covers and originals. This time, we saved a lot of our original music for the last set, so we’d be playing our own stuff to more people, which meant the first set had the least originals.

The new wienie-dog t-shirts were also a huge success; we sold a ton of them. If things keep going this way, we’ll be sold out before we hit California- so make sure to get one fast!

All in all, it was an awesome way to kick off the tour.

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

Denver from Blatt

Driving at sunrise

We arrived in Denver around 10:00 AM after driving from Park City the night before. The drive took about 8 hours and we were pretty fried by the time we got in. Hooch and I decided we needed food more than sleep, and so we set out for IHOP almost immediately. IHOP is IHOP is IHOP, but I have to say NEVER ORDER ORANGE JUICE from IHOP! Seriously for a 12-14 oz glass of OJ it’s $4. Four fucking dollars! That’s like a gallon at the grocery store and then some–but I digress. After stuffing our faces, we passed out for most of the day. After all we needed to be rested for the show.

The show itself was great. We played at the Lion’s Lair which is a great little dive-bar on the famous Colfax Avenue. We played with 2 awesome local bands, The Riot and In Due Time. Both bands brought out a ton of fans and packed out the bar. The Riot were a funky band featuring a few horn players and In Due Time were almost a musical-theater-like rock/ska band. Both bands were great and it was a very fun night. I was also really happy to hang out with my friend from Tulane, Aaron, who lives in Denver these days. Onward and upward!

BLAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT

Salt Lake City!

We pulled into Salt Lake City late Monday night and after a good nights sleep we headed out to the great Salt Lake to see what it was all about. From what I can tell it’s a big lake with salt water. It wasn’t the prettiest thing I’ve seen or smelled…. Later that afternoon we headed back into SLC and made a stop by Sam’s Club to get a cheap slice of pizza. We then had a few hours to kill before we headed to the venue. So some more site seeing was in order. We ended up ata hidden park called Gilgal Sculpture Garden. It’s a little known park in the middle of a neighborhood. The only way we found about it was by doing a Yelp search for the area… Thanks Yelp! There were 12 rock sculptures and over 70 rocks that were engraved with scriptures. The rocks were carved using an acetylene torch . Pretty crazy stuff as you can see from the pictures. The artist Thomas Battersby Child, Jr. went to the trouble of moving up to 62 ton boulders for the garden and it’s pretty incredible really. There’s a funny quote from him that goes “You may think I am a nut, but I hope I have aroused your thinking and curiosity.” I have to say that he did make me think about spirituality and well moving rocks… so he was right! After the Garden we headed to The Bar Deluxe to get ready for our show. We played with a rock band called Little Black Pill. They brought out a good crowd and we made a bunch of new fans and had a blast. I’d like to thank the guys from Little Black Pill for letting us flop on their couches and making us feel at home. So many great people in so many cities! Awesome times!  Check out more pics at our facebook pics page for the west coast tour. http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=208452&id=45765158606&ref=mf

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!

San Jose

We played at a small club called Johnny V’s downtown San Jose. Dave and Confused from San Francisico played the show with us along with a couple other bands from the bay area. It was definitely a night of rock.

Jordan got totally over involved with watching ‘The Departed’ without sound at the bar. So basically I ended up explaining the whole movie to him while he tried to watch…. After the show we to Los Osos to stay for two nights with some of Greenblatt’s family friends. Les and Nancy were awesome. They cooked up some great food and were very hospitable.

Monday we had a day off so Greenblatt and I got to hang out in San Jose and get some much needed rest. It’s really nice to just kick back every once in a while when we are on tour. Now we are off to Sacramento!

Nada Rasta Rocksa! (also San Miguel)

We flopped at their pad and they hooked us up with all sorts of fruit and veggies they had grown as well as some bad ass eggplant lasagna (Thanks Rudy!). After being overfed all day… the show in San Miguel was at a great venue called the Ranch.

The Ranch is such a great surprise in a small town like San Miguel. The venue has a capacity of over 500 people, a large stage and soundsystem as well as great food. The Nada Rasta guys helped us out by bringing out a great group of people on a weeknight to dance and just get all sorts of funky. We had a little jam with some of the Nada Rasta guys before we brought the funk. The show went off without hitch and we had a blast. I can’t say thanks enough to the Nada Rasta guys and we can’t wait to play and chill with these guys again. This is Hooch over and out.

Official Nada Rasta Myspace