Show Journal 2006-09-16
Day 7 – the drive to Reno was grueling. My foot was aching from the night before and I could barely walk. There are only so many ways one can elevate their foot in a van. We left town at about 7:30 and there was insane traffic down I5 for the Ducks game. Justin nearly killed us at one point when all the traffic suddenly stopped for no reason on the interstate. Had the car in front of us not swerved onto the median they would have eaten our grill (our what?) for sure. At some point we busted out the Xbox and noticed the return of the burning plastic smell. We discovered it was actually the crossover to the back speakers so we were able to enjoy video games for many hours to come. Tiki took the wheel for the second half of the trip. Thankfully there was no naked dude at the bathroom in Weed which we experienced last time. After 12 hours we finally got to Reno as dusk was hitting. It was fricking cold there (in the 40’s) and the house we played at backed up to a cemetery. The whole thing was surreal. The house was in between two frat houses, backed up to a gravel parking lot and cemetery and glittery casinos could be seen in the other direction. I gotta be honest, the show sucked ass. There were maybe 12 people in attendance for TOTF and Mourningstar. There were probably 20 or more for us which was cool but it was honestly one of the worst performances we’ve given in a long time. Dustin had 5 beers and played everything way too slow. Justin was annoyed at the drive to playing time (44 minutes in car for 1 minute of playing). I broke an E string in the first song and the spare guitar wouldn’t stay in tune for the life of me. Dave was the most together but I think he was still spacey after walking in on the owner’s girlfriend taking a crap only a few minutes before. It was pretty bad, but people seemed to have fun so I guess it wasn’t a total bust. The Juvinals were last and sounded great with their garage-rock influence. Afterwards we hung out with the other bands as Dave revealed he had actually “fat guyed” everyone and had 3 of the tacos that were given to us while members of the other bands didn’t get any. I’m not sure how much with we bonded with the other bands (since we had so many nights at home) but they were all good guys, had good energy and were great to play with. I definitely wish them all the best of luck. After the show we said our goodbyes and we headed over to Shane’s to crash. Dave, Justin and Dustin headed off for some casino action. I stayed behind with Tiki and managed to put my foot in mouth by questioning the cleanliness of the couch that I slept upon while someone was in the next room. Oops. Serious thanks go out to Shane and Tim for the place to stay and hooking up the show. The next morning we headed out, grabbed a buffet and made the trek back to PDX. I nearly hit a deer and Dustin came within 5 feet of getting t-boned by a car doing 55 MPH. I could have done without this last day but it makes me appreciate the rest of the “tour” so much more. Thanks to Mourningstar, Top Of The Fair, Jeremy and NSR, plus everyone who gave us a place to stay and the took some time to listen to a band they might not have ever heard of.
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