Show Journal 2004-09-29
Day 13 – Our show tonight got cancelled so we opted to stay in Vegas another day. The morning started off right with a breakfast buffet and we wandered around the strip, checked e-mail, rode the Speed roller coaster and got our shop on. We took a few cabs that day. The first driver told us a story about how she saw someone get hit by a car and people came by and emptied out their wallet before the police arrived. The second driver asked if we “were here to party” and proceeded to give us the cards for some local prostitutes with his reference number on it. Later we hit up the Aladdin buffet and it was the best meal I’ve had in ages. At some point later in the evening Dave, Justin and Dan went out and Justin lost “a bunch of money” gambling but I am lame and slept through it.
Show Journal 2004-09-28
Day 12 – Woke up early today to get breakfast with Tim and his sister. I realized I’ve had French Toast at least 7 times already on this trip and opted for the breakfast burrito. We said our goodbyes and took the long, long, long desert road to Vegas. I knew it would be dull, but it’s hard to appreciate unless you’ve seen it first hand. Drive 10 miles, turn slightly, drive 15 miles, turn slightly, drive 5 miles and maybe see a house. It was nuts. We did see an army depot and a few brothels both of which appealed to Dave. At one point we stopped to get gas and realized we were close to Area 51 and did the appropriate gift shopping. Also, at this stop we saw a guy’s dog get hit by a truck, which totally sucked. The poor guy was out there crying in the road pounding his first into the ground. Then he dragged the dog over to a ditch and buried it. It was seriously awful to watch and ruined the fun of buying alien toys. Eventually we got to Vegas, headed to Guitar Center to stock up on parts, and then headed to the show. The Cooler Lounge rocked. It’s kind of like the Twilight here in Portland just bigger. Everyone was super friendly and strangely enough we met a lot of people from Portland, one of whom was even sporting a PDX tattoo. The show tonight was definitely different. We were playing with the Babes In Sin Burlesque group. They came out and danced, we played some songs, they danced some more, we played some more, they did one last number and we finished with a few more songs. All I will say is that I much prefer watching the other bands when they are half naked females that are dancing and disrobing. Thanks again to the Babes In Sin as we had a great time. After we headed over to the Flamingo and crashed out.
Show Journal 2004-09-27
Day 11 – On to Reno and the chance to wipe clean the memory of our ill-fated acoustic mishap several years ago. The drive was long, tedious, and riddled with road construction. At one point we were in a traffic jam on a dirt road in a construction area. It easily added an hour to the trip. After the last mess of construction we pulled over to a rest area. We all get out and head to the bathroom. Dan is in front of me and I see him get to the door and he just turns around. I ask what’s wrong and he says “just go look”. I round the corner and there is a completely naked man bent over in front of the sink. Worse yet, he appears to be washing himself. Needless to say I turned around in fear that I was in the middle of an impending porn filming or I was on candid camera. Sure enough outside was a line of people walking in, turning around and leaving. After a few minutes I decided “screw it, I gotta go” so I headed back in to handle business with a naked man a few yards from me. Weird. We eventually got to Reno and did our best to locate the Proxy house. We ordered some pizza and hung out working on Dave’s bass amp. The first band was called Pink Black and they were awesome. Kind of like Pretty Girls Make Graves but with a little indie rock flair to it. Really, really good stuff. Tim’s band was second and also sounded good. Almost like Jawbreaker but a bit moodier and more aggressive. We played last and it went well. Not too many people but the ones that stayed seemed to dig it. Afterwards we crashed at Tim’s place with what proved to be the best night of sleep I’ve had al tour.
Show Journal 2004-09-26
Day 10 – Sunday we took the long drive up to Medford. Early on the drive Thirty3 got a flat tire on their trailer and wound up getting about 3 hours behind us. We got to Medford early and headed over to a chinese restaurant which was sketchy at best. Blueprint For Disaster was up first and rocked with a super aggressive blast of metal and punk. We stalled as long as we could until we heard Thirty3 was on the way. Our set was so-so. The flyer outside referred to us as the “legendary” 800 Octane. Our set was not very legendary. I think we need another show there to redeem ourselves. Thirty3 played last and we were sad to see them go back to Portland since we had so much watching them each night. We ended crashing with the drummer for Blueprint. They were up drinking late so we all just slept in the van.
Show Journal 2004-09-25
Day 9 – Today was awkward because we had to drive to Sacramento so Jim could fly home and Dan could fly in to play the final few shows. Jim didn’t have enough vacation time left at work so fortunately Dan came in to save our asses from canceling the second week of shows. After barely making it to the airport in time we headed back to San Francisco to meet up with Theo from the Teenage Harlets who was our tour guide, show promoter and provider of a place to crash for the night. He took us up on a tour of S.F. and up to a scenic view of the city. The show was in an art space called Space 49. It was actually more of a private party than a show and was populated by well dressed people who didn’t seem like they would appear to be into a band like ours. To my surprise they were as many totally seemed to get into the show. The space also had roof access, which led to a great sunset view of the city. Dan did an admirable job having only practiced us with us twice before we left. Guess who had another birthday? I’m really skeptical of any band now who claims someone is having a birthday. After the show a long 80’s dance party ensued and we all stayed up until at least 4 in the morning.
Show Journal 2004-09-24
Day 8 – Friday started off with an enormous breakfast from Lisa. I literally ate so much I thought I would vomit. Good thing we were headed to the shooting range. No really. Brian works with the San Jose SWAT team so he invited us to come out to the annual Best In The West SWAT Team competition. Yep, people in full cop gear running around shooting targets. They actually had a range that the public could fire on so we each shot handguns and a fully automatic MP5 assault rifle. Despite my dislike for guns, I do enjoy shooting them on someone else’s dime. After that we headed back to Brian’s where we went for a swim. I think I was too big for the slide though. At some point an impromptu metal jam occurred in the garage in the garage with Greg and the various members of the bands taking turns on guitar, bass and drums. After chilling for a bit we headed over to Luna’s Mufflers, which is literally a muffler shop where the bands play in the back room. I was a bit skeptical considering the environment, but the show rocked. Thirty3 absolutely killed it tonight and was easily the best I’ve ever seen them play. Mike had another birthday and Jon even smashed a dixie cup on his head. They were going nuts and the crowd was having a blast. Los Dryheavers was last and they sounded amazing. I was outside talking on the phone, heard two songs and thought “I gotta get in there and watch”. Very impressive set. Super thanks to Flo for the show. After the set we all headed back to Brian’s and went swimming and hung out in the hot tub. Impossible to believe it’s a tour.
Show Journal 2004-09-23
Day 7 – I barely slept with all the truck traffic going in and out of the truck stop. I had this irrational fear that a truck is going to run into us. Weird. I got up early and paid $7 for a shower in the truck stop. A bit much but there wasn’t anything else to do with everyone else asleep. Speaking of the shower thank god I remembered my flip flops. I headed over to Denny’s and everyone else followed in as they woke up. We headed over to 101 and got to Salinas really early. We decided to take a side trip to Monterey to see the ocean. We were originally all stoked on seeing the aquarium but since everyone was still in a rotten mood from the night before we split up and wandered for a while. I just took a long walk along the coast in the sun, made a few calls and sat in a park for a while. Back to the van and onto Salinas. We knew the show was a house show but I never suspected the show was a “farm house” show. We kept driving and driving further into the countryside and eventually plodded 1/4 mile down a dirt road to the house. I honestly thought Jim was going to blow a gasket when he realized this was the location. I knew it would be cool since we were playing with The Rivals and the house was owned by the singer of Bound to Break, both of which we had played with in Hillsboro last month. People started to filter in and everyone was super nice and friendly. The show freaking rocked and I had a blast. Mike had another birthday tonight – his third in 5 days. Chris from Thirty3 had to go and upstage our set by accidentally hitting his head on his guitar and splitting it open. He played one more song with blood running down his face and was later carted to the hospital where we got 8 stitches. It was gnarly. Apparently Dave got some pictures in the ER but I don’t ever want to see them. Thanks again to the kids that missed the show to drive Chris to the hospital. After The Rivals crazy set we headed on the Brian’s house in San Jose. On the way we stopped at In N Out Burger for the 3rd time this trip. This is also where Dave said one of the meanest things I’ve ever heard. We get our food and just past the window there is a homeless guy asking for food. Dave looks at him and says “Dude, there’s food in there” and points to the restaurant. I don’t think it was intentional but damn it was funny.
Show Journal 2004-09-22
Day 6 – On to Bakersfield. I realized on the way that despite being in Southern California we didn’t see the ocean of the Hollywood sign. Weird. Another nice sunny day which bordered on hot. We can’t stop singing the song “throw the jew down the well” from Da Ali G Show. It’s offensive and wrong but it’s so damn catchy. I was also reminded on the drive how much I enjoy listening to the Alkaline Trio and how much I am now sick of Jawbreaker thanks to Justin. We stopped at a 2 story truck stop and ate a pretty sketchy buffet. The club tonight was called Murder City. Ironically there was a murder there a week ago. We got there way early and headed over to a music store so Dave could get his broken bass amp looked at. Jim went over and bought a smoothie at a place that doubled as a music venue. We came to find out that we bought the smoothie from the singer of Korn’s mother. Too funny. We headed back to club and proceeded to wait another 2 hours for the doors to open so we could load. This was one of the first shows here so attendance was pretty poor. 30 people does not fill up a 1000 person venue. We tried to rock but it proved difficult to the spare crowd. Thirty3 mixed it up and brought people on stage during their set. Kind of cool. Apparently it was Mike’s birthday … again. Afterwards we headed out with Thirty3 for a house to stay at. It was a little sketchy so the decision was made to stay at a truck stop. Everyone seemed to be in a bad mood and the van ride was silent. Deep inside I was still elated to not be working and out with my friends. We finally hit up a truck stop but sadly it was next to a cattle ranch and reeked of manure. We drove on to a less smelly location and slept in the van.
Show Journal 2004-09-21
Day 5 – Woke up quick at about noon, felt that I had to be in Compton soon. Today Chris cooked us the best breakfast I’ve had in ages. Mike, who is traveling with Thirty3 is also Zebrahead’s tour manager. Being that he’s friends with those guys he also lives with Greg who is the guitar player for ZH. The reason for pointing that out is because their house is littered with ZH memorabilia. There were tour posters from Japan, limited albums and all kinds of other cool stuff. It made me realize how many bands and how few actually make it. After food we watched some reruns of Da Ali G Show and realized just how god damn funny that show really is. Tre Tre and Jim hung out while Dave dragged Justin and myself to see a tank. Really. After that we headed over to the LBC to see our friend Robert and his merchandising business. His warehouse of shirts and stickers is like a historical archive of punk and rock history. Very cool stuff. After that was had pizza and admired what is perhaps the greatest collection of DVD’s and CD’s I’ve ever seen. All hail Robert. Tonight Thirty3 got to play a show at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim. We couldn’t get on the bill and played at the Cat Club on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. You’d think a club on the strip would have a crowd right? Wrong. The first band has a few people in attendance. They were a hard rock band from Israel so a few people seemed curious to watch. The second band was a local LA band. In the most pure Hollywood moment I’ve ever seen I went up and introduced myself to their drummer. I said “Hey, I’m Eric from 800 Octane, the bartender says you guys do well and I’m looking forward to seeing your set.” No shit the guy shakes my hand, pats me on the arm with his other hand and walks past me. What a cock. They did play the best cover I’ve ever seen of AC/DC’s song ‘TNT’ and deserve props. Unfortunately the rest of their set was a lackluster rendition of something along the lines of Hoobastank. We played last and it was dismal. Here are the people in attendance: Robert (who’s house we were staying at), Brent (a friend of the band), one of Brent’s friends, the bartender/sound guy and two of the people from the second band. All the crowd left, the band from Israel left and the friends of band number two left as well. I tried to convince Jim to play our song Hollywood but the humor was lost on deaf ears. It was pretty bad but a bad show is better than no show on tour. Thanks to Robert and Megan for their hospitality.
Show Journal 2004-09-20
Day 4 – We got up early and left for Fresno. Thirty3 left early to pick up some cd’s, so we took our sweet time on the road. The drive was uninteresting at best but thankfully it was warm and sunny. We actually arrived early and wound up at an internet café where Dave and I checked e-mail and played mundane video games. Jim purchased a wireless card for his laptop and we have dubbed him “the wifi hunter”. At some point Thirty3 informed us that our host from the night before didn’t like our band because we “played punk rock”. The more I think about that statement the more it annoys me. It just seems so shallow to like one kind of music (hardcore) and not another (punk) when they are so similar and share so many of the same origins and influences. This is more annoying when Thirty3 isn’t a typical hardcore band and we aren’t a typical punk band. Of course, the more I think about it I guess there was a period where I refused to listen to heavy metal just because it was heavy metal. A few years ago became zen with it again. Maybe everyone really into music goes through that phase. I’m rambling. The show tonight was interesting. There ended up being 5 bands playing in an standalone garage behind the house. Kinda cool atmosphere for a show. Plus it was across from a place called The Peach Pit which send Justin and Mike into nerd paradise. About 2 bands into the show a neighbor (named Bud) strolls over and lays into Dave about the volume. We knew it was going to be a rough night since the first two bands were relatively quiet and there were still 3 to go and two of which we knew would be very loud. The third band took forever to setup and play. Bless them for being young but I don’t think they realized we had driven 4 hours and were on tour where as they cam from down the street. But then again can you really get mad at a band of teenage girls? After the long set from band #3 we came dangerously close to playing an acoustic set but later decided us and Tre Tre should share gear and rip through 4 songs each. It took all of 20 minutes and we were done before Bud could hobble his old ass over again to bitch. Since we got done early we headed to Mike’s house in LA. Jon provided us with walkie talkies for van to van communication for our commute across “the grapevine”. Along the way a ghetto bird flew by and ran his spot light on Thirty3’s van for about 10 seconds. Weird.
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