Musings of the local scene...

Been a few months since I updated this. I have a little down time today so I figured I would pop on here and share what's new and exciting in the world of WCG.

First off, we parted ways with our first manager, Blaine. We wish him well in his endeavors. This, however, was a blessing in disguise. Just after we parted with Blaine we met up with our new manager that is kicking ass for us. So, welcome to the WCG family Lilith Kemnitz! In her short time with us she has coerced people to book us and get us some radio air play.

We have a busy schedule coming up, but it should be a blast. We released our latest t-shirt design last Friday and they seem to be going over well. We'll have our CD soon for you all to hear the three singles off our upcoming album. The name of the singles album, which I'm sure everyone knows by now is Exactly What You Deserve. We'll have those in hand in the coming weeks. Then we're back in the studio to finish off the entire album. Our new website should be up and running very soon www.whitecitygraves.com.

Now on to the main reason I was updating this today. I was just sitting here musing to myself how much fun we always have playing in places like the Duvall Tavern. It seems to me that the outlying areas like Duvall, Stanwood and so on have always been our most successful and enjoyable shows.

Playing in Seattle proper is actually really difficult. To get the attention of folks and get them out to a show is like pulling hen's teeth at times. Sure there are exceptions to the rule. The 2 Bit Saloon in Ballard has always been great to us.

I was chatting with a fellow struggling musician the other day. We both agreed gone are the good ol' days. You had the clubs that people were always at regardless of who was playing that night. The clubs that had people there because they were excited to see a band. There is talent in this city. A lot of it. Whatever genre your into, I bet you could find a show any given night of the week to go see. Majority of the time the crowd will be sparse unfortunately. I've wandered into clubs on a Saturday night in areas that are hubs for nightlife and the club is all but abandoned. On those nights I've seen some stellar acts. I find it sad really.

Is this because the rock culture is dead in Seattle? Are there too many options? Why are some of our most rabid fans residents in rural areas? I realize that WCG is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Really most sane folks don't dig songs about serial killers and such, but I know there's plenty of sick folk out there, like myself, who will dig it. I mean we live in a city of several hundred thousand people. Seems like the odds would be in our favor.

Luckily we have had the good fortune of playing some really great shows with a lot of fans and a lot of great bands with in the Seattle city limits. But I guess it's just not what it use to be. So sit down kiddies, uncle Adam is gonna tell y'all a story of the good ol' days. I remember when I was younger, before the age of 21. We would spend just about every weekend at the OK Hotel. Watching great bands like The Sweaty Nipples, The Accused, Forced Entry, Subvert, Sabre, Dumt, that list goes on and on. Then itching to be over 21 so we could get into The Off Ramp, The Croc and all that Pioneer Square had to offer. For some reason every Saturday night these clubs were packed to the rafters with people. They weren't afraid to get involved either. Pits and stage diving were common place.

Somewhere along the line the scene died. The joint cover in Pioneer Square went away. The earth quake that destroyed the OK Hotel and The Phoenix Underground. The ever long shift towards dance clubs. Larry's, which was a place to go see a stellar blues act, turned to dance music. It sells. Always has, but I feel like we're reliving the disco era. Instead of Stayin' Alive though, we're being bombarded with Thump Thump Thump techno dance.

Remember Pain in the grass, before it was pain in the grass? Where bands would play at the Mural Amphitheater in Seattle Center. We would bus it down every Saturday afternoon to watch.... get this... a FREE SHOW! Heaven forbid we do that now. We got to charge $50 and make you drive to the White River Amphitheater to see huge national acts. What did we see if not huge national acts? Bands on their way to becoming huge national acts. These bands would play to a thousand or so rabid rock fans and then play that night to a packed house at the OK or The Croc.

Every so often I see glimmers of hope in the rock scene. But it's still a shell of what it once was. I see places like the 2 Bit drawing in folks nightly. The Funhouse always the mainstay as well which unfortunately is going away drawing another blow to the rock scene.

I feel like there is some formula we're missing. Bookers put together a show with a headliner and setting up the remainder of the show with lesser known, but similar acts so they can later become headliners as well based on the new exposure. The clubs and bands promote. The bands play while the club has a limited or no cover. The booze sale increase alone would help some of these struggling clubs and the band gets paid a percentage of the bar. Seems simple really. None of this $6 cover then everyone takes their cut and what's left goes to the bands.

There's also the stunning lack of all ages venues. The ones that are around are actually quite difficult to book. The ones that are around seem to do OK. I don't know though, we haven't been able to tap into that market of the all ages shows.

It's hard, we don't keep the money we make. It's all reinvested to make better products for the fans. A better recording, a higher quality t-shirt, so on and so forth. Sure we're just whoring ourselves out in hopes of acceptance. But that's the life of a musician. You just want the music heard and the more people that hear the better.

Sure the landscape of the industry has changed. Gone are the demo tapes. On the way out are the CDs. An online presence is required, but still no guarantee. You just sit back and hope someone stumbles across you in the vast array of endless online music. But all this doesn't mean we should abandon what was good about the local scene. It's something that needs to be revisited.

All this however, is moot if people aren't willing to go listen to a live band. I know the argument can be made that back in the day we had some power house bands here in the area. There was distinct and unique sound buzzing through the city. That seemed to bring an element of local pride to the scene and people wanted to be part of it. It's kind of like when the M's or the Seahawks are winning the stadiums sell out and everyone takes pride and wants to be a part. Rock right now is much like the M's. Marred in a streak of losing seasons. The solutions to each problem are different though. The M's just need to buck up and spend some cash for talent. In the local rock scene the talent is already there and rests squarely on the fans to get out and listen.

This all is not only a plea for you to come out and see us play, but other bands as well. I'm proud of our scene. It's ours. It's what we make it. The bands out there grinding it out on a Tuesday night only to play for the other bands on the bill and the bartenders. To the big guys helping out the up and coming guys when they can. I still get excited when we get a chance to open for a band with more clout than us. Not only for the exposure, but so I can get in for free to see them play. I think our scene is unique and extremely diverse. There is never a shortage of bands playing. Just a shortage of people attending those shows.

Alright, let me just hop down off this here soap box and I'll head on about my day.

adam
WCG

So you all want to know what's new with WCG these days since I haven't posted on this thing in quite sometime. Well, here goes.

We're currently planning for a very busy summer. New album, new tour, new manager and shows out the wazoo.

So we'll start with our new manager. Nice fella named Blaine Conzatti who knows his shit. We'll be handing over our booking and promotion reins to him. He'll be in on all things WCG starting in June.

The album... Well, the name is up in the air right now. Lots of suggestions have been flying around. It was tentatively titled "Darker Than It Was Before" but that's looking less likely. I think there is a front runner for the title and concept, but I'm holding that close to the chest for now. However on the actual recordings themselves. Three songs will be done next week. The remainder of the album has all of the drum and bass tracks laid down. Well, maybe all. We have a new song that may have to find it's way on there. That new song will be making it's debut on May 18th in Duvall by the way.

As for the 3 songs that will be finished next week.  What are we going to do with them? First we're going to hand them over to Blaine and let him go wild with what he does. Then we'll be making an extremely limited edition release of CDs containing all 3 tracks. These CDs will only be available at shows and on our tour. And the name of this release of singles... "Exactly What You Deserve." We will ultimately be releasing one of these songs online initially. Just some motivation for you all to come to a show and get a CD. Mighty tricky of us, eh? And if you want to be one of the first to know about the online release, you might want to download our Android app. You can get that at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.reverbnation.artistapp.i36189 and if you have an iPhone. Sorry no iPhone app, because, well, Apple would charge us through the nose to have one.

The tour dates are just very general at the moment and nothing set in stone, but it will be taking place in late July, early August and cover Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and California.

And as always with the upcoming shows I'll always keep you all posted.

adam
WCG

When the wheels fall off...

Been a bit since I've updated this. Seems as good a time as any. Last night we played One Eyed Jack's Roadhouse in Lynwood. It was to benefit a family who had lost their home and belongings to a fire. We figured a good cause, why not. We all got to the venue at staggered times. No big deal their either. We were slated to go on last so there wasn't a big rush. Plus there wasn't enough room for all the bands to be loaded in at the sametime. We all got there in time to see TuT play. They played a great set. We were all suprised how good the sound was listening from the crowd. The PA had a lot of juice behind it and Chris' vocals were cutting through really well.

After TuT, it was time for the first Wreckless Freeks set. Now if you are unfamiliar with the Wreckless Freeks, they are a freak show/circus sideshow act. Comprised of three people The Mighty Lurch, J.K. FourtySeven and Dee Bauchery. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. They started in with Lurch taking a mouse trap to the tongue, then Dee shoving a buck fifty worth of quarters up her nose (One of which getting stuck and needed to be extracted with pliers). They went on to bust cinder blocks over J.K.'s junk and so on. Bringing on the close to their set in which they had people come up with donations to the benefit and staple gun it to their body. Different parts of the body for different denominations. All very disturbing and very fun to watch.

Sausage Slapper came up next with a lead singer dawning a cape with the Sausage Slapper logo. They were what could be best described as parody death metal. They describe themselves on their web site as "A Mack truck smashing a V.W. bus into a meteorite of Krypton." It was definitely it's own thing. Once again I had never seen anything quite like it. They played a good set, but all the while some guy in the audience was wandering around with his junk hanging out of his pants as folks took turns to try and kick it. Very weird.

Anyway, as Sausage Slapper wound down their set Wreckless Freeks set up for their second set. Lurch assured me in between sets that the second set was far more over the top than the first. He wasn't kidding. Varying stunts of laying their face in glass and having a girl from the audience stand on their head. Beds of nails were incorporated. Imagine this odd sandwich, Lurch on the bottom, chest down in glass. A bed of nails with the nails going into his back, Dee laying on the flat side of the bed with a cinder block on her stomach as J.K. smashes the cinder block with a sledge hammer. You know that kind of thing.

They finished up their second set as they finished the first with the staple gun. We were finally up. We should have seen the signs early on. Wes didn't have his bag with him that contain all his cables, amp power cord and tuner. I loaned him my tuner before hand so he could tune up. He hand it back to me and for some unknown reason it crapped out along with my Wah Wah pedal. So I had to quickly tune by ear. We fired off into the intro and suddenly that great sound you hear from the crowd is not at all apparent on stage. The way the stage was set up was a little odd. It was too small to have us all on it. So our amps and Doug were all on stage the other three of us on the floor. A position that perfectly lines your ears up with 2 guitar amps. Hearing anything beyond the guitar from that vantage was impossible. I knew from that first note that things were a little off. But we persevered. Getting through 2 and half songs at which point I broke 2 strings, my low E and A strings, which for us (and most hard rock bands) are pretty critical. I threw my guitar down in frustration and pulled out my back up. I remembered then that I had no tuner to work with. So I finished out the next verse sans guitar and quickly tried to tune it up during the next instrumental break. The next few songs were a bit of a blur and went off without too much of a hitch, minus Lee's bass that was cutting out from time to time. We were finally down to our last 2 songs. Actually we had a few more in the arsenal, but we just wanted to stop the bleeding. I opted to play Read Em and Weep, which may have been a bad choice. My hands cramped a little and for some reason the act of playing a simple E to G shuffle was absolutely impossible. I managed to get my head out of my ass long enough to get through the first verse, at which point I broke 2 more strings and quickly lodge my head right back where it was, up my ass. I completely missed my queue for the second verse and geeked myself out enough to screw up the first portion of the chorus too. It's one of those moments that you just want to stop, apologize and walk off stage. It's embarrassing. It's actually hard to cope with. We made it through Read Em and Weep without further issue fortunately. We decided to play Taking My Anger Back and get the hell off the stage. Anger went well. We were at least finishing on a high note. But as we ended the crowd screamed for one more. We should have said no. We opted to finish up with our cover of Shake Your Blood. It went ok until we got to the bass solo and for some reason I lost the ability to count to 4 and decide to start the final verse on like 3 and a half. This little stunt threw Doug and Lee off as well and they did their best to cover my gaffe. Usually when something like that happens we cover pretty well, because let's be honest, shit happens just about every show. Most times however it's just one of us that's having an off night and the other three can cover. This time we were not firing on all pistons and covering was impossible. It was a rough night. There were several people afterwards who said they enjoyed it. So maybe I'm being overly critical of myself and it wasn't as bad as I thought. But from my perspective it was my personal worst performance. I try and console myself by saying that we've played about 40 shows this year and it was bound to happen. But the fact of the matter is that my work schedule has screwed us over the past few months and we haven't been able to get the practice in. Fortunately that will change soon.

I made the analogy to my wife last night, she used to play soccer, that you don't just show up for the games. You have to practice in between them so you can plan and cope with the unexpected. Otherwise you end up just being a poor player. That's what we've been doing really for the past month and a half. Our show schedule has been booked solid so no real time to practice or write. But like I said that will soon be rectified.

Anyway, back to the story. I was, needless to say, grumpy on the car ride home. We got about half way home when I realized that I had not closed out my bar tab. So to add insult to injury, I had to call the bar to see if they were still there so I could swing by and pick up my card. We turned around and headed back to Lynwood. This really did not improve my mood much. I woke up this morning kind of feeling ashamed. So I figured I would share with everyone, since that was the point of this blog, sharing everything that happens with in the world of playing in an indie band. For better or for worse. It doesn't always go well. Sometimes shit happens. We just got to do better next time at dealing with it. I just have to learn to make light of it. There's nothing I can change about last night. I played bad. I apologize to the folks who came out to see us. I want to put on a good performance. I will do my best to make that happen from here on out, no matter what. I also apologize to my band mates for not being able to right the ship once we started listing. In the end, nothing ever really goes perfectly. I just have to regulate the amount of time I spend with my head hibernating up my own butt.

And now it's over... We shall never speak of it again.

That is all...
adam
WCG

The Full Account... The final entry.

So the final entry in this, whirlwind, 10 day endeavor.

We woke up in San Rafael and ready to hit the road. Oddly not hitting a Denny's this particular morning. We knew we had a really long drive ahead of us. Some 380 miles to go.

We hit the strange back roads and opted not to stop to eat until he got to I-5. What I did find odd that there was a Six Flags out there in Vallejo. I had no idea this one even existed. We came around an odd hill and low and behold just on the other side was a hidden theme park. It looked like a lot of fun. But pressed for time, no roller coasters for us.

We ended up back on I-5 just south of Redding and we were all pretty hungry by this point. So the first thing we see. Jack In The Box. Lee and his sensitive stomach and odd eating habits, opted not to eat anything right then. With a quick bite in our bellies it was back on the road.

As we were a ways up the road I got a call from my wife who said she had checked Johnny B's calender and we weren't listed on it. Seemed weird but we weren't worried too much. Wes attempted to call the club, but there was no answer.

Doug, a bit road weary, I could tell, was a little nervous about us not being on the calender. Wes found another website that we were listed as playing. We had stopped in Weed  for a quick break from driving and Doug told us that if the show wasn't going to happen he wouldn't mind driving all the way up to Portland that night. I thought this idea was total lunacy and told him as much. And onward we went toward Medford.

We rolled into Medford roughly around 5pm. We didn't make to bad of time. We located Johnny B's, which wasn't open yet. We parked off to the side of the road and proceed to argue as to what our next action should be. Actually more accurately, Doug and Wes started bickering back and forth. Lee smoothed the situation over quickly and calmly, which I found really impressive. The compromise was that we would leave around 9am the next morning and stay in Medford show or no show.

Medford is kind of a cool little small town. We easily found our way around and figured out the lay of the land very quickly. We back tracked toward the freeway and checked into the ever trusty Motel 6. Wes again tried to call the club to no avail. Still not open.

We hopped in the car and swing by yet again. It's only a mile from the hotel to the club, so it was a quick jaunt. We all decided we were hungry so we swung over to a place called Trophy's. The clientele was an interesting array of twitchy tweakers and bar regulars. We ordered up the standard bar fair; french dip, burgers and the like. We finished up eating and Wes tried yet again to call the club. Still nothing.

We swung by there one last time at around 7pm. The owner was rushing into to open up. Obviously running late he was frantic to get things open. We chatted with him and apparently I dropped the ball on this one. He was wanting a confirmation call a week before the show which I never made. He said we could do an opening slot if we still wanted to play. We took it.

After a short stop to visit Lee's niece and drop off a little care package of a WCG tshirt and CD we headed back over to the club to load in and set up. Everyone there was actually really nice. We met with the other bands; The Hollowbodys, Bloody Mess and The Harrington Saints. All of them really cool folks and had no problem with us being on the bill. The fellas from The Harrington Saints realized we played their home town (Oakland) the night before and wondered who we played with. We told them the stories of the guy who lit his junk on fire. They new of this gimmicky little band and said they had played with them not too long ago. They were equally disturbed by the spectacle of it all. 

We got ourselves set up and chatted with some fella who was going to film the whole show. No idea where that video may be yet. Anyway, Johnny B's as a club is very cool little joint. Very rockabilly oriented in decor. We went on to play our set and knowing it was our last show of the tour we went all out and played one of our best of the entire tour. We made use of every inch of the small stage. We got a really great response from the crowd on hand, as well as from the other bands. Who all stated we probably shouldn't have opened.

We quickly tore down and the Hollowbodys got all set up. They were definitely more rockabilly driven. I got stuck outside babysitting our gear while I waited for Doug to get the trailer unlocked. But he was on the phone with his wife giving her a run down of how our set went. He finally got off and we loaded the trailer. I got back inside to watch the Hollowbodys last few songs. Then A Bloody Mess went on. Which oddly is the exact same band as the Hollowbodys just with a different singer and a slightly more glam rock style. The singer of a Bloody Mess proclaimed he was a "Dive Bar Rockstar." Both bands were very cool in 2 vastly different ways.

We had sold out of pretty much everything at this point. We had a few tank tops and CDs left. That was it. Yet I was still sitting there at our merch table. I didn't want to sit there anymore so I got up to watch the show. Doug asked me if I wanted to pack it up so no one would steal anything. I told him screw it. We're on our last day and if people wanted that stuff bad enough to steal it, more power to them. At least they wanted more of us.

The Harrington Saints got all set up. These guys were big. I mean they were just big fellas. Shaking their hands, they baseball mitts for hands. They started in playing and we were all hooked. One of the best bands we played with all throughout the tour. They were sort of a hybrid of Sick Of It All meets Drop Kick Murphys. A chanty Oi punk vibe about them. It was awesome. We told them when they got done with their set anytime, anywhere they ever wanted to play together again we'd be down.

A great finale show to the tour. Awesome bands, awesome crowd. Just a good night in general. We had a few more beers at the bar and realizing it was close to last call we knew we had to get to a convenience store quickly. We got there just at the stroke of 2am. The guy at the counter was nice enough to let us know that he thinks his clock might be fast. We walked out and noticed another band that appeared to be on tour gassing up. Lee approached them as a kindred spirit. Come to find out these these guys, who couldn't have been over 20, were all complete douches. As we walked up to talk to them one of them held up his spiffy little backstage laminate in front of Lee's face. I can't really remember the name of their band, but it was something stupid and sounded like cheesy death metal. Either way they were dicks and thought awfully highly of themselves. Even now, as I write this, it's causing a visceral reaction in me and I want to comment further, but I'll refrain.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel and Wes and Lee decide they were going to walk to Jack In The Box and see if Wes couldn't accomplish what he had the night before of walking through the drive thru. I guess, however they didn't even get out of the parking lot when they heard someone holler. It was a couple of the guys from The Harrington Saints. They picked them up and gave a ride to Jack In The Box. Like I said, really cool guys. Wes and Lee got back with a myriad of J in the B food. Much of which we couldn't finish off.

After eating Doug was fading quickly. So Wes, Lee and I moved over to their room. We sat up and had a few more beers and watched Gnarls Barkley on PBS. Once again that rockstar life! I decide it was time for me to hit the hay too. So I went back to the other room and crashed while Wes and Lee stayed up hoping that we wouldn't wake up at 9am.

But we did get up at 9am. Surprisingly Wes and Lee were up too. Well, with a little prodding from Doug. We all got ready and hoped to be back in Seattle by around 5pm or so. At least that was the plan. We got up the road a bit and had our final Denny's round table. I realized at this point, at least in my opinion, we had really hit our stride and if the tour was longer we would have had no trouble going on. But alas it was not to be. We were heading home. We got to Portland and ran into traffic. All the way through Portland on across the Washington border. We kept hitting traffic jam after traffic jam. Through the Nisqually Basin. Then another 15 mile back up just north of there. Wes had apparently seen some guy with no teeth driving next to us and started working on his "No teeth face." He would look at me at random times with this weird look on his face like he was trying to eat his upper lip. We finally rolled into Seattle just short of 8pm. We got to the studio and unloaded our gear. We parted ways, sweaty, stinky and tired. But we had done it... We had played 7 shows in 10 days covering the span of over 2500 miles without killing each other. We brought our music to the masses up and down the I-5 corridor. And would I do it again? Oh hell yeah!

adam
wcg

The Full Account... Part 4.

Friday morning rolled around, Wes wanted to leave behind a tank top at the Super 8 check out desk for our new found buddies from Canada that were still staying there. This oddly became futile because they said they never got it. The front desk said they left it in their room. Lies from the Super 8 in Buttonwillow Junction.

We enjoyed yet another Build Your Own Slam at Denny's and headed back on the road toward Oakland. In the midst of our drive through the 100 degree temperatures there was one small incident. Cruising down the road at 70 mph I was following behind a a pick up with a small trailer. I had the intention of passing him. Doug was following close behind me. As I was just about to get over the truck in front of me moved over too. Right in the middle of the road was a semi tire. I had a small moment of panic and weaved into the left lane, however in the process I managed to hit the horn at the same time. Which brought hours of amusement for Wes who was riding with me on this leg. The panicked swerve and simultaneous beep.

The remainder of the drive was pretty uneventful outside of traffic once we hit Oakland around 5pm. We had got word that it might be an early show. Something like 6 or 7pm. We hustled over to Eli's Mile High Club and found that they were equally confused about start time as we were.

We realized that this is not the best part of Oakland. Eli's is located just outside of the downtown district on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. As we were walking in there was a crazy lady who was yelling about a lot of things just outside the front door of the club. As Wes and I approached she sort directed her yelling in our direction. I looked at Wes and said "I think she just called us faggots." Which she did. Wes replied, "She was yelling long before we got here and probably long after we leave. Chances are we won't be the only ones."

True enough. I saw her across the street later that night still commenting on the sexuality of others.

We talked to the bartender about a near by place to stay and he suggested a place called the Maya Motel. We headed over there to see if we could get a room. It was in what looked to be a decent neighborhood, but it was a motel with weekly rates and only single rooms. We opted to pass. We went down another road that seemed to have a lot of hotels on it. Passing by several who's parking lots weren't very well equipped for the truck and trailer. We stopped to get our bearings as Wes opted to try his phone for a nearby Motel 6. There were a couple pretty close by, but all were booked. While Wes was trying to figure this out Doug was chatting to some fella who happen to be waiting for his bus. The guy's input was that he wouldn't stay anywhere close to that area. By his figuring we would come out in the morning to a truck with no trailer. So that clinched it. 20 miles north in a town called San Rafael was a Motel 6 with plenty of rooms. That was it. Wes called and secured 2 rooms.

We headed back to the club and bellied up to the bar. Happy hour Hamms for a $1.50. Not to shabby. We all grabbed a bite. Some of us made better choices than other in our bar food selection. Wes and Lee opted for the chicken strip basket... Blackened (burnt). We loaded in and set up. At this point none of the other bands were there. The sound guy was and he said he was just filling in for the regular guy. We meandered about until we got an accurate start time. 9pm. The sound guy only had 1 operational mic, so once again we had to put ours to use.

Eli's is an interesting club. Definitely the crustiest of crusty punk clubs. Everyone was really nice though. We sat out on the back patio for awhile. A patio reminiscent of something out of Sanford and Son. Finally the 2 of the other bands showed up. Tricky Monk and The Ding Dings and Death Ray. Still no sign of Death Wish V and not entirely certain whether they were going to show. We had hit the road before I got final confirmation from them.

The original line up for the show was suppose to be Get Dead, Tricky Monk and The Ding Dings and us. Well, Get Dead had to cancel, they had gotten a show here in Seattle with the Cromags. They suggested Death Wish V. I didn't hear anything from them so contacted Tricky Monk to see if they had someone to fill the slot. They said they would get a band they knew called Death Ray. I contacted Death Wish V to see what had happened there and they had no idea what I was talking about. When we left that's what I knew. When we got down there and saw the list Tricky Monk, Death Ray and Death Wish V were all on the bill. I thought well cool. Everything worked out.

Well, we went on and the crowd seemed to like us, but they definitely weren't there for us. The sound guy, not being familiar with the system, struggled all throughout our set. Feedback, mics cutting out and so on. Death Ray went on next and this band was a very strange entity. A large bass cab in between 2 guys playing playing prerecorded drum and bass lines with some synth mixed in. The 2 guys had guitars. They played kind of a pop punk kind of music style. But it seemed more of a parody. I wasn't sure what to make of them. They had bizarre on stage antics, like one of the guys cutting off his clothes with scissors through the song. Then went through there set and they guy who had cut his clothes off was wearing speedos with some sort of apparatus built into it. He then proceed to light his junk on fire and it would act as a weird blowtorch. Not to mention it stank.

Tricky Monk and The Ding Dings went on next. They are very talented band that I guess had relocated to the Bay Area from somewhere back east. Again a relatively pop punk based band with a little more edge to them. They put on a great set. But unfortunately they played a little too long. The door man asked them to wrap things up with their last song and they rolled into 2 or 3 songs which had the door man pissed and yelling and kicking chairs. Made for a very uncomfortable room all of a sudden.

Death Wish V at this point was just showing up. It was roughly around 11pm. We chatted with them a little outside. Nice enough guys, but we just couldn't stick around any longer. We had to hit the road to secure our rooms at the Motel 6. Wish we could have stayed for their set.

We hit the road on our way to San Rafael. Wes was navigating via his phone. And he mentioned a partial toll. We had no idea what that meant. Either there was a toll or there wasn't. What's with the partial thing? Well, there was a toll. $5 for the car and $10 for the truck and trailer.

We finally got to the motel and check in. Of course we decide we needed to go get some beer and food. So we walked up the road to an AM/PM and got the beer part taken care of. Wes decided that Burger King sounded good. The dining room was closed. So Wes decided to try going through the drive through. So on foot he waited in line as Lee and I watched speculating that this would never work. But once again Wes' gift of gab won the day. He managed to get our full order walking up through the drive thru.

It was oddly cold that night as we walked back to the motel. We got back and let Doug, who had hit the hay already, know that we had got him a burger. He came over straight away. Once again as the glamorous rockstars we are sat in our Motel 6 room, eating Whoppers, drinking cheap beer and watching Married With Children. Yup this is the life...

Coming up... Johnny B's in Medford!

adam
WCG

The Full Account... Part 3.

Thursday morning my wife woke me up at 8:30am. Far too early after the excitement of the night before. We walked up to the parking lot behind the Whisky to hit the road towards San Diego to visit my in-laws. Once in the lot we see feet sticking out the window of Doug's truck. Lee had decided to sleep in the truck to put Doug's mind at ease about our gear. Plus he has issues sleeping in a room with as many people as we had at the hotel. He kind of woke up as we got ready to take off in the Toyota.

We made our way through LA morning rush hour to the freeway. Just then my wife told me she was far to tired to drive. Something that honestly irritated me to know end. I was woken up at 8:30 to hit the road and now I have to make the drive. Oi! Anyway, she pulled off and I took over behind the wheel. Hopped in the HOV lane and head on down toward San Diego.

We rolled in around 10:00 and called my father in-law who drove back from his shop to let us inside. We got in and we were both relived to take a shower and a bit of a nap. A little later as I walked over to Starbucks for some coffee I got a call from the other fellas. They told me that they were heading toward Carlsbad and were going to find a beach or park or something to crash out and catch some sleep.

My wife's mother showed up shortly after we got there. She had been picking up my sister in-law at LAX early that morning. She had flown in from Florida to see my wife and the rest of her family. We then all decided some nice rolled tacos from La Posta was a good idea. La Poata is a small taco stand in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego. We got back to the condo with some dozen or so tacos and by that time my father in-law and brother in-law were all back. So we sat back and ate our dinner, which instantly destroyed my stomach. These tacos are what my brother in-law referred to as Mexi-trash. Something that my northwestern stomach is not accustom to. Since they have been eating there for so long they had built up an immunity to Mexi-trash style of cooking.

Around 6:00 or so my wife and I hit the road to get to Hensley's Flying Elephant. Some 45 minutes north of San Diego. It was right off the freeway. It looked like a converted Denny's. Had that token Denny's style architecture. As it turned out it was a very cool bar. Good sized show room. We happened to be the only band playing that night. Which was a good thing. We wanted to go on early and get back on the road early so we could get back north of LA and miss the traffic to head for Oakland the next night.

There's was a fair amount of people there for a Thursday night. A pleasant surprise, because I didn't really expect much anything. We got set up and did our sound check as my wife's family showed up. Her parents, both sisters, her brother and her cousin were all in attendance. Shortly there after much of Lee's family showed up as well.

We went into our set, most of the folks in the bar stayed out in the main bar area. A few trickled into the show room as our set progressed. We played pretty good that night despite the fact we were all pretty tired. There was a small incident of instrument cables before we went on. One of Wes' came up missing. Not entirely sure where it went, but I'm amazed that the only thing that came up missing throughout the entire tour was a cable.

We finished up our set and hopped off stage. Then suddenly a mad rush on merchandise took place. After finishing up all we had left was a hand full of CDs, 1 t-shirt and a few girls tank tops. I was amazed how much we ended up selling that night, just because of the amount of people who stayed outside the showroom. I guess it doesn't mean they weren't listening.

We had our pictures taken with varying family members and Lee started pontificating with my father in law while he drank an obscenely large glass of whisky. We got the gear loaded up. And by this time my wife had decide to stay down in San Diego and fly back on Sunday. So the tour finally took it's first casualty. 

So my wife and I said our goodbyes, we all hopped in to the cars. Wes and Doug in his truck and Lee and I in the car. We set out to make it back to Buttonwillow Junction for the night. It was roughly a 3 hour drive to get there. All of tired. It made this leg of the trip rather difficult. Everything was just fine up to the base of the Grapevine.

Before embarking over the Grapevine we stopped for a bathroom break and me downing some more Pepto in order to curb the stomach pain of the Mexi-trash tacos. Lee and Wes opted to partake in some Wendy's chicken nuggets which Lee promptly decided he hated. The horrible stench permeated the car the rest of the way.

We head up the Grapevine. At night this just flat out sucks. The lighting is nonexistent. They had been doing some sort of road construction through much of. They had grated a portion of the roadway as well so lines were impossible to see. Construction cones shutting down two lanes, reflected light back at you making it that much more difficult. Eye a little blurry from exhaustion played tricks on you as you try to gauge the distance of the vehicle in front of you. At one point I had mentioned to Lee that the drive was getting real tough to see anything. A statement that he didn't much want to hear.

Much to our joy we made it out of the Grapevine and hit the flat land of the other side. Which strangely smelled funny. 60 miles or so beyond that point we found ourselves back in Buttonwillow Junction. It was right around 3am. We checked into the same Super 8 we were in before. We had a few beers and bitched about the ridiculous drive that just occurred then made our way to our respective rooms and passed out...

Coming up next... Oakland.

Adam
WCG

The Full Account... Part 2.

During that evening in Redding we discussed the "Cloud of Lee." Now let me explain. Lee, for some inexplicable reason, can lose everything. We decided he is much akin to Pig Pen from the old Peanuts comic strip, but instead of dirt, he has a cloud of his own possessions. At any time, one or more of these possessions can be lost. Just sitting in the front seat of my car, he has the ability to lose his lighter, a pack of cigarettes and his cell phone. It's often times quite comical. I think throughout the trip he lost and bought 4 to 5 lighters. He almost lost his wallet in a Walmart parking lot. Luckily for him a nice woman saw him drop it and handed it back to him. Which made us wonder where he stores his wallet. The best theory was on his head.

Anyway, after leaving the casino/card room we went to the liquor store to get some supplies. You know; pork rinds, pint of Jim Beam and a half rack of beer. As we walked in we heard the strangest noise. It sounded like a fat guy with sleep apnea. Come to find out it was just a very hot and fat bulldog guided by his master on a skateboard.

We got back to the hotel. We had 2 adjoining rooms. We took a peak in on Doug, who was sound asleep. We had a few more beers in the other room while Wes enjoyed his pork rinds and Lee his Jim Beam. Just then we heard an odd chirping noise. Chirp.... Chirp... Chirp.... The fire alarm battery was going out. So I grabbed a chair and hopped up there to pull out the battery. I pulled the whole alarm down and monkeyed with it for awhile to figure out how to get the battery out. Finally figuring it out Wes decided we needed to notify the front desk. He and I walked down to the office. We looked through the window and no one was manning the counter. Then as we got closer to the door we noticed the night attendant sound asleep on the couch in the lobby. We walked in and stared at him for a short time. Kind of wondering what our next action was going to be. Wes looked over to the counter and saw a bell. He walked over there as I stood there kind of shocked that this was actually going to take place. Wes' hand hovered over the bell as he buried his head in the crook of his arm. His finger came down on the bell twice. The night attendant flailed a bit and hopped up all flustered and wiping sleep out of his eyes. Then one of the strangest conversations took place:

Night attendant: "How can I help you?"

Wes: "Hey man, sorry to wake you. I'm not trying to give you hard time or look for a discount or something. We just wanted to let you know the batteries in this fire alarm are going out. You know what happens when the batteries in these things go out?"

Me: "Chirp... Chirp... Chirp..."

Wes: "They chirp."

Me: "Chirp... Chirp... Chirp..."

Wes: "We just wanted to let you know in case there's a fire or something that we get a free room when we burn."

Night Attendant: "Oh ok."

Wes: "Sorry we had to wake you, you can go back to sleep now."

Me: "You were awfully cute sleeping away."

For some reason I was embodied by Flavor Flav during that interaction.

The next morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast at Denny's and set out again on our southern journey. Another day of solid driving and weird conversations and Lee losing everything on his person. Not to mention spilling peanuts all over the front floor boards.

At one point we had to stop for a bathroom break. Doug and Wes were carrying on in the truck. We figured we would catch up with no problem. It took us literally 150 miles to catch up. Which seemed strange. Doug wasn't going to fast and I was doing 80. But we finally caught up right around the town of Lost Hills (The town where James Dean died.) We were texting and calling back and forth. Lee was on the phone with Wes as we tried to figure out where they were. He was getting frustrated trying to figure out any discernible landmarks or mile markers as to their location. At one point he hung up on Wes. Then promptly called them back as they said there was a bumper to watch out for. So I'm looking all over the side of the road for this bumper as a land mark. Then realizing he meant it was in the middle of the freeway. Everyone swerving willy nilly. I know this probably unhinged  Doug a bit trying to navigate the truck and trailer around this bumper. We got off at the next exit. A town called Buttonwillow Junction. Located about 60 miles north of the Grapevine. We pulled into the Super 8. Wes and Doug got a room together. Lee wanted his own room for the night. My wife and I had our own. The edge everyone was feeling from the rough drive and bumper incident was fading a bit. Through our weird conversations we had determined that Lee's new rock name was to be Randy Cooch. I'm not exactly how we came to that. I think it transpired over the coarse of 300 miles.

We were all pretty hungry. My wife and I headed across the street to the TA truck stop. It had a Taco Bell inside. We decided to order a 12 pack of tacos. We took that back to Wes and Doug's room. We sat and watched some Family Guy eating tacos and Top Ramen. We had noticed when we first got to Wes and Doug's room a litany of beer cans and cigarette butts sitting on top of the AC outside. There were few guys just sort of sitting around drinking. We weren't to sure what their deal was. A bunch of guys just partying? Who knows. We had a few beers in the room then went outside to have a smoke. Wes and I got to talking to the guys outside. Come to find out they were seismic drillers out of Canada. They were staying in the area for some 20 more days working up at Lost Hills. For the rest of the night we sat there talking and drinking with these guys. They found out we were in a band touring and playing the Whisky the following night and they were all pretty excited. They bought a bunch of t-shirts and CDs. They had us autograph pretty much everything. Lee retired to his room having some paper work to get done and my wife went back to our to watch the season finale of Master Chef.

Lee came back and made token appearance to sign some autographs. My wife came back after awhile as well after the show was over. Doug made her stop talking about the show because he had DVRed the show at home and wanted to watch it when he got back.

After a couple beer runs across the street to the TA, the night came to a close. We woke up the next morning and enjoyed yet another breakfast at Denny's and headed back out. We hit the Grapevine around 1:00 or so. Doug was having a tough time will his truck up the hill loaded down with all our gear. We buzzed up in the Toyota to a gas station near the top and waited. Doug had to pull over at one point to keep from overheating. Considering at that time the temperature was skirting with cracking 100 degrees, I'm not entirely surprised that he was running hot. He finally rejoined us near the top as we crested the hill into San Fernando Valley. The smog was pretty thick that day. You could just see the haze down in the valley. We ran down the hill and then in to LA. After a few off ramps and freeway swaps we found our way to Hollywood. Passing by Grauman's Chinese Theater and all the characters out front. We finally hit Sunset. We head on down towards the Whisky. We stopped at the light just before it and Lee points to the marque. White City Graves playing tonight! What an awesome sight!

We turned up San Vicente Blvd to find parking. There was a sign that said Whisky parking. It was a squirrely little lot that I'm surprised Doug was able to weasel that trailer up into. The attendant wanted $40 for us to park there. We thought that was a little pricey. So we walked over to The Whisky to see where we should park. We left Doug as collateral that we would be right back. We went and talked to the club and they told us to park on the back side of the club. So we all moved our vehicles over there. In the end we still ended up paying $40 to park. We still had a few hours before we had to load in. So we plopped ourselves down at Duke's next door. We grabbed something to drink while we waited. Finally we came to load in time. My wife at this point was rather cranky because of the hotel prices in the area and lack of availability. She didn't want to burden Wes and his wife and her cousins by crashing on their floor at the Hotel London. But it was looking like we had little choice.

We loaded in our gear and did some quick guitar fixes. My wife went for a walk and to do a little shopping to calm herself down. We did our sound check and I have to give credit to the Whisky staff. They are true pros. 2 guys manning the sound. 1 dedicated to the monitors and stage sound. The other dedicated to the house sound. It's one of the few times that I could hear everything from the stage. We finished up and pushed everything toward the back of the stage. Grabbed our guitars and took them up to our dressing room. Yes we had a dressing room.

I met back up with my wife who wanted to see if we could drive to the outskirts and see if we could find a hotel. But once again the cheapest we could find was $350 for the night. Little too pricey. We went back to the club admitting defeat and realizing we were floor bound. We met back up at Duke's again where we grabbed a bite to eat. A delicious Monte Cristo.

After eating my wife and I headed up to our dressing room. She wanted to change and wash up a bit. While she was doing that the singer for the band Vette was warming up. They were on right before us. She had the strangest warm up method I had ever heard. "By by by BY. Guy guy guy GUY." and so on. My wife finished up and we headed back down stairs to watch the opener.

The open was this girl who was doing a solo singing act. She had kind of an airy sound like Enya or Bjork. Something along those lines. She ran through her set as the crowd looked on. She came to her last song, "Lipstick, Jewels and High Heeled Shoes." A line that she repeat several times throughout the song. Then at the end of the song the music stops and she says it one more time and starts laughing then in a man's voice she says, "You know you love them." Everyone in the audience was beside themselves. She was actually a he! None of us had any idea.

Vette then went on and they played their brand of what would be best described as bubble gum punk. Female fronted local LA band that, vocally, reminded me a little of  the band Aqua. The ones who did that Barbie Girl song. Just with more guitars. They played a good set.

We were up next. I gotta say I was pretty nervous. I don't usually get that nervous before a show. But this time I was pretty worked up. We got set up and they shut down the house lights. It was completely dark. Wes started into the intro and I realized that to start that intro I have a long slide. I can't see my hands at all. A little bit of panic ran through me thinking I was going to screw up right out of the gate. Luckily after playing it enough times, muscle memory kicks in and you just go. We started off a little rocky. I'm sure nerves were in play for all of us. You just think about the people who have played that same stage and it's pretty daunting. We pulled ourselves together and ended up playing one of the best sets ever. People were really diggin it. Even the sound guys. That surprised me because, well they hear hundreds, if not thousands of bands. One of the sound guys actually told us we need to move to LA. He said that we would kill down there.

We played great. Not to brag or anything like that. But the way we played I would have paid to go see us that night. The only real glitch was my mic came unplugged during the last line of Anger. Other than that a true balls to the wall 30 minute set.

We got off stage and loaded out our gear and were immediately mobbed outside by bunches of folks. Some we knew, some we didn't. Folks wanting pictures with us and so on. Later I would ask Wes if he thought people driving by thought we were famous or something because of all the cameras. We got everything loaded back in the trailer and went back in to hear the rest of the music. All the while my wife making a killing on selling merch.

There were 4 more acts after us. The guys right after us were along the lines of more straight laced rock. Then a more blues oriented band, after them was just a guy and girl who apparently were suppose to be there with their whole band. But their band disintegrated in the middle of their tour. They were the only ones left. They just did 2 songs. Then the headliner. A band call The Product. They were originally from Hawaii and had recently transplanted themselves to LA. They played very heavy handed reggae mixed with rock. They were really good. I guess their next stop was heading up here to play Hemp Fest here in Seattle. An oddly perfect band for that kind of venue.

The Whisky actually closes down really early. 11pm. So we were wondering what to do with ourselves then. We didn't want to have to pay a $12 cover to get into the Viper Room, The Rainbow or The Roxy. So we walked on down Sunset looking for something open. A lot of the strip really closes down early. At first we got a table at Mel's Diner. But all of us agreed we didn't really want to sit there and pay $9 for a Budweiser. So we ventured further on down. Lee, Doug, my wife and I found ourselves at the Comedy Store. Since it was late they weren't charging a cover to get in. We went and sat down, ordered a few drinks. I ordered gin and tonic, which I think was a poor choice considering how I felt the next day. We all sat off to the side in a dark corner. The comedian that was on noticed us. He commented that we looked like we were in a band. Everyone laughed at us. Then he started asking us questions. Imagine his joy when he found out we were indeed a band. That really opened a can of worms. He then asked us what we were doing there. We all replied that we were on tour and just played the Whisky. He then clarified by asking what we were doing at The Comedy Store at midnight. Our response was it's the only thing open. From then on every comedian that went up took their shots at us. Calling us Incubus, saying that we know a lot about hookers and blow and so on. It was awesome! Very funny!

We stuck around for 4 or 5 comedians. Then one went on and started to bomb. We decide to leave. We went back to the hotel London. Wes and his wife were still up, but her cousins were out. We stayed up for a little while chatting and watching the drama unfold down below on the strip from the balcony. Police, homeless guy and some random drunk hooker. Good times. Shortly after that we all crashed. My wife and Doug were on the L shaped couch and I got the floor. I only had my shirt as a blanket. Comfy.

That's all for part 2... San Diego and Carlsbad coming soon!