Now that about a week has gone by since we got back from our tour it's time to account for what actually happened. I have to write it all down while it's still some what fresh in my head, because it was kind of a blur.
I will try and be as accurate as possible, but the days do kind of fade into one another and this is just from my perspective. The other fellas may have a different take on how things unfolded.
We'll start off with the tour kick off show. The Victory Lounge. Although it's a small club, we kind of wanted to keep it that way so it had more of a party atmosphere. A Sic End was on the bill and they played a great set. Looking forward to playing with them on their tour finale. During their set however, there was an interesting back drop. Out on the deck there was a guy making out with some girl. I have no idea who these people were. Well, when the guy took a break to come up for air he was approached by some other girl. The other girl started yelling at the guy. This argument seemed to move all over the bar. Then eventually out front during A Sic End's set. So as we watched them play behind them through the window was this couple arguing and the girl was very animated in making her point. Arms waiving akimbo and what not. It made for a really weird back drop for their set.
Anyway, we went on and play. The energy of the room was awesome. Whenever there's a good energy in the room we always tend to play better and with a lot more energy ourselves. It always makes it a lot more fun. We played pretty much every song we knew. We wound up our set and all those in attendance were nice enough to wish us well and help out with buying merch so we had a few bucks in gas to make the next show. We appreciate all the support from our home town fans. Couldn't have asked for a better kick off.
The following day, we all were busy getting our ducks in a row. Making sure our respective dogs were looked after and so on. We met up at the studio around 4:30, loaded gear and started our trek on down the I5 corridor. First stop... The Agenda in Portland. It was a strange club. From the outside it looked like a very nondescript kind of random bar. Something that your would find here in Seattle somewhere on Aurora. It was situated next to a Chinese restaurant called, and I'm not kidding here, Hung Far Low. As we walked in we realized the place is actually really nice inside. Not the dive bar we had anticipated. We hung out for awhile. Wes and Doug shot a few games of pool. Lee made a friend in some old fella out on the back patio who seemed to know the entire history of the area. My wife and I wander back and forth between the 2. The other band showed up after awhile. Go Ballistic. Great name. We worked out the details of who would play first. We decided to go first since it was just the 2 bands and we had no draw to speak of. We hung out for awhile longer, trying to hold out for a few more folks to show up. Suddenly a slough of people showed up all at once. They were all dressed really strange. Like they were running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Seriously, red sashes and all. Come to find out this was a pub crawl heading through the area. We rapidly set up and started to play. This way we would have a crowd through half our set. Now the down side of The Agenda... Their PA is pretty sad. It wasn't made to deal with the shear volume of us. It would cut out and distort. Oh and club only had 1 mic. Luckily we had packed all of our own. The pub crawlers, however, seemed to enjoy us. Forming a small pit. The only down side to this hap hazard pit, was one of them slammed into my mic stand and left a welt on my lip that plagued me most of the week. The group took off about half way through our set. We finished up for the small crowd that remained behind. Go Ballistic went on and they have their own brand of rock. Falling somewhere in between psychobilly, country and metal. It was a very cool sound. That brings us to the drummer. The guy was amazing to watch. He looked a bit like a robot playing, but he was still really animate at the same time. A very difficult style to describe. Lee noted that it was a bit like Kieth Moon.
We finished up at The Agenda. Our first road show under our belt. We were going to stay with Wes' sister in law at her house. She was nice enough to put us up for a couple of nights, which was awesome of her. It's a lot to ask someone to put up with four smelly guys and my wife. But her and her husband were more than welcoming. We went out that same night to a small bar around the corner from their house called The Lion's Eye. It was a nice relaxing joint that served us up some food and Old German beer. We all drank far too much that night. Including my wife who decided the best plan for her was to challenge the entire bar in pool. Which in doing so she proclaimed, "I WILL BE VICTORY!" Which coined the term for the entire tour. "I AM VICTORY." Which she desperately wishes now that she did not say. Especially since she proceeded to get her ass kicked the following game. Shortly there after we stumbled back to the house. We all passed out and woke up the next day feeling rough. Well, with the exception of Doug who inexplicably kept waking up at the crack of dawn.
That day my wife, Lee and I set out on a trek to visit my grandmother who lives in Tigard (a town just outside of Portland). Wes and Doug stuck around at the house. Doug was taking a nap and Wes was watching golf. We stopped for a bite first at a place called Cartlandia. It was a large parking lot full of food carts. I had a cat fish po' boy which was stellar. Lee decide he just wanted a few pieces of cat fish which the guy at the southern cooking cart couldn't seem to understand why. It became quite an ordeal just to get a few pieces of cat fish and some sauce. It really seemed to throw the cook for a loop. Then he also ordered a taco from another truck as well. My wife just stuck with the tacos. From there we went on to visit my grandmother, who in her 90s, was still pretty coherent even though I had heard stories to the opposite. But she didn't entirely grasp what kind of music we played. She kept referring to the big band era and dances she use to go to. Then went on to call us a bunch "dingies."
That evening we went for dinner at Foster Burger, the place where Wes' sister in law works. It's gourmet burger joint and the food was great. Although squid ink for dipping sauce for your fries was a little off putting. Especially with a hangover. Although very tasty it probably wasn't the best pre-show meal. We headed over to the Red Room for the show. For myself personally, we couldn't have gotten there soon enough. Hair of the dog and all.
We were set to play first, followed by Flexx Bronco and then The Altarboys. We went on and the sound issues that plagued us the night before were gone. The sound was great. Wes was having a few issues with trying not to puke on stage and was later told he looked like "hammered shit." We finished out our set and played surprisingly well considering the shape of everyone. Personally I felt much better once we were done.
Flexx Bronco went on and played their set and did a great job. At one point their guitarist sang one song and opted to do a stage dive into the sparse crowd. They grabbed him and lifted him. Pinning him up against the low ceiling, which was just hilarious. He didn't miss a note singing though. Has to be commended for that one. Not to mention the ceiling of the Red Room is not the smoothest of things. Kind of a stucco, rough, jagged texture to it.
The Altarboys came up next. This is an interesting band. They play 1 show a year. It's whenever their singer comes back to visit from Amsterdam. They ran through a couple songs and I was hooked. Wes, in his unfortunate condition, had to leave a bit early. So all but Lee, my wife and myself were left. We watched the Altarboys put on a great set. Just wish they played more often. I would love to play with these guys again!
The show let out and we all headed back to the house. Most everyone was asleep or watching Lord Of The Rings. Lee, Wes' sister in law and I sat out on the porch chatting for a couple more hours. I opted to sleep in the room Lee was in as not to disturb everyone in the main living room. I started reading a book. I got 1 page in and promptly fell asleep. At some point in the night I started sleep walking. Apparently searching for the bathroom. Lord knows how long I wandered around our room, but I was told I did step all over Lee. I made my way out and almost went into Wes' sister in law and her husbands room. Thankfully my wife woke me up just before my entrance. That could have been disastrous... On my return I fell back asleep in the living room again. Only to wake up the next morning and seeing Doug, awake early again, staring at me.
We all proceeded to roll out of bed, some easier than others. Got packed up and headed back out on the road. We didn't have another show for 2 days. Those days were dedicated to solid driving. We had 2 cars. Doug's truck with a UHaul trailer and my little Toyota. Lee rode with my wife and I through this leg. Which created hours of silence with everyone napping to the strange conversations of movies and arguments over which mountain is which. At one point we stopped at a rest stop for a bite and stretch. Doug pulled out a football. We played a little catch and I realized I throw a football like one would a baseball and the result just looks idiotic. We managed to get to Redding that night.
The town of Redding kind of sucks on a Monday night. Doug opted to stay behind and get to sleep early. The rest of us set out to find a bar. We were staying at the Vagabond in that night. All the Motel 6s were booked solid, which seemed weird. We thought we'd just go to the Denny's in the same parking lot as the hotel and hang out in their lounge. This particular Denny's had no lounge. We asked the advice of a waitress as to where to go. She said the bowling alley. So we walked over that direction, only to find the bowling alley was closed. Across the street however, was a video arcade that was also a partial bar. We went there and played a few games and had a beer. The problem was we get there at 11:30pm and they closed at 12. So dejected again we went back on the search. We asked the employees of the arcade as to the where abouts of a decent watering hole. The guy, which we don't know his real name, but Wes decide he looked like a Derek so that shall be his name from now on... Derek. Derek named off several different places. We didn't find any of them. We even tried the Red Lion lobby bar, closed. We came across a casino/card room. It had a separate bar with karaoke going. Seemed as good place as any. We walked in and sat down. Wes ran off to the bathroom. We order and strangely Wes hadn't come back. After about 10 or 15 minutes. He finally came back and told a heroing tale of being locked in the bathroom. This is how he told it. I'm par phrasing of course, Wes' depiction was far more animated.
He went to the bathroom and noticed a guy at the urinal. Being a small bathroom Wes figured he would use the stall to give the guy his space. The guy finished up and washed his hands and walked out. Wes finished up and went to do the same. He reach for the door handle and pulled and it just would not open. He thought to himself maybe it's a sticky door and just lift up on it. Nothing still. He noticed kick marks at the bottom of the door. Tried to follow suit there as well, but to no avail. He thought to give me a call, but he left his cell in the hotel room. He took a step back to assess the situation before letting panic set in. He took a look around and noticed the tiling on the floor ran a different direction. He then took a peak around the corner and low and behold... The actual door. On which he exited with no problems what so ever. Wes was attempting to break into the janitor's closet. From then on he was still a little mad at the guy for locking him in. Unwarranted of course. But as we sat out on the patio, he pointed him out as the guy that locked him in the bathroom.
Later in the evening we ran into this fella again in the bathroom. Wes told the guy the same story of trying to get out through the janitor's closet. The guy responded that he had tried the same thing many times before.
Before we left this interesting little casino, we had to take a peak at the card room. I have never witnessed a place more unnerving. All that could be heard was the buzz from the neon lights overhead. The were many tables, but only one was occupied. Surrounded by several men playing poker, they all looked as if they were part of the Russian mafia. Once setting foot in that card room they all stopped and peered in our direction. The decision to leave promptly followed.
That's enough for one day... I'll post more later on. Coming soon... Tales of Buttonwillow Junction, The Whisky, Carlsbad and much more.
adam
WCG
No comments:
Post a Comment