The Eclectic Bastards

Waking up in Portland was nice. Did a few things around the house I think. Had dinner at Thai Peacock. Juggo’s mom and friend were in town for it. Got to the show about 8:30pm. Found out we were playing last at around 11:20pm.

Met Heather the booking/house sound person. She seemed very tired but still very nice. Met with the people from Viking Funeral. Very cool cats…. briefly met Dave from Renegade (more on this later).

A few friends showed up, which I really appreciated…..but, in my mind I was hoping that really a larger group would come out for this. I imagine that Wednesday is not the best night…. but, it was disappointing in that respect.

Jim and Mark from the Trash Factory came out to record the show which was awesome of them. The first band, Viking Funeral were really good. The are from southern Oregon somewhere. All of them (except the drummer) have bushy beards and are fairly large dudes. It’s a really interesting mix of straight ahead punk with some southernish flair. They had amerikan and oregon flags on stage and stepped on them or put them around themselves….an interesting mix again. On the last song there was ripping of strings from the electric guitar and some light throwing of instruments… very much to my liking.

Renegade from Portland played next. It is one dude, Dave (I think), with some pre-recorded tracks and a rear projection of some flash movies. He plays some guitar live on top of it. It was an interesting concept and worth watching I thought… but, after a few minutes it becomes dude-tube. That may be also part of his concept that it comes out looking like live you-tube as a critique of that type of art… but it is hard to tell. After his set I went up while bringing equipment up to say that I enjoyed the show and he totally blew me off. Could have been having a bad night, but it was totally jerky. Then I find out after the show that Adeeba had tried to swap CD’s with him (which we always do with bands we play with so we can listen to them later) and he was a double-jerk to her and apparently threw CD’s down on the table at her. Apparently also when asked to trade CD’s he said something like "I don’t even know if I’m going to like it… so why would I want a CD." the kind of shmarmy thing you don’t want to say to a broke Pakistani princess. She basically let him know, according to her, that he could stay or go and he could "decide if it was good enough for him." This from a guy that we later found out had said in the WW that he was an "Audio Visual Bad Ass"…. We only probably met two or three people in the various groups we toured with that their personalities turn you off to anything that might be good about their music. Anyway….welcome back to Portland.

So we played last and I thought the sound was pretty darn good. We played a fairly usual set for the tour. I thought everyone did really well on-stage and didn’t miss too many parts. I played the acoustic the whole night. We played "Please Remain Seated" as the final song and dedicated it to Viking Funeral since they had set the bar so high for emotionally charged noise and violence against instruments. As it was an emotionally charged experience, and the end of the tour, the acoustic guitar got smashed into many many pieces at the end of the song and made some pretty good feedback and other assorted sounds. Josh used the top of the guitar that had splintered to play his bass for a while at the end of the song. I guess it’s time to get another pawn shop guitar. And that, my friends, is how the tour ended in an orgasm of rock’n’roll.

Got up really early because the drive to Eugene was supposed to be 7 or 8 hours and I anticipated van problems.

We got on the road at 9:30am after waking at 7am. Sure enough about two hours out the van had the same problem. We were close to an exit with a mechanic (based on the GPS). We stopped in Willows, CA and went to a shop there. They looked at it and said it looked like bearings needed to be re-packed. It took 2 hours and $100.00 to do the repair. We got food at grocery store and CM and went to the park nearby till the repair was done. Got back on the road.

Sure enough the same problem happened again during my shift (Josh did four hours total). Pulled over… went slow for about a minute…then got back on the road. No more problems all the way to Eugene.

Got to Eugene a bit early. Met the folks from the other band and loaded in to Black Forest. A decent venue with a great lady sound engineer Rowan. The Maladies had family members coming to the show and wanted to play longer than 45 mins. We were scheduled to play second. They were from Idaho (Sun Valley-Haley). Eric (I think) asked me if we could play first since their people wouldn’t be there till later. I think he forgot he was asking if it was ok if we played to no-one. But, I worked it out so that they could play their 1.5 hours starting first anyway.

We had a drink (and drank our own stuff from the van) during the Maladies. Not a bad band at all. Kind of modern day prog, but with some interesting twists. If it wasn’t for the fact of the pushiness about the set stuff my attitude might have been better…but, also all the shit from the 10+ hours of driving and fixing van in there too.

The sound was great and we played a pretty darn good set. Kim came late and saw the last song. We had a few tequilla’s and got back in the van. Juggo drove us back to Portland. We got crap out of the van and went inside to crash out.

Essentially this was a down day. We had lunch at Man Curry (I think)… it was cheap and good. I had the Karela which is a bitter melon preparation. We all went separate ways to try to get some alone time, which Adeeba did not like, not being really good with traveling around cities by herself.

I took the bus towards the presidio with my roller blades… my intention being to roller blade around the waterfront and over the golden gate. I wiped out on the rollerblades and got some rash when I couldn’t hockey-stop down a hill. Bummer… need more practice.

I bladed along the marina drive along the water to the point under the bridge. The road was 100% meant for roller blades.. it’s not so-cal. I hiked up the trail from there to the bridge. Found that roller blades weren’t allowed on the bridge… bummer… So I walked nearly all the way across… not all the way because it was getting late.. but further than the last time I walked across it. Biking is the way to do it.

I roller bladed back along marina drive but further passed the presidio to laguna ave. Got on the 47/49 bus along van ness back towards the apartment. Got there and planned the evening. Went with Adeeba to restaurant Michael Mina. Had some good red and white burgundy. Didn’t realize how much I would like the white burgundy. We also had a grenache and a sancere. I like the grenache the most. Some of them were Cuvee Michael Mina.

Went to Golden Era vegetarian vietnamese with everyone and had great food there. From there we went to a whiskey bar, I spent $50.00 cash on 6 different Irish whiskey’s all of which I hadn’t tried before. It was the Middleton that Mo and I both liked the most.

Went back to the apartment and crashed.

Got up and had breakfast/brunch at Supenkuche. German food, but with a good omelette and pitcher’s of mimosa. Had a few of those. After lunch we went to get the van because our show was at 5pm in Penngrove, CA at Black Cat.

We drove an hour or so up there and got there at 4pm roughly. A very small bar in a very small town (don’t blink). The bartender was very nice and was also in a band in the area. We got some free drinks and free food for playing. We played one set and then took a break for food. Food was pretty good.

Did the second set. Nothing really spectacular… had to do our own sound and had to rig a third mic stand. Found out that Les Claypool lived in the area and that 3 Live Crew had played there. There were bra’s and dollar bills glued/taped to the ceiling everywhere in the place.

Odd show… but, you never know till you try.

Headed back to SF to meet for dinner. Got there and pretty much decided to crash out, I believe… can’t remember 100% here.

We left after a brunch by the pool of mainly leftovers and some muffins. Once we got out of town and started heading down the road on Lee’s shift the front wheels of the van started bumping and we had to pull off. We took a look at things, couldn’t find anything and eventually just started off again slowly. A little bit later, maybe an hour or so, it happened again. Same thing… investigated, found nothing kept going. By this point we were going to be way late for the gig in SF. I wasn’t sure at what time we were supposed to play. But, it turned out we were supposed to play first at around 8:30pm….but, by now we were already not going to get there until 9pm.

During my shift the same problem happened again. This time a definite metal on metal sound. A guy pulled over and offered to follow us down the exit and give us some help. We went down the ramp slowly to a gas station. There was magically a guy who was a mechanic for 20 years there in the parking lot and saw that we were trying AGAIN to check for some problem. We took various wheels off and he inspected things and found no problem. He found that right rear lug nuts were loose and tightened them. He did a test drive and found no problems. So he believed that was the problem.

I continued driving up to SF. We hit bridge traffic and by this point we weren’t going to get there until 10:30pm.

We finally got there and the owner said that we could play after the last band, but only if people were still there, otherwise nothing. I asked why we couldn’t play next, between the previous band and another local band people were waiting to see (which is typically how it is for out of town bands so that they get seen). He didn’t want to do that. He was more focused on making money it seemed than helping touring bands. One of the things you learn touring is which venues want to support music and which just use music as a means to an end.

Blaine, Maureen, and Kellan all came out and waited around. We had some drinks and so forth before the show. When we got on stage Josh’s amp didn’t work and he had to go through my amp and I had to go DI on the Dan-O…. bizarre. We played the set less one microphone also. It was actually a decent set… weird. There were only a few people in the room anyway, so the fact that, based on what Tony had said earlier, we were playing was a good thing.

We left from there and went back to crash at Blaine and Maureen’s, drank a little scotch and crashed with basically no food.

Got up fairly late and hung out by the pool. Got word from Cliff, the booking person at Abbot’s Habit in Vencie about the details. We got there sometime in the late afternoon before the traffic hit. Went to bar that had good happy hour specials right on the Venice strip. After "lunch" I went to the stall where Cliff had pointed me to Javier to rent roller blades. Javier was about to close so he sold me a pair of roller blades that fit perfectly for $25.00.

I rollerbladed for miles down and back along the Venice strip. Lots of fun. Felt just like being an extra in a movie. Rollerbladed to the venue at 8pm. It turned out to be a coffee shop… bummer. JF and Maeve and a friend of theirs was there. We setup and started right around 9pm. Decent set…but, I never know what do in a coffee shop with the full band and a PA. But, it was ok.

The band up after us was originally from Asheville, but had move to CA. They were a neat kinda folksy/bluegrassy group with an accordion. One of the guys from the group books for another venue in town and suggested playing there in the future.

Cliff interviewed us for his podcast. I hate that interviews like that always start with "Who are your influences?" type questions. I think those questions are relevant in some way….but, not very relevant…unless its a band that is totally modeled after another band or something. I like questions about what motivates the music or how it is put together or what the experience of playing it might be.

We got back to LA around midnight and Josh started dinner. We hung out and talked by the pool, had more wine and cigars and then ate. I pretty much passed out around 6am. JF, of course, stayed up and cleaned everything. I really like his style. Another day in paradise.

We got to LA in time for dinner at JF and Maeve’s place. Had wine, cigars, dinner and cheese outside by the pool. Awesome as ever with some of the coolest people on the planet. Stayed up really late.

We got to San Diego after the first band had started basically. At first there was a question of compressing the schedule so that we might only have like 15 minutes to play. But, it got un-compressed so we were scheduled to go last on our normal set length.

The other bands were mostly straight ahead punk bands. One band was a bit more alt. The second band were friends of mine that were a duo that do mostly songs about the border and issues around it, Hot Pink Magon. I really enjoyed seeing them finally. The show was a benefit for the No Border Camp in November. Lots of social justice types and crusties there. Mostly a younger crowd.

We finally got on somewhere around 10pm(?). We weren’t as well received as the other bands (being from out of town…and maybe not being so loud and fast). But, we did have a small crowd that was paying attention. I think I figured out that the transition between fast punk bands that you can "dance"/move to and then the Bastard’s is drastic or confusing to people. You could see people wanting to dance around, but confused because the song was mostly a lyric/message forward song that had a rhythm, but not a dance rhythm. They definitely figured out what to do nearer the end of the set with Rich Girl. Not a bad show. It was in a little garage on the property. I had wanted to play Guantanamera, but we never really had a chance to rehearse it… so we skipped it. Too bad.

Apparently, a women based group from Mexico (TJ) invited us to play down there. I didn’t meet them personally, but it sounded really cool. The Freeskool had vege chili that was really good as well hibiscus tea.

We went out to 57 degrees, a wine bar in town, and had some good wine and bought some decent cigars. Just missed some friends from town. We talked about wine and different stuff. Jenny came too, which was really nice.

Most everyone from the Bastards crashed in the house… I crashed in the van. Needed some alone time and my own space. Josh managed to find companionship. In the morning it was way too hot in the van.

Next day in SD we went to the wine store, the cheese store and I bought more cigars for LA. We left town in the afternoon with the traffic towards LA.

Came across the desert into El Paso by night on the 12th. It was a good idea because of the heat. Hung out at the hotel and went to late night food that was really bad. Got out of El Paso pretty early in the morning on 13th on the way towards Tempe, AZ.

It was a good thing we got an early start. Somewhere in New Mexico on the highway a truck with forklift’s had a propane tank explode and set the entire trailer on fire billowing black smoke from the roadside. We, and everyone else, was at a dead stop for about 30 mins. I got out of the van and walked up about half a mile or so to see what was going on. Met some nice folks and chatted. Heat was bad, but not incredible yet. They allowed everyone to go down the center in the median to go around it eventually. The border patrol station nearby took the opportunity while everyone was a stand-still to look for people trying to cross the borders.

The heat became incredible as we reached Tempe, which is essentially Phoenix. It was 109 and very dry. Adeeba was wilting. We got to the hotel early enough to take some time to relax. I hit the pool and exercise room and just floated on an inflatable for about 40 mins. We left out for the show around 8pm.

Got to the Red Owl and had to go back and forth about whether or tab was $50.00 or $25.00 because there were two bands playing. They agreed to give us the tab that was agreed to in the e-mail. We met Jessie the bartender and Olga waited on us. We ate and setup the stage. The sound guy, Brian, would turn out to be really great and sound really great too. He does sound in another place in Phoenix too.. (Can’t remember the name now).

We played first and did very well musically…the good sound helped. However, we had practically no one directly in front of us. Everyone listened from the bar area… including the second band. We did get lots of kudo’s from those at the bar about our sound, they just weren’t going to get up and come forward. I think Tempe is also a cover band town. We played two 45 min sets until 11pm.

The second group wanted to borrow Lee to play drums. I was pretty pissed that the second band didn’t come to the front and bring their people. So I was ready to leave when Adeeba told me they bought a CD. So, I calmed down and figured they just didn’t know any better.

The second group played some original material and a bunch of covers, generally in the style of west coast funk/ska’ish/smoke weed please bands. It was ok. The crowd was entertained. I chatted with Brian at the sound board.

The event devolved into some kind of open-mic until closing time. A guy named Ken, who lived around the block, offered to have us over to his place. You can get liquor at stores until 2am in AZ! So I gave him some cash and he got some liquor and we followed him back to his place. Also, some other people, Brandon and Joey came over there as well.

We went to Ken’s place and had some drinks and started playing Texas Hold’em at Ken’s poker table. Juggo and Josh were ready to go home already. People were getting fairly sauced.

We left there after about an hour and headed back to the hotel. Josh, Juggo, and I pretty much headed for bed because we needed to get up early the next day to head to Vegas. But, Lee and Adeeba kept drinking and that’s where the shit hit the fan.

I’ll have to, for sake of people’s privacy, be brief about the details. But, long story short, Lee’s girlfriend instigated a fight on my cellphone (that I didn’t say Lee could borrow) on speaker phone with Adeeba, who didn’t respond by ignoring her, Lee responded by getting violent, and it was a total debacle.

So instead of getting sleep and leaving early for Vegas to have fun…Josh and I had to deal with the issue and most especially with Lee, who was still bombed drunk, for the next several hours. I got two hours sleep. Lee and Adeeba eventually passed out.

We had noticed driving into town the previous night that we probably had a CV joint problem, so we took the car to a shop at about 11am. We had planned to do this earlier in the morning… but the debacle happened. We waited in the, air-conditioned, lobby of the repair place for 3 hours (minus time to eat some middle-eastern food next door). The repair bill was $500.00 for axle and tie-rods.

We got on the road around 3:15 and started heading for Vegas which is about 6 hours away from there. It was incredibly hot and sometime in the early evening we lost a tire. It wasn’t a blow-out, but the rubber in the center sheered away. We were in Steligman, AZ at exit 121 on 40West. I called AAA, but they were totally un-helpful. I’m thinking Allstate is going to be the way next time. We went put the doughnut on and went to the gas station at 121. We got the name of someone, Wesley (speed tires), who could help us. We waited around for him and he came pretty quickly. I went with him to his shop and he replaced the tire on our rim ($42.00). We put the new time on the van and I started driving again. I got us down the road another hour and changed drivers.

We got into Vegas at 12:30am.. .lost our entire day in the city. We checked in and they "upgraded" us to a jacuzzi suite in the pyramid (Luxor) instead of in the tower. We put our stuff upstairs and Adeeba went to sleep. Josh and Lee got fast food (each got $20.00) and Juggo and I went to pyramid cafe. Then Juggo and I walked to MGM to see if Centrifuge was open, but it was too late 2:15am. We walked back to Luxor and just grabbed a drink and played some video poker/blackjack. I won $20.00 on my $20.00…it was $40.00 winning on one play. Juggo broke even. We went back to the room and started the jacuzzi and enjoyed the view out the pyramidal window. Got to sleep about 4am. Lee hadn’t returned.

When we got up in the morning, we found that Lee had won $250.00 (but lost $50.00 = net $200.00) on the $20.00 bucks at roulette. We went down and ate at the Mexican place in the hotel. Went to business center with drink in hand. Then we went to gamble again. Josh was feeling feverish, so he went to sleep in the van. Adeeba and I went to the craps table with $40.00. I basically stayed even or ahead by $20.00. Adeeba shot the dice for me and kept the table alive for a pretty long time. Her second shot sent the dice flying up and away from the table, it was classic. I walked away from the table when she crapped out on a 7 with $48.00. So, you can say, minus the food and drinks, I won $28.00 in Vegas.

We hit the road around 2pm to head to San Diego…

Yesterday we basically stayed around the hotel and hit the pool and hot tub and read books. Very relaxing. I started to get a little bit of a head cold. In the evening we ordered thai food and drank some wine. We ended up in the pool again after hours with wine glasses and all. Very rock’n’roll!

Today I woke up feeling very sick with the head cold. We went to the chinese restaurant next door to the hotel. It wasn’t very good. Went back to the room and went back to sleep until my brother Harry called saying he was close to town. Then I got a call from Amy of inmodproductions. Josh ran into them downstairs. They do filming of bands. We agreed to film three songs with them for $30.00. I went downstairs and paid them and briefly met the lovely Winter, the daughter of Amy. Then Harry and Megan (sp?) showed up. Took a shower while they hung out in the bar (bad idea).

Went back down and Megan had got two drinks, but she is not a big drinker. By the time she got to the Clementine, where we were playing she was very sick. The first act was a singer/songwriter and didn’t start until 9pm, but was scheduled for 8pm. The next act was Mantoya. Very interesting spanish influenced rock band with electronic drum kit and a single guitar. Both guys sang… mostly in english.

I was feeling pretty sick by this point. We went to the taco place across the street from the Clementine and got veggie burritos. Just before we were about to go on Harry said that he and Megan had to go because of how sick she was. So they had to take off just before we started playing…bummer.

We set up pretty quickly. I was felling like ass, but trying to get through it. Amy filmed Nothing to Say, New Song, and Cannibal Family. I broke two different strings at two different times during the set. Note that I have not broken ONE string yet on the tour. The audience had to wait around on me twice. My voice was horrible until maybe the mid-point of the set, but still not good. We kinda screwed up in at least two different songs that we usually nail. Not good. But, in the end we pulled it off. The folks from Mantoya stayed till the end. Without them, we’d probably have had no audience.

We packed up the stuff and half of us went with Polly to her new place and the rest of us went back to the hotel to drop Amy/Winter off. I decided not to go out after the show because of being sick. Juggo and Lee went to meet the rest with the van. Was hoping to see Polly a bit more during this brief visit, since we haven’t seen each other for like 5 years, but the timing is all wrong because of her move-in and the fact that she had to work the cafe while we were playing. That’s life / rock ‘n roll.

Overall, I would say tonight was not the WORST show we had done (probably one of the first two shows we did without Josh were)….but definitely the worst sounding one with Josh. A definite low point for me. Since I have been reading the plays of Euripedes during the past few days on the tour I really feel like saying "Alas! I am destroyed! I am lost!"

Got up to the sound of the maid telling us it was check-out time at 10:00am. We had the alarm set for later. We got on the road about 11:30 somehow… weird. This was a big mistake.

So we found out a few days ago that the Dallas show with Master Gaiden had been canceled by 1919hemphill because one the bands decided not to play. Sucked. So Adam spent a lot of time trying to find us another venue. He did. In Austin. Even though we are playing in Austin already on the 11th. Well… I checked to make sure it was ok with Polly about playing both nights… she said fine.

Drank tequila on the road in the front row and I got sexy back (the back seat where you can stretch out) for a good enough while to get a little sleep. Listened to some of Adeeba’s music. Apparently the kinds are listening to Amy Winehouse. 8 hour ride that turned into 10 hours again because of traffic jams and stops.

We showed up at 10:00pm to load-in… there were other bands loading OUT…. not a good sign. I checked and found that we weren’t on the bill at Red 7 where Adam told us we were supposed to go. Much confusion… Adam figured out that we were supposed to play at 710 Room not Red 7… ugh.. But we were told that the show started at 10pm…but that we should be there at 8pm. We left too late to arrive at 8pm. But, figured we would be playing second (at 11pm) as usual so a 9:30pm load-in wouldn’t be so bad… but, the club that we were actually booked at started at 9pm and we were first! So we missed our slot and Adam got hung up on trying to figure things out because of all the noise… Anyway, the club manager, Jared, at Red 7 said that we could play after the last band at 12:30am. That was awesome! Adeeba thought she had forgot her purse at the Taco Bell that we ate at (first one for me in a long long time)… but she didn’t. When she called the place about missing the purse they remembered her.. "Yeah you were in here with that black dude.. you got the full breasts.. where you from?" Ahh! Everything is big in Texas..even the racism and sexism. We went to the hotel and shaved heads and showered quickly.

Went back on-time. Tried to go apologize personally to the club person at 710 Room but the door-man wouldn’t let me through to do it. Bummer. Checked out the band before us…. there were from near the Texas coast. Then we were up. The sound quality was great! Thanks Josh the sound guy!

One person from the audience seemed to really dig it and was surprised by what he heard. His name is Kevin and bought a CD…. But, we were playing to no one in front of us most of the time and about 20 at the bar. Such is life.

We loaded out and went back to the hotel.

Got a decent amount of sleep. We went to the French Quarter and stopped in to Johnny’s Po’ Boy for some food. Lee and Josh went for a quick tour and then back to the hotel to check on amp fixing while juggo, Adeeba and I went on an extensive tour. Saw some neat stuff. The highlight was the New Orleans jazz band playing in the big square. They were very young and very good.

We got some hurricanes on the way back to the hotel via Bourbon street. We went back to the hotel and juggo and I hit the gym room and the hot tub/pool. Actually, all the bastards met at the pool.

Left for Hammond and got there on-time. We had been late the previous day for even what would become a rehearsal. The band up before us the Mad Bombers was very cool. The came from Slidel, LA. We met Matt, Earl, Simon (who was celebrating his 22nd birthday and got his birthday spankings on stage after the bastard’s set), Eileen, Amy and one or two others whose names are escaping me now.

We played our set not knowing who would stay around. GBCB’s is the Green Bean Coffee Bar. To our amazement the people who were there (from the Mad Bombers) put out a lot of attention and energy for us. We had a great time playing for them.

After the show we went to Augustine’s in Hammond to get a drink with them. Turned out to be $1.00 drink night. Awesome. We got Simon a triple gin and tonic for his birthday. The jukebox never played my $2.00 worth of songs. We played kicker and Josh and I lost one and won one against Lee and Juggo. Good fun.

Then I drove back to NOLA (I had driven there before the show). At that point I was exhausted… but, I wanted to see what was going on down on Bourbon St. Adeeba, Juggo, Lee and I walked down there at 3:30am. Still really hot and humid even at that time. Unfortunately, I found that there was only a cowboy/country bar and a hip-hop bar going strong on the block besides the people selling Hurricane’s and other frozen drinks. I was hoping for live music and stuff till the sun came up. No luck :( But the block does stay open late.

We walked back to the hotel and crashed hard.

So as, I think, I wrote before our show at WC Don’s got canceled because the club went out of business two days before we were supposed to play. We left Athens a bit too late 11:30am and headed for New Orleans. I did a little working out and swimming in the pool before the drive.

I drove first shift. Adeeba is now riding with us on the tour. I sat in the first row seat and didn’t get much sleep. I was able to get just a bit of sleep in the back seat on the 3rd shift of driving. Somehow 8 hours turned into 10:45 min…. still not sure how. We got to NOLA at around 9:15 and left at 9:45 and got to Hammond late for the "show". The person at GBCB’s, Brian, gave us the opportunity to play both nights at his place. The first night was merely a rehearsal…we were all VERY VERY tired. We rehearsed songs that we hadn’t been playing on tour yet.

Then we came back to the hotel and crashed. There was a lot of bitchiness because of the fatigue.

I got 3 hours of sleep because I had to get up at 8:00am to take care of fixing the van and Josh’s amp. I got the van to the repair shop at 8:30am. They said that three things were wrong. Valve covers, lifters, and some kind of plate where the starter motor turned…but somewhere on the transmission. The main thing was the valve covers, so that’s what we got fixed and what would stop the burning oil smell.. Yeah! They said it would be done by 11:30am. I took the bus… which only runs once per hour downtown.

Got downtown and dropped by the library to see Meg… not at work yet. Ate at Mayfel’s. Paul A (from Descolada) came by to have some food and to drive me (so I didn’t have to take the bus)… by the way the name of the day is "Paul saves the day Day". The amp guy was supposed to be around at noon. …. Well the car wasn’t ready until 2pm and the amp guy didn’t show up till 3pm .. "fixed" it by 4:30pm.

So we finally got on the road around 5pm for Athens (after dropping off Josh’s 180lbs of pottery)… but I was DEAD tired. Got to Athens around 8:30pm.

We played at Li’l Kings Club. It was kind of a waste of a venue… BUT, the bands were great. We had to do our own sound and they didn’t have enough mics or stands.

Both other bands were roots or bluegrass/old time. The first band had just moved BACK from Portland to Asheville. Definite Portland/Asheville connections going on. Gulya came down for the show and Adeeba and Ariana came for the show with Rene too. It was great because of them…otherwise no one really paid a whole lot of attention… but some.

The last band played outside on the patio area. I played the stand-up snare with brushes on the old-time/blue-grass tunes. That was awesome. Really enjoyed it.

Went back to the hotel after that and started to party. Stayed up late running our mouths and drinking wine and liquor. The house-man had to come tell us to quiet down. That’s ROCK!!! Ariana and Adeeba did some of their old tunes on the acoustic.

We arrived in Asheville in the afternoon around 2:30pm. We drove around to get packing materials for Josh’s pottery and to get a fuse for Josh’s amp. We ran into a guy at the Amp Shop with a lot of attitude and some fuses. While on the way to doing these things we got a call from Justin at Grimm records in Jackson, MS saying that Terry at WC Don’s, where the two of us (or a replacement group for them) were supposed to play on the 7th of Aug, said that "due to circumstances beyond their control the club was closing this weekend and all future bookings canceled" What the Fuck? But, it SOUNDS like Terry is offering to find other venues for the bands that are coming through there.. maybe that will plan out. Otherwise, it’s an extra day in New Orleans.

We made lunch for ourselves to get the budget down. That worked out well. Vege tacos. We got to Dave and Meg (of Descolada and friends of ours from WAY back in Boone). Amy H. was SURPRISE! there when I got there. Had NO idea she would be in Asheville at this time. She is also a Boonie that lived in Asheville, but has moved away. That definitely increased the re-union wonderfulness. Went to their practice space which was REALLY REALLY hot and essentially a sauna. Sweat a lot and had a good rehearsal (first one with Josh) and with Dave and Meg.

We got ready for the show.. I did the "whore bath". Loaded in (with Rock Star parking) and the bartender (Rathe (sp?)) figured out that we both went to Rocky Horror in Raleigh at the same time (as well as the owner of the club). Very nice coincidence. We went to got food at Rosetta’s which has Vege and got some food. Waited too long for it. Went back to the club 15 minutes before show time and ate a bit. Gulya, Emily TD was there and Mike H was there too! Boonie re-union for sure. Mike H ALSO doesn’t live in Asheville anymore but was up visiting for this weekend too… Bizarre, but great! Emily TD gets more beautiful with age. Nice to know that’s happen to some of us. Kiik and Carlee never showed up. Still don’t know why yet.

We started up the show after wolfing down some food. We played pretty well. The energy was great because of the audience with a lot of familiar faces. Meg and Dave both played with us on different songs. Meg played on Johnston County (which she played on for the first album). Dave played on Please Remain Seated.

During the intermission we ran into Ben at the bar. He’s a friend of Irv’s (from Boone) and had come to the show in Boone years ago when Sean and Adrienne got naked at Ferrara’s pizza. A fairly infamous Bastard’s show. He offered to have us over to a breakfast place where he works called "Over Easy". We are just about to motivate to go there now at around 11:30am.

Descolada started in about 20 minutes after us. I had never seen them play before though I had heard their album and stuff. It was really great. Meg playing violin in the front (also more beautiful with age) with Dave and Paul A on guitar (all close friends from Boone whom we played with very early on there). I had to really just absorb what was going on. Parts of it want to move your body, but it’s fairly complex dark noisy and emotional music. The drummer apparently barfs in the middle of each show. He really puts out a lot of energy. I was really entranced by the music. Descolada is a great band to experience. Great for me to see them all together in this way years after the Boone life. I would love to tour with them for sure.

We went to Denny’s late night with a crew of more than 15. The folks from the bar staff as well as other related friends including Jenny (sp?) Dave and Meg’s room-mate. I had the cheese sticks (or a few of them). A very classic late night Denny’s experience with a large party. Got out of there somewhere around 4am and went back to Dave and Meg’s to sleep. Crashed on couches. Great to wake up in the Appalachians.

I’m thinking it’s going to be very hard to beat this show on the rest of the tour. But, you never know what life is going to throw. This was an experience I won’t soon forget. I already want to come back next year and do it again.

Haven’t had a chance to write about this one until now. It’s August 4th now and we are back on tour. Did a lot of work while in Raleigh. The July 26th show in Raleigh was really cool. We played with Lactose Quervo and Viva La Venus and one other band that I forgot to write down the name of at a place called MVP’s.

It’s really great that Lactose Quervo is putting together these shows of all original music there. There is basically only one good music venue in Raleigh called the Brewery. There are a few other places you can play… but basically that it is it.

Lactose Quervo and Viva la Venus are bands that we played with years ago at open mics … especially at the Pour House. It was great to see familiar faces. This was Viva La Venus (and all female band … except for the drummer…. female drummers are more precious than platinum). I thought everyone played really well.

My family showed up for the show. That was great. Also, Steve Vincent (www.knuckleballmusic.com) came to the show. I was trying to get Steve’s number to call him.. but couldn’t find it without internet. But, he showed up anyway. Karla showed up too! It was pretty awesome that way. So, it was a great crowd to play to. There were actually a lot of people relatively speaking at the show.

The server that we had was a classic southern gal. Some frat guys, however, possibly her friends, were man-handling her all night. It was ridiculous. Juggo has more on that maybe in his log. We sold some various things there for sure. That was good. Got a little money in the ol’ pocket.

We got to play the NC version of Panic there for the first time. Lee enjoyed that. Overall I think we sounded pretty good and it was a fun show.

So, the updates have slowed because I haven’t felt much like writing about non-show days, of which there are many as we take some time off on the east coast. I do want to say that while in both Nashville and Asheville we ate at restaurants that had received awards from various online directories. They were both pretty awful, well, not good at any rate. So, it may be the case that those restaurants really are better than other places in those cities. It also may be that we just had really bad luck and got food that was worse than usual. It also may be that those awards were undeserved and/or food in Portland is just better than other places.

So in Raleigh we played at a place called MVP’s. It was the home show for the other band members and so long-time fans and friends and family came out to the show. We were able to play a song, on request, that we don’t usually get to play. I really enjoyed the other bands though there were some people in the audience that detracted from my enjoyment. The show was pretty tight but could have been a little better. I think everyone is looking forward to having our bassist for the rest of the shows. We’re sounding pretty good, but adding the bass should really result in a fuller sound.

We’ve got a lot of downtime while people visit friends and family on the east coast. Our next show isn’t until the 4th in Asheville. We’ll be going to Asheville a couple days before that to do some rehearsing, mostly of songs we haven’t been playing and to rehearse with our bassist before starting the westbound route of the tour. So there probably won’t be any updates until then, unless I decide to write about the food quality at some of my old haunts. I’m curious if the food was as good as I remember or if Portland has spoiled me.

Not much to say today. We drove eight hours from Fayetteville, AR to Nashville, TN. I drove the first 3 hours. I was able to get some sleep during Juggo’s shift. The ear-plugs for the shows come in very handy in the van. I found out at a gas station that Lee decided to bring along more crap in the van from the wedding. I breakable piece of glassware of course… I mean thin glass. Brilliant!

We made it to Nashville at around 8pm. I took a quick shower and we went to get food. Found that the internet access was not working at the motel… they said they had called someone. The Thai place we went to find we couldn’t find. We found an ok Mexican place. Then tried to see if the only comedy club in town was open… it wasn’t. Then tried to find a blues lounge…it was no longer open… sad state of affairs.

We went back to the motel…. still no internet… so we got a refund and stayed across the parking lot at Days Inn… works here fine. I think we have decided not to do the ultra-cheap motels anymore. We need good internet, a workout room, and a hot-tub for this tour. It will be worth the extra money split two ways. I’ll make that happen on the trip back. We end up spending more money on day passes to gyms and breakfast when all they have is carbs for breakfast.

Tomorrow we are on to Asheville, NC to see Josh and then head for Raleigh in the morning and I have to work (with Juggo most likely) in the afternoon with one of my long time clients. Woo hoo! But, all is well. Juggo hasn’t decided yet whether he will (or how much time) spend time in Raleigh yet.. .so that’s up in the air. But, in any case, a good time will be had by all. I’m looking forward to getting back to my trailer park and humidity.

So 2 days of being in Arkansas. Strangely I don’t feel I have a lot to write. I’ve had a lot on my mind but not much I feel would translate well online.

So, salaud took the whole 4.5 hour drive from Wichita and we arrived in Fayetteville in the early afternoon very hungry (since we had only eaten the hotel breakfast that morning). It was the first time we took advantage to happycow.net to find a restaurant, the greenhouse grille, which we went to for lunch. It was pretty good, a definite step up from what we’ve been eating.

We took the time to relax a bit at the hotel. I took a short swim in the pool to cool down while salaud took a long nap. I tried to get some work done but the internet at this hotel has been terribly unreliable. By far the worst we’ve experienced. In fact I’m writing this outside of a web browser unsure of whether I’ll even get to post it tonight.

When we went to the club we learned that there had been a booking miscommunication that left us without a place to play. However, after trying to find another place to play the band playing at the Boom Boom Room (where we thought we were playing) let us take the first of their 3 sets. It was a good show and people seemed to enjoy it. I enjoyed the other band who played for 1.5-2 hours straight. Given their choice of cover songs I think I probably have similar taste in music to at least 1 person in the band. We played some foosball and hung out until the place closed.

We then went hunting for dinner and were directed to Jimmy John’s which was a sub place that served late night that reminded me an awful lot of Little John’s in Charlottesville. Both cater to the after bars close drunk crowd. But I got a tasty veggie sub there so that was good. We finished the night spending time with some folks we had met and got back the hotel pretty late.

I slept in, as did salaud, though lee stayed up to hit the hotel breakfast, which apparently is a deluxe continental so we are going to check that out tomorrow. We had a wedding to go to for salaud’s friend so we ironed some clothes, then grabbed a bite to eat at another sub place (better than subway but still a chain). We went to the wedding which was on top of Whitney Mountain. It was a gorgeous view. The wedding was enjoyable and I had a pretty good time.

Tomorrow is going to be the longest drive yet which will put us in Nashville. Luckily there’s no show so their isn’t a huge pressure to get their at a specific time. Still the plan is to be up and out early to try and get the driving done as early as possible. So, off to bed…

No show today…. But we did have Erin’s wedding. Woke up late (around noon) and got our nice clothes on for the wedding. We were missing a button for Juggo’s pants. I was missing a gift. We went to the dollar tree and I got some packaging for the cash that I thought would make the best gift. He got a sewing kit. We went to sub shop next door and I got a salad again.

Lee drove us up one hour (not quite) to the Ozarks to The Lodge at Whitney Mountain where the marriage was to take place. We got in around 3:15 and the ceremony was schedule for 4pm. The view from there was awesome. The lake below had a lot of little islands which were essentially little mountains. A well hidden gem in United Snakes.

Lee sat inside while Juggo and I sat in some outdoor metal rocking chairs and enjoyed the view. We talked about ceremony / ritual and the effects and necessities / lack thereof them. The ceremony began right around 4pm. It was short and sweet. There were only 3 of Erin’s long time friends there including me. We sat on the bride’s side, of course. It was cool relatively but still fairly hot in the sun. The ceremony was very nice. I cried a little but it was too fast to go to too much crying.

We went inside for the reception. Erin’s brother-in-law cooked the food. I could only eat salad and string beans. Everything else was carbs or meat. Then we started drinking… I made the mistake of paying for a drink at the bar there. After that we drank from our supply from the van. There were a few dances with various people.. but the best one was with Erin and her Dad. It was a real tear-jerker for him and for me and Lee and bunch of other people.

Erin had a bunch of pictures to take and other things to attend to.. so we didn’t have a lot of time to really make contact… but, we made contact enough. We talked about a Bastard’s tour on the Virgin Islands. That would be AWESOME!!! All will be revealed.

We started playing poker with Ed, Joe and Barry. Played for several hours. Mostly Texas Hold’em but some 5 card draw also. Juggo ended up winning in a 5 card stud, all-in, game at the end. He played well the entire night though.

Drove back and got back by 1am. That’s EARLY! We have 8 hours of driving tomorrow to Nashville. Then it’s on to Josh’s place in Asheville. We have no shows until the 26th in Raleigh. I will be pretty happy to get to NC, in general. See some more familiar faces. The "break" in Raleigh might actually be more work than the tour. All will be revealed.

Got up pretty much on time this morning with 4 hours sleep. Lee got basically an hour. He stayed up playing with his gameboy till like 8am after we went to sleep at around 5pm. Bizarre behavior. Had continental breakfast and a protein drink and got on the road at around 10:30am. I drove the entire way from Wichita to Fayetteville, AR.

I played the Wichita Vortex Sutra as we left town. It would have been better as we came into town…but, oh well. I enjoyed the drive (4.5 hours) which is why I just trucked on with it. Oklahoma is not just dusty as the Leon Russell song says… it is very lush green. At least near the highway there is undisturbed green for miles and miles. Traveling around the US reminds you how much un-developed land there really is here. How much elbow room we really have. I don’t remember it being like this in Europe.

As we went through Tulsa, OK I played the Leon. But, we had quiet for a good amount of time. Listen to some BBC documentaries also. I just recall that in one they were talking about Hong Kong and how the right of universal suffrage had to be extended to everyone there while the PRC was saying that one system does not fit all. I have yet to really seriously think about getting outside the box of universal suffrage… At least in the sense where a government is involved. If there is no government, then it is obviously not an issue. But, once people in common agree to a government, one size, I don’t believe fits all.

Anyway… back to the tour. We pulled into Fayetteville, AR around 3pm. We went and got something to eat at a smallish cafe with good wine near the university. Fayetteville on the way in looks really sad. Burnt out strip malls and etc. Went back to the hotel room which is better than some to which we have been. Napped till around 8:30pm.

Went to the venue… this is when it gets interesting. We get there and they don’t know that we are playing. I’m scratching my head… so Sarah the manager of the Boom Boom Room and I go back to her office and I look at my e-mail. Sure enough I had written to the booking agent about the 21st and every subject header had the 21st … but he had written down the 20th instead. We were supposed to be there the day BEFORE!! But I never caught that from the e-mail and neither did he. SO… Sarah took me around the various venues on foot to see if anyone would let us play. No one would or they required having your own PA.

So, we went back to the Boom Boom and I asked the band if we could open for them. They were very nice and let us open. We played setup very quickly and played 45 minutes. Juggo broke a string on the penultimate song and had to borrow a guitar for the last one. Overall I think people enjoyed it and stayed tuned in. I had to un-bandage my finger to play. The usual tape and band-aid wasn’t working tonight… just bad luck. I managed not to increase the injury.

It turned out when I called Erin, my friend who is getting married tomorrow, that they really had too much going on to come into Fayetteville to hear us play. That’s ok… especially with all the crap going on with getting on stage.

Juggo and I played kicker upstairs with Lee and some guy from the bar. We managed to defeat them. However, we were approached by two other gentlemen, one of which was very good. It turns that this other guy’s friend was actually holding him back. After that match the guy asked to play us with just himself versus the two us. He basically kicked our ass at kicker. We had also played some air-hockey downstairs on a REALLY bad air-hockey table.

At last call the other band Last Point Out packed up and we did too. We got directions to a place to grab something to eat. The streets of Fayetteville were still hopping even after 2am. Lots of activity. We got subs down the block (I got one with lettuce instead of bread). On the way some redneck in cab turning the corner said to Lee "are you looking for nigger harlem?" (or something to that effect). I was so shocked that I didn’t have time to react. Lee gave a good fuck’off and I managed to get some sort of thing out that involved him being an ignorant redneck. But, what I should have done is chase the cab because it wasn’t moving fast… It was the first incident of its kind on the tour. I wasn’t ready for it. I’m ready now. Next time it will be u-lock justice.

A nice guy named Jeremy who was at the show invited us back to his place after the food. We GPS’d it to his place. Stayed there for just a few minutes and then went home to the hotel.

Getting to sleep again at 5am. Tomorrow is Erin’s wedding and we don’t have a show till July 26th.

Juggo drove from Manhattan to Wichita… I forgot to play Wichita Vortex on the way into town… but, I will play it on the way out of town. I needed sleep because of the 5 hours last night. The front desk called to find out if we were checking out this morning at 11:10am. It is starting to be a motif. I caught some daydreaming in the car. I’m not sure it was real sleep.

We got to Wichita around 2pm and went to get some food down the road at a Mexican place. It was ok. I had a pomegranete margarita and a spinach/mushroom enchilada. Didn’t much of the beans but had some steamed vegetables. Lee had some veges too.

After the meal we went to the guitar center to get some equipment. Juggo and I decided that we would go ahead and invest in tuning pedals. I also got some gaffer’s tape, ear plugs, and a strap for the DanO. The tuning pedals made a big difference on stage tonight. Great! Finally in the big time, eh?

Went back to the hotel and got some more sleep. Woke up at around 9pm and got to the Kirby’s beer store by about 9:45pm. Lee was chillin’ at the pool side when we found him before leaving. We met the first band, These Little Nothings, from Minneapolis during the load-in. They seemed very tired since they were on the last stop of their tour. We were very hungry and the show wasn’t starting until 10:30pm. Steve the owner of Kirby’s suggested an area to eat… but everything in that area was closed. We had to got out a ways to get food. We ate at Fox and Hound. I had the low-carb meal. Lee ate more broccoli. Lee and I played checkers according to "barber-shop" rules. This includes the ability to move backwards if you double-jump and also "flying kings" which allows kings to move as far as the want (as a queen in chess) and jump checkers anywhere along and land anywhere. It’s almost a whole different game. We played to a stale-mate… apparently one can reach the "mason-dixon" line and create a stale-mate.

We arrived late to the first band’s show. That was the first time that happened. We saw about 3 songs or so of their show. We traded EP’s with them. We setup and started around 12:10am. The other band stayed for about 3 songs and left. It seems they were either tired (most likely) or didn’t want to be the "better men". We didn’t make it because we had to go out to the back and beyond to eat… they left, I imagine because they were tired. In either case, I enjoyed their music. They said they had been together for about 7 months. The wore all black uniforms with red ties.

There were about 5 people in the room including the bartender, Paul. However, everyone was paying attention. Which was great. The guys bought the entire bands shots of whiskey twice during the set (thanks guys!). We stopped playing and sat down (instruments and all) and had the shot with them each time. There was a black dude at the bar who was saying "get off the stage" and so forth. At one point Lee said, "White people help the black people" (a reverse reference to the movie stripes).

We played really well. I wasn’t unhappy that it was a small crowd. The room was VERY VERY tiny. We met the owner Steve. He was very cool dude. Quite amicable. We played basically the same set from last night…. but, that was ok.

After the show the bartender Paul gave us more free drinks since we didn’t get paid anything. He was awesome. He gave us bumper stickers and we got him to put the bumper sticker on our van. Two of the locals were staying right up till last call (and a bit beyond). When it was time to drink’em or lose’m the locals would not yield… so Paul literally slapped the beer cans out of their hands. Paul is a much smaller guy than these two. Very nice.

We got back in around 3am…. another night.. some more rock ‘n roll.

We are off to Fayetteville, AR tomorrow.

Strong show, small audience. The folks at Kirby’s beer store were really nice (is that starting to sound repetitious yet?). The owners were cool and though there were only a few people there they were really into the show which was good.

So the day started with my driving from Manhattan to Wichita despite my getting far less sleep than the others.

Will lokiloka ever be a success in other cities? I have no idea, but we could have used it today. We went to Guitar Center and it was an ordeal. Salaud and I bought tuner pedals which, given the show tonight, I think will be money well worth spending. However, that money should have gone to one of the wonderful and awesome locally owned music stores in Portland, and failing that, a locally owned music store here in Wichita. The guitar center here had virtually no prices on anything we looked at, and it took forever to actually pay, since they wanted to collect all kinds of information first. We reached the point where bastard had to say, essentially, "look we need to pay and go." Ah, bad corporate management.

But the equipment helped and improved the show which was pretty tight tonight. Tonight was the first time cannibal family was in tune to my satisfaction. Salaud and I got naps in the early evening which was nice though we didn’t hit the pool like we wanted to. I swear it sounds like the life, touring, but it is so tiring. So tomorrow we’re off to Arkansas.

I think I’m gaining a new understanding of why rock stars are attracted to stimulants.

Last night was a definite rock star night. I didn’t think our performance was as good as the night before in Lincoln but still solid. We had a good time playing. The band that followed us, The Dead Sevens, were really fun to watch and we all hung out after the bar closed and had drinks in the hotel room. Then we went and got some late night food (at Bob’s Diner) and returned the hotel around 5am for sleep. I didn’t sleep very well and got up much earlier than everyone else to start rehyhdrating and take a shower. Then I did the 2.5 hour drive to Wichita.

So, in Manhattan we ate at a place called the So Long Saloon, which had been recommended by a friend of mine and was also recommended by the bartender at PJ’s, which was the club we played. Prior to showing up at the club we hit a gym for a workout called Pro Fitness. We got in a good workout; my triceps are actually a bit sore from it today. What we didn’t know when we selected the gym, after having called a few, was that it was literally a few steps from the club. It was interesting to drive to the gym and just randomly look and see "The Eclectic Bastards" on the marquee. I’m not entirely sure if we were in the "downtown" but wherever we were was pretty nice in terms of a lot of interesting businesses.

We were told that PJ’s is struggling, which is just hearsay, but if true it would be a shame. The people there treated us well and it’s a cute place. Definitely a place I would hang out in if I lived there. At the So Long Saloon we got to try fried pickles which were really good. All in all a good evening of what I believe were all locally owned businesses, with character and quality that is so often lacking from chain stores/restaurants/bars.

All in all a good stop with the exception of leaving me very tired.

So Lee had the TV on till 6am… I’m pretty sure it fucked with both my sleep and Juggo’s…..

I drove the 2.5 hours from Lincoln, NE to Manhattan…….. Kansas this morning/afternoon. We got up just before 11am. The dude who ran the Econo Lodge called us at 11am to remind us "Check Out TIME!". I said… "what?"… he said, "Check out Time!"… I said… "oh … you mean it is check out time now?"… he said "Yes". Language is a funny thing.

We packed up the shit and went to Perkin’s for breakfast. It was bad. I ordered carrots and corn as side dishes. They tried to charge me $2.29 for each one which was very small. I commented about it to the waitress. She took both off the bill. We left $2.00 extra in the tip.

Traveled through rolling hills and agriculture including…. dun dun dun… CORN!!! Got to Manhattan around 3pm. Sleep and enjoyed the quiet for about 2.5 hours. Our room at the Super 8, #107, looks out on…. gas pumps. Very rock ‘n roll. At around 6pm we went to the Pro Fitness gym…. when we parked the van and got out juggo noticed that the words ECLECTIC BASTARDS where written on a marque across the street… hmmm… not only had we arrived at the gym… but also in the same little strip mallish area as the venue. We worked and did our normal routine for Wednesday more or less (deva will be thrilled). I did cardio and read a magazine for men which did an article about men that should be role models… among them were many famous actors and a few historical figures. I was about to read the part about Rumi, who is truly a role model, when my 15 minutes on the exercise bike was up…. bummer.

So we went in our gym clothes 50 feet to the venue and loaded in the equipment at around 8pm. We then went to the So Long Saloon and had some food. We got the fried pickles and I loved it. The other food was ok. Had two glasses of beaujolais and got watch Argentina and Chile play football. One of the Chilean players got in a fight with an official. That seemed very bad…. I haven’t scanned the news yet.

We went back to the hotel and I got a shower. We then headed back to the club. Juggo and I had to go over Eye of the Tiger … which we thought would go over better here than Devo. The first band was Captured. They were ok. A lot of potential. Manhattan also likes their rockers. We played next. Had a tough time at first getting the folks to get into it. Seemed like a very sit-down town at the beginning. Tyler the sound engineer was the most attentive and helpful sound engineer yet. He listened carefully and was able to help with monitors when things got too loud on stage. I had to bandage my finger and tape my pick to my bandage to play because of the injury from last night. By the end of the set we had got most everyone standing and up to the front. Great!!!! But, a young lady named Marie (hope my spelling is right) saved the day. She seemed to really like the Bastards and got other people into it (thanks). She was friends with people in the third band called Dead Sevens. They were really good. It was more fairly straight ahead rock ‘n roll. Very cool melodic bass and tight drums… full-on rock guitars. Different people sang the songs.

After the show we invited the sound engineer and folks from Dead Sevens back to the magic Super-8 for some more drinks. On the way back to the hotel we saw drunk party girls and the cops coming down on a bar fight with some guy sitting in the middle of the street detained. We chilled at #107 for awhile and then they suggested that we go to Bob’s for some late night food. Actually, it was better than IHOP. The waitress (Lee suspects was a transvestite) was (in my opinion not a transvestite) so totally late night diner Kansas that it hurt. We had a great time chatting about everything there too and messed up the table really bad. Lee had breakfast a third time in 24 hours and Juggo and split (I actually had 1/4) of a grilled cheese that did NOT taste like chicken.

Came back to the hotel at 4:44 and started to go to sleep… I, of course, have fulfilled my blogging duties.

Another 6 hour drive…but this time through more vegetable laden land forms. The humidity is starting to rise as we go East. That’s nice for me. The desert air was so dry I thought I might choke at points.

We forgot about the 1 hour time difference AGAIN. So we were almost an hour late for load-in. But, we made it. I actually got a chance to shave before the show. We played with Blood and Ready and Loup River band. Turns out that both bands know each other and that one member of Blood and Ready plays in Loup River band. Quelle coincidence! We spent some good moments (and a shot) with Gene from Loup River and Russ from Blood and Ready. Both bands were kind enough to give us all the money from the show to put in the gas tank (thanks!). I really didn’t count on the such generosity from the bands in my tour budget. The gas bill is going down significantly. Speaking of which, it appears the van is getting close to 20mpg. Much more than expected. On 6 hour drives it has been basically one tank per day.

We also got to see the bands in the evening show. We played the early show. We saw In Space and The Terminals and some other band from Chicago. The Terminals were a three piece with a guy with a lot of personality on keys and a TOTALLY rockin’ mom on the Gibson SG… I mean she was really rockin’. The drummer was totally on. Lincoln seems to really like their straight ahead rockers. A pleasant surprise. The members on In-Space were younger and intend to maybe come to Portland some day. We met Christina from a local ska band who was very cool too. Jeremiah not only booked shows but also was our very cool bartender. Sound was pretty good too… except my vocals were always a bit low in the monitor. Club was a bit louder than necessary for the space in my opinion.

We ate as Laslo’s, a brew pub. Food was decent. Lee ate a shit ton of broccoli. We sampled their beers. Pretty darn good, but the vanilla porter was my favorite.

Our set was MUCH MUCH better than last night. We played very well together. Things sounded really good and we had a lot of energy. I had occasion to get into boxers… people always like that… and hell it was so hot on the stage I really liked it too. Extended Rich girl version thanks to Lee who played standing up tonight. I think people respond well to that style of drumming. It looks different and sounds good. One guy said that we replaced his favorite Portland group MC Vagina, with the Bastards…. I think we are making progress.

It’s on to Manhattan………….

Kansas

tomorrow…. only 2.5 hours drive.

LINK: http://www.beerorkid.com/2007/07/20/the-eclectic-bastards-from-wed-night

Our performance tonight was markedly improved over the last couple which raised everyone’s spirits. It was also good because today was another longish drive and probably the hottest drive so far. We got on the road decently early which was nice. When we got to Lincoln we quickly checked in and headed to the show. We played as part of an early show from 6-9 with 2 other bands which were good. There was another show which followed that we stayed for most of. In between we got some food at Lazlo’s brewery (Nebraska’s oldest brewpub apparently) and got a sample of all of their beers, almost all of which were quite good. It was nice for us to enjoy some beer of the caliber that is readily available in Portland. So tomorrow we’ll have a short drive which will be a nice change. I’m nursing a bit of a sunburn (on my arms from driving) with some aloe and trying to stay hydrated. The area we were in seemed pretty nice with a number of restaurants, bars, and venues all within close proximity. If we weren’t all so tired it may have been nice to spend a little more time out and about. Nebraska was the first state that I was paying attention to crossing the state line where the sign said "Nebraska, the good life, home of Arbor Day."

No show tonight. Longish drive. Dined in a brewery where drinks were stronger and cheap (though coming from SLC that may create a bit of bias, where the drinks were weak, but still cheap at least). Not too much else to write about.

No show today but had to get to Cheyenne, WY. Left Salt Lake at around 1pm after egg breakfast at Coachman’s. We had a 6 hour drive across Wyoming. We hit a LOT of wind and saw some lighting and heard some thunder. Very nice on the thunder/lighting but the wind was ward to drive in. We were up near 8000 feet at the highest point in the mountains. Much cooler in the van today.

Arrived in Cheyenne around 8pm and went to a place that made their own beer. We came on "two for tuesday" where the 3 ounce pours were $2.00 a piece. Much different from the 1oz pours at Salt Lake for the same price. In my mind I imagine that Cheyenne must be the BIG city for Wyoming. People come here like to Ndotsheni and lose their innocence and get lost in the shuffle of it all.

Talked to Josh on the phone. He wants us to record the shows and put up the set lists. Talked to the muffin for the first time since I left. Haven’t had a spare moment yet. Tomorrow is the show in Lincoln, NE. Very excited about that show and meeting the nice folks we are playing with. Getting up again at 9:30am.

Tried to leave Boise, ID by 9am. Left by 11:30am… not bad? Travel was pretty easy across ID and into UT. I drove for about 2 hours or so out of the 4.5. I never really thought of Utah as being desert when I was younger. SLC seems a bit prettier when driving in than Boise, ID. But it’s hard to tell. Got a little sleep up in the front seat when I was off shift, but not much. The speaker on the front driver’s side doesn’t work correctly….so we all have to turn up the one on the passenger’s side. When need to have the windows down because it is hot and the air conditioner doesn’t work.

We got into Salt Lake around 4pm. Checked-in to a Holiday Inn that was much nicer, of course, than the motel 8. We were shuttled to the guitar store and then to eat at PF Chang’s. It’s corporate….but, not many options in SLC that are fairly vege-friendly. Had a chance to work out and got Lee working a bit. Jumped into the hot tub and indoor pool.

Went the to the club at 9pm for load-in and then grabbed some really good Indian/Napali food at Himalaya something or another a few blocks away. The blocks in SLC are huge. Definitely a car town. The sweet lassi was really good. That’s one major measure of an Indian restaurant for me. They won an award for best Nan… but I’m still on carb reduction. Making significant progress quickly.

Ran into Bart and one other tatoo artist from next door to Burt’s. Very friendly people. Bart offered to help us book the Bar DeLuxe which his owned by the same person that owns the tatoo place and bought us a round of jagers. Apparently the main artist at that shop is really good and has a long wait list.

We played Burt’s with Basic Band and Dancho. We went second. Basic band had a lot of energy. Pretty much as the name describes. Regular ol’ rock’n’roll with a lot of really good leads. The bass player also had a lot of energy. We played a bunch of songs that we hadn’t rehearsed really well yet. A few slip-ups, but we were generally well received. Most people said we were fun to watch. We definitely need to rehearse more in Cheyenne, WY. Dancho went after us. It’s a two-piece with a lovely young lady on drums and a big guy on bass who doubles as singer. The songs were really long and seemed to have aspects of improvisation in them. No doubt that the bass player was really good. The music was basically a freight train that just kept going and going. A lot of energy all around.

We were able to sell some boxers and an EP to one of the people from Dancho (Thanks!) and make $50.00 to put in the gas tank (Thanks Burt’s). The Burt’s staff was very helpful. Got back to the hotel room and had to deal with more TV from Lee. He really likes it and Juggo and I both don’t (except for a very few things).

I’ve noticed that people in both Boise and SLC, that we met, have a generally hard external persona.. pretty tough looking. But, they seem very friendly though. There does seem something harsh about the landscape and what it must be like to live in it that makes people this way here. Tough and at the same time, perhaps because there’s not much to do, friendly??? It’s a bizarre place none the less… a little vortex perhaps?

Very tired, want to sleep. Food was better today, particularly dinner which was a place called Himalayan Kitchen I think. We played Burt’s Tiki Bar. Our set was somewhat disappointing but we met a lot of friendly people. The other 2 bands were enjoyable. We were in a nicer hotel and took advantage of the fitness room, pool, and hot tub. It doesn’t look like we’ll get to explore SLC much, if at all. But I suppose we’ll see what tomorrow holds.

Left Portland around 12:30pm. That’s about 2 and half hours late. Not bad? Weather is nice and warm. It was only the second time I cruised through the desert east of Portland. It really makes me love Oregon. I’ve always loved the diversity of land form growing up in the south-east coastal region where one goes from beach to piedmont to mountains. But, Oregon goes much further. It is the youth of the land form, I think, that let’s it go from Mountains meet the sea to desert to dense rain forrest. We stopped for the first time in Pendelton, OR to get food and gas.. but forgot the gas. We graced the Subway with our presence and hunger. The first of many methinks. Hard to find vege in fastfood.

Met up with Chris from Neo Tundra Cowboy and he found space at the last minute at a club called Pair in downtown Boise. Played four songs through a cool all tube PA well administered by April Fucker and Rachel. On the way to Mulligan’s we were stopped by the cops (with associated flashlights in the face) because on of us was wearing dark colored shorts and someone with similar shorts may have just caused some vandalism…. note to self… never were dark colored shorts in downtown Boise. Before bed we investigated the Menagerie part II and Conscience of the King.

Ah, what to say, the tour is underway. Our Boise show changed from a house show to an open mic, which was a bit of an inauspicious beginning. But everyone in Boise has been friendly and we had a good time. I wanted to write a things I’m going to miss from portland before leaving but I will now that I have more of a sense of what I’m going to miss, like good food. The food today has been terrible, including my first visit to subway in 6 years. Oh well, I suppose we’ll do our best but it does make me wish for a site like lokiloka that could be used to find good food, from non-chain stores. Anyway the show was good in that is was more of warm up for the shows to come. We also got questioned by some police about a vandalism incident. We (somewhat) matched the description of some vandals by wearing "dark shorts". So that was interesting to be walking from the place we played to another bar and have the cops pull up and hit us with a spotlight. It makes for an interesting story if nothing else. Anyway, more tomorrow I’m sure.