Complete US tour schedule

Tour Diary
Page 1: Wed, Sept 29 through Sat, Oct 9
Page 2: Sun, Oct 10 through Fri, Oct 22
Page 3: Thurs, Oct 21 through Fri, Oct 29

 

Page 3
Day 23: Thurs, Oct 21: Blood on the Teddy Bear
Day 24: Fri, Oct 22: Aaron Pit-stickin' Again!
Day 25: Sat, Oct 23: Who's that lady?
Day 26: Sun, Oct 24: Nothing happened today
Day 27: Mon, Oct 25: Oreo Cookie Blizzard
Day 28: Tues, Oct 26: "You Got Some Matches?"
Day 29: Wed, Oct 27: The Invisivan®
Day 30: Thurs, Oct 28: Dig My Vibe
Day 31: Fri, Oct 29: Home on the Range

 

Thursday, Oct 21
Blood on the Teddy Bear

On our way to Champaign, Illinois today! And what a cool town. St. Louis played their way into the World Series tonight, securing a game one showdown with the Boston Red Sox the night we play in... St. Louis. We'll just have to resign ourselves to playing another show to the backs of folks watching the game on the TVs in the club... oh well.

While Jared and Rick (settling nicely into their roles as Dad and Gramps) watched the game, Aaron and Richard (equally settling in nicely into their roles as the kids) hopped over to Dandelion, a well-stocked vintage and used clothing store, to play dress-up. A special 'thank you' to Kate for not kicking us out and instead helping us pick out outfits!

Un chingo tambien.		Block-rockin' beats.
"I feel pretty, oh so pretty!"		We are two wild and crazy guys!

Don't even bother asking. Just make up your own story for this one...

Our CD, Place You Call Home, received strong airplay on the local radio station when it came out, and it showed–the crowd at Cowboy Monkey was super-pumped to see us play. The bar staff was equally as kind (they were one of the few clubs that fed us nicely before the show). Special thanks to Kaila for a place to stay and the new dirty joke to add to our repertoire! You see while traveling on tour, we've managed to learn more than a handful of really, really, I mean really, crass jokes. Even we won't print 'em here.

Friday, Oct 22
Aaron Pit-stickin' Again!

A class act.

Chuck Berry had the duck-walk, Hendrix set his guitars on fire, and now ladies and gentlemen... Aaron Taylor applies deodorant! Yup, he pit-sticked on the stage again! He's actively seeking an endorsement from Right Guard as we speak (er, I guess as we type...).

Minneapolis was college-reunion night. Aaron met up with college friend Kari and her husband, Brian. Jared met up with college friend Jen Wall. Rick met up with college friend–and best man at his wedding–Paul. And to take a minute here... the band stayed with Paul, his wife Beth, and their daughter, Grace. They were most generous with wonderful food and a place to stay, certainly above and beyond the call of duty... thank you!

Driving Votes tabled at the show and the band got the crowd all fired up "pro-Kerry style!" 10 days until regime change. Get involved with Driving Votes. The time is now.

 

Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poop-On?		Rick with Sarah and our gracious host Paul.

Saturday, Oct 23
Who's that lady?

Richard said rural Illinois looks like the French countryside and Jared replied, "Yeah, they both suck!" as the van was tossed around like a feather in very high winds today. A little white-knuckled driving for your entertainment, folks.

Jared won't be sleeping in the van tonight.

So today we headed to St. Louis. And we weren't the only ones. Little did we know that Jared's wife, Dani, was also secretly heading to St. Louis to surprise Jared and the band. After loading our gear into the club, we were chatting with folks at the bar, and in walked Dani! When she walked in we were thinking, "Oh, there's Jared's wife Dani." It took a second for us all to realize that yes, it was Jared's wife Dani... IN ST. LOUIS!! What a wonderful surprise!

Hangin' at Fred Friction's pad.

St. Louis is home to alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo and boasts a thriving twang community, displayed annually at Twangfest, which draws alt-country bands from all over the country to the area. We were ready for one-hell-of-a-show, one made all the better by the fact that Dani secretly flew in to surprise Jared. Frederick's Music Lounge rocked with Two Cow Garage and Lil' Capt'n Travis–two bands that I'm sure we'll share a stage with again. Richard and Aaron tried the house-specialty drink called a "Pabst Smir," a (some might say deadly) combination of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Smirnoff Vodka, served in a glass lined with jalapeno jelly. Thanks to the one-and-only Fred Friction, who also took the time to sit on on drums with Two Cow. After the show, we partied with Lil' Capt'n Travis at Marie Arsenault's place, and we want to extend a special thanks to both Marie and John for letting us crash there for the night.

Side note: Moe made his last appearance of the tour tonight. 14 states over 21 days. Wow.

Sunday, Oct 24
Nothing happened today

So as Julianne was planning this tour, she was working on a Kansas City show for tonight (en route between St. Louis and Denver). We thought we had something lined up at the Stray Cat, but we never, and I mean never, heard back from the club. Not hearing any confirmation, we all wrote the show off as not happening and thought we'd have an extra day to rest. We were all set to split up the long drive to Denver and maybe even have a day or so to relax there. But you see where this is going, don't you? Well, you're right... Jared happened to be searching online and came across the Stray Cat's club calendar, a club calendar that listed us as playing the show in Kansas City! What the &^@#$@^&#????

Alright, so we'll play the show in Kansas City. Knowing that we couldn't start the long drive to Denver, we decided to spend a few hours in St. Louis visiting the Arch. The band also decided to take a whirlwind tour of the natural diversity of this country, courtesy of the large-format photos on the walls of the Arch museum. Aaron got yelled at for fondling a statue of Thomas Jefferson–is nothing sacred anymore?!?

Have you seen little Joe?		I wish I brought my fishing pole even though I don't fish.		We almost got Jared and Rick to act like they were stuck in this swamp.

Richard at 15,000 feet.		This is bull, dude.		I love flowers! Really big flowers!

 

... and no alcohol either.

So I'm sure you're all dying to know how the show went tonight in Kansas City. Well, we played to no one. Except the sound guy and the other band, who decided it wasn't even worth setting up to play their set (and we don't blame them). Kansas City is dead on a Sunday night. There weren't any people on the streets. Nada. Oh, I'm not being totally accurate here... one guy did show up; Bill, who saw us at Slackfest in Stanwood back in September, came down to the show, but unfortunately, we had already finished our set. Thanks to Bill for coming down and providing us with an audience of one. Almost.

Monday, Oct 25
Oreo Cookie Blizzard

Today we drove through Kansas. We ate at Dairy Queen. We saw some hot-air balloons. Ah, Kansas.

Jared and Rick at Red Rocks. See Bono in the background? I didn't think so.

Tuesday, Oct 26
"You got some matches?"

While Richard was having a Day of Action and Aaron was catching up on his movie watching, our host Brian took Jared and Rick to Red Rocks. Yeah, you know Red Rocks. Remember the video for U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday?" That was Red Rocks. They ate lunch there and took in the glorious scenery of the Rockies.

Played a show tonight at the Lion's Lair with Buckskin Stallion. And as she's been doing around the country, our #1 fan Lisa in New York City had shots delivered to us via her friend in Denver, Diana. Thanks to both of them. Both bands played great shows, but the most memorable line of the evening came while we were loading our gear out. This guy walked up to us and, instead of asking for change or a cigarette, he said, "You got some matches, I need to smoke some meth." Um, okay.

Brian and Aaron. Okay, we'll acknowledge that Richard is in the photo as well–on one-too-many Red Bulls.

At our late-night (or early morning, depending on your perspective) dining experience, we learned about the "Reverse Houdini," but no we're not going to explain it here. Extra-special thanks to Brian and his friends for putting us up and making our Denver stay a great one.

Oh, today was a laundry day–last one of the tour. Woo hoo!

Wednesday, Oct 27
The Invisivan®

Ladies and gentlemen, the Invisivan. With snow on the front end (for added stealthness).

One thing has gone unspoken on these tour diary pages since we started out on the road 4 weeks ago. It's time to finally tell the story that needs to be told. Yes, it's time to talk about the Invisivan®. You see, there are just certain days when it seems like we're absolutely invisible on the road. We were actually hit by someone drifting into our lane in Maryland during the first week. Cars and trucks often seem to drift or change lanes as if we weren't there. We know we're not in a semi, but for Christ's sake, we are in a passenger van, not some little Scion or something! So after these recurring incidents seemed to be more than simple coincidence, Jared christened the van the Invisivan. And today, there were four, yes four, Invisivan incidents in one day (I know that's redundant, but heck, there were four incidents in one day!). We were almost hit again by two cars, a van, and a semi. Is the accumulation of dirt on the van some kind of camouflage? Are we blending into the road? The scenery? We don't know the answers to these questions, but what we do know is that we're going to develop a cartoon series with the Invisivan as its star. (Note the trademark on Invisivan... don't try to steal our idea... too late!)

Ice ice baby! Wait, I mean Red Sox Baby!

Today also marked the end of the Red Sox's 86-year World Series drought. They swept the series from St. Louis, and we actually got to watch the game from the tattoo and piercing shop next door to the venue we played at in Salt Lake City. And speaking of Salt Lake City, for being the home of the Mormons, there sure is an unexpected (or perhaps not) seedy underbelly to the town. Tattoos and piercings, porn, lots of iconoclastic imagery (how about a picture of the Pope next to one of 70s Elvis–we were told they're secretly married). So Salt Lake seemed cool, well except for the drive into town... man that last pass just to the east of the city is a nasty one to drive down during a heavy rain storm at night. Where are the lane markers? We didn't know. Don't wanna do that again anytime soon.

Jared and I got dinner from a street burrito stand... everything was in Spanish. After struggling to order our meals, one customer saw Richard putting the really hot sauce on his burrito and he said, "After eating that... now your Spanish will get better." Cool, Richard has that going for him. After dinner, we played with Pagan Love Gods, a Pogues-style Irish-accordion punk-rock cover band, and got to drink beer and sing along to all the unruly anthems.

Thursday, Oct 28
Dig My Vibe

So in the tour diary entry for Thursday, October 7, we made reference to "Hebrew National Salami," our song of the day. At the time, we provided no explanation and said we would talk about it later. Well, being that this is the second-to-last diary entry, later is now. So, here we go: Hebrew National Salami. You see, before our show in Baltimore, we stopped at a record store to kill some time, and as Richard was leaving, he spotted what could be the best compilation CD of all time: a 70's porn soundtrack compilation. But this compilation contained not only music, but dialogue from 70's porn as well. Classic. Choice cuts include Dig My Vibe, Daddy Comes Home, and of course, our personal favorite, Hebrew National Salami. Now you know.

Jared with American Flag lighter = Happy Boy. That's Anthony with him.

We drove through our first snowstorm today in Colorado on our way to the show in Boise at the Neurolux. But before we take you inside the Neurolux, first we have to venture into two of the greatest stores on the planet: the Record Exchange and the Smoke Shop. Every time we come to Boise, we find the coolest, and I mean the coolest, things in these two stores. First, the Record Exchange. We don't know how they do it, but the Record Exchange has–hands down–the best selection of used CDs in the country. And the staff there is generous enough to give us a 50% discount. But we still can't get out of there without spending too much money for a broke band on tour. Okay, now let's turn our attention to the Smoke Shop. Again, we don't know how they do it, but they have the best selection of Zippo lighters we've seen. To the tune of Jared finding the one Zippo lighter he's been seeking for years: the discontinued American Flag lighter. Jared was like a kid in a candy store. Very happy. Also special thanks to Anthony from the Smoke Shop who let us crash at his place. As if the store wasn't cool enough...

Now into the Neurolux. Let's just summarize the experience with some quotations:
"Food schmood... beer is here!"
"I'm sorry I have to say goodnight to you and your beautiful lips."

"Shut up in there or I'm cranking the AC/DC!!

And from later in the evening at Anthony's place. Here's the scene: Band sleeping on living room floor; Anthony in bedroom. Roommate and "friend" playing "checkers" in other room. A very loud game of "checkers." Very loud. And then a shout from Anthony's room:

"Shut up in there or I'm cranking the AC/DC!!"

Man, that's funny.

Heading back to Seattle tomorrow. We get to sleep in our beds soon! Yeah!

Friday, Oct 29
Home on the Range

Don't ask.

Um, this pretty much sums up our "Welcome Home" show at the Tractor. Many people bought us shots.

 

Complete October US tour schedule