Day 7

We had another fairly long drive to Redding, CA from Portland; so Ryan said that we should leave by 11. I woke up at 10:45 and took a shower. I found out that I had left my towel at Chris' place (big surprise), so I borrowed one from Walker Death Ray. Their house was pretty gigantic, and there were people walking around everywhere, and a few of them told me that they didn't live there. I got out of the shower at 11:15, and no one had woken up yet. I wasn't really worried about it, because if we were really pressed for time then someone would have set an alarm.

I got a call from Danny, who was a little upset with me because I have been a bit neglectful of her on tour, which is always going to be true to some extent, but she was right because there were a few specific things that I should have done for her that I didn't do, and some nice things she has done for me that I had not fully appreciated. It made me miss her a lot more than I already did, and I felt awful that I upset her. I'll try harder to keep her in mind. Tour is brain consuming, but I do think about her, and I should let her know that I do.

People finally did get up, and we left shortly after. We were in a hurry, so we didn't say a proper goodbye to the Danger Death Ray guys, but I said bye to Walker and gave Ryan a hug. We got in the van, and John took the wheel because Ryan couldn't drive through Oregon. We stopped at Subway/Little Caesar's and got some food. Peter, Brendan and I got 2 pizzas, 2 breadsticks, and a 2 liter for the road. I once again spent most of the drive writing in the tour journal, until my laptop battery died. Peter was singing some Elvis Costello, and I asked him how much Power Pop he listened to. He didn't know what I was talking about, which surprised me because by the music he listens to, he should have known Power Pop by now. So I let him borrow my iPod and put on the Rhino D.I.Y. Power Pop comps for him. Afterwards he said that he had heard most of that stuff, and then gave me shit for the Plan-It-X stuff I had on my iPod; he had been going through my iPod artists.

I tried doing this thing that the band does in the van that always seemed a little weird to me, but they swear by it and says that it makes them feel reenergized, among other things. So I tried this “taking a nap” jive, and I couldn't really get into it. I would nod off and wake up every 5 minutes. I was lying down and I felt the van pull over and saw that we were in a parking lot. We were stopping at a Guitar Center for some supplies. So I groggily walked into GC because I needed some bass strings. Peter and I were talking to the sales guy and I was still a little foggy and I asked Peter “Wait, what town are we in?” Peter said “Medford” and I said “Huh? … oh.” The sales guy I think was getting a little tired of me, so I just got the cheapest bass strings that they had and we left.

Immediately as we cross into California, it stops raining. Thank god, I was so fucking tired of the constant rain of the North West. We get to Redding and pull up to the Eatery, the pub where we're playing tonight. The band is excited, because this place gives bands free food and a free place to stay. I go inside on venue recon, and see that the first band has already started playing. I think we're playing second, so I tell the band that we should probably hurry up and load in. Ryan asks me a few things (things that I should have asked the bartender) but I don't know the answer. I realize now that I'm not very good at venue recon. Oh well. We hurry up and load in. The first band is this hardcore band that plays “Radio” by Rancid and “Minor Threat” by Minor Threat as their last 2 songs. I like the Minor Threat, and it seems like I'm the only one in the room who knows the song (which was sorta weird to me) and I start singing along and the lead singer gestures for me to go up and join him. I blow him off, because I have gear to setup.

The crowd is pretty small, and there's not a lot of people at the bar, and the place doesn't really have a great vibe, so I think we just want to get it over with. We setup fairly quickly, and the way John set up his drum set, I didn't have room to be on the side of the stage that I'm usually on, so I'm over by Peter for the first time. I usually can't even see Peter through Ryan and Brendan during the set, so this should be a different perspective. We played alright, but the small crowd was mostly stationary. “The Witch” had become part of the set now that I had learned it, and it's really fun to play, even though it's a cover. Not the greatest set, and I think that my bass amp kept cutting out because we were forced to daisy chain power strips, and the entire band was playing out of 1 outlet.

We were playing on the floor, so loading out was really easy. Afterwards we all ordered our free food. I got tofu tacos and a side of garlic parmesan fries. The food wasn't good, but it was free. We hung around the bar while the last band was playing, but then I started to get an awful pain in my stomach. I could feel the “Matt Stomach Fuck” coming on, which I knew was about to get way way worse, and I knew this night was about to take a turn for the worst. It did get progressively worse and by the end of the night I was visiting the bathroom every half hour or so. Bad and unfun.

We talked to the opening band, who were also on tour. They were on a 6 week tour, but next year they were tour from January to June. For 6 months. We all thought that they must be out of their minds. The lead singer said that he was homeless back home, and that being on tour was always better than being at home, so why not? Ryan said later that that is a really good way to destroy a band, and I think I agree. The opening band also talked to us about the Bombpops, and Ryan said that we were opening for them in San Diego, and later told me that I would like them and that they were really good. Cool.

Peter was taken by the owner to see where we were staying. It was a different place than the last time that The Atom Age came through, and significantly shadier. We were staying in an under construction storefront that was completely empty. We all got our bags out of the van and went in, and the only light in the place came from these floor construction lights. There was one outlet that worked, and a power strip that we all plugged our phones/computers into. The bathroom didn't have any lights, which sucked even more because I had my bad stomach ache. The place was completely empty, and the wood floors and bare walls gave about a 3 second reverb to anything that we did. The place looked like it used to be some sort of clothing store, and Ryan, Peter, and John stayed in the dressing rooms on the floor, because it had carpet. I setup near the back of the place where there was also carpet. Brendan slept in the van to keep it guarded, which is a really good policy to have, and he volunteered for it. We were playing the next day in Sacramento, and so we were asking Ryan if he knew where we were staying that night. He said “Are you guys kidding? I'm staying at home in my bed! The show ends at 8, so why wouldn't we just go home for the night? The lack of common sense in this band sometimes astounds me.” Way awesome! I texted Danny and told her to meet me at my place at about 10 or 11. We all stayed up pretty late watching stupid youtube videos (at least we had WiFi) and I finally fell asleep at around 4.