The beginning of the day is spent packing and preparing. Danny was a little bummed that I procrastinated so much, because it meant that it was less time with her in the morning before I left her for a month. But, she helped me a lot and reminded me of all the things that I would forget, which was very helpful. We went to CVS, and I got a small one-burner camp stove, and a food bin, and some other supplies. The lady at the checkout said “You guys going camping?” to which I replied “No, I’m going on tour. But, I guess it’s like the same thing.” Last tour I didn’t bring any food with me, and sometimes going to fast food restaurants all the time would hurt my brain, stomach, and wallet. So, this time I stocked up on tons of food in cans and bags. We’re heading to The South as well, so I got a palette of bottled water (which I also froze to cool my cooler). I had mentioned doing this last tour, and half the band thought it was a good idea, and the other half thought that it was “totally gay.” But, I don’t really care as long as I can get by easier.
Ryan picked me up around 1, and Danny and I said our goodbyes. Ryan saw all the crap I was bringing and shook his head and told me he was going to charge me “rent” in the van. I knew from last tour that there was plenty of room in the back for lots of crap, and the more things that we could pile on top of each other, the better. Last tour it rained a lot and the bottom of the van got soaked, so anything that can be stacked on top of anything else will be saved this time around. Ryan and I went and picked up John, and we headed down to the Annex to meet with Peter and Brendan.
Ryan was pretty stressed out because he had been recording 4 albums at once, and also almost went crazy mixing and mastering our new album. Also, the CD plant fucked up on our CD and they’re a week late, so we’re getting the CDs shipped to Austin, which sucks because we have literally TWO 7”s left. At least we have a bunch of shirts to sell, but we don’t have any stickers. Bummer. We got to the Annex, and Peter and Brendan were sitting there waiting for us. Ryan had to take care of some work really fast, so the rest of us hung out outside. Everyone was in good spirits, which was good because riding with Ryan (who wasn’t in good spirits) was a little lame. We take a look at the back of the van and it’s completely covered in mold, so we throw away anything back there that is remotely wet or covered in mold, which is pretty much everything. A few pillows, shirts, towels, and a sleeping bag. We packed everything back up in the van and the trailer and headed out towards Fresno.
The ride was pretty uneventful. Ryan said that he was getting a lot of positive feedback about the album, which was good to hear. He also said that Middah entered us in to see if we could get picked for Warped Tour, which John was excited about, but everyone else in the band agreed that it would be a total nightmare. Ryan explained that it really doesn’t take anything to get on Warped Tour as a side-stage band, but you’d be literally competing with NOFX and be in the sun all day and play a shitty short set and not get paid a dime. We’d be way better off doing a short tour on our own. Also, Warped Tour is lame.
We get to “The Lamppost” in Fresno fairly early, about 6-7, and I go inside to scope it out. It’s an extremely small bar, and at the moment it looks like no one inside is under the age of 40. The bartender says that we can setup and play anytime we want to, but we need to let him know so that he can move the benches out of the way. Uh, ok, I guess. I go back outside and report. It’s early and none of the other bands are there, so we go out in search of food and a Walmart or something where Ryan can buy a new sleeping bag. We stop at Panda Express and head inside. I don’t get anything (obviously), and John asks the people there for some hot water for his Cup O’ Noodles. He apparently didn’t care that the water wasn’t going to hot enough to cook the noodles, and we all stared in amazement when he opened a small can of mini hot dogs and dumped them in his lukewarm water and crunchy Cup O’ Noodles, and ate the whole thing. Wow.
Afterwards, Ryan finds us a Walmart on his new Droid’s GPS with awesome voice guided step-by-step instructions that keeps losing connection and blurting out a “GPS Singal Lost,” which was a riot. I don’t usually find myself inside Walmarts, it’s kind of insane how much of a small city it almost is. Ryan and John pick up a sleeping bag, and I find this knife for 1$ that turned out to be terrible, but whatever.
We get back to The Lamppost and the other band Asiago is there. We played with them at the Hot Dog Heaven show there last month in Los Banos, and I was glad to be playing with them again; they seemed like a cool bunch and they were one of the better local bands I think that we’ve played with. The guy from Quote Your Pulse records was there, too. Shortly after we get there, a DJ shows up and starts setting up his equipment, so I guess there was going to be a DJ as well. He starts spinning these mashups that are pretty crazy, like Sublime and Lil’ John or NWA and nu-metal stuff and country. I guess that’s what you do if you want to appeal to/offend all audiences. We miraculously setup all our gear in the small space we had, but we had to completely block the front door to do so. This was most likely a fire hazard. I borrowed the bass amp from the bassist in Asiago, because the Atom Age bass amp was too massive.
We’re about to go on, and the guy who booked the show wanted to say a few things first, but we weren’t sure where he was, but we waited for him anyways. He turns up a few minutes later, and takes the mic and says (paraphrasing) “Thanks for coming out. My name is Doctor Claw and I’m going to perform a few songs for you before the Atom Age go up, I hope you like them.” So, we put down our instruments and watch him perform 3 rap songs with the DJ supplying him with his beats. Kind of unexpected, but this was the first show of the tour, so I didn’t really mind. I just thought it was funny. Afterwards we retake the floor and go into it.
We played fine; I could hardly hear myself through the Asiago bass amp, and after the first song we had to turn it up pretty much all the way. I stood behind everyone and didn’t have a mic and could barely move because the space was so small, but that was fine. Our set was short, but nothing went wrong and I thought we sounded pretty tight for our first show. There was hardly anybody there, I think just a handful of people that weren’t in Asiago or from Quote Your Pulse, but we needed a warm up show. We sold a few shirts after the show, and got a small amount from the bartender which was more than we expected. Not bad.
Asiago came up after us. They were the only other band, and I liked them and remembered a song or two from last time. They didn’t have their album out yet; I would have picked it up if they had. We got invited to stay at the singers house, but it was over an hour in the opposite direction which translates into “far enough to equal a motel room in gas money.” The band wanted to stay in a motel which is the first time that I had ever heard them express interest in paid lodging. I was fine with the van, but I think that Peter had scared everyone else into not sleeping in the van because of the mold. Sissies. We found a suitable motel and Ryan said that someone had to sleep in the van to protect the gear. I volunteered, because I was already cozy with the idea of sleeping in the van, and also I didn’t have van defender duty once last tour, so I felt sort of obligated. Plus, I wanted to make myself a sandwich, which I did as soon as the band went up to the room. I got out my sleeping bag and went to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment