Friday 30th of June 2000 08:38:42 AM
We've been home for a month and a half now. We leave in 4 days for the next one. This was a great tour. Thanks to everyone for their help.
MIKE
Friday 30th of June 2000 08:37:10 AM
May 8th - We play at the 1021 House in Minneapolis with Dillinger 4... Also got some good quality time with Alabama the dog.
-MIKE
Friday 05th of May 2000 03:01:09 AM
Tonight I set up my sleeping bag on the stage where we played. The drums are still scattered around. We are in Minot, ND... that's pronounced mine-ott...(to which I also said "whaaat?!") Touring for me follows a few patterns... and it depends on the area I am in, mainly. For the past couple days we've been trekking through these very small towns in places more remote than I've imagined. The drives tend to be average length, meaning 6 or so hours. So we usually pull in with time to spare, after a long uneventful drive. I mean it's cool to look ahead and see nothing but road for as long as the eye can see but how long can the coolness last? Well, we pull in with time to spare, which is the kicker, see. I tend to get bored and a little restless... the show is in a house or a hall or a garage and offers little entertainment other than the music, which is often of dubious quality. So inevetibly I wonder what the hell I'm doing in Williston, ND and could it possibly be worth it? You know, too much time on my hands. Well, we play and everything looks up cause its great. The people there are appreciative that we come to the town... Someone told me tonight "We really appreciate you coming to our town." So then it's good 'til the next day/drive/doldrum. That's week three into four. What follows is my, hopefully, abbreviated versions of the tour so far.
The first couple days I am reeling from too much shit to do before we left. It takes a little while to get in the tour groove where you are happy to do nothing. I am working out the kinks in my performance.
The first week is easily characterized by the phrase "Close your mind." I have little recollection of much of this week due to an increasingly closed mind. Thank you Mike Pack!
Later that first week and into the second. "Close your fist on the steering wheel and drive!" This persists for three days until Denver area. The kinks persist... I'm stunned.
In Denver I shop. I am winded as hell when we play. Then we drive again.
Las vegas. Fifty dollars down. Typical.
So California represents ALL that is goodness about the rock and roll tour. I'll try to keep this short but it'll be hard cause I want to gush about it. Thank god the shows were generally kinda crappy cause otherwise I'd still be there. OK, real quick. Two days in Sandiego. One skatepark, one fun afterparty-ish at adrienne's, one fun band (tiltwheel). Two days in LA. Two days at the beaCH, three sunburns, one MTV video in progress. Three days in San Fran. Two big girls dancing on bars, one car accident (sorry!), one great skate session with Jim Adeline, One free lunch courtesy Lookout records (thanks chris), one old pal to hang with, two mission burritos. Eight shows total in Cali, and I'm adding new drum fills to screw up which means I'm good on the old ones.
That was week two into three. Three into four and we are back where we started (see beginning of this entry). On the horizon is a week of not much before getting to NYC. At least this is what I'm looking forward to. It's the consecutive time in one place that I tend to appreciate... it makes the long ass drives well worth it! NYC is bit of a second home... it's home to many of my peoples. So it'll seem a little like being home before we are home. And then home. I am anxious to hear about all the good stuff that happened this month at least all the stuff that wasn't posted on the dawn mac gossup page...it's the bomb (check it www.gl.umbc.edu/~dmercu1/pole.html)Please check this out cause dawn's self esteem is directly proportional to the number on her counter... I check five times a day. It's way better than the Oxes site!
OK see you soon Roman
Friday 05th of May 2000 02:08:43 AM
After Pch show we drive all night to San Francisco. We've got a meeting with cris from Lookout at two. We arrive and sleep at our longtime friend lori's in s.f. and then head to berkely for some hobnobbing. things are hitting the fan at lookout and cris is trying to straighten them all out before his departure to japan. very nice fellow. highly caffinated. free lunch and and plenty of lookout philosophy. amazing. the offer is on the table. we've got some thinking to do. Pop punk and ska are now emo. the seventh sign of the apocalypse. i'm right there with it cause i just bought a pair of black dress shoes.
go to show at the covered wagon. play first. have fun. see lots of old friends-Kate from high school, reno divorce memebrs, aaron from the probe and hang out with all the Adeline crew. Lots of fun. Next day hit the falafel and respective burrito joints on valencia and head to Jim from adeline's wharehouse to secure lodging for after the gilman show. go to gilman show and play. amazing show but would have been better had we not played-mostly a country bill- cinder from tilt singing patsy cline songs to the tee-not the ideal show for our music but lots of fun-roman backs into someone with the van and i'm stressed about insurance bullshit- hopefully won't get dropped-go to the wharehouse and watch Quadrophenia and talk to brian from strichnine(one of the inhabitants.)
go to ameoba record store and pick up the first two x records on vinyl for 2$ each- realize later that the copy of wild gift has been autographed by all the members-fuck yeah!-drive to fairfield-
takes 30 minutes instead of 90 as we were told-play a very cool house show and head back to the wharehouse in oakland-next day jim from adeline who is also Real skateboards mogul is sponsoring a exhibition featuring Mark Gonzales in Berkely-roman gets out there with the best of them-drive to s.f. to the matinee show in a garage-lots of fun-see the guy from new disorder records and realize i played with his band skinhead magnet almost ten years ago in new york-bobby
Wednesday 03rd of May 2000 03:49:39 AM
4/26: Wilmington, CA - PCH Space - Alex has a really good thing going at the PCH. Nice space, and usually really eclectic bills. This is pretty much my favorite place to play in the LA area. Support this place if you live near it. If you're in a band from somewhere else - go play it. -Mike
4/25: LA, CA - Al's Bar is usually fun. This time kind of blew, though. I think there were 3 people there.
4/24: Huntington Beach -Vinyl Solution - Cool record store. fun show.
4/23: San Diego - Easter Sunday - Brick by Brick - It's a tough night to play a show, Easter. This Easter was no different really. Not too many people there. Our friends Corey & April came though, and it's always great to see them. - Mike
Wednesday 03rd of May 2000 03:39:27 AM
4/22: Las Vegas - played at the Thunderbird with Tiltwheel & Civic Minded 5. Part of our payment was a hotel room for the night. Pretty cool. There were stains on the sheets and bullet holes on the wall. Me and Roman went down to Caesars Palace and broke even. -mike
Thursday 27th of April 2000 12:29:09 PM
4/21: Denver CO - We had our usual pre-show bbq at Soda Jerk HQ. It was good to see Mike, Jay, Andrea, and Henry again. The show was at the Raven with Pinhead Circus. I love those guys. We have to get in the van and drive to Las Vegas now.
Thursday 27th of April 2000 12:25:31 PM
4/20: Laramie, WY - Played at the Mini, which is a really cool garage behind the Mini Mart. It was pretty cold outside, and they had these fires going outside in these big barrels. People were throwing skids around, trying to create firewood. The cops pulled up right when we were loading our equipment, but they let the party continue. They took some kid away in cuffs. We began to rock it as the kid was hauled off. -MIKE
Thursday 27th of April 2000 12:17:17 PM
4/19: Ft. Collins, CO - Another long drive to get to Colorado. This show was set up at the last minute because our Sioux Falls show got cancelled again. (2 tours ago we tried to play there, and they flaked on us both times - we will not try again.) We played the Starlight in Ft. Collins with some college alterna-rock bands. I'm guessing there were about 130 people at the show, and about 30 of them stuck around to see us. It was really cool. We had a fun show, and the people in Ft. Collins treated us great as usual. Oh yeah, I got to watch the Caps win a playoff game. They're already eliminated. I'm hurting. -MIKE
Wednesday 19th of April 2000 01:46:16 AM
4/18 - Warrensburg, MO - Played in Kosher's basement. Great guys and a great band!! Buy their stuff. Go see them play. -Mike
Wednesday 19th of April 2000 01:44:40 AM
4/17 - Chattanooga, TN - This is pretty much our favorite place to play in the world so far. We've met so many sweet people there, and they are always so enthusiastic about music and life in general. played with the morons and j.p.b. this was the last of 4 fun shows that we got to play with j.palance on this tour. This was the best. -mike
Wednesday 19th of April 2000 01:42:00 AM
4/16 - Tampa - this was the third time that we played the a.d.d. house. it was great to see those guys again. they are putting out a split 7" with us and j.pallance band - should be out in june. we played with the timversion - they were cool. we got to go eat breakfast at little havana in the morning before we rolled out.
Sunday 16th of April 2000 03:06:48 PM
Valdosta ,Ga. 4/14-- Kevin is doing something really cool there- An all Ages space that starts late and seems likeits only getting better-We got there around 7pm so we shopped at the local target and grabbed some amazing barbeque- jack pallance band showed up and taught us the latest in self-help techniques-"Close Your Mind To It!"-this may take some patience to try and understand but i think we are coming around-Slowly being Brainwashed by their apperent Jim Jones-esque leader/one with the biggest mouth Mike Pak-he is a dangerous fellow-They are a dangerous band though too and i can't wait to keep playing with them these next few days-oh yeah the show was fun bobby
Sunday 16th of April 2000 02:58:45 PM
4/15: Gainesville Florida. Of all the times we've played here, this was my favorite. We played at the 911 House -- a bunch of people packed into a tiny little room. Lots of people hanging out in the front yard, back yard, all over the place. Played with the Lexingtons and J.Palance Band. After we played about 6 Gainesville bands got up and played (Hello Shitty People, The Cheryl Cro-Mags, Bitchin', some Minor Threat cover band, and a couple more.). It was a great night. Bobby accidentally kicked a full beer can into the head of a new friend that we had made. Thanks a lot to Jim for setting this baby up. -- MIKE
Saturday 15th of April 2000 02:07:24 PM
Raleigh, N.C. 4/13- The Foundation show is cancelled due to rain!?-We scrounge up another at the Record Exchange. Mike humors some insane guy with lots of good record cover ideas "there will be a white dog with black sunglasses and a black dog with black sunglasses" Sheer genius! He left after the first chord change and the record store owner thanked us. Matt Brown was there from the ashley stove. He and ben B. (also from the stoveneckers) helped hook us up with a show that night at the Kings. Luckily for us, our friend ron from pipe has a new band called clok-lok who were playing and a couple other bands dropped off the bill, so we got the green light! We ended up having a great time with the clok-lokers in chapel hill afterwards. Thanks to Raleigh for unending southern hospitality (as usual!)
Saturday 15th of April 2000 01:59:02 PM
Williamsburg 4/12 -Williamsburg was great. Played with The Remotes, Submerge, and the Pimps. All were really cool. Very eclectic bill. Exactly what we like. Kudos to Chris (formerly from Lemon Joy) for setting up the show. Drove to Norfolk and stayed at my Nana's house. Fuck you I'll call her Nana if I want to. -Bobby
Tuesday 11th of April 2000 10:43:09 AM
April 11th- we leave tomorrow-t-shirts still need to be screened-still havn't done my taxes-still haven't packed-still need to pick up my guitar from the shop-still need to organize directions since i won't have access to my computer-running out of time.-bobby