The Thumbs

The Thumbs 3rd U.S. Tour- May 1st-July 3rd, 1998
This was our first U.S. tour with our real drummer and also the first without Mark our bass player. Mike switched back to bass-the instrument he played in the Pee Tanks for eight years.

date city venue bands

May 1st Westchester, NY. Pat's Basement Throttlejockey, Man Without Plan

Sat, 2nd Wayne, NJ Roller Rink with ????

Sun, 3rd, 2pm Wayne,NJ Basement Boxcar

Sun, 3rd, 7pm Baltimore, Md. Hopkins E-level Fuses,Crispus Attucks,Perestroika, All Pro

This show is what we are about-we play our first show without Mark in front of Mark-a real tearjerker-the Fuses were a surprise guest-all the bands are great- probably 20 people fill the ballroom at hopkins-we know them all-the show is amazing and no one but the bands and their girlfriends will ever know-if you ever see us in front of five people and it seems like we are having a good time its because we are used to it-if you see us playing a sold out show and we seem to be having a great time its because we appreciate it.
-Bobby (note the optimism b/c it's our fourth show)

Mon 4th Cincinatti, OH. Lame Bar Spodie, Gojira

Tues 5th Canceled

Wed 6th Canceled

Thur 7th Columbus, OH Bar Billy Club, Darlington, Midway

Fri 8th Minneapolis, MN. Sociopath House Cleveland Bound Death Sentence, Ann Beretta

Sociapath House w/Cleveland Bound Death Sentence,ANN BERETTA Sometimes you'll go out on the road and play tons of shows and never see a band you like and sometimes a band you never heard of jumps on the bill and blows your mind. Cleveland Bound Death Sentence blew my mind-i guess it was also the fact the show was inside a box of a room crammed full of eighty people all getting rough and knocking each other around-the band played a few songs and then when they ran out of material they started back through the set a few more times -the mikes weren't working but i was definately converted. Buy their stuff and go see them.

Sat 9th Chicago, IL. Fireside Bowl Oblivion, The Cretins, Animal Chin

Sun 10th Canceled

Mon 11th Muncie,IN. Stevie Ray's Billy Club

Tue 12th Milwaukee, WI. Ben and Richard's House Anna$50, The Dynomites

Wed 13th Canceled

Thur 14th Wisconsin Falls, WI. Space Dirty Water Dogs

Fri 15th Green Bay, WI. Concert Cafe 1st show with U.S. Bombs, Falling Sickness, 2nd show with Lazy Cowgirls, Boris The Sprinkler

Sat 16th Aberdeen, SD. Hall Show 98 Comeback

Sun 17th Canceled

Mon 18th Moorehead,MN. Ralph's Corner

Tues 19th Sioux Falls, SD. Canceled

Wed 20th Rapid City, SD. Arapaho Comunity Center One For The Gipper,Red Scare

Thur 21st Rapid City, SD. Basement The Redmen

Fri 22nd Omaha, NE. Cog Factory Boris The Sprinkler

Sat 23rd Great Falls, MT. Graduation Party Electric Summer, Homeless Wonders

Sun 24th Missoula, MT. Jay's Upstairs Electric Summer, Homeless Wonders

Play real drunk-apparently I said people could throw bottles at my teeth because I met some guys later that tell me they were tempted but they liked us enough not to knock them out. Jesus,I really need health insurance. One of the guys is in a wheelchair and for those of you that have never been to Jay's Upstairs as the name suggests it is upstairs and there isn't a ramp. So this guy was wheeling by and got his friend to cary him up three flights. No small feat. Later Phil wins the affection or at least attension of an ex-stripper and they star in an amatuer video. Phil Spence; Ladykiller. I passed out in the van.
-Bobby

Mon 25th Canceled

Tues 26th Boise,ID Bug's Garage Electric Summer

Wed 27th Seattle, WA Sub Zero Electric Summer

We leave a message on Marlo from Swing Riot's answering machine saying that we are siphoning gasoline out of the van gas tank and will be torching the Sub Zero for their shabby treatment of us. Promoters beware swift and exact justice will occur when The Thumbs are miffed. It must have been those shots of port given to us. Who does shots of wine anyway.
-bobby

Thur 28th Portland,OR EJ's Electric Summer

Fri 29th San Fran,Ca The Tip Top Strictnine,Electric Summer

Sat 30th Berkeley, Ca Gilman Subincision, Nuclear Rabbit, Soda pop Fuck You, and E.S.

Sun 31st La, Ca. The Garage The Rayovaks, Electric Summer

Ok our return to the infamous Sucker Night-this time we were smart and we are on the show-its 3$ all you can drink for bands between 6-8pm and mike and i take advantage-this time its not a "gay" mixer just a mixer so no more gay celebrities or hostile womyn or overly friendly guys-"not that there's anything wrong with that"-just a regular show mc'd by a seven foot tall drag queen-Ms. Vaginal Cream Davis. Well we play and while not so tight we are very punk. So punk in fact that Ms. Davis demands an encore of sorts. She licked my armpit and said I was a crusty punk. Apparently the only true acid test. Actually I've heard that i got off easy. She calls Phil a Raphealite and we are impressed. Next up is Electric Summer and they've learned their lesson and won't ever drink until after they play and they play. I'm real drunk at this point and getting wildly happy. I wait until Toshi is in mid-air pogo-ing and shove his legs from out from under him. Toshi comes down hard and breaks the fall with his face and the microphone. The microphone stops working for some reason. He stands up and smashes it down on the stage. The sound man rushes up to the stage and replaces the microphone yelling obcenities which no one can here for the music. For some reason I charge the sound man and sends all 300lbs of him sprawling onto the stage almost knocking Toshi down again. Mike gest pulled aside "Your friend is about to get thrown out of here!" he's told by the promoter. Despite all the mischief we scrounge up a place to stay for both bands and drive to the supermarket. Later I'm told I jumped off the second story patio into a fur tree of some sort and remained inside of it for a good half an hour. Why? I don't remember. After a while I came back in covered in sap and went to sleep. Kazu chastises us for our "un-tight" performance but Toshi says, "You guys rock and roll!"
-bobby

June 1st Wilmington,Ca PCH Space E.S., Demnetia 13, Hacksaw

Tues 2nd Canceled

Wed 3rd Anaheim,Ca Public Storage E.S.

Thur 4th Los Angeles Al's Bar Don's Wake (Don the guy who took Mike to get Burritos on U.S. tour one)

Fri 5th Los Angeles,CA Bullocks THE GAIN,E.S.,The Force, The Muderers

Sat 6th Oceanside,CA Bub's Whiskey Bar Electric Summer

We arrive and find out we are playing what looks like every sports bar in existence and it has the potential to be a horrible show. Oceanside is the west coast equivilent of Paris Island on the east coast and is where the Marine recruits are trained. Lots of testosterone. However despite appearances they like punk rock in Oceanside or more importantly like our version of it. We are told why the Olympics ruined the L.A. Punk scene (we are all about history) and play to one of the best receptions of the tour. Amazing show. Hands down the best Mexican food. Thanks Blaze for setting that one up.

Sun 7th Longbeach, CA The Foothill Canceled

Mon 8th Tempe, AZ House Electric Summer

Tues 9th Las Vegas, NV The Wet Stop just us

Wed 10th El Paso, TX The Clinic Canceled

Very often someone will look at our tour itinerary and they'll say "who's the dumb ass who booked this tour? They got you driving all the place" We tell them that we booked it ourselves and that we don't mind killing ourselves to get to the next show if it's going to be a good show and people there will treat us with respect etc-This show was was following a string of bad ones and we drove all night from Las Vegas to get there because we have always had good shows in El Paso and met great people there and we were expecting our luck to turn around. We got there and occupied ourselves all day and show up at the club and find out that it has been shut down for a month and despite the fact that we have been on the road for almost seven weeks we are always checking our messages in order to avoid things like this but no one has called our answering machines back home to tell us not to drive twelve hours through the desert to a club that doesn't exist. They didn't get around to it. Well despite our coaxing the promoter wouldn't tell us where he lived- we wanted a place to stay, possibly some food and to inflict some violence on him, etc- When you book a show remember "confirmed " means confirmed and we don't cancel shows unless someone's in the hospital or the van is in flames so all we ask is for a little courtesy and pick up the phone.

Thr 11th Albuquerque, NM Fred's Bakery E.S., Welt

Fri 12th Denver, CO The Raven The Nobody's, E.S.

Sat 13th Boulder, Co Club 156 E.S.,The Gamit,The Ginders

Sun 14th Lawrence, KS The Replay Lounge just us

Mon 15th Norman, OK record store

Tue 16th Fayetteville, AR Klunk Coffee House

Wed 17th Austin, TX The Bates Motel an Emo show

Thur 18th Dallas, TX The Orbit Room the orbit room's last show

Fri 19th Temple, TX a Rave a couple of snooty Dj's with a laser show

Sat 20th Mississippi a birthday party Crispus Attucks, De Nada and many others.

Sun 21st Pesacola, FL Sluggo's canceled

Mon 22nd Columbia, SC Garret and Mark's Space Digger

Tues 23rd Tampa, FL A.D.D. House Swing Riot

Wed 24th Orlando, FL a Loading bay Blackhead

Thur 25th De land, FL Coffee House Reno Divorce

Fri 26th Deltona, FL ??? Spent Idols

Sat 27th Gainesville, FL canceled hung out with Swing Riot

Sun 28th Chattanooga, TN ??? Jack Pallance Band, Swing Riot

Well we didn't realize it but Chattanooga is now the residence of the former members of the Shaeffers-definately a pleasant surprise. We play a really fun show and later when faced with the two opportunities on where to sleep-the nice place where we will go to bed early or the punk house where everyone stays up to all hours of the night- we choose the rowdy Kirby house because if you are going to sleep on a floor or in the van and it's sweltering hot you may as well get liqoured up and sleep where you fall and thats exactly what we did- It seems it was an off night for the house members and after a few comments on how we were dissapointed at their low moral and the absence of rowdiness- they taught us a drinking game-spinners-basically you flip a quarter and if you guess right you get to choose who must flip next if you guess wrong they spin the quarter and you drink until the quarter stops and you guess again-this is not a very social game only because there really isn't time to have a conversation-it doesn't take long for the famous Thumbs bad luck to rear its ugly head-" tails never fails has never been more wrong-despite consistent drinking for the last two months I still hadn't developed a tolerance for alcohol and things started to deteriorate fast. We were swilling it down at a scary rate and I was soon about to look for my spot in the dirt to pass out. I forgot to mention that the Kirby house didn't contain a working toilet and we were told that if the need should arise to either do our business in the yard or use the bucket with the water in it. Well bearing this in mind I fall off my chair and knock the poop bucket over,spilling all the poop water everywhere-a faux pas even at the kirby house-we quickly run out of alcohol and despite the thumbs collective mental capacity we lead the charge and trek off to the gas station/beer store about a mile away-mike stops off and attempts to pass out under a car-we leave him for dead- mike later reported the owner of said car asked him what he is doing and for some reason he never heard of the thumbs and mike was forced to leave or be trounced- Well we make it through the night and do indeed pass out where we fall. Hangovers aside we had a great time there. Every once in a while you play a town that has this amazing scene-something is going on there that is so rare and almost impossible to duplicate anywhere else. Chattanooga gets my vote for punk rock vaction spot of the year. There are tons of bands all good and inspiring each other and we can't wait to go back.

Mon 29th Chattanooga, TN ????? The Shaeffers

Mon 29th Atlanta, GA C-11 American Steel

Tues 30th Atlanta, GA canceled

Wed July 1st Spartenburg, SC didn't let us play but....

We try to find a show at all costs so we drive to spartenburg because a band we played with a few nights earlier are supposed to be playing there and we are thinking we can weasel on the bill-it turns out the the band we know isn't playing but a bunch of ska bands are so we plead with the club owner and he gives in- the soundman however doesn't want anymore set up hassles and a three piece is such a headache compared to a 5 member horn section so he exercises his executive veto and we play pool all night and we meet Robert. He is a crippled speed freak that is real drunk and keeps going into his girlfriend/nurse's purse to score more pills. Well he likes us and wants us to let him be our manager because together we could make a lot of money-everything is going fine when he accuses us of taking it easy on him after we keep running the table in pool-At this point he is able to stand for a minute or so before collapsing on the floor and hard. Real hard-crutches and pool cues are going everywhere but this is normal for Robert we are told. He goes off and we see him kicking and punching on a couch-rearranging cushions etc-hmmmn It's odd but we don't dwell on it- He comes back over and says "do you guys have my back-I just beat up some of those ska pussies and there might be trouble"-enough said-We take our leave and drive to the rest stop-we are one show from home.

Thur 2nd Roanoke, VA Art Gallery just us

Never let someone from the audience use your equipment. We were the only band and finished our set and these kids asked if they could play a song. Bear in mind we are on the second to last show of a nine week tour the last three weeks being in 100 degree heat and just played our set grumpily but dead on tight -we are about as hard and surly as we are ever going to be due to having been put through much misery and we figure if these kids have the balls to ask us then who are we to refuse. Big mistake. Well they started "jamming"- possible my least favorite expression and then kicked into that awlful Breakfast At Tiffany's song- I almost committed a murder that day.

Fri 3rd Baltimore , MD The Loft Lickety Split, The Runz

date	city	venue	bands
May 1st	Westchester, NY.	Pat's Basement	Throttlejockey, Man Without Plan
Sat, 2nd	Wayne, NJ	Roller Rink	with ????
Sun, 3rd, 2pm	Wayne,NJ	Basement	Boxcar
Sun, 3rd, 7pm	Baltimore, Md.	Hopkins E-level	Fuses,Crispus Attucks,Perestroika, All Pro
This show is what we are about-we play our first show without Mark in front of Mark-a real tearjerker-the Fuses were a surprise guest-all the bands are great- probably 20 people fill the ballroom at hopkins-we know them all-the show is amazing and no one but the bands and their girlfriends will ever know-if you ever see us in front of five people and it seems like we are having a good time its because we are used to it-if you see us playing a sold out show and we seem to be having a great time its because we appreciate it. -Bobby (note the optimism b/c it's our fourth show)
Mon 4th	Cincinatti, OH.	Lame Bar	Spodie, Gojira
Tues 5th	Canceled
Wed 6th	Canceled
Thur 7th	Columbus, OH	Bar	Billy Club, Darlington, Midway
Fri 8th	Minneapolis, MN.	Sociopath House	Cleveland Bound Death Sentence, Ann Beretta
Sociapath House w/Cleveland Bound Death Sentence,ANN BERETTA Sometimes you'll go out on the road and play tons of shows and never see a band you like and sometimes a band you never heard of jumps on the bill and blows your mind. Cleveland Bound Death Sentence blew my mind-i guess it was also the fact the show was inside a box of a room crammed full of eighty people all getting rough and knocking each other around-the band played a few songs and then when they ran out of material they started back through the set a few more times -the mikes weren't working but i was definately converted. Buy their stuff and go see them.
Sat 9th	Chicago, IL.	Fireside Bowl	Oblivion, The Cretins, Animal Chin
Sun 10th	Canceled
Mon 11th	Muncie,IN.	Stevie Ray's	Billy Club
Tue 12th	Milwaukee, WI.	Ben and Richard's House	Anna$50, The Dynomites
Wed 13th	Canceled
Thur 14th	Wisconsin Falls, WI.	Space	Dirty Water Dogs
Fri 15th	Green Bay, WI.	Concert Cafe	1st show with U.S. Bombs, Falling Sickness, 2nd show with Lazy Cowgirls, Boris The Sprinkler
Sat 16th	Aberdeen, SD.	Hall Show		98 Comeback
Sun 17th	Canceled
Mon 18th	Moorehead,MN.	Ralph's Corner
Tues 19th	Sioux Falls, SD.	Canceled
Wed 20th	Rapid City, SD.	Arapaho Comunity Center	One For The Gipper,Red Scare
Thur 21st	Rapid City, SD.	Basement		The Redmen
Fri 22nd	Omaha, NE.	Cog Factory	Boris The Sprinkler
Sat 23rd	Great Falls, MT.	Graduation Party	Electric Summer, Homeless Wonders
Sun 24th	Missoula, MT.	Jay's Upstairs	Electric Summer, Homeless Wonders
Play real drunk-apparently I said people could throw bottles at my teeth because I met some guys later that tell me they were tempted but they liked us enough not to knock them out. Jesus,I really need health insurance. One of the guys is in a wheelchair and for those of you that have never been to Jay's Upstairs as the name suggests it is upstairs and there isn't a ramp. So this guy was wheeling by and got his friend to cary him up three flights. No small feat. Later Phil wins the affection or at least attension of an ex-stripper and they star in an amatuer video. Phil Spence; Ladykiller. I passed out in the van. -Bobby
Mon 25th	Canceled
Tues 26th	Boise,ID	Bug's Garage	Electric Summer
Wed 27th	Seattle, WA	Sub Zero	Electric Summer
We leave a message on Marlo from Swing Riot's answering machine saying that we are siphoning gasoline out of the van gas tank and will be torching the Sub Zero for their shabby treatment of us. Promoters beware swift and exact justice will occur when The Thumbs are miffed. It must have been those shots of port given to us. Who does shots of wine anyway. -bobby
Thur 28th	Portland,OR	EJ's	Electric Summer
Fri 29th	San Fran,Ca	The Tip Top	Strictnine,Electric Summer
Sat 30th	Berkeley, Ca	Gilman	Subincision, Nuclear Rabbit, Soda pop Fuck You, and E.S.
Sun 31st	La, Ca.	The Garage	The Rayovaks, Electric Summer
Ok our return to the infamous Sucker Night-this time we were smart and we are on the show-its 3$ all you can drink for bands between 6-8pm and mike and i take advantage-this time its not a "gay" mixer just a mixer so no more gay celebrities or hostile womyn or overly friendly guys-"not that there's anything wrong with that"-just a regular show mc'd by a seven foot tall drag queen-Ms. Vaginal Cream Davis. Well we play and while not so tight we are very punk. So punk in fact that Ms. Davis demands an encore of sorts. She licked my armpit and said I was a crusty punk. Apparently the only true acid test. Actually I've heard that i got off easy. She calls Phil a Raphealite and we are impressed. Next up is Electric Summer and they've learned their lesson and won't ever drink until after they play and they play. I'm real drunk at this point and getting wildly happy. I wait until Toshi is in mid-air pogo-ing and shove his legs from out from under him. Toshi comes down hard and breaks the fall with his face and the microphone. The microphone stops working for some reason. He stands up and smashes it down on the stage. The sound man rushes up to the stage and replaces the microphone yelling obcenities which no one can here for the music. For some reason I charge the sound man and sends all 300lbs of him sprawling onto the stage almost knocking Toshi down again. Mike gest pulled aside "Your friend is about to get thrown out of here!" he's told by the promoter. Despite all the mischief we scrounge up a place to stay for both bands and drive to the supermarket. Later I'm told I jumped off the second story patio into a fur tree of some sort and remained inside of it for a good half an hour. Why? I don't remember. After a while I came back in covered in sap and went to sleep. Kazu chastises us for our "un-tight" performance but Toshi says, "You guys rock and roll!" -bobby
June 1st	Wilmington,Ca	PCH Space	E.S., Demnetia 13, Hacksaw
Tues 2nd	Canceled
Wed 3rd	Anaheim,Ca	Public Storage	E.S.
Thur 4th	Los Angeles	Al's Bar	Don's Wake (Don the guy who took Mike to get Burritos on U.S. tour one)
Fri 5th	Los Angeles,CA	Bullocks	THE GAIN,E.S.,The Force, The Muderers
Sat 6th	Oceanside,CA	Bub's Whiskey Bar	Electric Summer
We arrive and find out we are playing what looks like every sports bar in existence and it has the potential to be a horrible show. Oceanside is the west coast equivilent of Paris Island on the east coast and is where the Marine recruits are trained. Lots of testosterone. However despite appearances they like punk rock in Oceanside or more importantly like our version of it. We are told why the Olympics ruined the L.A. Punk scene (we are all about history) and play to one of the best receptions of the tour. Amazing show. Hands down the best Mexican food. Thanks Blaze for setting that one up.
Sun 7th	Longbeach, CA	The Foothill	Canceled
Mon 8th	Tempe, AZ	House	Electric Summer
Tues 9th	Las Vegas, NV	The Wet Stop	just us
Wed 10th	El Paso, TX	The Clinic	Canceled
Very often someone will look at our tour itinerary and they'll say "who's the dumb ass who booked this tour? They got you driving all the place" We tell them that we booked it ourselves and that we don't mind killing ourselves to get to the next show if it's going to be a good show and people there will treat us with respect etc-This show was was following a string of bad ones and we drove all night from Las Vegas to get there because we have always had good shows in El Paso and met great people there and we were expecting our luck to turn around. We got there and occupied ourselves all day and show up at the club and find out that it has been shut down for a month and despite the fact that we have been on the road for almost seven weeks we are always checking our messages in order to avoid things like this but no one has called our answering machines back home to tell us not to drive twelve hours through the desert to a club that doesn't exist. They didn't get around to it. Well despite our coaxing the promoter wouldn't tell us where he lived- we wanted a place to stay, possibly some food and to inflict some violence on him, etc- When you book a show remember "confirmed " means confirmed and we don't cancel shows unless someone's in the hospital or the van is in flames so all we ask is for a little courtesy and pick up the phone.
Thr 11th	Albuquerque, NM	Fred's Bakery	E.S., Welt
Fri 12th	Denver, CO	The Raven	The Nobody's, E.S.
Sat 13th	Boulder, Co	Club 156	E.S.,The Gamit,The Ginders
Sun 14th	Lawrence, KS	The Replay Lounge	just us
Mon 15th	Norman, OK	record store
Tue 16th	Fayetteville, AR	Klunk Coffee House
Wed 17th	Austin, TX	The Bates Motel	an Emo show
Thur 18th	Dallas, TX	The Orbit Room	the orbit room's last show
Fri 19th	Temple, TX	a Rave	a couple of snooty Dj's with a laser show
Sat 20th	Mississippi	a birthday party	Crispus Attucks, De Nada and many others.
Sun 21st	Pesacola, FL	Sluggo's	canceled
Mon 22nd	Columbia, SC	Garret and Mark's Space	Digger
Tues 23rd	Tampa, FL	A.D.D. House	Swing Riot
Wed 24th	Orlando, FL	a Loading bay	Blackhead
Thur 25th	De land, FL	Coffee House	Reno Divorce
Fri 26th	Deltona, FL	???	Spent Idols
Sat 27th	Gainesville, FL	canceled	hung out with Swing Riot
Sun 28th	Chattanooga, TN	???	Jack Pallance Band, Swing Riot
Well we didn't realize it but Chattanooga is now the residence of the former members of the Shaeffers-definately a pleasant surprise. We play a really fun show and later when faced with the two opportunities on where to sleep-the nice place where we will go to bed early or the punk house where everyone stays up to all hours of the night- we choose the rowdy Kirby house because if you are going to sleep on a floor or in the van and it's sweltering hot you may as well get liqoured up and sleep where you fall and thats exactly what we did- It seems it was an off night for the house members and after a few comments on how we were dissapointed at their low moral and the absence of rowdiness- they taught us a drinking game-spinners-basically you flip a quarter and if you guess right you get to choose who must flip next if you guess wrong they spin the quarter and you drink until the quarter stops and you guess again-this is not a very social game only because there really isn't time to have a conversation-it doesn't take long for the famous Thumbs bad luck to rear its ugly head-" tails never fails has never been more wrong-despite consistent drinking for the last two months I still hadn't developed a tolerance for alcohol and things started to deteriorate fast. We were swilling it down at a scary rate and I was soon about to look for my spot in the dirt to pass out. I forgot to mention that the Kirby house didn't contain a working toilet and we were told that if the need should arise to either do our business in the yard or use the bucket with the water in it. Well bearing this in mind I fall off my chair and knock the poop bucket over,spilling all the poop water everywhere-a faux pas even at the kirby house-we quickly run out of alcohol and despite the thumbs collective mental capacity we lead the charge and trek off to the gas station/beer store about a mile away-mike stops off and attempts to pass out under a car-we leave him for dead- mike later reported the owner of said car asked him what he is doing and for some reason he never heard of the thumbs and mike was forced to leave or be trounced- Well we make it through the night and do indeed pass out where we fall. Hangovers aside we had a great time there. Every once in a while you play a town that has this amazing scene-something is going on there that is so rare and almost impossible to duplicate anywhere else. Chattanooga gets my vote for punk rock vaction spot of the year. There are tons of bands all good and inspiring each other and we can't wait to go back.
Mon 29th	Chattanooga, TN	?????	The Shaeffers
Mon 29th	Atlanta, GA	C-11	American Steel
Tues 30th	Atlanta, GA	canceled
Wed July 1st	Spartenburg, SC	didn't let us play but....
We try to find a show at all costs so we drive to spartenburg because a band we played with a few nights earlier are supposed to be playing there and we are thinking we can weasel on the bill-it turns out the the band we know isn't playing but a bunch of ska bands are so we plead with the club owner and he gives in- the soundman however doesn't want anymore set up hassles and a three piece is such a headache compared to a 5 member horn section so he exercises his executive veto and we play pool all night and we meet Robert. He is a crippled speed freak that is real drunk and keeps going into his girlfriend/nurse's purse to score more pills. Well he likes us and wants us to let him be our manager because together we could make a lot of money-everything is going fine when he accuses us of taking it easy on him after we keep running the table in pool-At this point he is able to stand for a minute or so before collapsing on the floor and hard. Real hard-crutches and pool cues are going everywhere but this is normal for Robert we are told. He goes off and we see him kicking and punching on a couch-rearranging cushions etc-hmmmn It's odd but we don't dwell on it- He comes back over and says "do you guys have my back-I just beat up some of those ska pussies and there might be trouble"-enough said-We take our leave and drive to the rest stop-we are one show from home.
Thur 2nd	Roanoke, VA	Art Gallery	just us
Never let someone from the audience use your equipment. We were the only band and finished our set and these kids asked if they could play a song. Bear in mind we are on the second to last show of a nine week tour the last three weeks being in 100 degree heat and just played our set grumpily but dead on tight -we are about as hard and surly as we are ever going to be due to having been put through much misery and we figure if these kids have the balls to ask us then who are we to refuse. Big mistake. Well they started "jamming"- possible my least favorite expression and then kicked into that awlful Breakfast At Tiffany's song- I almost committed a murder that day.
Fri 3rd	Baltimore , MD	The Loft	Lickety Split, The Runz