So this may not make any sense at all too anyone except myself but that's not going to stop me from writing at 4:15 am on the morning of New Years Eve. I am just getting home and am currently rocking thee almighty Dillinger Four "Super Models Don't Drink Colt 45"
Okay. So I may edit this at some point in the future if I feel it's a complete failure of an entry. We will see.
So the Habs lost this evening 4-3 in overtime against the New York Rangers. The game winning goal was a goal that shouldn't have happened but did because the Habs defense was off side which made for a 2 on 0 rush again ole Huet. With 2 players (1 player being Brendan Shannan) against our lone goalie the outcome was expected. Oh well. We played good the prior 2 games.
So after we lost my friend Sam and I decided to meet up at a bar we had been too in the past and a place he is more of a frequent visitor at then I am. I arrive before him and was the only person in the joint which was interesting. It made for conversation between me, the bartender, and the DJ. Within 5 minutes Sam showed up with his puppy Roadie and we began our night of drinking and adventures.
I am going to be quick here because I need my sleep.
The bar tender at this bar was already hammered when we arrived and seeing how we were the only 2 people there at that time they proceeded to get more hammered. Well throughout the night more and more people showed up and this poor solo person behind the bar just didn't care at all. I seriously saw people at the other end of the bar wait a minimum of 30 mins before getting served (there was never more then 15 people TOPS in this place). This bar tender just kept pounding back the drinks, pouring everyone shots. I told them "you gotta be careful" at one point and they responded "its about being free".
So....I can not argue with that so the night continued with Sam, the patrons, myself and the bartended getting a little bent.
The sad point was about 1 our before the usual last call when our drunk bartender called last call.
It turns out they received a call from the "uppers" to shut it down and that they were pretty much done at this place of employment. Whoa!! To see the reaction of this person after they got that phone call at 1:00 am knowing that they were fired was crazy intense.You could tell they were completely bummed but also i do think they undersstood knowing that they were giving people free shots, booze and beers. I saw someone pay with a $20 and get $25 back in change!!!
Okay so this place got shut down early so we went to another place next door to finish the night off.
Real quick here cause I need sleep. Sam's dog Roadie started barking and growling towards some dude who was sitting at some table by himself. This dude was actually at the bar we were at earlier by himself as well. Roadie would not give up. She just kept barking, growling, barking and growling. So about 15 mins after this the dude proceeds to walk over to Roadie and grab her by the throat which is a NO NO NO.
Animals are beyond amazing. It's beyond comprehension how they can figure out peoples energy, attitudes, and events in the enviroment. A tsunami hits in India/ Sri Lanka and all the animals in the national parks/ zoos head to higher ground and aren't even effected at all. GENIOUS!!!
So this dude grabs the dog by the neck and then Sam, the bartender and a couple other patrons proceed to totally go crazy on this dude while I am holding Roadie back so she doesn't go to crazy herself. The dude is drunk and starts harrassing the bartender about what she is wearing which at this point Sam hits the dude and throws him out of the bar.
That's really that. A crazy night.
Sam, Myself, and Roadie were observers this whole time until Roadie had her throat grabbed.
People are just insane.
If you are a bartender. Its okay to have a shot with a customer yes but not numersou shots and beers to the point of you giving somebody back more money then they gave you.
And if you are a dude/ dudette getting completely barked at by a dog you definitely need to approach slowly and gently> let them sniff you out. Grabbing them instantly/ aggressively by the throat will definitely get you in trouble.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
A Tragedy Born of Military Despotism and Anarchy
this article was posted at
www.rabble.ca
and borrowed without kind permission.
by Tariq Ali
December 29, 2007
Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto's behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.
An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country's supreme court for attempting to hold the government's intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law? Their replacements lack the backbone to do anything, let alone conduct a proper inquest into the misdeeds of the agencies to uncover the truth behind the carefully organised killing of a major political leader.
How can Pakistan today be anything but a conflagration of despair? It is assumed that the killers were jihadi fanatics. This may well be true, but were they acting on their own?
Benazir, according to those close to her, had been tempted to boycott the fake elections, but she lacked the political courage to defy Washington. She had plenty of physical courage, and refused to be cowed by threats from local opponents. She had been addressing an election rally in Liaquat Bagh. This is a popular space named after the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was killed by an assassin in 1953. The killer, Said Akbar, was immediately shot dead on the orders of a police officer involved in the plot. Not far from here, there once stood a colonial structure where nationalists were imprisoned. This was Rawalpindi jail. It was here that Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in April 1979. The military tyrant responsible for his judicial murder made sure the site of the tragedy was destroyed as well.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's death poisoned relations between his Pakistan People's party and the army. Party activists, particularly in the province of Sind, were brutally tortured, humiliated and, sometimes, disappeared or killed.
Pakistan's turbulent history, a result of continuous military rule and unpopular global alliances, confronts the ruling elite now with serious choices. They appear to have no positive aims. The overwhelming majority of the country disapproves of the government's foreign policy. They are angered by its lack of a serious domestic policy except for further enriching a callous and greedy elite that includes a swollen, parasitic military. Now they watch helplessly as politicians are shot dead in front of them.
Benazir had survived the bomb blast yesterday but was felled by bullets fired at her car. The assassins, mindful of their failure in Karachi a month ago, had taken out a double insurance this time. They wanted her dead. It is impossible for even a rigged election to take place now. It will have to be postponed, and the military high command is no doubt contemplating another dose of army rule if the situation gets worse, which could easily happen.
What has happened is a multilayered tragedy. It's a tragedy for a country on a road to more disasters. Torrents and foaming cataracts lie ahead. And it is a personal tragedy. The house of Bhutto has lost another member. Father, two sons and now a daughter have all died unnatural deaths.
I first met Benazir at her father's house in Karachi when she was a fun-loving teenager, and later at Oxford. She was not a natural politician and had always wanted to be a diplomat, but history and personal tragedy pushed in the other direction. Her father's death transformed her. She had become a new person, determined to take on the military dictator of that time. She had moved to a tiny flat in London, where we would endlessly discuss the future of the country. She would agree that land reforms, mass education programmes, a health service and an independent foreign policy were positive constructive aims and crucial if the country was to be saved from the vultures in and out of uniform. Her constituency was the poor, and she was proud of the fact.
She changed again after becoming prime minister. In the early days, we would argue and in response to my numerous complaints - all she would say was that the world had changed. She couldn't be on the "wrong side" of history. And so, like many others, she made her peace with Washington. It was this that finally led to the deal with Musharraf and her return home after more than a decade in exile. On a number of occasions she told me that she did not fear death. It was one of the dangers of playing politics in Pakistan.
It is difficult to imagine any good coming out of this tragedy, but there is one possibility. Pakistan desperately needs a political party that can speak for the social needs of a bulk of the people. The People's party founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was built by the activists of the only popular mass movement the country has known: students, peasants and workers who fought for three months in 1968-69 to topple the country's first military dictator. They saw it as their party, and that feeling persists in some parts of the country to this day, despite everything.
Benazir's horrific death should give her colleagues pause for reflection. To be dependent on a person or a family may be necessary at certain times, but it is a structural weakness, not a strength for a political organisation. The People's party needs to be refounded as a modern and democratic organisation, open to honest debate and discussion, defending social and human rights, uniting the many disparate groups and individuals in Pakistan desperate for any halfway decent alternative, and coming forward with concrete proposals to stabilise occupied and war-torn Afghanistan. This can and should be done. The Bhutto family should not be asked for any more sacrifices.
Tariq Ali's book The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power is published in 2008. This article was originally published in The Guardian.
www.rabble.ca
and borrowed without kind permission.
by Tariq Ali
December 29, 2007
Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto's behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.
An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country's supreme court for attempting to hold the government's intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law? Their replacements lack the backbone to do anything, let alone conduct a proper inquest into the misdeeds of the agencies to uncover the truth behind the carefully organised killing of a major political leader.
How can Pakistan today be anything but a conflagration of despair? It is assumed that the killers were jihadi fanatics. This may well be true, but were they acting on their own?
Benazir, according to those close to her, had been tempted to boycott the fake elections, but she lacked the political courage to defy Washington. She had plenty of physical courage, and refused to be cowed by threats from local opponents. She had been addressing an election rally in Liaquat Bagh. This is a popular space named after the country's first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, who was killed by an assassin in 1953. The killer, Said Akbar, was immediately shot dead on the orders of a police officer involved in the plot. Not far from here, there once stood a colonial structure where nationalists were imprisoned. This was Rawalpindi jail. It was here that Benazir's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in April 1979. The military tyrant responsible for his judicial murder made sure the site of the tragedy was destroyed as well.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's death poisoned relations between his Pakistan People's party and the army. Party activists, particularly in the province of Sind, were brutally tortured, humiliated and, sometimes, disappeared or killed.
Pakistan's turbulent history, a result of continuous military rule and unpopular global alliances, confronts the ruling elite now with serious choices. They appear to have no positive aims. The overwhelming majority of the country disapproves of the government's foreign policy. They are angered by its lack of a serious domestic policy except for further enriching a callous and greedy elite that includes a swollen, parasitic military. Now they watch helplessly as politicians are shot dead in front of them.
Benazir had survived the bomb blast yesterday but was felled by bullets fired at her car. The assassins, mindful of their failure in Karachi a month ago, had taken out a double insurance this time. They wanted her dead. It is impossible for even a rigged election to take place now. It will have to be postponed, and the military high command is no doubt contemplating another dose of army rule if the situation gets worse, which could easily happen.
What has happened is a multilayered tragedy. It's a tragedy for a country on a road to more disasters. Torrents and foaming cataracts lie ahead. And it is a personal tragedy. The house of Bhutto has lost another member. Father, two sons and now a daughter have all died unnatural deaths.
I first met Benazir at her father's house in Karachi when she was a fun-loving teenager, and later at Oxford. She was not a natural politician and had always wanted to be a diplomat, but history and personal tragedy pushed in the other direction. Her father's death transformed her. She had become a new person, determined to take on the military dictator of that time. She had moved to a tiny flat in London, where we would endlessly discuss the future of the country. She would agree that land reforms, mass education programmes, a health service and an independent foreign policy were positive constructive aims and crucial if the country was to be saved from the vultures in and out of uniform. Her constituency was the poor, and she was proud of the fact.
She changed again after becoming prime minister. In the early days, we would argue and in response to my numerous complaints - all she would say was that the world had changed. She couldn't be on the "wrong side" of history. And so, like many others, she made her peace with Washington. It was this that finally led to the deal with Musharraf and her return home after more than a decade in exile. On a number of occasions she told me that she did not fear death. It was one of the dangers of playing politics in Pakistan.
It is difficult to imagine any good coming out of this tragedy, but there is one possibility. Pakistan desperately needs a political party that can speak for the social needs of a bulk of the people. The People's party founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was built by the activists of the only popular mass movement the country has known: students, peasants and workers who fought for three months in 1968-69 to topple the country's first military dictator. They saw it as their party, and that feeling persists in some parts of the country to this day, despite everything.
Benazir's horrific death should give her colleagues pause for reflection. To be dependent on a person or a family may be necessary at certain times, but it is a structural weakness, not a strength for a political organisation. The People's party needs to be refounded as a modern and democratic organisation, open to honest debate and discussion, defending social and human rights, uniting the many disparate groups and individuals in Pakistan desperate for any halfway decent alternative, and coming forward with concrete proposals to stabilise occupied and war-torn Afghanistan. This can and should be done. The Bhutto family should not be asked for any more sacrifices.
Tariq Ali's book The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power is published in 2008. This article was originally published in The Guardian.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
PROPAGANDHI- MID WEST TOUR- MAY/JUNE- 2007
May 24th.2007
Chicago Ohare Airport
I just landed here at ohare airport where I am waiting for my connection to Milwaukee to start another adventure of music and mayhem. The color today is orange which means absolutely nothing except a reminder that there is evil out there. I guess that’s why they threw away my brand new sunscreen and my brand new tube of toothpaste. A total bum deal. Almost all flights I take I check my luggage but due to this trip being on the short end I decided to just carry it on which is why I lost some of my toiletries. Booo!!!!
America and the world are now a lot safer now that my 2 liquid containers were thrown in the garbage. It’s a good feeling actually knowing that I am helping out the empire and its citizens. Anything I can do too help I am all for it whether that’s throwing away my sunscreen or storing it underneath. Next time.
What a load of shit all of this is and will continue to be. These colors and these scare tactics/ rules aren’t going away. And the reason they aren’t going away is because we have fucking pissed a lot of people off in this world through death/corruption/our spreading of democracy (?) and this has left some if not a lot of people completely hopeless which will bring people to do some very very bad things to be heard.
Again the color is ORANGE.
So I haven’t been doing much writing lately about any of my adventures or trips. I was in Vancouver recently and a friend of mine said “I haven’t been getting any of your writings lately”. Its totally true. I have been doing some fun trips recently and haven’t documented any of it which is something I really want and should be doing. We only live once and while we are here we should do the most we can and for me personally I think documenting most of it is a good thing. Its history.
This tour that I am about to embark on is going to be so incredible and unreal. I am heading to Milwaukee to meet up with a bunch of fellow Canadians from the province of Manitoba and the city Winnipeg. Their band is known as PROPAGANDHI!!
For some of those reading this you know exactly who they are and how I feel about these fellow thrashers. They are one of my favorite bands of all time. When I first started getting into punk rock and this community PROPAGANDHI was one of the first bands I listened to. I think the year was 1994 and my friend kenji gave me a mix tape with some MINOR THREAT, PROPAGANDHI, OPERATION IVY, and some RANCID. I was instantly hooked to every band on this cassette due to the music and the things they were saying. One thing that really sticks out though was this line
“but wait a minute dad. Did you actually say freedom. Well if your dumb enough too vote your fucking dumb enough to believe them”
WOW!!! This line and this band were pretty much the influence/ or the push i needed to head down a certain path. Now that I look back on it the GANDHI's have been one of the most influential musical outfiits in my journey from my views on animal rights, earth rights, native rights, womens rights, human rights and everything in regards to bringing the empire down to the ground (there's definitely other bands, books, people and animals who have had a part in my journey as well). But the tunes these dudes spew out there are definitely mind blowers.
So as you could imagine I am very excited about this next adventure and will be writing about the mayhem as it happens.
I haven’t met all the dudes yet but will in a couple hours. When I was in Winnipeg a couple weeks ago Sam (Gandhi;s tour manager) and Chris (axe and vocals) came to pick me up and take me for a beer or 2 to discuss this latest endeavor.
May 26
So its 8:30 in the morning here in Chicago and I just woke up, took a shower and walked to get the van before we got a ticket. Last night we had rooms in downtown Chicago and at the time it looked like there was no parking so Sam ended up taking the truck to a friends to spend the night and I took the van to find parking. Well I struck it big and ended up finding parking 1 block away from our hotel. SCORED!!! So I woke, showered and am now sitting in the van waiting for everyone to make their way down so we can leave by 9.
We have played 2 shows thus far. The first being Milwaukee and the second being Chicago last night. Both shows have been so amazing and I am truly working my lilttle bum off which I love. I sit here with bruised and scraped knees. Most of the work comes during the show when the shredding is taking place. I am the one keeping the stage clear of kids so the pedals don’t get stepped on and the mic stands don’t fall down. Both shows have been filled thus far with many kids crowd surfing their way to the front and the first show and a few stage divers here and there. Last nights show the way the stage was set up cut down on the stage divers but there was definitely a handful of crowd surfers which I had to handle. Last night I had a fellow land directly on top of me which caused me to fall and knock Beavers mic stand over. Oh well. What can you do. All in a days work eh. Ha ha
Kids are just so so so pumped at these shows as am i. And I would say about 99% of the kids are into whats being said, or sung on stage and into all the organizations that are tabling the shows and what not. Its totally amazing and still unreal getting to see it all go down thus far. Everyone that is on this tour too has been great.
We have GFK from quebec city and they are all super nice kids and definitely future friends and all with my move to Montreal. Then yesterday HIRETSUKAN joined the tour from new york. Both bands are on chris and derricks label that some of us know as G7 Welcoming Committee.
May 30, Denver, CO
Bonjour.
We had a day off yesterday which was spent waking up in Topeka, getting some food for breakfast and then sitting in the van for 8 hours while we drove from Kansas to Denver, CO where we find ourselves this morning. Last night we got into the city around 8 in the evening, checked into out rooms and then a couple of us headed to Watercourse Diner which is a vegi/ vegan restaurant about a 4 block walk from our hotel. After supper was done we all headed back to the hotel and Jord, Barney, Sam, and myself went downstairs to have a couple drinks which turned into a couple more before I actually called it a night.
We have now just passed our half way point in this tour. Thus far the first half has been so so incredible and more then likely the 2nd half will have the same vibe.
So our tour has gone a little something like this. Milwaukee, WI, Chicago, IL, Covington, KY, St. Louis, MO, and Lawrence, KS. Tonight we will play Denver, CO then onto, Omaha, NB, Sioux Falls, SD, Minneapolis, MN, and finally Fargo, ND before we all head our separate ways.
Theres been people from all over the country and actually all over the world at these shows. I just received an email from some girl from Israel who was at the Kentucky show giving me some kind words and a thank you about my work at that show. Aahh!! That rules eh?
Almost all the shows I am right up front on the edge of the front of the stage making sure that no ones pedals are getting stepped on, no mic stands are falling down, no crazy kids are going to crazy on stage acting like fools and finally too make sure all the kids are okay and well up front. Its been amazing because every show I have had kids tell me after the shows thanks you for your hard work plus I usually hand out waters half way thru the set to make sure everyone up front can cool down some before the next round takes place. Making friends. Ha ha ha.
Last show in Lawrence things actually got a little crazy with this guy and girl which ended up leading to the couples expulsion from the show. Right before the show started the monitor dude told me too watch out for this one individual in particular due to him being very intoxicated. So as soon as the tunes started getting rocked I see this dude completely force his way up front and start wailing his hands and arms everywhere including all over everyones faces and bodies around him. Then I see his elbows keep hitting some girl in her face so I ran over too see what was going down and if everything was okay. It turns out the girl was his girlfriend which was really weird because she was definitely getting brutalized by this dude. I hung out in front of them for a good 5 songs too see if anything would change. Nothing was changing and after Beavers mic stand kept getting knocked over and the kids around this dude kept getting hit I got the security guard to take the dude outside and I told him to have a talk with but not throw him out.
Before I finish this little story ill mention another little episode which contributed to this incident. In between songs chris and jord were talking about the military….it was memorial day…. And military bases that the US has stationed all over the world (something like hundreds). Well someone in the crowd yells “fuck the troops” and this girl who I was just mentioning who was this aggressive dudes girlfriend yells “fuck you my brother has been in the army for 4 years”. This interaction was the last draw and is when I knew this dude and her needed a talking too. So the security guard came over to take the dude outside at which point the dude was resisting and a scuffle broke out. I stood up on stage and watched to make sure everyone was okay when then I saw “the dude” completely fall to the ground wrestling a couple guys. I quickly then hoped off stage and ran into the center of the crowd just yelling at the dude “you are fucking out of here” and excorted him out with the security guard.
I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand people coming to shows as such or other shows and being complete fucking idiots. Its completely insane. You are at a Propagandhi show and are completely being the biggest dink around. Uh?
That’s the only incident of I have encountered thus far.
At all the shows thus far there have been many different organizations and groups tabling and speaking. Propagandhi has all of their AK Press Books, Microcosm publishing have been at all the shows with their catalog and more, Rainforest Action Network have been at all the shows peaking and then we always have local groups tabling for animal rights and other leftist issues.
Its been a very educational trip as well. I feel I am pretty educated for the most part on how things work (and don’t work in most cases) in this dying world but there is still so much more I can do.
May 31st, Omaha, NB
So last night we played Denver which was completely insane and by far the craziest show from my end of things.
We woke up in Denver, went out for an amazing breakfast of tofu scrambles and toast. My particular dish was named “Amsterdam hash” which consisted of tofu, peppers, and home fries with gravy smothered all over the sucker plus sourdough toast. It was the first morning on the tour where we all had a real legit breakfast so that started the day off right. After eating we had to head to another hotel where some of our merch that we have been chasing this whole friggin tour got delivered too again because UPS sucks. After picking up the 1 out of 4 boxes that have been missing…..again screw UPS…. We headed to the venue to commence the rock.
The 2nd game of the Stanley cup playoffs was getting played so our first priority after soundcheck was to find a bar to hopefully watch Ottawa kick Disneylands ass. Well this did not happen and mickey mouse won yet again which is not a good thing. A hockey team who is named after a Disney movie and who is based in southern California does not diserve to be anywhere near the stanely cup let alone win it. This cannot happen but it looks like it may which is a bad bad thing for hockey. Ha ha. My opinion of course.
After the game was over I headed back to the venue with jord to quickly meet with the security about stage issues and keeping the stage clear before the show actually started.
After my pre show game of sorts I cruised back to our room to chill out for a little bit before we actually hit the stage. I am sitting in the dressing room and non other then Ward Churchill, his wife name Natsu , and his lawyer name David walks in. Holy Shit. I couldn’t believe it. I had heard that he may be coming but when he walked in I spaced out on it and was totally surprised.
Ward Churchill is by far one of the most radical leftist voices when it comes to indigenous rights/people in the US and Canada. He is the author of many many books which will blow anyone away. The books I have personally read are “struggle for the land”, “fanasties of the master race” “pacifism as pathology” and I own but haven’t read yet “a little matter of genocide” and “ on the justice of roosting chickens”.
Churchill is currently on paid leave from his teaching position at the University of Boulder, CO due to writing a critical piece of work/ an essay in 2001 questioning the “innocence” of the people killed in those 2 buildings which fell down in I think NYC. No? What were they called? That essay was then turned into the “justice of roosting chickens” book which I still need to read. So Churchill is going thru some major shit at the moment and actually has been for a good couple of years. A total smear campaign. You know how the empire will do anything to kill critical thought. His wife Natsu (again spelling?) is also going through the bullshit of being discredited so is now teaching in Atlanta and actually lives with Eldridge Cleavers wife in Atlanta while she is teaching and then flies to Colorado to be with Ward on the weekends.
June $, 2007 Fargo Airport
So I am sitting here in the fargo airport where I am patiently waiting for a delayed flight. It never fails. About 90% of my flights I always run into some sort of issues/ problems. Today I am trying to get home at a certain time so I can watch game 4 of the Stanley cup finals. This sucks. It looks like I will possibly miss this game which is so unforuntate due to the importance of this game. Ottawa is down 2-1 against the ducks of Anaheim and I feel that tonights game is crucial. Mickey Mouse and all these sunny southern California people do not deserve a Stanley cup at all. The players may but non of them are from southern cali. GO SENATORS!!!
So this tour ruled. Obviously. I got to see Propagandhi everynight and the thrashing that came with it. These shows were so so special for the kids who came out to see them. That’s the thing. Almost every other band out there tours, tours and keeps touring. Most do this intense touring because its their time and when its that time most milk it and keep milking it while its there. Money Money Money.Then most of these bands years later are either completely burned out and their shows are complete crap and people don’t show up. You know. If a band is always touring you can just go see them next time. With propagandhi you don’t know when the next time will be so we had kids from all over the world at these shows which made it super special.
Also there are many many tours that I have been on where after weeks of being on tour together I still don’t know some peoples names from the opening bands and crew or what not. Theres a couple reasons for this. Most of the time I just keep to myself and hang out with the people that I am traveling with and other times most of the people I come across are complete tools and in the long run they aren’t people I plan on keeping in touch with.
On this tour I learnt everyones name and the tour was only 10 days long so too me, and too others that should and does mean something. The GFKers and the HIRETSUKAN’s were all such amazing people to travel with and hang out with. Future friends for sure. I loved them and they all loved me.
June 5, 2007
So I don’t know what to write here. Tour is done but it ended quite tragically for me at least. I arrive last night to Richmond, VA where I had a horrible voicemail message from my friend Lior.
3 kids from Richmond that I knew and was excited about getting to know better all died in a car crash in West Virginia last week. The crazy thing is they were on their way home from their trip to KY to see Propagandhi. FUCK!!!!!!
Their names were Ben, Cayce, and Joey.
I knew Ben and Cayce from the coffee shop I used to work at a couple months ago. They were frequent visitors to the shop treating themselves always to some delicious vegan fare. I would always talk to both when they walked in and we would also talk about similar musical tastes. At the time I didn’t know their name. They were people I saw as well outside of the coffee shop.
Well at our Kentucky show I was walking through the crowd and someone ran up to me and said “HEY!!”. I turned around and it was Ben and Cayce. I was so so excited to see familiar faces away from home. They were also excited as well and were super super pumped about the show. I went to our room to announce to the Gandhis that there was Richmond kids at the show and I will be back because I was going to go hang out with them. I went and sat at their table and discussed their trip and some other recent tragic events in Richmond where a good good friend of mine recently passed. His name was Johny Z and this happened while I was on the Bouncing Souls tour. They didn’t know Johny too well but knew of the whole situation due to the impact Johny had on Richmond. We also discussed that nights show and how excited they were. Ben said that Propagandhi was his favorite band since high school which stoked me out because I can totally relate. Then the show was about to happen so I said have a good show and take care.
The show ruled and half way through the set Chris gave the kids from Richmond a shout out. After our show was done I was closing down the stage and was tapped on the shoulder by someone. I turned around and it was Cayce. She quietly asked “im not trying to be this person but is there a set list”. I said no because there wasn’t but told her I would keep my eyes open for one. That was it.
I looked for them way after I was done and they were gone.
I got on a flight yesterday and in fact yesterday morning thought of my new friends and how I was looking forward to running into them here in Richmond and talk about our trips and start a new friendship.
Well they didn’t make it home. They were driving in West VA when a tractor trailer lost control and klled them all.
Its so so unreal. They were amazing kids who had so much potential and were so so pumped on their travels.
It also is shit because I don’t really know any of their friends here in Richmond and I wish I did because I want everyone to know that their last moments were filled with excitement and joy after getting to see a band which had a big influence on their lives.
I was riding home tonight and saw my first fire flies of this new year I just wish Johny Z, Ben, Cayce, and Joey could see them this year.
I also hope that all spirits paths have crossed and are keeping each other company and keeping the Richmond vibe alive.
Chicago Ohare Airport
I just landed here at ohare airport where I am waiting for my connection to Milwaukee to start another adventure of music and mayhem. The color today is orange which means absolutely nothing except a reminder that there is evil out there. I guess that’s why they threw away my brand new sunscreen and my brand new tube of toothpaste. A total bum deal. Almost all flights I take I check my luggage but due to this trip being on the short end I decided to just carry it on which is why I lost some of my toiletries. Booo!!!!
America and the world are now a lot safer now that my 2 liquid containers were thrown in the garbage. It’s a good feeling actually knowing that I am helping out the empire and its citizens. Anything I can do too help I am all for it whether that’s throwing away my sunscreen or storing it underneath. Next time.
What a load of shit all of this is and will continue to be. These colors and these scare tactics/ rules aren’t going away. And the reason they aren’t going away is because we have fucking pissed a lot of people off in this world through death/corruption/our spreading of democracy (?) and this has left some if not a lot of people completely hopeless which will bring people to do some very very bad things to be heard.
Again the color is ORANGE.
So I haven’t been doing much writing lately about any of my adventures or trips. I was in Vancouver recently and a friend of mine said “I haven’t been getting any of your writings lately”. Its totally true. I have been doing some fun trips recently and haven’t documented any of it which is something I really want and should be doing. We only live once and while we are here we should do the most we can and for me personally I think documenting most of it is a good thing. Its history.
This tour that I am about to embark on is going to be so incredible and unreal. I am heading to Milwaukee to meet up with a bunch of fellow Canadians from the province of Manitoba and the city Winnipeg. Their band is known as PROPAGANDHI!!
For some of those reading this you know exactly who they are and how I feel about these fellow thrashers. They are one of my favorite bands of all time. When I first started getting into punk rock and this community PROPAGANDHI was one of the first bands I listened to. I think the year was 1994 and my friend kenji gave me a mix tape with some MINOR THREAT, PROPAGANDHI, OPERATION IVY, and some RANCID. I was instantly hooked to every band on this cassette due to the music and the things they were saying. One thing that really sticks out though was this line
“but wait a minute dad. Did you actually say freedom. Well if your dumb enough too vote your fucking dumb enough to believe them”
WOW!!! This line and this band were pretty much the influence/ or the push i needed to head down a certain path. Now that I look back on it the GANDHI's have been one of the most influential musical outfiits in my journey from my views on animal rights, earth rights, native rights, womens rights, human rights and everything in regards to bringing the empire down to the ground (there's definitely other bands, books, people and animals who have had a part in my journey as well). But the tunes these dudes spew out there are definitely mind blowers.
So as you could imagine I am very excited about this next adventure and will be writing about the mayhem as it happens.
I haven’t met all the dudes yet but will in a couple hours. When I was in Winnipeg a couple weeks ago Sam (Gandhi;s tour manager) and Chris (axe and vocals) came to pick me up and take me for a beer or 2 to discuss this latest endeavor.
May 26
So its 8:30 in the morning here in Chicago and I just woke up, took a shower and walked to get the van before we got a ticket. Last night we had rooms in downtown Chicago and at the time it looked like there was no parking so Sam ended up taking the truck to a friends to spend the night and I took the van to find parking. Well I struck it big and ended up finding parking 1 block away from our hotel. SCORED!!! So I woke, showered and am now sitting in the van waiting for everyone to make their way down so we can leave by 9.
We have played 2 shows thus far. The first being Milwaukee and the second being Chicago last night. Both shows have been so amazing and I am truly working my lilttle bum off which I love. I sit here with bruised and scraped knees. Most of the work comes during the show when the shredding is taking place. I am the one keeping the stage clear of kids so the pedals don’t get stepped on and the mic stands don’t fall down. Both shows have been filled thus far with many kids crowd surfing their way to the front and the first show and a few stage divers here and there. Last nights show the way the stage was set up cut down on the stage divers but there was definitely a handful of crowd surfers which I had to handle. Last night I had a fellow land directly on top of me which caused me to fall and knock Beavers mic stand over. Oh well. What can you do. All in a days work eh. Ha ha
Kids are just so so so pumped at these shows as am i. And I would say about 99% of the kids are into whats being said, or sung on stage and into all the organizations that are tabling the shows and what not. Its totally amazing and still unreal getting to see it all go down thus far. Everyone that is on this tour too has been great.
We have GFK from quebec city and they are all super nice kids and definitely future friends and all with my move to Montreal. Then yesterday HIRETSUKAN joined the tour from new york. Both bands are on chris and derricks label that some of us know as G7 Welcoming Committee.
May 30, Denver, CO
Bonjour.
We had a day off yesterday which was spent waking up in Topeka, getting some food for breakfast and then sitting in the van for 8 hours while we drove from Kansas to Denver, CO where we find ourselves this morning. Last night we got into the city around 8 in the evening, checked into out rooms and then a couple of us headed to Watercourse Diner which is a vegi/ vegan restaurant about a 4 block walk from our hotel. After supper was done we all headed back to the hotel and Jord, Barney, Sam, and myself went downstairs to have a couple drinks which turned into a couple more before I actually called it a night.
We have now just passed our half way point in this tour. Thus far the first half has been so so incredible and more then likely the 2nd half will have the same vibe.
So our tour has gone a little something like this. Milwaukee, WI, Chicago, IL, Covington, KY, St. Louis, MO, and Lawrence, KS. Tonight we will play Denver, CO then onto, Omaha, NB, Sioux Falls, SD, Minneapolis, MN, and finally Fargo, ND before we all head our separate ways.
Theres been people from all over the country and actually all over the world at these shows. I just received an email from some girl from Israel who was at the Kentucky show giving me some kind words and a thank you about my work at that show. Aahh!! That rules eh?
Almost all the shows I am right up front on the edge of the front of the stage making sure that no ones pedals are getting stepped on, no mic stands are falling down, no crazy kids are going to crazy on stage acting like fools and finally too make sure all the kids are okay and well up front. Its been amazing because every show I have had kids tell me after the shows thanks you for your hard work plus I usually hand out waters half way thru the set to make sure everyone up front can cool down some before the next round takes place. Making friends. Ha ha ha.
Last show in Lawrence things actually got a little crazy with this guy and girl which ended up leading to the couples expulsion from the show. Right before the show started the monitor dude told me too watch out for this one individual in particular due to him being very intoxicated. So as soon as the tunes started getting rocked I see this dude completely force his way up front and start wailing his hands and arms everywhere including all over everyones faces and bodies around him. Then I see his elbows keep hitting some girl in her face so I ran over too see what was going down and if everything was okay. It turns out the girl was his girlfriend which was really weird because she was definitely getting brutalized by this dude. I hung out in front of them for a good 5 songs too see if anything would change. Nothing was changing and after Beavers mic stand kept getting knocked over and the kids around this dude kept getting hit I got the security guard to take the dude outside and I told him to have a talk with but not throw him out.
Before I finish this little story ill mention another little episode which contributed to this incident. In between songs chris and jord were talking about the military….it was memorial day…. And military bases that the US has stationed all over the world (something like hundreds). Well someone in the crowd yells “fuck the troops” and this girl who I was just mentioning who was this aggressive dudes girlfriend yells “fuck you my brother has been in the army for 4 years”. This interaction was the last draw and is when I knew this dude and her needed a talking too. So the security guard came over to take the dude outside at which point the dude was resisting and a scuffle broke out. I stood up on stage and watched to make sure everyone was okay when then I saw “the dude” completely fall to the ground wrestling a couple guys. I quickly then hoped off stage and ran into the center of the crowd just yelling at the dude “you are fucking out of here” and excorted him out with the security guard.
I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand people coming to shows as such or other shows and being complete fucking idiots. Its completely insane. You are at a Propagandhi show and are completely being the biggest dink around. Uh?
That’s the only incident of I have encountered thus far.
At all the shows thus far there have been many different organizations and groups tabling and speaking. Propagandhi has all of their AK Press Books, Microcosm publishing have been at all the shows with their catalog and more, Rainforest Action Network have been at all the shows peaking and then we always have local groups tabling for animal rights and other leftist issues.
Its been a very educational trip as well. I feel I am pretty educated for the most part on how things work (and don’t work in most cases) in this dying world but there is still so much more I can do.
May 31st, Omaha, NB
So last night we played Denver which was completely insane and by far the craziest show from my end of things.
We woke up in Denver, went out for an amazing breakfast of tofu scrambles and toast. My particular dish was named “Amsterdam hash” which consisted of tofu, peppers, and home fries with gravy smothered all over the sucker plus sourdough toast. It was the first morning on the tour where we all had a real legit breakfast so that started the day off right. After eating we had to head to another hotel where some of our merch that we have been chasing this whole friggin tour got delivered too again because UPS sucks. After picking up the 1 out of 4 boxes that have been missing…..again screw UPS…. We headed to the venue to commence the rock.
The 2nd game of the Stanley cup playoffs was getting played so our first priority after soundcheck was to find a bar to hopefully watch Ottawa kick Disneylands ass. Well this did not happen and mickey mouse won yet again which is not a good thing. A hockey team who is named after a Disney movie and who is based in southern California does not diserve to be anywhere near the stanely cup let alone win it. This cannot happen but it looks like it may which is a bad bad thing for hockey. Ha ha. My opinion of course.
After the game was over I headed back to the venue with jord to quickly meet with the security about stage issues and keeping the stage clear before the show actually started.
After my pre show game of sorts I cruised back to our room to chill out for a little bit before we actually hit the stage. I am sitting in the dressing room and non other then Ward Churchill, his wife name Natsu , and his lawyer name David walks in. Holy Shit. I couldn’t believe it. I had heard that he may be coming but when he walked in I spaced out on it and was totally surprised.
Ward Churchill is by far one of the most radical leftist voices when it comes to indigenous rights/people in the US and Canada. He is the author of many many books which will blow anyone away. The books I have personally read are “struggle for the land”, “fanasties of the master race” “pacifism as pathology” and I own but haven’t read yet “a little matter of genocide” and “ on the justice of roosting chickens”.
Churchill is currently on paid leave from his teaching position at the University of Boulder, CO due to writing a critical piece of work/ an essay in 2001 questioning the “innocence” of the people killed in those 2 buildings which fell down in I think NYC. No? What were they called? That essay was then turned into the “justice of roosting chickens” book which I still need to read. So Churchill is going thru some major shit at the moment and actually has been for a good couple of years. A total smear campaign. You know how the empire will do anything to kill critical thought. His wife Natsu (again spelling?) is also going through the bullshit of being discredited so is now teaching in Atlanta and actually lives with Eldridge Cleavers wife in Atlanta while she is teaching and then flies to Colorado to be with Ward on the weekends.
June $, 2007 Fargo Airport
So I am sitting here in the fargo airport where I am patiently waiting for a delayed flight. It never fails. About 90% of my flights I always run into some sort of issues/ problems. Today I am trying to get home at a certain time so I can watch game 4 of the Stanley cup finals. This sucks. It looks like I will possibly miss this game which is so unforuntate due to the importance of this game. Ottawa is down 2-1 against the ducks of Anaheim and I feel that tonights game is crucial. Mickey Mouse and all these sunny southern California people do not deserve a Stanley cup at all. The players may but non of them are from southern cali. GO SENATORS!!!
So this tour ruled. Obviously. I got to see Propagandhi everynight and the thrashing that came with it. These shows were so so special for the kids who came out to see them. That’s the thing. Almost every other band out there tours, tours and keeps touring. Most do this intense touring because its their time and when its that time most milk it and keep milking it while its there. Money Money Money.Then most of these bands years later are either completely burned out and their shows are complete crap and people don’t show up. You know. If a band is always touring you can just go see them next time. With propagandhi you don’t know when the next time will be so we had kids from all over the world at these shows which made it super special.
Also there are many many tours that I have been on where after weeks of being on tour together I still don’t know some peoples names from the opening bands and crew or what not. Theres a couple reasons for this. Most of the time I just keep to myself and hang out with the people that I am traveling with and other times most of the people I come across are complete tools and in the long run they aren’t people I plan on keeping in touch with.
On this tour I learnt everyones name and the tour was only 10 days long so too me, and too others that should and does mean something. The GFKers and the HIRETSUKAN’s were all such amazing people to travel with and hang out with. Future friends for sure. I loved them and they all loved me.
June 5, 2007
So I don’t know what to write here. Tour is done but it ended quite tragically for me at least. I arrive last night to Richmond, VA where I had a horrible voicemail message from my friend Lior.
3 kids from Richmond that I knew and was excited about getting to know better all died in a car crash in West Virginia last week. The crazy thing is they were on their way home from their trip to KY to see Propagandhi. FUCK!!!!!!
Their names were Ben, Cayce, and Joey.
I knew Ben and Cayce from the coffee shop I used to work at a couple months ago. They were frequent visitors to the shop treating themselves always to some delicious vegan fare. I would always talk to both when they walked in and we would also talk about similar musical tastes. At the time I didn’t know their name. They were people I saw as well outside of the coffee shop.
Well at our Kentucky show I was walking through the crowd and someone ran up to me and said “HEY!!”. I turned around and it was Ben and Cayce. I was so so excited to see familiar faces away from home. They were also excited as well and were super super pumped about the show. I went to our room to announce to the Gandhis that there was Richmond kids at the show and I will be back because I was going to go hang out with them. I went and sat at their table and discussed their trip and some other recent tragic events in Richmond where a good good friend of mine recently passed. His name was Johny Z and this happened while I was on the Bouncing Souls tour. They didn’t know Johny too well but knew of the whole situation due to the impact Johny had on Richmond. We also discussed that nights show and how excited they were. Ben said that Propagandhi was his favorite band since high school which stoked me out because I can totally relate. Then the show was about to happen so I said have a good show and take care.
The show ruled and half way through the set Chris gave the kids from Richmond a shout out. After our show was done I was closing down the stage and was tapped on the shoulder by someone. I turned around and it was Cayce. She quietly asked “im not trying to be this person but is there a set list”. I said no because there wasn’t but told her I would keep my eyes open for one. That was it.
I looked for them way after I was done and they were gone.
I got on a flight yesterday and in fact yesterday morning thought of my new friends and how I was looking forward to running into them here in Richmond and talk about our trips and start a new friendship.
Well they didn’t make it home. They were driving in West VA when a tractor trailer lost control and klled them all.
Its so so unreal. They were amazing kids who had so much potential and were so so pumped on their travels.
It also is shit because I don’t really know any of their friends here in Richmond and I wish I did because I want everyone to know that their last moments were filled with excitement and joy after getting to see a band which had a big influence on their lives.
I was riding home tonight and saw my first fire flies of this new year I just wish Johny Z, Ben, Cayce, and Joey could see them this year.
I also hope that all spirits paths have crossed and are keeping each other company and keeping the Richmond vibe alive.
THE BOUNCING SOULS- GOLD TOUR CANADA- 2007
Tuesday,April 17, 2007.
I am just getting ready to hit the sack here at Kate is Great’s house. I arrived here in new Jersey about 3 hours ago after a delayed flight which kept me in the Richmond airport longer then expected. The last 2 days here in this part of the country there was a heavy storm that came through and disrupted a lot of air travel and im sure some other things as well. I was woken up this morning around 7 to the some of the heaviest, loudest wind I have seen/ heard in a long time. All day I kept checking thee old internerd to see if my flight was cancelled or delayed. Im glad it wasn’t cancelled or I would have been in a crazy predicament seeing how we all start driving to Halifax tomorrow. So I arrived on time to the airport, found a stool at the bar in the gate area and preceded to through back the pilsner and watch the tube in front of me
Today here in Virginia there was a mass shooting at Virginia tech out in Blacksburg. I think currently the death toll is around 32 people and there are definitely some people with major injuries. So so crazy. Where have we all gone wrong? Sitting at this bar and watching the news channel just do their thing over and over and over again was such a disgusting thing. I understand this is a major major event and people want to know all the details etc etc but this incident and incidents like it are made into a complete spectacle. Watching everyone at the bar just staring off into the distance watching this event unfold while seeing and hearing their comments was unreal.
Some dude next to me keep saying “how could this happen? How could this happen? Could you imagine being the parents of these kids?” The dude was saying this to be heard and I think wanted to get into some sort of conversation so I quickly started saying something and then said “ill just keep my views to myself”. Ha ha. That didn’t last long because I then just told the guy “its not surprising at all. Look at us. This country is off killing people in far away distant lands in a war so what are we to expect here”. You know? Its like lead by example. If you live in a place that values the people through health insurance, somewhat of a socialized system etc etc things as such- again my opinion- are less likely to happen.
If you live in a place where the majority of the people don’t give a fuck, poisoning the planet massively, and are off fighting wars of conquest then things as such will happen and continue.
Anyhow on with the fun stuff. So k8 just went to pick up lisi and twan from Newark while I stayed here to watch a late game of hockey and just chill out. Pete picked me up from the airport and drove me back to Asbury but then took off again to go spend those last minutes with his lady friend. Tomorrow everyone else will arrive at k8s to load the trucks and get all the gear sorted out for our journey to the great white north. Greg I actually flying straight to Halifax but we will have everyone else with us tomorrow.
SOULS;
Greg, Pete, Bryan, Micheal
THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Lisi, Bob, Twan, Rodney and myself.
This tour is going to completely over the top. Everyone on the tour (bouncing souls, strike anywhere, the loved ones) have all known each other for sometime and have toured with each many times in the past. There is another band named a static radio who I have never met or heard either but when it comes to the 3 mentioned above I personally am friends with everyone and have actually toured with all those bands at different time. Plus its in my motherland of canaduh. Kids in Canada loose their shit when bands make the trip up. Its going to rule.
Alright im out for the night to rest before our official first day of tour. Well first day of all being together. Our first show isn’t for a couple days but its 1000 miles away in Halifax, NS.
Sunday. April 29,2007. GLOBAL DARFUR DAY
So its actually in the early hours of Monday april 30 but we will also say its in the late hours of the 29th. Today was global darfur day where major cities across the world held demonstations/ marches/ rallies to bring attention to the ongoing genocide currently taking place in darfur, sudan all while the empire of the world promoting democracy everywbere turns a blinc eye. Why do we have to be a world dominator. Why cant the US be known as a world humanitarian. You know?
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
I sit here in number 2 driving across the western part of Ontario into Manitoba where we are too have another rock show in Winnipeg, The surroundings in these parts are amazing. This is the first time ever I have been from coast to coast in Canada. The trips I have been on in Canada usually go from Winnipeg into the US usually Minneapolis, onto Chicago, Detroit and back into southern Ontario, Canada. So these roads are definitely less traveled and the towns we played were completely hungry for good live music.
The last couple days have been spent driving from Toronto through Ontario along the great lakes area in some very very prestine enviroment. I didn’t know what to expect from this drive and what types of things we would see. This part of Canada reminds me lot of some of the parts of Sweden ive seen. In Sweden as well as in this part of Ontario the amount of water, waterways, and lakes is unreal. Totally unreal. Ive heard that Canada has one of the biggest fresh water resources in the world……and that maybe Canada should make it into a national security issue…… who knows?.... anyhow I have also seen maps of this area and knew there was a lot of water but the maps don’t do it justice. For about 2 days now we have traveled about 1000 miles and there has been nothing but water and forest. Moose land!!!! In fact probably about every 5 km there are moose crossing signs which means they are out there however non of us have seen a thing.
So this tour has been something thus far. The kids as well as all of us are getting a incredible dose of rock everynight. The opening band whos name is static radio is great. They have a total Lifetime vibe to them which rules seeing how much I luv Lifetime. The Loved Ones never disappoint. Its really fun watching TLO everynight. Next comes Strike anywhere. WHOA!!! Seriously. What an amazing band all the way around? Watching all of them every night is such a treat and something that brings back a lot of memories. SA is definitely the reason I moved to Richmond and has also played a part to where I am at. Fun fun. Some talented musicians they are. This tour the SA’s have a new guitar player due to Sherwood pursuing more of a normal life with his wife in North Carolina. I know Mark from back home in Richmond so its nice to get to be on the road with someone else you know from home. Mark is starting to really become tight with strike anywhere and I think its going to be a good addition. Next we have the souls who never fail and is the reason we are all here. Its so much fun every night watching the kids loose their minds for all the bands and then seeing everyone going crazy for the souls. The kids of Canada are very lucky to get too see this group of friends all rock.
So am i. It’s the first time out of all the tours that I have done where I personally know everyone. That doesn’t happen that often. Yes there are times where you know other bands/ people on the tours but it doesn’t happen often when everyone (about 20 of us) all know each other and have for years. More fun fun fun.
May 2nd.
Staring at the back of the white castle as we head down highway 1 here in Saskatchewan. We left Winnipeg at 8 o clock this morning and have been driving all morning and into the early afternoon to make it on time for regina, SK.
The show yesterday was super fun. I was really looking forward to this day due to the almighty Mondragon Café and my plans on meeting up with the Propagandhi dudes to discuss tour. I had been to Winnipeg in the past a couple times and have always been intrigued by the city due to the bands coming out of here and the projects these bands are involved with.
Once we were at the venue, loaded in, and set up all of us vegans went for a stroll too mondragon café to get a bite to eat. Mondragon café is a worker owned vegetarian restaurant which serves amazing food. The building its part of on albert street also houses g7 records, a bike shop and bookstore. All of these places function under the participatory economics which means they are all worker owned. Well due to background of this type of collective they also decided to close early for may day. HAPPY MAY DAY!!!. It was a bummer due to all of our stomachs craving for some good vegan fare. Oh well. I back the cause and back people taking days off for the real “labor day” Eventually we found a little shopping plaza so twan and myself got a falafel pita and headed back to the venue to fininsh up some things.
This evening I was picked up by a fellow and new friend named Sam. Sam tour manages a band of thrashers from Winnipeg named propagandhi. It just so happens that I will be doing these shredders next tour in the mid west which will be taking place at the end of this month. So I had twan cover me for an hour after doors so I could go meet up with sam and chris to discuss details of the upcoming tour. Totally stoked. Some may know this and some may not but Propagandhi is probably one of my favorite bands of all time. For sure!! So knowing that ill be on this next tour is pretty exciting for myself. We sat and drank a pitcher of pilsner before we all headed back to the venue so I could work and so they could check out Strike Anywhere.
The show was so much fun. The last time the souls were in Winnipeg would have been the hot water tour they did which was around 2002. No one knew what to expect at all. I think the strikes were worried because they had never played Winnipeg but I kept telling them that by the sounds of the music coming out of Winnipeg, plus the community of punx and activists here its bound to be an incredible show for them. And it was. Totally great show for everyone. Now we are on our way to yet another show which I bound to be another good night.
I am just getting ready to hit the sack here at Kate is Great’s house. I arrived here in new Jersey about 3 hours ago after a delayed flight which kept me in the Richmond airport longer then expected. The last 2 days here in this part of the country there was a heavy storm that came through and disrupted a lot of air travel and im sure some other things as well. I was woken up this morning around 7 to the some of the heaviest, loudest wind I have seen/ heard in a long time. All day I kept checking thee old internerd to see if my flight was cancelled or delayed. Im glad it wasn’t cancelled or I would have been in a crazy predicament seeing how we all start driving to Halifax tomorrow. So I arrived on time to the airport, found a stool at the bar in the gate area and preceded to through back the pilsner and watch the tube in front of me
Today here in Virginia there was a mass shooting at Virginia tech out in Blacksburg. I think currently the death toll is around 32 people and there are definitely some people with major injuries. So so crazy. Where have we all gone wrong? Sitting at this bar and watching the news channel just do their thing over and over and over again was such a disgusting thing. I understand this is a major major event and people want to know all the details etc etc but this incident and incidents like it are made into a complete spectacle. Watching everyone at the bar just staring off into the distance watching this event unfold while seeing and hearing their comments was unreal.
Some dude next to me keep saying “how could this happen? How could this happen? Could you imagine being the parents of these kids?” The dude was saying this to be heard and I think wanted to get into some sort of conversation so I quickly started saying something and then said “ill just keep my views to myself”. Ha ha. That didn’t last long because I then just told the guy “its not surprising at all. Look at us. This country is off killing people in far away distant lands in a war so what are we to expect here”. You know? Its like lead by example. If you live in a place that values the people through health insurance, somewhat of a socialized system etc etc things as such- again my opinion- are less likely to happen.
If you live in a place where the majority of the people don’t give a fuck, poisoning the planet massively, and are off fighting wars of conquest then things as such will happen and continue.
Anyhow on with the fun stuff. So k8 just went to pick up lisi and twan from Newark while I stayed here to watch a late game of hockey and just chill out. Pete picked me up from the airport and drove me back to Asbury but then took off again to go spend those last minutes with his lady friend. Tomorrow everyone else will arrive at k8s to load the trucks and get all the gear sorted out for our journey to the great white north. Greg I actually flying straight to Halifax but we will have everyone else with us tomorrow.
SOULS;
Greg, Pete, Bryan, Micheal
THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Lisi, Bob, Twan, Rodney and myself.
This tour is going to completely over the top. Everyone on the tour (bouncing souls, strike anywhere, the loved ones) have all known each other for sometime and have toured with each many times in the past. There is another band named a static radio who I have never met or heard either but when it comes to the 3 mentioned above I personally am friends with everyone and have actually toured with all those bands at different time. Plus its in my motherland of canaduh. Kids in Canada loose their shit when bands make the trip up. Its going to rule.
Alright im out for the night to rest before our official first day of tour. Well first day of all being together. Our first show isn’t for a couple days but its 1000 miles away in Halifax, NS.
Sunday. April 29,2007. GLOBAL DARFUR DAY
So its actually in the early hours of Monday april 30 but we will also say its in the late hours of the 29th. Today was global darfur day where major cities across the world held demonstations/ marches/ rallies to bring attention to the ongoing genocide currently taking place in darfur, sudan all while the empire of the world promoting democracy everywbere turns a blinc eye. Why do we have to be a world dominator. Why cant the US be known as a world humanitarian. You know?
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
I sit here in number 2 driving across the western part of Ontario into Manitoba where we are too have another rock show in Winnipeg, The surroundings in these parts are amazing. This is the first time ever I have been from coast to coast in Canada. The trips I have been on in Canada usually go from Winnipeg into the US usually Minneapolis, onto Chicago, Detroit and back into southern Ontario, Canada. So these roads are definitely less traveled and the towns we played were completely hungry for good live music.
The last couple days have been spent driving from Toronto through Ontario along the great lakes area in some very very prestine enviroment. I didn’t know what to expect from this drive and what types of things we would see. This part of Canada reminds me lot of some of the parts of Sweden ive seen. In Sweden as well as in this part of Ontario the amount of water, waterways, and lakes is unreal. Totally unreal. Ive heard that Canada has one of the biggest fresh water resources in the world……and that maybe Canada should make it into a national security issue…… who knows?.... anyhow I have also seen maps of this area and knew there was a lot of water but the maps don’t do it justice. For about 2 days now we have traveled about 1000 miles and there has been nothing but water and forest. Moose land!!!! In fact probably about every 5 km there are moose crossing signs which means they are out there however non of us have seen a thing.
So this tour has been something thus far. The kids as well as all of us are getting a incredible dose of rock everynight. The opening band whos name is static radio is great. They have a total Lifetime vibe to them which rules seeing how much I luv Lifetime. The Loved Ones never disappoint. Its really fun watching TLO everynight. Next comes Strike anywhere. WHOA!!! Seriously. What an amazing band all the way around? Watching all of them every night is such a treat and something that brings back a lot of memories. SA is definitely the reason I moved to Richmond and has also played a part to where I am at. Fun fun. Some talented musicians they are. This tour the SA’s have a new guitar player due to Sherwood pursuing more of a normal life with his wife in North Carolina. I know Mark from back home in Richmond so its nice to get to be on the road with someone else you know from home. Mark is starting to really become tight with strike anywhere and I think its going to be a good addition. Next we have the souls who never fail and is the reason we are all here. Its so much fun every night watching the kids loose their minds for all the bands and then seeing everyone going crazy for the souls. The kids of Canada are very lucky to get too see this group of friends all rock.
So am i. It’s the first time out of all the tours that I have done where I personally know everyone. That doesn’t happen that often. Yes there are times where you know other bands/ people on the tours but it doesn’t happen often when everyone (about 20 of us) all know each other and have for years. More fun fun fun.
May 2nd.
Staring at the back of the white castle as we head down highway 1 here in Saskatchewan. We left Winnipeg at 8 o clock this morning and have been driving all morning and into the early afternoon to make it on time for regina, SK.
The show yesterday was super fun. I was really looking forward to this day due to the almighty Mondragon Café and my plans on meeting up with the Propagandhi dudes to discuss tour. I had been to Winnipeg in the past a couple times and have always been intrigued by the city due to the bands coming out of here and the projects these bands are involved with.
Once we were at the venue, loaded in, and set up all of us vegans went for a stroll too mondragon café to get a bite to eat. Mondragon café is a worker owned vegetarian restaurant which serves amazing food. The building its part of on albert street also houses g7 records, a bike shop and bookstore. All of these places function under the participatory economics which means they are all worker owned. Well due to background of this type of collective they also decided to close early for may day. HAPPY MAY DAY!!!. It was a bummer due to all of our stomachs craving for some good vegan fare. Oh well. I back the cause and back people taking days off for the real “labor day” Eventually we found a little shopping plaza so twan and myself got a falafel pita and headed back to the venue to fininsh up some things.
This evening I was picked up by a fellow and new friend named Sam. Sam tour manages a band of thrashers from Winnipeg named propagandhi. It just so happens that I will be doing these shredders next tour in the mid west which will be taking place at the end of this month. So I had twan cover me for an hour after doors so I could go meet up with sam and chris to discuss details of the upcoming tour. Totally stoked. Some may know this and some may not but Propagandhi is probably one of my favorite bands of all time. For sure!! So knowing that ill be on this next tour is pretty exciting for myself. We sat and drank a pitcher of pilsner before we all headed back to the venue so I could work and so they could check out Strike Anywhere.
The show was so much fun. The last time the souls were in Winnipeg would have been the hot water tour they did which was around 2002. No one knew what to expect at all. I think the strikes were worried because they had never played Winnipeg but I kept telling them that by the sounds of the music coming out of Winnipeg, plus the community of punx and activists here its bound to be an incredible show for them. And it was. Totally great show for everyone. Now we are on our way to yet another show which I bound to be another good night.
THE BOUNCING SOULS- GOLD TOUR- FALL 2006
OCT 12TH, DRIVING #2 TO WASHINGTON DC FOR FIRST SHOW OF “THE GOLD TOUR”
So we are on our way to DC for the first show of tour. Stoked. Im really excited to see tonights show and all the other shows. Good times. We have in the back of this truck nothing but gear, more gear with merch and more merch. The white castle (truck #1/ #2 is truck #2… go figure) The white castle isn’t coming until tomorrow due to repairs so we are borrowing a friend of the souls bio-diesel van. THAT’S WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!! Traveling in style.
So the last couple days have been a hoot. I arrived in NYC about 3 days ago where I spent time with my bud james. We just pretty much cruised around and hung out for the first day. I love nyc but would never live there. The food the people watching and the cruising with headphones is good good times. Theres so much to see and check out.
The Bouncing Souls were playing one of the last cbgb’s shows ever with the original Bad Brains so I made my way down to the venue that day to meet up with everyone for the nights festivities and basically the next 4 weeks of festivities.
The show was completely completely packed and everyone was pumped. For the souls it was a pretty punk rock thing. They basically showed up with just their instruments got on stage and played. No soundcheck and using gear that wasn’t theirs. Punk. The first band to play the show I thought was pretty “not good”. Yeah. Im not even sure about their name but I just wasn’t feeling it at all. Then the souls took to the stage. Seriously as soon as they started playing I realized why I liked them as a band and why I wasn’t into the opening band. I got stoked and rocked out for the next 40 mins or so. I couldn’t really see any of the crowd due to where I was standing and it being so packed but the kids up front were pumped as hell.
After they were done rocking I cruised outside to chill out before the bad brains played. For the souls I was right up front but for the bad brains I stayed way in the back. Ha. The place was packed. The crowd was so incredibly pumped for these punk rock legends to come out and do their thing.
They came onto the stage all rasta’d out and the crowd gave them a warm of a welcome cheer. This was it. the original bad brains with the crazy (truly crazy) HR on vocals. Ha ha ha. The bad brains back in the day were known for their onstage insaneness and HR just going completely nuts on stage. Well I knew that wasn’t going to be the case now at all. I am sure everyone of them is at least 50 and theres no way a 50 year old is going to go too crazy on stage. So that element wasn’t there which was expected.
About 4 songs into it I got a call from james that I had left my book, and citizenship study guide at his house. Damn! So I had to take off and go meet up with him to go grab the rest of my things. Duh. But I can say this and don’t know if I want to. I missed the bad brains for America. Ouch!!! Ha ha ha. I got my things and whipped back to the venue to meet up with everyone and head down to new jersey with them to stay at kates to have a pre-production day.
Yesterday I spent most of the day at kates house getting together old tour leftovers and what not, and goin through boxes. The souls went to the bowling alley down the street from kates where they would be all day to practice, try out new things, and get everything dialed in. How cool eh? The local bowling alley let them come in all day to have practice. I bowled a couple rounds and actually got a strike the first ball I rolled. The streak ended their. Ha. After the rock was done we loaded up all the gear to load the truck for the first time. It was pouring outside but after some ingenious thinking we decided to pull the truck right up to the side walk and put the ramp right up to the steps minimizing our chances of getting soaked. Totally great idea and well worth the effort. We loaded the truck and finished with a beer before heading back to kates where wig was going to meet us for the merch shipment. The merch arrived so we got back into the truck and filled the rest of the space with boxes. We are LOADED down for sure but its for a reason which is good. That was pretty much all of yesterday. last night I went back to the bowling alley to grab a bbq tofu cheese steak (the big V of course) with some tater tots to fill thee ole belly and shoot some shit with anthony before heading off to kates to grab some sleep before our departure this morning.
This is the BOUNCING SOULS “GOLD TOUR”
Souls-Greg, Bryan, Pete, Mike
Plus William, Anthony, Bob, Montainne, Taze, Rodney, and myself.
Oct 18th, 2006 approx 12:02 am.
I am sitting here in my/ our hotel room in downtown Cleveland. Im getting over a little stuffiness/ cough so im deciding to take it easy while some of the others are downstairs at the bar. We had a day off today in which we got to sleep in some in Pittsburgh. We got ready, met in the lobby and got ourselves loaded in the trucks to being our day. The plans were. Eat, run errands @ your typical corporate store tour stops (target/ home depot/ guitar center) and then finally drive to Cleveland.
William had found a restaurant that both the veg heads and non veg heads would enjoy. I was a little behind most walking into the place so didn’t witness the event but it turns out the lady at the place was super rude upon us walking into the place. I guess since we had 10 people “we shouls have called earlier” etc etc. So everyone was very offended and decided they didn’t want to eat there which I backed and completely understood. By the dudes reactions I knew this lady sucked so…..Not good customer service……so we cruised to some other diner, filled our bellies and headed out to run our errands and hit the road.
After getting guitar supplies, keys made for myself, caulking for both trucks to fix the leaks we have, and some warm clothes from target we headed to Cleveland where we are currently.
We all went to eat at some sushie place across the street from our hotel and now some our drinking downstairs while others are jamming on the acoustic and some of us our doing laundry and typing on this here keyboard.
So the last 5 days have ruled. The souls rule it hard. Our team rules it hard. The kids at the shows are pumped and ruling I hard. Just all around good times. I have only actually seen 2 out of the 5 shows and one of them was last night in Pittsburgh. WHOA! Did the souls bring it. their set is amazing and they actually have they have added a couple things to bring the “live show” thing into play. My terminology of course. Yeah they actually have a great show and completely have blown me away those 2 nights. Stoked! I have said this many times and I will say this many more but by far one of the best punk rock bands of our time.
I didn’t mention this above and this is way of key but it just came to mind. I definitely saw a dead body the other day. Well actually not a full dead body but definitely the arm and hand of a dead body. Crazy. This was a first. On our way to the dc show an accident had just happened where a jeep had flipped a couple times and was upside down. Upon driving past it you could see a white sheet covering part of it so you knew there was going to be something knarly. Well when we came up to it I saw the arm/ and hand of thie person who didn’t make it through and the cops taking pics of the scene. Crazy.
Tomorrow or actually 12 hours later today we will load into the house of blues here in Cleveland for another rock show. Stoked again. Also every show has been completely packed and that’s just such an amazing thing to see and experience.
When you are on tour and every show is pakced with stoked kids who are loosing their minds there is nothing at all like it.
Anyhoo… rock it
OCT 21, 2006. AMBASSADOR HOTEL, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
So this ambassador hotel is known for its guest some 10 + years ago by the name of Jeffery dalmer. Yeah the human eater. Ouch. Ive been to this hotel everytime passing through Milwaukee and that’s the only thing I think of and its always something that’s brought up by either someone else or myself. “jeffery dalmer used to live here”
Weird. The place is pretty weird and is still kinda has that sort of erie feeling. Last night I was trying to picture what it would have been like in the 80s. weird, the carpets are probably the same carpets they’ve had for decades seeing all the stains and cigarette burns. And then last night when we were coming into the lobby mcdermot mentioned for us to check out the vending machine room. Well the room was very big, had only 2 machines inside it, was lit very dim, and the one vending machine had maybe 1 item in it tops with the other 30 some rows empty. Erie.
So the last couple days have been pretty much the same. Fun fun fun. We played Detroit the other night and it was yet another example of why I feel the souls are the best there is at being a punk rock band. A cople songs into their set they actually invited a 14 yr old kid on stage to play “lean on sheena” with them and the kid pulled it through. Could you imagine what this kid was feeling playing in front of 600 kids who were pumped. A night he will never forget. Then a couple songs later they noticed a kid in the crowd who had been at the prior 3 shows so they invited him on stage, and then asked him what song he wanted them to play. The kid picked “argyle” and then greg said “you come sing the song” and gave the kid the mic while greg walked to the side of the stage. Amazing. Not many bands would do such a thing. Most are worried to much about image and “not fucking up” that they would dare even think of such a thing. Not the souls. Fuck it you know. Kids are pumped and that’s all that matters. Truly amazing.
Another cool thing that’s going to be happening on this tour is in a couple different cities we are playing 2 nights so the souls have decided that every 2nd night they will play the whole “manical laughter” record to stoke out the fans and add a little bonus action to the following night. A very very good call indeed. And still another amazing thing is is that the album is over 10 years old and they know every song off of it. not many would be able to pull such a thing off.
Tonights show should be fun. We are playing with some friends of ours known as smoke or fire who I know because they used to all live in Richmond. They are taking whole wheat breads place due to the bread being banned from the club we are playing tonight. Im also stoked due to getting to see mee ole friend bridey who I became friends with on this years evil warped tour.
Oct 23rd, driving somewhere in south Dakota.
So this morning was just like most other mornings on thus far. Not a bad thing at all. Its pretty cool actually in its routine. The phone rings early in the morning from William calling us to get us up. This morning it was 4:45. We leave our rooms, walk down to the trucks and start them up to get the juices flowing, and in truck #2 seeing how Anthony has been driving I will then hop in the back bunk and sleep. Wake up around 11 or so at some random truck stop. Get semi washed up and hit the road again.
Today has been great. Currently driving through the black hills of south Dakota. Amazing. Hands down beauty. Ive driven through these parts many parts before and it’s the same thing. The hills are amazing and keep going and going up and down up and down. Along the hills runs a slight tint of the black rock which is why im assuming they are named appropriately “the black hills”. The sky out here is also so huge. Wide open with miles and miles of semi level earth. The sun rise and sun sets out here must be incredible.
A little random note but while I was in Canada I saw this line of old combine machines and took a picture of it. weird yes. So on this drive I have been seeing a lot of old type farm machinery. Its cool to see them all ruseted up with actual water stains etc etc.
Oct 26th. On our way to boise, ID
Sitting here in the bunk of 32 with twan. Up front we have taze riding shot gun and ol Rodney driving. The last couple days have been interesting. We have been without the white castle for 2 days and were without twan for a day as well while he drove the castle from south Dakota to slc where we played last night.
We played rapid city, south Dakota 2 days ago which was an amazingly fun show and the kids were pumped as was expected. Rapid city I don’t think is a usual stop for bands so the kids seemed stoked. All kinds of people were at the show. Kids, adults and seeing how the show was at a local bar/ venue you had the local bar habitants as well. The show was a blast.
We then had the next day off which we originally had planned on driving all day to salt lake city. 11 hour drve but seeing how the castle had a major blow out the day before we waited for the sucker to get fixed. Let me back up some.
On our way to rapid city twan and myself got separated from the castle in a mad dash for vegan fare. When the castle pulled over we were actually ahead of them so decided to just drive straight to rapid city. Twan and I made it fine, loaded in and waited for everyone else. Turns out the castle and gang broke down with the sucker spewing smoke inside and outside near rapid city. So seeing how they broke down on the street were then pulled over and a k-9 dog walked around the outside of the truck. Sketch. Nothing happened and they were let go however the castle was still broken.
So yes we stayed in rapid city all day waiting for the castle until around 6 or so when we were told the dudes couldn’t quite fix the sucker in time but could finish it first thing in the morning.
So all of us except twan who would stay with the castle loaded up #2 w/ 4 people and rented a mini van for the rest of the gang. We drove punk style in #2 with 2 bryan and I laying down in the bunk in the back and mcdermot and Rodney up front driving/ navigating. We had an 11 hr drive ahead of us so off we went. We drove for around 7 hours pulled over for the night, woke up the next morning at 6 and drive the rest of the way to salt lake city.
The show last night was super cool. We played the venue ive been to countless times in slc named club sound/ in the venue. The (i)nc, hot hot heat, the hellacopters, have all played there and I have even seen Andrew w k there a couple years ago in the big room. Well it turns out the souls were playing the big room which was neat seeing how ive never actually worked a show in that room. The place was packed and I again the kids like every other night were pumped for the rock show. Twan and the castle drove all day (probably 15 hrs or so)straight and even got stuck in a couple snow storms which brought his speed down to 25 mph for the last leg of the trip. He arrived in slc around 4 in the morning I hear and is with us now.
I guess the castle still has problems so this morning Rodney, taze, twan, and myself loaded in #2 and are currently driving to boise, ID where we will load in. the others are renting another van which looks like we may be keeping for awhile until the castle gets fixed. Theres a chance we may just fix it and pick it up before the 2nd leg of the tour in Nov. who knows?
All in all we are still trucking, the shows are still rocking, and everyones is still shredding hard. That’s all that really matters eh!
OCT 29, seattle, Wa
Sitting here at the el Corazon here in the beautiful northwest city known as seattle.
Currently listening to the song “a new morning changing weather” by 4 dudes who live in a nordic land known as Sweden. Actually the first show of the last (i)nc tour was here at the el Corazon. Wish they were playing here tonight. A good dose of loud rock.
This morning I woke up in seattle after last nights show and a night of partying to catch a cab up to the capitol hill area to eat at the one and only globe where I get my usual buiscuits and gravy. After breakfast I caught a cab back to our hotel to meet up with montaine which then we were going to go to this bodies exhibit. Totally stoked. I missed it in nyc due to circumstances so I wasn’t missing it this time. Mind blowing this exhibit was. Completely mind blowing. When you come to the part of the exhibit where you see the nerves/ arteries which have been injected with a colored silicone type substance. Totally insane to see.
NOV 6TH, ramada somewhere in LA/ Hollywood
Sitting in my hotel room jamming some new tunes. Ha ha. I borrowed twans ipod and took some music off that sucker. Hes a big head automatic fan due to his friendship with those peeps so ive heard my share of them lately and im kinda into it so….. with a push of a button I now have it. stoked!!
I haven’t written much in awhile and theres so much that has passed. Lets see…. We were in seattle for 2 days of hanging and shows, we had an all day drive from the northwest down to san fran for another 2 shows/ nights of hanging. Plus it was Halloween night which was fun as well. After the san fran show we headed down south to a show in san luis, and the onto LA for a couple shows, down to san diego, and finally back to LA where I currently sit on day off #1 of #2. Ha ha. Fun fun.
So our 2 shows in San Fran. We played at slims and these were the shows it seemed everyone was looking forward to. Night number 1 was Halloween. Earlier twan, William and myself went to eat at a place named herbavore which Ive eaten at in the past and most likely in the future. Their basil/ pesto sun dried tomatoe toast is the shiznit. After lunch headed to a costume shop to get last minute accessories. I hadn’t any idea of what I was going to be so this would be the only time I had to find something. Classic!! What I came out with was a box of Kleenex. Basically my body was the box and I wore this white hat/ mask type thing which was white and supposed to be the Kleenex. On the box it said BLOW ME tissues. Kinda funny but also great for a last minute find…….
……okay im back. One reason I haven’t been writing lately is just because when I do have free time I try to hang out but seeing how its now 1:30 in the morning I thought I would put on the headphones, listen to some new tunes and do some writing. The first song to come on was “life support addiction” by refused. Yeah! I had songs to fan the flames way back in the day. In fact I had it a good little while before they released their “shape of punk to come album”. I own it but its been in storage for years and for some reason I don’t have it on my pod. Now I do and its great. Anyhoo….
So this evening I went out to eat with my friend mike who was in town from DC taking care of some things on the left coast. Pretty crazy actually. We knew each other were going to be in LA at this time and actually planned on hooking up today to head to a hockey game but we hadn’t set a time to meet up. Well I wake up in the morning and run some things out to the truck before we head out to lunch and while im walking through the parking lot back to my room I hear a “keebler!”. For a split second I thought it was William but then upon turning around I saw phyte. Crazy! Totally took me off guard.
After dinner we came back to the hotel and decided to hit the bar downstairs. Earlier in the evening I had checked this bar out to possibly watch a hockey game. I get downstairs and the bar was empty, dark, and a little erie. Well this evening when we returned and cruised downstairs the place had about 10 people in it and was a local standup comedy night. Yeah crazy. Whats crazier is we are now currently on our balcony hanging out with these dudes., good times. It’s a nice evening when you have a good dinner and then come back to the hotel to laugh your ass off the rest of the night.
Heres a little brutal story. I know im going everywhere with the writing but this just came to mind and im sharing it. So the other night the bass player of the street dogs saw and extremely horrific scene in which 2 people were killed. They were eating and upon leaving the restaurant saw this grrl who seemed to be intoxicated on the other side of the street try and cross the road but fell down. So this fellow (from what I heard could have been this grrls boyfriend) went into the street to pick her up and from out of nowhere were hit by a car at 60 miles an hour and instantly killed. From what I hear the bodies were in pieces. WOW!!! Something I hope I never have to go through.
I saw the movie BORAT today with everyone. A pretty amazing thing that movie is. Genious.
NOV 7- LOS ANGELES
There are way to many bands these days and not even kids. It sucks cause the bands that deserve the attention totally get drowned out by garbage. Bum deal. The almighty dollar is a factor in all of this as well. Bum deal.
NOV 24. Somewhere in the air just leaving Richmond, VA
So I sit here on yet another 2 winged aircraft where I am heading to dallas, tx and then onto my final destination to Denver, co where I will meet the rest of the souls peeps for round #2 of the gold tour. Fun fun fun
I just started reading a new book about 5 mins ago (didn’t get that far but will continue in a little bit) entitled “ENDGAME-the problem of civilization-volume 1” by the one and only derrick Jensen. Out of all books I have ever read I have read all of his books but one. The dude is very straight up. So far ive covered about 5 pages of the this book and I know its going to be a heavy one. STOKED! Then there is volume 2 which is entitled “resistance”.
Why im writing about this is because the lady beside me is reading a book which I cant completely make out the tittle but “HOPE” is part of the main title and then “the America dream” is also part of the same title.
2 totally different books and seeing that im sure 2 very different people with different outlooks. Ha ha ha. Classic.
The very first sentence of my book is
“civilization is not and can never be sustainable. This is especially true with industrialized civilization”
I wonder what the first sentence of her book is.
“a 3 bedroom house with a white picket fence, a nice car in the drive way, pool in the backyard, nice front yard with the perfect shade of green grass is….”
Yeah who knows.
Is it better to read a book about “hope” in this day in age or is it better to read a book about the “apocalypse.”
150 people killed in iraq, Russian ex- kgb man killed through poisoning yesterday, millions of birds slaughtered for our little celebration of our colonial/ industrialized/ capitalistic quest. This and many stories like it all took place in just 1 day which was yesterday. Then we have polluted waters, polluted air, polluted soil. On and on and on.
so “hope’?? hhmm, is “hope” just straight up denial?? Who knows? Im sure I could keep writing and writing but ill leave it here.
A quick side note. I was in Chicago this past weekend and ended up going to a AHL Chicago wolves hockey game. Go wolves. Anyhoo the bathrooms in the stadium all had blow hand dryers and each unti had a mini- tv screen on it which was spewing out advertisements. Not a fan of advertisements at all but I am a huge huge fan of blow hand dryers. It sucks going into most bathrooms and the only thing there is are these now automated paper dispensers. Quite sad. So I think these new machinces would be incentives for companies to invest in them etc etc and make that the standard. Just a thought.
In about 6 hours ill be in the mile high city known as Denver where we will be for a couple days due to 2 shows and possibly a day off there as well. Fun times. A good way to start off a tour actually by being in the same city for 3 days. YEAH.
Nov 27, Lawrence, Kansas
We just arrived here in Lawrence about 20 mins ago after a good 10 hour drive or so. 500 and some miles.
The last 3 days have been spent in the mile high city of Denver. Its kinda neat flying into Denver. The airport/ city are so high up that it doesn’t take forever to descend so your still real high in the air and then the pilot announces we will be on the ground in 20 mins. Fun.
We have on this leg of the tour Bob who usually does FOH for the souls but last run was out with rise against/ Thursday so its cool having him back, the dudes are pschyed as well, and from bobs end you can tell hes missed hanging with his boys. I would to you know with a good bunch of peeps. We have a new tech on this tour as well named aaron.
So our first night twan, willian, aaron, and myself went out to some thai restaurant right next to our hotel. WHOA! This place was beyond. The food was so so so amazing we ended up going back 2 days later. The peanut curry dish ruled.
After dinner that night twan and I went to see tenacious d. I have not seen a movie this funny in years. Seriously from sstart to finish I was laughing the whole time. It’s a pretty punk film as well in the sense that they produced it, made all the music, and had all their friends in it. amazing.
So both Denver shows were amazing. The first one obviously being the first was a good good time. We had 2 weeks off so seeing/ hearing the live show again was fun. The kids in Denver were pumped and I think people in Denver like to party. I just got that vibe. Hootin and hollering all night were the kids.
After the show we headed back to our hotel and some of us hung out in a room for a little while before calling it a night.
The second show was a nother maniacal laughter show in which the souls would play this whole album start to finish. Other times when they’ve done this they would play a couple songs, then all of manical, and then play some more to end the show. Well last night they played the whole album first and then finished with all the other classic. I thought it was a good decision and it had a good feel. Kids again last night were pumped again.
NOV 30..
Sitting #2 with Twan and Rodney following the castle to Oklahoma city. Outside there is a major major storm with temperatures in the 20’s. the highway outside is completely covered with ice as well as out entire truck. Every couple mintues or so we pass salt trucks dumping their load.
We knew we were heading into a storm and planned on it so its all good. Currently we sit in traffic where I looks like theres been a wreck ahead. Not the best conditions to be driving in if you don’t have to.
So I had a good conversation yesterday with this dude named chris who is touring with left alone. Chris wasn’t on the first leg so they had a fellow named travis who is still out with them as well. Both chris and travis are from outside of montreal where they live on the kahawnazakee Indian reservation. Chris and I talked yesterday for awhile which was rad. Chris is full blood Indian but thinks somewhere down the line hes had white blood in him. Seeing how they are around the same age as myself and they lived near montreal I asked him if he was around, and remembered the oka incident.
The Oka Incident was a situation between the Mohawk nation and basically the government of Canada. The situation arose from a proposed golf course getting built from 9 holes to 18 holes over ancient burial grounds. So due to it being native land (clearly stated in treaties) and the treaties being broken the Mohawk warrior society went into self defense mode (rightfully so) and had an armed stand off with the provincial police of quebec and the government of Canada, It was canada’s biggest military operation in history up to that point.
Well chris’s father was/ or became part of the warrior society and would disappear for weeks during that time/ struggle chris was saying. “he would go to the bush” is what chris said
This is the first time I have ever talked to some one at depth about this incident and finding out his father was actually part of the armed struggle. So interesting.
Chris’s was telling me that his reservation was actually the ones that blocked the main bridge in montreal. What had happened in that situation basically in the act of solidarity and ill add this-resistance the natives blocked the main bridge going into montreal for weeks. Seeing how montreal is an island this also screwed things up big time with the flow of the almighty dollar. Another statement.
Anyhoo….. it was a cool talk.
Well still here in the truck. The roads have gotten a lot worse and we are currently cruising at 35 mph on snow/ ice covered highway.
Dec 2nd driving to Austin, TX
So the last couple days have been pretty eventful.
We ran into that “knarly”(as some would call it storm in Oklahoma which wouldn’t couldn’t make it through so we ended up pulling over. Mother nature defeated us which is okay. The roads were so bad even doing 35 mph. Yes I think we could have made it but we would have been extremely late and who knows what would have been the status then. So….. we pulled the plug and pulled over north of Tulsa. It was 7:00 at that time and we still had 130 miles to go. Ha ha ha
So we found a hotel in some little town a couple miles off the highway. Everything was closed and everything had a good foot of snow on it so all we could do is chill in our rooms and drink the remainder beer we had in the trucks. Lets just say the winter chill definitely chills a beer very well. The night ended up being a pretty fun night hanging with everyone. We were all okay with the situation.
Yesterday morning we wake up at 8 ready to hit the road to dallas were we had to make up lost ground plus then the normal drive. Turns out the highways were closed. Yeah!! Outside there lay a good couple feet of snow covering everything. We are in Oklahoma so theres no way they are going to plow this anytime soon. Hell in some parts…. To the north…ha ha….thats life and they are ready. But we will say due to humans impact and global warming now any thing can happen anywhere.
Back to sleep I went until we got word that we were leaving. The word came around 11 and off we went. Lets just say this. For the first 2/3 rds of our drive to roads were not plowed and half of that was very bad conditions. It had to be done and we did it.
Arrived last night in dallas at 7 oclock right when doors were. no biggy though. Being stuck in a truck all day driving through the shit will make you just take it easy upon arrival. As long as the show goes on its no problem.
Once everything was set and the doors opened it ended up being a fun night. Dallas is a god time and the kids in dallas seem all very coo. Everytime I have been there I have had fun.
Dec 4th some gas station outside Lafayette, LA
Sitting here in the back bunk while we are filling thee ole trucks up before we head to some shops to pick up some things before our journey to New Orleans So ive never been to New Orleans before and am very very excited and interested. It’s a first.
So we played Austin 2 nights ago and Houston last night.
Austin is always a good time. Ive been there many times on tour and its always been at the some place. The 1 and only emos. That area of town where that venue is has many cool shops, restaurants, and other venues all near by.
It turns out I have an x girlfriend-jessica- now living in Austin with my good friend back in the day-mr. greg voneschen- which was very neat. Also my friend staci who used to live in rva moved here last year so she came out as well. The show was a late show so late load which was fine. After everything was set up I went out with staci to get some thai food. Good good times. It was a totally good meal seeing how the last couple days the food was pretty budget if there was any at all. Plus staci knowing where all the good eats are as well was cool. After food I cruised back to the venue just in time for doors and the rock show. From here on out the good times continued to roll and roll and roll. The kids were pumped, emos was packed and everyone was loosing their minds including me. Lonestar beer. Hey oh! The show ended very late due to the late start so afterwards it took for ever to load out due to the streets being packed and the other bands had their gear in front of us. When load out was finally done we cruised back into the club where there were some people hanging out. The thing was emos said they would stay open after the show for us and a little party of sorts. So when we cruised into this room we were told to cruise out for a bit so they can quickly “close up shop” and for us to cruise back in 10 mins so we could hang. So we cruised to another bar in which Darren (street dogs FOH) knew people who would hook us up with drinks. When we came up to the place they were definitely shut down, closed, and didn’t seem to stoked on letting us in but they did anyhow. We all had a quick shot and then we criuised back to emos to finish the night.
The next morning we headed to a place named “mothers garden” for the breakfast and as you can probably tell from the name this place was an all natural foods café. YEEHAAW!! I think one of my favorite things in life is food. Ha ha. Then music. So as you can tell tour is a good time for meeself. So yes…. Good food is amazing. Truly amazing. Knowing its super healthy and super good. I couldn’t imagine not appreciating food and im assuming this is quite the norm. I me I know everyone loves food. We got too or else that person has got a huge problem which might the be the best thing in life.
Anyhoo before I get too carried away when you eat heathly theres nothing that can top that feeling. So after breakfast- in which I had the migas- (black beans, tofu with a dressing and potatoes) we got back in the truck and headed to Houston.
Complete side note on this one. I forgot to mention that when we were driving to Austin we stopped off at willie nelsons bio-diesel station however the thing was going through a major over haul and getting completely restorated. So the station down the next exit was carrying the fuel in the meantime so that’s where we headed. The place was just your typical petrol station except ontop of the pumps there was an advertisement/ bio of willies “bio diesel”.
Anything that helps. But upon reading the facts about the stuff it turns out only 20% of it was actual bio dieself and 80% was fuel. So….. are we actually helping out the cause or just think we are because we have been fed these numbers which look good but over all the problem is going to continue at those ratios. Is it the lesser of 2 evils with an 80/20%?
My opinion…. Yes….over all it may…..add one extra year on this very old, very polluted planet. We can drive cars on grease from restaurants. So….. I may ask…. Hey ol willie. “why not oil from the restaurants?”. You may get heard a little more with those numbers.
Played housston last night which was okay. There wasn’t a huge turnout which will also effect peoples “pumpness” etc etc. over all the show was good and I watched the crowd all night and the amounts of fists getting pumped in the air proved the kids were having fun so…… rock on.
The fellow who did the show was a dude ive met in the past named ryan. Ryan is/ and has been a diy promoter in Houston for years and im sure every show ive ever been through in that area he has somewhat done/ or help do. When ive passed through witht the (i)nc he always takes us out to get some food from a place named mias. So last night twan, bob, and myself order food from there which was the salt fried tofu. From what someone told me last night “houstons finest tofu dish” and I can see whay. The shit was good. Turns out ryan now also plays drums for the smoking popes. Yeah he told me the story. His old band toured with them in the past and then a little while later he was going to tour manage, and sound for them however I week before that tour they asked him if he could play the songs on drums and if so would he. Ha ha ha. Now…. Hes in the smoking popes.
Dec 9th, driving up alligator alley in FL to st. sugustine
The last couple days have been very very fun filled with some pretty cray times.
We played New Orleans which was also my first time being ever being in that city. I was looking forward to it for many different reasons. That city went through a major major disaster and as I would find out later its really really effected everyone.
Our show was at the house of blues in the French quarter. The room we played was a small room compared to most house of blues. Turns our this band that is somewhat big at the moment named fall out boy ha ha was playing in the big room.
The show was very good and kids were extremely stoked. We ended up sneaking 2 kids into the show due to at the last moment hob making the show 18 +. Yeah bum deal. The guy and girl actually brought the old flyer to the show which said all ages and then I guess due to the fall out boy show being all ages they made the souls show 18+. So we said they were gregs cousins and they got to enjoy the show.
After the show I was invited to some bar next door so upon packing up and loading the truck I went to the bar everyone was hanging just to chill for a bit then off to this other bar. My night consisted doing some major hanging with the locals. This is pretty shitty and extremely sad but from what I saw people in new Orleans are fucked. You can tell that most have gone through some sort of psychological trauma due to “the storm”. You can tell that there was one way of life before the storm and now theres another way which is a complete opposite. Totally weird and sad. I had a good good night which ended promptly at 8:30 in the morning. Fun times.
After New Orleans we played a college show in Pensacola at a college. College shows are always super super weird which was the case here as well. The show was inside a student union building with carpet on the floors and just in general the whole building had a very “institutional” feel to it. Not a good place for a punk show. Well turns out the “institutional” aspect of things wasn’t to strong and the show went very well.
Next we made our way for Orlando were we would play 2 nights both at the social which is an amazing club in a cool like area of town. Everytime I have ever been to Orlando ive had a blast.
The social is a small venue in which half the floor is an actual it pit and then there is the upper level at the bar. I think the place holds maybe 500 kids and with that many kids in there the place is jammed pack as it was at both shows. I met so many cool people that night and also got to see some friends in the new mexican disaster squad.
Another good thing about Orlando is the food. 2 blocks down the street is this amazing amazing thai restaurant in which both nights I went to a got the “spiciest” red curry they had. Wow!! Theres nothing like a spicy red curry. The mornings are always interesting but during the moment that food is beyond. Then outside of the venue we have the infamous vegan hot dog cart. Ill say this. Theres nothing of the sort that can compare to this sucker. For $3 you get a vegan dog loaded with mushrooms, chilli, sauerkraut, onions, spinach, and vegan cheese over top. The best dogs ive ever had to be honest. If the cart was in Richmond I would probably eat hot dogs very very often.
So we are on our way to DC for the first show of tour. Stoked. Im really excited to see tonights show and all the other shows. Good times. We have in the back of this truck nothing but gear, more gear with merch and more merch. The white castle (truck #1/ #2 is truck #2… go figure) The white castle isn’t coming until tomorrow due to repairs so we are borrowing a friend of the souls bio-diesel van. THAT’S WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT!!! Traveling in style.
So the last couple days have been a hoot. I arrived in NYC about 3 days ago where I spent time with my bud james. We just pretty much cruised around and hung out for the first day. I love nyc but would never live there. The food the people watching and the cruising with headphones is good good times. Theres so much to see and check out.
The Bouncing Souls were playing one of the last cbgb’s shows ever with the original Bad Brains so I made my way down to the venue that day to meet up with everyone for the nights festivities and basically the next 4 weeks of festivities.
The show was completely completely packed and everyone was pumped. For the souls it was a pretty punk rock thing. They basically showed up with just their instruments got on stage and played. No soundcheck and using gear that wasn’t theirs. Punk. The first band to play the show I thought was pretty “not good”. Yeah. Im not even sure about their name but I just wasn’t feeling it at all. Then the souls took to the stage. Seriously as soon as they started playing I realized why I liked them as a band and why I wasn’t into the opening band. I got stoked and rocked out for the next 40 mins or so. I couldn’t really see any of the crowd due to where I was standing and it being so packed but the kids up front were pumped as hell.
After they were done rocking I cruised outside to chill out before the bad brains played. For the souls I was right up front but for the bad brains I stayed way in the back. Ha. The place was packed. The crowd was so incredibly pumped for these punk rock legends to come out and do their thing.
They came onto the stage all rasta’d out and the crowd gave them a warm of a welcome cheer. This was it. the original bad brains with the crazy (truly crazy) HR on vocals. Ha ha ha. The bad brains back in the day were known for their onstage insaneness and HR just going completely nuts on stage. Well I knew that wasn’t going to be the case now at all. I am sure everyone of them is at least 50 and theres no way a 50 year old is going to go too crazy on stage. So that element wasn’t there which was expected.
About 4 songs into it I got a call from james that I had left my book, and citizenship study guide at his house. Damn! So I had to take off and go meet up with him to go grab the rest of my things. Duh. But I can say this and don’t know if I want to. I missed the bad brains for America. Ouch!!! Ha ha ha. I got my things and whipped back to the venue to meet up with everyone and head down to new jersey with them to stay at kates to have a pre-production day.
Yesterday I spent most of the day at kates house getting together old tour leftovers and what not, and goin through boxes. The souls went to the bowling alley down the street from kates where they would be all day to practice, try out new things, and get everything dialed in. How cool eh? The local bowling alley let them come in all day to have practice. I bowled a couple rounds and actually got a strike the first ball I rolled. The streak ended their. Ha. After the rock was done we loaded up all the gear to load the truck for the first time. It was pouring outside but after some ingenious thinking we decided to pull the truck right up to the side walk and put the ramp right up to the steps minimizing our chances of getting soaked. Totally great idea and well worth the effort. We loaded the truck and finished with a beer before heading back to kates where wig was going to meet us for the merch shipment. The merch arrived so we got back into the truck and filled the rest of the space with boxes. We are LOADED down for sure but its for a reason which is good. That was pretty much all of yesterday. last night I went back to the bowling alley to grab a bbq tofu cheese steak (the big V of course) with some tater tots to fill thee ole belly and shoot some shit with anthony before heading off to kates to grab some sleep before our departure this morning.
This is the BOUNCING SOULS “GOLD TOUR”
Souls-Greg, Bryan, Pete, Mike
Plus William, Anthony, Bob, Montainne, Taze, Rodney, and myself.
Oct 18th, 2006 approx 12:02 am.
I am sitting here in my/ our hotel room in downtown Cleveland. Im getting over a little stuffiness/ cough so im deciding to take it easy while some of the others are downstairs at the bar. We had a day off today in which we got to sleep in some in Pittsburgh. We got ready, met in the lobby and got ourselves loaded in the trucks to being our day. The plans were. Eat, run errands @ your typical corporate store tour stops (target/ home depot/ guitar center) and then finally drive to Cleveland.
William had found a restaurant that both the veg heads and non veg heads would enjoy. I was a little behind most walking into the place so didn’t witness the event but it turns out the lady at the place was super rude upon us walking into the place. I guess since we had 10 people “we shouls have called earlier” etc etc. So everyone was very offended and decided they didn’t want to eat there which I backed and completely understood. By the dudes reactions I knew this lady sucked so…..Not good customer service……so we cruised to some other diner, filled our bellies and headed out to run our errands and hit the road.
After getting guitar supplies, keys made for myself, caulking for both trucks to fix the leaks we have, and some warm clothes from target we headed to Cleveland where we are currently.
We all went to eat at some sushie place across the street from our hotel and now some our drinking downstairs while others are jamming on the acoustic and some of us our doing laundry and typing on this here keyboard.
So the last 5 days have ruled. The souls rule it hard. Our team rules it hard. The kids at the shows are pumped and ruling I hard. Just all around good times. I have only actually seen 2 out of the 5 shows and one of them was last night in Pittsburgh. WHOA! Did the souls bring it. their set is amazing and they actually have they have added a couple things to bring the “live show” thing into play. My terminology of course. Yeah they actually have a great show and completely have blown me away those 2 nights. Stoked! I have said this many times and I will say this many more but by far one of the best punk rock bands of our time.
I didn’t mention this above and this is way of key but it just came to mind. I definitely saw a dead body the other day. Well actually not a full dead body but definitely the arm and hand of a dead body. Crazy. This was a first. On our way to the dc show an accident had just happened where a jeep had flipped a couple times and was upside down. Upon driving past it you could see a white sheet covering part of it so you knew there was going to be something knarly. Well when we came up to it I saw the arm/ and hand of thie person who didn’t make it through and the cops taking pics of the scene. Crazy.
Tomorrow or actually 12 hours later today we will load into the house of blues here in Cleveland for another rock show. Stoked again. Also every show has been completely packed and that’s just such an amazing thing to see and experience.
When you are on tour and every show is pakced with stoked kids who are loosing their minds there is nothing at all like it.
Anyhoo… rock it
OCT 21, 2006. AMBASSADOR HOTEL, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
So this ambassador hotel is known for its guest some 10 + years ago by the name of Jeffery dalmer. Yeah the human eater. Ouch. Ive been to this hotel everytime passing through Milwaukee and that’s the only thing I think of and its always something that’s brought up by either someone else or myself. “jeffery dalmer used to live here”
Weird. The place is pretty weird and is still kinda has that sort of erie feeling. Last night I was trying to picture what it would have been like in the 80s. weird, the carpets are probably the same carpets they’ve had for decades seeing all the stains and cigarette burns. And then last night when we were coming into the lobby mcdermot mentioned for us to check out the vending machine room. Well the room was very big, had only 2 machines inside it, was lit very dim, and the one vending machine had maybe 1 item in it tops with the other 30 some rows empty. Erie.
So the last couple days have been pretty much the same. Fun fun fun. We played Detroit the other night and it was yet another example of why I feel the souls are the best there is at being a punk rock band. A cople songs into their set they actually invited a 14 yr old kid on stage to play “lean on sheena” with them and the kid pulled it through. Could you imagine what this kid was feeling playing in front of 600 kids who were pumped. A night he will never forget. Then a couple songs later they noticed a kid in the crowd who had been at the prior 3 shows so they invited him on stage, and then asked him what song he wanted them to play. The kid picked “argyle” and then greg said “you come sing the song” and gave the kid the mic while greg walked to the side of the stage. Amazing. Not many bands would do such a thing. Most are worried to much about image and “not fucking up” that they would dare even think of such a thing. Not the souls. Fuck it you know. Kids are pumped and that’s all that matters. Truly amazing.
Another cool thing that’s going to be happening on this tour is in a couple different cities we are playing 2 nights so the souls have decided that every 2nd night they will play the whole “manical laughter” record to stoke out the fans and add a little bonus action to the following night. A very very good call indeed. And still another amazing thing is is that the album is over 10 years old and they know every song off of it. not many would be able to pull such a thing off.
Tonights show should be fun. We are playing with some friends of ours known as smoke or fire who I know because they used to all live in Richmond. They are taking whole wheat breads place due to the bread being banned from the club we are playing tonight. Im also stoked due to getting to see mee ole friend bridey who I became friends with on this years evil warped tour.
Oct 23rd, driving somewhere in south Dakota.
So this morning was just like most other mornings on thus far. Not a bad thing at all. Its pretty cool actually in its routine. The phone rings early in the morning from William calling us to get us up. This morning it was 4:45. We leave our rooms, walk down to the trucks and start them up to get the juices flowing, and in truck #2 seeing how Anthony has been driving I will then hop in the back bunk and sleep. Wake up around 11 or so at some random truck stop. Get semi washed up and hit the road again.
Today has been great. Currently driving through the black hills of south Dakota. Amazing. Hands down beauty. Ive driven through these parts many parts before and it’s the same thing. The hills are amazing and keep going and going up and down up and down. Along the hills runs a slight tint of the black rock which is why im assuming they are named appropriately “the black hills”. The sky out here is also so huge. Wide open with miles and miles of semi level earth. The sun rise and sun sets out here must be incredible.
A little random note but while I was in Canada I saw this line of old combine machines and took a picture of it. weird yes. So on this drive I have been seeing a lot of old type farm machinery. Its cool to see them all ruseted up with actual water stains etc etc.
Oct 26th. On our way to boise, ID
Sitting here in the bunk of 32 with twan. Up front we have taze riding shot gun and ol Rodney driving. The last couple days have been interesting. We have been without the white castle for 2 days and were without twan for a day as well while he drove the castle from south Dakota to slc where we played last night.
We played rapid city, south Dakota 2 days ago which was an amazingly fun show and the kids were pumped as was expected. Rapid city I don’t think is a usual stop for bands so the kids seemed stoked. All kinds of people were at the show. Kids, adults and seeing how the show was at a local bar/ venue you had the local bar habitants as well. The show was a blast.
We then had the next day off which we originally had planned on driving all day to salt lake city. 11 hour drve but seeing how the castle had a major blow out the day before we waited for the sucker to get fixed. Let me back up some.
On our way to rapid city twan and myself got separated from the castle in a mad dash for vegan fare. When the castle pulled over we were actually ahead of them so decided to just drive straight to rapid city. Twan and I made it fine, loaded in and waited for everyone else. Turns out the castle and gang broke down with the sucker spewing smoke inside and outside near rapid city. So seeing how they broke down on the street were then pulled over and a k-9 dog walked around the outside of the truck. Sketch. Nothing happened and they were let go however the castle was still broken.
So yes we stayed in rapid city all day waiting for the castle until around 6 or so when we were told the dudes couldn’t quite fix the sucker in time but could finish it first thing in the morning.
So all of us except twan who would stay with the castle loaded up #2 w/ 4 people and rented a mini van for the rest of the gang. We drove punk style in #2 with 2 bryan and I laying down in the bunk in the back and mcdermot and Rodney up front driving/ navigating. We had an 11 hr drive ahead of us so off we went. We drove for around 7 hours pulled over for the night, woke up the next morning at 6 and drive the rest of the way to salt lake city.
The show last night was super cool. We played the venue ive been to countless times in slc named club sound/ in the venue. The (i)nc, hot hot heat, the hellacopters, have all played there and I have even seen Andrew w k there a couple years ago in the big room. Well it turns out the souls were playing the big room which was neat seeing how ive never actually worked a show in that room. The place was packed and I again the kids like every other night were pumped for the rock show. Twan and the castle drove all day (probably 15 hrs or so)straight and even got stuck in a couple snow storms which brought his speed down to 25 mph for the last leg of the trip. He arrived in slc around 4 in the morning I hear and is with us now.
I guess the castle still has problems so this morning Rodney, taze, twan, and myself loaded in #2 and are currently driving to boise, ID where we will load in. the others are renting another van which looks like we may be keeping for awhile until the castle gets fixed. Theres a chance we may just fix it and pick it up before the 2nd leg of the tour in Nov. who knows?
All in all we are still trucking, the shows are still rocking, and everyones is still shredding hard. That’s all that really matters eh!
OCT 29, seattle, Wa
Sitting here at the el Corazon here in the beautiful northwest city known as seattle.
Currently listening to the song “a new morning changing weather” by 4 dudes who live in a nordic land known as Sweden. Actually the first show of the last (i)nc tour was here at the el Corazon. Wish they were playing here tonight. A good dose of loud rock.
This morning I woke up in seattle after last nights show and a night of partying to catch a cab up to the capitol hill area to eat at the one and only globe where I get my usual buiscuits and gravy. After breakfast I caught a cab back to our hotel to meet up with montaine which then we were going to go to this bodies exhibit. Totally stoked. I missed it in nyc due to circumstances so I wasn’t missing it this time. Mind blowing this exhibit was. Completely mind blowing. When you come to the part of the exhibit where you see the nerves/ arteries which have been injected with a colored silicone type substance. Totally insane to see.
NOV 6TH, ramada somewhere in LA/ Hollywood
Sitting in my hotel room jamming some new tunes. Ha ha. I borrowed twans ipod and took some music off that sucker. Hes a big head automatic fan due to his friendship with those peeps so ive heard my share of them lately and im kinda into it so….. with a push of a button I now have it. stoked!!
I haven’t written much in awhile and theres so much that has passed. Lets see…. We were in seattle for 2 days of hanging and shows, we had an all day drive from the northwest down to san fran for another 2 shows/ nights of hanging. Plus it was Halloween night which was fun as well. After the san fran show we headed down south to a show in san luis, and the onto LA for a couple shows, down to san diego, and finally back to LA where I currently sit on day off #1 of #2. Ha ha. Fun fun.
So our 2 shows in San Fran. We played at slims and these were the shows it seemed everyone was looking forward to. Night number 1 was Halloween. Earlier twan, William and myself went to eat at a place named herbavore which Ive eaten at in the past and most likely in the future. Their basil/ pesto sun dried tomatoe toast is the shiznit. After lunch headed to a costume shop to get last minute accessories. I hadn’t any idea of what I was going to be so this would be the only time I had to find something. Classic!! What I came out with was a box of Kleenex. Basically my body was the box and I wore this white hat/ mask type thing which was white and supposed to be the Kleenex. On the box it said BLOW ME tissues. Kinda funny but also great for a last minute find…….
……okay im back. One reason I haven’t been writing lately is just because when I do have free time I try to hang out but seeing how its now 1:30 in the morning I thought I would put on the headphones, listen to some new tunes and do some writing. The first song to come on was “life support addiction” by refused. Yeah! I had songs to fan the flames way back in the day. In fact I had it a good little while before they released their “shape of punk to come album”. I own it but its been in storage for years and for some reason I don’t have it on my pod. Now I do and its great. Anyhoo….
So this evening I went out to eat with my friend mike who was in town from DC taking care of some things on the left coast. Pretty crazy actually. We knew each other were going to be in LA at this time and actually planned on hooking up today to head to a hockey game but we hadn’t set a time to meet up. Well I wake up in the morning and run some things out to the truck before we head out to lunch and while im walking through the parking lot back to my room I hear a “keebler!”. For a split second I thought it was William but then upon turning around I saw phyte. Crazy! Totally took me off guard.
After dinner we came back to the hotel and decided to hit the bar downstairs. Earlier in the evening I had checked this bar out to possibly watch a hockey game. I get downstairs and the bar was empty, dark, and a little erie. Well this evening when we returned and cruised downstairs the place had about 10 people in it and was a local standup comedy night. Yeah crazy. Whats crazier is we are now currently on our balcony hanging out with these dudes., good times. It’s a nice evening when you have a good dinner and then come back to the hotel to laugh your ass off the rest of the night.
Heres a little brutal story. I know im going everywhere with the writing but this just came to mind and im sharing it. So the other night the bass player of the street dogs saw and extremely horrific scene in which 2 people were killed. They were eating and upon leaving the restaurant saw this grrl who seemed to be intoxicated on the other side of the street try and cross the road but fell down. So this fellow (from what I heard could have been this grrls boyfriend) went into the street to pick her up and from out of nowhere were hit by a car at 60 miles an hour and instantly killed. From what I hear the bodies were in pieces. WOW!!! Something I hope I never have to go through.
I saw the movie BORAT today with everyone. A pretty amazing thing that movie is. Genious.
NOV 7- LOS ANGELES
There are way to many bands these days and not even kids. It sucks cause the bands that deserve the attention totally get drowned out by garbage. Bum deal. The almighty dollar is a factor in all of this as well. Bum deal.
NOV 24. Somewhere in the air just leaving Richmond, VA
So I sit here on yet another 2 winged aircraft where I am heading to dallas, tx and then onto my final destination to Denver, co where I will meet the rest of the souls peeps for round #2 of the gold tour. Fun fun fun
I just started reading a new book about 5 mins ago (didn’t get that far but will continue in a little bit) entitled “ENDGAME-the problem of civilization-volume 1” by the one and only derrick Jensen. Out of all books I have ever read I have read all of his books but one. The dude is very straight up. So far ive covered about 5 pages of the this book and I know its going to be a heavy one. STOKED! Then there is volume 2 which is entitled “resistance”.
Why im writing about this is because the lady beside me is reading a book which I cant completely make out the tittle but “HOPE” is part of the main title and then “the America dream” is also part of the same title.
2 totally different books and seeing that im sure 2 very different people with different outlooks. Ha ha ha. Classic.
The very first sentence of my book is
“civilization is not and can never be sustainable. This is especially true with industrialized civilization”
I wonder what the first sentence of her book is.
“a 3 bedroom house with a white picket fence, a nice car in the drive way, pool in the backyard, nice front yard with the perfect shade of green grass is….”
Yeah who knows.
Is it better to read a book about “hope” in this day in age or is it better to read a book about the “apocalypse.”
150 people killed in iraq, Russian ex- kgb man killed through poisoning yesterday, millions of birds slaughtered for our little celebration of our colonial/ industrialized/ capitalistic quest. This and many stories like it all took place in just 1 day which was yesterday. Then we have polluted waters, polluted air, polluted soil. On and on and on.
so “hope’?? hhmm, is “hope” just straight up denial?? Who knows? Im sure I could keep writing and writing but ill leave it here.
A quick side note. I was in Chicago this past weekend and ended up going to a AHL Chicago wolves hockey game. Go wolves. Anyhoo the bathrooms in the stadium all had blow hand dryers and each unti had a mini- tv screen on it which was spewing out advertisements. Not a fan of advertisements at all but I am a huge huge fan of blow hand dryers. It sucks going into most bathrooms and the only thing there is are these now automated paper dispensers. Quite sad. So I think these new machinces would be incentives for companies to invest in them etc etc and make that the standard. Just a thought.
In about 6 hours ill be in the mile high city known as Denver where we will be for a couple days due to 2 shows and possibly a day off there as well. Fun times. A good way to start off a tour actually by being in the same city for 3 days. YEAH.
Nov 27, Lawrence, Kansas
We just arrived here in Lawrence about 20 mins ago after a good 10 hour drive or so. 500 and some miles.
The last 3 days have been spent in the mile high city of Denver. Its kinda neat flying into Denver. The airport/ city are so high up that it doesn’t take forever to descend so your still real high in the air and then the pilot announces we will be on the ground in 20 mins. Fun.
We have on this leg of the tour Bob who usually does FOH for the souls but last run was out with rise against/ Thursday so its cool having him back, the dudes are pschyed as well, and from bobs end you can tell hes missed hanging with his boys. I would to you know with a good bunch of peeps. We have a new tech on this tour as well named aaron.
So our first night twan, willian, aaron, and myself went out to some thai restaurant right next to our hotel. WHOA! This place was beyond. The food was so so so amazing we ended up going back 2 days later. The peanut curry dish ruled.
After dinner that night twan and I went to see tenacious d. I have not seen a movie this funny in years. Seriously from sstart to finish I was laughing the whole time. It’s a pretty punk film as well in the sense that they produced it, made all the music, and had all their friends in it. amazing.
So both Denver shows were amazing. The first one obviously being the first was a good good time. We had 2 weeks off so seeing/ hearing the live show again was fun. The kids in Denver were pumped and I think people in Denver like to party. I just got that vibe. Hootin and hollering all night were the kids.
After the show we headed back to our hotel and some of us hung out in a room for a little while before calling it a night.
The second show was a nother maniacal laughter show in which the souls would play this whole album start to finish. Other times when they’ve done this they would play a couple songs, then all of manical, and then play some more to end the show. Well last night they played the whole album first and then finished with all the other classic. I thought it was a good decision and it had a good feel. Kids again last night were pumped again.
NOV 30..
Sitting #2 with Twan and Rodney following the castle to Oklahoma city. Outside there is a major major storm with temperatures in the 20’s. the highway outside is completely covered with ice as well as out entire truck. Every couple mintues or so we pass salt trucks dumping their load.
We knew we were heading into a storm and planned on it so its all good. Currently we sit in traffic where I looks like theres been a wreck ahead. Not the best conditions to be driving in if you don’t have to.
So I had a good conversation yesterday with this dude named chris who is touring with left alone. Chris wasn’t on the first leg so they had a fellow named travis who is still out with them as well. Both chris and travis are from outside of montreal where they live on the kahawnazakee Indian reservation. Chris and I talked yesterday for awhile which was rad. Chris is full blood Indian but thinks somewhere down the line hes had white blood in him. Seeing how they are around the same age as myself and they lived near montreal I asked him if he was around, and remembered the oka incident.
The Oka Incident was a situation between the Mohawk nation and basically the government of Canada. The situation arose from a proposed golf course getting built from 9 holes to 18 holes over ancient burial grounds. So due to it being native land (clearly stated in treaties) and the treaties being broken the Mohawk warrior society went into self defense mode (rightfully so) and had an armed stand off with the provincial police of quebec and the government of Canada, It was canada’s biggest military operation in history up to that point.
Well chris’s father was/ or became part of the warrior society and would disappear for weeks during that time/ struggle chris was saying. “he would go to the bush” is what chris said
This is the first time I have ever talked to some one at depth about this incident and finding out his father was actually part of the armed struggle. So interesting.
Chris’s was telling me that his reservation was actually the ones that blocked the main bridge in montreal. What had happened in that situation basically in the act of solidarity and ill add this-resistance the natives blocked the main bridge going into montreal for weeks. Seeing how montreal is an island this also screwed things up big time with the flow of the almighty dollar. Another statement.
Anyhoo….. it was a cool talk.
Well still here in the truck. The roads have gotten a lot worse and we are currently cruising at 35 mph on snow/ ice covered highway.
Dec 2nd driving to Austin, TX
So the last couple days have been pretty eventful.
We ran into that “knarly”(as some would call it storm in Oklahoma which wouldn’t couldn’t make it through so we ended up pulling over. Mother nature defeated us which is okay. The roads were so bad even doing 35 mph. Yes I think we could have made it but we would have been extremely late and who knows what would have been the status then. So….. we pulled the plug and pulled over north of Tulsa. It was 7:00 at that time and we still had 130 miles to go. Ha ha ha
So we found a hotel in some little town a couple miles off the highway. Everything was closed and everything had a good foot of snow on it so all we could do is chill in our rooms and drink the remainder beer we had in the trucks. Lets just say the winter chill definitely chills a beer very well. The night ended up being a pretty fun night hanging with everyone. We were all okay with the situation.
Yesterday morning we wake up at 8 ready to hit the road to dallas were we had to make up lost ground plus then the normal drive. Turns out the highways were closed. Yeah!! Outside there lay a good couple feet of snow covering everything. We are in Oklahoma so theres no way they are going to plow this anytime soon. Hell in some parts…. To the north…ha ha….thats life and they are ready. But we will say due to humans impact and global warming now any thing can happen anywhere.
Back to sleep I went until we got word that we were leaving. The word came around 11 and off we went. Lets just say this. For the first 2/3 rds of our drive to roads were not plowed and half of that was very bad conditions. It had to be done and we did it.
Arrived last night in dallas at 7 oclock right when doors were. no biggy though. Being stuck in a truck all day driving through the shit will make you just take it easy upon arrival. As long as the show goes on its no problem.
Once everything was set and the doors opened it ended up being a fun night. Dallas is a god time and the kids in dallas seem all very coo. Everytime I have been there I have had fun.
Dec 4th some gas station outside Lafayette, LA
Sitting here in the back bunk while we are filling thee ole trucks up before we head to some shops to pick up some things before our journey to New Orleans So ive never been to New Orleans before and am very very excited and interested. It’s a first.
So we played Austin 2 nights ago and Houston last night.
Austin is always a good time. Ive been there many times on tour and its always been at the some place. The 1 and only emos. That area of town where that venue is has many cool shops, restaurants, and other venues all near by.
It turns out I have an x girlfriend-jessica- now living in Austin with my good friend back in the day-mr. greg voneschen- which was very neat. Also my friend staci who used to live in rva moved here last year so she came out as well. The show was a late show so late load which was fine. After everything was set up I went out with staci to get some thai food. Good good times. It was a totally good meal seeing how the last couple days the food was pretty budget if there was any at all. Plus staci knowing where all the good eats are as well was cool. After food I cruised back to the venue just in time for doors and the rock show. From here on out the good times continued to roll and roll and roll. The kids were pumped, emos was packed and everyone was loosing their minds including me. Lonestar beer. Hey oh! The show ended very late due to the late start so afterwards it took for ever to load out due to the streets being packed and the other bands had their gear in front of us. When load out was finally done we cruised back into the club where there were some people hanging out. The thing was emos said they would stay open after the show for us and a little party of sorts. So when we cruised into this room we were told to cruise out for a bit so they can quickly “close up shop” and for us to cruise back in 10 mins so we could hang. So we cruised to another bar in which Darren (street dogs FOH) knew people who would hook us up with drinks. When we came up to the place they were definitely shut down, closed, and didn’t seem to stoked on letting us in but they did anyhow. We all had a quick shot and then we criuised back to emos to finish the night.
The next morning we headed to a place named “mothers garden” for the breakfast and as you can probably tell from the name this place was an all natural foods café. YEEHAAW!! I think one of my favorite things in life is food. Ha ha. Then music. So as you can tell tour is a good time for meeself. So yes…. Good food is amazing. Truly amazing. Knowing its super healthy and super good. I couldn’t imagine not appreciating food and im assuming this is quite the norm. I me I know everyone loves food. We got too or else that person has got a huge problem which might the be the best thing in life.
Anyhoo before I get too carried away when you eat heathly theres nothing that can top that feeling. So after breakfast- in which I had the migas- (black beans, tofu with a dressing and potatoes) we got back in the truck and headed to Houston.
Complete side note on this one. I forgot to mention that when we were driving to Austin we stopped off at willie nelsons bio-diesel station however the thing was going through a major over haul and getting completely restorated. So the station down the next exit was carrying the fuel in the meantime so that’s where we headed. The place was just your typical petrol station except ontop of the pumps there was an advertisement/ bio of willies “bio diesel”.
Anything that helps. But upon reading the facts about the stuff it turns out only 20% of it was actual bio dieself and 80% was fuel. So….. are we actually helping out the cause or just think we are because we have been fed these numbers which look good but over all the problem is going to continue at those ratios. Is it the lesser of 2 evils with an 80/20%?
My opinion…. Yes….over all it may…..add one extra year on this very old, very polluted planet. We can drive cars on grease from restaurants. So….. I may ask…. Hey ol willie. “why not oil from the restaurants?”. You may get heard a little more with those numbers.
Played housston last night which was okay. There wasn’t a huge turnout which will also effect peoples “pumpness” etc etc. over all the show was good and I watched the crowd all night and the amounts of fists getting pumped in the air proved the kids were having fun so…… rock on.
The fellow who did the show was a dude ive met in the past named ryan. Ryan is/ and has been a diy promoter in Houston for years and im sure every show ive ever been through in that area he has somewhat done/ or help do. When ive passed through witht the (i)nc he always takes us out to get some food from a place named mias. So last night twan, bob, and myself order food from there which was the salt fried tofu. From what someone told me last night “houstons finest tofu dish” and I can see whay. The shit was good. Turns out ryan now also plays drums for the smoking popes. Yeah he told me the story. His old band toured with them in the past and then a little while later he was going to tour manage, and sound for them however I week before that tour they asked him if he could play the songs on drums and if so would he. Ha ha ha. Now…. Hes in the smoking popes.
Dec 9th, driving up alligator alley in FL to st. sugustine
The last couple days have been very very fun filled with some pretty cray times.
We played New Orleans which was also my first time being ever being in that city. I was looking forward to it for many different reasons. That city went through a major major disaster and as I would find out later its really really effected everyone.
Our show was at the house of blues in the French quarter. The room we played was a small room compared to most house of blues. Turns our this band that is somewhat big at the moment named fall out boy ha ha was playing in the big room.
The show was very good and kids were extremely stoked. We ended up sneaking 2 kids into the show due to at the last moment hob making the show 18 +. Yeah bum deal. The guy and girl actually brought the old flyer to the show which said all ages and then I guess due to the fall out boy show being all ages they made the souls show 18+. So we said they were gregs cousins and they got to enjoy the show.
After the show I was invited to some bar next door so upon packing up and loading the truck I went to the bar everyone was hanging just to chill for a bit then off to this other bar. My night consisted doing some major hanging with the locals. This is pretty shitty and extremely sad but from what I saw people in new Orleans are fucked. You can tell that most have gone through some sort of psychological trauma due to “the storm”. You can tell that there was one way of life before the storm and now theres another way which is a complete opposite. Totally weird and sad. I had a good good night which ended promptly at 8:30 in the morning. Fun times.
After New Orleans we played a college show in Pensacola at a college. College shows are always super super weird which was the case here as well. The show was inside a student union building with carpet on the floors and just in general the whole building had a very “institutional” feel to it. Not a good place for a punk show. Well turns out the “institutional” aspect of things wasn’t to strong and the show went very well.
Next we made our way for Orlando were we would play 2 nights both at the social which is an amazing club in a cool like area of town. Everytime I have ever been to Orlando ive had a blast.
The social is a small venue in which half the floor is an actual it pit and then there is the upper level at the bar. I think the place holds maybe 500 kids and with that many kids in there the place is jammed pack as it was at both shows. I met so many cool people that night and also got to see some friends in the new mexican disaster squad.
Another good thing about Orlando is the food. 2 blocks down the street is this amazing amazing thai restaurant in which both nights I went to a got the “spiciest” red curry they had. Wow!! Theres nothing like a spicy red curry. The mornings are always interesting but during the moment that food is beyond. Then outside of the venue we have the infamous vegan hot dog cart. Ill say this. Theres nothing of the sort that can compare to this sucker. For $3 you get a vegan dog loaded with mushrooms, chilli, sauerkraut, onions, spinach, and vegan cheese over top. The best dogs ive ever had to be honest. If the cart was in Richmond I would probably eat hot dogs very very often.
JASPER-FALL 2006-
SEPT 5- 2006 COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS CAMPGROUND
Well camp is sret for the night #2 in these spectacular mountains. The only 3 sounds I can hear at the moment is the constant sound of the waterfall just behind my camp, the random crackle of my neighbours fire, and the sliminess/ squishiness of my pasta noodles when I take a bite. I would say all in all its quite peacefull.
Tonight unlike last night I am out in the stix. The only civilization around here would be the Columbia icefield center which is more like a tourist info building which probably has normal daytime hours. At the camp there isn’t even a check in booth. You do it yourself. Fill out your envelope, deposit your money and drop it inside a little drop box. Pretty neat.
So I arrived in Edmonton yesterday in the early afternoon. The flights went smoothly as did my arrival. I landed, went to pick up the rental car and heading into Edmonton for a quick stop to meet up with my bud Eli. I have been to Edmonton plenty of times as a child but never really hung out there as an adult. I headed to White Ave which you would call the little hip street of Edmonton with coffee shops, record stores, and some bookstores. I met up with Eli on this street for a quick hang session and then off to the west. The Canadian Rockies.
This part of the rockies is quite different then their southern parts. Since they are farther up north there’s awhole different ecosystem which means different plant life, animals and even climate. My opinon. They are more grand and definitely a lot more green.
So it took me until about sunset to reach jasper. The drive up was amazing. Had a rental car so I just cruised, blared the music and had all windows down as well as the sun roof. I definitely thought I would arrive in the dark but due to my heavy foot at the time I made it with just a little light left. I drove through jasper just to get situated and then headed to my campsite which was right outside of town which meant in the morning I could wake up and get all the provisions I still didn’t have and needed. Due to this campsite being close to town I had running water, showers, and nice bathrooms all of which I didn use at all but did pay for. Oh well.
I set up my tent and then headed back into town for some dinner at jasper pizza place. The peach juice there was unreal. I have no clue what it was but all I know as a child I have had plenty of glasses of this stuff and its always been in Canada. I don’t think it’s a “Canadian” thing (maybe it is?) but it’s the only place I have had it thus far. After dinner I went to the grocery store to get some things for breakfast in the morning and a couple other random items.
So today I woke upm broke down camp and went back into town to grab a few more essentials (socks, food, stove, gas). My plan for today was after this was all done I would head down south on the icefields parkway which would bring me to the Columbia icefields where I was going to a more remote place to camp for the net couple days. The drive from jasper to the icefields is about 103 km (70 miles or so) and I had all day to do it so I pulled over almost everywhere I could to check out the views, lakes, rivers and if there was wildlife to check them out as well.
the first lake I came across-name unknown- was tucked back a little ways from the highway so I followed the trail. The lake wasn’t a huge lake of any sorts but was super super clear and because of that you couldn’t even imagine how deep it was. No end in sight. And seeing how we were in the middle of nowhere and the lake very untouched the surface had not a ripple on it. completely glassy. I hung out here for a little bit hoping from cliff to cliff watching the fish below. Then back to the car and off again.
My next stop would bring me to the athabasca falls. These falls were monstrous. Not extremely high (ive seen higher) but just the amount of water coming of them is unreal. Then the falls have made there own canyon which was cool to see all the erosion and how smooth the rock was below. I hiked down below to where the falls actually mellow out and the river begins again and walked along its bank for ways. I was wlkaing and came across this little pool upon a bank. Upon further inspection I would see what was sanded in the little pool being push around by a current. Now again this was a pool of water with no water that I could see coming into the pool but there was water running out. Weird. So I stuck my hand in the pool to see what was going on with the sand. It turns out that the water was coming from somewhere underground and that’s why the sand was being swirled around. To my right was the river so it was coming from there and to my left was the forest. It was coming from one of the mountains in an underground passage.
I then headed back to the car and continued my trip farther down south. Its so crazy. In my youth I have traveled in these parts many many times and one of the main things I remember was wildlife being everywhere. Moose, elk, caribou and bears. It seemed like everytime we would drive through these parts we would see a couple of these animals on our trips. This was all in the mid 80s. well thus far I haven’t seen anything and ive been looking in every nook and cranny for something. Actually I did see 2 caribou yesterday on the main street in jasper. Ha ha ha. Not in the forest but cruising the main street of jasper. Weird.
My next stop was the sunwapta falls which weren’t as massive as the athabasca falls but never the less still had their fury. I again crossed on the other side of the barriers (guard rail) and went hiking down below on my quest for as much eye candy as possible.
The scenery in these parts is like no other. No other.
It was now time to head to the Columbia icefields. From what I remember I had been there at least once as a child and again this would have been in the mid 80s. so when your driving up to the fields you can see the surrounding mountains with nothing but snow/ ice on them running off into the middle of a valley. You come up to the road you are supposed to turn off of to go view the athabasca glacier. The first thing you see when you pull off on this road is a sign reading “the glacier was here in 1888”. This first sign is right when you pull off the highway but your still nowhere near the glacier. You can see it but your still a very good distance from it. then as you are sstill ways away but getting closer you see signs along the road “1905/1925/1933/1948/1967/1985”. Unfucking real. Mind blowing. When you come across the 1992 marker you are actually on your feet at this time walking up to the glacier but you still look ahead and you have some major hiking to do. Scary scary scary!! When I actually came up to the glacier I realized that when I saw this sucker as a child it was by far so much more then it is now. I mean its still currently huge due to it being a massive glacier but its so incredible to actually see the difference. You can actually walk right up to the toe of the glacier and theres even a little roped off “safe section” which is actually on the ice that you can walk on. Glaciers can have undetected major crevices that if you fall in most likely you wont be coming out. Walking on it is just how it seems. You walking on a huge huge slick ice cube. Very very slippery and there is actually a certain kind of glacier algae which grows upon glacier which add to the slipperiness. This thing is unreal due to their not being many glaciers around these days and there wont be any at all in the days to come. You can actually see major amounts of water running off of the glacier/ icefields which actually have caused a river underneath the glacier and exits at its toe. Its definitely a fast paced big stream/ river. Moving very very fast so it sucks because seeing it move so fast you know all the waters coming from the ice. Its only a matter of time.
Alright the sun is down and the tempurature is dropping quickly. Must stop writing and start a fire.
SEPT 6, 2006- 2400 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS/ ATHABASCA GLACIER.
This is the highest I have ever been without being inside of an airplane.
So today I hiked my little ass off. Big Time. By far the longest, most tiring (the altitude), most rugged, and by far the high hike I have ever done. Theres a trail right behind my camp next to the waterfall which takes you up to the first ridge. Once reaching the first ridge I had to thin some layers, drink some water, and take a breather. Pooped. Then off to the next ridge directly above. From there I turned left following the water and came across 3 big horn sheep. I actually managed to get quite close to one of them but then upon getting the stare down I decided to back off. So off to the next ridge right above this position. Seeing how you can only see the next ridge above you do think that this must be it but in typical fashion theres always another ridge that lies on the other side.
This hiking was definitely a first so I went full steam ahead. How many times do you get to hike in these parts, and this high up. Im not passing the opportunity up. So I climbed, climbed, climbed. I was the only person on this side of the water. In the far distance I could see a couple people here and there hiking but they were on the other side of the water.
Well I reached the highest part of the trail and still had another ridge above me. due to no trail I just picked out a route and off I went. The ground texture was so amazing. Very tundra / moss like and every step felt like walking on sponge and made a nice peaceful sound. This last ridge was blocking my view of the glacier/ icefield so I needed to get up to it and was hoping that it was the last ridge in my journey. About 20 mins later the view that lay in front of my eyes at around 2400 meters was the Columbia icefield/ athabasca glacier from above, looking down at the glacier and directly across from the field. Definitely different then yesterdays. Now im looking straight across at it instead of straight up at the sucker. YEAH. IM ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!! Ha ha ha. I sat here for a good hour or so just taking it all in. the only sound that was made was from the strong breeze of the wind. The wind definitely picks up when your on a mountain. Other then that it was one of the the most peaceful places ive been. Definitely the first time seeing the tops of mountains, the bottom of valley’s in all their glory. After taking a couple 360 degree view pictures I decided to head to another ridge behind me where I would start my descent. This last ridge I was on had a huge valley on its opposite side with a lake in the middle of it which actually fed the waterine I followed and eventually the waterfalls near camp. Again a couple thousand meters up. I followed the water back down the steep terrain which a good hour or so later eventually brought me back to camp.
Turns out the hike I did was actually used by the first nations peoples 100’s of years ago because they couldn’t pass the sunwapta pass.
Getting to camp was a relief seeing how I was pooped and pretty sore- we will see how the legs feel tomorrow-. i chilled for a second or t2 then hoped in the car to head down south towards Banff before daylight was gone. Banff was a ways from where I was and I didn’t plan on driving the whole way. Just a little cruise. About 30 mins into driving I pulled over on this little dead end road and climbed down to the river. The river was right next to the parkway and then at this point just drops into some huge rocks/ boulders and disappears about 200 feet below into this underground canyon/ cliff structure. It was so deep, jagged that you couldn’t even see the bottom. You could hear the water and feel the mist but that was pretty much it. So after a couple minutes of exploring I decided this would be a neat place to chill and play thee ole guitar so this is exactly what I did. Sat on the ledge of this werid canyon/ gorge with nothing below but rocks and jammed out for a good hour or so. After the rocking was done I headed back to the car and drove a little more ways down south before turning around and heading back to camp for the night where I cooked a meal of pasta and chilled.
SEPT 7TH. COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS CENTER
On my way back north to jasper where I will meet up with my family in the next couple days. Before actually leaving I stopped off at the icefield center to check out the exhibit and record some facts.
COLUMBIA ICEFIELD FACTS:
-Icecap is about 325km squared and some 30 stories deep in certain parts.
-athabasca glacier in its center is about 100 stories deep and is about 70 stories deeper then the icecap due to a depression in the mountain in which the glacier sits on.
- the icefield sits on top of the continental divide and actually feeds the arctic ocean (thru the athbasca river), the pacific ocean (thru the Columbia river), and the atlantic ocean (thru the north Saskatchewan river).
- the icefield sits atop at 3460 meters
-today the athbasca glacier has retreated almost 1.5 kms (.9 miles)
-inside the glacier is blue due to the ice have no air bubbles trapped inside.
-in 1870 the athbasca glacier contained an estimated 1013 million cubic meters of ice. By 1995 it had shrunk to 600 million cubic meters. A loss of 40% in 125 years
-if every person in north America (285 million people) was given their own square meter to stand on you could fit the whole population with room for a couple more people
- in 1995 samples were collected from the ice and have been collected since 1932. Since then they show a definite increase of auto exhaust & ddt.
On my way to jasper I stopped off at a place named parker ridge which was another hike. I pulled over and hiked about 40 mins to the top of the first ridge to check out the view. Below in the deep canyon lay a river which was being fed from another glacier which was in full view from this point. This glacier was in another valley completely opposite the athbasca glacier where I was yesterday. I chilled here for a bit until I had a slight headache and was still sore from yesterdays hike so I turned around and headed back down.
Well camp is sret for the night #2 in these spectacular mountains. The only 3 sounds I can hear at the moment is the constant sound of the waterfall just behind my camp, the random crackle of my neighbours fire, and the sliminess/ squishiness of my pasta noodles when I take a bite. I would say all in all its quite peacefull.
Tonight unlike last night I am out in the stix. The only civilization around here would be the Columbia icefield center which is more like a tourist info building which probably has normal daytime hours. At the camp there isn’t even a check in booth. You do it yourself. Fill out your envelope, deposit your money and drop it inside a little drop box. Pretty neat.
So I arrived in Edmonton yesterday in the early afternoon. The flights went smoothly as did my arrival. I landed, went to pick up the rental car and heading into Edmonton for a quick stop to meet up with my bud Eli. I have been to Edmonton plenty of times as a child but never really hung out there as an adult. I headed to White Ave which you would call the little hip street of Edmonton with coffee shops, record stores, and some bookstores. I met up with Eli on this street for a quick hang session and then off to the west. The Canadian Rockies.
This part of the rockies is quite different then their southern parts. Since they are farther up north there’s awhole different ecosystem which means different plant life, animals and even climate. My opinon. They are more grand and definitely a lot more green.
So it took me until about sunset to reach jasper. The drive up was amazing. Had a rental car so I just cruised, blared the music and had all windows down as well as the sun roof. I definitely thought I would arrive in the dark but due to my heavy foot at the time I made it with just a little light left. I drove through jasper just to get situated and then headed to my campsite which was right outside of town which meant in the morning I could wake up and get all the provisions I still didn’t have and needed. Due to this campsite being close to town I had running water, showers, and nice bathrooms all of which I didn use at all but did pay for. Oh well.
I set up my tent and then headed back into town for some dinner at jasper pizza place. The peach juice there was unreal. I have no clue what it was but all I know as a child I have had plenty of glasses of this stuff and its always been in Canada. I don’t think it’s a “Canadian” thing (maybe it is?) but it’s the only place I have had it thus far. After dinner I went to the grocery store to get some things for breakfast in the morning and a couple other random items.
So today I woke upm broke down camp and went back into town to grab a few more essentials (socks, food, stove, gas). My plan for today was after this was all done I would head down south on the icefields parkway which would bring me to the Columbia icefields where I was going to a more remote place to camp for the net couple days. The drive from jasper to the icefields is about 103 km (70 miles or so) and I had all day to do it so I pulled over almost everywhere I could to check out the views, lakes, rivers and if there was wildlife to check them out as well.
the first lake I came across-name unknown- was tucked back a little ways from the highway so I followed the trail. The lake wasn’t a huge lake of any sorts but was super super clear and because of that you couldn’t even imagine how deep it was. No end in sight. And seeing how we were in the middle of nowhere and the lake very untouched the surface had not a ripple on it. completely glassy. I hung out here for a little bit hoping from cliff to cliff watching the fish below. Then back to the car and off again.
My next stop would bring me to the athabasca falls. These falls were monstrous. Not extremely high (ive seen higher) but just the amount of water coming of them is unreal. Then the falls have made there own canyon which was cool to see all the erosion and how smooth the rock was below. I hiked down below to where the falls actually mellow out and the river begins again and walked along its bank for ways. I was wlkaing and came across this little pool upon a bank. Upon further inspection I would see what was sanded in the little pool being push around by a current. Now again this was a pool of water with no water that I could see coming into the pool but there was water running out. Weird. So I stuck my hand in the pool to see what was going on with the sand. It turns out that the water was coming from somewhere underground and that’s why the sand was being swirled around. To my right was the river so it was coming from there and to my left was the forest. It was coming from one of the mountains in an underground passage.
I then headed back to the car and continued my trip farther down south. Its so crazy. In my youth I have traveled in these parts many many times and one of the main things I remember was wildlife being everywhere. Moose, elk, caribou and bears. It seemed like everytime we would drive through these parts we would see a couple of these animals on our trips. This was all in the mid 80s. well thus far I haven’t seen anything and ive been looking in every nook and cranny for something. Actually I did see 2 caribou yesterday on the main street in jasper. Ha ha ha. Not in the forest but cruising the main street of jasper. Weird.
My next stop was the sunwapta falls which weren’t as massive as the athabasca falls but never the less still had their fury. I again crossed on the other side of the barriers (guard rail) and went hiking down below on my quest for as much eye candy as possible.
The scenery in these parts is like no other. No other.
It was now time to head to the Columbia icefields. From what I remember I had been there at least once as a child and again this would have been in the mid 80s. so when your driving up to the fields you can see the surrounding mountains with nothing but snow/ ice on them running off into the middle of a valley. You come up to the road you are supposed to turn off of to go view the athabasca glacier. The first thing you see when you pull off on this road is a sign reading “the glacier was here in 1888”. This first sign is right when you pull off the highway but your still nowhere near the glacier. You can see it but your still a very good distance from it. then as you are sstill ways away but getting closer you see signs along the road “1905/1925/1933/1948/1967/1985”. Unfucking real. Mind blowing. When you come across the 1992 marker you are actually on your feet at this time walking up to the glacier but you still look ahead and you have some major hiking to do. Scary scary scary!! When I actually came up to the glacier I realized that when I saw this sucker as a child it was by far so much more then it is now. I mean its still currently huge due to it being a massive glacier but its so incredible to actually see the difference. You can actually walk right up to the toe of the glacier and theres even a little roped off “safe section” which is actually on the ice that you can walk on. Glaciers can have undetected major crevices that if you fall in most likely you wont be coming out. Walking on it is just how it seems. You walking on a huge huge slick ice cube. Very very slippery and there is actually a certain kind of glacier algae which grows upon glacier which add to the slipperiness. This thing is unreal due to their not being many glaciers around these days and there wont be any at all in the days to come. You can actually see major amounts of water running off of the glacier/ icefields which actually have caused a river underneath the glacier and exits at its toe. Its definitely a fast paced big stream/ river. Moving very very fast so it sucks because seeing it move so fast you know all the waters coming from the ice. Its only a matter of time.
Alright the sun is down and the tempurature is dropping quickly. Must stop writing and start a fire.
SEPT 6, 2006- 2400 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS/ ATHABASCA GLACIER.
This is the highest I have ever been without being inside of an airplane.
So today I hiked my little ass off. Big Time. By far the longest, most tiring (the altitude), most rugged, and by far the high hike I have ever done. Theres a trail right behind my camp next to the waterfall which takes you up to the first ridge. Once reaching the first ridge I had to thin some layers, drink some water, and take a breather. Pooped. Then off to the next ridge directly above. From there I turned left following the water and came across 3 big horn sheep. I actually managed to get quite close to one of them but then upon getting the stare down I decided to back off. So off to the next ridge right above this position. Seeing how you can only see the next ridge above you do think that this must be it but in typical fashion theres always another ridge that lies on the other side.
This hiking was definitely a first so I went full steam ahead. How many times do you get to hike in these parts, and this high up. Im not passing the opportunity up. So I climbed, climbed, climbed. I was the only person on this side of the water. In the far distance I could see a couple people here and there hiking but they were on the other side of the water.
Well I reached the highest part of the trail and still had another ridge above me. due to no trail I just picked out a route and off I went. The ground texture was so amazing. Very tundra / moss like and every step felt like walking on sponge and made a nice peaceful sound. This last ridge was blocking my view of the glacier/ icefield so I needed to get up to it and was hoping that it was the last ridge in my journey. About 20 mins later the view that lay in front of my eyes at around 2400 meters was the Columbia icefield/ athabasca glacier from above, looking down at the glacier and directly across from the field. Definitely different then yesterdays. Now im looking straight across at it instead of straight up at the sucker. YEAH. IM ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!! Ha ha ha. I sat here for a good hour or so just taking it all in. the only sound that was made was from the strong breeze of the wind. The wind definitely picks up when your on a mountain. Other then that it was one of the the most peaceful places ive been. Definitely the first time seeing the tops of mountains, the bottom of valley’s in all their glory. After taking a couple 360 degree view pictures I decided to head to another ridge behind me where I would start my descent. This last ridge I was on had a huge valley on its opposite side with a lake in the middle of it which actually fed the waterine I followed and eventually the waterfalls near camp. Again a couple thousand meters up. I followed the water back down the steep terrain which a good hour or so later eventually brought me back to camp.
Turns out the hike I did was actually used by the first nations peoples 100’s of years ago because they couldn’t pass the sunwapta pass.
Getting to camp was a relief seeing how I was pooped and pretty sore- we will see how the legs feel tomorrow-. i chilled for a second or t2 then hoped in the car to head down south towards Banff before daylight was gone. Banff was a ways from where I was and I didn’t plan on driving the whole way. Just a little cruise. About 30 mins into driving I pulled over on this little dead end road and climbed down to the river. The river was right next to the parkway and then at this point just drops into some huge rocks/ boulders and disappears about 200 feet below into this underground canyon/ cliff structure. It was so deep, jagged that you couldn’t even see the bottom. You could hear the water and feel the mist but that was pretty much it. So after a couple minutes of exploring I decided this would be a neat place to chill and play thee ole guitar so this is exactly what I did. Sat on the ledge of this werid canyon/ gorge with nothing below but rocks and jammed out for a good hour or so. After the rocking was done I headed back to the car and drove a little more ways down south before turning around and heading back to camp for the night where I cooked a meal of pasta and chilled.
SEPT 7TH. COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS CENTER
On my way back north to jasper where I will meet up with my family in the next couple days. Before actually leaving I stopped off at the icefield center to check out the exhibit and record some facts.
COLUMBIA ICEFIELD FACTS:
-Icecap is about 325km squared and some 30 stories deep in certain parts.
-athabasca glacier in its center is about 100 stories deep and is about 70 stories deeper then the icecap due to a depression in the mountain in which the glacier sits on.
- the icefield sits on top of the continental divide and actually feeds the arctic ocean (thru the athbasca river), the pacific ocean (thru the Columbia river), and the atlantic ocean (thru the north Saskatchewan river).
- the icefield sits atop at 3460 meters
-today the athbasca glacier has retreated almost 1.5 kms (.9 miles)
-inside the glacier is blue due to the ice have no air bubbles trapped inside.
-in 1870 the athbasca glacier contained an estimated 1013 million cubic meters of ice. By 1995 it had shrunk to 600 million cubic meters. A loss of 40% in 125 years
-if every person in north America (285 million people) was given their own square meter to stand on you could fit the whole population with room for a couple more people
- in 1995 samples were collected from the ice and have been collected since 1932. Since then they show a definite increase of auto exhaust & ddt.
On my way to jasper I stopped off at a place named parker ridge which was another hike. I pulled over and hiked about 40 mins to the top of the first ridge to check out the view. Below in the deep canyon lay a river which was being fed from another glacier which was in full view from this point. This glacier was in another valley completely opposite the athbasca glacier where I was yesterday. I chilled here for a bit until I had a slight headache and was still sore from yesterdays hike so I turned around and headed back down.
WARPED TOUR- 2006- RISE AGAINST
JUNE 20, 206- CHICAGO- DAY OFF FROM WARPED
So I am here on a day off from this years warped tour. Weve done 6 shows thus far and have about 50 left. Ha ha ha.
I am out with rise against who I haven’t toured with before. We are all part of the same extended touring family but up until last week I had never met the dudes.
I had heard from mutual friends that they were all really good dudes and that they are.
So ill go right into it.
The warped tour. WOW! Ha ha ha. Its exactly how its always been which is bad bad music, a very lost apathetic crowd, and a representation of a bad bad scene.
The thing which keeps it fun and entertaining are most of the things above and then the friends you have out here. The world I am part of out here is amazing. Super amazing. From the moment I wake up until the day/ show actually ends I am around some amazing people who are all going through it like the rest of us. Its truly insane out there but then again seems very normal because we have all done this in the past. Its nothing different.
Its warped tour. Its what it is really.
Its why I was looking forward to it but then on the other had I secretly was because of my family out here. People taking care of people and helping each other out.
We have named our little area “fun alley” because “its fun”.
I have done the tour years back when it wasn’t fun at all. Well theres fun in everything so I cant say that but this past experience is different from the present. The first time I did this tour I was with a record label and basically every morning we would wake up, push this insanely HUGE crate on wheels around, all terrain, up hills, etc etc. in the blazing heat. Then you are outside all day long doing absolutely nothing.
Well its still the same thing but a little different………
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS- DAY OFF
So I am currently out on tour with rise against on the warped tour. We are more then half way into the tour and this is the first I time I have written on this tour. In all honesty it’s the same thing day in day out. Wake up, head outside to find out where our truck is, unload the sucker, set up, work all day long, close up shop, load the truck back up and hang out for a bit and then head to the next city. Or shall I say parking lot/ field in city.
With the same ole same ole of the tour comes also the complete joke of the tour as well. The things a load of crap. It’s a touring circus. Tour is fun yes but a touring festival has some very interesting things involved with it. With 600 people on tour you are bound to witness some very weird/ non attractive things. However I will say that being with friends on this thing is fun as well. We entertain each other and help keep each other sane. Out in my world we have named our world “fun alley”. We all have the same sort of vibe about things as well so all in all we have what we call “fun alley”. YEAH.
The tour is 2 months long and before it started my attitude was “2 months is so long to be involved with something as such”. Well we have 3 weeks left and its been the same as its always been. Neither great but neither horrible as well. Something I can deal and shun off.
Out of about 50 bands there are about 4-5 which are top quality and completely blow the other 45 or so out of the water. These bands are the very very almighty bouncing souls, and against me1. These 2 bands I feel are by far the best on the tour. Then we have the very entertaining nofx who bring in the laughs. There is this band on tour which has a very very heavy rock thing going who are named valiant thorr. I have managed to catch a couple minutes of their set and they bring it. rise against is in there as well however ill still say that bouncing souls and against me! blow everyone else away.
The Bouncing Souls. There is honestly nothing negative that can ever really be said about this band. 100% Do It Yourself. Have been a band for 15 years, their fans a complete fanatics about the band, do all their own art work, and from personally knowing them all have nothing but GOOD TIMES!!
So I am here on a day off from this years warped tour. Weve done 6 shows thus far and have about 50 left. Ha ha ha.
I am out with rise against who I haven’t toured with before. We are all part of the same extended touring family but up until last week I had never met the dudes.
I had heard from mutual friends that they were all really good dudes and that they are.
So ill go right into it.
The warped tour. WOW! Ha ha ha. Its exactly how its always been which is bad bad music, a very lost apathetic crowd, and a representation of a bad bad scene.
The thing which keeps it fun and entertaining are most of the things above and then the friends you have out here. The world I am part of out here is amazing. Super amazing. From the moment I wake up until the day/ show actually ends I am around some amazing people who are all going through it like the rest of us. Its truly insane out there but then again seems very normal because we have all done this in the past. Its nothing different.
Its warped tour. Its what it is really.
Its why I was looking forward to it but then on the other had I secretly was because of my family out here. People taking care of people and helping each other out.
We have named our little area “fun alley” because “its fun”.
I have done the tour years back when it wasn’t fun at all. Well theres fun in everything so I cant say that but this past experience is different from the present. The first time I did this tour I was with a record label and basically every morning we would wake up, push this insanely HUGE crate on wheels around, all terrain, up hills, etc etc. in the blazing heat. Then you are outside all day long doing absolutely nothing.
Well its still the same thing but a little different………
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS- DAY OFF
So I am currently out on tour with rise against on the warped tour. We are more then half way into the tour and this is the first I time I have written on this tour. In all honesty it’s the same thing day in day out. Wake up, head outside to find out where our truck is, unload the sucker, set up, work all day long, close up shop, load the truck back up and hang out for a bit and then head to the next city. Or shall I say parking lot/ field in city.
With the same ole same ole of the tour comes also the complete joke of the tour as well. The things a load of crap. It’s a touring circus. Tour is fun yes but a touring festival has some very interesting things involved with it. With 600 people on tour you are bound to witness some very weird/ non attractive things. However I will say that being with friends on this thing is fun as well. We entertain each other and help keep each other sane. Out in my world we have named our world “fun alley”. We all have the same sort of vibe about things as well so all in all we have what we call “fun alley”. YEAH.
The tour is 2 months long and before it started my attitude was “2 months is so long to be involved with something as such”. Well we have 3 weeks left and its been the same as its always been. Neither great but neither horrible as well. Something I can deal and shun off.
Out of about 50 bands there are about 4-5 which are top quality and completely blow the other 45 or so out of the water. These bands are the very very almighty bouncing souls, and against me1. These 2 bands I feel are by far the best on the tour. Then we have the very entertaining nofx who bring in the laughs. There is this band on tour which has a very very heavy rock thing going who are named valiant thorr. I have managed to catch a couple minutes of their set and they bring it. rise against is in there as well however ill still say that bouncing souls and against me! blow everyone else away.
The Bouncing Souls. There is honestly nothing negative that can ever really be said about this band. 100% Do It Yourself. Have been a band for 15 years, their fans a complete fanatics about the band, do all their own art work, and from personally knowing them all have nothing but GOOD TIMES!!
the HELLACOPTERS- SPRING TOUR 2006
MAR 6TH, Atlanta mid-way airport
Another airport. Another flight.
I got home about 2 days ago after 16 hours of travel, no sleep at all, a load of laundry, still no sleep and now off again.
FULL THROTTLE.
I am totally feeling it to. In the last 2 days I wasn’t able to catch up on the sleep and last night didn’t get any sleep at all so it looks like today its going to be a little rough. First day blues and then some. Oh well. What can you do?
It was nice coming home but not nice coming home and then leaving immediately. Every major trip I have done…..Cuba, Turkey, Egypt, and Asia I have literally come home and left within a day. No time to really unwind. After such trips you come home and life at home is completely completely different then life in most parts of the world. You come home and see your friends for just minutes, everyones asking you about your trip and there is really no time for reflection, no time to tell stories and just no time to rest. This is the life I have chosen and I LOVE IT but sometimes it’s a little interesting/ insane. Theres a lot I have done but there is a lot I haven’t done. In the last 4 days I have spent WAY more time in an airplane then I have in my own bed. Not a comforting feeling seeing how I am completely over flying and in much need of a big rest. Again what can you do.
Being home was neat but weird. A totally totally different world then what I was just in the last month. A 360 degree change. Its interesting to just sit back and watch it all go down and all i can do is pretty much just be in your own little world because no one can really relate to my past month. I mean its kinda the story of my life. Ill never be able to put into words what its like to be in the 2 extremes and not being able to fully communicate what its like.
So tonight is the first night of tour. I am heading out with the hellacopters from Sweden and another band from the us named nebula. Haven’t met either of the bands but the hellacopters have the same management as the inc so im sure its all part of the same family.
I do wish this tour was with the INC but you cant have your way all the time. Most Swedes ive meet are all good people so im sure it’s the same with the copters. Im actually very excited about this tour. I mean I left the sticks in lao/ Cambodia to come home for this tour. I think its going to be a good good time. A full on heavy rock tour. YEAH!
I just need to catch up on my sleep and get my schedule back on track and its all good.
MAR 19TH, leaving Austin texas for Denver Colorado
Today ruled. Today we played the sxsw festival here in Austin. Sxsw is really bad cause its just a whole schmooze fest and the whole “industry” thing but then on the other hand it rules because you run into a lot of people you know from shows, different cities, and just the whole music culture. So yeah today ruled.
I woke up this morning to the sound of a bass drum in the distance over a PA. I came to the front lounge of the bus where the windows were down and heard a very familiar song. At first I thought it was just being played over a PA. I tuned in a little more and heard that this song was somewhat of a different version of the one I had heard. NO WAY!! COULD IT BE??!!!
We were supposed to play tonight with TURBONEGRO but they cancelled last minute which was a big bummer due to it being the only show on the tour I was looking forward to. Well today ended up being just as cool.
It was FEMI KUTI. Seriously I ran outside, into some venue with bed head and me wearing sweat pants. It ruled. I woke up and went to see femi kuti, his dancers, and his band soundcheck right next to our bus. WHOA!!! I was so so hyper. I asked their sound dude if that was their set and he said “no, they play at 2”. WHOA!!! It was noon and raining. I quickyly went to the bus, changed, caught a cab to a whole foods, and then caught a fun cab ride back with an apache Indian dude who ruled and when we pulled up to the bus blared a siren. It ruled. So I came back ate and then Kenny(Hcs bassplayer) walked through the loading entrance and watched femi.
Femis show ruled hard. 4 horn players, 4 dancers, keyboards, percussion, drums. Femi is seriously a very ripped person. By ripped I mean extremely fit and muscular. The dancers ruled and was extra cool when they sang the banck ups. There were probably about 400 people there, outside in the light misty rain all dancing watching femi. Every song he played I recognized off of his 2 albums so I was completely singing along.
This show ruled and made my day and actually added another incredible experience to the books.
After this show I cruised around for a bit and ran into some amazing people I am friends with. Heather and Margie. See that’s what this sxsw thing is cool for. You will just be walking and then outta know where you will see someone you know. Hung out for a little bit and was able to get into the show they were both at. Ted Leo and Thursday.
Stoked again big time!! I bought ted leos latest album a little while ago and its great and have since then wanted to see him live. Well today this happened as well. Ted Leo was goood, catchy and rocking and then Thursday came on and were good as well.
Once this show was over they quickly cleared everyone out and our show was next. All the streets were blocked off and completely blocked with trucks, buses so it was definitely crazy. An example why the festival is crazy for bands. Its seriously so chaotic. Anyhoo we got parked and it was time for our show. I think there were 6 bands tonight. There was a band that totally kicked butt tonight. The riverboat gamblers was their name and they are by far a great example of a punk rock and roll band. So so good live.
Another airport. Another flight.
I got home about 2 days ago after 16 hours of travel, no sleep at all, a load of laundry, still no sleep and now off again.
FULL THROTTLE.
I am totally feeling it to. In the last 2 days I wasn’t able to catch up on the sleep and last night didn’t get any sleep at all so it looks like today its going to be a little rough. First day blues and then some. Oh well. What can you do?
It was nice coming home but not nice coming home and then leaving immediately. Every major trip I have done…..Cuba, Turkey, Egypt, and Asia I have literally come home and left within a day. No time to really unwind. After such trips you come home and life at home is completely completely different then life in most parts of the world. You come home and see your friends for just minutes, everyones asking you about your trip and there is really no time for reflection, no time to tell stories and just no time to rest. This is the life I have chosen and I LOVE IT but sometimes it’s a little interesting/ insane. Theres a lot I have done but there is a lot I haven’t done. In the last 4 days I have spent WAY more time in an airplane then I have in my own bed. Not a comforting feeling seeing how I am completely over flying and in much need of a big rest. Again what can you do.
Being home was neat but weird. A totally totally different world then what I was just in the last month. A 360 degree change. Its interesting to just sit back and watch it all go down and all i can do is pretty much just be in your own little world because no one can really relate to my past month. I mean its kinda the story of my life. Ill never be able to put into words what its like to be in the 2 extremes and not being able to fully communicate what its like.
So tonight is the first night of tour. I am heading out with the hellacopters from Sweden and another band from the us named nebula. Haven’t met either of the bands but the hellacopters have the same management as the inc so im sure its all part of the same family.
I do wish this tour was with the INC but you cant have your way all the time. Most Swedes ive meet are all good people so im sure it’s the same with the copters. Im actually very excited about this tour. I mean I left the sticks in lao/ Cambodia to come home for this tour. I think its going to be a good good time. A full on heavy rock tour. YEAH!
I just need to catch up on my sleep and get my schedule back on track and its all good.
MAR 19TH, leaving Austin texas for Denver Colorado
Today ruled. Today we played the sxsw festival here in Austin. Sxsw is really bad cause its just a whole schmooze fest and the whole “industry” thing but then on the other hand it rules because you run into a lot of people you know from shows, different cities, and just the whole music culture. So yeah today ruled.
I woke up this morning to the sound of a bass drum in the distance over a PA. I came to the front lounge of the bus where the windows were down and heard a very familiar song. At first I thought it was just being played over a PA. I tuned in a little more and heard that this song was somewhat of a different version of the one I had heard. NO WAY!! COULD IT BE??!!!
We were supposed to play tonight with TURBONEGRO but they cancelled last minute which was a big bummer due to it being the only show on the tour I was looking forward to. Well today ended up being just as cool.
It was FEMI KUTI. Seriously I ran outside, into some venue with bed head and me wearing sweat pants. It ruled. I woke up and went to see femi kuti, his dancers, and his band soundcheck right next to our bus. WHOA!!! I was so so hyper. I asked their sound dude if that was their set and he said “no, they play at 2”. WHOA!!! It was noon and raining. I quickyly went to the bus, changed, caught a cab to a whole foods, and then caught a fun cab ride back with an apache Indian dude who ruled and when we pulled up to the bus blared a siren. It ruled. So I came back ate and then Kenny(Hcs bassplayer) walked through the loading entrance and watched femi.
Femis show ruled hard. 4 horn players, 4 dancers, keyboards, percussion, drums. Femi is seriously a very ripped person. By ripped I mean extremely fit and muscular. The dancers ruled and was extra cool when they sang the banck ups. There were probably about 400 people there, outside in the light misty rain all dancing watching femi. Every song he played I recognized off of his 2 albums so I was completely singing along.
This show ruled and made my day and actually added another incredible experience to the books.
After this show I cruised around for a bit and ran into some amazing people I am friends with. Heather and Margie. See that’s what this sxsw thing is cool for. You will just be walking and then outta know where you will see someone you know. Hung out for a little bit and was able to get into the show they were both at. Ted Leo and Thursday.
Stoked again big time!! I bought ted leos latest album a little while ago and its great and have since then wanted to see him live. Well today this happened as well. Ted Leo was goood, catchy and rocking and then Thursday came on and were good as well.
Once this show was over they quickly cleared everyone out and our show was next. All the streets were blocked off and completely blocked with trucks, buses so it was definitely crazy. An example why the festival is crazy for bands. Its seriously so chaotic. Anyhoo we got parked and it was time for our show. I think there were 6 bands tonight. There was a band that totally kicked butt tonight. The riverboat gamblers was their name and they are by far a great example of a punk rock and roll band. So so good live.
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