Monday, December 14, 2009

Two Thousand and Nine

Dec 15, 2009

So my touring adventures for 2009 are done, and I am now at home. The last couple trips I haven’t written much and now is the time for me to make a note about the year for myself, and those who like to read about it. Ha. I usually keep it all in order but this time I will start with the most recent and leave with the most distant.

I just ended a tour with the freak show known as Propagandhi. Ha. Together with another bunch of other goofs- Strike Anywhere/ Protest The Hero we journeyed across the lands of the UK/ Ireland. Fun times were had everywhere but funner times were had in Ireland for sure. The UK needs to tighten up on it’s comedy, food, culture, and loosen up a little at its venues. Barricades, and security guards dressed in black with ear pieces are never any fun.

Like I said…….Ireland….you ruled hard! And always do!!

So in 1999 I moved to Santa Cruz from my fathers house in southern California to begin a life of my own. I had come across music-punk- about 5 years ago while leaving middle school. I had always like music but never really “knew” music until that time.

There were times as a child I would sit in the back of our car with my parents having the stereo on and I would air drum with McDonalds straws to the tunes being heard. Ha.

So when I moved to Santa Cruz I ended up selling my car, which my Dad gave me, to travel Europe for a little bit. My Dad wasn’t pumped but I did what I did and went with it. On my adventures in Europe I stayed with my friends Erol, and Nasrin for a good week in…geez I can’t even remember the name now- its near Hamburg. Erol had this Strike Anywhere LP “Chorus of One” which I recorded on cassette and brought with me for the remainder of the trip.
Once back in Santa Cruz I ended up getting a job at Sessions Records, as their promo fellow and also as someone who booked tours for bands. A bunch of friends of mine from southern California named the Missing 23rd had signed with Sessions records so I started booking them tours. I had since bought and owned the Strike Anywhere LP so when it came time to booking a show for the M23 in Virginia I emailed the address on the Strike Anywhere album. After a week or so a reply was made by Garth and an agreement was made to have both the Strike Anywhere, and M23 play together in Virginia.

Months later I received a call from Thomas- Stike Anywhere- to book them a west coast tour, which I did, and ended up going on about half of. Fun times. After getting to know the SA’s for awhile I ended up moving to Richmond, VA to continue our adventures together, and to begin a new chapter.

After a couple of tours Strike Anywhere ended up doing the “Anchors Aweigh” tour with the Bouncing Souls which began my friendship and future adventures with that incredible family.
Before this tour I do remember many drives in the SA van listening to both the Souls, and Propagandhi just imagining us all touring with both bands.

The anchors aweigh tour happened within due time and was incredible and lead to me later on touring with the Bouncing Souls whom I last toured with in Oct. Rad. Rad. Rad!

I have toured with a handful of bands and the 3 most important bands to me from this little list are bands that I have been able to share part of 2009 with.

So 2009 ended with Strike Anywhere, and Propagandhi again touring together for the 2nd time this year. Totally weird. Who would have thought?

About 8 years ago I get a call from Thomas which lead to a special friendship, then another special friendship with the Bouncing Souls, and now another special friendship with Propagadnhi. Life is super wild, and interesting how it all works out.
10 Years ago never would I have thought that I would be able to travel the world with friends and bands I grew up listening to who these friends also play in. Its been a wild a crazy journey and 2009 has been special. So….right on!!


Saturday, Nov 28, 2009


So I am about 2.5 hours into a 6.5 hour flight from Montreal to Paris, and then onto London where I will meet up with the other animals for our next, and last circus of 2009.

This plane for today’s flight is a very older model 747 with no individual TV’s in which makes for quite a boring trip. Get it together Air France! Good money is spent for these flights and in this day and age of competition your loosing due to other airlines currently having state of the art entertainment systems. Oh well only a couple more hours to go.

On a side note is a little annoying sometimes when the person next to you thinks its okay for them to take more then their space. Here I am passively fighting for some more arm room so I don’t feel so cramped but it’s not working. Haha. Also a couple months ago I went to the Dr. to get some pills for flights to relax me and my forgetful butt forget them in my bag below, and I decided to drink a cup of coffee on this flight which isn’t good due to the adrenaline I get during the bumps.

The food thus far was okay- braised tofu dish over rice with green beans, a baguette, salad, a nice glass of red wine, and some fruit as desert.

I am really excited about this next tour of ours for numerous reasons. Sharing the adventures with us is Strike Anywhere who are some really close friends of mine and old buddies from Richmond. This will be the first time out of all my touring where I have shared adventures with the SA boys in the Eastern hemisphere. Pumped!
Last time Propagandhi/ Strike Anywhere toured together it was a blast but I had to remain pretty alert/ responsible due to driving and the responsibilities of taking care of the soldiers. On this tour we will be in a bus which means I don’t have to worry about any driving at all which is a good good thing. Much hanging will be had.
Also it’s going to be quite interesting for our freak show-Propagandhi- as we are sharing a bus with a band/ people we have never met named Protest the Hero. I am sure it will be fine but it’s going to be interesting non-the less. At first upon hearing that this band-PTH- was our main support it was something I have always kind of thought to myself “huh?” as I really don’t find them that good of a band plus I am so close to SA and think that this tour would have been fine without PTH. What can you do? I am sure once we all get into the same spaceship and spend a couple days together all will be well. As long as these new fellows don’t mind the crazy smells, and chaos that comes with us it will run smoothly.

On this trip we will tour most of the UK, and head over to Ireland for a show in Dublin, and Belfast, which will be a first for me. Can’t wait actually and we have a day off in that city as well. I also heard last night of a professional ice hockey team from Belfast and it turns out that they are playing the night of our day off there so I think there will be a group of us going.

After this tour is done I have no plans in the immediate future and need to think of something to do with my time. Treat myself to a possible vacation. I will use this trip to brain storm my next personal destination which could be places such as India, Coast Rica, Belize, or somewhere in south America. Not too long ago I would treat myself with a solo adventure at least once a year and haven’t had one of these in the last couple of years. I’ll admit that in the past going alone has been not that big of a deal. Sure sometimes you get lonely but I have also met some amazing people who I traveled with and those experiences wouldn’t have been what they were if I was traveling with someone. For some reason these days I can tell that I am a little nervous to get up and leave by myself although I have numerous times. Not sure why? Maybe it has something to do with being gone all the time, away from or who knows what. Oh well.