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.
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