After our sort-of-celebrity sighting in L.A., it was time to hit the road to San Fransisco. We stopped at an In-N-Out Burger at a place outside of the city. The place was packed; it was the only restaurant at this stop. In-N-Out Burger was so hyped I felt a little jealous that California had these by fistful and Washington did not have a single one. After eating their fries, any desire to have one of these restaurants near me vaporized. If I want a mediocre tasting cheap burger, I'll just eat at Dick's, thank you very much.
We arrived in San Fransisco to find House of Shields packed. This is something that we were not accustomed to, but was a nice end-of-tour surprise. House of Shields is in the downtown business district and it was filled with business casual types enjoying a Friday happy hour. As we pulled equipment through the crowd, one person commented on how brightly colored our shirts were. This comment made me notice how dull the other clothing in this place was. While lifting a bass drum above my head and walking through the crowd, it occurred to me that forgetting to apply deodorant and going without a shower was not doing me any favors.
The stage was upstairs in a loft area that overlooked the main bar. The band faced away from the balcony towards a video camera that projected a black and white image on the wall above the main bar area. The upstairs area was big enough to pack 30 or so people; the first band brought it to capacity. They used our drum kit, and after an amp mishap, one of our amps. I talked with all of the guys in this band that night and they were all very nice down to Earth guys.
Just before we went on, one of our Bay Area friends handed us a large bra with SWFOT written on it. No one ever gave us underwear before; it felt so rock-star to be thanked in this way. I hung it from the headstock of my guitar and we gave San Fransisco a thorough rocking. Stencil sang backups on Animals and Factory Song making them fuller and rowdier sounding than they had been before.
When Stencil went on, we returned this favor by playing tambourine on Stars and singing on Singer's Young Friends. Stencil was on fire that night -- Jared was letting his pre-calculated composure give way to something more spontaneous and exciting. It was great.
After some chit chat with the door man and our friends, we packed up our stuff, pointed the front of the vehicles Northward, and pushed the gas pedal down. I was the first to take a shift in Lucas's truck and was feeling pretty charged up about increasing our distance from the equator. Brad stayed awake and sat shotgun, keeping my brain going with the movie game. About 6 hours, I was getting tired. Brad could not guess the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" after the following clues: recent movie, trilogy, has a sword fight, has a boat. We pulled over, ate some breakfast at a little diner and switched drivers. I played the movie game with Joe as we pulled into Seattle. I had a really good one, then Joe said he was done playing for a while. Too bad. The character was the midget in Trapped in the Closet.
When we got to Seattle, I was tired. All I wanted to do was sleep. I dropped off several members of Stencil at their houses, went back to Devon's and took a two hour nap. Lucas woke me up with a phone call that I was a bit too tired to completely digest. He said that my Jaguar had fallen out of the back of his truck along with his bass somewhere between his house and Leary. He retraced his steps, but neither instrument could be found. His voice sounded weary and sad. I told Lucas not to worry about my guitar, I would play the show that night with a different guitar.
When we got to the High Dive, I was pleased to discover that it was my Epiphone SG that had fallen out, not my Jaguar. This instrument was far less valuable, had intonation problems, and a warped pickguard. It was easily my least favorite guitar. Despite this setback, we were able to rock the High Dive.
After we played, I found Brian taking a cell phone picture near the rear door. As I rounded the corner, I could see that he was taking a picture of a drawing of a 2 foot penis with the word "ELBA" next to it. "This is our legacy" he laughed.
Elba was really tight that night; it was nice to play a show with them again.
I said goodbye to Stencil, and with that, our week long adventure was done. I was glad to have a place to get a good night of sleep and a shower. I was glad to see Rachel again. I could tell I was going to miss those guys though.
Do we have time four a round of movie game? OK. I am thinking of a human, male, protagonist, in a series, made in the 80s...
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Bring Me the Drummer
Feeling pretty awesome about our San Francisco show, we headed off down to L.A. Scott said that the Globes had a great time at the Silver Factory, next venue we were about to play, and our hopes were high. The GPS took us onto Hollywood Blvd, although this turned to be a GPS joke. It promptly put us right back on the 101 to go further south. As we approached our destination, our confusion increased. "You destination is on your right", the GPS reported. We did not see a destination here, just a warehouse with some 20 somethings hanging out by a loading dock packing studded leather belts. We pulled over and tried to figure out what happened. Did we enter in the right address into the GPS? Was this a similarly named establishment like Silver Factory Belts and we were on the wrong side of LA?
We asked the kids on the loading dock if the new where the Silver Factory was. Surprisingly, they did know where it was. It was downstairs. We walked around in this warehouse for a while, not seeing any signs indicating where the venue was. Were the owners trying to hide it intentionally? Finally, a guy who practiced music in the building happened by and showed us where it was. When we got there we found closed double doors, totally unmarked. We gave the doors a knock, another knock, then a good pounding and no one showed up. Frustrated and hungry, we left to find some nearby dinner. A couple of blocks away a kid spray painted something on the side of a building, hopped on his bike, and was gone. I had a fleeting idea that we would be driving our rented minvan back to San Fransisco with a giant swastika spray painted on it. We stopped briefly at a McDonalds to use the bathroom. A lady was laying on her stomach in the drive through lane making bird noises. From here you could see the American Apparel building with a banner reading "Legalize LA". I wasn't sure what this meant, but probably something along the lines of declaring-by-fiat that insanity was truth.
We stopped to eat in an International District of sorts. Lucas was meeting some of his L.A. friends here so he split off from the group. Devon got sushi somewhere. The rest of us took a chance on a Korean BBQ place that paid off in spades. Yum. If I lived in LA, I would go to this place all the time. Devon, Scott, and I went to a little Japanese knick knack store. I bought Rachel a present. Devon bought nunchucks. We could use them to hurt the spraypaint thugs if it came down to it.
We drove back to the Silver Factory and waited for the doors to open. Finally, a guy with spikey black hair and a Purple Kush t-shirt showed up and let us in. I immediately thought the place was really cool. This opinion would later be changed. The stage was enormous and the sound system looked decent. People we knew started to show up, but they awkwardly had to stay in an outdoor holding area. A house drum kit was still on stage and we could not setup until it was moved. Jared asked if he could move the kit. Spikey Kush snapped "one thing at a time! Someone will be by to move it." When that person arrived, they asked Jared for some drum sticks. Usually, you do not need drum sticks to move a kit. This certain kit needed to be rocked before it could be moved, apparently. This guy continued to play it while our friends waited outside.
The dude stopped playing and we moved the kit ourselves. We setup the gear and Stencil went first. The 3000 square foot basement sounded a bit harsh when Stencil was playing. A few songs in, Jared broke a string. He switched to my Telecaster for the remainder of the set. I tried to replace the string on his guitar and looked for a pack of strings in his backpack. First, I rifled through his dirty shirts and underwear. No strings. I dumped all the contents of the backpack onto the floor and looked through them. Still no strings. After the song, Jared pointed out that the strings were in the guitar case and that there was no need to be combing through his dirty clothes anymore.
I tried to get a gin and tonic from the bar. Spikey Kush was behind the counter and asked if a gin and mineral water would be OK. I was not sure if it would good or not. I paid for it and found out that it most certainly was not OK.
Our set was fine -- nothing spectacular. We played Factory Song, which was fitting.
We loaded up our equipment (yay no spray paint on our cars) and headed to Scott's friend Brian's house. I had met Brian before when he came to Seattle to go to Sasquatch -- a genuine and nice person. He is tall and clean cut, but his exterior hides an inner movie nerd. This is evident that he has models of the Batmobile, the Blues Brother's car, the Ecto-1, and the Back to the Future Delorean.
In the morning he recommended that we go to House of Pies. Aisha Tyler (she played Ross' girlfriend in Friends for a little while) and was there with a male friend. A trio of photogs sat in the next booth and would occasionally hop out of their seats for a little photo shoot of Aisha. I imagine the point of the shoot was that the setting was so normal. Her smile was so contrived that any attempt and normalcy was defeated. Aisha's friend pointed to Joe and said "you are the lead singer" then pointed to Jared and said "you are the drummer". After it was explained that he had it backwards, the friend asked if Joe had a boyfriend. It was explained that his assumption about Joe's sexuality was also mistaken. The photogs got up from their booth, snapped more pictures and sat back down. "Bring me the drummer" Aisha's friend jokingly commanded. Then he laid down sideways in the booth as he laughed. We decided we still needed Joe, so we brought him with us.
We asked the kids on the loading dock if the new where the Silver Factory was. Surprisingly, they did know where it was. It was downstairs. We walked around in this warehouse for a while, not seeing any signs indicating where the venue was. Were the owners trying to hide it intentionally? Finally, a guy who practiced music in the building happened by and showed us where it was. When we got there we found closed double doors, totally unmarked. We gave the doors a knock, another knock, then a good pounding and no one showed up. Frustrated and hungry, we left to find some nearby dinner. A couple of blocks away a kid spray painted something on the side of a building, hopped on his bike, and was gone. I had a fleeting idea that we would be driving our rented minvan back to San Fransisco with a giant swastika spray painted on it. We stopped briefly at a McDonalds to use the bathroom. A lady was laying on her stomach in the drive through lane making bird noises. From here you could see the American Apparel building with a banner reading "Legalize LA". I wasn't sure what this meant, but probably something along the lines of declaring-by-fiat that insanity was truth.
We stopped to eat in an International District of sorts. Lucas was meeting some of his L.A. friends here so he split off from the group. Devon got sushi somewhere. The rest of us took a chance on a Korean BBQ place that paid off in spades. Yum. If I lived in LA, I would go to this place all the time. Devon, Scott, and I went to a little Japanese knick knack store. I bought Rachel a present. Devon bought nunchucks. We could use them to hurt the spraypaint thugs if it came down to it.
We drove back to the Silver Factory and waited for the doors to open. Finally, a guy with spikey black hair and a Purple Kush t-shirt showed up and let us in. I immediately thought the place was really cool. This opinion would later be changed. The stage was enormous and the sound system looked decent. People we knew started to show up, but they awkwardly had to stay in an outdoor holding area. A house drum kit was still on stage and we could not setup until it was moved. Jared asked if he could move the kit. Spikey Kush snapped "one thing at a time! Someone will be by to move it." When that person arrived, they asked Jared for some drum sticks. Usually, you do not need drum sticks to move a kit. This certain kit needed to be rocked before it could be moved, apparently. This guy continued to play it while our friends waited outside.
The dude stopped playing and we moved the kit ourselves. We setup the gear and Stencil went first. The 3000 square foot basement sounded a bit harsh when Stencil was playing. A few songs in, Jared broke a string. He switched to my Telecaster for the remainder of the set. I tried to replace the string on his guitar and looked for a pack of strings in his backpack. First, I rifled through his dirty shirts and underwear. No strings. I dumped all the contents of the backpack onto the floor and looked through them. Still no strings. After the song, Jared pointed out that the strings were in the guitar case and that there was no need to be combing through his dirty clothes anymore.
I tried to get a gin and tonic from the bar. Spikey Kush was behind the counter and asked if a gin and mineral water would be OK. I was not sure if it would good or not. I paid for it and found out that it most certainly was not OK.
Our set was fine -- nothing spectacular. We played Factory Song, which was fitting.
We loaded up our equipment (yay no spray paint on our cars) and headed to Scott's friend Brian's house. I had met Brian before when he came to Seattle to go to Sasquatch -- a genuine and nice person. He is tall and clean cut, but his exterior hides an inner movie nerd. This is evident that he has models of the Batmobile, the Blues Brother's car, the Ecto-1, and the Back to the Future Delorean.
In the morning he recommended that we go to House of Pies. Aisha Tyler (she played Ross' girlfriend in Friends for a little while) and was there with a male friend. A trio of photogs sat in the next booth and would occasionally hop out of their seats for a little photo shoot of Aisha. I imagine the point of the shoot was that the setting was so normal. Her smile was so contrived that any attempt and normalcy was defeated. Aisha's friend pointed to Joe and said "you are the lead singer" then pointed to Jared and said "you are the drummer". After it was explained that he had it backwards, the friend asked if Joe had a boyfriend. It was explained that his assumption about Joe's sexuality was also mistaken. The photogs got up from their booth, snapped more pictures and sat back down. "Bring me the drummer" Aisha's friend jokingly commanded. Then he laid down sideways in the booth as he laughed. We decided we still needed Joe, so we brought him with us.
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