Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 7: Nissan headquarters – Dallas, TX

            So, Genji’s cousin Dave works at the Nissan headquarters in Dallas.  The last time we were through here he hooked us up with a lunch time show on one of Nissan’s patios to play for their employees at lunchtime.  We ended up selling quite a bit of merch the last time, and since Dallas was right on our way to Lafayette we decided to give it another shot on this trip too. 

By the time we all got up Dave had long since been gone to work.  We were supposed to play starting at 11:30 for about 90 minutes, and we had to make the 30 minute drive to the Nissan plant from Dave’s place, so we left at around 10:00am.  We pulled into Nissan at about 10:30, and went into the lobby where we were greeted by three large security guard types.  They issued us security badges and we went around back to unload the gear.  The last time we played in this spot we had to hump our hear through a bunch of mud.  Fortunately, this time the ground was dry and we were able to get our stuff unloaded with little trouble.

We then had to determine where to set up.  The last time we were here we set up in the corner of this courtyard facing a bunch of tables.  We started to set up the same way.  Then Boody decided we should wait to set up until Genj got back from the van in case he wanted something changed.  When Genj arrived we pretty much decided to set up like last time.  Then, about 20 minutes before we were supposed to start, after everything was set up and soundchecked, Boody gets the idea that if we move our entire set up about 30 feet to the left, we would actually be under a cover, and the people could all sit in the shade to watch us.  It was starting to get a little warm out there since the morning cloud cover was burning off, so it seemed like a good idea.  So with 20 minutes till showtime, we moved everything.  And I mean everything.  We still started on time, but I don’t Cuz’n Steve was very happy.  But, that’s how we roll when we’re on the road sometimes.  You’ve got to be able to adapt to new situations very quickly. 

We were happy to get to see our booking agent Deb in person for only about the 5^th time since she started working for us in 2006.  She is based just outside of Dallas.  We started on time and played for about 90 minutes.  There really wasn’t anything that different in the setlist other than the fact that we started with a lot mellower stuff than usual.  We actually opened with Shot In The Dark, which was very cool. 

Our turnout at Nissan was about the same as last time, which was a little disappointing because we were expecting it to be better this time.  Once we had broken down our stuff and packed the trailer, Dave took us up to his office.  He told us that one of the VPs didn’t want us to leave without getting something to take with us.  So as Dave was walking us to another office, I naturally figured that this was the part where they would give us each the keys to our brand new cars.  Unfortunately, I was mistaken.  But we did get our pick of any number of Nissan t-shirts, polos, and other shirts and paraphenelia.  Basically there was this room filled with the stuff and Dave told us we could take as much as we wanted.  

After Nissan, we realized that none of us had really eaten anything yet that day.  So we plugged a couple of requests into the Tom Tom and ended up at the holiest of eating establishments that there is for the road weary band or crew.  A place where the gravy flows like a river of goodness, and the chicken fried steaks pave the road of righteousness – yes, we were going to Cracker Barrel.  We had been on the road for 7 days and this was the first time we were to partake of this culinary bliss.  And who would have thought but we actually had a Cracker Barrel virgin in our midst – Cuz’n Steve.  So he asks, “uh, what’s good here guys?”  I was taken aback by the question.  What’s good?  What’s good!?!  What language was this guy speaking?  Don’t you mean what’s not good here Steve?  I mean we don’t have all day to explain this, you know?  I’ll make this simple.  What’s good?  Everything.  What’s not good?  Nothing.  You get to ask that question once Steve, that’s it.  It’s like asking a Corleone about the family business, you just don’t do it.  Next time, you get cast off the island.         

We got seated at the round table that is always just past the hostess stand.  And by always, I mean in every Cracker Barrel, everywhere.  We get our menus.  I tell Genj to put his down, because everybody in the room knows he’s ordering the chicken fried steak and he’s not fooling anybody looking at the menu.  This is not to belittle the crucial nature of the ordering at Cracker Barrel.  It’s not like you are going to get anything bad, but it does feel a little like studying for a test when you are perusing the menu, and your tastebuds will let you know if you passed the test.  I actually ordered the chicken fried chicken.  Unfortunately once our orders came they crossed them up and I ended up with Genj’s chicken fried steak, he got my chicken and neither of us noticed until after a couple of bits.  But, we both decided to not to change plates.  We shared a moment what can I say. 

I think Steve ordered a vegetable plate or something like that.  Rookie maneuver in my mind.  I mean, that’s like paying a hooker for the conversation.  Whatever, maybe he’ll do better next time.  For the rest of us, it was a nice reminder of one of the good things about being on tour. 

After lunch we headed back to Dave’s to settle in for a nice food coma nap.  Actually, I think everybody mounted their laptops and did a little work for while or returned emails or whatever they all do.  Then at about 6pm we settled in for a continuation of a poker game that we had started a couple days earlier.  It was down to the usual suspects, me, Genj and Boody.  To this point we had been battling pretty evenly.  I forget most of the interesting hands on this one, except for one had where it took me about 10 minutes to make the decision of whether to call Boody’s all in bet.  I made the right non-call thankfully.  Ultimately, I think it came down to me and Genj and we cut a deal to split everyone elses money.  Oh yeah, by the time we reached that point it was 11:00pm.  It was quite the marathon game. 

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 6: Onto Dallas via Oklahoma

            You wake up the day after your fifth show in five days in five different cities in four different states and feel pretty good about having a day off to rest.  That is until you realize that the reward for your hard work is a 14 hour drive and the locale of your convalescence will be the inside of a van.  Gotta love the indie band tour. 

We left Taos at about 10am.  There was about a two and a half hour drive back to I-40 in Albuquerque.  Along the way we made a breakfast stop at Dunkin Donuts.  Apparently, Dunkin is a favorite of a couple guys in the band and they are hard to find in California.  They have a powdered chocolate crème filled donut that is basically a heart attack on a plate, but, that doesn’t make it any less delicious. 

Once you hit I-40 you get the pleasure of staying on that road for about 400 miles.  First you get to go across the rest of New Mexico.  Then, you get a preview of driving across the long part of Texas by getting to cross the short par of Texas.  It’s just as boring but not as long.  Once we got to Albuquerque, Cuz’n Steve took the wheel.  I told him, stay on this road until we get to Oklahoma City.  That’s the odd thing about this drive.  It’s actually faster to go across the short part of Texas, through half of Oklahoma, and then drop back down into Texas to get to Dallas.  I told him he’d know when we were in Texas because he would see the biggest crucifix in the northern hemisphere. 

About, three or four hours later, Cuz’n Steve calls to the back, “Hey, is this the cross you were talking about?”  Ummm.  It’s about 300 feet tall and has the wingspan of a B-52.  “No, Steve that’s the small one, keep looking.” 

We played poker a lot of the way to Dallas.  At least until we pulled off somewhere in Oklahoma to get a sandwich at a truck stop.  It was going to be a quick stop, but Cuz’n Steve and Genji ordered meatball sandwiches and they had just run out of meatballs.  They told them it would be five minutes, which to me, makes me wonder just what kind of meat is used in the meatball that will be ready in five minutes.  Oh, yeah, this was Subway sandwich number 2 on the trip, I tried the Philly Cheesesteak for the first time, in case you were wondering or even care. 

I took over driving at this point.  I took us through Oklahoma City and into Texas.  Boody had downloaded these podcasts to his Ipod for the trip from some show called, Things You Oughta Know.  It’s basically an internet talk show of these two guys covering a series of topics including:  Are there dead bodies on Mt. Everest? (answer:  yes about 120 of them);  Weird ways to die? (getting trampled to death by a heard of sheep, and getting killed by an exploding molasses tank topped the list); Is the world going to end in 2012? (yes, if you are a crackpot moron, ok I paraphrased that one a bit); How do redheads work? (it turns out that redheads need more anesthetic to be put under for surgeries and stuff like that).  It was an interesting show and it made the drive a lot more entertaining than just listening to music.

Somewhere about 100 miles from Dallas, we stopped for gas and Genji took over driving.  By the time we reached Dallas and Steve’s brother’s place, it was about 2am.  Steve’s brother Dave lives in a really nice high rise apartment building called The Mondrian in Dallas.  We’d be sleeping on his floor and couches for tonight and the next night.  

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 5: Taos Inn – Taos, NM

            Our fifth show in as many days would be at one of our favorite spots to play, the Taos Inn in Taos New Mexico.  It’s a weird show for us compared to some of the others we have done.  It’s basically the polar opposite of the big House of Blues Show, or annual Morgan Hill show that we usually do.  It is a very intimate show.  We are seated through the whole thing, but we still manage to rock the house, only it’s a small house.  The nice thing about playing Taos for us is that since this would be our 6^th or 7^th time there, we have actually amassed a local following up there.  We are pretty assured that every time we play there, the Taos Inn will be packed for us.  So it’s something that we look forward to on every tour. 

We only had about 4 hours from Gallup to Taos so again we would have  a relatively short drive today.  Cam took the first shift of the day, while the rest of us settled into the back for Katherine for another poker game.  I don’t remember too much about this particular game except that Cuz’n Steve is a fast learner.  It didn’t take him long to pick up some of the subtleties of the game.  He still lost but he was looking at this as an education into how to play the game.  We assured him that no matter how poorly things might go for him, he could rest assured that it was impossible for him to beat Peter’s record for poker futility.  Because of the structure of our games, the fastest anyone could reach a payout was by re-buying into five consecutive games and losing all of them.  5 games, $50, and a payout.  Peter set this record a couple years ago, and it cannot be broken.  But it can be tied.  Steve didn’t set out to accomplish this feat, but he was well on his way after a couple of games.  He really wasn’t playing bad, and actually made some pretty decent calls, but he just ran into some big hands he didn’t see coming. 

Somewhere between Albuquerque and Taos we finally stopped for some food at a Sonic.  Genj and Cam have this thing about not passing up a Sonic.  We ate on the road and pulled into Taos at about 4pm.  Showtime was 6:30 to 9:30.  We typically like to have a couple hours to load in and get set up for this show.  It’s nice to be set up and then be able to relax in our room for a bit before show time.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  We have to battle with the fact that the Taos Inn, had people seated right where we were supposed to set up.  Also, the space that we actually perform in is very small so it takes a lot of coordination and cooperation with the staff to get everything set up just right.  As it turned out, we had to wait until the last minute to set up our last speakers because of  a group of ladies who were in our way, had finished their meals and drinks about an hour before show time, but decided to sit there anyway. 

So we were rushing around again trying to get everything set up properly so we could start on time.  Taos has an elevation somewhere around the 5000 ft mark.  It might even be higher.  I don’t know what it might have been, but I suspect I got a little altitude sickness or something because it was so hot in that place, that I felt like I was going to pass out for about the first three songs of our first set.   But, I made it through.  We played a great show, like we usually have in Taos.  We met a couple from Dallas Texas who after our first set bough a couple cds and gave us the name of another booking agent to use in Texas.  They told me that they had to leave during our next set for dinner.  About halfway through the third set I saw that they had food at their table, and they ended up staying the whole night. 

After the show, Cuz’n Steve left to go stay at his friend Gordon’s place.  Genj and Cam met some people at the show who were headed over to one of the local bar called The Alley.  There was a group playing there that night called “Jewish Girls Gone Bad”.  Apparently, there was a $15 cover over there for that show.  Because of this some of the regulars at The Alley made their way over to the Taos Inn and stumbled across us instead.  I was feeling like crap and was headed back to the room. 

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 4: Campus Coffee – Flagstaff, AZ

            We were supposed to have a second show in Las Vegas at the House of Blues.  Unfortunately about 2 weeks before the tour we were told by Soli that the HOB had been bought out for the night for some private affair and the show that he booked was getting bumped.   So we were left with an open Saturday night.  There is nothing worse, and nothing feels more like a waste of time than not playing on a Friday or Saturday night when you are on tour.  So we started looking around for anything to fill the spot in our schedule.  As it turns out, the cancellation did us a favor because the scheduling geniuses hadn’t counted on the fact that there was no way we could have played Vegas on Saturday night and made it to Taos New Mexico for our Sunday show that was supposed to start at 6:30pm. 

I think it was Cameron who did some research and had a friend who went to the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.  He sent me a link to this coffee shop that had bands on Saturdays and I sent them a message on Myspace.  They didn’t have anything for the Saturday we needed, and the next thing you know, we had a last minute show in Flagstaff.  It would be an early show, so we would actually be able to drive a little closer to Taos after the show. 

We left Vegas at around 11:00 and headed towards Arizona.  The route we took went right over the Hoover Dam.  If you haven’t been over the dam lately, they are building an enormous bridge that bypasses the usual road so that they can have a multi-lane highway that goes through the area.  This will lessen the traffic over the dam.  This structure is pretty amazing to see being built as they have both sides started which will eventually meet in the middle.  It’s almost more impressive than the dam itself actually. 

It’s only about 4 hours from Vegas to Flag so by tour standards it was a relatively short ride today.  We pulled up to the Campus Coffee Bean at about 4:00pm.  It had a little stage and a pretty large seating area.  It was at least as big as the area we play when we go to the Taos Inn to play so we were prepared for what kind of show we would be doing.  There was another group from Colorado playing there from 4:30 to 5:30, so we were just going to hang out until they were done.  We decided to pull up a few chairs out on the patio and play what would be the first poker game of the trip.  Cuz’n Steve had joined us once before in a poker game but this would be the first time he was extensively involved.  To the point where we would be placing him on the coveted “sheet”.  Many of you know that on the Fourwayfree Poker tour all games are $5 per buy in with the limit of one re-buy if you are knocked out.  When your net reaches a negative $50 you have to payout.  At least I think that’s the rule.  I’ve never reached that milestone so I’m not really sure.  You’d have to ask Boody, he is the leading authority on that subject.  Anyway, we added Cuz’n Steve to the sheet, and he joined the Poker Tour.  More on the poker tour later. 

At about 5:30 we started setting up and we went on at about 6.  There really weren’t that many people there at first, although the girl running the place, named Emily told us that she would call a bunch of her friends to come down and listen.  We went through our first set and took break.  It was looking like we would have to just treat this as a practice, when a decent sized group of people started filtering in.  We played our second set to an appreciative crowd and they even encored us.  We sold some cds, got a contact for a better venue next time, and so for a last minute addition, the show ended up being worth it. 

We loaded up the trailer, again, and headed east on I-40 out of Flag  at about 9pm.  We made a quick stop at the Bell for food and headed towards New Mexico.  We decided to drive about three hours that night and see where it would get us.  It turns out that three hours east of Flag is Gallup New Mexico.  We pulled into a Comfort Inn right around midnight. 

Being on the road can get a little boring in between shows at times.  And so on occasion we have been known to give each other a hard time or play practical jokes on one another.  This night was no exception.  As is his custom,. Boody upon reaching a hotel room at night will ask anyone if they need to use the bathroom before he goes to take his nightly shower.  Before getting in the shower he had set up his bed which this night would be the pull out couch in our suite.  It occurred to me that messing with his bed was probably a somewhat cruel thing to do to a guy who had just finished a 3 hour driving shift during the night.  It was past 1am by now and we were all pretty tired.  But, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least put it out there.  So, I said to the guys, “would it be a total d**k move if I were to short sheet Boody’s bed right now.”  Not to my surprise, it was Cuz’n Steve who replied “Yes it would be a total d**k move.”  But, then to my surprise, he looked up with a sly smile and said, “and you should totally do it!”  Hmmm.  What to do.  I was still on the fence.  Then Genj says “what is short sheeting?  I’ve never really understood what that is or how it is done?”  Well, far be it from me to deny any man an education.  The decision was made.  We carefully surveyed the bed so as to remember what it looked like before we started.  Then we carefully pulled back the bedding a removed the top sheet.  Tucked the sheet around the bed at the top tight so that it would appear to be the bottom sheet, and then carefully folded the sheet from the bottom up to the top.  For those of you not quite following this, basically, short sheeting someone involved sheeting the bed so that it appears to your victim that they are getting under the top sheet.  In reality the sheet is only half as long as the bed so they cannot fit.  Maximum confusion would be achieved if Boody first turned off the lights and then tried to get into the bed.  We tried our best to put the bed back the way we found out.  We then settled back and waited. 

I was feeling a little bit bad about it.  Boody would probably think it was funny and be cool about it.  On the other hand, he was probably very tired and not in the mood to messed with at this hour.  So, he comes out of the bathroom and says.  “Hey, Jeff just so you know, there is soap and shampoo already in the shower for the morning, but I had to put it up high so if you need help in the morning getting it down, just let me know.”  An unprovoked attack on me.  And a short joke nonetheless.  My sympathy melted away, as I just smiled and said, “thanks man, I appreciate that.”  Oh it was on. 

So we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Boody makes more preparations to get in bed than NASA does for a shuttle launch.  He spends the next 20 minutes putzing around doing who the hell knows what.  I was laying in bed with my laptop trying to blog and was fighting off sleep just waiting for our payoff.  Finally, about 20 minutes after the attack on me, he asks, “does anyone need this light on, I’m going to bed.”  “No man, turn it off, it’s cool.”  Lights out. The only thing illuminating the room is the screen of my laptop.  Then you hear the rustling of the bedding.  The sound of the cheap springs on the hideabed compressing as he starts to mount the bed.  Rustle rustle, more springs squeaking.  Rustle rustle, squeak squeak.  A moment of silence.  Wait for it.  Wait for it.  And then from the darkness it came.  “Nice guys.  Really nice.”  And the only sight was the shit eating grin of the culprit in the light of a laptop; the only sound, the laughs of his co-conspirators.  Justice had been served. 

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 3: Monte Carlo – Las Vegas

            When the alarm went off, about two minutes after my head hit the pillow, I wondered if a sound check was really necessary for the show tonight.  We were playing at the Monte Carlo in the Brew Pub.  This place is pretty large and has a very nice stage and a pretty big sound system.  The catch here was that the place only used in-ear monitors.  In-ear monitors for those of you who don’t know are earphones that the musicians where inside their ears which has all the sound they are making on stage transmitted back to them so they can hear what they are doing.  Usually, a band will have a set of monitor speakers on the stage pointing back at them.  In-ears eliminate the need to have monitors on stage, and cuts the over all sound coming from the stage.  And in theory they are better because each musician can get their own mix of whatever they want to hear in their ears.  The in-ears are also wireless so you can go wherever you want on the stage, but the mix in your ears will never change, unlike monitors where as soon as you walkaway from your monitor the sound changes.  Really nice in-ear monitors are usually what most big acts use.   Since our only experience with in-ears has been  the simple cheap in-ear system that we have, we were a little worried about how this would go.  And, so there was every reason to get our of bed and get to our soundcheck, otherwise we would be courting disaster for the show that night. 

So at about 8:30 we rolled up to the Monte Carlo, pulled Katherine and Trailer through the valets at the front of the hotel and started to unload our gear earlier than ever before.  Our sound guys Keith and Matt met us in the Brew Pub.  They were very professional guys, complete with Monte Carlo uniforms and nametags.  We were set up by 9:15 and proceeded to take the next hour and a half to soundcheck everything.  It’s sounds like a long time, but these guys were very methodical.  They went through every piece of Boody’s drumkit and then went to each of us one by one to see if we wanted more of each piece in our ears.  Ideally, when it’s all done you feel like you are listening to a cd when your in-ears are mixed properly.  In the end, we had everything dialed in the way we liked it.  We were told to be back by 9 for a 9:30 start time. 

After the soundcheck we headed back to Dawn’s house.  Boody, Genj, and The Kid, decided to go get some more sleep.  Cuz’n Steve and I decided to find some breakfast.  We found an IHOP and grabbed some food.  The original plan was to head back to Dawn’s and get some sleep after breakfast, but we remembered that Genji wanted to find a Guitar Center to grab some extra strings, and since we were out anyway, Steve and I decided to look for a music store.  Since we had the GPS system, I didn’t think it would be a big deal to find some place.  And we were hoping to find some small shop to give them our business instead of going to the Evil Empire for strings.  I plugged in music store and got two different places about a half a mile from IHOP.  But, apparently both of those places didn’t exist anymore.  So this time I put in “guitar”, it gave me two guitar centers and another place called Guitar Works.  I figured, well, Guitar Works sounded like a local type of shop so we would follow GPS to that one as well.  This time it took us on a 10 mile trek out to what I think was Henderson.  And when we got there, again, the place was not there.  This was starting to become a little annoying.  Not to mention the fact that the pancakes from breakfast were starting to kick in, and combined with the three hours of sleep the night before, I  was in dire need of a nap. 

We finally gave in and decided to go find the Evil Empire to get Genj some guitar strings.  I was familiar with the location of the Vegas Guitar Center because I used to make an annual pilgrimage to Vegas with some friends of mine in Phoenix.  We used to go for the first weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament every year since 1999.  And every year we would take the Tropicana exit off of the freeway and go right past the Guitar Center.  I would vow every year that if I did well at the tables that weekend we would be stopping at the GC on the way out of town to drop my winnings on a new guitar.  Unfortunately, I had never seen the inside of the place, but at least I knew where it was. 

Cuz’n Steve and I headed out of what I think was Henderson and drove back towards Vegas.  I got off on the Tropicana exit and figured we would soon be at the Empire.  Well, apparently I was never meant to see the inside of that place because once we found it, it too had been closed!  Unbelieveable.  We had now spent the better part of two hours looking for a damn music store that had freakin guitar strings.  I remembered that there was also a Sam Ash music store somewhere in town, so I plugged that into Tom Tom and we finally arrived at the place about 15 minutes later.  We grabbed some strings for Genj, some sticks for Boody, a couple of other supplies for me, and headed back to Dawn’s.

I think we rolled up to Dawn’s place sometime around 3pm.  We had to be back to the Monte Carlo at about 9, and I had heard that Dawn was planning a barbeque for us before the show, so I figured I had a few hours of sleep I could get in before the night got started.  So I’ve just spent the last three hours driving around with Cuz’n Steve looking for a music store, I’m on three hours sleep, and I’m tired.  But I settle into a really comfortable bed in one of Dawn’s guest rooms and I’m well on my way to a pleasant unconsciousness. 

            After about 2 hours of sleep, I awoke to the pleasant aroma of barbeque.  I got ready for the show and headed downstairs to find our hosts have prepared burgers and barbeque chicken along with a number of other side dishes.  Quite the feast.  Lindsey and Selena, friends of Dawn’s and ours, had also come over, and we proceeded to start the pre-show party. 

            At about 8:30 we all loaded up into various cars and made our way towards the strip.  Ironically, just off of I-15, as you are headed into the strip area, of the side of the road, is probably the largest Guitar Center I have ever seen.  I didn’t see it the night before because I was sleeping when we got to Vegas, but there it was, mocking me as we drove by. 

            We parked Katherine near where we had dropped the trailer earlier that morning, and headed inside.  As we were walking up to the venue, we were pleased to see that the Monte Carlo had advertised the show for the night on large displays leading up to the Brew Pub, complete with one of our latest band photos.  As we walked up we were met by the promoter for the show, Michael Soli.  We have worked with Soli for a couple of years now as our main promoter in Vegas and his company is really starting to take off which is great to see.  Soli always gets us great venues in Vegas and has been a great supporter of the band.  We went inside and prepared for the show. 

            Our soundguy Keith told us that once the hockey game that was being shown on most of the screens in the place was over, we would be starting.  It looked like we would go right on time.  We were also met in the Brew Pub by three of our fans from Phoenix.  They had traveled all the way to Morgan Hill last January to see our show at Sobrato Arts Center, and this time made the trek from Phoenix just to see us again.  Samantha, Lisa, and Christina, if you are reading this, you are awesome, and we hope to see you all at the last tour stop in Tempe at the end of next week.  There others too that we were not expecting to see.  Perhaps the coolest thing was that a couple came up to Genji, and told him that they had seen us, just by chance, for the first time, in the spring of 2006, when we played Vegas for the very first time.  Since that time, they have had some kids and had other things happen that have prevented them from seeing us again at any of our numerous other Vegas shows, but they have continued to be fans of the band.  Well they marked this night on their calendars and came out to see us once again. 

            We got on stage as the hockey game was ending and readied ourselves with our in-ear monitors.  A few minutes later, we get a voice in our ears telling us that they will be raising the screen in front of the stage, announcing us, and then we are supposed to start.  And sure enough, the screen started to go up, these crazy stage lights started spinning around, and the announcer says in your typical announcer voice….”LLLLLLLadies and Gentlemen, the Monte Carlo Brew Pub Music Series is pleased to welcome to the stage tonight… FourPLayFree…” 

Frankly, I didn’t even notice the guy had made a mistake until after the first set when he came up to apologize.  We were playing two sets this night each lasting about 45 minutes.  We started with Done, and then went into Introductions.  I don’t remember everything about the set, but I know we played our new song Not Now Not Ever, and Deeper in the first set. 

It turned out that even though the first set went pretty well, Boody had actually played just about all of the set completely unable to hear anything other than himself.  Apparently, his in-ear buds just stopped working.  Since there were no regular floor monitors, and since his kit was behind a plexiglass shield, he could hear nothing except himself the entire time.  The set was a real bummer for him.  Cameron had similar issues not being able to hear very well.  Steve, Genji and myself actually had really good sound in our in-ears.  They tried to fix the issue with Boody’s in-ears at the break, but apparently it only worked marginally. 

The second set we decided to open with Before You Go.  This was essentially the first time we had played it since our rehearsal a couple days before, after not having it in the line up for about a year.  And it went surprisingly well.  This probably wouldn’t have been played except that Lindsey requested it.  I guess Boody’s ears were better in the second set, but apparently not much better.     

 It ended up being a pretty cool gig for us despite the issues with the in-ears.  That’s just something you have to get used to so we will be back there soon.  In fact, while I am writing this we found out a couple days ago that we have already been booked back there again on June 5^th.  We will be playing Vegas June 4^th at the House of Blues and then on the 5^th back at the Monte Carlo. 

After the show we loaded up our stuff and all headed back to Dawn’s house.  We spent the night hanging out, having a few drinks, listening to some great music and watching Dawn show us how to use the stripper pole she has in her living room.  (Relax she was fully clothed at the time).  We introduced Dawn to a musician we have shared the stage with Jay Buchanan.  If you haven’t heard of the group Buchanan you should check them/him out, incredible songwriter.  One of the best single performances I’ve ever seen, and this is including every concert I have ever been to, was Jay Buchanan when he opened for us at one of our CD release parties.  You really should check him out. 

I stayed up too late again, I think deciding to go to bed at about 3:30, almost exactly 24 hours since we had gotten there.  It’s always a good time in Vegas and we really appreciate our friends there who help us out every time.  The next day we would be headed towards Taos, New Mexico, making a stop to play at the Campus Coffee Bean in Flagstaff, Arizona. 

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 2: The Marquee – San Diego

            After a very successful kickoff show in Hermosa we were starting the actual traveling part of the tour today.  Our plan was to meet up at the trailer around noon, do some pretty serious repacking and get on the road by 1:30.  We figured after a stop at USC to pickup Dave, and the traffic we were bound to hit going to San Diego, we would be looking at rolling up the venue sometime around 5:30 or 6. 

            After some typical delays, we managed to meet up at around 12:30 to pack the trailer.  Here is where the real adventure begins.  How much stuff do you think you can fit in a 5 x 8 trailer?  The answer is all of it.  By all of it I mean, 2 main speakers, 4 monitors, three PA amps, three guitar amps, 5 guitars, a drumset, 4 saxophones, a flute, a clarinet, 5 bags of clothing, a case of orange juice, a case of beer, and a partridge in a pear tree.  I love this part of every tour.  It’s a constant game of “how much can we force into the trailer before Boody has a fit.”  As I mentioned before, Cuz’n Steve brought enough stuff that I think he is surreptiously moving to Dallas, so we had a lot to play with this time around.  At one point, Boody was convinced that some of this stuff was going to have to stay behind.  I’m more from the “if it doesn’t fit, make it fit” school of thought.  Besides, it’s not like we haven’t busted the suspension on the trailer before, and we handled that just fine.  My theory is, if you can get the door closed with no more than two guys leaning up against it, then the trailer was meant to hold that much.  Right? 

            Well, we managed to get everything but a couple of guitars in there, which was just fine because we usually have a couple in the van for rehearsal purposes anyways.  Just to be safe, I got down to take a look under the trailer at how our new leaf springs were looking.  And, I decided that just to be safe, I wouldn’t bother to tell Boody what it looked like under there.  He was on a need to know basis, and I figured telling him that the springs that usually look like the letter “U” now looked like a straight line, was something he just didn’t need to know.  Besides, it’s not like he doesn’t know what sound a leaf spring makes when it breaks in two pieces, so I figured this time, he’ll be able to diagnose the problem really quick like. 

            After we stuffed the trailer, we headed out to USC to pick up Dave.  We decided to spare him the “are you sure you have your mouthpiece” bit this time because we were in a hurry.  Just like I’m sure you remembered to lock you car, or unplug your curling iron this morning as you are reading this. 

            A couple hours later we rolled up to The Marquee in San Diego.  We got this gig through our good friends at Glorified Records.  The Glorified Guys helped manage us about a year and a half ago, and even though we don’t do business with the regularly anymore, we are still cool with them and we have done a number of shows with them in the last year. 

The Marquee is an interesting place.  It used to be a church of some king, complete with stained glass windows and a steeple.  From the outside, you would still think it was a church.  On the inside, the place has been transformed somewhat with a stage, sound system, and all white leather couches and chairs to relax in while you are entertained by some of the local musicians and poets who frequent the place.  There is an area up above all of this in the back of the room, where traditionally you would expect to see the church organist where the sound board and soundmen operate the board.  The Marquee is apparently run by local artists trying to create a new music scene there in San Diego.  Despite the outward appearance and not being in the heart of downtown, it has the makings of a great listening room type of venue. 

The only downer about the place, is that the load in involves hauling your gear up a flight of stairs.  Never any pledges around when you need them.  Since it was still pretty early, and the soundguy was not there yet we decided to take off to get some food first.  The guy that let us in the place was consulted on where to get some food.  I’m not sure if he was really any help.  I am sure that if we had wanted to know where to go get something pierced into our face, that he would have been our man, because this guy had enough shrapnel in his noggin to set off the metal detectors at the airport across town.  This included about a 5 inch spike that came out of his lower lip and extended directly forward.  I’m not sure what purpose this served other than to possibly shisk kebab food, or perhaps conduct radio communications with Mars. 

Anyways, after Pinhead gave us some directions we found ourselves downtown looking for a fast food place of some kind.  A couple of the guys opted for Jack in the Box, while Boody, Dave and I decided to partake of the first Subway sandwich of the tour.  A foot long Subway club, with spicy mustard.  In case, you wondering or even care. 

After wolfing down some sandwiches we made our way back to The Marquee where we set up and did a quick sound check.  The acoustics in the room were pretty hot so we were playing at very low volumes but you really couldn’t tell.  The show started at about 8 with an opener called Talks Like June.  They were a trio of two guitars and a guy on conga drums.  They had a woman singing.  They were pretty good, especially considering it was apparently their debut show. 

We went on at about 8:30 and played for a crowd of about 25.  It was a same listening room, so this ended up being quite the intimate show.  I don’t really remember what the set list was, but we played for an hour and a half so we pretty much played all the usual stuff we have been doing. 

The downer about this show, was not the show or the crowd or anything about San Diego.  It was the fact that we knew after the show we would be driving all night to get to Las Vegas.  Normally there is nothing bad about going to Vegas, we were just hoping we could have gotten some sleep first. 

Special thanks to Steve and Lisa Wilson up in Morgan Hill, for calling up their daughter Chelsea and telling her to come out to the show in San Diego. 

Sleeping in the van is always dicey at best.  Typically, you never really get a really good sleep, and for me, the only evidence that I have actually slept at all is there will be gaps in my memory when we finally get to our destination.  This night was no exception.  Vague recollections of waking up at a couple of gas stations, and then getting out of the van when we reached our friend Dawn’s place in Vegas – at 4:30 the next morning. 

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos   * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Day 1: The Shore – Hermosa Beach

The first day of tour usually involves a lot of running around before the show and this one was no exception.  Boody and I left his place around 10:30 to run a couple of errands.  We had to load some of our gear from Trailer into Katherine McPhee so that we could make it over to a rehearsal at the lockout around noon.  ....

.. ..

Rehearsal this time was going to be just with us “core four”.  Cuz’n Steve is joining us for most of the tour, but he’ll be leaving in Dallas, and since we have a couple of really long shows later in the tour, we decided to get together with the four of us to go over some stuff we haven’t played in a while.  I’m happy to say that we are bringing a couple of things back for this tour.  We are bringing back the full band electric version of Before You Go, and we are bringing back a song called I Was Never Here, which we haven’t played on tour since the end of 2005.  It’s a song that is so old, it will be like a new song to most people.  And I’m sure we will be adding some other stuff by the time we hit the middle of this tour too.  ....

.. ..

We got to the lockout at about 11:45 to load in.  We had the place from 12-2 so we had a lot of work to get done in two hours.  The Kid apparently slept until about 11:55 – apparently he needs his sleep cause he’s a growing boy you know.  For those of you wondering, yes, The Kid is Cameron.  We were trying to remember today how many levels he has progressed through.  I think he started as The Newbie, or it might have been The Puke.  He graduated to The Pledge at some point, and was also most recently The Rookie.  We figured he’s earned his way by now, so we elevated him to the level of The Kid – a level he is not likely to ever grow out of as long as I am around.  ....

.. ..

Our show this night would be at The Shore in ....Hermosa Beach.....  In the past we’ve played The Shore for Listen Entertainment and our friend Oren, but the place has had some serious issues with the sound and we actually had vowed not to play there again.  But, Oren called and assured us that they got rid of the old sound guy, who might as well have been the bartender, that they got a new guy, new sound system, and a new stage, and he wanted us to give it another chance.  Since we always have a great crowd down there in Hermosa for our kickoff shows, we decided to give it another shot.  ....

.. ..

After rehearsal Genji picked up Cuz’n Steve at the airport and took him back to stay at Genji’s dad’s house.  Boody and I grabbed a couple of sandwiches (....Togos...., not Subway, so I’m not counting) and headed back to his house for a couple hours.  You know what sucks?  When you are getting ready for a show, and you accidentally cut off one of your sideburns while you are shaving.  It really sucks, cause, I was kinda liking my sideburns lately, and now, at least for the rest of this tour, I don’t.  And that sucks.  Just thought I’d share.   ....

.. ..

At about 6, we headed back to pick up Cuz’n Steve.  The Kid and Genj were headed down to Hermosa early to meet up with some friends, so Boody and I were picking up Cuz’n Steve and our newest addition to the madness, Dave Joseph on trombone.  Dave played our big HOB show last month and will be joining us for most of our local shows now.  A couple of things about Dave.  He is a music major at USC.  And since we have pretty good luck with music majors from USC, we thought we’d give him a shot.  He wont be joining us on tour though because he has to go to class.  What kind of crap is that?  Boy needs to rethink his priorities I guess.  I mean, I’ve got a couple of degrees and I don’t even remember going to class.  He needs to spend more time with The Kid, maybe he’ll rub off on him.  ....

.. ..

We picked up Steve, gave him the requisite amount of shit for packing more equipment than London Philharmonic on tour, and headed out to pick up Dave.  We pull up to USC and there’s Dave waiting on a street corner with his one and only horn.  Punctual, packs light, doesn’t say much – could Dave be the ultimate horn player?  We convinced him that he needed to check and make sure that he had his mouthpiece before we left.  This comes from the last rehearsal we had with him when I picked him up at USC, drove all the way back to Culver City for rehearsal and then realized that he had his horn but no mouthpiece.  It reminds of how I used be able to get Sarah to second guess whether she had locked the back door of the house before leaving through the garage.  You plant that little seed of doubt and then watch who second guesses themselves.  For example, let’s say you are reading this while you are at work, as you sit there reading this, are really sure that you locked your car?  Are you positive, that you locked the front door?  Or do you assume that you did out of habit, and what if you’re wrong?  Let me know if that worked.  ....

.. ..

We got down to Hermosa at about 8.  There was supposed to be a drum kit waiting for Boody when we got there, but there was not.  A couple of phone calls to the band playing after us, and we found out that it would be there at about 8:30 so we decided to go next door for some dinner.  There is a little pizza place next door to The Shore that we usually end up at for dinner on these nights. ....

.. ..

The opening act for the night was a solo acoustic guy called Justin Figueroa.  You could tell he was heavily influenced by Stevie Wonder even though he played guitar.  And, vocally he was definitely up to the task.  This guy had an amazing range and his control was great.  I recommend you check him out.     http://www.myspace.com/justinfigueroamusicsite  Especially the tune called The Addiction Song.  ....

So we took the stage at about 10pm.  And the place was packed.  I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, I am constantly amazed at how many people turn out for a Wednesday night show down here.  It is awesome.  ....

.. ..

Since we were pretty sure there would be a fair number of people at this show who saw us at The House of Blues last month, we decided to change our opening.  We opened the show with a new introduction that goes into 77.  It was a pretty standard Fourwayfree set for the rest of the night, including Done, Introductions, Come Over, Deeper, So Blue, and Higher Ground.  The crowd asked for an encore so we played Bottom Drops Out.  It was a great show, with a great energy, and was just what we needed to get the tour kicked off right.  ....

.. ..We finished up in about an hour, loaded up the gear in the van, and headed back to ....L.A.....  The next day we would start the actual traveling part of the tour.  Onto ....San Diego.....

Four Way Free

Spring 2009

Hermosa Beach * San Diego * Las Vegas * Flagstaff * Taos * Dallas * Lafayette * Tempe

Introduction: Back On The Road....

So far so good.  It’s T-minus one day till the official tour kickoff, and I’m already blogging.  ....

.. ..

Welcome back y’all!!!!  So over here at Fourwayfree we’d like to welcome those of you back who have been on tour with us before, and let  any newcomers know that we’re glad you’ve joined us.  A little about this tour to start off.  We will only be covering about two weeks on this expedition across the country, but it’s pretty jam packed.  Then when we get back, we will be playing several dates around the Bay Area at the end of May and June.  It’s been about a month since our last show, which was at the House of Blues in ....Hollywood.....  Special thanks to all of you who made it out to that show, especially our good friends Mallory and Conan who made the trek from Lafayette Louisiana just to see us play in a big Hollywood club.  We’ll be seeing them again on the turnaround for this tour.  ....

.. ..

That was a hell of a night for us, and we hope to be back there sometime this summer.  Since then we’ve been relaxing and getting geared up for this trip. ....

.. ..

As I write this, myself and Cam are headed to ....L.A..... with Trailer Hicks full of stuff.  We are getting a ride from one of our biggest fans, my dad; in his really nice motor home.  This also means that this is about as comfortable as I’m gonna get on this tour being in a vehicle.  Oh well.  I’ve also got my chief roadie on the road to ....L.A..... with me, Jake.  Unfortunately, he can’t go on the whole tour with us – something about having a social studies test next week.  Bummer.....

.. ..

We got a little bit of a later start than I thought, because we had to wait for Cuz’n Steve to bring us his stuff from ....San Jose.....  Cuz’n Steve will be going along on the tour at least until the ....Dallas.... stop.  Although from all the stuff he put in the trailer, I actually think he is secretly moving to ....Texas.... and is using the band as a cover, and so he wouldn’t have to hire movers.  I’ll let you know what happens when we get there.   ....

.. ..

So for this tour, in case you never bother to read the really nice headings I labor over for this thing, let me set up where we are going.  First, it’s back to one of our traditional tour kickoff spots, The Shore in ....Hermosa Beach.....  I think we’ve probably kicked off at least three tours there on a Wednesday night and we expecting a great crowd as usual.  Thanks to Oren at Listen Entertainment.  ....

.. ..

Thursday we head down to ..San Diego.. to meet up with some old friends of ours at Glorified Records where we will be playing the hottest, newest music venue in ....San Diego...., The Marquee.  Unfortunately, our time in ....San Diego.... will be short lived.  We have to leave the show in S.D. that night and drive straight to ....Las Vegas.... so we can make out 8:30am soundcheck at the Monte Carlo Brew Pub.  Somebody there has a really lousy sense of humor.  But, Friday night in Vegas, will probably be really boring and uneventful I’m sure.  (For those of you new to the blog, yes, that was sarcasm.)....

.. ..

Next we will head off for a Saturday night show in ..Flagstaff.. near the ..Northern.. ..Arizona.. ..University.., and Sunday we finish the first leg of the tour in ....Taos.. ..New Mexico...., back at the Taos Inn. ....

.. ..

And our reward for five straight shows will be the privilege of day off to drive across the panhandle part of ..Texas.. and ..Oklahoma.. to get to ....Dallas.... for a show on Tuesday.  It’s sort of like a mini-preview of the drive we have back across the big part of ....Texas.... on the way back.  Just as boring, but not quite as long. ....

.. ..

Our furthest (farthest? Somebody look that up) will be ....Lafayette.. ..Louisiana.... where we are playing two nights for the Ragin Cajuns.  One night at Shakers and another at the first annual McKinley Street Music Festival.  Right now we are going to hit ....Tempe.. ..Arizona.... on the way back, but we might fill in a couple of shows on the way back as well.....

.. ..

You can expect what you have come to expect from the blogs, a detailed account of our daily travels, nightly adventures, and shows.  Plus, an update on the Fourwayfree Poker Tour, and I’ll probably have a couple Subway sandwiches (in case you were wondering or even care) (That was for you Pegggy).  ....

.. ..So sit tight, I’ll be back with more soon. 

This blog was originally posted from our Spring 2006 tour.  It was our second, and probably most fun night we ever spent in Nashville.  Sorry but I think the picture links are not working.  And sorry for the extra periods and stuff.  If anyone knows how to fix the formatting stuff on these blogs quickly, send me and email.  It didnt used to do this.  Thanks.  

Four Way Free

Spring tour 2006

Los Angeles * San Diego * Phoenix * Albuquerque *Nashville * Memphis * Atlanta * Columbus * Gainesville *Richmond * Greenville* New York * Boston *Providence* Washington D.C. * Philadelphia *Pittsburgh * Columbus * Bowling Green * Indianapolis * Chicago * Milwaukee * Salt Lake City* Las Vegas

DAY 7: MARCH 17, 2006 – ....NASHVILLE...., TN – GIBSON'S SHOWCASE....

.. ..

Remember when you were kid, and maybe you had that annoying little brother or sister who would come into your room when you were trying to sleep.  Or maybe you shared a room with your sibling and while you were trying to go to sleep they would repeatedly turn the light on and off just to see if they could get a reaction out of you?  Any of you out there who are parents, you probably have this similar situation with your young children who like to wake you up a 6:00 on Saturday morning, or every morning, no matter what time they went to bed?  You know what I'm talking about.  Well the annoying little brother in this band is Peter.  The last two mornings he has woken me up too early and not very politely either.  I'm cutting him a little slack cause he has no idea what he is messing with, but me getting woken up too early, is like playing with dynamite.  And he's always so happy in the morning.  He'll tell you some crap about keeping us on schedule, but don't believe it, he's just being that annoying little sibling.  I think I'll plant a bomb in his cello.  ....

.. ..

So as you may tell from the preceding paragraph, sleep was at a premium last night.  Boody and I are reevaluating the "it will be more comfortable in the van" idea.  I feel like I had my back turned into a pretzel last night.  So Peter got us up at around 10.  And to his credit, begrudgingly, we had to leave by noon and although I thought it was  little early to get up, we left right about noon.  We headed east again on I-40 towards ..Memphis.. and then on to ....Nashville.... for tonight's show.  I think we are all pretty excited about ....Nashville.... because last time it was really one of the main highlights of the tour.  ....

.. ..

Peter drove for about 2 ½ hours and got us just past ....Memphis.....  ....Memphis.... looks like a really cool city.  It's right on a river and has weird looking pyramid at the edge of downtown.  Not sure what it is yet, but we are playing there on Sunday so we will find out soon enough.  We stopped at a truck stop to gas up and then we were back on the road.  ....

.. ..

A little word here about weaponry and gas stations in the southwest and south.  Is it just me or is the cache of weapons available at the local Circle K getting more and more lethal as we move further south and east?  I first noticed some really nice buck knives and stuff when we stopped in ....Texas.....  Nothing too big, they'd be used for hunting I guess or for just your general things like opening packages.  Then we get into ....Oklahoma.....  Truck stop there had freaking ninja stars and some Klingon Battle Machete.  We just left one in ....Tennessee...., there was dagger/brass knuckles combo there.  You know for all your rumble needs.  You can buy this stuff over the counter.  I guess it's not that big of a deal,  but it just seems odd.  "Yeah, I'll take a coffee, bottle of water, pack of gum, and uh, hmm lets see, anything else, oh yeah, give me a couple of those Civil War Confederate Army Sabres, and $10 on pump number 12."  Speaking of the Confederate Army and the south, can someone explain to me why the south seems to have this underlying obsession with rising again?  Rising from what?  The Civil War has been over for about 140 years.  You lost either get over it or rise already you lazy bastards lets get this over with.  Actually, I think I see their strategy, and it's quite ingenious.  They are engaged in a psychological warfare with the rest of the country whereby they will convince us all that things like secession for the ..Union.. and slavery are the way to go by infiltrating our minds through the use of bumper stickers.  Like the one I saw at the gas station a little while ago that said "Save Yo Confederate Money Boys.  The South Gonna Rise Again."  Not if they don't improve their grammar skills I can tell you that.....

.. ..

Right now we are about 100 miles west of ....Nashville.....  Will (not Cyrus) is driving.  While I have at this point brought this up to date, lets take a moment to talk about something I like to call:....

.. ..

Fun With Trailers  ....

On the last tour we had a 15 passenger van.  You may remember that we once put about two miles on the thing trying to get it lined up into a tight parking space in ....Cincinnati.....  Well imagine that fun with a trailer attached to the back.  Most of the guys here have never really driven with a trailer before, so it has made for some interesting maneuvering around the cities we have seen so far.  And backing up, what a gas!!!  Turn left when you want to go right, right for left, directions for 4 guys at once, none of who know what they are doing.  Gotta love it.  This morning, we unhooked the trailer so Boody could take Katherine McPhee in for some servicing.  And not too surprising, it didn't take Boody very long.  Anyways, when we unhooked the trailer, it was on a hill.  So we had to make sure it was stable enough not to run down the hill on its own.  Peter put a rock under the wheel so it wouldn't roll, and all I could think about was that CW McCall song "....Black Bear Road...." or was it "....Wolf.. ..Creek.. ..Pass....".  Doesn't matter, most of you will have no idea who I am talking about.  But, my dad will so I will continue.  CW McCall is the guy who in the 70s did the song "Convoy".  Well in this other song he talks about a family stopping for some lunch on the side of the road, and when they do the dad tells the son, R.J., to stick a rock under the wheel so their U-Drive Em Army Jeep Car would roll off the road and over a cliff.  And sure enough the son puts a rock under the wheel that is not big enough.  And the entire U-Drive Em Army Jeep Car goes flying over the edge of the cliff.  Well that was this morning with the trailer.  Only in this case, R.J. was Peter, and fortunately, the rock was big enough.  We have to maneuver this rig through NYC, D.C., ..Boston.., and ....Chicago.... still, so we will have more of our Fun With Trailers portion of the show later I am sure.  By the way, the guys want to rename the trailer, Trailer Hicks, after Taylor Hicks of American Idol fame.  I still like Mandisa, but I guess I am outvoted.  Now back to the show.....

.. ..

So we got into Nashville at about 5:30pm.  We were supposed to be at the venue  by 6 so we were in plenty of time.  We were playing at the Gibson Showcase.  Now, none of us really knew what this place would be like.  We had heard that it was a performance hall of some kind and that it was attached to a Gibson guitar store, but that was all we knew.  So we get there and apparently the place is attached to this huge shopping mall.  Opry Mills it was called.  There is an Arizona Mills in Tempe where I used to live so I recognized the resemblance when we arrived.  This place was located across the street from the Grand Ole Opry itself.  Here is what the place looked like from the outside:   

Apparently, we were not important enough to put our names on the marquee.  Oh well.  So at first we go inside the store part and what I found was this:          In short I had died and gone to guitar heaven.  So I wandered around and drooled in the store for a while.  It was huge.  They even had a mini Gibson factory in the store where you could see the guitars and mandolins being made.  I figured even if the venue sucked this would still be a great place to hang out before the show.  Then I saw the venue:    Uh yeah, it rocked.  Boody really outdid himself on this one.  This place was huge.  It was twice the size of the Pittsburgh Hard Rock, which to this point was probably the biggest venue we had played on tour.  So we talked with the sound guy, found out we were playing first, so we set up our stuff.  Backstage was pretty cool, the walls had been signed by all the acts who had played there before.  So there we were in this huge venue, so now all we had to do was hope some people came to see the show.  Our sound guy was pretty cool, Curtis.  Curtis apparently does a lot of the sound work for the Nashville Star show on CMT.  He also used to play in Rush tribute band, which probably impressed no one except me and Boody. 

So we started on our sound check, and about half way through I noticed at small group of people congregating around the door of this place.  They were watching us perform.  The next time I looked over there were about twice as many.  And the next time the group had grown to close to 15.  When we got done with the sound check, which consisted of playing parts of So Blue, and Steal Your Shoes, this crowd, which had grown again by now, all applauded and cheered for us enthusiastically.  We called them over to the stage.  It turns out this entire group were a bunch of high school students who were in ....Nashville.... competing in a national choir competition.  We started talking with some of them, and actually sold a couple of cds before the show.  One of the guys, named Matt, from Birmingham Alabama, told me that he had been at the opposite side of the mall when his phone rang and it was his buddy who tells him "you better get yer ass down to Gibson's cause there is this sick band playing that you've got to hear!"  He said they came running and caught the end of our sound check.  A couple of the guys in the group told us that they were going to leave to go get the rest of their group and bring them back for the show.  ....

.. ..

So we hung out in Gibson's and grabbed some dinner before the show started.  Some of the kids came back early so they hung out with the band before we got started. 

....

At about 8:00 or so, the doors of the place opened and these kids just kept filing in.  It was awesome.  And lucky somewhat cause if those kids hadn't heard us sound checking who knows what would have happened.  So we started the show shortly after 8.  And it was pretty clear from the start that this was going to be something special.  The stage is huge, the sound was fantastic, and the crowd from the start was amazing.  We opened with So Blue, went straight into Higher Ground.  They really started hollering when we did our acapella portion of Higher Ground.  I guess the choir kids really dug it.  I forget the order exactly but I know we played Gasoline, Before You Go, and the Britney/Justin medley.  But the two clear highlights of the show had to be Steal Your Shoes and Bottom Drops Out.  During Steal Your Shoes all these kids were sitting in front of the stage swaying back and forth, and at one point, I think because they were prodded by Will, began holding up their illuminated cell phones like they were cigarette lighters.  It was really inspiring.  Then during Bottom Drops Out, the finale of the show, all of them were right up on the stage dancing and bouncing in the air in time with the beat.  It was amazing, and an indescribable amount of fun.  The band played great, the show was probably the best of the tour, and certainly the best audience so far.  After the show, Boody and I took care of getting our stuff off the stage and the rest of the guys headed over to the merch table to sell some cds and commiserate with our new fans.  We sold somewhere around 21 cds and we signed most of them.  As I was finishing up moving our stuff, this one girl came up on stage and taps me on the shoulder, and in her perfect southern belle drawl says "I just got to get a huuug.  Y'all were so greaaat.  That was so beautiful I had tears streaming down my faaaaace."  Pretty cool. 

Many of the kids hung out for a while after the show, but they had to catch their bus to get back to their hotel.  It was awesome.  We had several requests that we come play in Birmingham, one woman from Cedar Rapids, or Sioux City, Iowa, who wants us to come play at some concert hall there, and numerous requests to play our new fans' Senior Proms.  Gotta start somewhere I guess. 

So many of you may remember from our last trip to Nashville that we were looked after by a Myspace friend of the band that I dubbed St. Meredith.  About two or three songs into our set at Gibson's Meredith showed up.  It was like seeing an old friend after a very long absence, where you just pick up where you left off, as if you were never gone.  So great to see her.  She hung out with us after the show as we packed up the trailer.  Now, we were told before we got to Nashville that Meredith had gotten us a hotel room at the hotel where she is a manager.  And, of course, she got it all comped.  But, it turns out that another friend of ours from the last trip, Jackie Wilson, lives in this really nice apartment complex just east of Nashville.  The girls thought that the band would be more comfortable if we had more room, so Jackie set us up in a guest apartment that she has access to at her apartment complex.  This place is a two bedroom apartment, complete with a washer and dryer, and fully furnished.  And it is ours for the entire time we stay in Nashville!  These people are so generous. 

So we made the short ride over to the apartment and unloaded our luggage.  Now, the last time in Nashville after the show was nothing short of amazing.  Seeing the great musicians in the various bars downtown was the experience of a lifetime, and those of us who were there last time were anxious to do it again.  Peter (and I think Tucker) had not been to Nashville before, so they were pretty excited too I imagine.  So, we had a big night ahead of us.  First we would head over to this place called Shanti's, where our friend Jackie Wilson was singing with her band.  A word about Jackie Wilson.  This woman is one of the most talented singers we've ever seen.  Bar None.  Last time she got on stage at this place and belted out a tune and totally blew us away.  But this time, she was even better.  Now, 5 months after we first met her, she had put a band together.  At Shanti's they were crammed into this corner and Jackie was singing as she danced with people on the dance floor.  I was not in there, but Genji, who saw the whole thing, said that he saw her hit a note that would put anyone on American Idol to shame.  This girl is seriously talented like you wouldn't believe. 

So we left Shanti's and headed for downtown where we were going to see Jackie perform with her second band of the night.  Like the last time we were in ....Nashville...., the level of talent on the music scene is ridiculous.  The band at the next place was no exception.  We went to BBKings, a blues club I guess.  Oh, I forgot to mention this particular evening, it was St. Patrick's Day.  So downtown was hoping.  We go into BB Kings and stepped into a party.  The place had a bar that lined the whole left side of the place for about 50 feet or so.  There were impressionist like paintings on the walls of several music icons, Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Chuck Berry, and of course BB King.  To the right, facing the same direction as we were when we walked in was the stage with the band.  They had a drummer, bass, sax, trumpet, guitar, keyboards, and singer, Jackie.  The sax player was something else.  She looked like a soccer mom, but played sax like she was Maceo Parker.  The keyboard player, phenomenal.  He played a real Hammond B3 complete with the full Leslie.  But the guitar player was what amazed me.  Vastai Jackson.  An old black man, probably in his 60s, who played as good as any guitar hero you could imagine.  He was a little Stevie Ray, a little BB King, a little Van Halen, but all Vastai Jackson.  This guy's timing and phrasing was unreal, and his technique was flawless.  I was jealous.  Genji and I talked that we'll see players like that and just want to quit, but on the other hand it is so inspiring.  These people do things that we are actually capable of, but would have never thought of doing.  I love this place.  ....

.. ..

So, did I mention it was St. Patrick's Day.  And as the luck of the irish would have it, we had an Irishman in our midst.  Peter McCaffrey our cello player.  The Mad Cellist.  He is apparently irish.  So you can imagine the excitement we had to go out for a night on the town with our very own Irishman.  Let me say this.  Peter is a fantastic cello player.  And, let me also say this, as an Irishman, Peter is a fantastic cello player.  Talk about your all time cheap drunks!!  We enter BB Kings and the next thing Peter knows he is being molested by a 50 year old woman, who grabs him by the tie and attempts to drag him to the dance floor.  Peter, being the smooth and suave bachelor that he is tells her "uh, I can't I'm hanging with my friends tonight!"  It was probably about his time that Peter decided the band had to do a shot.  So we all gathered around and did a tequila shot, except Boody who had to have Southern Comfort.  This started the downslide.  Peter, I think then took to Long Island Ice Teas.  Next thing you know, there's Peter on the dance floor looking getting his groove on and macking up against strange women.  And looking like this: and lets not forget this one:      Oh yeah, did I mention the woman in the picture was Jackie's mom.  I used to work with a guy in Phoenix that we used to call the whitest man in America.   Being down in the desert we used to joke that he could spontaneously combust due to the combination of the heat and his whiteness.  But after seeing Peter dance, I owe that guy an apology.  As a dancer, Peter is a great cello player.  He didn't care.  He carried on with reckless abandon it was fun to see.  I think every guy in the band got hit on or dragged out to the dance floor by various women.  I on the other hand managed to keep my streak intact.  I still haven't danced since my wedding.  (I owe my next dance to my wife anyway, yes I know how sweet, thanks). 

So after playing about 15 songs non-stop (and I mean non-stop, this band had transitions from each song to the next, so that for an hour the music does not stop) we decided to head over to Roberts Western World to watch Brazil Billy perform some real country music.  Peter chugged his remaining ..Long Island.. and stumbled his way there with the rest of us.  Will, uh excuse me, I mean Cyrus, had his fair share of adult beverages himself.  In fact, in one of the funniest things to happen so far, as we were headed to Roberts, all of a sudden Will stops in the middle of the sidewalk and says "wait a minute we are missing someone, cause I only count 5."  He then corrected himself and revised his assessment of the situation after realizing that he only counted 5 band members because he forgot to count himself!  Hilarious. 

So we get to Roberts Western World, and truth be told I was initially bummed out because Brazil Billy didn't have the same guitar player as they had back in November.  But they were still playing the same music as last time.  Now, Peter in his totally drunk state, couldn't understand why we had left BB Kings.  Apparently, despite being the whitest man in American, had no appreciation for country music.  But, that didn't stop him for long.  Oh no.  As the band started into its next Marty Robbins, or Hank Williams tune, there was Peter about 10 feet from the stage, yelling, "Yeah, this is my jam!"  "This is my favorite song in the world!"  But it really started getting good when Peter starts yelling after every song "Cello!!! Cello!!!"  Now, I can appreciate a guy cheering on his counterpart in another band as much as the next guy.  Hell, I screamed my head off for Vastai Jackson at BBKings just a half hour before.  And this would have been fine but for one small detail.  There is no cello player in Brazil Billy.  "Cello!!! Cello!!!"  It was great.  And jam after Peter's jam, there he was "Cello!!!! Cello!!!!!"  At one point we had to catch Peter's chair for him so he didn't tip over backwards onto the floor.  This time I bought a cd of the band and a t-shirt.  In an effort to goad me into drinking more with him, Peter swiped my cd and put it in his inside jacket pocket, threatening not to give it back until I chugged the remainder of Genji's drink.  I figured it was a matter of time and I would have it back.  And sure enough, about 30 seconds later Peter was distracted by someone talking to him and I was able to lift it from his jacket without him noticing.  When I showed it to him, you would have thought I had just parted the Red Sea based on his reaction.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I decided to lift his wallet a little while later.  Ah, yes, fun with drunks. 

So, we headed out of Roberts a while later and decided we would head down to IHOP for some food.  It was about 2:00am.  It was at about this time that Peter started turning into a violent drunk.  Not really, but he did get a little out of control.  He someone how got a flower that this homeless guy was selling and proceed to slap Boody in the face with it just before he ate the thing.  Later he would manage to gouge me in the eye with a finger, and he kept telling Will that he had a secret to tell him so he could draw him near enough to slap him in the side of the head.  Of course, Will seemed more than willing to oblige. 

So we headed to IHOP where even more fun would ensue.  This was only after having to stop Peter and Genji from fulfilling what I am sure was a life long dream of urinating off an over pass onto passing traffic.  So we enter IHOP like we owned the place.  Jackie and her mom Tina were already there.  We pushed a couple tables together and had a group of about 9.  And, ok yeah we were a little loud.  We were getting a few dirty looks from this couple just down the way from us.  They looked at us like we were aliens, or from L.A.  Peter was still in rare form as he proceeded to start doing shots of Tabasco as we waited to take our order.  Finally our waitress comes over to take our order.  Her name was Ana.  And frankly this girl was a bit of a wreck and kind of a sad case.  Somehow Genji got on the subject of her life.  She tells us that her boyfriend is over there in the restaurant, but she doesn't like him all that much.  And reason being that he cheated on her, and got some woman pregnant, when she was 8 months pregnant herself with his kid!!!!  And if this girl was a day over 21 or 22 I'd be shocked.  Very sad.  And she was still with this loser.  So even though it delayed us getting our orders, Genji did his best Dr. Phil on her.  Poor girl.  Hopefully, she'll dump that scumbag and change her life.  The conversation at, what would you call this meal, was hilarious.  Many, many, adult themed conversations that are probably inappropriate to put in the blog. 

After some greasy bacon and eggs, Peter was starting to sober up, and already regretting some of the evening.  He started begging me to leave stuff our of the blog, so I promised him I would not include the stuff about the hookers or about how, if he could be anyone else in this band, he would want to be me, because he thinks I have a hot wife!!!  And point in fact, my wife is hot, so thanks Peter, I consider it a compliment.  Boy, I bet that's gonna be awkward when we see her in New York in a couple of weeks.  Ha Ha. 

We headed out of IHOP at about 4 am I think.  Got back to the apartment, and for the most part crashed.  I think some of the guys actually tried to watch a movie, but I don't think they lasted very long.  I crashed at about 4:45.  We had a day off the next day so I was looking forward to getting real sleep for the first night in a while.  It had been a hell of a day, and to this point, probably the best day on tour.  

This excerpt was originally posted at the end of our first tour in the Fall 2005.  It's sort of a summary of observations that were made.  There are probably some references that will not make total sense out of context, but it's kinda cool anyway. 

Confessions of a Guitar Player or What I Learned on The Road with Four WayFree.

Well this tour is over.  It is kind of sad in a way but I know that this group will have plenty more ahead of it.  It was an honor and a privilege to be asked to come along with this group on its first tour and I will plan as best I can to do it again.  But, alas, all good things must end (at least for a few weeks until the West Coast tour starts).  As I sit here typing I am sitting in the passenger seat of Nicole (that was the name of the van that Boody rented, the other one offered was called Paris, but she had been ridden a little too hard for us to take her cross country) and we are almost back to L.A.  Boody has graciously gotten me an airline ticket home so that I can see my family tonight.  They think I am coming home late tomorrow so they will be surprised to see me early.  You spend two weeks in a van driving across country playing music with a group of guys you learn a lot about each other and yourself.  And in this case, this country.  In no particular order I started to compile a list of things I learned and facts gathered on the trip.  I have also included some of the guys’ favorite moments from the trip.  If you have read all of my blogs they will mostly make sense, if not go back and read them. 

1.      By the time we hit ....Los Angeles.... in about an hour we will have driven about 6200 miles in thirteen days and seen 14 states.  Well we saw 13, cause you couldn’t see a damn thing through all the rain we went through in ....West Virginia...., but we were there. ....

.. ..

2.      Dry ice and sodas don’t mix....

.. ..

3.      This is an extremely large and beautiful country.  ....

.. ..

4.      The highway system in the country has to be the best in the world.  At anytime we could get from city to city on our tour on a major four-lane highway, and with a couple of limited exceptions the roads were usually in great shape.....

.. ..

5.      Next to TIVO, sliced bread, and air, the I-POD is the greatest invention known to mankind. ....

.. ..

6.      Adam, Genji, and Boody have very different tastes in music if their I-PODs are any indication.....

.. ..

7.      I apparently have an interesting snore, though I have never heard it.....

.. ..

8.      Kentucky Fried Chicken really does taste better in ....Kentucky........

.. ..

9.      Southern hospitality is not a myth.  And not just confined to the South.  We met some of the nicest and most gracious people on this trip.  (St. Meredith in Nashville, Renee in Louisville, Courtney, Jess, and Brandon in Akron, Patrick – manager of the Hard Rock Pittsburgh, Chris in Fort Wayne) who came to see the shows and as a thanks gave us a place to sleep (so we didn’t have to spend money on a hotel) or offered us a place to shower.  It restored some of my faith in the general principle that most people are good and will do the right thing despite what you see on the news everyday.  And hopefully we restored some of their faith in people as well by not taking advantage of our hosts and generally showing appreciation for their generosity. ....

.. ..

10.  Peter stares straight at you when he is trying to bluff you in cards.  There Peter I told you.  But you still owe me $5.  ....

.. ..

11.  ....Cincinnati.... is the coldest place on earth in November.....

.. ..

12.  Most girls are smart enough not to get into a van with 5 strangers.....

.. ..

13.  My daughter will never be allowed to be around a travelling band until she is in her 30’s. ....

.. ..

14.  Saw II has now been degraded to a 3 out of 10 and officially sucked as a movie.....

.. ..

15.  Boody likes to shower a lot.....

.. ..

16.  Chicks dig cello players.....

.. ..

17.  ....Texas.... is flat.....

.. ..

18.  ..Ohio.., ..Kentucky.., and ....Tennessee.... had the best scenery on the trip.  Lots of colors.....

.. ..

19.  ....Oklahoma.... gas is cheap….because its toll roads are not.....

.. ..

20.  ....West Virginia.... is dark.  ....

.. ..

21.  People of all musical tastes tend to appreciate a really talented band even if they don’t usually listen to that kind of music.....

.. ..

22.  ..Los Angeles.. and ....California.... are a Fantasyland to a lot of the rest of the country.....

.. ..

23.  I like Love’s Travel Stops over almost all others.  Mainly because they have a Subway in most of them.  ....

.. ..

24.  ....New Mexico.... is the second coldest place on the planet in November.....

.. ..

25.  Wireless internet rules.....

.. ..

26.  The shortest distance between two points maybe a straight line, but that doesn’t mean that your bandmates will agree with you at 4am on which way to go. ....

.. ..

27.  Never give Genji quarters and a jukebox in a Waffle House.....

.. ..

28.  There are plenty of sound guys outside of ....L.A..... who know what they are doing.....

.. ..

29.  There is one sound guy in ....Cincinnati.... who never will.....

.. ..

30.  Flip cup is a fun game.  I’m thinking of teaching my kids how to play.....

.. ..

31.  ..Nashville.. truly is the ....Music.. ..City.....  Everyone should spend a night there. ....

.. ..

32.  Peter needs kitchen utensils, send help quickly.....

.. ..

33.  Only in ....America.... can you find a Jesus Will Save You billboard next to a billboard ad for an adult video shop.  ....

.. ..

34.  It’s easy to forget what day it is when your show doesn’t start until ten and you routinely up until 4 am.  ....

.. ..

35.  Adam has cool tatoos, an eclectic taste in music, likes taking time for himself and knits.  ....

.. ..

36.  ....White.. ..Castle.... will have to wait for the next trip back east. ....

.. ..

37.  Fireworks are sold year round in the south – with beer and gasoline. ....

.. ..

38.  City’s with rivers are cool looking.  (..Louisville.., ..Cincinnati.., and ....Pittsburgh.... especially.) ....

.. ..

39.  No one goes out between the hours of 7-9 on Monday nights in ....Akron.. ..OH.....  ....

.. ..

40.  There is no traffic like that in ..Southern California.......

.. ..

41.  Four Way Free – at least the cello player and bassist – are not very good at Madden football on playstation.....

.. ..

42.  There is no bet that Boody won’t call if he is “feeling it.”....

.. ..

43.  In ....Tennessee.... it is against the law for more than 6 girls to live in the same house on a college campus.  Thus, making it hard to find a sorority house when you are looking to promote a show in ....Nashville.........

.. ..

44.  Houses in ....Louisville.... kick ass and are cheap.....

.. ..

45.  Adam likes to go bird hunting with Ford vans. ....

.. ..

46.  Peter thinks Boody likes tossed salad.....

.. ..

47.  MySpace is a great tool for touring bands.....

.. ..

48.  Boody and Genji argue over stupid shit.....

.. ..

49.  Apparently, cleaning a house for 12 hours does not include the bathroom.  At least not at creepy farmhouses in Kent Ohio.....

.. ..

50.  NoDoze has nothing on sunflower seeds to keep you awake but they will give you salt burns after a while.....

.. ..

51.  Neo acoustic music has never been done before. ....

.. ..

52.  A good band can still pull off a great show and please a crowd even though they can’t hear themselves play.  Especially in heavy metal laundromats/bars in ....Cincinnati.........

.. ..

53.  In addition to being a hell of a front man, Genji is a hell of a space planner.  ....

.. ..

54.  I rival any Japanese tourist with a camera....

.. ..

55.  Mixing English toffee and hot chocolate from a truck stop cappuccino machine makes a decent Starbucks substitute.  ....

.. ..

56.  People smoke – everywhere.  ....

.. ..

57.  If I checked, you better beware. ....

.. ..

58.  Peter has a thing for sandwiches.....

.. ..

59.  There is no place and no time, that most of this band will not play poker.  ....

.. ..

60.  Genji is a dangerous card player with the chip lead.  Boody is just plain dangerous. ....

.. ..

61.  Peter is the best cello player I have ever played with.  He is the only one too, but that makes him no less amazing as a musician. ....

.. ..

62.  Wearing the same clothes for more than 24 hours kind of sucks. ....

.. ..

63.  I tend to over pack.....

.. ..

64.  I can pass for 27, sweet!....

.. ..

65.  Either, Adam and Genji are allergic to cats or like sleeping together. ....

.. ..

66.  You can get ....Corona.... beer even where the beer of choice is Pabst Blue Ribbon.....

.. ..

67.  Bartenders in Kentucky and Ohio do not cheat you on the Jack Daniels. 

68.  Christmas comes early in Cincinnati.

69.  Roberts Western World is the coolest bar I’ve seen in maybe forever.

70.  We were very lucky with weather on this trip.  We only hit rain one night coming back from Pittsburgh to Louisville and a little bit in Missouri on the way home. 

71.  On this tour there were: No illnesses, no injuries, no broken strings, no damaged equipment, no damaged vehicles, no run-ins with the law, no hangovers, and no bad shows.

72.  Drivers outside of California are very courtesy.  But they are still stupid in Arizona.

73.  With cellphones and wireless internet, the world has truly shrunk

74.  Loading and unloading equipment still sucks even when you are on tour. 

75.  Traveling the country playing music from town to town is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life.  

As I finish typing this I am sitting waiting to board a plane back to home to see my family for the first time in two weeks.  I am grateful for the opportunity to play with this band, and I look forward to the next time.  If there is justice or good karma or a god, or however you want to put it, there will come a day not too far off in the future when this band will be on tour, stay in nice hotels, eat the finest food, ride the nicest tour bus, get to sleep between gigs, have the biggest crowds, and play the best venues.  And at that time, it will not have happened to a nicer or more deserving group of guys.  And you might think that only then will you have made it.  And you would be wrong.  This tour was small, but it was a great accomplishment, especially to be done on your own as a band, and as long as you continue to play like as was done on this tour, you have already made it.  (But, it would still be nice to have some else haul the equipment).  Rock on FourWayFree.

P.S.   About a ½ hour ago I was sitting in a food court type area in LAX trying to eat what would pass for dinner as I waited to board my flight.  As there were no available seats in the immediate food court area I decided to take a vacant seat in an area closer to the bar.  As I sat there eating and contemplating the trip I had just taken, especially the nice people we had met, the comfort of my thoughts was shattered by the rude interruption of a waitress.  “Do you want something to drink?!?!  “No thanks, I’m fine for now”, I said.  She sneers at me and says “Well you can’t sit here unless you order a drink.  So what do you want?”  What I wanted was to teach her some manners.  I mean I was literally inches away from the designated food court area, she had to be kidding.  All I wanted to was to relax before my flight and eat my dinner and I found myself caught up in some airport eatery turf war.  “Ok” I said  “I guess I’ll have a light beer.”  It was one of those micro-brewery bars so I just ordered from the first tap I saw.  Hell, I didn’t even want a damn beer, as everyone knows that you don’t mix beer and hard liquor, and this would certainly interfere with the large quantity of Jack Daniels I was going to suck down as soon as we lifted off.  Then she brings over the beer, a 14oz beer, and I get charged $6.50!!!  So basically I was extorted into buying a beer I didn’t want from a crabby waitress who knew as much about customer service as, well, Sam the Sushi Nazi in Nashville.  At least Sam smiled.  (It should be noted that had this happened in Nashville, she would have offered me a better seat in the bar, bought me a 28oz beer, apologized for my delayed over which she had no control, and offered me a place to stay for the night).  I took one sip and was revolted, so I finished my dinner and headed to my gate.  Getting treated like crap and paying too much for something I really didn’t want in the first place – damn I missed California.  Welcome home boys.  Welcome home. 

P.S.P.S – I left the rude waitress a really nice tip – all 14 ounces of it.