Day 29

Driving along the Mexican Border to San Diego was pretty interesting, if not a little erie. Border patrol checkpoints everywhere, helicopters circling the skies, stray dogs on the freeway, and our cell phones actually switched over to the Mexican network at one point. We came pretty close to running out of gas twice. When we were nearly out of gas, the seemingly only gas station for miles was actually sold out.

San Diego would have been a good show, but the sound was horrible. Well, everyone in the crowd tried to tell us that it sounded fine to them, but it definitely sounded bad through the monitors.

 

Day 30

It was nice to have a day off with no where to drive and nothing to do. TravisT saw some of the beach and Courage saw a lot of the back of his eyelids. Pretty good authentic Mexican food in SD.


 

Day 31

San Fran was about as good of a show as we could have expected for a Monday night. Nothing too terribly noteworthy happened, but we had a good time. In contrast to San Diego, the sound was excellent.


 

Day 31

We had another day off and spent a little bit of time hanging out in SF. Did some touristy shit... Golden Gate, Haight and Ashbury, etc. Who doesn't love the Bay?





Day 32

Santa Rosa was a little unorganized and we ended up being the only performers. T fell into the DJ role to fill the rest of the time. People enjoyed the show and we got to kick it with some cool folks for a while.



 

Day 33

Mt Shasta was a good time as always and we rocked it with Eleven (myspace.com/akaeleven) out of Boise and Brookside Bodega (myspace.com/brooksidebodega) representin for Shasta.

 

Day 34

The homecoming to Ashland was great. The place was packed to capacity and we could really feel the energy. It's always good to be back home with friends and fam.

Day 35

The paper had us listed as playing 2 different venues, and I get the feeling there wasn't a whole of promotion for this show. We did have some people who managed to find the correct venue and come out to see us. We were happy to take the early time slot, do our thing, and then head back home to Portland.

Day 36

Sleeping comfortably in own beds.

Day 24

We stayed at the legendary Buffalo Head's (unauthorized pop up and scratch n sniff biography coming soon) home near Houston, TX and were immediately attacked by hords of killer mosquitos and all sorts of other nasty bugs that they don't have on the west coast. Travis held his own at beer pong, even with the Texas rules.

Day 25

We were supposed to have a show in El Paso, but the day before we got a call from someone who heard the venue shut down. I called the promoter and sure enough, they were under investigation from the IRS and had their assets seized. I guess under all the stress, they failed to notify us. I'm just glad we found out about it before we drove nearly 12 hours to get there.

Day 26

We were pretty excited to return to Albuquerque since this was a great stop last tour. They have been running one of the best weekly hip hop nights in the country at Burt's Tiki Lounge every Wednesday for about 5 years. The place gets pretty full, people get into it, DJs, MCs, and Bboys all do their thing. Unfortunately by the time we went on it was getting pretty late. After one song, they turned on the house lights and a lot of people started filing out. We only got to perform a few tracks before being cut. These things happen, but it was still shitty.

Day 27

Last March we flew out to Silver City, NM to perform at a festival and got a really good reception, so this was another place we were anticipating returning to. We rocked it for a great crowd and had the whole front row singing along with us. Big ups to local act Divine Essence who also rocked it. These young cats have a lot of talent and promise. Courage lived the touring mucisians nightmare when he mistakenly called Silver City Las Cruces. People kind of laughed it off and it ended up not being the end of the world. Also, the computer playing our music shut down mid set. We almost passed it off because we just continued acapella as if it was meant to happen, but we were promptly busted when the windows shut down sound was heard through the sound system. We quickly got things moving again and finished strong.

 

Day 28

Las Cruces was one of those rare occasions where everything seemed to go right. There was a good sized crowd that showed up on time, and stayed for the whole show, and all the artists gave great performances. The show was followed by a near epic cypher/battle in the parking lot. A lot of harsh lines were exchanged, but handshakes and props were giving as soon as it was over.


 

Day Eighteen
Brooklyn!  Shit was off the hook.  After our first song the crowd just erupted in applause.  So much love that we were a little blown away.  What an honor being deeply appreciated so far away from home.  And in the Big Apple no less.  For everyone who missed the live webcam feed, our set was recorded and archived for your viewing pleasure at www.justin.tv.gbmcam/old.  Goodbye Blue Monday... we'll be back on our next tour for certain.


 


  

Day Twenty
Pawtuckett, Rhode Island went something like this:  A nine hour drive turned to twelve due to traffic and torrential downpour.  Then once we arrived at the venue we were told that we wouldn't get the time slot we were offered on the phone earlier that day, that instead we would play at 12:30.  Next we were lectured by the soundman about having to pay our dues before expecting to get the respect of a decent time slot.  And then we played for five people.  So that was pretty sweet, gotta love the hospitality.  Especially when folks already know you're coming from 3,000 miles away.  

 



Day Twenty-Two
Our return to Charleston, West Virginia was outstanding and one of our best shows on tour so far.  To our fans WV reading this, thank you all so much for coming out and showing your support.  We had a great time and hope to make it back soon.  I've gotta say peace to our boys B-Rude and Mule of Rabble Rousers, two of the dopest artists that I know.  They may speak with a drawl, but West Virginia has got some serious talent.  



 

Day Twenty -Three
Memphis, Tennessee surpassed all our expectations tonight.  We had a great crowd and all the performances were solid.  We shared the bill with Tactics and Tunnel Clones.  We're already looking forward to playing Memphis again.  Next up, twenty-one hours of driving as we make our way back west. 


 

Day Ten
For a Monday night, Iowa City was outstanding.  Who knew?  The crowd was small but the performers were excellent.  Excellent!  I gotta give a shout out to my boys Imperfekt and Case.  These guys are holding down the midwest in a serious way.  Don't sleep. 

 



Day Eleven
Courage passed out as soon as we hit the road this afternoon and didn't wake up until we reached La Crosse, Wisconsin.   We both agree it feels like we're in a different country out here.  At the very least, I gotta say we met some really interesting people today.  Unfortunately we didn't get to hear any drunks yell at each other in heavy Wisconsin accents.  Maybe next time.  The show went off without a hitch, and now it's time for some serious driving as we make our way to the east coast...

 



Day Fourteen
Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Last night was one of the strangest shows we've ever had.  Three songs into our set, a severely drunken Baby Bam from the legendary Jungle Brothers, hops on stage and completely crashes our set.  Dude grabs the mic, starts fucking with the mixer, the whole nine.  Apparently he's a local favorite and the crowd was loving it,  so we just went along with it.  I believe only the soundman and ourselves were the only people in the bar who realized it was complete mayhem.  A crazy little party in New England.


 

Day Fifteen
Rochester, New York.  Our promoter didn't promote, didn't show up, and won't return our phone calls.  Welcome to New York!  We still had a great time but the crowd was a little more intimate than we had anticipated.  But you know the mantra:  You rock it for one, you rock it for one thousand.  The show must go on...


 

 

Day One

Greetings from Boise, ID.  Already things are shaping up to be another crazy adventure. Our first night was spent sleeping for a few hours at a KOA “campsite” located across the street from a city neighborhood, and directly next to a train track.  Awesome.  We got in around 4AM, threw the sleeping bags down, passed out and were woken up fifteen minutes later by the sound of a train roaring by, blaring it's horn, and screeching it's brakes. This continued on and off for the few short hours we were there. We opted not to pay the $35 and headed off to Montana before staff arrived in the morning. 

Day Two

When we got to our venue in Bozeman, MT, the guys had no idea who we are and said “You're not another band are you?”. Apparently there were 2 promoters double booking for the night (ours deciding not to show up) so bands kept showing up and there were not enough time slots. They still wanted us to perform, but our time slot options were either really early (competing with fireworks on the 4th of July), or real late. We agreed to the late slot and went to check out the most patriotic/nationalist (depending on how you look at things) fireworks display ever seen. Complete with a music accompaniment including acapella “America The Beutiful”, “Born In The USA”, and 1950s marching band songs. Bozeman really gets into the 4th. Starting at about 6pm and lasting until the morning, you could look in any direction and see people firing off mortars and hear explosions, hooting, and hollering.  We showed back up to the venue around 1AM to find a country band playing and a lot of the crowd wearing cowboy hats were enjoying it.  We felt it wasn't really in anyone's best interest for us to perform that night.  The promoter felt bad and promised to have us back at a hip hop venue.  Sorry Montana, but we will be back.

 


Day Three

The next night we spent in Jackson, WY with a few days off before the show. We spent a day rafting the snake river, and T got tossed out of the raft. He survived, but his paddle did not. There is a A LOT of money in Jackson and we ended up staying at a MTV Cribs style $7 million house in the hills, complete with it's own movie theater. We also paried with Dick Cheney's plumber. Without getting into too much detail, the promoter of the show ended up in jail, and the soundman's friend ended up in the hospital an hour before the show. It was looking like the show wasn't going to happen, but we were able to move venues at the last minute (big up to DJ Mikey Thunder). So what was supposed to be a free, all ages, outdoor show at 6:00pm, was moved to a bar later that night. We tried to redirect as many people as we could, but our sincere apologies to the underage folks who did not get to see us. When it was all said and done, the show went really well. There was a few drunk girls who showed up disappointed not to find their usually Tuesday night top 40 dance music, but all in all in was a success.

 

Day Six

We made our way to Boise and arrived at around 10:00 for a show that was apparently supposed to start at 8:00 and be over at 11:00. Oops.  But in the end it all worked out, we rocked the show, and had a good night. Not sure what else to say... it's Boise, Idaho. 

 


Day Seven

Last year we played a small show at The Summit in Durango, CO and though we had a lot of fun, we would have loved a better turnout.  So we were both excited to return for round 2.  While there were a few sound hiccups at first, the show was great. It was a pretty full house and we had a lot of fun. There was a lot of drunken fighting going on both outside and inside the bar, including on stage (but not during our set). We got to chill with some cool people and escaped Durango alive. 

 


 


Day Eight

A few days prior we received a call from a promoter in Fort Collins, CO wanting to know if we wanted a last minute show. We had already planned on being there that evening, so it worked out perfect. Due to the ongoing curse of sound problems, we actually went on later than we were supposed to and ended up playing for a decent crowd.  Ft. Collins is great and we were glad to get our foot in the door.  Certainly looking forward to coming back on our next tour.