We were asked to play a party last Saturday night. We were to be the only band and we were to play for awhile. This is what happened (not in order):

Nice of You to Join Us
Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown
Brainwashed
Take me Home
Nothin’ On Me
Radio, Radio
Cowboy Song
To The Ides
Slack Motherfucker
No Hope
Cottonmouth
Different Sort Of Story
I’m So Tired
Pink Turns to Blue
Two Dollars in Silver
Wounded Eye
Another Girl, Another Planet
Walk of Life
All the Young Dudes
Victoria
Hey Tonight
One And Only
Paid Vacation
A Quick One While He’s Away
Favorite Thing
You May Be Right
Skulls
Daisy Glaze
And Your Bird Can Sing
Toys in the Attic
Broken Records
The Guts
The Good Slot
The Songs You Want to Hear
Can I see You Again?
Cities on the Plain
A Way Out There
Lights
Foreplay/Come On, Come On
Rocks Off
Born To Run

That’s 42 songs. All I’m sayin’ is that we could have gone to 60.

Home
Georgetown
Salado
Temple
Lorena
Moody/Hewitt


Crumbs in between, two places I've seen
so many times, I might call them home
just passing by, and I'll leave them behind
and wait 'til the next time I pass 'em

Crumbs in between, my ass and the seat,
the floor and my feet,
the atlas looks like it just ate
the gallons and miles
it took us to leave this state

Crumbs in between the pages I've read
crumbling bread
fell from my hands in the dark
at the time I don't care
don't think I do now
at least they don't land in my bed


Hillsboro
Alvarado
Flower Mound
Argyle
Denton
(Krum)
Sanger
Gainesville

Thackerville blues.

This part of the trip sucks. Driving all night and not even being in Texas yet. Feeling gross. Tooth socks. I'm almost back at the top of the order. The rotation for the trip is/was me, Crow, Ned, Channing. It's worked out fine except that I may have to drive the last, worst, most boring leg. Whatevs.
Now we're in Texas. (The fuck you state).
The show was not good. After playing Lawrence god knows how many times, there were the same six people there that were there the first couple of times. It was the first stop on our first tour and it hasn't really changed. Well, the stage at the Replay has been different every single time we've been there. Mers, Peter, Dana, Clint, Emily, Valerie, Giroux. Thankfully Mers was there. That made it a much better night than it would have been otherwise.
Our set list isn't worth mentioning except that we opened with And Your Bird and made up for Iowa City's total snafu. Every other song was played better somewhere else on the tour. Paid Vacation, Foreplay, and Cowboy Song were exceptions because we didn't play them anywhere else and the latter two sucked at that. After four great performances, I was let down that we went out like that.
The opening band was It's Over. They were one of the best local-bands-but-not-our-friends-previously that we've played with. The two guitar players looked uncannily like Chan and Crow did in 9th grade. It was amazing. They had good songs and they all could play well. Good stuff. Thankfully we got to Lawrence later in the day so we didn't have to sit around the bar and not drink because we had to leave after the show. Eating dinner with Mers and napping in the van helped kill some time.

It was so nice hanging out at Marie and John's house this after noon. Not having to get up and haul ass somewhere. A casual morning/afternoon with bagels, coffee, and great conversation is very valuable on the road. It was considered that Yep Roc just wants to be able to hang out with their idols and New West has missed out on being a city/scene/region defining label that actually makes a difference (i.e. Sub Pop, SST, Twin/Tone, Touch and Go, Am-Rep, shall I continue?). This was all part of a much larger conversation that began when we got to their house after our in-store appearance the previous day. The State of Music Today. The afties at their house was fun with all the hot dogs, pizza, High Life and cameraderie. After such a good show at a cool venue, I felt like staying up for some afties. We listened to an amazing compilation of 60's soul hits...it was just one hit after another back in those days. Every week there would be a brand new batch of soul and rock hits that defined a generation and set the bar higher and higher for anyone to follow. It seems as though those watermarks have been ignored and that what's occurring musically today is instantaneous, marketable, hogwash that is supported by the idea that people are gonna listen to what ever their told. Also, it only really takes about a week and a few hundered bucks to buy musical equipment, learn a few chords, write a couple of mediocre songs, record them on a computer, get a myspace page and burn some cds. Voila! Another new band that sounds like Fallout Boy...

The Off Broadway show was awesome. Two Cow Garage headlined and really brought it to the table. They had warned us about rocking to much and leaving the crowd worked over like a hooker in Paris in 1945. Well, we didn't heed that warning. We fucked our brains out like soldiers with no one left to fight. They brought it, though. And thoroughly. Their cover of "Ohio" was really good. Home state pride runs thick through their blood.
Our set was the same as the one we played at The Hideout (minus the encore) except that everything was faster. Ned's rocket fuel tempo lent a terrific energy to the set. Broken Records felt especially good at a higher clip.
As a club, Off Broadway is one of the better rooms we've played. It's a bit cavernous (read: over-reverberant) but the sound system is good, the bathrooms are clean (read: poop-friendly) and the green room was super hospitable (read: hella blowjobs). Definately want to go back there.

The in-store at Euclid was good. Those affairs are always a little shaky because we're out of our element. Ned didn't play and we didn't use microphones... Chan/acoustic, Crow/electric, me/electric bass. We played...hmmm, let's see...
P-9
Broken
Raul Vela
Rott
Join Us
One Foot

Two Cow put on a nice performance. Quaint, indeed. Intimate, yes. Awesome, possibly. Dirty, definately.

We took a wrong turn on the way to Euclid records. Though it sucked to have to backtrack a ton, we ran across one of the worst sculptures ever made. This hilarious excuse for art was a fat naked man on a short, fat horse. And the guy's head was turned a perfect 90 degrees to the left which made it even more awkward.
We took some pictures that we will share with y'all soon. The drive to St. Louis had been fun and relaxing, mainly because I didn't drive. I lounged the whole way, listening to the Melvins and resting my eyes. We get to take highway 218 all the way so we get to see some countryside, when my eyes are open, that is.
The evening before, Ft. Madison, Iowa's own Brent Garrett put us up for the night. Great guy. Went back to his house and listened to his dad's garage band, Gonn. They were around in the sixties and had a song on the Nuggets compilation. Now we're on the road for St. Louis.

No Hope
Diff Sort
A Way Out There
Brainwashed
Born To Run
Come On Come On
One and Only
Join Us
Songs
Take Me Home
Olivia
Can I?
Cities
Raul Vela
Wounded Eye
And Your Bir... nope
Rottweiler
Radio, Radio
Favorite Thing
Toys In The Attic
What It Takes

The show turned out to be better than our last gig at The Mill. Definately our best show in Iowa City. There was a guy there who married the girl he went to a gig of ours with years ago. It was at the Green Door and we had played with this band that played Weezer's first record. So we were in fuck it mode, without a set list, and with a bar not-so-full of people. Two Cow was alright. They didn't really seem to give a shit and I don't blame them. It's not like we did.
The club didn't give us free steaks this time, but the food was ok anyway. There was a lot of nothing going on before the show. We should have taken more time in Chicago cause we got to the Mill way early.

Wow, traffic in Chicago is awful. It took forever to get into town and now it's taking forever to get out. We're on the way to Iowa City. It's not a long drive, unless we never leave Chicagoland. Apparently the White Sox are playing the Cubs today. Cross-town battle. That would be a good show. I had one of the best gyros today at George's Hot Dogs on Damen. We stayed with a local named Ryan last night. He lived in a cool Cosby-lookin' neighborhood... which I guess is what is all over this town.
The show at the Hideout was a lot of fun. It was great to be back there after a few years of playing the Bottom Lounge. We headlined last but it was more of a co-headlinging bill. The set was a little like:

Deeds
Nothin'
Lights
Fakin'
Broken
Cotton
Ides
Brainwashed
Bottleglass
One
That's
Rott
Death
Songs
Cities
Can I?
Wounded
Good Slot
Join Us
Different Sort
What it Beats

Glorious Noise filmed the show last night. This hit me between sets, when we were setting up, so I needed a talk with my old friend Jameson. Everytime we've played the Hideout, the employees have been the nicest people. For folks that work in a bar the has live music, they are the least jaded and cynical that I have met. I noticed this during my talk with Jamie and my old friend Jennifer. Things were clickin' last night and I think the existence of a set list helped. It probably always helps to a certain extent.
Two Cow sounded fuckin' great. They have added a keyboard player since I last saw them and it helped fill out the sound nicely. They just keep getting better and better. They keep getting prettier, too. I believe we'll have some nice relaxing time to catch up at The Mill this evening.
The traffic was awful driving into town. However, the slow speed allowed me to get a good photo of the Bally Total Fitness headquarters.

Wisconsin is beautiful. Most of the upper Midwest is beautiful. I'm sure that fishing on one of Minnesota's thousand lakes would be great, relaxing fun. Our new friend Taylor had flown back to his native Minnesota for fishing opening and it turns out we were playing at the Turf Club in St. Paul. Taylor and his friends had been at our show in Seattle on April 21 and had so much fun they drove to Tacoma to see us the next night. So it was a nice surprise to see him at the Turf. Ol' Yeller closed the show with one of the best sets I've ever seen them play. They had a fire under their collective ass and it looked like they were all having a lot of fun. During "The Universe" Rich pulled one of the best solos I've seen, further confirming his position at the top of my list as National Independent Music Treasure. Even his bare feet couldn't keep the set from catching fire. Ryan is a great addition to Ol' Yeller, making the current line-up the best yet. He's a solid fucking drummer and fun to watch at that. During the show I felt lucky to once again be rockin' out with all of our great Minnesotan friends.
Our set was solid. There was something up with my bass amp/sound which was off putting, but whatever. It wasn't coming out of the amp as strong as it usually does and I just had to have faith that the soundguy had it going through the mains. Typical set. Dial "T"; minus Take Me Home, Olivia, Raul Vela; plus Broken Records, Fakin' It, Brainwashed (Kinks).
Sea Breeze. Tone. The Doppelganger. The Kruddler Band was kicking ass last night. It was cool to see and hear my whole rig being used by Tony. Looked pretty good. I could tell that something was up with the sound, though, because it sounded a little funky out in the crowd. Good, but differnt. Tim was whooping ass...what a great drummer night. That was the line-up of line-ups. The Cream of de la Creme.
We got into town around 5pm and drove straight to Grumpy's NE. Tony was waiting for us and Pat was firing up the grill out on their new patio. They had $2 Lone Star and Shiner. Quite a welcome mat, eh? We had some of their Bloddy Mary's too. Those were really fucking good. Steadily, local friends came over to Grumpy's and it was soon became a great get together. The weather was perfect and sausage was cooked just right. I was introduced to a new way to grill onions. Curious, are you? Cut the ends off an onion, put butter and Worchestershire Sauce on it and wrap it loosely in tin foil. It'll roast up really nicely on the grill.
The drive up to Minnesota was long and boring. We left Austin around 8:45pm and were stuck in dead-stopped traffic at 8:50pm. I wish someone had told me to stay off I-35 at ten 'til nine cause the traffic was terrible. And so we crept through North Austin and Pflugerville. 45 minutes later, we commenced to break 25 mph and were back up to speed right before the Dell exit. Louis Henna. You know, that big interchange before the Pluckers. Anyway, I-35, I-35, I-35, I-35...

Home
35W (for a second time)
Faribault
Owatonna
Albert Lea
windy as a godforsaken death tundra
Ames
Des Moines
Osceola
Decatur
Missouri
KC
Ottawa
Emporia
boring-ass Kansas Turnpike
Braman
Tonkawa
Orlando
Guthrie
OKC
Norman
Purcell
Davis
Gene Autry
Ardmore
Marietta
Gainesville
Denton
Ft. Worth
Cleburne
35W
Hillsboro
Waco
Temple
Salado
Georgetown
Home

Grand Champeen

August 2006

 

 

Part One

 

8/8/06

1am, Austin

            Leave in usual Champeen fashion at some ungodly hour.  The batting order is 1.Chan 2.Ned 3.Me 4.Crow.  That rotation took us to a town in the northwestern corner of the Texas panhandle called Dalhart.  There are two highways that pass through Dalhart.  On this day we traveled north on 87.  On our journey over a week later from Tuscon to Lawrence, we would find ourselves passing through Dalhart on the other road, but that comes later.  So we start the rotation again in Dalhart, TX at 11:15 am.  Were still in Texas after driving for 10 hours.  Suck.

It wouldnt have taken very long to get to CO except that there were work zones all over the highway and because we got the ticket, we had to go 45, you know?  Paranoia.  We were getting passed by everyone and that was embarrassing.  A couple of the travelers nearly blew gaskets yet were harnessed by the posted speed threshold.!

            A shitty 2 ½ hours ensued.  We finally got to I-25 and stopped at a _______/gas station.  The _______ idiot employees (redundancy, I know) got our orders wrong.  Then, the on-ramp to 25 was closed down so we had to follow a detour through some bullshit residential area and into downtown Trinidad, CO.  Gaskets blown.

            We finally arrived at the Larimer Lounge in Denver at 5:45pm.  Cool place.  Cold PBR never tasted so good. 

 

 

8/9/06

Denver, CO

            The opening band was quite dirgy.  Pretty cool stuff.  We went on before 10pm and things were good for 5 or 6 songs.  Right when we went into Gonna Be the Death of Me for the first time live, some gear crapped out and we had to bail on the song.  Though there were a few annoying long time, first time minutes, we ended things with Broken>Sister>Fakin. 

            Richmond Fontaine was awesomeas usual.  They drew a great crowd.  Daves sister and friends flew out from Michigan for the show!  We stayed the night in the comfy basement of some couples house that someone else knows.

            Left Denver around 10am and ate at a Waffle House in Longmont, CO.  Tasty grub.  Scattered, covered, peppered and shroomed.  Boring drive on I-25 through northeastern Colorado and I-80 through Wyoming.  Retards working at the __________ in Rock Springs, WY.  Surprise!  Salt Lake City tonight.  Not psyched.

 

So we got to the club and found that it is an Irish pub.  In most cases this would be the kiss of death but this gig turned out to be fun.  The stage was too small to fit all of our gear so my bass amp sat in the room behind the drum kit.  I was skeptical but it was fine.  RF played yet another great set and drew a great crowd, again.  Three cheers for RF.  Our plan was to get a room somewhere on the out skirts of SLC on I-15 N or I-84 W towards Boise.  Too bad for us because there was an outdoor merchandisers convention that weekend and there wasnt one vacancy.  Around four in the morning, we decided to just sleep in the van behind the twentieth motel that rejected us.  That sucked.  I was in the passenger seat and had an experience much like that of a 62 man trying to sleep in an airplane seat. Suck.  I said fuck this when I came to at 6:45am and we promptly left for Boise.

 

8/10/06

Boise, ID

            We roll up on Boise around noon and deliver Channing to his loved ones.  It then takes me, Ned, and Michael at least an hour to find a motel room.  After an unsuccessful attempt at the beautiful University Inn, we are directed to the Safari Inn.  We are then psyched.  They let us check in at 1pm and they have a pool!  After a minute of television, I headed down to the pool for a dip and some sun.  It was an arid, sunny 95 degrees and I was in for whatever heaven Boise could offer.

            After going back to the room, the three of us sussed out some grub downtown.  Though we ate some good Mexican food on a nice curbside patio, we were subjected to some of the most stereotypical Neanderthal behavior I have ever witnessed.  Eight guys on the restaurants patio yelling at women and making the dumbest comments to each other after they passed by.  They even yelled at the Budweiser delivery guy as he rolled a few kegs across the streetHey, my cars right over here.  Man, that shit never gets old.

            Crow and I sussed out some new coffee grounds and it turns out the chick at the shop already had a ticket for our show tonight.  She was going to see the headliner, but whatever.  After picking up some rum and whiskey, Ned and I hit the pool with some cocktails and realized that we were, in fact, living the dream.  When we left for the club, we found that our motel was only a block away from our destination.  Score another for the Safari! 

            The show was fun. Songs, RF, awesome.  The show sold out (minor thanks to us) and everyone had a good night.  Somehow (oops), Bananers and Hamelstein found out we had some liquor and they stalked us back to our room.  I crashed on the bed with explicit directions for them to not bother me.  They wisely took it under advisement and I had sweet, drunk slumber.

We rehearsed for the second time in seven months!! We have a nice long set planned for our show on Friday. Thursday we're gonna rehearse again (holy shit, I know) and get our shit straight for the covers gig at Red's Scoot Inn on Saturday. Y'all watch out. Channing's gonna put a new song or two on the myspace account in the near future. As you may have seen, he removed "One and Only." Cool.