Dec 11-18, 2008 – Southwest run to SoCal, 2 shows with Mike NessThur Dec 11 – Santa Fe NM, Santa Fe Brewing Company (2 sets)11:19am, Red Roof Inn in El Paso TX. Left yesterday afternoon. Didn’t quite make it to Las Cruces NM. Cold and windy the whole way. Took 3rd shift at dusk, nice drive thru West Texas, a little windy. Snow dusted peaks of the Davis Mountains in the moonlight to our left, Jupiter and Venus bright. Saw 2-3 shooting stars.
Yesterday morning dreamt I was driving the van at night and something crossed the road. Looked to the left as we passed: was a goddam polar bear! This morning dreamt something about a house in New Orleans I owned which I’d rented out to some people who trashed it. Walked up front stairs, sign hanging on the doorknob, don’t know what it says. Open front door, walk in. No mess. Spacious front entryway, stairs ahead winding up and right, high ceiling, side room to my right and a dog I knew on a bed. Went over to say hello. Might have been a pug or the pug mix our neighbor has. Then remembered the house was haunted and I’d seen another dog in the house I knew was a ghost. Got a little freaked out by the memory and wanted to leave.
Rest of drive to Santa Fe uneventful. Desert, desert and more desert, flanked by mountains. The sawtooth Sangre de Cristos giving way to the Colorado Rockies. Pulled in to Santa Fe Brewing Company after dark. Can’t remember if it’s our 3rd or 4th time there. Seems to get smaller each time. Opening band this time, Sean Healon Band, so that’s cool (we usually play solo with no local opener). They opt to use our drums after a quick soundcheck. Nice guys. Ordered the seared ahi sandwich with a salad. Josh’s mom’s good friend Val and her daughter Julia were there, good to see them again. Stupidly didn’t think to take pics. Cool people, Val is such a character. I’d go into her background, but that is a separate blog altogether.
First set felt pretty good considering we hadn’t played tohether since last tour in November. Muscle memory is a Godsend, played great and didn’t have to think about it. Decent crowd, people dancing. Second set even better. Later at the weird adobe Holiday Inn I busted out the little bottle of Jim Beam I got from a convenience store that had what looked like barf in one of the bathroom sinks.
Fri Dec 12 – Taos NM, Shadows Lounge (2 sets)Had some dreams I should have written down. Drive from Santa Fe to Taos was a treat as always. Got turned around of course. Went to a cool liquor store called Saints and Sinners for directions (and some beer). Very distinctive architecture in New Mexico, all pueblos and adobe. Everything tan, salmon and turquoise, crazy. Awesome scenery on the drive.
Checking with the promoter there was some confusion and he had to dig up some hotel rooms and a PA, got us 2 rooms at the Paragon, so no problemo. Nice guy. Shadows Lounge was kind of small, part of a little adobe shopping center, more a restaurant than a venue. Food was good, had the salmon with a salad. All over the Weather Channel talk of a huge blizzard heading straight for us. Great. Would suck to get stuck in Flagstaff and miss the Mike Ness shows…! We discuss the possibility of canceling Flagstaff show in favor of heading south to Las Cruces then west to SoCal to avoid the snow, but that would have added 6-7 hours travel time over just going thru Flagstaff.
Some people but not much crowd. Promotor very nice guy, somehow “2 drinks each” became “Drink whatever you want all night,” heh. Somehow we’d have to play as long as we could, 3 sets (don’t have enough material for 2 90’s). Sounded pretty good but we had to keep it *down*. Wok on brushes half the night, Josh used only his Super Reverb, I used on the top 2x10’s on my bass cab. Fun sets tho, played well and the people dug it. For “Save My Soul” Josh picked up some sticks and did drum fills with Wok. To fill time Josh and I switched instruments in “Love Me Like a Man” and I pulled a decent guitar solo out of my ass. Josh let me finish the song on guitar. Good times! Quote of the night: “The people who get it, LOVE it… the problem is nobody gets it!” -- some drunk guy chatting us up. Promoter gave us dinner to take back to the hotel.
Sat Dec 13 -- Flagstaff AZ, Flagstaff’s Green Room (2 sets)One of my favorite parts of traveling is the first glimpse of scenery in the morning. On this morning at the Paragon in Taos I opened the door to a view of a bright sunny day, snowy parking lot and nearby snow-dusted peaks. Stupidly took first drive shift so no pics of the awesome drive from Taos back to Santa Fe. Did a heroic stretch past Albuquerque, past Grants even. Nice drive but windy as a mofo, tossing the White Whale around like an empty beer can. Wok took over and drove well into AZ after sundown. Waning gibbous moon rising red behind/to the right, ominous looking cloudbank approaching from the west which hadn’t gotten any closer after 90 miles. By Teal’s shift, rising elevation and it started to snow. Shit.
Found the Green Room no problemo, in a downtown I still don’t recognize despite having played Flagstaff 3 other times. Nice big stage and decent sized room. By the time we pulled into the side alley the snow was really blowing and starting to stick. Already rowdy people there, this one lady had this fucking *LAUGH*. Holy cow, what a distinctive and annoying sound. Fun for the first five minutes then you want to punch her in the face. Nice lady tho, drunkenly came up to talk (and laugh) before sound check.
Second promoter in a row to roll out the red carpet for us: 2 bedroom apartment above club, mini-fridge full of beer, bottle of Maker’s Mark, our full rider, gave us a stack of drink tickets and bought us a pizza. What a country! Easily getting used to this kind of treatment.
People getting rowdy and ignoring the blowing snow. Played pretty good sets to a pretty good crowd, for the weather. Felt a little sloppy and sore from gigs/drive/bass amp. Low/mid back feeling tweaky, will get help moving my SVT-II from now on. Crowd thinned for second set but those remaining were very enthusiastic, lotta dancing. After the show got to stash our gear in the club and stumble upstairs to the apartment. A snowball fight broke out between Josh, Wok and myself in the alley that left us gasping for air as we trudged back upstairs (altitude 7000 feet). Still blowing snow when we all went to sleep.
Sun Dec 14 – San Juan Capistrano CA, The Coach House w/ Mike Ness Van, 12:32pm. About to drive through Kingman AZ. Woke to a bright and clear day, 2-3” of snow. Glad it stopped there. The number of trucks carrying detour signs passing the venue last night had us worried. No trouble getting out of town and we were out of the snow completely after 30 minutes. Good riddance, glad the winter weather will be over. 500 miles to LA, Jesus Christ. A least we’ll be in the same general area for next 2+ days. Just have to get there first. Sandstone mesas and tumbling boulders. Word from the West Coast is a big storm coming ashore. Weather clear save for a haze in the south.
Rolled into San Juan Capistrano around sunset. The Coach House is in a weird strip mall, as if the historic venue was there first and the strip mall was built around it. Very cool place, Mike Ness onstage sound checking when we went in. Wide room, long rows of tables perpendicular to the stage and butting right up against it. Like a mead hall. Tight squeeze onstage with Mike Ness’ gear, gotta watch out for the pedal steel on my side.
Grabbed menus and headed upstairs to a weird maze of private booths and dressing rooms. Ours had a jail window on outside of door. Walls plastered with Sharpie graffiti, most gnarly punk rock fridge of all time. Food overpriced and not comped, had to make do with a chicken Caesar salad. But hosptitality chick came back and comped food, damn should have gotten something bigger. Called my LA friends Tom and Marianna, they would not be making any of our So Cal shows but still offered to have me over for post-show drinks and their futon.
Back upstairs to warm up, on in 20 minutes. Place filling up fast. Felt a little nervous, big show. We played great tho, felt really good. No room for a crowd walk during my bass solo in “Save My Soul”, damn. There was some room on the table in front of Teal, but the gangster wanna-be guys seated there would not have been amused, heh. Should have done it anyway. Almost fell into the pedal steel at one point, but caught my balance. Good set, as good a response as you can get from people in tables and chairs.
Mike Ness sounded amazing, not quite Social D, not quite country but a good mix. Josh and I chatted with Christopher (pedal steel), very nice cat. Stayed for as long as we could then jetted. Made arrangements for my friend Tom to pick me up at corner of Silverlake and Glendale, right off the 101 on the way to Teal’s friend Liz’s place. Good to see him and Marianna again, very nice of them to have me over on a Sunday night. Stayed up late drinking, talking and listening to music. Eventually we set up the futon and all turned in.
Mon Dec 15 – Norco CA, Saddle Sore Saloon Slept like a rock. Woke to Marianna getting ready for work. Chatted over coffee. Her and Tom are a great couple. She works not too far from where Liz lives in Studio City, so she was able to drop me off. Started to sprinkle by then and Marianna had to jack with the fuses to get the wipers to work. Tom and Marianna are good people. No one responded when I buzzed Liz, but was able to sneak in the side door of her condo building when someone came out. Wok and Teal were awake. Cleaned up and went walking in search of internet access, been w/o since Flagstaff.
Found a trendy little coffee shop at Coldwater and Ventura by the Baja Fresh. Hip, trendy and PACKED. Didn’t charge me for coffee since I had to wait for it, that was cool. Some weird chick that looked like a friend’s ex offered half her table so I wouldn’t have to stand and be on my laptop, that was nice. Did my internet while some girl to my left bitched about her husband, and her friend gave questionable advice. Kinda funny. Lotta beautiful women in LA (and this coffee bar) but the superficiality of them rubs me wrong. Too much image and put-on in general. Not like Austin where being an honest, straight-shooter is as important as having a solid rep as a player. Wanted to talk to the horse chick at the table just to see what kind of weird shit would come out of her mouth, but decided to make a break for Liz’s before the next rain band came in.
Finally talked to Brad Davis (Fu Manchu, Creepy Fingers Effects) re: the pedalboard I built for him and for which he was trading a Creepy Fingers Harikiri Fuzz. He would be taking it to the NAMM show to display his pedals on. Awesome! He said Fu Manchu was doing a writing session for the next album when I called. Weird how much he sounded like our old drummer Dan, same kind of expressions and phrasing. Cool to talk to him, very nice guy. Made arrangements to do the transaction tomorrow en route to our gig in San Diego.
Slept most of the way to Norco as Joaquin battled torrential rain. What a weird fucking town. Total hick horse town, but just outside LA. Old West motif, huge Wal-Mart tack store and feed/farm equipment. The Saddle Sore Saloon was in this wild west strip mall. Total cowboy bar with sawdust on the floors. A little bit of Montana in So Cal, weird. Started pissing down rain when we backed the van up to unload. Long, narrow (and small) stage. The other band, Merle Jagger, we’d played with at The Mint in LA back in January. Killer band. Guitar/singer smoked, drummer was amazing and carried the band. Josh joined them onstage for some tunes (all were difficult, fast, and he didn’t know them) but he still did fine, heh! Lotta hootin’ and hollerin’ from the few rowdy drunks that braved the weather.
Had to turn down due to crummy PA which we ran ourselves. Lukewarm response. Blah gig but fun overall due to excellent line-up of bands that night. Drove back to Liz’s in the rain. Stayed up for a glass of Maker’s Mark and slept on the comfy couch. Slept good. Early morning dream of making out with my wife. Awoke on the couch with Liz’s cat. *sigh*
Tues Dec 16 – San Diego CA, Belly Up Tavern w/Mike NessWeather clear for my morning walk down Ventura Blvd to a coffee shop. Tried to find a less trendy one, but no dice. Sat outside same trendy one from yesterday, did some people watching as I waited for a table inside to free up. More beautiful people talking about God knows what in strange accents. Made it back to Liz’s just as her and Teal headed to breakfast. Made the walk to Ralph’s but opted for Twain’s Restaurant instead. In the mood for a real breakfast instead of a badass salad.
Back at Liz’s made final arrangements with Brad Davis before heading into San Diego. Then got stuck in traffic on the 5 for a damn hour, me driving. Nice. 2 hours to get to San Diego and we haven’t left LA yet. Well shit. Tried to reroute but exit closed and traffic soon dispersed. Met up with Brad in an Irvine CA Macaroni Grill parking lot. Nice guy, chatted briefly. He definitely dug the pedalboard. Wish we could have met up, jammed and discussed wah pedal mods. Ah well.
Still made it to Belly Up on time, crazy. Mike Ness already done with sound check, so we loaded on. Much more room on this stage. Martin (Front-of-house sound/production) cool guy just like last time. His phone message ends with his cheery English accent “…and have a smashing day!” Really dig that for some reason. Same dressing room as last time. Weird to be back so soon to a place so far from home (played here last month). Ordered food and hit the Mike Ness merch booth. Got a cool poster from the San Juan Capistrano show and 2 shirts for $40! Thanks John the merch guy, you rock.
A little pre-show anxiety again, and no time for 2 pre-show beers. Took the stage to a packed house. Opened with “S.O.B.” and blew the doors off, but I also dick-fingered notes first three songs. Damn. Other than that, great show! Lotta fun, good response. For my bass solo I couldn’t jump onto the little offstage bar to my left this time, so jumped offstage and rocked out some ladies by the barricade. Nice high ceiling for an end-of-set bass toss. Great stage, great venue, great peeps running the place.
Opted not to load out right after our set, bad idea. Ah well. Got to catch Mike Ness’ full set. Before he went on Josh, Wok and I chatted with Brent (bass) and Christopher and other band/crew guys. All very nice, all dug our set. Made arrangements to have Mike Ness sign my poster after the show, sweet! Goddam the place was packed. Had to go up the stairs at stage left and go along side balcony and down some stairs to get to front of the venue/merch area. Chatted with our very good San Diego friends Tim and Karen. Watched as security escorted one couple out, then physically carried some other guy out. Crazy.
After the show went backstage and after chatting with Brent and Christopher more they said it would be totally cool go back and meet Mike. He was around the corner in their large dressing room seated at a table, holding court with some hotrod dudes. Introduced myself and shook his hand, he recognized me from The Mother Truckers and signed my poster “To Danny, great job! Mike Ness.” Hell yeah! Awesome awesome awesome. Got a quick pic with him too. Mike Ness and Brad Davis from Fu Manchu in one day, nice! Talk about a memorable day, just wish I’d played better.
Loaded out and found Tim and Karen’s place OK in nearby San Marcos. Again, seems like we were just there, heh. They were still up with their friend Carla over. Fed us beer from a cooler, ate chips and salsa (and cookies), talked/hung out/drank “sipping tequila,” then Josh got out the acoustic guitar and Tim his trumpet and we played/sang Christmas carols at their dining room table. A really cool night, a total blur now. Wish I could remember conversations better. Can’t believe this was the last show of the tour (which started back in May). And what a long, strange trip it’s been. And a good note to end on, the Roger Clyne and Mike Ness shows instead of a soul-crushing trek. And we still have our year-end blowout at the Continental Club in Austin on Friday, with a two-day drive from San Diego in between… ugh. Took same bedroom as last time, slept like a rock. Felt very sore from a week of long shows and long drives. New mystery bruise on right knee, pick finger not too bad now, right thumb stiff and still can’t pop the lowest joint, weird. Can’t recall any dreams.
Wed Dec 17 5:20pm, van, outside Yuma AZ. Been raining since we left Tim and Karen’s around noon. Tim and Karen cooked a big breakfast tacos of egg with sausage, onion, pepper and spinach. Damn good. Still dreary and raining, supposed to continue and get worse. But this to SoCal is a “storm.” In Texas it will rain so hard you have to pull over and wait for it to pass. But we had to run if we were to make Las Cruces NM, so we said our goodbyes then sang their praises in the van. What abso-fucking-lutely COOL people. The kind that make doing this for a living worthwhile.
Rain came and went as we headed 8 East towards I-10. Came to that same white-knuckle pass I made last time at night and in high wind. This time being dusted by snow. Well shit. Thought we were done with the snow after Flagstaff, heh. By the time we hit The Golden Acorn at 4000 ft it was really coming down, wintry mix with 3” of slush on the ground. Almost shut down the 8, down to one unplowed “lane” in many places. Teal handled the van like a champ, as we’d had plenty of practice back in February. Came out of the snow only to head right back into it as we climbed back up. Eventually left the rain behind but not the wind. I took the wheel from Tuscon to somewhere in NM, then Wok finished it off to Las Cruces.
Stayed in same Fairfield Mariott as last time, and their lobby still wasn’t finished yet! Finally showed Wok my pics from Skatopia back in May, with Fu Manchu playing. As a skater he totally dug them. Didn’t last long, it’d been a hellacious 12-hour drive with another to look forward to. Slept like a rock, no dreams.
Thur Dec 18Van, I-10 outside of Las Cruces. Just passed that huge “Cowschwitz” bovine prison camp. Stinky. Windy as hell outside. Stayed windy all thru West Texas. Made it home in one piece.
MORE TO COME