Ravens tour pt 2.

When I left off last, I believe we were heading to LA. Upon arrival, we promptly ordered some in and out burgers, and crashed. The next night we loaded into the Spaceland gallery (apparently in the "Williamsburg of LA") and learned we were to be bumped from 9:30 to 12:30. This was unfortunate for a number of reasons, one being: everyone we told to come out decided they couldn't make it out that late. This lead to the other problem, everyone in LA has to drive, therefore drinking late is not a great option, especially considering mostly everyone probably had to drive at least 40 minn to get home. All in all, I think I could live in LA for about one night. The next morning we walked around Van Nuys (the porn capital), and found some great vintage clothing stores, and I almost bought a cool yellow guitar.
From there we journeyed north to San Francesco. This was more like it! San Fran felt like a cool east coast city on the west coast. Besides the obvious problem with homelessness, this city had it going on. We had a great show, and a refreshing walk around the next morning. We did get verbally accosted by Greenpeace people, and this was the only time I really felt like my safety was slightly in jeopardy. "What have you done for your environment today?" "Do you want to make a phone call to a large corporation today?"….No. I don't want to give you my credit card number either.
We left San Fran in good spirits, and made it to the Muir Woods. Redwoods. Ahhh, ancient trees and beautiful scenery. Not more than 20 miles down the road; we hit the coast and stumbled upon a small beach at sunset. It's been at least 10 years since I have felt the Pacific Ocean, and it fit like an old glove.
Portland was the next stop, and all I herd in the car ride up was about how shitty Portland was (this was coming from a hard core Seattleite). We played a cool show and I met up with my friend Chris Mosley, and he gave me the real scoop on Portland. After receiving both sides of the coin, and meet numerous locals, I determined Portland is cool in my book.
We bypassed Seattle to go directly to Vancouver, where I had high expectations (it is Canada after all). Our venue was the Commodore Ballroom, which holds about 2000 people. At its peak only 500 showed, which is still great. Being a part of the Vancouver Jazz festival made me realize how well Canada treated the patrons of the arts. It's nice to be welcomed as someone who is valued. This was my favorite show of the tour hands down. Great Sound, and a great band headlined called "Shout Out Out Out Out (yes 4 "outs"). Dancetastic music, and we got to play with them for their encore.
We proceeded to take a ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, CA. This picturesque town had great food, lots of tourists, and Junkies. The show was so-so, and we seemed ready to make it to Seattle, but not before one more beautiful ferry ride, this time taking us to Anacortes, WA (the home of Phil Elverum).
We stayed at Abe's mom's house in Seattle, and had a little time off, so we decided to fill it with a short notice show in Olympia, WA. In the midst of the Hour long drive to Olympia, we learned the house party we were supposed to play at got no promotion and apparently moved. After much deliberation, we got the actual house sorted out, and had a fun drunken show anyway with a cool band from Cali called Bear Hunter.
Back to Seattle to play another mediocre show at a place called the "HI-DIVE", and a great live KEXP in studio performance. That night we had a great beach bonfire overlooking the Olympic Mountain range. We later learned that the city of Seattle was shortly going to impose a law that prohibits controlled fires due to pollution. Now, im all for not leaving a carbon footprint, and doing my part for the environment and all, but that is a little ridiculous. We said our goodbyes to all our friends there and thus began the long drive through the beautiful lands of Montana and the Bad lands to Winnipeg.
Winnipeg was not as impressive as the rest of the Canadian cities. It reminds me a little of Cleveland (for better or worse). We played at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, and got to eat some incredible vegan food. After 3 days of gas station-ish food, this place defiantly hit the spot. This ended our string of shows, now all we had to do was make the incredible trek from Winnipeg to NYC.
After crossing the boarder three times already, we thought this last attempt to enter America couldn't be much worse. We forgot that we were entering into North Dakota though, and I wasn't surprised when the boarder guards decided to search our entire van. We had all our gear and personal stuff, so as one might imagine, it took a long time. It was clear that the guards were profiling pretty heavily, because when they put us in the Holding Cell (yes, like jail), there was only minorities, and other kids in bands. I guess it's their job to find out information, but why do the guards always have to be such big fucking assholes!! W did learn a valuable trick though, If you ever find yourself crossing the Canadian boarder for musical purposes try this: First get the nessicarry Tax papers if you plan on making money, and when the initial guard asks what kind of music you play (which they always will), say "Rock and Roll" (with enthusiasm). Most of the guards look like the high school jock types, and those simple words will go straight to their hearts.
The drive back was grueling and beautiful at the same time. I also managed to learn a great deal about the Economic Housing Crisis, and it's ties to wall street. Without trying to get too political, Its just another way to keep the poor man down. Finally upon arrival in the East Village, we spotted Quinten Tarentino and never felt better than smelling that familar smell of the Bowery, and driving over the Brooklyn bridge. Looking back, I now see the pitfalls of the trip (business and otherwise), but I would say it was a success overall. We did come out with a modest amount of money, which is good considering gas can be about $5/gal, and I got to see parts of th country I've never set foot on before. Great Success!!!

Thanks for reading.

M.D. Thies