09/05/09 Fort Collins, Colorado @ Road 34
We played on the day of Tour De Fat, a combination bike ride/costume party in which hundreds of people from the town put on costumes, ride bikes, and get drunk. The event was sponsored by Fat Tire - a beer company, and was being held in 11 western cities.
It was obvious that Tour De Fat was easily THEE event of the weekend - I could tell by the sight of a great volume of costumed partiers in every corner of down town Fort Collins. Something about the event appealed to the college town, and I wondered what it could have been. Was the costumes? The opportunity to act completely silly? The Beer?
We played in the evening after most people in town had gotten totally wasted. We played our set to the drunken, slowly sobering, remains of the day. Some die-hard fans had come out as well. But there was no time to sign cds. We were there and gone from Road 34 so fast that it made my head spin.
09/07/09 Portland, Oregon @ Doug Fir Lounge
After an epic drive from Denver (stopping along the way in Boise, ID), we reached Portland. One of the most memorable things of this long trek, was listening to Anni Rossi's collection TLC songs, and Lil' Wayne on the car stereo.
After sound check @ Doug Fir, we hung out and ate dinner with some of Anni Rossi's friends, and some the Honey Brothers, the headlining band of the night. They turned out to be really cool guys.
I talked with the drummer, Adrian Grenier, who plays Vincent Chase on HBO's Entourage. In the past he had been respocible for getting 'Season Song' on to a TV show called Alter Eco, so naturally I want to meet him and thank him.
We talked over our dinner and got to know each other, and asked me why he was getting sore wrists from drumming. I noticed he was holding his sticks - in a way that would indeed, give him very sore wrists, and told him to change his stick grip. I think he thought it was hilarious that he had been incorrectly for so long, and he said so from the stage when The Honey Brothers played.
'Let's hear it for Kaiser Cartel, their drummer told me I was holding my sticks the wrong way.' Adrian was totally friendly, and easy going, and so were the rest of the band. I chatted with Ari, Andrew, and the tour manager and they were all totally cool.
We hung out with them after the show as well. We all went out to a Karioke Bar and watched our good friend, and host, Rachel Robinson, sing a duet with Ari from The Honey Brothers. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at their performance.
A highlight for me was watching some dude, totally decked out in death metal gear, get up and do a note-perfect Slayer ( or somebody like that ) song, complete with hair flicking.
LAST, BUT SOOO NOT LEAST -
The crowd at the Doug Fir was also totally cool! I could feel our fan base building, and the energy in the club felt familiar - like another Minneapolis for us ( a far away city -that becomes familiar thru the warmth of real fans ). And as before, the staff were great as well - which always makes a big difference when you're constantly on the road. Doug Fir remains one of our favorite venues. And if you haven't there, and you're close to Portland, Oregon find a good show, and go immediately! Or better yet, wait for to come back, because we WILL go back, and we'll see you there!
BC