so the unnamed tour (actually, i'll go ahead and call it the "party 'til you're pete!" tour) with order of the gash has come to an end. we have one more show to play tonite in seattle, but OOTG isn't coming along, so tour officially ended last night in eugene. so...where to start...oh yeah, the first day. we left late and about 99 miles north of sacramento, the van (dee dee) starting losing power. we pulled over and waited a while to access the situation. we decided that it needed transmission fluid but at the last minute chose to not add any. it's good that we didn't. more on that later. so we missed our first show in sacramento. apparently, times of desperation was the only band to play that night. sorry dudes. we still had a blast hanging out with jen, marilyn, jason, john and others. thanks guys! also, thank you sal for telling us we didn't need tranny fluid and for hooking up the coolant and oil! the next day we went to petaluma and played the bowling alley with chromium 6, wendol & psychosamatic. all of the bands fucking ruled! thanks to the little bartender lady that gave me (and only me, apparently. weird.) a couple free beers. aris, paul & i bowled a few games and then hit the air hockey tables. we also battled it out on the pool table. it was a fun day for sure. thanks to franz and sarah jane for putting us up at their awesome house in larkspur. you guys are amazing! then we went to oakland where jason and the kind folks at the hazmat put us up for a few days. we played at the hilarity house and at some bar (john patrick's?) with self inflicted. thanks for hooking that shit up rob! let's crash more rockabilly shows in the future, my friend. in oakland we drank at the merchant, played pool, ate awesome veggie cuisine and watched crackheads and the kids at the warehouse get into a turf war. we spent a good amount of time in san francisco as well. jacqui went off and hung out with her friend annie (i'm sure jacqui will write her own blog about the trip, so strap in) so the rest of us went to amoeba and met up with my friends sean and lily. they took us around and got us drunk as shit. once again, more action on the pool tables ensued. thanks sean & lily! the next day we played at thrillhouse records with same sex dictator, el cerdo, acts of sedition & short changed. in my opinion, this was our best show. so thanks to all of the kids at the record shop and ben from short changed for hooking that shit up! we left the bay the next day and drove slowly to LA. it took about 10 hours. total bullshit, but we didn't have a show, so whatever. we stayed at paul's sister's house. thanks rachel! i went out and got drunk with andy, trev & jesse, so my LA experience was different than everyone elses. so, we leave at 5am the next day and get to fontana, ca where we meet the fine folks at lowell's automotive. they give us a new fuel pump and sent us on our way to roger's exhaust shop where they installed a new catalytic converter and then sent us back to lowell's to get new spark plug wires. 5 hours and $500 dollars later, dee dee was running better than ever. thanks to dave, von & roger for getting us back on the road swiftly!!! we actually made our show in flagstaff that night because of you guys. in flagstaff we showed up just in time to play with samothrace at the 321 house. thanks to the creosote kids and all others at the house for having us! this was the point of the tour where my energy was depleting, and our performances got less exciting, more automatic and far less passionate. well, at least on my end. and the fetching dog! holy shit! non stop fetch action if you want it at the 321 house. cutest thing ever. we then made the mistake of eating at HOG's. pete got at least 3 full meals that morning, cause EVERYTHING had meat in it. EVERYTHING I TELL YOU! then we went to boulder city, NV and hung out at paul's parents house. all i can say is, holy moly! dinner and beverages prepared upon arrival and a fucking pool. 'nuff fucking said. it was heaven. we then went on to play the cheyenne saloon in vegas. i got to play a game of pool with my uncle dennis and aris and i gambled away a few bucks on video poker. some vegas gambling experience, eh? the sound/lighting guy was the best. holy shit, it was a laser show up there. it was really funny. we left right after we played and hit the road. melissa drove from 12 until 4am and then aris took over and drove until 10:30am when we reached sacto and hung out with mar and john for an hour or so. mar gave aris his denim vest that she had painted the cover of HOLY DIVER on the back of. needless to say, aris had a bitchin' wizard hat all day. then, we hit the road for another 8 hours and made our show in eugene. it was fucking epic, i tell you. we hung out with el cerdo once again and i took a shot of vodka (i believe) that came out of a bottle with a dead snake in it. interesting. after our sets and one more game of pool (i'll get the best of you yet, paul!) we hit the road and made it back to portland at about 3am tired and ready for some loving. thanks to everyone who helped book the shows and to everyone we encountered along the way. if i forgot to mention anyone or if i left out a funny story, it's because i'm an idiot. let's do it again!!!!!

jason