Day 4: Campus Coffee – Flagstaff, AZ
We were supposed to have a second show in Las Vegas at the House of Blues. Unfortunately about 2 weeks before the tour we were told by Soli that the HOB had been bought out for the night for some private affair and the show that he booked was getting bumped. So we were left with an open Saturday night. There is nothing worse, and nothing feels more like a waste of time than not playing on a Friday or Saturday night when you are on tour. So we started looking around for anything to fill the spot in our schedule. As it turns out, the cancellation did us a favor because the scheduling geniuses hadn’t counted on the fact that there was no way we could have played Vegas on Saturday night and made it to Taos New Mexico for our Sunday show that was supposed to start at 6:30pm.
I think it was Cameron who did some research and had a friend who went to the Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He sent me a link to this coffee shop that had bands on Saturdays and I sent them a message on Myspace. They didn’t have anything for the Saturday we needed, and the next thing you know, we had a last minute show in Flagstaff. It would be an early show, so we would actually be able to drive a little closer to Taos after the show.
We left Vegas at around 11:00 and headed towards Arizona. The route we took went right over the Hoover Dam. If you haven’t been over the dam lately, they are building an enormous bridge that bypasses the usual road so that they can have a multi-lane highway that goes through the area. This will lessen the traffic over the dam. This structure is pretty amazing to see being built as they have both sides started which will eventually meet in the middle. It’s almost more impressive than the dam itself actually.
It’s only about 4 hours from Vegas to Flag so by tour standards it was a relatively short ride today. We pulled up to the Campus Coffee Bean at about 4:00pm. It had a little stage and a pretty large seating area. It was at least as big as the area we play when we go to the Taos Inn to play so we were prepared for what kind of show we would be doing. There was another group from Colorado playing there from 4:30 to 5:30, so we were just going to hang out until they were done. We decided to pull up a few chairs out on the patio and play what would be the first poker game of the trip. Cuz’n Steve had joined us once before in a poker game but this would be the first time he was extensively involved. To the point where we would be placing him on the coveted “sheet”. Many of you know that on the Fourwayfree Poker tour all games are $5 per buy in with the limit of one re-buy if you are knocked out. When your net reaches a negative $50 you have to payout. At least I think that’s the rule. I’ve never reached that milestone so I’m not really sure. You’d have to ask Boody, he is the leading authority on that subject. Anyway, we added Cuz’n Steve to the sheet, and he joined the Poker Tour. More on the poker tour later.
At about 5:30 we started setting up and we went on at about 6. There really weren’t that many people there at first, although the girl running the place, named Emily told us that she would call a bunch of her friends to come down and listen. We went through our first set and took break. It was looking like we would have to just treat this as a practice, when a decent sized group of people started filtering in. We played our second set to an appreciative crowd and they even encored us. We sold some cds, got a contact for a better venue next time, and so for a last minute addition, the show ended up being worth it.
We loaded up the trailer, again, and headed east on I-40 out of Flag at about 9pm. We made a quick stop at the Bell for food and headed towards New Mexico. We decided to drive about three hours that night and see where it would get us. It turns out that three hours east of Flag is Gallup New Mexico. We pulled into a Comfort Inn right around midnight.
Being on the road can get a little boring in between shows at times. And so on occasion we have been known to give each other a hard time or play practical jokes on one another. This night was no exception. As is his custom,. Boody upon reaching a hotel room at night will ask anyone if they need to use the bathroom before he goes to take his nightly shower. Before getting in the shower he had set up his bed which this night would be the pull out couch in our suite. It occurred to me that messing with his bed was probably a somewhat cruel thing to do to a guy who had just finished a 3 hour driving shift during the night. It was past 1am by now and we were all pretty tired. But, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least put it out there. So, I said to the guys, “would it be a total d**k move if I were to short sheet Boody’s bed right now.” Not to my surprise, it was Cuz’n Steve who replied “Yes it would be a total d**k move.” But, then to my surprise, he looked up with a sly smile and said, “and you should totally do it!” Hmmm. What to do. I was still on the fence. Then Genj says “what is short sheeting? I’ve never really understood what that is or how it is done?” Well, far be it from me to deny any man an education. The decision was made. We carefully surveyed the bed so as to remember what it looked like before we started. Then we carefully pulled back the bedding a removed the top sheet. Tucked the sheet around the bed at the top tight so that it would appear to be the bottom sheet, and then carefully folded the sheet from the bottom up to the top. For those of you not quite following this, basically, short sheeting someone involved sheeting the bed so that it appears to your victim that they are getting under the top sheet. In reality the sheet is only half as long as the bed so they cannot fit. Maximum confusion would be achieved if Boody first turned off the lights and then tried to get into the bed. We tried our best to put the bed back the way we found out. We then settled back and waited.
I was feeling a little bit bad about it. Boody would probably think it was funny and be cool about it. On the other hand, he was probably very tired and not in the mood to messed with at this hour. So, he comes out of the bathroom and says. “Hey, Jeff just so you know, there is soap and shampoo already in the shower for the morning, but I had to put it up high so if you need help in the morning getting it down, just let me know.” An unprovoked attack on me. And a short joke nonetheless. My sympathy melted away, as I just smiled and said, “thanks man, I appreciate that.” Oh it was on.
So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Boody makes more preparations to get in bed than NASA does for a shuttle launch. He spends the next 20 minutes putzing around doing who the hell knows what. I was laying in bed with my laptop trying to blog and was fighting off sleep just waiting for our payoff. Finally, about 20 minutes after the attack on me, he asks, “does anyone need this light on, I’m going to bed.” “No man, turn it off, it’s cool.” Lights out. The only thing illuminating the room is the screen of my laptop. Then you hear the rustling of the bedding. The sound of the cheap springs on the hideabed compressing as he starts to mount the bed. Rustle rustle, more springs squeaking. Rustle rustle, squeak squeak. A moment of silence. Wait for it. Wait for it. And then from the darkness it came. “Nice guys. Really nice.” And the only sight was the shit eating grin of the culprit in the light of a laptop; the only sound, the laughs of his co-conspirators. Justice had been served.