DAY ONE: DES MOINES

Got on the road in good time and made our way on I-80.
Stopped in Iowa City and picked up Joe Ross.
He would be our roadie as well as our negotiator,
spiritual guru, and the man to obtain for us directions
for pizza expeditions.

Made it to Des Moines early and walked down the street
from the venue to an island like park which
had recently been devastated by flash floods.



Found a foul smelling fish which had died by the water side.
It was a very large carp and Jon stabbed it with a stick
and threw it back in the water.

Talbot traced the maze like aqueduct we found
which we later were told served as some sort of
children's tea cup ride from when
the island had been an amusement park.



Went on a booze cruise and made it back to the venue
by the time Servo and our buddy Jason Brizzi showed up.


The gig was at The Haunted Basement
which actually was not a basement at all
and instead was a commercial space converted into a
classic punk house set up.

Empty beer cans, crude couches, and televisions
that seemed to serve the sole purpose of video games.
The back room where the bands played was a dingy and dark room
made complete by the tiny skate board ramps in the corner
and a house cat crawling in the ceiling.

Orville Sash played first and energized the crowd
with their short bursts of thrashy metal powerviolence.



Second up was Johnny Reeferseed and The High Rollers.
They played an exciteable set of laid back
weed influenced riff rock.
Notable songs included "Light 'Em Up" and "Boone's Farm Wine."



By the time we got set up and ready to play
the crowd was roaring and ready to go.
We wailed out a thirty minute set of punk fury
for some old friends and it was great to see them....

mad shout outs to Servo, Brizzi, Clay, Lindsay, Elliott,
and everyone else who enjoyed the set.

After the show we went with our new friend Lindsay
to a bar for shooting darts.

Metal Sam showed up and the Coors Original beer flowed into us.
We only made it a handful of rounds into the first dart game
when our new friend Lindsay got into a fight
with some strange dim-witted ogar lady
who Jon had to hold back
as she attempted to barrel her way towards Lindsay.
She finally left and we thought all was well until
we noticed her right outside the door to the patio
scaling her way with determination up the side of the fence.

Climbing over it with a persistance reserved only
for the completely intoxicated and the criminally insane.
The altercation once again had to be broken up as
the ogar lady made multiple attempts
to thrash her way to Lindsay yelling
"bitch" and saying that she had
"hurt her feeling"

We left the bar only to find out that
the van had gotten key'd by none other than
what we could only assume was the aforementioned ogar lady.

We left the bar and went to Metal Sam's apartment
for a night cap of PBR.

We laughed and carried on a long while and
Dennis tried on some women's clothing.
It was adorable.

The night was filled with mass amounts of beer and liqour,
dead fish, almost fist fights,
and one large-balled porcelain dog statue.

This is the story of day one in which we raged all night
and hardly slept.

This only part of the story while of course
emiting the parts which could be held against us
in a court of law.

DAY TWO: MINNEAPOLIS

We woke up hungover in Des Moines and decided
to hit the road early so we could make it to Minneapolis
as soon as possible.

The drive up I-35 wasn't too bad and we made it to
the twin cities.



We cruised around a short while and then stopped off at
Minnehaha Park for some much needed rest and relaxation.

We got ahold of Sarah Pantera our old friend from back in Iowa
and made our way to her house.

We went to the Mexican market down the street from
Sarah's place and picked up the fixings for a taco feast.

Dennis and Joe Ross were excellent chefs as they chopped
and prepared the food. We ate like kings
and Talbot was a good enough sport to even do the dishes.

It was time to head to venue so we piled seven people
into our van including Sarah and her BFF Darla.

We went to a very large liqour store with a very small
and awkward parking lot. Bought some cheap ass whiskey,
some 40 oz.'s for Talbot, and some fancy beers for Dennis.



Made it to The Alamo House right as
Charles De Gaulle started their set.
We made it inside the venue which was
another classic punk venue set up.
A dingy basement with graffiti laced walls and a small
makeshift stage in one corner.

Charles De Gaulle played followed by Falcon Crest.
Both bands were totally rad and we had a blast.
The show was alot of fun and we once again got to
share our music with some old friends and some new ones.

We met an awesome new dude named Joel
and brought him along with us to another show
that was going on across town.

The van was packed so Joel had to ride in the way back
with our equipment and merchandise.



Pete and Ben from Falcon Crests other band
Total Fucking Blood was doing a gig with Thrones
at the Triple Rock.

Pete got us all on the guest list and we went.
Joel rode in the very back of our van piled and smooshed
on top of our equipment.

The show was a blast
and Total Fucking Blood jammed our faces off.

Intoxicated and tired from the nights activities
we made our way to our temporary home off of Lake Street

where Sarah P. had just moved into early this month.
One of Sarah's roommates had a final exam in the morning
so we couldn't rage all night.

Instead we quietly laughed and mumbled while
clumsily setting up our nights sleeping arrangements.
Joe Ross and Talbot shared the top bunk of a twin bed
and during the course of the night Joe Ross some how
rolled off of the bed and landed six feet down
thudding the wood panel floor loudly and waking up
sore with no recollection of how he fell.

Roommates gathered from the basement for assurances
of Joe's safety as Talbot slept straight through
the entire ordeal.

We woke up early and went on our way to eat at Seward's Cafe,
a great cooperatively ran eatery in Minneapolis
which is famous for its "Earth" breakfast which combines
eggs and hashbrowns with an assortment
of other tasty ingredients.

We ate our food, read our horoscopes, took some poops,
and then hit the road. Joe Ross found an awesome
cloak in the free clothes bin.

Minneapolis as always was a blast and
we can not wait to return again.
Mad shout outs to Sarah P. for always being awesome.
Also mad props to Ryan Lowe for setting up the show
and of course to Falcon Crest and Charles De Gaulle
for playing with us and being awesome dudes.

Also a most honorable mention to old and new friends
who it was great to hangout with.

Joel, Darla, M.T., and of course Megan and her friend who
supplied Joe and Jon with leftover sushi and shots of whiskey.

DAY THREE: MILWAUKEE

The drive to Milwaukee was our longest haul
at just over 5 hours.



Joe Ross spends 90% of his time in the van sleeping.
Sometimes his furry pillow tickles his nose and wakes
him up.

Half way through our trip we stopped at some random town
with one tiny gas station off of the interstate.

While standing around getting coffee
and waiting for the restroom

we noticed another rag tag bunch of band dudes
wander into the store. We started to chat with them
and realized we were in the middle of a full blown
gas station situation.

The other group was a van loaded with two bands
from Vancouver Canada.

They were called Shearing Pinx and Sex Negatives
they were on their way from Minneapolis to Chicago.
We discussed mutual friends and traded music.

All of us were excited by the coincidental meeting.
We both got back in our vans and got on our way to our
respective destinations.

Hopefully that won't be the last we see of these new friends.
The funny thing is neither of us stopped there for gas,
but were only there to relieve our bladders and bowels.
I feel bad for the ladies who worked there
and would later have to clean the bathroom. Haha.



We made it in to town and to the venue, loaded in,
and then went to get food at a cheap Mexican restaurant
in the neighborhood.

The restaurant had several packed banquet rooms
and served their food on paper plates.
Joe Ross had the chicken mole.

The show was at an arts collective ran inside
what used to be a funeral home.

The evenings line up was a fair mixture of punk rock
and other avant garde meanderings.

Early on was a performance art duo
with a young man with two hats tweeking electronics
and playing the trumpet.

While the older dude did spoken word over the top.
They played forever and ended up getting in to an argument.
They broke up on stage,
but I don't think everyone was sure if it wasn't just
part of the act.

Another strange act that played was Glvis.
A folk rock hero and master of the open E chord
he dazzled the crowd with his songwriting.
We drank, and played, and sweated our asses off.
It was fun.



After us Peter J. Woods and White Problems played.
White Problems are friends of ours and they did
a smashing job.



Afterwards we went and stayed with our friends Brian
of White Problems and his buddy Chris.
We laughed and drank PBR, listened to ridiculous music,
and played with a push and talk Rocky Balboa key chain.

Upon pushing any one of a series of six buttons
the key chain would burst out with a Sly Stallone quote
from one of the ROCKY movies.

My personal favorite was "I'm not as dumb as you think I am."

DAY FOUR: CHICAGO

Woke up and hit the road. Got directions from Brian and Chris
to the nearest Little Caesers for purposes of purchasing
Hot and Readys as is our Milwaukee tradition.
Dennis declared that it would be Dennis Pizzaday.

We stopped by the tobacco outlet on our way out of town,
then cruised off to Chicago.



We got into town early and decided
to do some walking around checking out the city.

Went by Reckless Records and Quimbys Bookstore.
Ran in to our friend Brandon at a cafe he works at
and got some coffee.

We saw a guy Joggling down the sidewalk.
That's right Joggling, as in Juggling while Jogging.
He was very determined. We were very amazed.

Loaded in at five and stewed around for a while
until we decided that it was time for food.

We got directions to a place
where we could get some chicago dogs,
but alas it was closed because it was Sunday.
We doubled back and decided on a pizza shop
called Village Pizza.

Strangely enough it was the same place we ate at years
previously with our friend Mickey.

Huge slices of pizza and a soda for four dollars.
Dennis Pizzaday continued....

We headed back to the Empty Bottle
and eventually did our soundcheck.



The Empty Bottle show was awesome.
We drank Colt 45 in the green room and
talked about beards with the guys from Child Bite.

They are a band from Detroit that we played with
who are on their way out to the west coast
and then 40+ hours north to Anchorage Alaska
for this years World Beard and Mustache Tournament.
We wish them luck.


Our friends from EYES made the trip up to Chicago
It was nice to rock out with some fellow Quad Citians



The bands were all great.
We loaded up our gear and made an emergency beer run.
Our friend Brandon from back home purchased a plethora of
PBR, pizza, and whiskey.

Went to some friends' house to party for a while
and then crash.

Nick and Mariesa were so gracious as to let us
spill beers and accidentally overflow thier toilet.
Nick is a super old friend from way back when
and actually was the original drummer for the goats
so it was great to get to hang with him.

Once again we ate pizza.
This time it was of the Tombstone persuasion.
It was a classic Chicago porch party.

To complete our Chicago experience
we stopped to get Chicago dogs on our way out of town.

We all got regular Chicago Dogs with all the fixings,
except Joe Ross made his a chili dog also.



Goodbye Chicago.



Goodbye weekend rock and roll adventure.
we miss you already.