Oct. 2: Sleeping in the van in New Orleans was a big mistake. By 9am it was about 100 degrees in the van. That doesn�t make for a good night�s sleep when you go to bed drunk at around 6am. I did the best I could before we headed off for Texas. With the unfortunate closing of Emo�s - Houston, where we were scheduled to play the next day, we had another day off. We started driving, and were thinking about getting a hotel on the way to Austin, but we got within 100 miles and called Nila from Bottom. She invited us over to stay at her place, so we pressed on and drove there. We showed up, drank her beer, and violated her personal space, just as Bottom had done to me many times before :-) Actually, it was great catching up with Nila, she was most gracious for putting us up, and we had a nice, relaxing evening after a helluva drive.
Oct. 3: The big day of the tour for me. We headed downtown sometime in the afternoon to get some food, and just happened to get a parking spot right in front of Emo�s. We left the van there, because there was no way in hell we were going to get a spot there on the night of a Clutch show� A really cool guy from Emo�s drove us back to Nila�s place so we could pick up Jason�s Jeep and drive around. We just tooled around, killing the day� we went to a drum shop so Jason could get some supplies and one of the guys working there was into the heavy shit� We talked to him for a while, and after securing a promise that he�d come to the show, headed back to Emo�s. We hung out there for a looong time, fixin� up the gear, watching the Simpsons, etc. It started getting close to showtime, and people started asking where the fuck Witch Mountain was. It was about half an hour before they were supposed to start, and no one had heard from them. I called Danno�s cell phone to see where they were, and got no answer. Little did I know that Danno had left his phone back in Portland� but I left some annoying message, like, �where the fuck are you guys?! You�re gonna miss the show! They�re gonna start with out you!� After some mechanical and alcoholical problems, Witch Mountain showed up just before their set, but managed to set up and start rocking right on time. It was fucking great - even with all the people hanging out elsewhere in the club, there were still about 400 people watching their set, and probably 500 by the time they were done. As soon as they were, we threw our gear up and were ready to go in about five minutes, on par with the rest of the tour - one of the great things about playing with Porn was the nonexistent set up times. If you were waiting for us to start, it was the club telling us to wait. I can�t remember when I heard we were playing with Clutch� it was out on the road somewhere, and with everything else happening, it didn�t really hit me. But when I got up there in front of the 500 or so people, it definitely hit me. I�ve played for many more people over the radio before, but it�s MUCH different when you can actually see all of them. We stepped up to the plate and played what I thought was our best show of the tour. It�s hard to describe� I knew all those people were out there, but we just played like we always did, feeding off each other, not really looking at the crowd, just playing, totally into the music� and yet I knew all these people were watching, so it made me more self conscious of what I was doing� Anyway, we had a great time, then we got to kick back and watch Karma to Burn and Clutch. K2B put on the great show they always do, and of course Clutch rocked. They played all the favorites, my favorite being Coke-Cola and Armageddon. When we were loading up, their drummer came up to talk to us, and we shot the shit for a while. He said he loved the show, and really liked playing with us and Witch Mountain, and it was a good change, because aside from K2B they get stuck with a lot of shitty nu-metal bands. It was good to hear that from a bigger band, they�re still definitely in touch with their roots and good old timey rock. We headed back to Nila�s place to crash, and crash I did�
Oct. 4: We woke up around noon and hung around checking email and such before heading off to Ft. Worth, where we were playing at the Wreck Room. I was driving as we pulled into the city, and I found the club, but maneuvering the van around to park was giving me a little trouble� I�m used to the wide open spaces of Alaska for Pete�s sake! So after some coaching (yelling) from the other guys we got settled and went into the club. The first thing we noticed when we came in was CHICKEN WIRE in front of the stage!! That was so cool� straight out of the Blues Brothers. Of course we were pretty early so we went to an Italian restaurant up the street. We ordered, and while waiting for our food, Curtis from Dixie Witch showed up to eat too� The waiter shows up to give us our food and�
ANOTHER GREAT QUOTE: ( I planned to have many more of these, but I forgot most of them due to intoxication�)
Waiter to Jason (in Italian accent): Oh, I�m sorry, we put chicken in your fettuccini alfredo, but no charge for you.
Jason: Well, I don�t want it, I don�t eat meat!
Waiter: But you don�t have to pay for it!
Jason: I�M A FUCKING VEGETARIAN! I DON�T EAT MEAT!
Waiter: uhhhhhhh� Ok, we�ll make you another plate�
Jason (after Waiter has left): Fuck, I bet they�re back there right now, picking the chicken out of the alfredo to give back to me�
Hehehehe� Moss and I had a great laugh at Jason�s expense. Anyway, after eating, we headed back to the club. The other bands had shown up for what would be my favorite line-up of the tour, besides the festivals of course� Sourvein was already set up on the stage for their night of rock� we met their new rhythm section, Miguel (bass) and Henry (drums). Miguel has the same Ibanez ATK bass as me, so he was already cool in my book :-) Henry had a vintage Ludwig Vistalite drum kit (the translucent plastic ones) in red, yellow, and orange with lights inside of them. They looked so cool. We also got to catch up with old friends T-Roy and Liz� Spacecakes and I met them in Eugene, OR when they played with YOB while they were up here recording with Matt Pike� We also hung out with Curtis, Clayton, and Trinidad from Dixie Witch, also on the bill. Sourvein hit the stage and fucking SLAYED!! Not that their previous rhythm section was bad, but the new line up rules. You will all be taken aback when they release their next recording� And it seemed so perfect seeing them play behind the chicken wire with their dirty - heavy - southern rock style� We played next, and it was definitely different playing behind the chicken wire. It was fun, but for me the audience connection was kind of lost with the barrier there. I couldn�t imagine playing on a big stage with barricades keeping everyone ten feet away like a lot of the big rock shows. Dixie Witch closed out the night in style. I enjoy these guys more every time I see them play. The music is fucking great, but a lot of bands� music is great� it�s their stage performance that puts them ahead of the class for me. These guys are rock and roll through and through. It was a great night of rock, even if no one threw any bottles at the bands behind the chicken wire. I threw a plastic (Dixie) cup at Dixie Witch, but it�s just not the same. After the show, we all packed up, Dixie Witch headed back home to Dallas, and we went over to T-Roy and Liz�s place to crash. We bull-shat for a while then everyone crashed, except for Liz and I. We got REALLY high (or I did anyway) and watched an old Sleep video, where they played part of Jerusalem, a 15 minute version that Al called Dopesmoker. I had never seen it before, and needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially while I was under the influence. Eventually Liz crashed, but first she put on a movie for me, a biker - horror movie from the 70s� apparently she�s an aficionado on these things� It was great� I wish I could remember what it was called.
Oct. 5: The first day of SHOD 3. I was so stoked for this show, more for getting to watch the other bands than to be playing it� We showed up to a nightmare of a scene� the club was in a very popular part of Dallas, and there were people everywhere. We, and all the other bands, had to pay to park in the lot for the club so we would be able to load our gear in at the right time. There was no way all those bands could fit their gear into that place at once, so we had to strategically move it shortly before our set. Us, T-Roy, and Liz went walking around the neighborhood and ended up at a pizza joint to eat. It was funny, while we�re sitting there trying to relax and eat our dinner, there was some annoying video game making all kinds of noise all buy itself. No one was playing it. So much to the enjoyment of us and all the other people eating around us, Jason got up and ripped the fucking electrical plug for the game out of the wall. Ahhhh� peace and quiet. Not for long though� we headed back to the club for the show. I won�t go into band reviews because that�s been covered extensively in the Live Reviews section, but I had a GREAT time watching all of them and hanging out. Madjohnshaft was quite the trooper for flying all the way from Chicago for the show, and I got to hang out with him for a while. We eventually got on stage and ripped it up the best we could. It was really cool, a lot of people had nice things to say about our performance after the show� I�m always humbled and grateful for that. I met Kevin from the forums, Chris from Customheavy, and many more, but I can�t really recall because I soon hit the cooler in our van and got trashed before watching Dixie Witch kill again. After the show, a bunch of us headed back to Clayton of Dixie Witch�s place for a little after-show party. Much drinking and merriment followed, and I met a couple of guys from Sons of Serro out of Phoenix, AZ. Cool guys. I ended up passing out, but at least I made it to a couch in the living room. I remember waking up at some point in the early morning to The Song Remains The Same blaring on Clayton�s TV. I shut it off because I thought everyone was asleep, but Trinidad of DW yells, �HEY!! I was watching that!� So I apologized and turned it back on�
Oct. 6: I woke up to a pretty empty house. Just us and Trinidad. That guy knows how to party. He was up hours after me, and awake hours before me. The first thing I saw was him in the chair right next to me with a pipe in one hand and a beer in the other. I say, �Wow. You�re really going all out!� He says, �FUCK YEAH!!! I DON�T HAVE TO WORK TODAY!! I�M GONNA GIT FUCKED UP!!!� in that wonderful Trinidad fashion. Clayton had to be at SHOD early to do sound, and we had to get on the road for our show in Houston, so we left Trinidad to his intoxication. We left Jason�s Jeep at Clayton�s place with plans to stop and pick it up on the way up to Oklahoma City, and put Moss�s bobcat in the house for safekeeping. We got to Mary Jane�s in Houston early again. Moss got some sleep in the van while Jason and I went inside to check it out. The place was cool enough� the stage was covered in shag carpet, the bartender was pretty cool, and they had pool and Golden Tee video golf. Then we got the bad news. First, no free beer. We got a discount on it though, which did a broke touring band a lot of good� No one seemed to know the name of the opening band� No one seemed to know if another band had been booked. So we wait around for a while, go eat, come back, and hang out. Not one person showed up. I guess with Emo�s closing, there was some confusion about who was promoting the show. The club thought the booker was doing it, and the booker thought the club was doing it. Wasn�t anyone�s fault really. Except for those damned landlords of Emo�s� So we hung around until around midnight before giving up. We decided to head back to Dallas and try to catch up with some bands from SHOD. Acid King was playing that night, and we really wanted to give Guy, Lori, and Joey some shit. They were heading out of town right after their set though, so we wouldn�t be able to meet up with them. It�s a four hour drive from Houston to Dallas, and that would put us there at around 4am, so Moss decided we�d haul ass to get there sooner, before everyone went to sleep. Sure enough, we got busted by the fuzz for going 85 in a 65 zone at night.
Side note: Never go more than 10 MPH over the speed limit in Texas. You WILL get a ticket. Every band I�ve ever talked to has gotten a speeding ticket in Texas. That is, unless you can pull a Smoky and the Bandit on their ass�
After getting the ticket, we gave up getting to Dallas at a reasonable hour, and just pulled into a rest stop to crash. This was the only night we all slept in the van, and it wasn�t bad� There was plenty of room in there, and it was by choice, so we didn�t get beat :-)
Oct. 7: We woke up in the rest stop without being molested by any truck drivers, and hit the road again. We pulled up to Clayton�s place around noon to get the Jeep and cat. The only problem was, Clayton had left early in the morning to do sound at SHOD, so the house was all locked up. We weren�t about to leave the cat in Texas, so we started trying to find a way to break into the house. All the windows were locked though, and we were about to give up when Clayton pulled up and let us in. The cat was stored in his roommate�s room where no one would molest it, and we got a treat when we went in to get it. His roommate has a total porn bed! It�s all shag carpet, the headboard has space for a TV and stereo, (can�t remember if they were actually there or not) and a half-dome over the bed, also covered in shag. Supposedly, this works as good support for �riding�� Clayton told us it was actually used in a porn movie too, so we were all in awe. It wouldn�t fit in the van though, so stealing it was out of the question, and we headed off for Oklahoma City again. I drove most of the way, and it was the day after the big University of Oklahoma vs. Texas college football game, so the traffic all the way from Dallas to OKC was HELL. We ended up getting to the Green Door later than usual, but still before any people had shown up. Place of Skulls were already there, and we traded tour triumphs and woes. We had hung out with them in Chicago at the Emissions festival, and talked with Victor for a while at the Clutch show in Austin, so we were familiar with each other�s trials in these hard times� I started talking to their merch guy, and was totally surprised to find out he was Frank Wombat from the stonerrock mailing list. We had talked before, but it was comforting to BS with a fellow stonerrock internet junkie� We played first, and played our D set, since it was our second time playing the same venue, and we didn�t want to play the same stuff again. Plus Reggie, the club owner, pleaded with us to play it because he liked Coming Home so much. Can�t argue with the guy who�s paying you! Well, I guess you can, but not in Reggie�s case, he�s such a great guy. It went well, and I had a great time playing it� Coming Home is one of my favorite songs. Place of Skulls were up next, and they played for the same ten or so people that we did. They totally tore it up though! I don�t really notice a difference when playing for small crowds (if you can call them that), but I really did while Place of Skulls played. They put on the same great show for those ten people as they did when I saw them in Chicago in front of over 100 people� or whatever it was there� That�s fucking great. Really, over the whole tour, I didn�t see any bands compromise their shows because of lack of attendance. I�ve definitely seen it locally, but not in our scene. It makes me proud to be playing with these great people� But I digress� Rather than pay for a hotel or bother a local by crashing at their place, we hit the road after the show. Our next show was scheduled for Phonix, AZ, three days later�
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