vegas baby, vegas

After Denver we had probably the worst drive of the whole tour. It was 14 hours from Denver to Vegas and we spent what seems like days going through Utah's desert. If I never do that again, I'll be happy. We had to drive slowly up hilll with the heat on to blow out the air and not let the van overheat. However, the reward for this was making our way into Vegas. After we got into the hotel and showered up, we hit the bars and casinos for a few hours. I can't wait to go back and see more of Las Vegas. The next morning we got in the van and headed for LA. Chris and I sampled the food at In n' Out Burger and it was good. We were very interested in sampling local fast food along the way and this was one of my favourites.
LA was cool. The show was great, but too short. Sold lots of merch and blew some faces off. Caught up with Chicago friends and furniture provider Scott and his wife Brandy and everybody got all sorts of drunk. Chris got sent home, Cory wandered off and made it home okay, Jeremy and I developed drunken He-Man strength loading the van and John kept it all in check. We stayed in Hollywood in a suite at the top of a hill with a magician club at the bottom. We saw Henry Winkler showing up to a red carpet event and we all made some awesome food for dinner. Unfortunately, the van couldn't handle another trip in the heat so soon so we had to cancel Tijuana. Maybe next time. A day off was really necessary anyway. I definitely want to visit again and be a tourist and see more of LA.

denver

We get to Denver in the afternoon and it's a pretty town. We pull up to the venue and it's pretty cool. Kind of a mix of Delilah's and Club Foot with a live venue inside. Cool. Bartender gave us free pineapple upsideown shots and a guy who works there makes amazing hot sauce. Jeremy and I ordered some bottles of it. I wonder if he'll ever send them. Met Griff's old roommate Joe. Chris and I find a crappy motel down the street near downtown. We take naps, showers, relax then play a good show. We played with A Shoreline Dream who were pretty good and super nice as well. We get post show snacks at a Kwik-E Mart that used to be a 7-11 but is now a The Simpsons Movie promo. Leaving the next morning the guys meet a trucker who gives us cool camoflage caps and Tweaker Joe who wanted a ride somewhere. We pulled away without Tweaker Joe and saw the coolest Dodge Charger cop car in the mountains outside of Denver at the Mc Donalds with the cute russian girls behind the counter. Had my first Mc Griddle here. My stomach still hasnt' forgiven me. More later, I have to get back to work right now.

goin' out west

Just like the Tom Waits song Goin' Out West, we went out west.
I started the tour blog in the same notebook I got last fall going out east and I gave up a page and a half into it. I'll still recap the whole tour. For now, here's the beginning...
7-8-07
I think it was good luck that we left for tour on 7-7-07. It was an early morning and 10 hours of driving but we made it to Cory's cousin's house near Kansans City around midnight. Highlights include finding ANOTHER Pinecone Restaurant in Brooklyn, Iowa and learning it's a chain, with another in Oregon. I hope we get to that one later in the week. Other bits of awesome include the Salisbury Slap, iPod porn starring Shy Love in Big Sausage Pizza(PG-rated link), and pulling away from Cory's in Schaumburg to the tune of Samwell's "What What (in the butt)":

Not much sucked other than the heat in Chicago and the foot dragging on Cockthirsty in Kansas, but it wasn't a big deal. Right now, it's 10:36am and we're about an hour away from Omaha and a shower and a swimming pool.
7-9-07
The Omaha show was pretty good, but not many people were there. We made friends with the bartender and drank for a few hours before the show. Turns out we out drank the band bar tab 3 times over. Good times, whiskey, and lots of laughs helped ease my nervousness before our first show on tour and all went well. Boo and Boo Too were good and noisy. I picked up their CD. Drakes Hotel were nice people and had a cool trailer. Turns out they were moving to Portland after the show. The hotel pool was closed for cleaning but looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. The water was swampy green and looked thick, sort of like the Chicago river. Chris had been wanting to try Sonic burgers and we found a delivery menu in the lobby of the hotel. He called the number and it was a delivery service run by a guy and we think his wife. She says he doesn't like to carry drinks, so they're not on the menu. We were bummed because we heard the Sonic shakes were really good. From the sound of it, you call the number , make an order, this guy goes to Sonic to get your food and takes it directly to your hotel room. Yup. The burgers and tater tots were okay. We woke up early and left at 6am for Denver. At this rate we'll get there in about 4 hours. The geography is changing already and we see more hills. More later.

summer teef...summer tour...summer whiskey please!

A week from today we will be playing our first show of our 2 part Battle of Sealand summer tour. I hope people outside of Chicago can come see us. Here are the confirmed dates and venues and info:
July 8, 2007 - Saddle Creek Bar - Omaha, Nebraska
July 9, 2007 - 3 Kings Tavern - Denver, Colorado
July 11, 2007 - Club Moscow @ Boardners - LA, California
July 12, 2007 - Mofo Bar - Tijuana, Mexico
July 14, 2007 - San Francisco?????
July 15, 2007 - Tonic Lounge - Portland, Oregon
July 16, 2007 - KEXP in studio - Seattle, Washington
July 16, 2007 - High Dive - Seattle, Washington
July 31, 2007 - Jeremy's DJ Set to celebrate the Japanese release of the album - Tokyo, Japan
August 13, 2007 - AS220 - Providence, RI
August 14, 2007 - The Khyber - Philadelphia, PA
August 15, 2007 - Black Cat - Washington DC
August 17, 2007 - Metro Gallery - Baltimore, Maryland
August 29, 2007 - Empty Bottle, record release show, Chicago, IL