The tall cacti are called "dromedaries"
Posting from hot, sprawling Phoenix, AZ. Tonight's a house show that will be starting very soon. We've been doing pretty well since I last checked in. San Antonio was fun, Austin was well-attended, and Albuquerque kids brought the mosh. In a good way.
The Austin gig was in a new warehouse space called the Artillery that will soon feature a record store upstairs. I chatted with one of the kids who books there, whom I recognized from Philly shows once he told me his name. I didn't share with him my particularly vivid memory of him briefly catching on fire at a show in Philly a few years back. (His band, Heros=Shit, opened for An Albatross at the Killtime, and on the way to the show, which was a couple days after Christmas, they had stolen a bunch of plastic lawn ornament Virgin Marys. One of which they set up with a candle on its head. Inevitably, Mary took a boot, the candle flew, and things got scary for a couple seconds. No harm done, except that I lost a camera at that show. Anyway...) Austin was our first of a half dozen shows with Imperial Leather, who draw a crowd. There's a good sized punk scene there, and my bandmates know a bunch of the folks (who are mostly just acquaintances to me). We may have hit our culinary apex at Java Noodles, which is a ridiculously good Indonesian joint that I can't recommend highly enough. But steer clear of the meat: our roadie Matt, who eats red meat, lit into it there, and the result was two days of flatulence that could have stopped a Panzer division.
We had planned to leave Austin right after the show to get to Albuquerque, which is an 11 hour drive, give or take. But my bandmates wanted to hang out with their friends, so we stayed the night, got very little sleep, and hit the road at 8am yesterday. We got into the 'Bou-que at 7 or 8, and played a house show to 20 kids who were going nuts the whole time. Caught up on sleep last night and hit the road at noon for Phoenix. First really scenic drive of the tour, passing through the mountains between Flagstaff and Phoenix. We didn't really see canyon country in its full splendor, and it's really frustrating that this is my third time driving through Arizona and the third time I won't be seeing the Grand Canyon. We need to work it into the plans next time we get out this way. Apparently Imperial Leather's bummed they'll be missing it too, but at least one of them is getting married in Vegas. We have no such excitement on the horizon.
We've been eating pretty well, making gas money, and Shravan's distro is bringing in the green. We have three or four shows on the west coast that will probably be pretty big, i.e. fun and good for our financial well-being. Two best signs spotted so far:
Houston: a sign for a joint funeral home/cemetary called the Earthman Resthaven
Some small town in central Texas: a banner strung across the street announcing the apparently annual Spring Ho Festival. I have no idea what that actually means. None.
The Austin gig was in a new warehouse space called the Artillery that will soon feature a record store upstairs. I chatted with one of the kids who books there, whom I recognized from Philly shows once he told me his name. I didn't share with him my particularly vivid memory of him briefly catching on fire at a show in Philly a few years back. (His band, Heros=Shit, opened for An Albatross at the Killtime, and on the way to the show, which was a couple days after Christmas, they had stolen a bunch of plastic lawn ornament Virgin Marys. One of which they set up with a candle on its head. Inevitably, Mary took a boot, the candle flew, and things got scary for a couple seconds. No harm done, except that I lost a camera at that show. Anyway...) Austin was our first of a half dozen shows with Imperial Leather, who draw a crowd. There's a good sized punk scene there, and my bandmates know a bunch of the folks (who are mostly just acquaintances to me). We may have hit our culinary apex at Java Noodles, which is a ridiculously good Indonesian joint that I can't recommend highly enough. But steer clear of the meat: our roadie Matt, who eats red meat, lit into it there, and the result was two days of flatulence that could have stopped a Panzer division.
We had planned to leave Austin right after the show to get to Albuquerque, which is an 11 hour drive, give or take. But my bandmates wanted to hang out with their friends, so we stayed the night, got very little sleep, and hit the road at 8am yesterday. We got into the 'Bou-que at 7 or 8, and played a house show to 20 kids who were going nuts the whole time. Caught up on sleep last night and hit the road at noon for Phoenix. First really scenic drive of the tour, passing through the mountains between Flagstaff and Phoenix. We didn't really see canyon country in its full splendor, and it's really frustrating that this is my third time driving through Arizona and the third time I won't be seeing the Grand Canyon. We need to work it into the plans next time we get out this way. Apparently Imperial Leather's bummed they'll be missing it too, but at least one of them is getting married in Vegas. We have no such excitement on the horizon.
We've been eating pretty well, making gas money, and Shravan's distro is bringing in the green. We have three or four shows on the west coast that will probably be pretty big, i.e. fun and good for our financial well-being. Two best signs spotted so far:
Houston: a sign for a joint funeral home/cemetary called the Earthman Resthaven
Some small town in central Texas: a banner strung across the street announcing the apparently annual Spring Ho Festival. I have no idea what that actually means. None.
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