Tour Blog #14, 15, 16 (2nd to last entry)

Woke up in Sheridan, WY which is maybe the most bizarre little town ever. I don't know why or how to explain it but the vibe was just interesting to me. When we walked into a diner to get breakfast the entire place did the classic "record stops suddenly" movie cliche thing. They all stared at us as they knew we weren't one of them.

We drove 7 hours to get to Denver which is a city I've always been interested in. I explained this to the locals who I chatted with after the show as well but... growing up there wasn't much MN sports to cheer for outside of the 91 twins. The Nuggets and Broncos were the joint. John Elway for the Broncos and Dikembe Mutombo was sort of early heros of mine. Not to mention all I could think of was the 2009 season opener the Broncos played against the Bengals. Orton threw a hail mary bomb from 87 yards out and was tipped in the air before Brandon Stokley came down with it for the game winning TD. Gus Johnson, who announced for CBS at the time, absolutely lost his mind. A great call in sports history.

Oh yeah...Denver. My friends Steve and Lee just moved down there and after a quick bite of food we met them outside the venue. This was the first time on the entire tour I got to actually drink, laugh, and catch up with friends. The show was also great as Zoo Animal had done a trade with the headlining band. Kick ass Monday evening in Denver for sure. I didn't sleep much due to the fact I knew how close we were getting to the Minnesota.

We made our way to Lincoln, NE the following morning. This is a town I've always liked but there's just not much I can say about this show. While we had a good audience and the bar was solid...the other bands just were not my thing. Nice enough guys as I chatted with the 50 year old bass player in the first band about Dead Kennedy's for a while. I just don't understand how bands don't realize you're a traveling band and when there is only a small amount of $$$ at the door you insist on splitting it three ways. Dudes!? I think at this point Holly, Tim, and myself hit a wall and were just tired of the road. Holly was baller and drove us to Des Moines so we'd cut our Chicago drive time down. I also didn't sleep very well there as we rolled in around 4:30am and left a little after 10:00am. I think I maybe got an hour of sleep this night.

Chicago...maybe one of my favorite cities and always get stoked to play there. This time we played The Beat Kitchen which is a kickass little club in the Roscoe neighborhood. The hospitality, the food, the beer (oh god...lot's of it), and the green room were kick ass. The last band "On Again Off Again" were a good band and all nice fellas as they gave us all of the door money. See Lincoln?! This does happen!

The next morning we made our way to "Hot Doug's" as Tim was wanted to go there from day 1 of this tour. The line was 30 minutes long but we toughed it out. A great place to get some insanely good dogs. Unfortunately I was feeling a bit hungover (the one and only time this entire trip!) from the night before and my stomach didn't like me very much. Thankfully nothing happened but just required huge doses of "Emergen C" and Earl Gray Tea. Holyoke, the band we played with in Chicago, gave us a bunch of free Noodle & Company punch cards and that's pretty much what we did upon arrival in Iowa City. Right now I am nursing the Earl Gray Tea and catching up on emails. Playing our last show of the tour tonight @ The Mill. It's crazy to think I will be home very soon. Like...less than 24 hours. Love and miss you all.

sorry: no time to edit again.

Tour Blog #12, 13

First of all. I have to give it up for the "R's" that have saved my brain on this tour. Ricky Gervais Podcast and The Rich Eisen Podcast. Thank you for providing me with great entertainment.

I have a lot of writing to do but I won't make this too long.

We hit up Mother's Cafe in DT Portland and afterwards we tried to hit up VooDoo Donuts. The DT location was closed for remodeling so we decided to hit up the other location. We get there and there is a gigantic line outside the building. We passed on the donut idea and drove to Tacoma. I've never been to Washington but Zoo Animal has been there 2x before. We played a friend's living room to about 30-40 people who knew all of Holly's lyrics. Great show with pretty nice people. The Hosts Aaron and Stephanie were great house show hosts. Holly's other sister lived a few blocks away so we got to do laundry, shower, and just recharge after the brutal SF to Portland drive we did the other day.

The next day we woke up and just lounged around the house. The weather was perfect (raining and 60s) and made us all sleepy. We had some lunch near "the sound" in Tacoma. Basically a sweet body of water (see pic). I totally had to blast Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks soundtrack) while driving around in Washington. Anyways... we got ready for our show in Seattle. It was pride weekend and the streets were packed and impossible the park on. We parked downhill a block away and loaded from there. The Arabica Lounge is a new place in Capitol Hill that has a cool vibe but not too many shows. The show was slow but the local band, Slow Skate, totally killed it. For any fan of "Beach House" you would dig them. I took a walk before they played and kind of explored the neighborhood. So this is where Sub Pop, Nirvana, Sunny Day Real Estate is from? Hell...even Kill Sadie moved out here (Minus The Knol)....Cool town but man it was loud and just too busy for my extreme love. I want to give it another chance but perhaps on a vacation. Visually...Seattle is fookin' awesome.

Tim's Dad just moved out there so we stayed with him as we had to get rest for our 14 hour drive to WY. Denver was two days away and this is where I'll stop. My wrist is killing me. No time to edit.

Coming up: Steve Yasgar & Lee VanLith sightings!

Tour Blog #10 & 11

So we left off in San Fransico I believe. I hadn't been to SF in about ten years and didn't remember too much about it. I remembered some of the best chinese food of my life was consumed there and that's about it. We rolled into town to see our friend, Farrah, visiting from MPLS. She made us dinner at her friend's house and that really couldn't have been better. A salad, spaghetti, chicken, and some baby potatoes. We showed up to Hotel Utah where we saw a bunch of MN Twin jerseys as they were in town playing the giants. The bar staff gave us a weird look when we said we were from MN. I guess the Twins slaughtered the Giants 9-2 the night before.

The venue was rad as the soundguy, Chuck, knew the very small room really well. He was the drummer in the Fat Wreck Chords band "Swingin Utters" at one point. He mentioned he played at first avenue a couple of times and there's probably a good chance I saw them play in the early 00's. Small world huh? Michael from the SF based band "Birds and Batteries" opened the show solo and I loved it. He had a drum pad, loop pedals, and two synths. Very cool stuff. The band who played after us, Sands, were probably my favorite of the tour. Very low key psychedelic style of music with great guitar work and a smooth rhythm section. btw - the soundguy also barbacked. workin' man!

The door guy, Rich, was awesome as we talked NFL for quite a bit and he performed a great Morris Day impression by doing his "The Bird" dance. Had me floored as how well he had it down.

We woke up early around 7am to hit the road by 8am. I truly love the SF vibe (outside of the smog) and was sad to leave the town as we only spent such little time there. We made the 12 hour drive to Portland rather smooth like...yes....12 hour drive. I finally realized my iPod has games on it so I killed some time very nicely on the trip. When I drove I played Julee Cruise's music and I think Holly dug it a lot. I guess for me; driving through the Pacific NW and listening to songs from the Twin Peaks soundtrack made me feel giddy. Such a lovely place to drive through. Truly awesome.

The Red Room is a bar in Northeast Portland that really doesn't like "Hipsters". The food menu says "Fuck Off Hipsters" with a guy holding up a middle finger. Oddly enough...I saw plenty of hipsters in there the entire night. I guess dudes in denim sleeve less jackets, with an obscure crust band's patch attached to the back...I would call that hipster? No? I actually liked the room and they could not have been a cooler staff. They got us half off food as I finally ate my first burger this tour. A burger with Bacon, Avacado, Onion Ring, Lettuce, and Tomato. Pretty righteous. Tim had wasabi on his burger and I could tell he was struggling. Too much of that stuff will kill you. The set was cool and I couldn't have been more stoked to see my friend Will Meek at the show. Dude taught me a lot about touring and how to book tours back in 2003/2004. A really cool guy who made his way out to Portland a few years back for work. We talked about the sporting broadcaster, Gus Johnson, for a little while. Along with horror tour stories. Miss that dude.

Holly's friend recently moved out here so we stayed with her in an amazing house. They have a cat but thankfully I prepared on this trip and brought night time allergy medicine and slept through the night. I'm currently writing from her house now in Portland and getting ready to maybe try "Voodoo Donuts" which I saw Anthony Bordain go to in his PDX episode. I guess the locals call Portland "PDX". Off to Tacoma today. Love you all!

Tour Blog #7, 8, 9

Oh man. Where do I start? Well I will certainly try to be brief with these as I can be. We drove from Van Horn, TX to Phoenix, AZ in about 9 hours. We forgot about the time zone change and got to the venue HOURS early. Surprise surprise huh? We hit up a dunkin donuts like I said and hit the wi-fi before load in. The show was a slight bust as the local band was one guy playing solo. Maybe 10 people there? The Rogue Bar is actually a cool venue to play and the staff + owner were super cool to us. They got us drinks and bought a few records. The doorgal got the record and told us what bands would be helpful to know next time Zoo Animal plays Phoenix. We stayed in Holly's family friend's guest house in Phoenix which was great because I finally got my own room. Of course...nothing against the band...but stretching out was pretty killer. Not to mention my shoulder was throbbing in pain when we were in the desert.

Alright...San Diego...perhaps my favorite U.S. city ever. PERFECT weather as the drive was sheer brutality on us and the van. Going up and down the hills on highway 8 made the van overheat for a quick second. Thankfully, it was only a slight scare. We arrived at Holly's sister's house in North Park and proceeded to get coffee and food at a Mexican joint. I phoned my Mom seeing if she'd send a message to my SD relatives and sure enough...two of my cousins (Mike and Joel) came out to the show. It had been at least ten years since I had last seen them. Another bonus was seeing my older brother's best friend from Edina, Chris Clarke, who I hadn't seen since Josh's wedding. We really didn't talk at his wedding so it really had been about 12 years since we really hung out. By hung out...I mean...he babysat me as a kid. I really enjoyed the show as the Soda Bar is a pretty cool venue and the bands were great. The first band had this guy Brandon in it who plays bass for Rooney. He was a solid dude to talk tour stuff with. Virgin Islands were a band from Seattle but we had a lot of mutual friends from MPLS: Erin Tate, Kruddler dudes, Jacy McIntosh, etc. He was in a Omaha band called The Cops. With a band name like that I think of Gus Johnson's commentary on Tennessee Titans RB Chris Johnson. "He's got GETTING AWAY FROM THE COPS SPEED". Hahahaa...I wish Gus was the announcer for this tour.

We had to be in LA at two pm for a radio interview in Silver Lake so we left SD early in the morning. Some wires got messed up and the radio thing was off so we walked around Santa Monica before the show. The record store (blanking on the name) was huge and two stories...and...had tons of people in there shopping for vinyl. Refreshing to see for sure! We finally got done walking around and made our way through the hellish L.A. traffic to get to our Long Beach show. I'm pretty sure the street we played on was the site for The Bluth Frozen Banana Stand in Arrested Development. We played a building literally 300 yards from the Queen Mary. The show was in a yacht club rented party room and while we had fun...we were for sure starting to miss home. I finally had my first alone time by walking the docks and calling Maija.

Scrambling to find a place to stay...I called my friend from MPLS who moved to Silverlake a few months ago. He was my boss years ago at CD Warehouse. Zero Selon is the name. He works on the set of the reality show "The Bachelor", and wasn't going to be home until 4am. He was cool enough to tell his roommates to unlock it for us. Unfortunately I only got to talk with him for about twenty minutes in the morning as we had to make our way to SF. We got our oil changed and headed for the city that plays host to DJ Tanner. I did text DJ and told her to come out to our show but she ignored me. Whatevs.

More to come...

Tour Blog #6

Today is Father's Day and I finally got to open the card Maija & Linus gave me before I left. It was totally sweet and silly as the card featured Elmo and when you pressed his t-shirt it said "Elmo loves you hahaha!" Couldn't ask for a better family! I'm glad we live in an age where technology is moving so fast. Smart phone? No...but at least my cell phone is able to call home and keep up with texts. Last night I got to use skype for the first time and got to chat/see my Mother. The desert was rough on us. We were in Van Horn, TX for the past couple of days recharging ourselves, drinking coors light (getting real crazy huh?), and eating Mexican food. As I said before we did not go to John Madden's favorite place, Chuy's, but...yes....we ended up doing that because we had to compare.

Mr.Madden,
Your taste in food is questionable. While it wasn't garbage...it just wasn't nearly as good as the joint a block away. The place is decked out in NFL stuff and has a bunch of pictures of Mr.Madden himself with the owners. We got back to the hotel, I mixed the podcast, Tim watched Daily Show on Hulu, Holly watched Neko Case videos, and we eventually all crashed pretty early. Even with 5-6 Coors in us...yeah...come on...it's water beer. I woke up in the middle of night in throbbing shoulder pain. I got up to take some advil and noticed that someone was trying to get into our room. I looked through the peep hole and saw it was a woman with her child in a sling. I opened the door and she exclaimed "Wrong room! Sorry man!". I said "Yes..indeed...wrong room man".

We drove 9 hours to Phoenix and we're currently sitting in Dunkin Donuts. Holly disapproved of her Chocolate Glazed Donut, and Tim seemed to enjoy his apple fritter just fine. For the record: I love the hell out of Dunkin Donuts and MN needs one badly. I did get to talk to my Dad today and he sounded pretty happy about how his Father's Day went. I guess The Twins were victorious AGAIN (what's happening here?) in a thrilling bottom of the 9th victory. Good job team! Tonight is our first time playing in 3 days and we couldn't be more excited to be actually doing something. I did edit the ZA podcast a little bit and hope to put that online as soon as I am complete with the mixing and editing. Oh yeah...did I mention I got to ask Tim and Holly a bunch of stuff and recorded it? I threw in some Paul Allen/KFAN stuff for the missing Thom.

That's all for now!

Tour Blog #4-5

Tour day #4 & 5
Unfortunately I don’t have much to say, as Austin was a complete bust. When we arrived on Thursday night we stayed at our hotel and just recharged. I guess our show fell through at some point during the night so we scrambled to contact venues and folks we knew. My friend tried getting us on a bill at a venue that was shutting down and that seemed promising.

We woke up the next day to go downtown and get some food at a grocery store. All I was craving was fruit and a juice. My credit card? Hah. Declined. I’ll admit and say I am pretty good about my books but I just had so much on my mind I forgot to collect money from someone to put in the bank. So yeah…thanks Mom for the boost and help! I feel weird admitting that I messed up – but it turns out everything will be ok. I got funds coming so I can pay back my Mother asap. :::ducks under a storm of shame bottles being thrown at me:::

We then made our way to the venue that my friend said she could try to hook us up with. After a couple of hours of waiting the guy said, “yes”. Awesome! Right as we are about to load in they tell us it’s a no go. We’re all pretty frustrated at this point and book a hotel 7 hours west. Did I breathe wrong in Texas? I guess I must have messed with it somehow because it did not like us very much. Perhaps I will have to give Austin another try someday.

Tim and I took care of the brutal driving and discussed foreign languages and where we’d like to live. Ricky Gervais' podcast provided some excellent laughs. We arrived at our hotel last night at 3am and proceeded to crash. Best part about this hotel? Holly got us an early check in so we don’t have to bail until tomorrow at 11am. Meaning that we checked in Saturday at 3am and won’t have to leave until 11am Sunday. $50! Baller status? Yep. You bet your sweet ass.

Today we went swimming in the hotel’s out door pool as it’s pretty damn hot here in Western desert land Texas. The water was freezing so Holly and I decided to jog around the hotel for a bit. I could only last one lap, as the heat was just too much. I jumped right in and felt bliss. The party got ruined once a couple of Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck friends showed up to the pool. Uh…yep. Time to bail on that scene.

Our bellies were grumbling so we decided to look for killer Mexican food. There was some place that John Madden raves about but we went to the wrong/right one. I got a barbacoa burrito for $3.50 and it really hit the spot. Since Holly bought lunch I decided it would only be fair to buy us some Coors light since we’re going to be here all day in the hot hot heat. Might as well make this a fun ride eh?

Tomorrow comes Phoenix and I can’t wait to start playing again. We have one day off until the end of the tour. Lots of long drives but plenty of familiar faces coming up. Cheers.

p.s. I also recorded a Zoo Animal Podcast today. Hopefully I’ll get to edit that today with my Coors Light.

Tour Blog #3

Tour Day #3
Alright – so once again we had HOURS to kill in Wichita before load in. I was kind of jazzed about this “Donut Whole” place I saw online. We made our first stop there where we each ate about 2-3 donuts and got iced coffee. Not just any donuts though… had a peach cobbler, fruity pebble, and strawberry streusel donuts. I started out by just getting two but had to go back for another. The barista, Shantel, was pretty helpful with her recommendations as I felt like a kid in the candy store. So many choices!

As I went outside to call home and Maija…a bunch of youngsters approached me wondering about what I was doing tonight. They tried soliciting me into coming to their show at Kirby’s Beer Store. Oddly enough…we were already on that show so they had no luck with trying to convince me. I love Wichita so I had to defend the city a bit as they were a bit…well…not too thrilled to be there. Glamorous city? No. However is it a cool city with good folks who are pretty accepting of all kinds of music? Yes. Absolutely.

We spent about three hours at The Donut Whole as we searched online for Thai Food. Holly found a place on her phone called The Thai house that was a little take out joint with maybe three tables. Chicken Pad Thai cost me about $6.00 and came with a healthy portion. The girl waiting for her take out overheard me say how I love Minneapolis’s weather in the fall and said,” I so knew you guys were from there! You’re accent is heavy”. Huh. Really…? Is it that bad? I always took pride on the fact that I didn’t have a stereotypical “you bet’cha” accent. I guess I am wrong!

After that meal we decided just to swing by the venue and check it out. We ended up staying and playing their pub trivia at 7pm and loaded on stage right after. By the way, I host pub trivia on Wednesday’s in MN at 7pm. So really…wasn’t anything too different from my typical Wednesday evening back home. We got absolutely smoked by the locals though. The bar is about 30+ years old and is the smallest bar I’ve ever played. The stage actually took up about 1/3 of the room.

Naturally that sounds like a nightmare but we played to a “Full” bar of 20 people who seemed to really liked it. The owner, Alex, couldn’t have been a cooler guy as he gave us free beer and a couple of pizzas. The bartender, Paul, was also a trip to meet. Been working there for 16+ years and still loves his job. Just a good old-fashioned bartender that makes you feel good about being there. Alex also insisted on purchasing Zoo Animal’s vinyl. Would not take a free copy. I couldn’t recommend this venue anymore to modest bands going across the Midwest. We met some really nice folks and caught up with a guy named Jeff from the Wichita band Paper Airplanes who were great when Askeleton played with them back in 2005.

Unfortunately the people I knew well weren’t in Wichita this time around so we took off after the show and got a motel in Oklahoma City (2.5 hours away). I took nighttime medicine in the van and by the time we got to the hotel I was already in la-la land. The motel had the A.C. cranked so I drifted away pretty quickly as I got a bed for myself and stretched out like I never have before. Holly, for some reason, built a nest on the floor with mats, pillows, and sleeping bags and gave Tim and I the beds. Holly put the team on her back and let the boys take the beds. I assured her that at ANY time she could kick me off the bed and move me to the floor. You know…I am classy like that.

Got up around 10am, had breakfast, hit up a target, and now we’re just past the Texas state line. I feel like a reverse “Cool Runnings” situation. You know how the characters couldn’t handle the Calgary cold? I am not doing well with this 104 degree Texas heat so far. Tim doesn’t seem to mind it at all and Holly loves it! She’s wearing a light jacket! She did grow up in Orlando and San Antonio though…so she has the unfair advantage of loving this shit. I’ve got the A.C. on full blast in the van and it’s saving me. Holly did another baller job of pricelining a hotel in Austin with an outdoor pool. Fortunately/Unfortunately there isn’t a drop of rain in the forecast.

p.s. This is my first time in Texas. Saw a “What-a-burger” that so many folks rave about.
update: Had Chick-Fil-A instead.

Tour Blog #2

We had literally hours to kill before our load in at The Riot Room in Kansas City. The three of us went to The Broadway Café a short block away from the venue and chilled out on cold coffee products, as the Kansas City heat/humidity was a wee bit brutal. There’s something interesting about KC I kind of dig. I’ve only been here once before and that was back in 2004. The layout is topsy turvy but maybe it’s just me.

One thing that creeps me out about KC is that “First 48” Episode that was filmed in KC about the serial killer Terry Blair. He basically spent 25 years in prison for another murder in the 80s and when he got out he went on a spree. His victims? All prostitutes. Truly creepy as he would call 911 dispatch and tell them where they could find the bodies. They finally caught up to him by tracking the pre-pay cell phone to a tower near a train track. In the messages he would leave 911 you could hear a train go by. Last night as we checked into our hotel I kept hearing those train sounds and freaked me out a bit.

To calm myself I listened to the UP soundtrack and watched The Office on netflix. The show? Oh yeah, right. Great sounding venue with tons of bigger national acts coming through. Our show was pretty low key as it was a Tuesday night but the 15-20 people who watched us were pretty into the set. Got to do a couple of extra tunes since we had extra time. It was the first set I felt really good about so far. Outside of me jamming the hell out of my left middle finger during a cymbal choke…things went just fine. The staff was totally nice and the soundgal did a great job mixing us. She complimented me on how I “dial in” my toms. That’s so funny to me because I am maybe the worst guy to talk to when talking about tuning drums.

Plenty of folks offered to let us stay with them. One guy had 3 cats and 2 dogs which I just can't do anymore. While I am all for the punk rock part of sleeping on floors….my body just can’t handle that many cats (big time dog lover). Holly and Tim were more than accommodating and found a hotel just outside of KC for a reasonable price. I think it was Dave from The Blind Shake I was talking to about this…or maybe it was Jeff Brown... but hotels on tour are clearly the jam. Time to put the youth punk days behind us of sleeping on floors and stay in motel/hotels. Although we can’t do this every night it is nice that we have that option now. Kind of a trip in this age with iPhones (Holly has one) we can just priceline hotels and use my AAA card for discounts.

One odd thing for me on this trip has been one song stuck in my head. It’s “Hero of The Day”, by Metallica. Probably one of their slower and maybe their poppiest song. The song just intrigues me for some reason. I spent last night also watching the music video and watching other videos that director did. Example: the video for “All These Things That I’ve Done”, by The Killers. Although I don’t love The Killers the video is kind of cool. We’re in the van now driving to Wichita and I’m hoping to run into some folks I met back in the day. Always kind of a sneaky cool town to play in if you’re on tour. Had some great luck there in 2004-2005 with my old bands. Going to hit up this “Donut Whole” when we get there.
Enough for today…see you tomorrow.

p.s. Waiting oh so patiently by the phone for the arrival of my older brother's kid! C'mon team!

Tour Blog #1

Tour day 1: I can never sleep the night before a long tour. I played my first show with Zoo Animal the night before and it felt great to get some of the nerves out. I think the set went well too. In the past I’ve never really had a hard time saying goodbye to friends, significant others, and family. I am not sure why but this time was gut wrenching. I know I am only gone 17-18 days but I haven’t felt this lost in a long time. I really miss my friends, my girlfriend, and my family more than ever.
I think all of those emotions made me forgetful. I forgot my drum throne back home or at Cause and I forgot my Deodorant! Sorry world! We started the tour off by playing in Omaha. I can’t lie…I was not looking forward to playing any Midwest shows at all and especially Omaha. I’ve never have had good luck in Omaha but this time around was great. We played a great place called The Side Door lounge.
The owner, Steve, also owns an extremely great restaurant a mile away called The Flatiron Café. Truly a special place and it was extra generous of him to wine and dine us to meals I could never afford. Truly exceptional stuff! The show was pretty mellow as the local band canceled due to illness and the fact the bar is usually closed on Monday’s. Either way; it was super nice of the owner to be open that night and host us.
He then proceeded to put us up in a “flophouse” which really was a house he was working on with two amazing bedrooms and bathrooms. Got up around 10am (which is rare for me to be up so late) and hit up a local dinner. Got two eggs, bagel (free sub for toast), bacon, and hashbrowns for $5.95.
I suppose I could get down with the speed of Omaha! We left town around 11am and headed towards Kansas City. I drove most of the way and listened to my “gym” playlist on the iPod. DJ Steve Porter remixes of press conferences from athletes make for wonderful driving pump up anthems. Tonight we play The Riot Room in Kansas City, MO. I haven’t played here since my friend Will Meek hooked up my old band back in 2004. I’ll give a rundown later. Cheers.
p.s. shout out to my brother Jordan who is graduating H.S. today. Sad I am missing it!