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!
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