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Day 1 - Moving and Driving
The first day of the tour was also the last day of our longtime home, practice space and recording studio, 420 Brazil. We woke up early to cart away everything that wasn't coming with us in the van. After four years the accumulated objects had become a part of the house itself, and after taking all of it out the whole placed seemed quite incomplete, and also like a bomb had exploded.
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| that'll do, house |
We didn't have much time to reflect on all this because as soon as we were done hauling, we loaded the van and jumped in for an 8 hour drive to San Diego. We didn't have a show so we crashed at our friend Ian's house upon arriving at around midnight.
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| just foolin around |
Day 2 - Phoenix
After taking a family pic with Ian, we drove through the pebbly mountains and the border patrol stop on the road between San Diego and Phoenix. It started getting all hot and dry as the landscape got more desert-like. Last time we were in Phoenix was in July, and the streets were devoid of life because of the unbearable heat. The city was more habitable this time, and we were able to hang out on the couch outside Funny World for minutes at a time.
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| endurable |
Funny world is a house and we played in the living room. It was an intimate Sunday night show with good vibes. The house is decked out with alien-themed images and Star Trek memorabilia. Space Alien Donald came by for the show; his birthday party had been hosted at Funny World the night before.
Day 3 - Tucson
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| sports! |
We drove a scant 2 hours to Tucson, where it was noticeably cooler. Arriving in the afternoon, we set up camp at the Skybar, where we were to play several hours later. It's situated next to a solar-powered pizza place on a long street that reminded us of the Haight. There's actually a store called Peace and Love or something that was piping out "Taking Care of Business" and Doors songs. The Skybar is an astronomy themed, cavernous bar with a telescope on the patio and a giant screen for sports inside. First a crowd came for the game, then for trivia night. After trivia night it pretty much cleared out, and that's when we set up. The other band on the bill that night had canceled, so it was just us playing, aided by our buddy Frank, who did sound and recorded the show. He's in a band called Brass Tax. We played in front of the sports screen which was now showing images of swirling nebulas and such. We even got some pizza out of the deal.
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| ZOO like Frank |
Day 4 - Albuquerque
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| "food" |
We drove through more desert and another border patrol checkpoint to Albuquerque, home of famous outlaws. The clocked skipped ahead on hour on our drive, so we loaded in just before that night's zine reading was to begin. The event was at a big, inviting coffee shop near the University of New Mexico, part of Albuquerque's Zinefest 2012. A guy who dealt cards at a local casino read first with some funny stuff about that, and there were readings regarding botany and, again, Star Trek. Then we played to a warm reception. A mellow coffee house time. We ended up poring through more zines and listening to vast jam outs at the home of Derek, a local DJ / writer / awesome dude who lent us his couch and floor.
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| everyone in this town tells the truth and/or faces consequences |
Day 5 - The endless sands of Texas
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| local folk |
An alarm woke us up so that we could start the 13 hour drive to Austin. It's nice to be tired sometimes when you start driving, because you can just drink coffee and not think about how many hours of driving there are ahead. So yeah, we pretty drove all damn day, and then arrived at James' house in austin at 11pm or so. I think we lost another hour too. We passed through many many towns which seemed to consist of a single house surrounded by pickups and tractors. When we arrived at the house we were able to catch the last half hour of a brooding, squalid Russian movie about suffering and existence. I guess the characters were almost gonna go in this magic room for like an hour, but then didn't.
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| hey look, another car |
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| these bugs were all over this gas station |
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| I guess they like gas (the dots are insects) |
Day 6 - Austin
With no driving to be done, we were free to chill out and have a meal at one of Austin's many food carts with funny names.
Refreshed and relaxed, we ambled over to the venue, a bar within a complex of cafes. There was a food cart called "I Love Balls" whose specialty is rice balls containing chunks of octopus. The show didn't start until 11, so with four bands we finished up just as the bar was closing down, shifting the weekday paradigm of evening coffee shop performances to the weekend paradigm of parties stretching into the smoky beery night. Bring it on.
Day 7 - Fort Worth
We drove up to Fort Worth on Friday, and confirmed our experience from last time that this stretch of I-35 in Texas contains the craziest drivers in the country. Everyone had a huge pickup and they would just swerve from lane to lane, trying to burrow their way through traffic at top speed. If we pulled in front of one to pass a truck, they would not slow down at all but just kind of graze us as they threaded the needle at the last moment to get by. We were mostly concerned with not inflaming the infamous Texas rangers so probably thought we were elderly.
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| wholesome |
We played at an awesome big warehouse called the Wherehouse, with a bunch of excellent bands, including Slumberbuzz, who we met last time. They were sick. It was officially Friday so people were cutting loose and we had some long conversations with people who may not have been on Earth at the time. Very nice people. We stayed at a house filled with friendly little dogs.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES ON THE TOUR BLOG!!!
NEXT UP: ZOO CONFUSES THE DIRTY SOUTH
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