Saturday, January 8, 2011

Winter Tour w/Algernon step 1... So Cal




Seriously?

DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Coming down from this is going to be hard. We drove up from LA yesterday morning and played SF Last night. It was awesome, but before I get to tackling last night's monster I'm going to try and start from the beginning. Tuesday morning began at 5:45 am with Jacob picking me up from my house. We grabbed the merch from Al's house and headed for Brum's place. The trip south felt short. We didn't break down. Gas was just as expensive as it usually is. I didn't spend that much money at truck
stops. The Grape Vine wasn't closed because all the snow from the previous couple days was already cleaned off the roads. We were in San Diego ready to start partying with the Algernon dudes by mid-afternoon.
For the first section of the tour, Al was unable to get the time off of work so Tank from Algernon offered to fill in. Unfortunately, we'd never practiced with him before and had a show just a couple hours away. Being the fucking champ that Tank is, he learned enough of our songs in just an hour and a half to play a full set later on in the night.
The locals on the show that night were Joyce Manor and Koalacaust. If you've never heard of them, do yourself and go find their music on the internet. In the next couple months we'll be putting out a couple split 7"s and those are the bands that we're doing them with. Anywayyyy..... The show at the Che was extremely successful and definitely a good way to start off the tour. Later on in the night, Joe and I got extremely wasted while everyone else got burritos. Fell asleep to Happy Gilmore with all of my clothes on. Fuck Adam Sandler except for that movie.
In the morning Peter, Brum, and I went to get coffee. I almost got a life changing 5 dollar buzzcut. Peter robbed a grapefruit tree. Brum ate a muffin. We started talking about surfing and
then it really happened. Joe's friend EJ is some kind of ultra cool surfer dude that owns a bunch of boards and wetsuits. We cruised to the coast blasting the Beach Boys with the windows rolled down. If the van was a convertible the top would've been down. Judging by the looks we received in the parking lot upon our arrival, I don't think it's an overstatement to say that we looked like a bunch of kooks to all the locals.
Too bad we're actually a bunch of professionals fucking shredders. Towards the end of our session Brum and I caught a huge 40 foot tuber and high fived each other while hanging ten mash potato style all the way to the shore. Needless to say, I can't think of a better way to have spent a winter day.
As the day and night rolled on, shit only kept getting better. Big thanks to Christina, Marty, and Tim at the Warehouse in Chino for putting on one of the best shows I've ever been to, let alone been a part of. A couple hundred people showed up and it seemed like the majority of the people at the show were singing along with pretty much every band. Summer Vacation reminded me of why I fell in love with Superchunk in the first place. Algernon Cadwallader had the whole crowd dancing and hanging from whatever they could get their hands on. At one point some kid
almost pulled a huge light fixture from the roof of the warehouse down onto the crowd. Luckily someone stopped him. After the show we got food somewhere and went back to party with the Koalacaust dudes. There was an awesome dog. We were all drunk. Brum brought part of a palm tree in the living room. We almost broke a bunch of antiques. I got allergies. Sleep.
The morning only got better. I went for a jog on Venice Beach and some guy on roller blades sang a song for me. Joe bought his cd. Took a shower. There was a bbq and bunch of folks from the night before came to hang out again. Joe's dog Shadow, Rules. I'm running late now, so this blog is going to have to start moving a little bit faster. We drove to a show in Garden Grove at a house where an incredible amount of people showed up. This guy Dez did an amazing job making everything run smoothly. Our last night with Joyce Manor and Summer Vacation. Two of the best bands in Southern California right now.
Finally got to see Tiny Lungs play again. First real pizza party of the tour thanks to Omar and Paulo and some other dude that also ruled. A dog named Knuckles. I did a bunch of interviews for my soon to be disaster of a tour documentary. I'm like a baseball dad in heat when I get a video camera in my hands. Someone stole Joe's beer during the middle of Algernon Cadwallader's set. I was naked behind his amp and I swear I wasn't the culprit. We saved Koalacaust from the police at a del taco at 3 in the morning. I passed out on the ground and some bros almost jumped me for filming them pissing on each other. Lilly was singing with Tank on the banjo. Blah. Much love to all of the people in the picture below. And thanks to Jacob(far left) for photo bombing the guy that tried to photo bomb our obligatory hardcore dudes after the show photo. Get the Joyce Manor full length before they get famous and please talk shit when they do. <3

Photo Bombing the Photo Bomber








No comments:

Post a Comment