Wassssuuuuup? Here’s a video of some of our time in California and a look at our studio session for Lujo’s Choose Your Own Holiday comp- for which we recorded Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman.”
We played Thee Parkside in San Francisco. It’s one of our favorite places to play. Always a good crowd, super professional staff, and killer sound. My childhood friend Tony showed up, as well as our friends from Tallahassee Kenneth, Dave Geis, the Say It Twice boys John and Matt and friends. It was our last show of the tour with Steve Soto and the Twisted Hearts, and we bid them farewell and thanked them for an insight at true musical professionalism. In our few conversations with them they unloaded a wealth of knowledge and insight of being self-sustaining musicians.
That night we crashed with a friend of Frank Tuner’s and Ian, Matt, Smith, and I slept on the bus, tired enough to make it quite comfortable. We woke in the morning, found some coffee and began the long haul to Portland, now with our British tour buddy Frank Tuner riding along. From our few days out west last summer with Frank, we knew we’d like him, but the coming days with Frank riding along would only fan the fire of our infatuation with that “chap”. Highlights: we talked about important things with Frank like Dame Judi Dench, how sad he was when his British mate The Crocodile Hunter took that sting ray barb to the heart, British Office vs. American Office, why British people call fries chips and chips crisps, the amazing British cartoon character Rocko from Rocko’s Modern Life, popular British idiom like “jog on” and “quit bitchin’ my shit” among a slue of fun cross cultural topics. Needless to say, we are deftly keen to all things British. Thanks, Frank Turner.
We made it to Portland in the early hours of the morning and holed up with our friend Jordan. We made quick work of making his nice new pad smell like bum pants. Our buddy Jordan is one of those rare souls who open their doors completely and whole-heartedly to us every time we cross paths, and we are lucky to know him.
After about three hours of sleep we headed over to the Wieden + Kennedy advertising headquarters for a radio interview set up by my Florida State friend Simone (who is now interning at the advertising juggernaut’s headquarters). That gal is going places. The interview went very well, and you’ll be able to hear it online here.
That night we played a killer coffee house/ venue called The Backspace. They treated us very well and the show was awesome. Lots of attentive applauding folks. Frank closed out the night with a killer set, and was accompanied by our very own David Pinkham who played a ripping harmonica solo on one of Frank’s new songs.
Later that night Jordan and Ian treated us to a wild go at Portland’s night life. We will leave it at that. Ian caught a cab to the airport around six A.M. for his return flight to Orlando after three months in the northwest. Sad to see him go, but so nice to see him walk away. Not sure if that applies…
After about another three hours of sleep, we woke up again very early to make our move to Nampa, Idaho. We spent all day in the van, and arrived to The Flying M a bit late. Our performance wore our tired van suffocated personalities like campfire smoke in a sweater. After the show, we took our time loading out, desperate to not get back into the cave of our bus to again hit the road. The venue again treated us very well, and I recommend stopping through if your tour needs a stop in Idaho.
We drove all night to Salt Lake City and again arrived, in the words of the great Bob Segar, strung out from the road. Somewhere between 5 and 6 a.m. with Smith at the wheel, we were caught in a nasty snow storm that took our road visibility to about zero. One cavalier truck driver tried his luck, and we later saw him t-boned on the side of the road. We had a quick interview at the Weber University radio station with our new buddies Matt and Shay, at which our Slate and Matt plucked out acoustic versions of “You Ever Been…” and “You’re not Afraid…” I played the knee slap and the scotch tape holder.
We played our first show of two a few hours later to a mild but attentive crowd, and had a solid show. Following that show we rode over to our second show at a bar down the road. And there in the crowd of about fifteen, four of which were the other band, four of which had seen us earlier that day, and the rest could care less if a band was playing or not, we were struck with the stinging backhand of hubris. With no real local support, beers that only pack a punch of at most 3.0% alcohol (due to Salt Lake legislation), and the realization that Salt Lake is not a town anyone should try and play two shows in one night at, we packed up our stuff and checked into a motel down the way, much more bloated than drunk from the six pitchers of water-beer the bar offered us as consolation prize. High point- we got to play with the tight band Shark Speed.
The next morning, we helped ourselves to Super 8’s continental breakfast and hit the road again for another blistering drive. At this point we’re so excited about making it home. The routing and time frame for this tour has been disastrous, and if we weren’t running veggie oil, we’d be coming home in the red. But thankfully we like each other enough, the shows have been encouragingly attended, and our shuttle bus is supremely comfortable.
Shortly after we arrived in Denver, we stopped off at our friend Virgil’s place, the Vinyl Collective/ Suburban Home headquarters. It was our first time at the spot, and Virgil snapped a photo of us with our favorite records he carries. The spot is staffed by an awesome group of folks, and Virgil is yet again another one of those dudes we are lucky to know.
The show in Denver at The Marquee Theater went very well. We were treated exceptionally well with drink tickets, food vouchers, a green room, an amazing guarantee, and a real healthy welcoming crowd. We played one of the most energetic rocking sets of the entire tour, and I broke a cymbal. Sometimes things like that can quickly be under-rug-swept in the face of an amazing show, and so it was.
Here are a couple vids Virgil took!
It was our last show with Frank Turner, and we stood front and center singing at the lengths of our breath to all the words we learned and a few we didn’t. Dave again played a ripping harmonica solo, and Frank finished to very pleased audience. Denver rocks. After a few hugs goodbye, Frank, that amazingly hard working Brit, was again out of our lives. Ah, what a dude. Hopefully we will make it to his side of the pond later this year. More on that to come post recording our next record.
Dave has a number of family members that live in Denver, and so we stayed with his warmly welcoming Aunt and Uncle. We shared a Jameson whiskey and ran each other through our favorite youtube videos. Patrick Stewart on Extras, David Goes to Dentist, The amazing rock band from Fort Worth Texas Complete, and Dave’s uncle- a long time musician- delivered a special gem of youtube hilarity in the video “Korean Drummer Steals the Show.”
With a big thanks to Dave’s aunt and uncle, we set sail for Lawrence, Kansas for our show at the replay lounge.
In other Look Mexico news- our best friends Fake Problems are about to embark on a supporting tour with The Riverboat Gamblers. And recently confirmed our other best bros Bear Colony just picked up a string of dates with mewithoutYou and The Dear Hunter. Two amazing tours, and plenty of opportunity to catch some great music near you.
Thanks so much for reading. More soon!
+ joshua
ha. yeah, that sucks man. how's the car doin?
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