Spring Tour 2010 (San Diego & Los Angeles 5.8 - 5.9.10)

Saturday afternoon we hit the highway and trekked across the desert towards the West Coast. I forgot to mention that heading into Vegas we made another pass by the Hoover Dam. A part of me felt bad that I had insisted we detour to the Dam back in 2008. I was convinced it was going to be the only time I would get to see that thing, and now here I was again, and it was right on our way this time. Oh well, the thing is still nuts, pal!
We rolled into the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego and pulled up to the club. Portugalia is a restaurant right downtown, and they had a decent setup for a show. We ate at the club, and the food was amazing. Mike ordered a pizza that made it back to the bus, and later on it was savored by all. I always hear bad things about west coast pie, but this thing was terrific. The gig was also great. This show was our first night with The Heavy Guilt as a full ensemble. The rest of the band was extra nice, and they pulled a huge crowd for their hometown show. hi8us had their own local fans in the room for our opener set, and we felt like we played it really well.

After the gig we made the call to shoot up to LA where we were playing the next night. We stayed with Sam’s buddy Joey and went out for a huge breakfast the next morning. After breakfast we went to our buddy Andrew’s up on the cliffs of Pacific Palisades. We chilled out at his place for the afternoon and decompressed a bit. Andrew’s backyard overlooks Santa Monica to the left and Malibu to the right. It felt like we were in a scene out of Entourage, except while we taking in the view we were doing our laundry in a coin operated washer/dryer downstairs. Whatever though, life was good. We were looking out on the Pacific. The Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier was off in the distance. Everyone was psyched to get to play our stuff in LA. In a town where you are competing with everyone and their brother for a crowd, we had our own little pocket of heads in the room. Dan Rockett played a solo opener set, then the Guilt, then us. The sound was great, and the vibe of the room was nice. Highlight of the night for me was my old school buddy Bill making it out for the show. Bill and I used to spend all of our time together playing whiffle ball in Keith Higgins’ driveway and bombing around on our little skies at Loon Mountain when our families went on February vacation together. Our families always remained close after Bill and his fam moved out to Wisconsin, but somehow he and I just never crossed paths again. After the gig we all hung out and caught up a little bit. It had literally been 20 years since I had seen my old friend, and the best part was that cool feeling of familiarity that was there immediately as we started talking. Bill is the man, and Los Angeles was good to hi8us this time around.

A big thanks to Bill, Mike, Yael, Andrew, Julie, Joey, Dan and Sam’s crew for coming out and feeling that east coast style for a night in the city of angels.

jim

Spring Tour 2010 (Grand Canyon & Las Vegas 5.7.10)

Our experience at the Grand Canyon was amazing. After another visit later in the day with the whole crew awake, we hit the road for Vegas. The band was looking forward to making our 2nd appearance in Sin City. All the kids at the Las Vegas Jam Band Society showed up at our last gig, and the night was awesome. This time around, the LVJBS actually put on the show, and we knew they rolled strong, so we were all feeling optimistic about the night.

Before the show, Mike, Colin and I were in the bar section of the club playing video poker and the bartender behind the bar was mixing up drinks like a pro. She's a bartender in Vegas… I guess she was a pro in the truest sense now that I think about it. Anyway, her buddy was sitting across the bar and next to us. She finished mixing a drink, and took a quick sip and exclaimed to him “Ahh, now that’s a fucking drink” The emphatic claim peaked my interest, and I asked her what it was. She explained that the drink is a Nigroni, and that it’s a “bartender’s drink”. I asked her for one, and she started pouring. The drink is equal parts gin, campari and sweet vermouth on the rocks… with an orange twist garnish if you’re fancy. Fortunately, gin is my booze of choice, and my go-to is a gin and tonic when opt for the hard stuff. I took my first sip of my first Nigroni, and I instantly knew it was my new fave. I enjoyed Nigronis for the rest of my time in Vegas, and have found myself ordering them when I am at a cocktail impasse ever since. It beats the hell out of asking for Jack and Cokes like everyone else on the planet.

With the West Coast on the horizon for hi8us, we packed up once again and lingered a little bit longer with our awesome crew of friends from Vegas. The night was definitely an emotional boost for us, and made after hours at the motel tons of fun. We were really starting to feel that vibe of being a band on the road at this point. We all had our tour legs under us, and our playing was really evolving into this tight little music machine again… we could all sense it. I had aspirations of doing some late night gambling that night, but it never happened. I recall Mike and me ending up on the couch with Travelly as the sun was coming up. We were eating a bag of those fluorescent colored mustard pretzel things that taste like heaven when you are banged up and we were washing them down with Torpedo IPAs. This all went down while half watching Marky Mark in his role as the frontman for Steel Dragon in the movie Rock Star. The irony was perfect.

jim

Spring Tour 2010 (Flagstaff & Grand Canyon 5.6.10)

We had highly anticipated our next gig at the Flagstaff Brewing Company. It was thirsty Thursday, and more importantly, it was our first bill with the dudes in The Heavy Guilt from San Diego. It was actually just a few of them for right now…Eric Canzona and Al Howard to be exact. We set up, ate some grub and met Eric and Al as we were getting ready to soundcheck. The stripped down Guilt had Eric on acoustic and Al on percussion and other stuff. We got our first taste of The Guilt’s style when we caught their opener set. Al plays everything under the sun as a percussion instrument… including his tone bending circa 1986 modded mini boom box and a mop head with bottle caps manually attached to it.. We liked these guys from the start, and things were looking up for the next five dates we were playing with them. We were glad we dug on their music. It was a relief. By the end of the night, we had won the room of strangers over with our east coast rock style. After a chaotic load out and getaway, Precious was fueled up and ready to sprint towards the Grand Canyon for a late night camping boondoggle. We had a site reserved at this wonder of the world, and a late night push seemed like short work at this point. The reality of the leg was something different…

Long ago I had decided that seeing the Grand Canyon was one of those things I must do before I die. I would say “10 things I do before I die”, but getting to a place in Arizona is pretty attainable. All you need is some spare time and a little expendable income, and you’re there. I can’t go around having all these very attainable “10 things I do before I die” items. What happens if I knock them all off by the time I am 43, and then I have a bunch more years of living with nothing to do before I die. I guess I could have one thing on there like “eat 100 grape leaves in one sitting, or levitate”, that could keep me busy in the sunset years of my life… anyway, I digress.

The drive to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff ended up taking a while. By the time we got to the park, the sky was early morning blue, and the loser birds were chirping. Maxi was driving, and I was in shotgun. I was very excited despite our severe lack of sleep. Max looked pretty excited too. With the rest of our posse crashed out in back, Max and I travelled up the road to the observation area to get a quick peek at the canyon before we went to sleep. As we approached the parking area, there was this unique feeling in the air. We were surrounded by short trees on either side of the road. You couldn’t really see anything special around you, but for some reason you could just sense that this massive hole in the ground was close by. I think it was similar to that feeling you get when you’re hiking, and you approach a lake in the woods. You can’t really see the lake, but you can just tell that there is big open space near you. It was either that sort of feeling or all the signs we were passing that said “Grand Canyon Viewing Area Ahead”.

Max and I walked up to the canyon at dawn. There were a fair number of observers there taking in the scene. Everyone shared in a quiet serenity. You lay your eyes on that big canyon for the first time, and nothing you have seen or heard about it before seems to have done it any real justice. We hiked out to the edge of a butte and took in the silence of the AM as sun crept up over the far edge of the canyon. There was nothing to say. We just stood there in the beauty of nature doing its finest work. It was something special. I will never forget it. It might actually be one of the top 10 things I have ever done.

jim

Spring Tour 2010 (Dear...dear Santa Fe - 5.5.10)

After that mindbender weekend in NOLA, and some solid trekking across Texas, by the time our schedule had us in New Mexico, my internal clock and generally well grounded perception of time had been sufficiently spun. Continuous hours of erratic sleeping and extended driving, warp the days of the week into a time casserole of daylight and darkness. Your contact with the world outside of your vehicle becomes limited to the people you run into in those brief moments using highway rest-stops. Mike had a most memorable experience in Santa Rosa during one of these little stops. Ask him about it.

Our next stop was a Cinco de Miyo gig in Santa Fe. We immediately loved this high desert town. Max, our soundguy at the club we were playing, only affirmed the good vibrations we got upon our arrival. He was super friendly and laid back. Max took us for a short tour into the art-rich neighborhoods of Santa Fe showing us key points of interest all along the way. The air was perfect and evening was coming.

As we walked back to the club, the sun was setting on the horizon and I finally started to feel awake and ready to play music.

We opened for a local Santa Fe band called Rubixzu, and had a great crowd for our set on this annual party night. We got great feedback from the crowd, and even had some new fans in the room that had done their hi8us research before hitting the show. That always feels good. As the evening got on, we packed up shop and split to an excellent state park nearby where we planted Precious for the night, and cracked a few cold celebratory beers before turning in. The next morning was breezy and clear. We got on the road in good time and grabbed coffee at Bad Ass Coffee in Bernalillo, NM. The folks behind the counter were extra good to us. The quality cup-a-joe and friendly attitude were just what we needed before the push to Flagstaff.

The hi8us boys were especially impressed with the ice-coffee built ice cubes that complimented their high end brew. Down the road hours later when I thought I was without a sip of coffee, I looked down at my previously coffee-less cup and noticed my coffee ice cubes had melted into the energy yielding caffeinated goodness that I so desired at that very moment. As I sipped down the remnants of this café innovation, I came to truly realize how incredibly bad ass Bad Ass Coffee actually was. I think coffee ice cubes gave me faith that we are going to be ok. This country was built on innovation. From the industrial revolution all the way to the iPod, our forward thinking has kept us at the forefront of technology. Leonardo Da Vinci said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. I thinking he was referring to the coffee ice cube when he came up with that lil nugget of wisdom. Cheers to that Leo; )


jim

Spring Tour 2010 (Houston & Austin 5.3 - 5.4.10)

After a whirlwind weekend in the Big Easy, hi8us shot west towards Houston to play a venue called Super Happy Fun Land. Our boy Sam Katz jumped on the road with us in NOLA, and the five of us eventually arrived in Houston Monday evening.

Super Happy Fun Land is something you need to experience first hand to fully grasp. For the entire night, I felt like I was living an outtake scene from Zappa’s 200 Motels. This oversized art space was covered in excellent graffiti, and the most random collection of vintage oddities you will ever encounter.

Lou, the owner, met us at their loading door and showed us around. We rocked out a high powered set in this giant room, and then hung out with the locals a little bit sipping our BYOBeers after the show. Sipping my Bud, I looked around the room and took inventory of where I was again. I couldn’t help thinking back on my life back in Boston, and the routine I have back there… and that now I am in the nucleus of weird down in Houston.

As I write this, I wonder what is happening at Super Happy Fun Land right now. Are the lights off with nothing special happening at all, or are little Oompa Loompa type figures creeping out of the dark corners of the room eating cotton candy and lighting off jumping jacks while carousel music plays over the PA in the background? Lets hope for the latter!

After the gig we camped in our bus “Precious” at a state park for the night and shot to Austin the next morning. Tuesday were psyched to arrive in the live music capital of the world. Our date was downtown at The Red Eyed Fly off of 6th Street. We played to a thin crowd, but were all riding high and pretty psyched to be where we were. We worked it out on The Fly’s excellent outdoor stage and then hung out for the band that was on after us for a bit.

You tell yourself that the “O-for” gigs make you appreciate the shows that slam. There’s a challenge to digging deep and bringing the pepper on a night when you don’t have a big crowd to feed off of. It’s a weird form of on the job training I suppose. It’s certainly not a webinar from your cubicle. Anyway, I thought we sounded awesome on this Tuesday night in Austin Texas, and felt good as we hit the road for Santa Fe, a short 13 hours away. Yee-Ha!

Spring Tour 2010 (New Orleans- 4.29 - 5.2.10)

Mike and I met up at Logan after work and hit Lucky’s in Terminal A for a few pops before we boarded the jetplane and flew to NOLA to start this run of shows. Max and Colin had been driving our tour bus, affectionately dubbed “Precious”, down the eastern seaboard for the past few days. The plan was to meet up and catch some late night music right away. We found Colin at the Louis Armstrong Memorial Airport when we arrived, and the roller coaster began immediately. The next few days for the hi8us boys were to be spent in the soul drenched chaos of this amazing city during its showcase event of the year; Jazzfest!

Our only obligation was to be in top form for our gig at the Old Town on Friday night during their annual Crawfish Boil Party. After a night of Boogaloo perfection at Tipitina’s, and sleep into the late afternoon, we emerged from our bungalow to set up and drop some music on the Old Town. The whole vibe of this party was perfect. With a packed house of Old Town patrons and friends stuffing their faces with Cajun boiled crawfish and crispy fried chicken, all washed down with sangria and an abundance of macrobrews, we jumped into it and rocked three sets under the outdoor patio.

The Rosen Bachelor party crew showed up, as well as my mom’s favorite doctor, Andy, that she works with back in the Commonwealth… a long time New Orleans resident. The whole place was charged up, and the feel good vibe of the city and Jazzfest was palpable in the hot humid air of this Friday night.

We were all sweaty by the end of the night, and everyone in the place was feeling good. The band was charged up after the gig, and we carried our momentum out into the city for a late night of music and boogie. We kept it going into the wee hours before heading back to the Old Town to recharge before hitting the Fairgrounds on Saturday. After the fest, we had another great night out at the music clubs.

We repeated this whole ritual again on Sunday, but started the day off over at an excellent brunch party in the French Quarter with the Geniass Productions crew.

John Mooney and Alfred Uganda were playing the party, and Mike and I were mixing Bloodies in the kitchen. It was the perfect start to the last day of Jazzfest in New Orleans. We closed out the fest that day with a set from the Wayne Shorter Quartet and then a little bit of BB King in the Blues tent. Colin caught Aaron Neville’s set to close things out… a Jazzfest tradition for many.

After one last night of music, and late night café au lait and Beignets at Café Du Monde with Daki, we crashed in anticipation of the rock n’ roll sprint around the USA that we were about to embark on. Our souls reloaded, we hit the hay and closed out our time at Jazzfest 2010. Thank you New Orleans! Shout outs to everyone who shared this amazing weekend with us. Darren, Jon, Jay, B-Dog, Rodney, Daki, Sue, Andy, Kurt, KP, John, Al,

jim

Spring Tour 2010 (Final Prep Weekend April 17-19)

The weekend before our big national tour, we had a final push at the shop in Salem working on the tour van. Some serious man hours got this thing in top shape. A big shout goes out to Maxi, who’s focus and experience as a craftsman made our touring vehicle an oasis of comfort and safety. Max and Colin were ready to hit the road the Monday after to trek south. It felt like Christmas eve for the four of us. “This time on the road… it could be the best time ever known!”