December 8th could have been one of those days that proved to us that touring wasn't for us or wasn't for all of us.
Our task: to drive from Eureka, CA to Bellingham, WA (northern california to the canadian border). 15 hours if we were lucky.
We left the our first show at the Placebo about 1am and drove to Crescent City, a spot Jamie and I had stayed on a road trip this past summer.
We drove for about two hours slightly past Crescent City to a campground that can only be described as the Ewok Village from Star Wars. Massive redwoods and a canopy you could believe was being used by other creatures. Somehow we all forgot it was December, which meant that most campgrounds were closed including this one.
At 3:30 am, we drove back to Crescent City and booked our first hotel of the tour. We were all gung ho about no hotels, but at 4am with a 13 hour drive ahead of us we thought sleeping in a bed for a couple hours was a better idea than saving some money and not getting any sleep on the side of the road in Sammy Davis, Jr. Jr.
When we arrived at our hotel, chosen because it looked the cheapest, Sam stepped out of the vehicle and rented the room. His task: to convince a woman working the graveyard shift that our van only had two people in it and that we therefore only needed to be charged for two people. Sam was successful.
However, upon reaching our doorstep Sam and I noticed that our new graveyard-shift-working-acquaintance had decided to sweep the front steps inexplicably at 4am and had no intention of taking her eyes off of our van.
So, we did what any band trying to sneak into our own hotel room would have done. Sam and I entered, dropped our bags, and then Sam drove to the front desk to ask our new acquaintance what convenience store might still be open to throw her off our trail.
Pushing back our collective bedtime by a couple more minutes, but saving money by not being charged for 5 people, Sam drove away with Mark, Jamie, and Paul hiding in the back of our van and returned to our front door parking at the best angle to shield Mark and Jamie's entrance. Paul decided to sleep in the van because he would have his own space and in order to guard our equipment. THANK YOU Paul!
We slept for 4 hours in a $60 hotel room. Anyone else think that the roomrates should drop if you book a room that late and then have an 11 o'clock checkout?
We woke up and got in the van by 8am, ate at Safeway and a Christian Cafe/Bookstore ("You're in a band?" "Yes. We play inspirational rock"), and then drove. And then we drove some more. We got on I-5 after Grants Pass and drove staight through Oregon and all of Washington until we got to Bellingham at 8:15pm.
As we stepped out of the van in front of the venue, WhAAM, an all-ages non-profit show space, we were greeted by a bunch of teenagers we thought might stay for the show. Then we talked to the kids running the space and were promptly told as nicely as possible (apparently the show was supposed to start at 7pm, our fault) to setup and play.
We setup. Jamie's tuner went down. We were all sore and tired, but playing in an amazing space with hardwood floors and nice lighting.
As we started playing, we realized that all the kids who had been waiting outside while we loaded-in had left and that we were basically playing to the staff at WhAAM and three random kids. Humbling to say the least. The set was fine. The kids in attendance seemed to like it. We sold CDs and t-shirts to half the crowd and were pleasantly surprised by how nice everyone seemed even though we were late and a little bit crabby.
More importantly, within minutes of ending our set, we found a place to stay. Initially with Mark, one of the WhAAM founders, and then with two other WhAAM founders, Ryan and Amanda, who had more space.
The second ska band we played with on this tour followed us. A lot of energy, but we realized they had all (8 or 9 of them) been sitting in the back (the green room if you will) during our set and that did not leave the best taste in our mouth.
The closer was a band called the All Nighters. They looked like a rockabilly band, but ended up being a surf/spaghetti western soundtrack/post-rock band. A nice surprise and their lead guitar player was very friendly and was the first person we sold a t-shirt to (who put it on and then played with it on).
At the end of the night we headed back to Ryan and Amanda's. They had an amazing apartment in downtown Bellingham. Amanda put the whole thing together and it felt like home from the moment we walked through their front door. After we got situated, Ryan played heavy and math rock records for us and then we all sat in front of the TV and watched Eugene Mirman sketches. We ended the night on the floor, couch, and pullout bed.
As we were thanking her for the millionth time, Amanda said to us, "Something would be wrong if we didn't have a band sleeping on our floor at least once a month."
We slept well, some better than others. Paul slept in the van again.
Since our drive to Seattle was only about 2 hours and we had hit it off with Amanda and Ryan, we decided to stay in Bellingham and see it during the day. So, Amanda took us to her two favorite breakfast places. The first was packed. The second was less packed, but still pretty busy. It hit the spot. We had been through a lot in the past two days and were very happy to have some comfort food.
After breakfast, we walked around a bit and met up with Ryan at his day job at Everyday Music (he runs WhAAM with Amanda and 6 or so others and works another job). While we were looking around at Everyday, Ryan took 5 copies of Procession off our hands and made an And a Few to Break section at Everyday. The first time we have had our own section. We are in the "A's" at Amoeba.
Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Ryan at Everyday and then Amanda at their house (after listening to a copy of Ryan's band's CD, AWESOME).
If we weren't meeting up with You.May.Die.in.the.Desert that night we could have been convinced to move up to Bellingham.
But, we had to drive to Seattle and play another all-ages shows. This time with friends of ours from a Berkeley show last June.
THANK YOU to AMANDA, RYAN, MARK, WhAAM and everyone else we met in Bellingham. Even though we now truly know how far Bellingham is away from San Francisco, we WILL be back.
DAY THREE: Bellevue/Seattle. Oh shit, we didn't think it could get any better, but it did!
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websites:
www.myspace.com/andafewtobreak
(myspace)
http://attnspan.com/audio/Procession
(procession)
