Sunday, September 27, 2009

Fall tour '09 Recap

santa cruz, ca

all I can say is: vegan milkshakes, beautiful river spots, epic power outages, late night french fries, dog walking, Miguel playing and good time having. Thank you Santa Cruz for hosting my first ever great day there!


oakland, ca

The show was hosted in Holly's (small) living room where about 30 people had to be crammed into this tiny space. I played in front of an incredibly rambunctious group of people, and it probably made for the most hilarious show of the tour. Before anyone set up one of the roommates was playing a video game, and while her character would walk past another character everyone would scream "RIP HIS HEAD OFF!!" regardless of the context. needless to say she was NOT happy about this, haha. (I would explain this better but I don't understand video game terminology. sorry)

aside from that, I love just sitting and watching people yell at each other from across the room when I'm supposed to play (not being sarcastic at all, I swear), and I have to wait for their argument etc. to be over with. so funny!

I was so psyched to be playing with Miguel again, one of my favorite people to see when I'm out and about. His set was hilarious as usual, and included a rendition of "remix to ignition" by R. Kelly. so fucking good, I promise.

reno
, nv

Played a show at the Hen Den with this AMAZING band called My Flag is on Fire (go check them out: http://www.myspace.com/myflagisonfire). I missed them last time because I got altitude sickness so badly I threw up everywhere (not even kidding) and this time I actually got it again, but not so bad that I couldn't play/enjoy the show.

Stayed with the SWEETEST people ever. ever ever ever. Made a frustrating and delicious raw pie with danielle, drank some tea and hung out with some adorable kittens. Oh, and I had to strategically place my bag in a way where the cats couldn't pee on it. that's always fun too.

lincoln city, or

The drive out here was insanely long, so we stopped at a lake out in the middle of nowhere and swam for awhile, and then spent a night parked out in the woods in Oregon instead. as we were pulling up to our sleeping spot Andy started yelling "What the fuck are you!!!" out the window. Startled I shot a look outside to see 2 deer running alongside the car through the weeds. They probably thought we were idiots.

Played inside of a record store in Lincoln City, but it wasn't an actual show. I sang for about 45 minutes while people walked in and bought things, pretty strange! I'd never done anything like that before.. well actually, I played inside an indoor mall once for $50. I'd say that was probably more weird than this.

Afterwards our wonderful host Zelan took us to the natural food store where I had the most amazing hummus of my life! (Made by the womyn who owns it, and prepared fresh daily.) He then treated us to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant/porn shop/head shop/bar respectively called "The Filthy." interesting? I think so.

afterwards we skated the most rugged and amazing skatepark I've ever been to. Everything was super steep and treacherous, and the rain made it extra scary. not to mention the 3 or 4 drug deals we saw go down while we were there.
also, at the park there was a dad trying to aggressively "teach" his son how to skate, while the whole time yelling to "stop being a pussy and drop in" which we thought was a bit inappropriate. I don't respond well when I see child abuse, so on our way out I encouraged the child to make a positive change in his life by saying: "hey kid, you should kill your dad!"
We'll see if he takes my advice.

Spent the night with Zelan watching The Office (duh) and then andy and myself went canoeing in the morning on the GIGANTIC LAKE THAT IS HIS BACKYARD. it took us like 40 minutes to paddle all the way across it. but it was so so beautiful!

portland, or

Portland was the same as ever: Fun, inviting, adventurous and action packed. Got to hang out with some of my favorite people, ate delicious vegan food everywhere I went and hung around the vegan mini-mall for about 1/4 of my stay. Went swimming in Multnomah falls, confronted a sexist vampire, almost got punched several times by dads in line at the circus and spit off the overpass of the freeway (immature... so what?). We also got to sit outside the Roseland theater and watch hundreds of Juggalos and Juggalettes spray Faygo all over each other while waiting to get into an ICP show. Saw a pregnant Juggallette smoking a cigarette as well. not so cool.

victoria, bc

Missed the ferry to victoria by 5 minutes after driving 5 1/2 hours to get there. We had it planned out perfectly but we got stuck in traffic when we were leaving Portland. So bummed! and you think that's stupid? guess what, that's the second time it's happened to me!! Victoria hates me : ( (and I don't mean the ferry system, I mean all the people that came out to see me play and I didn't show up) Hopefully someday I'll make it over.

Instead we spent the day in Port Angeles, which if you follow the Twilight series would know that it's where a lot of the story takes place. So of course the whole town is "twilight" themed, with one cafe boasting to be the "site of bella and edwards first date" with a line out the door and an hour and a half wait to be seated. People love to waste their money, don't they?

p.s. if you like Twilight not only are you not reading a decent vampire story, you also need to get a life. I don't care if that's mean. I don't.

I will say this has been one of, if not the best tour I've been on thus far. thank you to everyone who booked me a show, gave me a place to sleep, fed me, hugged me, high fived me, donated so I wouldn't be stranded and made me feel welcome in your city. I wish tour would never end.

love always,
mike xvx

memorable quotes from this tour:

"I am racist against vampires" -Brian from Scapegoat tattoo

"I don't like it" - Miranda (
referring to the wild, angry juggalos)

"Hey you want to hear a joke? BANANA" -Courtney

"are you my friend? My name's Joseph. I'm going to kill you" -Joseph (
a random crackhead we met in downtown Portland)

"Rabble rabble SHIT rabble" - some guy on his bike

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