Tour Journal

2001-11-01 _ 11:45 AM Ben: We're off, finally, after a long load in. We have two cars, the old beater van and Lela's little Chevy. Tour compliment includes the band, Lela, Tack the roadie, and Virgil the phottographer. Fun lies ahead, we hope. Sometime after midnight at Eagle Rock-Conan So the tour starts off on an awkward foot and after a quick stop in the suburban yuppie purgatory that is pleasanton CA, for what was quite possibly the MOST watery and disgusting burrito i've ever had and some gas we get heading down the mighty road of this great state of ours. It's a little worrisome to me that we have to use the RepliVan 1.0 an old beatup 83 dodge with far too many miles and even more dings and dents, but hey, you do what you can. Besides the band we have a posse or entourage of sorts, including Tack who has been learning the fine art of roadieing for Replicator. Ofcourse that really means sitting around and BSing with us on the drive, moving some of our heavy boxes, and generally being an all around handy guy. He has yet to master the roadie lift w/ exposed asscrack, but we have high hopes for the boy. It seriously amazes me how many insects go Kamikazee on the open road. While riding down the I-5 the windshield, previously crystal clear suddenly becomes filled with the exploded corpses of unlucky pests travelling over the open road. The ineveitable squoosh, accompanied by the splatter of the bug becomes a common thing, something as ubiqutious as the hum of the engine. It's a serious bummer for me to have to clean off the windsheild, even more of a bummer for them. As we drive along the way a few things really strike me, one of them is just how beautiful, in it's way the brown grassy hills are as they slowly disappear on the side of the road. I never was really ever to appreciate this back when I lived in modesto, even though I was surrounded by it. Maybe it's just the case of not seeing the forest for the trees, and as terrible as growing up in a burg like Modesto was, there definitely were a lot of things i'm sure I would have missed out in growing up a city kid. Irregardless, it would have been pretty damn hard to convince a kid like me how lucky I was to be surrounded by brown grassy mountains at the time. Anyway, I ask Ben if this is what he thought of when he thought of California back in Indiana. He mentions that it was, if he was thinking of say, Steinbeck. Makes sense. I really like the idea of taking what we do in Replicator on the road more. It's not that playing in our home area isn't cool and all. But it seriously is the difference between having a band as a hobby and taking it to the 'next level' (to use extreme sports terms). Even though we've done this before and what not, it's something i'd like to see us focus more on in the future. Very exciting. It's also a little scary, going on a trip like this when completely broke, but i'm seriously of the opinion that it does seperate the hobbiests from the real deal. Easy to pontificate on, but hard to deal with when one is broke as a joke, like the minutemen slogan 'jam econo' is the way. So we stop at one of the numerous rest stops along the way, all in indentical little 'townlets' that are little more then exits off the freeway. It blows me away at how homogenized and generic they all are, but they got Gatorade, toilets and gas, so they have what we need. We fight ridiculous traffic on the way there, including LA rush hour which makes me want to gnaw my arm off in frustration. Interestingly enough our walkee talkees that we are using to communicate between cars start picking up some questionably intelligent drug dealer trying to co-ordinate a drop off or something of the sort. This at least provides some relief from the tedium of traffic. We get to the venue at last, and load in, it's a cool place called Koo's Cafe, from the outside it definitely looks like somebodies house and kind of weirds me out, but it's actually a venue, along the lines of 924 Gilman, but without the "punk rock" limitation. It's pretty interesting in that the bands play in what would be the living room of the house, and the kitchen is the 'cafe' part of the venue. It's a neat idea, and it amazes me that they're able to keep this place open, and with such great shows all the time (sweep the leg johnny just played, many of our friends and colleagues play here a lot). More power to them, and here's hoping the example will spawn a league of imitators. It really amazes me what people can get done if they just try. The first band up is called dewey defeats truman, a 3 piece guitar/bass/drums emo band from San Diego. They're a nice bunch of guys who are playing Scolari's Office in SD tomorrow, where we're playing with the Corrugated guys on saturday. Small world. Throughout their whole set the drummer looks like he's on the verge of tears, I just want to go up there and give him a big hug, but it must just be when he's playing the music, because he seems fine afterwards. I guess they've been around for awhile because Ben recognizes them from Indiana, maybe they played with Saraswati or something, yet again small world. Then we play, there isn't much of a crowd out watching us and after the long and terrible hellride down from the bay area, we're not in the best of show playing moods, but it's important to remember that it's not the people who's attending the show's fault that not many people showed, and you seriously have to give your all no matter what. We play a shorter set without laptop/keyboards or tapes, mainly to make setup and breakdown quicker. I repeatedly get shocked by the mic and everything sounds muddy and weird, but it's fun, for what it is. Apparantly we're a WEE bit too loud for most of these folks, but thanks to the wonderful window outside people can watch from outside, bizarre. Afterwards I question myself a little that maybe i'm not giving as much as I can, doing something that would let down Ben, Chris, and everyone else, but I decide that it's more the situation. Which is not something you can help, so you just roll with the punches. The next show will be better, and tomorrow we will run faster, etc. Slowcoach is up next, another band with a similar setup and I check them out while the others go to grab something to eat, most of their set is in that same sort of emo vein, their last song does reach out and grab me as a good one. Interesting setup with the guitarist who has an eq pedal with a boost from a blues driver. Interesting full sound to it. After that comes Persian empire, who have some kinda interesting june of 44 parts to their music, their best parts sound sort of like _huggy bear_ through the northwest k / killrock stars lens, pretty cool stuff, talked to the bass guy about his label and things, etc. Apparantly they used to be an sf band which is news to me, and again for about the 1000th time during the night, it amazes me at how small this huge world is. Talk to the koos guy after the show, about what they do, gilman, what makes koos such a cooler place with more potential and things like that. I express my admiration to him for doing it and to to keep up the good work, we have to cut the conversation short before the last guy/act books on tape plays, because we have to get down to where they are staying. It's too bad, the guy from persian empire's description of Pavement meets Squarepusher sounds pretty interesting. Could either be really bad, or really cool... tough to tell. I come up to him and let him know that we have to jet, seeing as how bands taking off without watching the other acts is a big pet peeve of mine, and he seems to understand, I make a note to check him out in the future. So we jet out of Santa Ana and drive up to Eagle Rock, some area by Silverlake, near Pasadena. Stay at ben's friends house which is quite wonderful, and I finally get the chance to put some of these random thoughts down 'on paper', Tack discusses hacker alliance stuff while Virgil kicks it underneath his jacket. Surprising tales of Ben as the Daddy Mack from back in Indianapolis abound. South Park is watched as well as any number of other television programs. I type this and get ready to go to bed, missing Lisa terribly and looking forward to doing some stuff in LA and playing with Babyland tomorrow. Friday-Santa Monica-in a parking lot Grab the laptop back in the van after a quick jaunt to the beach in Santa Monica. Amazingly warm water for november, I had a lot of fun burrowing my feet into the wet sand while Lela attempted to chill warm cans of budweiser in the water by burying them. We all hang out on the sand listening to the Ramones on the little mono tape deck and everything is just fine. Later on I make a scale model of Egypt, complete with sphinx (w/smiley face instead of real face) out of sand, while Ben digs a hole almost a foot and a half deep for no explicable reasons. Jetted out of Eagle Rock early after watching a comedy special from an english transvestite named Eddie Izzard. It's funny, but weird to watch television, as i'm totally a non tv watcher. There's no advertisements thanks to a contraption they use on it, thank heaven for small miracles. We stopped by in Pasadena for some quick food before heading down to the beach, the LA smog is really something else and my allergies react to it pretty harshly, still it's a nice place to visit, even if I wouldn't live here. it's really cool to be doing this, and not really having much obligations, other then being at the show tonight. The American way seems to be an indoctrination towards the 9-5 lifestyle, where if you do anything that doesn't follow that trend it's invalid or foolhardy. I'd like to think that touring like this, even if it's econo as all hell is a nice big middle finger to that attitude. I wish I could communicate to others how much easier it is then it seems, even when it's hard, then again... I guess that's what this is for. ok, off to the santa monica library with Virgil now. 2001-11-03 1:55 pm. Ben. Last night was the LA show. Downtown LA, where no one lives but people in old boxes on the corner. The club was the Smell, a medium-sized workshop type space. This was set up by the superb LA junk-punk band Babyland. They're one of those bands where their independence and integrity preceeds them. Plus they have a following. That mean at least a few people will be watching. We all had doubts about the club when we showed up and saw the abandonment surrounding it. Plus, the club is very aptly named, as the dumpster by the door (the main entrance was in an alley) was overflowing and quite rancid. After returning from dinner at noodle house "Mr. Ramen" we found out that three hardcore bands showed up expecting to play. Hurray for double booking. The person who supposedly set up the show was nowhere to be found. Babyland, the club, and the hardcore bands worked out a deal: they could all play, but they had to be done by 10 pm. They loaded in, shared gear, and knocked off three bands between 8:45 and 10:00 pm. Good show! We played first of the three bands in the "real" show. It was pretty tight and we had abuot half the crowd's attention. The synth sounded great, hooray to a good PA. There were some akward moments, so I responded with subtle surrealities and akward banted about dropped D tuning. I don't remember much about the second band except for the outfits and gear. Babyland rocked, but I was so zonked from playing that I didn't get as into it as I have at other Babyland shows. Thanks so much, Babyland, for having us. I hope we keep returning the favor again and again. Post show we end up crashing at Frank's house, a transplant from San Francisco. he has a nice little apartment in out of the way Hollywood. Thanks for liquoring us up, Frank. Driving too and from Frank's house really depressed me. there's something about the never-ending, slightly scungy LA/Hollywood neighborhoods that just eats my soul. I'm very happy to be leaving LA. 01-11-03 8:09 pm Conan So it's 7 o'clock here in San Diego and we are doing what has quickly become the tour hallmark, namely drinking in the van while we wait for the show to start. This time we're parked outside a friend of Virgil's at what will soon be a hardcore (?) house show by a band called _run for your fucking life_, i've been told that this is their second to last show. Which might mean something if I paid any attention at all to hardcore music. I'm here typing on a computer and drinking moosehead, while we listen to Tom Waits on the lovely little mono stereo, Chris is having serious bowel problems due to some bad rest stop food from a vending machine. I decide that it's high time to recount the tales of last night and today and start typing on the laptop while the others yak and drink in the van, when, lo and behold the cops show up. Turns out the neighbors of Virgil's pals got a little freaked out about a beatup old van being parked outside of their house with a bunch of people just hanging out. Expecting molesters or terrorists instead of a bunch of nice rock kids from up north shooting the breeze. After talking with the surprisingly nice fuzz they gave us a little reprimand about the open alcohol containers, as it's illegal to have open containers in a vehicle, parked or not. One of the cops in a very deadpan manner informs us that when moving the only things legal that can be tossed out of a moving vehicle is water and chicken feathers. After a quick inquiry we found out that if a live or dead chicken is attatched to the feathers it is not legal. Cops with a sense of humor, a very bizzarre thing. So to pick up on where Ben left off last night, we headed down to the venue _the smell_ after coming back from Santa Monica Beach. Upon pulling up it was pretty easy to understand why it was called the smell, the numerous dumpsters outside all giving off an odor that was far from pleasant. After a double booking I was very leery of a successful or fun show, espicalliy with hardcore bands being the double bill. But props to the OC hardcore bands, they pulled it off and got the hell out of Dodge. Just in time for us, RepliTaco from Oakland. After a seriously extended setup on the narrow and shallow Smell stage, we're ready to go. The Soundguy a missing tooth, long haired rock dude, who tells some great stories of when his band played with Motorhead and seems like a genuinely just cool and awesome person, it's too bad a lot of folks would just write him off. The man does a good job though, from what I can tell the sound is really good, probably even better then what we're used to back in our home area. The venue is really nice and has a cool vibe to it, it reminds me a lot of 21 Grand back in Oakland, if it was about 3 times as long, more established and had more shows. I dig it a lot. Overall we play much better then the night before, we do a couple of the new songs and they go over well. This time we have both the keyboard and the tapedeck and it makes a lot more difference, even with the seriously bizaarre feeling and looking stage, the show seems to be way better tonight. We get a good reaction and sell a decent amount of stuff too, hooray! gas money and cash to eat with! What luxuries one foregoes for the touring lifestyle. After we play EMA3 sets up, in a timeframe that makes us look like the Ramones to their ELO. It's times like this that i'm really glad we're a 'rock band' and don't have ridiculous amounts of stuff to set up. EMA3 are good, they definitely do one thing, but they do that one thing well, pseudo-kraftwerkian synthness with an intelligent new wave feel. They're just a two piece, but between keyboards sequenced stuff and vocoder they sound a lot thicker. They definitely have a Kraftwerk thing going on, and they must know it as they open with a cover of radioactivity. Pretty cool. We make some amorphous plans to bring them up to the bay area sometime, I think they could get a good reaction there. Next up is Babyland, who really should need no introduction, but sadly enough do. They're an amazing two piece band with sequenced electronics, live percussion and live vocals, along with the smatterings of power tools, fire, air freshner, road flares, etc. etc. They're as incredible to me as a band like fugazi or the minutemen, in ethics and example as well as music, but unlike both of those bands, they have yet to get the notoriety that they so richly deserve. I't snot something that really concerns them, but I know that there karmic rewards will pay off, if nothing else then because they are just so amazing. So the show goes well aside from some sound troubles at the outset, and a rude fellow dressed only in a speedo who is hassling all of the female types around and roughhousing. Thanks to this twits 'moshing' somebody almost gets really hurt, so Babyland stop the show and remind everyone to be cool, it's more important to have a dance pit then a mosh pit, as when people are dancing others enjoyment isn't destroyed by endangerment or dismemberment. Speedo man gets the hint and the show continues on, a little friendlier and less testosterone induced. That's a good thing. It's hard for me to be objective about the music of Babyland, because it's something that's so damn important to me, but as always they put on an amazing performance, something that most folks can appreciate regardless of musical preference. Be they rivethead, indie rocker, punk, accountant looking fellow or whatever, it's a very very cool thing to see and they do it very well. As great as the are on record though they are definitely what one would call a live band. So the show ends, good times had by all and we head off for the lodgings for the night, not bad. which brings us up to present speed, sitting at a chair in 'scolari's office' the venue for the night, doing the thing most done with this. Waiting... waiting.... waiting. There's an amusing conversation at the bar between a patron and the bartender about OAKLAND, (our hometown), this gives us all a bit of a chuckle, as they don't yet know that THE REPLICATORS (as we have been billed) are from Oaktown usa. Fun surprises are sure to follow suit. rock. 2001-11-03 2215 tack We call ourselves rockers but it takes 3 whole days to get the attention of the cops. I don't know how many times we almost ran some other car off a cliff, slammed beers with strangers in the van off the side of the road or urinated in public. (to be continued, gotta help load.) All of this and more, but the thing that gets their attention is us hanging in the van down the street of a punk house in San Diego. They weren't dicks or anything, just checkin up on the gaggle of seedy miscrients in the scary van. They took down chris's number though. He was deathly ill with [deleted for dignity] but I think they might have thought we drugged some guy and were smuggling him across the border. The van is scary. Ben and I repaired it at 90mph with duct tape and limbs outside the vehicle twice on the way down. The door sometimes threatens to derail. conan - from home - tieing up loose ends So after a bit of waiting the show starts to come together, bizaare setup in that the bands play in the floor right next to one of those claw machines with a bar 'videogame' that has 'amusing' things such as poker and smash the monkey. Pretty strange, but it was cool to see things get going and people start filling in. The first band the drop science were nothing short of a complete surprise, they weren't just good, they were great! Ben put it best by saying that they sounded like Trans Am without all the Kraftwerk-y parts. Very precise, odd time signatures, super cool stuff and a great live act. They didn't play for as long as i'd like, but they played long enough to earn a fan. Talk of bringing them up to the bay area ensued and maybe doing something else in the future like touring together or something. Nice. They seemed like good folks who are very dedicated to their music. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised by great bands. We were up next, it was a little weird following such a great band, but since we're a different animal so there wasn't that much pressure in my mind. For the first time on this jaunt I drank significantly before we played, maybe because we were playing a bar instead of an all ages performance space type deal where Alcohol can get the place shut down. We eschewed the tape deck because of the limited PA, it was really going to turn out to be more hassle then it was worth, instead we decided just to throw down the rock. Chris wasn't feeling too well, so I was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to put his all into it without being detrimental. Espically when he pounds hell out of the drums like he does, but he rose to the occaison and came off like a champ. I had fun weirding out the audience circling around them, standing on their tables while playing and sitting on barstools next to them and asking them if they were enjoying the show. A lot of fun. There was a couple sitting up front for pretty much the whole night and the guy looked very much like he could be Charles Bukowski's brother, weird and wild stuff. Amazingly enough they held their ground with no ear protection whatsoever. Brave brave folks. So the show went well and was a lot of fun, I had doubts about the room but they came through like champs, we were treated well and paid even without a door to draw from, which is always nice. Next up was Corrugated, some friends of ours that we played with a ways back in Oakland at the Stork. Before Rob was in the band Mike Kennedy from Drive Like Jehu was in the band, which is a 'claim to fame' of sorts, but then again it's San Diego so if there isn't some sort of connection to DLJ, RFTC, or what not it's a strange thing. Way cool though, Corrugated mine the same sort of musical genre we do in a lot of ways, with different dynamics. Definite references to Unwound and Shellac are pretty obvious, but they are developing their own thing which is very cool, the band is tight and plays well with each other which is important. They're great folks as well. Anyway there must be something to the hometown advantage because they rip it up something fierce and put on a great show, a fitting end to a great night. Makes me excited to hear what they do in the future. Show ends and we hang with _Corrugated_ for awhile at their pad upstairs from the venue. Totally weirds me out, how strange it must be to just go downstairs when it's time to play a show, cool though. I try to get Lane Corrugated to try and stump Prof. Ben with some gear questions, unsurprisingly Prof. Ben comes through like a champ and answers all his questions and more. Insane! I sometimes wonder if Benny isn't a cyborg or some sort, and then I remember that he reads gear books for fun. I'm glad he knows this stuff so I don't have to. We hang with them for a bit and BS before taking off to Ben's friends place in SD. Seems to be a recurring theme, displaced Indiana folks in SoCal. Hey makes for a place to stay though, which is fine by me. We hang out, antics ensue and drop off to Bed. Next morning it's a quick slice of pizza or two before heading back up the long helldrive back home. Ugh, not looking forward to that, but we get ready to roll anyway. Lela and Chris split off to San Pedro to catch up later, Lela's Great Grandma isn't doing so well and they're going to visit. It's a damn shame as she's a very sweet and vibrant old lady, but people get old, it's unavoidable. Get's me a little contemplative. If I was a religious man i'd pray for her, but i'm not so I just hope for the best and move on. Interestingly enough I guess the rumor is that she used to live across the street from Mike Watt. Such a small world. Anyway, it's all the best for her and back home for us, after a fun little jaunt. The ride goes smooth for the most part, for some reason the oil light keeps coming on even though the oil is fine, that's a little worrisome, but to be expected in an older van. Other then that the grapevine is fine. We hit a little rainstorm on the way over and the subsequent clouds over the mountains is one of the most breathtaking things i've ever seen, truly beautiful. And even though the tour is all over but the driving it gives me an immense feeling of pride to be out and doing this and seeing these wonderful things, espically when we're all trying hard just to keep heads above water. We hit a trucker's rest stop just off the grapevine and ponder all of the weird bits of junk and deitrus here. The important thing to remember is even the oddest little thing is completely vital to someone at some time. I play a few rounds of a fun video game called 'crazy taxi' that's pretty self explanatory. Driving the wrong way down streets and through parks to get your fare where they need to go. After being in a situation where safety is so important to everyones life it's kind of fun to go nuts a little on the game. We take off again and ride hard. Listening to Steel Pole Bathtub, Tom Waits, and what not as we drive through the mindnumbingly boring I-5 at night. We choose Pea Soup Andersons, in Santa Nella as the place to meet back up with Chris and Lela, someplaces I used to go a lot as a kid. It's a strange resteraunt themed around (excellent) pea soup, that has a gift shop, bar, and even a motel (!). The others are won over by the tasty pea soup and we meet up with Chris and Lela finally. It's a relatively quick ride back to the space in Oakland where we dump the stuff and call it a night. It seems like it's over all too quick and at the same time it's good to be home, where the urban sprawl and industrial wasteland is the same, but the weather is better and there's less smog. It's pretty empowering, going out into this huge land of ours and playing music to people who haven't heard it. It's a nice feeling, and after some pretty lengthy discussions we're ready to plan where to go next. Rock/Roll -Conan/Replicator 11/04/2001