Day 4 - San Francisco

Currently, we're not really "roughing it." But, I'll get to that in a minute.

I left off right before we played at ACME in Portland on Friday, April 6th (day 1). It was a pretty good show. The weather was really nice that day, so I have a feeling most people opted to be outdoors (like, on the venue's outdoor patio) rather than inside listening to music. But, we got free food decorated with compliments, so that counted for a lot.

We spent the night at the house of an old high school friend of mine, Dannai, seen here sporting a kitty mask atop a cowboy hat while dancing to Christopher Cross. It was very nice for her to put us up (again). The way David said "thank you" was by nearly burning her house down.

You see, David wears these wrist sweat bands when he plays. After two nights of playing, they were sweaty. He was trying to think about how to dry them out since, on the road, we don't have access to things like dryers. David thought that if he microwaved them for FIVE MINUTES they would dry out. So, David put them in the microwave, left the room, and two minutes later Ben found the wristbands on fire in Dannai's microwave.

The aroma of burnt wristband is a gift from David to Dannai that, unfortunately, will linger for a while.

Then, as if one fire in a day weren't enough, on the drive from Portland to Eugene, we saw a 70's-ish Cadillac with the entire front end engulfed in flames stopped on the side of I5. Yesterday on our drive from Eugene to San Francisco, there was a controlled burn along the side of freeway (although, it was dumb because the fires were already put out - there were just the signs to warn us). So, putting all hell references aside, this might be the Controlled Burn tour. Or not. But, we need a name for the tour pronto. "April 2007 Tour" is lame.

Eugene was lovely. We played on Saturday, April 7th (Day 2) at a bar called Luckey's. It was also a benefit show for this group/place called Womenspace that provides services for victims of domestic violence. The guy who put together the show, Ian, was super nice. The other bands were nice. The bars staff was nice. The door guys who paid us out of their own pockets because Ian had a little (waaaaaay) too much to drink left before giving us the gas money we had agreed to... were nice. Zak from the Dead Americans who invited us to stay with him, drink his PBR and Emergen-C, and, overall, was an awesome host...was very nice. Everyone was nice. We like Eugene.

(Sidenote - this was the first women's benefit type thing where I heard the male singer of a band say, along with other unquestionably offensive things, "Suck my d**k, bitch!" That Gloria singer was nuts.)

On Day 3, we got an early start because of a Google-estimated 8-hour drive to San Francisco that, with several gas and hackey sack (I prefer "Foot Bag") stops like the one at left, mountain passes and the added weight of a trailer, actually took 11 hours.

We arrived just in time to load-in, but not before having to overcome what was one of my biggest fears about pulling a trailer in San Francisco - going up a big, steep hill. We had to circle the block around the venue in order to get into the load-in spot and, of course, the streets aren't actually on a grid, so we meandered through some convoluted series of narrow streets and ended up being faced with a big, steep hill we HAD to ascend. So, with the van in low gear and the pedal nearly to the proverbial metal, we chugged and chugged and finally made it. Then, we promptly parked away from the hills.

For it being Easter Sunday, the venue wasn't too dead. The other bands (The Clouds, Pie Rats) were friendly and rocked the party. There was a huge cooler of Budweiser that we hardly made a dent in, but did our best. But, the reality of being farther from home set in when it came to finding a place to stay. Marie's friend, Avery, is an apartment manager and had very kindly offered to let us stay in a vacant apartment, but as it turns out it was gross and trashed. So, he even more very kindly helped us out with a hotel room at the Phoenix Hotel. We had planned on staying here tonight on our night off as a treat, so staying here two nights is a HUGE treat (Thanks, Avery!).

So far, people have been really kind and helpful. We appreciate that and can hopefully return the favors in due time.

Today, Day 4, we have no show. It's just about chilling out, checking out San Francisco (if you're Ben, David and Marie) and taking advantage of the free Japanese spa pass provided by the hotel (if you're me). The Phoenix Hotel is awesome - it's a pseudo tiki/tropical themed place with a heated pool and bird noises that are broadcasted throughout the courtyard 24 hours a day. It's also known as the "rock star" hotel. We're not rock stars, but it's nice to have a long shower and a mattress.