Archive Sunday #72

Starting back in early September, we met back up with Death Cab for Cutie to play some local Pacific Northwest amphitheaters. Our first show was down in Portland at the Oregon Zoo for the tail end of their Zoo Nights series. I remember we all discussed the ethics of zoos on the drive down and while Andrew was firmly against the idea, most of us thought that as long as the zoos focused on education and rehabilitation they could be beneficial overall. We had a few minutes after loading-in to walk around and check out some of the exhibits during Death Cab's sound check. We saw a few giraffes, penguins, chimpanzees, and a big pack of African wild dogs that were probably my favorite.

After we set up our gear on stage and had a quick sound check, we walked down to catering to grab some grub so we could digest before the show. I remember chatting with the Death Cab guys for a bit and we asked them about how they got some of the guitar tones they were sound-checking. They told us that most of them recently moved to the Fractal digital guitar processing that models different amps and effects with almost limitless control. It seemed like a really good option, especially if you travel and tour as much as they do and have to cover a huge variety of sounds. The show ended being super fun, and we had the added bonus of catching some great music from side-stage as Death Cab closed out the night.

The next day we made our way back up to Seattle to play at a park where I've spent a bunch of time working shows over the summers. It was nice to be on the other side of things, particularly having access to catering and AC to cool off. The backstage area is this super beautiful old house by the Sammamish River and even has this cute windmill nestled in the woods. I remember they had some old bikes parked outside on the front lawn that several of us took out to explore the massive park and gardens. We got back in time for our soundcheck overlooking these beautiful, tall evergreen trees. Shortly after, we met with Henry from the Naked Giants who came out for the show. I think Andrew had the idea of asking Henry if he wanted to come out and play cowbell for Hippie Powers like old times, and he was super down. So we played our set and grabbed him from the crowd for the very end to add an extra bit of energy from his jumping around. We probably should have cleared it with Death Cab's tour manager though, because I remember he was rightfully freaked out thinking we grabbed a random person to go crazy on stage filled with a bunch of expensive gear right before their set haha. Totally our bad, but luckily Henry didn't run into or trip over anything important. I don't know if it was the fact that it was a home-town show, but Death Cab played an even more impressive set that night and it sounded amazing.

The following day we prepared for a second show at the same place, but this time we promised not to add any last minute surprises. The weather however, seemed to have other plans because it was quite cloudy during the afternoon and seemed like it might rain. We made our normal bad weather preparations like throwing plastic ponchos by our pedal boards in case it started raining, but mostly all we could do was hope for the best. It seemed to be holding off when doors opened, so we went on as planned and played our short-and-sweet set to the early-comers. But pretty much right when we came off the weather took a turn for the worst. The nail in the coffin was when there was a bunch of reported lightning strikes in the area that forced Death Cab to cancel the show for safety concerns. We felt bad that everyone missed the main act and wished we could have seen it coming and try to get them out earlier. But at least Death Cab was able to reschedule for the ticket-holders a few months later.

In November we were excited to finally make a trip down to our southern neighbors when we were offered to play the Corona Capital Festival. We didn't know what to expect, so it was great to be included as part of an established festival so we could gauge the interest down there. We took a couple flights down the day before, and I remember we shared the second plane with a bunch of Chargers football crew and cheerleaders. They must have had a game in Mexico City the same weekend, which kinda surprised me because I thought football was only played in the states.

Once we got in, I remember we had to wait forty minutes extra or so till our luggage was cleared. It's always nerve-racking when there's a long wait because in the back of our minds we're thinking how we can still play without most of the gear. But thankfully this time it was probably just held up a little longer at customs because of all the electronics. On our way to the hotel, we were amazed with how massive and beautiful Mexico City was. Plus Andrew was excited to test out his Spanish skills he learned on Duo Lingo.

The festival was setup in this massive formula 1 race facility and had a pretty impressive lineup. I remember catching Kero Kero Bonito right before we went on. We had a 40 minute set which included Cute Thing which somebody requested, and a special version of Drunk Drivers that had this modular synth part we worked out a few days before. It seemed like the crowd really liked it, but unfortunately our stage had one of those vip areas up front that was pretty sparse. We could still see the crowd going crazy behind them though.

After our set I remember catching some music with Andrew and Mike. We saw some of the Voidz, Bloc Party, and Flume before we made our way back to the hotel for the night. The next morning we all went to this great breakfast spot to grab some authentic local grub before heading out. It was such a quick trip, but we enjoyed every second of it. Fingers crossed we can make our way back out there sometime soon!