Archive Sunday #35

Straight from Austin, we drove over to Dallas to play a sweet venue called Club Dada. It was kind of a culture-shock coming from a well-run festival with a bunch of crew running the stage, to a small venue where it took us an hour or so to find the circuit breaker to run power. But thankfully the venue sound engineer got there just in time for our soundcheck. I remember hanging out in the green-room/stockroom located at the bar next-door, but after a while the incessant house music bleeding in from the bar cleared just about everyone outside. It turned out to be a super fun and sweaty show with the added bonus of great Mexican food nearby.

We had a day off scheduled for the next day, but considering we had the 10 hour trek across west Texas it didn't seem like much of a break haha. Thankfully there's at least good food to look forward to, as we usually take turns looking up restaurants along the way and taking votes on which one to try. We made it to Albuquerque with plenty of time to spare, and the next day we loaded in to the Launchpad. 

For the past couple months or so we encouraged everyone at the shows to vote in the upcoming closely-contested election. And as much as we tried to focus on the task-at-hand, tonight the votes were being tallied pretty much simultaneously with the show. It started out with everyone being pretty optimistic and hopeful for a good result, but as the night went on we all gradually slipped into despair. I especially remember selling merch with Andrew at the table in the back, as we both took turns looking up the incoming results and pinning whatever hope we had left on the couple states that had yet reported. Thankfully the show itself went well and was a fun time before anyone knew the results. But needless to say, once the final call was made for Trump while we were packing up we all took out our frustration during load-out as we lobbed everything carelessly back in the van.

The next day we headed to Tucson to play in a small club attached to an old hotel downtown. Once we got there we learned the hotel was famously haunted with several spirits from deaths that occurred there long ago. I remember the Naked Giants were really into the idea of staying in a haunted room for the night, and they made reservations for that night. But unfortunately it was out of our price range, so we stayed farther out of town. During soundcheck we worked out a cover of David Bowie's "Five Years" and it went over really well that night.

The following day we headed to Phoenix, after checking-in with the Naked Giants boys in the morning to make sure no one had any ghost sightings at the hotel. That night we play at the Crescent Ballroom, which had a low semi-circle stage that looked over the wide but shallow room. This must have been right after Leonard Cohen died because I remember Will doing a solo cover of his that night. Overall it was a great crowd and a really exciting show.

From there we made our way to the West coast where  we were slotted to play San Diego at a place called the Irenic. I remember thinking we had the wrong address at first, because it was located in the middle of a residential neighborhood. And from the outside it looked more like a community center or a church. But once we were inside it was pretty obvious the venue started out as a church before transitioning to solely concerts and events. It was a fun show, and I remember hanging out on the nice patio as things were slowing dying down.

The next day we had a super early load-in at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles because we had a special offer to have the show recorded for us. Either the venue at the time or the show itself was somehow sponsored by Red Bull because I remember seeing countless coolers stocked with energy drinks around the venue. It came in handy to have the extra caffeine when it was an especially tiring day, but honestly felt like a waste because all of us combined maybe had 3 while they stocked up for a small army haha. It turned out to be a great show though, and it's been a bit but I think the recording came out pretty well too.

After that, we had another long drive up the coast to San Francisco to play the Great American Music Hall. It was this beautiful historic and ornate venue that kinda felt like a trip back in time. They also had all these cool unique posters of countless great bands that played there previously that were a treat to check out. The long run of shows was starting to catch up to us, but once the Naked Giants started the adrenaline kicked in. Thankfully the San Francisco crowd showed up ready to go like they always do, and it was amazing night!