fly dates

we just finished up a couple weekends worth of fly dates and i can't begin to explain how much more i enjoy life on the bus. we had great shows and the people were amazing, but it is just so exhausting waking up at 4am to get to the airport by 5am to fly out at 6am. by the time the evening is finished and we get back to the hotel, it's 1am. sleep for 3 hours and do it again for the next couple days. it's the worst part of being in a band. when we're on the bus we go to bed at 1am, but are able to get a full nights sleep while we roll to the next city. (that is, when i don't have to drive.) luckily for us, this year holds very few fly dates for us and a ton of drive dates.

i'm excited for the next few weeks because we are figuring out our schedule for recording the next record. since we are independent now, (we parted ways with Word records at the end of last year) we have all kinds of options regarding where we go next. all i can say is that we are ready for a fresh start. :)

a

tour recap

yesterday ended our "welcome to the family" tour...at least the spring leg of it. i hear that we may be extending it with the same lineup this summer. we had some interesting moments on this tour and overall had a great time.

here are some highlights...
1. we played for the first time in duluth, mn
2. played a show at a sweet casino on the reservation in north dakota
3. shot shotguns in billings, mt
4. picked up the esterlyn boys in boise
5. rocked sold out shows in boise, id and spokane, wa
6. enjoyed an uncharacteristically sunny day in seattle
7. left the tour to fly to branson, mo to play a show
8. flew back to portland to get to the next show in eugene, or
9. played at an armory in medford, or
10. won $65 playing poker at a truck stop in reno
11. ate some of the best food in our lives on our day off in san fran
12. best scenery of the tour was in san luis obispo, ca - also the day our generator on the bus decided to blow up
13. best hospitality on the tour was from our ketelhut friends in thousand oaks
14. wildomar, ca - the night people gave enough to our bus fund to get the generator fixed
15. played golf with my dad in riverside
16. drove to phoenix on our day off. on the way to barstow, ca that night, the alternator on our main engine went out leaving us stranded in the middle of the desert. $1000 and 12 hours later we were on our way to barstow. also the day(s) i was up for 36 hours straight.
17. ate at the wynn buffet in vegas...unbelievably amazing
18. caught up on sleep on our last day in so cal
19. best show of the tour - gotta be PHX!
20. went bowling in albuquerque, nm. we were 2nd of the four bands in the bowling competition - esterlyn won
21. drove at night from albuquerque to carlsbad, nm - 5 hours and saw maybe 4 cars on the way...no aliens :(
22. bowled again in amarillo, tx...again lost to esterlyn
23. drove through the biggest ice storm of my life on the way to tulsa, ok
24. hung out with family in tulsa and okc
25. finished out the tour with prank night in missouri

great shows, great fans, great fun. thanks to all of you who came out to make this tour a memorable one. talk soon...

adam

refreshing

right in the middle of a grueling tour, we found an oasis in the desert. our show in mesa, az was everything we hoped it would be. family, friends, and fans all showed up to show us some love and support. it couldn't have come at a better time. we were all tired and have had some bus problems in the last week, so when we rolled in to the valley of the sun, we were hoping for some refreshment with a good hometown show. and we got just that. thank you to all of you who came out and absolutely rocked.