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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Phoenix will Rise again from the Ashes!

PHOENIX AZ

PAPA (Phoenix Area Parade of the Arts) 7pm downbeat & parade
8pm set
Alice Cooperstown 10pm set

We arrived in Phoenix with the standard not enough time to pee, get a drink, pull your stinky costume out of your stinkier drum case & assemble your drum that is slowly falling apart, make the set list, warm up & drop the kids off at the pool. However, we somehow miraculously are pretty much on time for our downbeats. In this case, the show was running behind anyway, so I had a few moments to contemplate my navel. The tour has been so fast paced, I haven’t had many chances for the art of omphiloscepsis (the contemplation of one's navel), so any opportunity I can seize to just, well ZONE OUT, I TAKE IT! That 30 seconds there before the parade, really made a difference.

Phoenix came out all in their Halloween costumes & we led the procession through the streets of downtown and back to the stage. Unfortunately, when we got back, there was a really offensive fire performer doing his thing for at least 25 minutes, and most of the families left. Every other word out of his mouth was *UCK, SH*T, or other potty mouth type words, and while I too have been know to utter the potty mouth type of language, I don’t make it part of my pyrotechnics performance. Shocking, I know.

When we finally got to play, the crowd had thinned slightly, but we still had a great group to work with & we put on a good show. We played at PAPA last year too, and they are a bunch of great folks doing a lot to keep the downtown Phoenix scene alive & creative. Right after our set a big, fantastic fireworks show went off right over our heads! WOOHOO. I headed back to the bus to view it from the top. Sitting up there at 9pm, a few days before Halloween, at about 80 degrees, no humidity…I thought to myself, why do I live in Portland???? I do love Portland, but I dread going back to the cold!!!

After the fireworks show, we walked two blocks away, to Alice Cooper’stown, to get ready for our next set. Check out the link below, there are some really great photos of our set! http://slideshow.phoenixnewtimes.com/index.php?gallery=22303&type=0 It was our last show of the tour. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Oh, sorry. I may be a little dramatic there, take away three of the O’s. Everyone was very lose & fluid, tight & tingly, and there was a lot of playing with the audience. We rocked it, and one guy came up to me afterwards and told me our music & performance actually brought him to tears. Really? I inquired. He said, we had this synergy & this togetherness that 3 & 4 piece bands that play together for years never achieve. He himself had been playing music for many years, and he really was completely impressed that that many people are able to bring that kind of cohesion in such a unique & powerful way. Wow, Gee, Thanks…I’m blushing!!!! SEE, that’s the thing. Right there. That is what it is all about. It may have taken 7 weeks for us to get to that place where we can make grown men cry, but people, now that we are here, we are going to keep on going!

After the show we had a POWWOW to decide whether or not we wanted to play the afterparty. 1 parade, two full sets in one day, cannot hold back the tide of energy M4 has to offer, NO! Unanamously, everyone agreed to play the afterparty. YIPPEE! We loaded up & piled & brought on some extra fans for our own mobile afterparty. We marched in after creating a wicked party set list & were just getting our groove on 3 songs into the set with A Ya Bibi, when wahh wahh....the cops came & shut the place down. We kept playing as long as we could, but when the owner of the gallery ran up on stage and gave the old slitting the throat motion, we flubbed into the most uninpressive of wah wah wah bam boom ding crash blo blats ever in the history of endings.

DANG! The most anti-climactic end to our tour we could possibly imagine. But I like to think that the only thing that could have stopped M4 from rocking it that evening was the COPS! The man, gettin us down! Hell, it probably saved our lives, little do we know. We may have all popped blood vessels in our cerebral regions in the fastest known version of lesley metal ever to be attempted! We could all be dead today if it weren't for those men in blue! THanks Phoenix Police! But seriously, most of all, thanks Phoenix, you make the roll in rock & roll! We had a great time there, despite the PoPo & will definitly be back again!

Beginning the Belly of the Beast

Drive to TUSCON AZ
Parade to “the HUT”
Drive to somewhere in NM

Immediately after the performance, Topher started feeling sick! OH NO!!!! Now the mad wretching spam boat begins sealing the fates of all the rats left in her bowels! We drove in the night to some campsite in New Mexico on the way to TUSCON, and Topher had the double barrel experience in full force that night! He spent a pretty miserable night and all the next day in the throws of the M4 Bug.

We were all pretty whooped when we arrived at our destination in Tuscon. After our late night performance in Santa Fe the night before, we pretty much drove all night, slept for 4 hours, woke up and drove again all day to make a 5pm downbeat for a “parade” in Tuscon. In this blogger’s humble opinion, it may be quite possibly the WORST parade we have ever done. Through no fault of our hosts, no, we were just plain whooped. AND, the parade was on the sidewalk, it was 20 long blocks in stead of the mythical “oh, it’s only a 15 minute, few blocks away walk”….NOPE. SORRY folks. That was a full on hour worth of marching & playing.

When we arrived at the HUT, the WAAAHHHMMbulance was in full effect. Topher’s belly was aching, the horn players lips were aching, the drummers backs were aching, the stilters feet were aching, the dancers were aching?, and the bass player’s pinky was aching. In other words, it was time to git DRINKING!

A few cheap well drinks later, our heroes were back in action & ready for a full set of music to the delight of the street scene in Tuscon. Passing the hat was not going to be enough, so we put out a bucket & with the help of one or our newest beloved members, Dave Clay, juggler & MCEEExtraordinaire, we pulled in a pretty penny for our efforts.

After wards, we had hoped we could crash Gogol Bordello’s show. However, the old parable, better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission came into play. Seems that on the sly, the lead singer, Eugene, had given his “blessing” to John, and we all wanted to go crash it. But John, being the professionally minded individual that he is, finally got through to Mgmt, and the big fat NO came down the pike smashing our dreams of playing with this band that has inspired & rocked us so many times. A few M4thers tried to go anyway, and made it to the afterparty….the rest of us headed back to Robin’s Aunt & Uncle’s house for what else, TROUBLE.

I guess the demon that had lodged itself in my belly needed to be fully exorcised, once & for all. And, my old friend, Jack Daniels was right there to help me out. I don’t drink whiskey. And that night, is why. Top Shelf & I pretty darn near polished off the whole bottle all to ourselves. Yeah. I think it was a full moon? Anyway, that’s my excuse & I’m sticking to it. About 7 of us were raging it into the night (SORRY ROBIN”S AUNT & UNCLE!!!) & laughing & taking absurdly retarded pictures of each other. I also heard that two CUBBY CREEPERS*** (Sid & J’miah) got their Cubbies switched (flubbed) in the night. But I don’t know a damned thing about that. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

***The CUBBY CREEPER video & epic HipHopera entitled “Creepin’ on my Cub” will be coming to SNOCAP, iTunes & YouTube very SOON>…It tells the tale of the cubby, the creepah, and the flubby cubby. You’ll see….A cubby is place where you keep your stuff riding the tour bus on this long crazy tour. Your cubby is only sooo big, but a lot of creepers be bringing to much sh*t….that’s when your cubby gets flubby and the creeper gets flubbed!

Super good stuff.

Next day we (well except me…I didn’t make it back into the land of the living until 6pm or so the next day) awake to a bagel & egg casserole breakfast for champions & then were off to………………

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Touring Texas

THREE DAYS OFF

First day we drove to a spring in Texas at the foot of the Apache Mountains. We arrived some time in the middle of the night, so we awoke to the most beautiful an amazing swimming hole I have ever seen. Springing right out of a limestone faultline at 1 million gallons per hour. That’s right, ONE MILLION GALLONS per HOUR, this artesian spring could fill the 3.5 MILLION GALLON POOL in less than four hours! The water was crystal clear, deep blue like the Mediterranean, and there were a few endangered species of fish swimming around in there. This is the only place on the planet where they live, and the locals are trying to secure their habitat. That was a real nice way to start the day.

After a leisurely morning & breakfast by Tallboy & Dick Whiskey, we drove to the Guadalupe Mountains, about 30 miles south of the Carlsbad Caverns. Upon arriving, I started feeling not so good in the belly. Seems the unforeseen self-fulfilling prophecy in the name “Mad Wretching Spam Boat” was about to be fulfilled. Within 30 minutes of starting to feel not so good, I had full blown miserable nausea & the accompanying diarrhea. I thought I could hold in the demon by taking some Chinese pill culing & hiding in one of the bunks, but ultimately, I had to give in to the evacuation process & hit the nearby portalet with the double barrel. NOT SO FUN! Needless to say I didn’t sleep a whole lot that night, didn’t eat anything for a while after, and was perplexed by what the heck could’ve started it.

I felt surprising well the next morning for sustaining such a violent experience for 10-13 hours. I stuck to the liquid diet the next day, water & miso as we toured the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. That place is really indescribably amazing. If you ever have a chance, you have to go there. I have been to almost every single one of this beautiful country’s national parks and those caves may in fact be the best. I took some pics, but they don’t really do it justice. It is like an underground cathedral, sooo haunting & reverent at the same time. Truly a spectacle to be experienced in this lifetime.

Tallboy thought that experiencing the spectacle with a beer in his hand would add to his experience. The rangers, unfortunately, did not. They gave him a slap on the wrist, escorted him out, and then gave him a $150 ticket! WOOPS!

Once we gathered the last stragglers out of the caverns, we hightailed it to our next camping destination, the Bottomless Lake. The locals said that it is so deep & has an underwater river running through it that divers keep getting swept away in, so they had to grate off the entrance through the underwater caves. Luckily for us, none of us had diving equipment. Topher just wanted to jump over it, fortunately, and didn’t get sucked away in the bottomless current.

After a refreshing morning swim & breakfast, we high-tailed it to Santa FE NM & the Santa Fe Brewery for an all ages show. We had a great turn-out, but my newly sickened body was not so ready for the jump in altitude, the adrenaline of performing & I shore didn’t feel so well. BUT, the show must go ON, right, so I bucked Up & played! By the time we were done with the performance, which by the way was great & the audience was a big part of that, Topher had come down with the Mystery Monster!

Git Along Little Doggies

AUSTIN, TX

TDF

Antone’s

Day off


We arrived in Austin @ the TDF with just enough time to spare to change our clothes, grab a bite of food & a beer, hit the potty & march to the stage for our set. I think we were all a little whooped, tired & hot & didn’t quite get enough to eat or drink because our set was a little off for a TDF. PLUS, they stopped selling beer @ 4:45, and we went on at 5pm , so I think once people realized the beer was gone, they started dwindling away, unfortunately. But we had fun, we LOVE TDF & they treat us very well. We entertained, cavorted & caroused everyone that decided they would stay for the music, not just for the beer. We were also able to get the word out for our show later that night at Antone’s. We’ve played @ Antone’s before, but we have never headlined there, so I think we were a little nervous about the turn out.

We made it back to Benny’s folks’ place where we’ve stayed before, set up our bedding, ate some of the best Pizza I’ve ever had in my entire life…(even though I only got one slice---that’s the downfall of traveling with 35 people!)…and got geared up to rock it again for the downtown crowd.

Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication or noncommunication or something with the promoter of the show @ Antone’s & us because we had him charging $10 a head at the door, but he decided to charge $20 a head, which is more than we even charge in Portland. SO, I think a lot of people went a way at the door before we had a chance to negotiate with the door and reduce the cover. We still had a good crowd though, and we marched around the block (even though most of the band thought we were just marching straight to the stage & there was some definite confusion in the ranks about what the helck was going on) and up on to the stage emerging like heroes for one of our best sets of the whole tour. We even set our instruments down on stage after our “last” song, walked off to the sound of the audience cheering “three more songs, three more songs” and then cranked it up & gave em exactly what they wanted. Three more songs. We ended in the classic frenzied mass on the floor, sustaining injuries & sweating all over our beloved Austin fanbase.

That was fun. Thanks Antone’s & thanks AUSTIN! Thanks also to Sick’s Pack & the Caberet that performed with them.

Afterwards we went to an after party at one of John’s friends houses, and took some of the most hilarious late night gangsta pics of the whole tour. We headed back to Benny’s place at about 6 am to the great detriment of our understandingly sober busdriver, Kevin, and had the next day off…FORTUNATELY!

On our day off we scored some bikes from Benny’s folks & Taylor, Robin, Topher & I went for a biking tour of Austin. What a livable, bikable city! Love it. We biked all along the river up to Barton Springs where we swam in the beautiful turquoise water with the wild ducks & turtles. Then we headed down to the bridge where the famous Mexican bats supposedly emerge from the bridge at sunset & fly en masse of millions in a great black cloud to devour the insects of the city. I guess they were all really fat & happy, cuz they never came out. You could hear ‘em in there making their cute bat noises, but apparently they were very happy & didn’t want to entertain the likes of us

That was alright though, because Mateo from New Belgium Brewery had a bunch of extra beers left in his truck from the festival, and he invited us to help him “take care of them”. He’s so cool. We love Fat TIRE!

After I went & found a B of A to do some bidness, & then T & I headed out to dinner with the Juice & his lady friend. Lots of sun, swimming, bat hunting & Fat Tire added up to tuckered gypsies, so many of us called it an early night. Besides, next morning we had a 10 am bus call & a complete cleaning session & had to leave by Noon, so it was good to have a good nights rest before getting back on the Spam Boat.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Notsuoh Cafe' & Rollin'

Baton Rouge to Houston TX

After the HI-HO, one of our very special members went on a mission to acquire a certain substance & it took him way longer to complete said mission than he expected, so, we wound up waiting on the bus for an hour & longer before we could leave...and we were already behind schedule because of the opening band mix up. SO, we didn't get into Chris' Dad's place until 5 am or something retarded. Topher & Cymbal Dan & I got to sleep in a KING size bed complete with every edition of the Tigger Stuffed animal ever created.

We woke bright & early @ 9am for a 10am departure & had a very amazing egg & bacon breakfast to hold us over until we got to Houston for a 6pm parade to a park & gig for the City of Houston. We arrived at 4:45 to Houston & I mapquested the nearest B of A so I could fix our liquidity situation. WHEW, now everyone can get PAID! Couldn't have done it any more smoothly, either. Well, maybe except for the fact that in my banking mode when I returned to the bus we didn't do a team check (White Team CHECK!) & we left TallBoy behind! Turns out he found someone with a cellphone & figured out where we were & met us with time to spare. Our venue wasn't very far from the B of A, so it all worked out.

The city gig was a little wierd because we were playing on a little hill on the grass, and the dancers couldn't really do their thang, and the musicians couldn't really hear each other all spread out like that, but it was fun, and we gathered quite a crowd for our show later that night a block away at a cafe called "Notsuoh" (Houston spelled backwards).

We had a few hours to kill, so of course the upstairs cash of costumes & various articles of clothing became a favorite dress-up time killer for many members of the band. Here we find Top Shelf, le Dousche, Robin, Ethanol & the Juice in fine form. It seems they go for the dresses...who knew?

Our set at the notsuoh was super fun, and again it was a very small venue so it was packed to the gills. The drummers were up front in front of the stage again, and the crowd was definitely not shy about getting right up in our business. I handed out some earplugs after one song when we are all doing blazing rim shots. They appreciated that, I think.

We sold a fair amount of merch & signed a bunch of cd's & autographs. People were really nice & that part of Houston seemed happy to have us. I wouldn't have expected such a welcome there, but one thing M4 proves over & over again is that we continually connect with unexpected peeps from everywhere.

Thanks HOUSTON!

We drove to Taylor's uncle's house after the gig. I'm calling this the Aunt & Uncle tour 2007. If it wasn't for all the extended family M4 has all over this country, we could never have done this tour on our budget.

We (well, Sid & I) swam in the pool (what a fun pool!) to get off the grunge & refresh our bodies, and awoke to, again, a fabulous breakfast. It seems no one wants to live in Houston, though. By Portland standards, that house would have been in the 400-500K range, they are trying to get 170K for it!!! Unbelievable difference! The house had the added bonus of there being two motorcycles in the garage. Margarita Man was ecstatic to be able to race down the street, pop a wheely, do a big burnout in the cul-de-sac & get his rocks off. The owner of the motorcycle, an SV650 was not, however. It is his first motorcycle & as Taylor's uncle remarked, "I think he learned a lesson about lending out his bike!"

All was good, though, and I think the kid also got inspired about riding a little bit. We said our goodbyes & we were off to AUSTIN TX for the Tour de Fat Finale, Antone's & a day off.

The BIG Greasy





NOLA

Maple Leaf

Hi-Ho Lounge

We had to do a COMPLETE cleaning of the bus upon leaving the Echo Fest. 3 days of festing & partying infested the spam boat with a fair amount of funk. I believe the origins of the disease we are experiencing now began in Atlanta. The incessant humidity, lack of bleach with which to regularly clean the dishes, and too many chickens in the coop all contributed to the demise of any sense of sanitary condition we had on the bus.

Many hands make light work, as they say, and we cleaned the bus up right in no time, and were on our way to NEW ORLEANS!!!! YAY!

I guess we went through North Carolina, Alabama & Mississippi to get there, but we sure did not do a whole lot of stopping, so I can’t say I learned very much about any of those states. Maybe next time. We arrived in the BIG GREASY in the night & the first thing that hits you is how heavy the air is there. The second thing that hits you is how completely deserted that city is. I don’t know what the actual figures are, but it felt like half the people had left that place & have not come back. When we arrived at Jay’s place (where we were supposed to stay) on the edge of the 9th ward, it was so hot & humid & dark & the place was like an Anne Rice novel. Serioulsly, I expected LaStatte to walk out of there and bite me! Really cool to take pictures of & maybe film a movie, but not enough room for 35 of us, and definitely not a place with enough amenities for our weary bodies. Some people popped for hotels that night, the rest of us were glad to camp on the invitation & in the yard of Keith’s in-laws.

Like many other houses, Katrina flooded their beautifully customized house up to the light switches on the first floor, and a loophole in their insurance policy has them footing the bill for the remodel. The downstairs is still very under construction, but it was still a far sight more livable than the alternative housing for the evening. The next morning after a very appreciated scrambled egg breakfast provided by our gracious hosts (thanks Karen's Parents!) we decided that we would do a $20/day buy out for lodging so people could get hotel rooms for the two nights in NO. The last night, we would leave late after our gig, and drive to Baton Rouge to sleep on the way to Houston.

WOOHOO!!!! A bunch of us hopped on the "band wagon" (get it!) and got rooms at a very nice hotel right on the edge of the French quarter. The rooms were only $50/night, so if you had a roomate, it was only $10/night. SUCH A DEAL! I haven't slept in such a comfortable bed in I don't know how long. We had the day off to wander, and the only other thing that was happening was the ReBirth Brass Band was playing that night at the Maple Leaf (where we were playing the next night). It wasn't a mandatory attendance thing, but it was a good idea for us to show up so we could promote for our show.

After we checked in, we met outside to go exploring & also I had to find a bank to deposit all the moolah we made in Atlanta & D.C. so I could pay everyone out. However, I came to learn that after the Hurricane, B of A (the bank that we are using on the road) closed all of thier branches in Louisiana!!! AGHGHGH. I had a serious liquidity issue, but we figured it out with a little transfering back home...THANKS SWIRLING! Andy, my partner in crime on the financial team took care of it. SOOO we went and found our first of many bowls of gumbo we'd have in this fair city. Afterwards, T & I were pretty beat from the 3 day festing, so we went back to the hotel, holed up & ordered dinner in...we didn't even leave until lunch the next day!!!!!!!!!!! AHAHAHAHHHHHH. So nice to rest, eat good food & be clean. These are the things we cherish on the road. I think it may have saved my life. We didn't have to be at the venue until 8 or so the next evening, so we spent the day sight seeing & doing the tourist thing in the French Quarter. This is the place I spent the most money on tour so far. What great shopping! So many great little boutiques & trinket & voodoo shops! I felt really good about spending money there, it feels like they need it!

Our gig at the Maple Leaf was HOT! HOT in the way that you sweat like you are running a marathon in a wetsuit. Because that's what all that humidity does to your skin. IT acts like a wet suit. We had a great turn out, considering the maple leaf is pretty far from downtown and a lot of people that came that night also came to our show the next night at the Hi-Ho in the 9th ward. We took taxi's back to our repective places of rest, getting in around 2am. Next morning we had to check out of our hotels, so I called our driver, Kevin, to rally the troops & come get us! Seems most of the gypsies that were staying over @ Jay's stayed out a little later than we did, so they were about an hour past thier Noon estimated arrival time. But, that gave us a bit to run & grab something to eat while we waited. When the bus arrived, we loaded up our gear & headed back over to Jays. A lot of us had not done laundry for quite sometime, and, well, let's just say it was time. Keith drove us over to a place in the French Quarter called Check Point Charlies' which has the essential distinction of being a bar, laundromat, pool hall & restaurant. PERFECT! We did laundry, had cocktails, played pool, made friends with the infamous Dr. Love & Bucket Man & had a really swell day. We then had the privelege to be chauffered around what is left of the 9th Ward by NO's own Keith Vidos. UNBELIEVABLE WASTE. SO sad. SO many homes in exactly the same condition as when the Hurricane initially destroyed them. It really hit as we were driving around & you could still see the spray paint on the houses saying things like "DOA", "Dead Dog under Porch", and the # of Dead, injured, etc, immortalized for all to remember, to recognize. Quite an eye opener. I'm really glad I had a chance to go see that. Just confirms my suspicions about this goverment & thier non-caring, money grubbing, war mongering agenda. ....I digress... After that side journey, fresh clothes & all, we headed back over to Jay's to get ready for our march to the venue. Top Shelf, leDousche & a few others had a chance to get on the radio that day & they promoted the march & the show, so we had a big crowd for the march through the streets of New Orleans. There was a little fear the cops would show up & confiscate our instruments, because we didn't have a permit, but they either didn't care, or had enough on their hands to bother with us. When we arrived at the Hi-Ho, we were supposed to go right on & play our set, but it seems the other two opening actshad a miscommunication error & did the march WITH us. SO, they hadn't even started when we arrived @ the venue. DANG! We had to wait, and so did the sizable crowd that had gathered to see us, for at least an hour while the two other bands played. One of them was from Brooklyn & we had played with them before at the Rubulad in Brooklyn, so it was cool to see them again. When we finally took the stage in the smaller than small space, we had the whole place packed to the gills, and I know we have had a lot of hot & sweaty gigs, but, my friends, this one takes the CAKE! All of it! HOly Flirking Sweat BatMAN! THe crowd just wanted more & more, so we gave it to them, and when we ended in a frezied fast fest on the floor, I thought I would just puddle away and join the rest of the vapors that makes New Orleans the heaviest city on the planet. THe Juice walked outside to catch a breather right after me and WRUNG his shirt out like he had dipped it in a bucket of water. GROSS? Not really. Actually all that sweating had a very cleansing effect & I think I adjusted my back during the set. It's like when you sit in a sauna for a really long time & all your muscles & tendons get all looosseee... feels great. Everyone was ecstatic. WHat a great way to end our shows in the BIG GREASY...RAZZLE DAZZLE Everyone!


ECHO LOCATION






ECHO PROJECT – ATLANTA, GA

OK! I know, I know, where have I been? Well, I'll tell ya....I've been all over this vast country of ours! Sorry for the delay, getting on the laptop & updating the blog has proven to become more & more challenging as the tour ripens like the stench on our rapidly decaying uniforms.

I think I left off as our heroes traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to play the Echo Project Festival with other bands such as The Killers, The Roots, Brazillian Girls, Thievery Corporation, Les Claypool, The Dirty Dozen, The Flaming Lips, Cat Power, The Bravery, Spearhead….and on and on. Check out their website….www.echoproject.com for a complete list. A lot of great music, 5 huge sound stages, and we camped in the VIP area so we got to rub elbows with a lot of them. It was their first year doing it, so I think the ticket sales weren’t as high as they had hoped, but there were about 10,000, so there was a pretty good crowd for most of the shows.

The first day we did a long, dusty hot march to get the word out about our 12:30pm show the next day. It was fun, we made friends & got some free beer out of it. We had the rest of the day to chill out, nap, play poker in the VIP lounge, and check out some great music. I was pretty psyched to see the Killers, and they put on a super high energy, very well played show as the headlining band that evening.

Next morning we were up & at ‘em & marching to the stage at Noon for our set at the 3rd stage. Despite our early set time, we packed the tent & played a rocking show that started & ended bang on the dot. Everything had to be timed very precisely because the next band would go on a half an hour after us & the sound guys had a lot of work breaking down all our mics & such. After the set we were whisked away on a rock & roll series of photo shoots, interviews & even a video feed “Hi, we’re the MarchFourth Marching Band & we’re having a great time here at the Echo Project in Atlanta, Georgia!” (Scream, run around & then run out of frame.) That was pretty fun!!! Then a bunch of us got backstage for The Roots. THEY COMPLETELY ROCKED!!!! I was sooo blown away when they did the most amazing hip-hop cover medley/odyssey through musical history EVER and then they did a screaming version of “masters of war” that made me CRY!

Then it was back to camp for Tallboy & Mr. Bitter’s birthday party @ the VIP lounge. Things got inevitably fun & crazy & we decided we should do an impromptu gorilla march after the last band was done playing. SO, at 11pm, we went out & freestyle jammed for all the late night crews that were still carousing about. Even Michael Franti came out & danced into the night to the sounds of a very inebriated M4 crew. At some point, the band started marching back towards camp, but a whole lot of security guards told us we could not go that way. I went back & asked them why & in his Atlanta drawl, he said, “we closed all that area down, if you go that way, all these people will go that way too.” SO I asked, well, would you like us to take all these people the other way & put them to bed for you? He said, “I’d be much obliged”. SO, we did just that. We marched everyone over to the public camping area & then to the “afterparty” which consisted of a tent with some lights & when we got there, us.

A bunch of us decided to head back to camp, so we headed up a posse & started the walk back. I wound up hanging out on top of the bus until the wee hours of the night with some other musicians from Spearhead & an afropop band I forget the name of (SORRY!). We were exchanging stories about life on the road. All of them were in deep appreciation & admiration for the fact that we (at that point in the tour) had 35 people on our bus & we hadn't killed each other... yet. We also learned some potty protocol that was even more bad ass than our potty protocol. Seems the Spearhead bus driver will not let anyone pooh in the potty UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! If you have to go # 2, you have to put it in a BAG! WHOA. We're not that hard core. Our policy is only pooh in the potty in extreme emergency circumstances. But maybe we should be more harsh, DANG that Potty is STANK!

All & all Echo Project was a huge success, and a whole lot of fun. We even got a write up in the Atlanta paper on Monday morning with the Headlining phrase for the Echo article “Marching band gets crowd going” and a big photo of us at our stage show! That was a lot of fun, we’d love to go back next year!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Ok, so I am way behind....Playing Catch UP...AKA this is a long one!





BROOKLYN, Luna Lounge, PHILADELPHIA, World Cafe, BROOKLYN, Rubalad Underground Party, BOSTON HONK FEST!, (& RocketBar), NYC Knitting Factory....DAY OFF...Asbury Lanes, NJ, Kennedy Center, DC! WHEW!

Where do I start? Well, I guess I'll start where I left off.

We played a place in Brooklyn called the Luna Lounge with a band with guys from Portland in it (transplanted to Brooklyn) called Skidmore Fountain. It was an Indie club so there wasn't a huge draw for us, but it was a good show.

Unfortunately, our bus was dead when we were finished so we commondered (sp?) the help of a cab driver to jump us. It took a while to charge the 4 battery bank, but we got it done & were on our way to the Rubulad. The Rubulad is a seedy, humid, chaotically decorated space. Every time they throw a them party, they decorate the space, and they never take anything down. If something falls down, they just tack it back up. You get the idea. It is a very notorious party space in Brooklyn that has mad underground parties. Most of it smelled completely like urine & not a very hospitable sleeping space. Needless to say, a lot of people slept on the bus. Or on the roof. It was very humid & hot that night, & topher & I barely fit in the bunk together, so it was not a very good nights sleep, and I woke up in a panic attack like I was in a coffin & I couldn't breathe. Topher likes to smash me up against the window & I get wrapped up in the sleeping bag like a chinese finger cuff & I can't move. Sweet.

After shaking the crust out of my eyes & throwing the aches out of my bones, we walked to some great mexican food for breakfast & then high-tailed it out to Philly for our show @ the World Cafe with Balkan Beat Box. SO FUN! The World Cafe often Live Broadcast thier shows out, so the sound on stage was very good. We had a pretty good crowd by the time our show was up & running & we got em up out of thier comfy dinner seats by the end of the set. Balkan Beat Box came on after us & RIPPED it. It felt so great to dance to incredible music that we weren't playing! I worked all the kinks & krunks out of my bus bed back & we had a blast with the Balkan Beat Box after the show in the green room. We convinced them to come to Portland & play with us at the Crystal Ballroom, promised our undying love & eternal fanship, and we all got autographed t-shirts & shared stories & laughs into the night.

After the show, we drove back to Ethan's Gramma's in Delaware. A dance party was in order this time around, unfortunately, the contents of most of which are not for mass consumption, and so only a token g rated photo will be posted. Let's just say Topher made a rule for the party in the "green room" that you couldn't pass through the back portion of the bus to the bathroom if you were wearing a shirt. I know what you are all thinking, but it was actually all very platonic & sweet in nature, and was a generally amazing bonding experience for everyone involved. Especially the accountant appreciation ritual. Thanks Dick Whiskey!

In the morning, we awoke to bagels & lox provided by our host, Yetta, Ethan's Gramma, & lovingly prepared by Ethan. In return, we played a short show in the driveway for her & all the neighbors. I think we definitely made her day. After the show, we had a rehearsal so we could add some much needed new material to our set list. After the rehearsal we cleaned the bus & headed back to Brooklyn to play at the Rubulad Underground party at midnight.

I think the band was inspired by our newfound closeness from the previous evenings events, and we all decided we would finally live out our dream of playing a show in our underwear. All the musicians, at least, were really good sports, and in a show of solidarity, even Ethan busted out in his tidy whities. It was actually a blessing in disguise because the Rubulad was so packed & hot & sweaty that if we had worn our uniforms we might have melted them, and/or they would have disintigrated from the amount of sweat that poured out of us during that show. Definitely the sweatiest set I've every played, even hotter than the set we played at the anarchist squat in E. Berlin @ the Raw Temple.

We had a short turn time on this gig, though, and had to get out of there by 2 am in order to drive all night to Boston. HOWEVER, the cops busted the party just as we were getting ready to leave & about 10 M4 members got stuck in the lock down. I don't think they were bummed out at all, but we wound up getting out about 2 hours later than we wanted.

Most people slept on the way to Boston, while a few of us stayed up all night to keep our driver, Kevin, company. We made coffee, told jokes & generally rabble roused until the morning crew relieved us at about 6:30 am as we rolled into the outskirts of Boston.

Once again I found myself passed out on the humid, stuffy bus with about 10 others, clinging desperately to any sleep we can eek out of our day. I remember waking up in a confused daze to find a note taped to the front of the bus with directions for our hosts lodging. I followed the directions but little did I know there were TWO 45 Shea Drives right next to each other. I stood on the porch of the apparently wrong 45 Shea Drive for about 15 minutes knocking before I gave up, walked back to the bus, and decided it must not be time for me to get out of bed yet. By the time I woke back up, there was another note on the bus detailing where the REAL lodging was, apparently, others had the same experience I had.

I was happy to find our true lodging & have a shower & some personal bathroom time. At this point in the tour, if I can get about 10 minutes to myself in the morning, I'm good to go. That is very precious time indeed. Then, Sabrina, Andy's wife, arrived with meat & veggie pies & salad & we had "breakfast" at about 2 pm. Then it was time to put those stinky, but thankfully not Rubuladded uniforms, back on & play two back to back sets at the HONK! festival in Cambridge& then drive to downtown Boston to the "rocketbar" for quite possibly the most unbearable gig we've ever played.

The gigs that evening at the HONK were great, we drew quite a crowd as we marched into our staging area, and there were a lot of fans from other bands enjoying our show as well. We took a 20 minute break after about an hour, and we lost some of the crowd, but still had a great 2nd set. In fact, I wish we would have recorded that session because it was quite possibly the best version of Sabrosa ever played. A few of the other ones, TNG & Dynomite were really great too. I think the band is hitting its stride, getting really tight, and listening & playing really well. It feels great good to play, and the days when we don't play, I feel a loss, like I'm missing a part of my heart.

This is the story of M4 these days. We have amazing gigs like that & then we go to a place like the ROCKETBAR in Boston where they don't even have our name right on the marquee....it read: "December 4th". They 86'd Jenny for bringing in her water bottle, and were generally put out by us. We played our 45 min set & got out of there before any fights broke out on the street. This is the kind of area in Boston where if you look like a "fag" and you cross paths with the wrong red sox fan, you gonna get your buttwhooped. So the rollercoaster of music presents herself in full effect. SHE is your most loving muse or most torturous mistress.

T & I stayed the night with Sabrina & Andy @ her sister's place nearby in cambridge. We had to be up & at em early (we got to the house @ 2:30 am) & were in our fourthy digs @ 9:30 am for a full day of music. Jordi's husband was so sweet & cooked us an amazing omelette that may have saved our lives. By 11:30 am we were lined up with all the other marching bands at HONK! in our places for the 3 mile parade from the Dilboy to Harvard square. I think everyone was pretty cranky & hadn't had thier proper chemical dose for the morning because the march was like a fight from beginning to end. It was pretty funny. Everyone was yelling at everyone. I was about to call the Wahhmbulance when we arrived at the big crowd by Harvard Square, the rockstar in us all turned on & the smiles replaced the schrinches.

At the square there was a huge marching band jam session with about 10 different marching band amalgamations. The sound was huge, energetic & frenetic. The streets were filled with alternatively dressed marching band members, fans & freaks. We definitely had found a home away from home.

We had a few hours to chill out before our evening set on the main stage, so a few of us headed down to a dank, dark, warm & cozy bar for some food & drinks. We were serenaded by some members of "What Cheer?" during our meal. They played some familiar eastern european standards & some polka tunes.

Before you could get your check it was time to head over to the main stage to get ready for our big set. Quite the crowd was gathered, I would say 2000 maybe, and we totally rocked it. We were all over the stage, the sound was fantastic, and we ended our set just as 3 other marching bands joined in & we marched the frantic crowed away from the square in a massive version of "st. james infirmary". Once we reached a park some 5 blocks away, it turned into a giant jam with no rules. I had that huge feeling of being a part of something indescribably great & epic as I played with all the other drummers & horn players from all over the world & the country. It was a fantastic moment in my life, in all our lives. Thanks Boston! & THanks HONK!!!!!

NO REST FOR THE WICKED!!!! 10 am bus call & off to NYC for our Knitting Factory show. I didn't really have any expectations for a show in NYC on a monday night, and was pleasantly surprised to see quite a crowd for our show! We marched in, played our rock n roll set, and had the audience in the palm of our hands. I even broke my head! Either that or Cymbal Dan broke it with his cymbal at the end of Getcha Now! I can't tell, but it was pretty rock n roll. A lot of newbies to the tour joined us in NYC so the bus is getting really packed now, and the new energy started a whole new kind of party on the bus from SOHO to our digs in the upper west side. We slept on the roof that night of our new 5 story home where our host, Mark & his wife Jennifer made us right at home.

THE NEXT DAY WE HAD THE DAY OFF!!!!!! WOOOOHOOO!!! Haven't had a day of no traveling & no playing music for I don't remember when. Our host, Mark gave us the tourist treatment & led a walking/subwaying tour of the city from St. John's Catherdral, to Central Park, to Washington Square Park, to shopping in St. Marks & Lower east side. Then we all met at 8 pm at a chinese restaurant called "Oriental Food" off Canal St. where a friend of ours', Ben Pink's Dad, treated the entire Band & various guests for a Chinese Banquet of epic proportions. Thanks Andrew!!! My old friend Justin Pate showed up & I got to see lots of pics of his new baby & his life in Amsterdam. Course after course after course came, and the waitstaff seemed to want to feed us too much & too quickly so we would leave. After a few waiters took a few group photos, Cymbal Dan reports that the waiter handed his camera back to him & said "Go Home." Guess they were ready for us to leave!

After dinner, Justin drove us down to Ground Zero which wasn't far away & then back up to the upper west side. On the way back up, he told us stories of Gogol Bordello playing thier first gig in his loft, and all the old party times in the late - mid ninetys. It was so great to see Justin, he remains one of my very great friends after all this time & distance.

Andrew invited the entire band over to his place after dinner, which wasn't far away from the pad. Topher & I decided to take advantage of an empty room for a few hours for some "alone time". YAY! We were awoken at 3 am by the canoodling of 6 or 7 M4thers as they nestled into thier various sleeping positions on the floor. Silly Gypsies!

In the morning, those that didn't have terrible hangovers joined a group of 8 or 9 & went to breakfast at the very famous Tom's Diner where the interior shots for Seinfeld were filmed. The service was just how you would expect it. Very efficient, very swift & very no nonsense.

We packed up while some jammed out on the piano & various instruments Mark has at his house, and hit the road to Asbury Park NJ & Abury Lanes. Who knew bowling & MarchFourth could be such a succinct pair? I got in some decent balls before the gig, but after the set, I hit my stride & could bowl no wrong. Everyone @ Asbury was super stoked to have us there, and were very hospitable. We had a really fun crowd & definitely hope to be back.

That night we stayed with a friend of a friend (yvonne from Portland) of ours, Caroline who had a huge & great house on the river. She not only cooked us a great spaghetti dinner before the gig, rode the bus with us, but also partied way into the night. A bunch of us took full advantage of the ample hot tub on the deck, overlooking the river, and soaked our sore muscles & bones. T & I pitched our tent in the yard and fell asleep in the wee a.m. to the sound of chirping crickets.

We left early next a.m. for D.C. and I took a nap for a few hours until we reached a potty dump station where a girl from NPR met us with her recording equipment. A few of us dumped & pumped the WORST dump of the whole trip. It seems the more people we get on the bus, the faster it fills & the nastier it gets. So, hopefully, the morning edition interview on NPR will have more content than just the dump station. She escorted & interviewed on the bus on the way to D.C., and also recorded some of the songs we played at the Kennedy Center yesterday.

WHAT A VENUE! The stage was located in a large Hall-like space outside of the main opera house. Red carpets, elegant chandeliers, great sound. And the place was Packed! Our sound guy, Mike, says they have a show there every day of the year, 365 days, and he works 6 of those days a week for 4 years, and he said ours was one of the most entertaining! We'll take it!
Also, a fan that saw us in Bloomington showed up, and during our standing ovation as soon as we played our final note & took our bow, he unfurled this huge sign that read, " JOY NOW, BITCH!" It was a strange & welcomed random event in the middle of the stuffy, ordered environs of the Kennedy Center.

After, there was a whole lot of hullaballoo because Billy Crystal was there & receiving an award. Some people in the band got to see him, but I was a little late. I was busy bussing my table down in the crew cafeteria where we ate food that came on styrofoam plates, bowls, cups & TRAYS! All things styrofoam. It was a little sad to think that this outdated form of packaging is the favorite choice in our nation's capital. WAKE UP PEOPLE! RECYCLE ALREADY! We ate, packed up our gear & drove to somewhere in North Carolina where Ethan's mom lives. We got there sometime in the night, I was passed out. I continued to sleep until someone came on the bus & told us that breakfast was served. THANKS ETHAN"S MOM! We had French toast & bacon & got back on the road& we are still on the road somewhere on our way to Atlanta GA where we will be for the next 3 days for the ECHO festival.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

DRIVING DRIVING DRIVING - 3days...I think.

From Bloomington to Washington, PA, to Parkton MD to Ethan's Gramma's in Delaware to Brooklyn NY.

NO gigs. Just Driving.

Ahhhhhh, the smell of the spam boat, the aroma of each other, the sound of constant chatter, the gentle rocking & jarring jerking of her hull as she navigates the interstates. If I don't lose my mind, it means it must already be gone.

If it were anybody else but us on this bus together, it wouldn't work.

We're getting pretty good at cleaning up, keeping our stuff in our cubbies, sharing bunks, rotating seats (we do have a few squatters though - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!), making food for each other, sharing the dumping of the potty duty, etc, etc. There is a mind numbing amount of unknown detritus that appears on a daily basis from where???? No one knows, but it all ends up in the MYSTERY BOX. And the mystery box is growing....like the # of M4thers on tour.

By my last count, Tallboy had finished of 186 beers in 4 days. That was not including the beers he consumed last night. I don't have an accurate account because I called it an evening & got some good shut eye.

Last night we stayed in a Motel 6 in Washington PA, and a lot of people popped for thier own room, or own bed at least. For me, anyway, and a few others I hear tale of, it wasn't a great night of sleep. There was some real creepy energy in that place leading to general insomnia, anxiety & horrific night terrors. I did not take any pictures there. I figure enough of you have stayed in Motel 6 to know what I'm talking about. Let your imagination run wild!

Next day we drove to Topher's mom's house (Jenny Mack) in Parkton, MD, outside of Baltimore. I've always loved her place, and it was a real treat to get to take the band there.
She had an amazing spread of "the biggest salad bar east of the Mississippi" & Veggie & meat Lasagne her boyfriend Bill prepared for us. Thanks Bill! She also had 180 beers, to Tallboy's great admiration, and lots of cookies & treats.

Her landlord, Ted, who runs the farm she lives on (she rents the farmhouse), and his family were there to check out the freaks & join in the fun. We were supposed to have a rehearsal that evening, but the lasagne took a lot longer than expected to heat up, & everyone was pretty sluggish after dinner, so we fired up team jam session & came up with such country greats as "Panty Ripper: Stay Free Always", "Yellow Jello" & "The REEAL nightmare before Christmas" (AKA I hope Prancer gets Cancer). I hit the hay shortly thereafter, but this morning I viewed the maniacle mayhem of the "Chodren of the CornHole" video that was filmed in the night as they ran through the cornfields until 2 am in a montage similar to the Blair Witch Project. Who was leading the charge? Well, Topher's Mom of course! I hear she scared the pants off some of the M4 Chodren.

All good things must come to an end though, and we had to leave the peace, beauty & silliness of Stablersville Road and drive to Brooklyn NY>>> we are on the road right now. We stopped by Ethan's Gramma's pad for some quick phad thai. We'll be back there tomorrow night. Tonight we are playing at the Luna Lounge in Brooklyn on Metropolitan AVE. I'll be sleeping at the Midget Bar, which is just a short stumble from there, and a favorite haunt of mine since I first stayed with friends on Metropolitan AVE way back in 1995.

I haven't been to the Big Apple since 1998, before the towers fell, so that will be a strange skyline to see. Looking forward to this next weekend, although this is the most confusing part of the tour, travel wise. ( Brooklyn to Delaware to Boston to NYC again) I pray to St. Christopher to part the seas of traffic & obstacles. Our schedule doesn't leave a whole lot of room for error.

Pics up soon! I'm finding the connection is so so for uploading pics unless we are in a metro area, and right now we are somewhere in NY where there is still lots of corn.

Monday, October 1, 2007

The Great Race….

…to Bloomington, INDIANA & the LOTUS Festival.

Well, we weren’t exactly on time when we arrived at our gig in Indiana. We had about 30 minutes to wolf down some food at hospitality, get into our costumes, tune our horns & drums, scrape the crust out of our eyes & put on those smiles for a PARADE! What a welcome we received! The sleepy little town of Bloomington surprised us the warmest smiles. I was suspicious they put something in the water there, everyone was sooooo happy.

We did a 30 minute march around the town, where they have 5 or 6 different stages with different acts all going simultaneously. It was a real street party, everyone had colorful flags & banners & was really stoked to see us. Picked up our spirits a little, after the long haul, I think.

Then, at 10:45, we went on the Limosine Stage for a full 1.5 hour set. We went on after a band named 17 hippies. YOU HAVE TO CHECK THEM OUT! Their name is deceiving. It is not hippie music. It is very well played eastern European accordion & sirba & other styles. Check out their website: http://17hippies.com/17hneu_eng/index.html

We had such a great time with them. HOWEVER, there was about 15 minutes between when their set ended & ours began, and I don't think thier fan base really knew who was up next, or had never heard of us, so most of them left. People trickled in to see us once we started playing & I think we had a few hundred, plus more outside the tent, but it was definitely not as packed as when they were on stage. SO, it was a hard show for us because it was a big stage & venue, not a huge crowd, and we were all pretty tired from the traveling & gigging (& partying) so many days in a row. It was work, and as one of the 17 Hippies (UWE) said, “I’m not totally convinced”. Neither was I, frankly.

A few of us had the idea after the show that we would stopper the audience as soon as 17 Hippies finished for the Saturday night show. We would start at the back & march in, FORCING the audience to stay & hear us out! We knew they wouldn’t be able to resist once we started playing. SO, we talked to the sound guys, and they agreed with the plan. We also enlisted Michael Kennett's daughter, Ama, to do the promoting for us. I think that is what did the trick.

The next day we had TWO parades & one full set to play. Inbetween parades, I signed up for a 30 min massage, compliments of hospitality. WOOHOO! My shoulders & forearms needed some attention, and boy did that make a difference in my stamina & my chops for the long evening of music. The second parade was REALLY fun, people were crazy for us & we had to play an encore so the crowd wouldn’t bludgeon us with their flags! We got in our places behind the crowd, and once 17 Hippies went off the stage, we fired up the fun machine & took OVER! What a difference a DIFFERENCE makes!

The energy on stage was a blast, and the place was packed, I would say, our best show on TOUR. MAYBE one of our best shows EVER! There were many magical musical moments, but probably the most memorable was for the encore when the band moved into the crowd during our Crackhaus/Lets go gettum ENCORE when Sid & Nathan (Stiltwalkers) lifted TALLBOY (Bass DRUM) off the stage and above the crowd & the band while he was playing!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SOOO RAD! I wish I had a photo. If anyone reading this has one. PLEASE SEND IT!

Everyone was super pumped after the show, and even UWE from 17 Hippies said, in his sexy German accent, “Now, I am convinced.” We kidnapped a bunch of them & took them with us to the after party for all the bands at a three story building a few blocks from the venue at an organizer’s house named Tall Steve. We were happy to introduce him to Tall Boy (see photo left), and the two soon became fast friends. M4 soon became fast friends with everyone at this party. Some of us, too fast. And others, too friendly. Better to leave the party before the fast & friendly became slow & dirty. ONCE AGAIN, members of M4 led an epic jazz & funk odyssey to VALHALLA!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have some great video of that. You can actually see and hear it this time. Thanks to RUSS (Top Shelf) for leading the band of jammers into a musical frenzy. WAHWAHWEEWAWAHHH.

6 am did it for us, though, and we passed out, elated & sated, in our tents and various sleeping areas around the property of Nathan & Maggie, where we were lodging. The next day, Sunday, I pretty much slept until 11 am, ate a breakfast burrito, and passed out until 6pm, while the rest of the band worked on the farm, chopping wood & digging fire pits. Thank god for the Lord’s day of rest, or I think I would have burst something. Soon it was time to eat dinner, and pass out again. I did make some really yummy egg frittatta’s for the morning’s breakfast, though. (5 pans, 38 eggs, 2 lbs of cheese, 2 garlic heads, onions, broccoli, red & yellow peppers). So I wasn’t completely worthless that day. But almost.

We packed up our tents & gear this morning & were on the road only a half an hour late! WOOHOO! Today we have a 7 hour drive to somewhere in Pennsylvania where we will stay in a motel for the first time on tour. Then the next day we are outside of Baltimore at Topher’s mom’s house. YAY!