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.