Princess Tour '09: West Coast

We had to replace the van brakes in Portland, so we ended up missing our show in Sacramento. At least we got to have terribly bland pizza in the exciting CA town of Weed. The next two days we spent in SF, however, which were killer. We played at a small bar the first night, and a nice loft space down by the water in Oakland the next. The best part of this was that we stayed with our friends from Mi Ami in an awesome apt near the Mission, and had breakfast both days at the St Francis Fountain, probably the most amazing breakfast ever. We also hung at the super slick house of Religious Girls in Oakland. deeep

The next few days we stayed in the LA area while we played at The Smell downtown, a bar in San Diego, and a house show at an old fraternity house near Santa Monica. The Smell was awesome as expected, much larger than I anticipated. We tried to play with Chaz, the other band member who lives in LA, but his equipment failed somehow. We also went swimming at the beach in Santa Monica, or at least I did. Almost surfed...

After this we treked across the incredibly hot Arizona desert all the way to Tuscon. The showspace, a hanger called HangArt, was sweet, unfortunately only 0 +/- 2 people showed up, so we didnt even bother to play after the Girls played their set for no one. We hung out at a sandy lagoon afterwards, then stayed in a motel. blah.
The next day was Albuquerque, and the show was in a great artspace and had quite a good turnout. We were lucky enough to stay with my friend from a trip to Iceland there, and us and Religious Girls had an epic day of nothingness. It was the best day of the trip. The bros and hotties down in the clubbing district seemed to enjoy our attire quite alot, judging by all of the drunken comments.

Oregon Trail

Wyoming was weird. It was also beautiful, but mostly weird. A truck stop and oil refinery were about the only signs of life we saw, and the rest was a mixture of desert plains and mountains. The drive into Salt Lake City was really nice, more huge rock walls lining the descending highway. We barely saw much of the city; Kilby Court was just off the highway on a street that had a bit of LA charm. We played in a small converted garage next to a fire pit. Our friend in Silver Antlers (http://www.myspace.com/silverantlers) did a killer set as well.

The next day we drove to Boise and stayed with a couchsurfer and his friends. Didn't play here, but heard our host tear through a piano piece half-drunk and met some great people. In the morning we did a huge drive to Seattle. The ride near the city was incredible, we went downhill for what seemed like forever through enormous mountains and pines. None of us had been to the northwest, and we all really liked the feel of Seattle. We had excellent Ethiopian food and played at an awesome DIY space called The Holy Mountain (Black Lodge) with some awesome bands. There were alot of people as well, and this was our first show with Religious Girls. We saw the city a bit the next day before going down to Portland. Portland has been one of our favorite spots yet. We stayed with a friend in an awesome neighborhood that literally has a VW bus parked on every block. Our first show was at the Artisery with RG and Neal Morgan, a drummer/vocalist who plays with Joanna Newsom. We got to play the next night in Portland as well, so we spent the day in town and in a huge park. This night we played at the Wail with Summer Blonds and Carson McWhirter, a super-shredding guitarist from The Advantage and Hella.

We Here

Our drive to Kansas was marred slightly by a renegade Missouri cop who thought that kids who are driving in a van in the summer must obviously be carrying drugs. He couldn't have chosen a worse target, seeing as how we are probably one of the only bands touring without even cigarettes in our van. We barely got off, I think he thinks I'm a meth head.

Our first stop in Kansas City was Arthur Bryant's BBQ. Wow. This place was a serious BBQ place. We stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only people under 200 lbs and sharing an enormous chicken "sandwich". Next we went to the venue, The Foundation, a warehouse like spare located in the West Bottom, an amazing old industrial part of the town. Huge, old wooden floors and a 15 by 15 ft freight elevator led us upstairs. We played with an awesome band Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk, and the guys in the band were the nicest and funniest people we've met. We stayed with them in Lawrence before heading to Denver the next morning.

The Kansas country was amazingly terrible. There were beautiful and enormous fields alongside the highway which was spotted with homemade pro-life signs. The only towns along the highway were small nightmares of every chain store/restuarant/motel you could think of. We finally got into Colorado and saw an amazing sunset before arriving at Rhinoceropolis. The show was alot of fun, and our friends in Capillary Action showed up and played as well. The Rhino people are awesome, and gave us ingredients to make pizza at 3am. The next day we went to Boulder and played a radio show at KVCU 1190. It went really well and we played quite loud. CD's were falling off the shelves in the room as we played. Afterwards we met a friend who took us on a short hike up a mountain above the city in the sunset.

Through the Midwest...excited for mountains

Sunset on the western Michigan shore and afternoon on the sunny beach of Illinois's eastern shore. We did a quick radio show at WNUR in Evanston, and stayed with our great friend and host nearby. Besides her terrier playing tug-of-war with my sleeping bag at night, we slept very well. The next day we drove across many fields of young cornstalks and over the Mississippi (past the world's largest truck stop) to Iowa City. It was a nice college town, and there was an arts festival happening in the streets when we arrived. We played in the basement of an old building downtown, in a non-profit art space. There were several excellent minimalist/noise groups that played as well, and there was a really nice crowd of people. Iowa City is a good place.

In Minneapolis we played at a newer and less attended bar/club with an incredible tribal/psych/noise band called Daughters of the Sun (www.myspace.com/daughtersofthesun). I think they are coming to Michigan eventually, which I'd highly recommened. Last night we played in Omaha at a larger venue. I think our sound fares better when we use only our equipment and play in a smaller room. Just gotta get these kinks worked out.

All the bands we've played with have been incredibly gracious and often passed on their share of door money to help our van ('The Basket') keep moving, and several have given us great places to spend the night; I can't thank them enough.

Another fun night with neighbors

Another successfully canceled house show by police, starting off the tour just right. mmmmmm