With Robot Arm: (Saturday, January 13, 2001)
Debut show of Robot Arm, which is the brainchild of Mat and Chris from Ninewood. These two guys recorded a shitload of improvs as many as three years ago with random other people (including myself and many others). Supposedly a CD compiling the best of these recordings will come out this year. In the meantime, due to a last-minute cancellation at the Port Lite club in Oakland (ghasp), they decided to throw together a Robot Arm show with no promo or nothin'. So I got the invite, and couldn't resist. We headlined on a Saturday night after two pop bands (some co-ed band and the fast-pop Little John). Then we played like a spewing volcano, forcing everybody out of the place. It was Mat and Chris on drums and bass, me on Nord Lead, Dren on guitar, and Brian (who I just met that evening) also on guitar. What a blast, except the power to my Nord kept going in and out during the entire set, but that lent even more of a random edge to things. "Behold Robot Arm," read an unfulred banner behind Mat. Indeed.

With Species Being: (Saturday, January 20, 2001)
We played a headlining spot of four bands as part of a benefit for Afghani women (see rawa.org) at the Tuva Space in Berkeley/Oakland (3192 Adeline). I never been there before - a cozy, groovy performace space. Kinda packed and hard to load in our stuff, though. First off was Zeek Sheck and her freaky cronies. She just played laptop and harmonica this time around - no drums like a previous show of hers I caught at the Paradise. Second was some trio including Henry Kaiser. I can't stand that guy at all, so Frank and I split to go to the Nursery to pick up CDs to sell. Hung out there for a while chatting with Dan and Brook as Frank made a bacon sandwich and chai. Back to the venue, only then realizing Frank was too busy eating to remember to grab CDs. Oh well. Like we'd sell any. Perfectly missed the Kaiser set. Third was Faun Fables. Dawn and Nils were in top form tonight, feeding off the energy of the crowd (I never heard "Transit Rider" get such a laugh reaction from an audience - I always thought of it as a dismal song). Then we had to follow that. As of last night Kenseth started his sabbatical away from music, and Graham couldn't make it, so it was just Frank, Eli, Mitch, and me. Keepin' it real. Ended up being one of best shows since before the Fall '00 tour. Between the late hour, BART stopping, and the fact that nobody likes us, the placed thinned out throughout the course of our fusion odyssey. Still felt good about the show, and still made it home at a decent hour (around 12:30am).

With Mumble & Peg: (January 25-29, 2001)
Pacific Northwest Tour '01

• Thursday, January 26 - Portland, OR - at the Meow Meow with Francis Farmer Gals and the Nearly Deads
• Friday, January 27 - Seattle, WA - at the Breakroom with Maria Mabra, Ponticello and Blue Collar Love
• Saturday, January 28 - Chehalis, WA - at the Matrix with Louis Panush and Hot Carl

Here's the story:

We picked up the rental van Wednesday evening and hit the road for Portland around midnight. I had the first driving shift all the way past Redding, then Erik took over. We hit blinding snow over the Oregon border pass and we had no sane reason to continue onward considering we couldn't see the road nor the guardrails, but we did anyway.

We survived, had some diner breakfast in the morning, and made it into Portland around noon. With our free afternoon we met up with our generous host, Dawn, and then puttered around downtown hitting up record stores, Powell's, etc. Dawn is a singer/guitarist in the legendary Francis Farmer Gals and a long time friend of the Oakland music scene. In fact, Jenya and I stayed over at her place when Dreamland had its infamous northwest tour way back in '95.

After dinner we loaded into Meow Meow, a new all-ages club in a part of town that gets no walk-in traffic. We were playing first so we had a long sound check, during which my sansamp ceased functioning and the entire staff helped me look for a tiny spring which fell out during battery replacement, never to be seen again, and somehow rendering this $200 piece of equipment totally useless in its absence. So no distortion for Matt this tour. The show went well, at least musically. Outside of Dawn and her band and her select fans, there was nobody there to see us except John, who is an incredible fan of Bay Area art rock, and has attended every show I've ever played in Portland, bless his heart. We discussed Kurt Weill before the show. The other bands did their thing which were both fun but equally disparate from what we do. I got a huge buzz eating cheap candy and playing an endless series of games on an old Atari 2600 system they had hooked up in the candy room.

In the morning we shook off our comas and slithered over to the diner where Dawn waitresses. She hooked us up with a full-on breakfast and sent us on our way up north. Once in Olympia, we stopped for more coffee and ended up hanging out for a while on the main strip, putting up more posters for the Chehalis show (as if) and checking out second hand stores.

We made it into Seattle around rush hour and found the club. We didn't know what to expect, but we ended up being pretty lucky in that the staff was really cool and the other acts were all interesting. In fact, while setting up for soundcheck I was shocked to see Ted, an old bandmate back when I was in college in Binghamton, NY, was also playing this evening with his latest band, Ponticello. I haven't seen him in over 5 years and have lost touch until this evening.

Anyway, we played first, and just as we started we noticed Erik's girlfriend Virginia arrived, having unexpectedly flown up from Oakland a few hours earlier. We played a solid albeit short set. Next up was a short set from solo songstress Maria Mabra. Then Ponticello, which had Ted playing bass and singing in this trance electric violin rock trio, and finally the catchy pop of Blue Collar Love. Considering how much room there is for potential sucking when playing an out of town show at an unknown club with three unknown bands, tonight rocked. The staff was even cool about paying us, albeit a token amount. Erik and Virginia split off with their local friends, and I ended up headed off with Ted and Jenna (another friend from Binghamton) to stay at their pad this evening.

Ted and Jenna and I caught up on the old college friends before bed. We left all our equipment in the van a block away. The thought of theft, coupled with my large caffeine intake this morning, yeilded a sleepless evening. But Ted convinced me this was a safe neighborhood.

In the morning our van and equipment were still there. Phew. More shooting the breeze in the morning with our Seattle cronies before meeting up with Erik and Virginia and her friends on one of Seattle's many interesting drags. Had another greasy breakfast, and then checked out a cool but tiny comic book art exhibit just down the way. Woodring, Clowes, Burns, and more. The brisk cold make walking around town a drag, but we did so anyway near the university. And like my previous four visits to Seattle, I was in and out of town in less than 24 hours.

Jenya played at the Matrix in Chehalis before, so it was like a reunion for her. It's a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but the venue was a cool cafe/bookstore/restaurant/club with a good sound system and great food, run by mother Holly and her son Moon. Both seemed really ready to give up the running-a-club business.

Ate delicious food and tried to stay warm inside as time passed and the other musicians showed up. We finally got to ask if Hot Carl knew exactly what their band name meant. Of course they did and were ready for a new name. They were a couple of young dudes who formed their fun punk band with the original drummer of the Melvins. What an opener band for us. They actually brought a lot of their friends, most of which left for our set to go drinkin' down the street. However, those who stayed bought a bunch of singles/CDs and stuff, God bless 'em. And that was the end of the tour, more or less. Packed up and thanked Holly and Moon who were extra nice to us out-of-towners. We actually got on the road and headed south just after midnight. The weather was much better on the way home, and the whole journey took 14 hours. Jenya did most of the driving, though I did the nasty 4-6 a.m. stretch through dense fog.

Once back in the Bay Area, we all loaded up, headed to the airport to return the van (and get $20 back since the driver's side window was broken and wouldn't open). Took a four hour nap clear through the super bowl.

With Mumble & Peg: (February 23, 2001)
Our big CD release party for All my Waking Moments in a Jar. There was a lot of pressure building up to this point, mostly involving band logistics like assembling CDs, getting T-shirts printed, etc. But everything worked out much, much better than expected. We had a great turnout, thanks to the various draws from the many acts. Wesley Willis was a hoot - he set up off stage and kept the crowd entertained between long set changes. The wonderful Red Bennies made their Bay Area debut in fine form, rocking the crowd into a furor. Then we played, featuring mostly songs from the new CD, including a perfect lounge ballad version of "Resigned" with Jenya on bass and me on piano. Also had the debut of our brand new tune "Lifespan" which the sound guy raved about after the show. And I mustn't forget that we pulled off our first segue ever ("Breathe Deep" going into "Mountain"). Then Sleepytime Gorilla Museum destroyed the crowd with their special brain-melting recipe, and I haven't seen that big a mosh pit at an art-rock show in a long time.

With Mumble & Peg: (March 2-4, 2001)
Salt Lake City Tour '01

• Saturday, March 3 - Salt Lake City, UT - at Kilby Court with Cobra, Sikhara, and the Red Bennies

Here's the story:

Before, and during, this one-show tour we were persistently asked by friends, family, workmates, and loved ones, "Why are you driving all the way to Salt Lake City to do one show? I just don't get it." The answers are many: (a) we were hoping to have a show in Reno as well but that never quite came together, (b) it's much cheaper to rent a van and drive than fly three band members and all their equipment, (c) we were already written up in an SLC weekly feature article so cancelling would be extra lame, and (d) we are gluttons for punishment, especially since we will be playing SLC again at the beginning of the national tour in April.

Jenya and I picked up the rental van from the Oakland airport Friday night. It had a nicer seats and stereo system than our previous van rental, but had a few less square inches of interior space, wreaking havoc on our storage/sleeping system. The three of us quickly packed it up and hit the road at 8:45pm.

On the way out of California, we were luckily spaced between two wet fronts, meaning the trek over Donner summit was painless and quick, and we made it to Reno in three hours. We got three 99 cent specials at a fuel/food/casino/diner establishment. For six bucks total we all got ham, eggs, hash browns, and coffee. Erik and I then earned $2 total in slots before getting back on the road.

Erik took us all the way to Button Point, smack dab in the middle of nowhere of cold Nevada. Jenya was given the shit shift, driving from 4am to about 8am, a rising sun burning in her eyes over the glimmering, icy Nevada landscape, while dealing with slightly scary road conditions (is this black ice or not?). Not to mention me and Erik were dozing off, we had already listened to all the tapes/CDs we brought, and local radio was nonexistent or painful.

At the Utah border I took over again and got us into SLC around 10am mountain time (which means the entire drive was about 13 hours). I tried to find a coffee shop where I hung out with Species Being back in October but got lost on the east side where, thanks to a snow storm the previous night, all the traffic lights were out. Failing that we found a pay phone, called Eli from the Red Bennies and headed on up to his (and Jesse's) place.

Already crapped out on Eli's floor was Scott and Vinny from Sikhara. Their other bandmate with the broken foot was sleeping outside in the van since it was too damn difficult for him to move around. Erik was gung ho about record shopping so Eli clued him in on places to shop as Jenya and I set up camp on the living room floor. He headed on out as we took a much-needed five hour nap.

Erik returned minutes after Jenya and I woke up (around 4:00pm) and asked if we wanted to go back out for more record shopping. We needed air, so we joined him, heading to the outskirts of town for more collectibles. I actually found two cool used CDs that were practically free, and browsed the next-door used threads shop.

Headed back to town and we got dinner at some random spot - the Jade Cafe - which served burgers and chow mein. We felt burgers were the safer bet. Then went to Kilby Court and met up with Phil who runs the place and he gave us the low down on the Mormons and their fascination with bees. The other bands arrived and loaded in, Phil started the fire pit, and the local kids came to check out what's up at this hip all-ages hot-spot.

Cobra went on first, a double-guitar double-drums improv quartet playing to about as many people. They had nothing to do with John Zorn's Cobra. Sikhara went on next. Scott was totally tweaking out setting up sample/drum loops and then beating the shit out of an electronic drum pad and two floor toms. Wham-wham-wham-wham! The other guys filled the room with sax and keyboard squonks.

We went on next, and I believe we played really well. I even think the growing crowd enjoyed it, even though they were here to see hard rock and were probably turned off by our inclusion of piano. Unfortunately these are kids with no money, so we only sold like $13 worth of stuff after the show. Fair enough. The Red Bennies played a great, short set. I dig those guys a lot.

It was a cool scene, and we hung out a while afterward with the club gang before saying goodbye and thanks to all and heading back to Eli's. Jesse was working graveyard, so we set up camp in his room and crashed to sleep.

And Sunday morning it was get-up-and-get-back-on-the-road. More thanks to Eli for setting us up and putting us up. We'll see him and the SLC gang again in a month.. Got coffee and hit highway 80.

Erik burned us through Utah and we ate brunch once in Nevada. Jenya took over and got us to Reno about 5:00pm by doing a solid 100 mph for four hours straight. Once there we got gas and Erik checked the phone book for the local vinyl shop. The weather was getting bad and I was anxious about snow on the summit, but since the shop was closing in a half hour we spent some extra time in Reno anyway.

I didn't find much at the store but Erik always can find something to buy. We drove down the main Reno strip on the way out of town as "Do the Hustle" blasted on the radio. That brought us back to the 70's big time.

Jenya started up the hills in California, but it began snowing, and the roads were getting slippery, and people were stopping to put on chains. We didn't have chains, but it wasn't officially mandatory, so I took over driving (I'm from New York - I can drive on ice and snow).

One stroke of luck was a sand truck appearing right in front of us just as we hit the peak, insuring safe roads for those treacherous five miles. After that I took it nice and easy during the long, slow descent towards Sacramento. If we went through another half hour later we may not have been so lucky.

Once back down near sea level Erik was starving for dinner so we hit some random town where the best offering was Round Table Pizza. Ironically, that was the most expensive meal of the trip.

Despite sheets of rain we made it back to the Bay Area in no time, while listening to the delightful strains of a rare Earth CD Erik picked up back in SLC. No traffic near Oakland, and unloading back at the homestead was a snap.

The bottom line: The trip cost us about $300 in van rental, gas, and food for the entire weekend. For those not involved in the music business, that's actually pretty good, considering.

With Species Being: (March 8, 2001)
Another show at the Bottom of the Hill in SF. The amorphous lineup tonight was me, Frank, Eli, and Graham. We actually rehearsed a couple of times and came up with "heads" or at list riffs to play with if need be. Frank expressed concern that our draw would be slim tonight, and his nightmare became reality. Opening up the set was Wadsworth, touring from Portland - a bunch of funny guys and a fun band. Then we played to about 30-40 people. Typical loud set - nothing to write home about. Then Bluebeard - hyperrock from dudes I've seen around the music scene for a while but never heard. Too bad about the lame draw, especially since Frank and I had a sold out crowd here the other day with our other bands. Funny note - Scott from Sikhara, now bumming around SF instead of SLC, popped in with Camille (sp?) - the old, old bass player for Uz Jsme Doma touring around as well with his latest freakout thang. The experimental-indie-rock touring world is a small one, indeed.

With Species Being: (March 21-25, 2001)
Northwest Tour - Spring '01

• Thu Mar 22 - Seattle, WA - Rainbow (w/ two funk bands)
• Fri Mar 23 - Portland, OR - Medicine Hat (w/ Cosmos Group and the Opera Cycle)
• Sat Mar 24 - Portland, OR - Meow Meow (w/ a million other bands)

Here's the poop on this little trip:

Frank came by my house around midnight on Wednesday, the 21st, and we were going to head up to Seattle during the course of the evening. The lineup for this tour was me, Frank, Eli, and Mitch. Mitch was flying in from NYC this evening, and due to a delayed flight, he wasn't ready yet. So we took our time repacking the mini-van, and then headed on out to Berkeley to find Eli a beer and wait for Mitch to call on Frank's cell phone.

Beer for Eli was nowhere to be found, and word from Mitch was nowhere to be heard until around 1:30, when he called from his rehearsal space in SF. So we headed on over the bridge to get him and his equipment, and hit the road around 2:00am. A bit behind schedule, but whatever. Right away Mitch announced he was going to actually move to NYC in a couple weeks due to a sudden job offering falling into his lap, so these would be the last shows with this lineup.

Zooming past Sacramento, Frank got snagged by the police going 80 mph. The cop was really nice actually. He knew right away we were a touring band ("You guys gigging?" he asks) but we're all relatively clean-cut and Frank is permanently sober. After checking his eyes for recent marijuana/alcohol use, he told us to slow down and that was that. Thanked him and our lucky stars and headed back on track.

I dozed off for a bit in the shotgun seat as Frank got us near the Oregon border and I took over as the sun rose beyond the pass. Forcing myself to stay awake listening to Doctor Nerve, I got us halfway into the state before stopping at a redneck diner for cheap eats and a much needed tooth-brushin'.

I slept in the back until Portland, then we were all awake and getting excited as we approached Seattle, though we got stuck in pre-rushhour traffic. Hit the Rainbow club, which we played a year ago, loaded in, then went to the University strip to hang out for a bit, shopping CD and thrift stores, putting up Sleepytime Gorilla Museum flyers (since Frank will be back next week playing shows in the area), and just plain killing time. We summed up this little outing with a dinner of delicious vegan Thai food.

Back to the club, we met various members of the two opener bands, all of which were really nice people. Frank and I took a walk back to the main strip to find a deck of cards so we could play Palace (the card game that occupied most of our free time during the October '00 tour).

The first opener was a semi-large instrumental funk band with horns, mono-key jams, drum solos and the like. The second band, young dudes from Boise (who imported a crowd of friends and family who travelled all the way to see them), were all over the post-Dead hippie-funk trip, and even covered a Phish tune. Boy were these not the bands to open up for us.

Nevertheless, we played a great show (one of my favorites), and the people who watched it (including a couple who actually bought the CD and purposefully came to see us) were really into it. But due to the relatively lame draw we only got about $40 for our troubles.

We had a house with many sleeping surfaces down Portland, so we loaded on out, and headed south on I-5. Once again while Frank was driving, we spotted flashing lights behind us as a police car approached. After cussing and preparing to pull over, the car flew past us. Phew.

Got to what will be our homestead for the next two days around 4:00am. Who lives here? Julie, Lara, Jamie, and Francis. Frank met Julie when we played in Kalamazoo and she just moved to the area. That was the whole connection to this place. I claimed a futon on the floor and crashed to sleep.

Friday morning we bummed around non-downtown Portland, getting delicious brunch (biscuits with almond gravy.. Mmmm..), browsing antique shops, etc. Friday afternoon we hung back at the homesteads with our gracious hosts, playing darts, cards, guitar, or napping. Beautiful day, nice backyard and shit.

Loaded into the club, the Medicine Hat. Tonight we were playing with two bands which matched us pretty well, the Cosmos Group and the Opera Cycle. Due to weird scheduling with the local bands, they both wanted to go on first and second, convincing us the draw will pick up at the end of the night anyway. Fair enough.

Got dinner down the street at the hip and delightfully titled Chez What? Sat at the counter and we all got meat or non-meat burgers. Before long I realized our waitress was the drummer of the Nearly Deads who I played a show with back in January. Small world.

Played Palace at the Medicine Hat, drinking my one allotted beer (as opposed to the usual three or four) which could only be cheap domestic beer or it'd cost me $2 extra. Yum. The local bands were really good in their different ways. But that was really the only plus for the evening.

The main issue: the sound just plain sucked. I heard it sounded good out in the house, but doing improvisational composition when you can't hear the other musicians (or hear them way too much) is uninspiring to say the least. A secondary issue: as expected since the local draw already saw the two local bands, the place cleared immediately.

Still, I got an earful of compliments from those who stayed about my rippin' bass chops. Nobody bought CDs, and the girl who booked the show arrived after everyone left and handed us $33. Supposedly the doorman said there were 18 paying people and 10 guests. There were well over 50 people in the club at its peak, beyond band and staff. And entrance to the club was a whopping $7. I'm not saying the doorman was stealing any money, though this a common practice I'm unfortunately familiar with and, well, you do the math. This is what it's really like to be a rock star, people.

And by the way, this show was made even worse the next night when we discovered that Frank lost his stick bag and nobody at the Medicine Hat club said they saw it anywhere.

Saturday involved more sleep and bumming around downtown Portland, looking for drum supplies which weren't bought since they were way overpriced, getting more yummy Thai food, spending an hour at Powell's, and then heading back to the house to meet Mitch (who was skateboarding with a friend all afternoon).

Mitch arrived with some pain in his wrist and ribs having a bit of a fall during his outing. We split to the Meow Meow, and by that point Mitch couldn't carry any equipment with his left hand. By soundcheck, he couldn't even wrap his hand around the guitar neck, and played it like a lap steel.

He iced it over dinner (at a delicious Mediterranean restaurant around the corner - man, we ate well this tour) and took some pain killers back at the club. Luckily we were on first.

Anyway, here I was back at the Meow Meow, one again playing first on a bill with many bands that didn't fit well with us at all. There was a slightly better and more responsive crowd than when Mumble & Peg was here a couple months ago. This was also probably our best show of the tour, even with Mitch constrained to minimal ambient textures. Todd, who runs the whole show there, was incredibly nice, and we got our thirty some odd bucks and loaded on out before the second band got on.

Searched in the rain for an unlocked dumpster to throw away all the garbage collected in the van, said goodbye to our hosts in the street who made our stay completely comfortable and easy, and headed on out for another long drive through the night.

Stayed up way late yapping with Frank about politics and getting drive-thru fast food. Had an unsettling quest for an open gas station in the middle of nowhere while running on empty. We ended up at the same gas station with the same middle-of-the-night attendant who pumped our gas as the last time I drove back from the northwest. He must only get bands making their way home to SF at this time on a Saturday night.

I got to drive during sunrise over Shasta Lake, and then through the really boring parts of I-5. Dropped off Eli first in the city, and then me in Oakland. Got in around 10:00am and somehow managed to stay awake the remainder of the day. Went to work completely brain dead the following day.

With Mumble & Peg: (Aptil 5-21, 2001)
"Mormon to Norman" National Tour - Spring '01

• Thu Apr 5 - Salt Lake City, UT - Ya'Buts
• Fri Apr 6 - Denver, CO - 15th Street Tavern
• Sat Apr 7 - Kansas City, MI - The Hurricane
• Sun Apr 8 - Chicago, IL - Fireside Bowl
• Mon Apr 9 - Toronto, ONT - El Mocambo
• Wed Apr 11 - Cambridge, MA - T.T. the Bear's
• Thu Apr 12 - New York, NY - Brownie's
• Fri Apr 13 - Hyannis, MA - Prodigal Son
• Sun Apr 15 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
• Tue Apr 17 - Murfreesboro, TN - The Boro Bar and Grill
• Wed Apr 18 - New Orleans, LA - A.R.K.
• Thu Apr 19 - Houston, TX - Mary Jane's
• Fri Apr 20 - Austin, TX - Red Eyed Fly
• Sat Apr 21 - Norman, OK - Medicine Hall

And here's the big story of the tour:

4/4/01 Wednesday - After work I walked all the way from the Mining Circle on campus to National Rent-a-Car near the Berkeley Marina a long ass walk. Got the van a white Plymouth Montana the most roomy rental van yet this year, with a CD player, and 4 quarters strewn about on the floor. I drove home and took all but one of the five seats out of the back.

Jenya was playing with Mark Growden at the Great American Music Hall. I packed my music equipment and clothes while waiting for her to return, during which I realized my sleeping bag was missing. Frank called and reminded me I forgot it in the van during the last Species Being tour and he said he'd bring it over but he never did.

Erik and Virginia arrived and we organized his guitar strings by note value. Jenya came home and we finally packed the van, somehow managing to create a flat surface on the equipment for which someone could sleep or be launched through the windshield like a torpedo in the event of an accident. We called this the "stunt bunk."

Having not eaten much all day, I was grumpy and so when we hit the road I tried to sleep first on the stunt bunk as Jenya got us way past Reno. This wasn't very exciting as I did this fucking boring stretch of road like 4 times in the past month. Jenya, our hero, got us well into Nevada by 4:45am. Then we ate at a truck stop diner. Mmm. Eggs.

4/5/01 Thursday - I took over driving during sunrise, listening to Genesis's Foxtrot. Only now I’m realizing how sloppy the playing on that record is (namely Phil Collins). When Erik took over I twisted my arm entering the stunt bunk as it was way too close to the ceiling of the van and I had no room to turn over.

Erik drove us into Salt Lake City, and we stumbled on some hippie veggie restaurant. Mmm. Nut burger. We also stopped by the club Ya'buts and our name was on the marquee.

I should point out Virginia procured a cell phone for "work" but we got to use it for our tour. Quite convenient, I should say, though I think cell phones should be illegal.

Nobody we knew in town was home, so we went to the Coffee Garden (my regular SLC spot) and it turns out Jesse was there waiting on Eli to pick him up. It's raining and he gives us a key to his pad. At the pad Eli was on the phone with his mom. Jenya and I crapped out on their couch.

Eventually headed to the club. Loading in was an adventure we pulled up front and were told to pull around back. Around back I drove the van way down the wrong ramp and waited for somebody to let me in. Being this was the incorrect entrance, nobody came. I finally put two and two together and found the correct load-in spot.

We were early. The soundguy was cool. The doorman was helpful. Everybody involved was just plain nice. Liza (who seems to be at all the shows I play in SLC) gave Jenya and I restaurant suggestions. We walked five blocks to get some burrito action at La Cha Cha's. On the trek back I spotted many references to bees and beehives in SLC's downtown architecture. Mormons like their bees.

The bands started soon after we returned. Alchemy was a rockin' 4-piece. Optimus Prime was a 5ive Style-ish funk band with Dave from Red Bennies on guitar. During their set Hope arrived, and we chatted for all of 15 minutes before she split. She just doesn't like hanging out in clubs. In fact, most of the crowd split by the time we went on.

We didn't play our best set to start the tour two broken guitar strings weird tempos for songs I ended up doing a solo rendition of "Nine" to occupy some time. But some people stayed and were drawn to our amazing concessions case (painstakingly organized and decorated with Xmas lights by Jenya). We sold one work shirt for 5 bucks.

Nevertheless we got $70 at the door great considering nobody cared, really. This set the tone for the remainder of the tour incredibly high door deals considering nobody cares, really. My feeling is this has something to do with Erik being a booker and the clubs are just playing nice, and has nothing to do with us deserving the money at all.

As we loaded out the back, some drunken freakazoid cowboy appeared, spazzed out about the door being open, hurled a 50-gallon drum at us, said "now you're really pissing me off," and slammed the door shut. The drum (which, as it happens, was left there by Ether over a year ago), missed us. Turns out this was the crazy owner of the club going on his nightly alcohol-fueled power trip. So much for everybody at the club being nice.

The soundguy opened the door for us so we could finish loading out and Jenya went inside to idiot check. I missed this, but while inside the lunatic owner cursed Jenya out for being around past 2:00am, and she yelled right back in his face, leading to a loud cursing match but not much else. He followed her outside, still muttering as we wrapped up packing. Erik made clear to the guy that he just fucked up his chance to get any Kork Agency bands to play a show there. The soundguy surreptitiously apologized to us for that dude's behavior, as if it was his fault.

Headed back to Jesse/Eli's. They left a key in their mailbox which didn’t work in the deadbolt lock. It just turned and turned to no avail, and eventually the whole lock shaft fell right out onto the porch in many pieces. Meanwhile Erik just walked into the back door which was open. Jesse arrived minutes later, we drank some bourbon, and we all hit the hay.

4/6/01 Friday - Got up early for the day's long drive, loaded out, and since nobody else was home we just split. Into Wyoming Jenya was giddy about the plethora of fireworks shops so we had to stop and get some. Of course this meant we had a bag of fireworks slowly getting destroyed during the remainder of the tour.

We got stuck in dead-stop traffic for a while. Actually got out of the van to stretch right there on the highway. When we got moving, we passed the scene of a devastating head-on collision between two cars. Nobody lived, as evidenced by the towels covering the mashed corpses in the unbelievably compressed automobiles involved. Ugh.

Down Highway 25 to Denver. Two days later this highway will be closed thanks to a late-season snowstorm. Arrived around dinnertime and loaded into the dive 15th Street Tavern.

Jenya and I got a bad feeling about this town punk fucks in the bar, numerous aggressive homeless people, a pedestrian strip mall one block away (which I traversed 10 years ago during previous cross country travels) featuring bland chain stores and obnoxious chain restaurants and clotted with off-putting strip mall types. We searched this mall for food Erik quickly fled back to the club to have beer for dinner. Jenya and I did finally find one place with expensive salads.

Waited around forever back at the bar. Jaime and bandmate from Danghead arrived without their drummer (who just couldn't make the gig). They set up for the alt-country-psychedelic set. Nobody cared or clapped. I having the standard "why the hell are we doing this" nervous breakdown only two days into the tour.

We played much better than last night, but nobody cared. Sold another single work shirt after the show and that's it. Yammered over the way-too-loud jukebox to the few who did come and cared. Discussed how all bands pass through Denver if only to break up their trip towards somewhere else.

Speaking of which, we loaded the van to head out that evening. I, Tetris-master, took Jenya's advice and repacked the van and somehow managed a new method that availed to us a less treacherous and more spacious sleeping area in the back.

I took the first shift just to get us to the next diner on 70, but it turns out there ain't dick on 70. Not until we crossed the Kansas border. I asked some (typically) misshapen Midwestern convenience store clerk if I'd ever hit a diner up the road and he said in another 30 miles. Sure enough, there was a weird 24-hour all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for six bucks each. After eating too much Erik took over and I slept in the back.

4/7/01 Saturday - Jenya, dying from lack of sleep, drove the last hour on our way into Kansas City, MO. Found our way to the club (the Hurricane). Turns out there's a vinyl heaven nearby. Erik dove deep into their dusty record bins. I even found a rare Motorpsycho CD but didn't get it because it was $22. Of course I regretted not getting it later.

Erik called his pals Josh and Hannah (the latter from the cross pollinated Cape Cod/Oakland scene) and they met him at the record store. Meanwhile Jenya and I went to a nearby thrift store and bought me some shorts as it was fucking hot (unlike chilly Denver).

Met the gang at the café. Since we were fried we headed back to Josh and Hannah's pad to crash for a couple of hours. Yeah baby dreams and everything. Erik woke us up when it was time to rock. Hannah (who works there) was finishing her shift as we arrived as we loaded in.

With time to kill, Jenya, Hannah, and I went to get Middle Eastern fare at the nearby restaurant "Jerusalem." When we got the bill it was way more expensive than we thought turns out me and Hannah got lunch menus with reduced prices. What a ripoff. We complained and got the bill fixed.

We got back in time for soundcheck and then we played right away. A usual set including Erik playing a solo tune for his wayward homies. A lot of people were there, but strictly there to see the Elders. You see, we were originally booked with more appropriate bands, but on the wrong date due to some miscommunication. So we got planted on this bill with an aging Celtic rock band. Naturally, nobody cared about us.

Much lagging as Erik drank and caught up with friends and we finally headed back to Josh and Hannah's along with Sharon and Julie (two more relatives of the Cape Cod scene of yore). Hung in their den, shooting the breeze, playing with the crazy boxer dog, Lula, or their coy gray kitty, Monkey.

Sleep schedule fucked, I was the last to make it to bed and it took a couple hours to get into Dreamland. Once there, I had a lucid nightmare. It was great.

4/8/01 Sunday - We slowly summoned ourselves awake around 7:00am, got our shit out of the house, left a thank-you note and hit the road. Coffee, gas, and the highway.

Jenya made good time on the first shift, all lost when some woman of foreign descent at a rest stop pleaded with Jenya for information about how to get to highway 80, completely unclear of the concept that exit 80 has nothing to do with highway 80. Took forever to pry Jenya away from this spectacle.

And once in Iowa, she got pulled over for speeding. No muss, no fuss, and after brief, polite exchanges with the policeman Jenya became the proud owner of a $93 ticket. Bummer! Not much speeding after that, so we made lousy time.

Made it to Chicago by 4:00pm. Guided the van to the downtown area and the long trek up Western Avenue ugly as hell miles of slums and condemned buildings. Nobody at the Fireside Bowl. I called my pal Tom on his cell phone and he gave us directions to a nearby quality restaurant. I was hungry and nobody had any better plan, so we headed there for din-din.

Sat by a table of about a dozen grandparents exchanging stories about their grandkids (or their anxious longing for some grandkids already). Example: "My grandson.. 7 years old.. He does algebra!" Towards the end of the meal one of the older gentlemen presented to his stunned friends.. a blue potato! Anyway, ‘twas a delicious plate of sesame noodles, but not the Chicago stuffed pizza Jen wanted.

Killed more time driving around the downtown area by the big buildings, and by the pretty Lake Michigan. Back to the Fireside Bowl the doors were open so we loaded in. Ah, just like last October when I was here with Species Being, with the same archetypical Chicago-style bartender.

Met the local band Lozenge and had polite discussion about who was playing first, second, third, and fourth. Turns out the booker already had a grand plan for that. Also turns out Illusion of Safety were playing first. When Mumble & Peg went on that pointless NXNW tour back in '97, JOB had a show with Illusion of Safety which I performed remotely by recording my drum parts on DAT.

Despite the rough treatment (no guest list, no drink tickets), it was probably the most entertaining set of bands all tour. Illusion did his amazing solo shtick, during which Tom showed up with his gal, Dina, as well as old Oakland scenesters Tommy and Stacey. A mini Oakland reunion, and then we played our set and Tom/Dina split shortly thereafter.

Lozenge was hilarious (and even more so since that was one of the previous names of Mumble & Peg). They would fit in perfectly in the well-executed goofy Oakland art rock family. And finally, the band Jenya and Erik were terribly excited to see all tour, the Fire Show and they rocked.

Once again we sold one thing and one thing only. And we headed back to Tommy/Stacey's to party. We parked, and I re-parked in a closer spot. Caught up on the whereabouts of old Oakland friends until 2:30am. Erik slept in the van. Jenya and I got the futon.

4/9/01 Monday - Stacey and Tommy headed off to work as we summoned ourselves around 7:00ish. I was driving the first shift and too anxious to get the fuck out of town that we were wholly unable to find the quality coffee Jenya and Erik require every morning. Best we could do was McDonald's coffee, which was bought grudgingly and left untouched in the coffee holders until spilled out at some rest stop hours later.

We stopped in Ann Arbor for real coffee. The woman parked ahead of us told us that there was still time on her meter so we should park there. Almost jaywalked in front of a cop who I thought was giving us a parking ticket. No, he was just taking notes about the meter.

Nervously approached the Canadian border, minds reeling with stories of American bands getting fucked with at the crossing. But I think since we had a chick in our band, we were good as gold. Ended up being no big deal.

Four hours across pleasant Canadian farmscape to Toronto. Beautiful city last time I was here I was like 9 years old. Slowly made our way through the local Chinatown and to the club El Mocambo. Cool club but on an unparkable corner. Tried circling to the back alley to unload went down the wrong one which was nearly impossible to back out of. And the right alley was blocked. Had to load in the front, which was quite frustrating with all the main street traffic, and then I had to find parking a few long blocks away.

But now we had time to kill. In the meantime I was passing out from hunger. I needed a fix I got $20 Canadian out of an ATM and hit the corner Burger King like the lame ass American that I am. Then Jenya was hungry so we went out again got tasty Indian food on the opposite corner.

While playing pool, Emily arrived Jenya's junior high school friend from Poughkeepsie which she hasn't seen in 16 years! What a trip! Met her and her husband, Dave. Nice folk.

Erik wanted cigs and Jenya wanted film so I had to head back to the car to get some. It was a pain in the ass walk, but then I realized I was parked illegally, and re-parked nearby. Phew!

The Shut-Ins were on first. Local indie pop loud, fast and slightly skewed. Then us. We played a short set to a large crowd who couldn't care less. It was at this show that my damper pedal started to work only intermittently. Then the headliners Pony Da Look - goofy all-female keyboard/drums/bad singing/we're-so-cute stuff which won over everybody in the crowd except me.

Erik yammered forever with Dan the booker as Jenya and I coordinated the loadout (with help of Emily and Dave). Took forever to crowbar Dan away from Erik. All 5 of us crammed in the van back to our host's top-story apartment.

Loaded all of our stuff out of the van two packed elevators. What a great pad! Talked with Dave about computers out on their amazing scenic balcony overlooking downtown and the potential future Olympics site. Yanked off the stinky clothes and finally had a full night's sleep.

4/11/01 Tuesday - Day off in Toronto. Got up late and Emily took the day off the guide us around town. Went to the hip shopping districts. For lunch we went to a neat Thai kind of place. Hit up several book, comic, and record stores, but Erik found nothing special to buy for his prized vinyl collection. Still a beautiful city and simply walking around it was cool nice to be in a totally different country where I can speak fluently with the natives.

Began the painful load out procedure back at the apartment. Bye and thanks to Emily. And then we hit the road to Niagara.

Got to the falls at 4:30pm. I was there as a child, but Jenya's never been. Fucking beautiful. We all got fudge at the gift shop which was devoured immediately. Parked back in the touristy part of town. Window browsed the wax museums and other stupid shit until we decided to go on the straight ahead fare of Raleigh's for dinner. Burgers and stuff. We spent the remainder of our Canadian money.

Hit the falls one more time on the way out now that it was dark they reduced the water pressure and turned on the colored lights. Baudy. Hit the border crossing which was a slight ache in the ass but nothing more. A couple questions and we were free to enter our country.

Once over the border we hit the cell phone to call all our buddies in the Boston area as we were headed there through the night. I got a hold of Mark/Kim and they offered their place for sleeping. Sweet!

I stayed up with Erik as we plowed thru northern NY. Haven't been around these stomping grounds in a long ass while.

4/11/01 Wednesday - Man was I out. Woke up in a rest stop right outside Boston. It was about 8:00am. I called Mark and warned him of our ETA and he gave me directions to his job.

Once is Boston Erik maneuvered us to a main corner. He grabbed his bag and split. In lieu of sleep he was going record shopping. Jenya and I headed to Cambridge and found the building where Mark works I was able to get in and I surprised him at his carrel.

He took a break and guided Jenya and I back to his house. He set us up real good with a futon, an e-mail connection, and then headed back to work. Crash city! Woke up again at 4:00, washed up, ate some steamed buns we found in the freezer, and split to the club at 6:00.

The club, TT the Bear's, was on the same corner where 2.5 years ago we heard one Bostonian query another: "Whaddaya stuck on stupid?!" Loading in was quick. Rabbit was soundchecking and soundchecking was slow. Mark and Kim came at 6:30 and we told them to come back at 7:30. They came back at 7:30 and Rabbit was still on stage. But we soundchecked fast and Jenya and me headed out to dinner with Mark and Kim. They treated us to delicious Indian food, god bless them.

When we got back, the first band, Bluegrazer was already on. Soundguy's band. He actually read the lebofsky.com website and asked me about some of my essays. Then Bipolar Coaster featuring Craig from Erik's old band Earshot (and we found out later Craig was from Rockland County and we grew up a couple miles away from each other).

Around this time my old WHRW pals Jen and Paul showed up! I haven't seen them in years. So me and Jenya and all my buds sat around a table, yelling over the music about Boston music, catching up on the whereabouts of old band members, etc. These are the parts of touring I like a lot catching up with old friends in far away cities though I could do without the deafening background music.

Then it was our set. My least favorite set of the tour. Erik was ripped and exhausted from being up all day. Set cut short and for some reason we did "Hangman" in lieu of any of my tunes. Erik insisted on it and I refuse to argue on stage. But oddly enough we had our more positive response yet, sold a few things, met some cool people who liked it and gave me CDs of their bands, etc. Rabbit went on and my friends left.

I called my sister Lisa from a pay phone to warn her we were coming to NY tonight. Watched some interesting world music band through the window of the next club, the Middle East. When our show finally ended, Erik was still drinking, partying with the Earshot gang, and we finally loaded out and impressed everyone with our styley van with the automatic doors and everything.

On the road to NY Fog and rain all through RI, CT, and NY. What a bummer. Took us till 6:00am to make it my old house. Erik was so crashed he stayed in the ban. I found the hidden key, set up camp with Jenya and hit the friggin' hay.

4/12/01 Thursday - Got up at 11:00ish. Made breakfast of eggs, toast, and hash browns. No sign of Lisa. Oh well. We soon headed off the WFMU in Jersey. Playing a live show on the radio just like Species Being did there back in October. Even with the same host, Scott, but a different engineer, Jesse. We even got lost on the way there just like last time.

Anywho, we arrived at 1:30, Jenya and I tried desperately to find the secret FMU lot. Her wrist was bothering her she must have sprained it carrying equipment/playing "Hangman" last night. Luckily the station had several adhesive ace bandages laying around.

We set up I roamed around the station remembering the various cool crap this station had velvet painting, hilarious records on display, and a classic Asteroids video game in Spanish ("Juego Terminado"). Soundchecked and rolled tape. Played a 40 minute set which I thought was pretty good then recorded an interview and our answers weren't terribly inane.

Then we were in a hurry to get to the Brownie's show in NY. It was 6:00 and we were slated to go on at 8:00. Loaded out lickety split and headed for the Holland Tunnel. Bit of rush hour traffic. I rode shotgun and navigated, nearly leading Jenya over the Williamsburg bridge to Brooklyn by accident. She deftly maneuvered a wholly illegal u-turn right in front of a NYPD car to get us from going over the bridge and getting lost in Brooklyn.

Found the club (Brownies) and loaded in, and parked around the corner. The third band, Alger Hiss were going through their infinitely long and loud soundcheck. Booker's roommate's band. Jenya and I snuck out and got some pizza down the street. Lots of sausage.

We set up and line checked. I noticed John Berger (Erik's pal who set up with our last NY show) was in the bar. We said hi and he was introducing me to his wife when I was Heimliched out of the blue. Shocked, I found out the person grabbing me was my old housemate Jeremy. I saw him in October on my last time through. At this point, Lisa arrived alone. So many people to greet at once, but we had to go on stage and perform to our audience of 8 or so friends/relations (including my old pal Evan and his gal Suzi who I didn't get a chance to greet yet).

We played a decent 40 minute set and got the hell off stage for the remaining three bands. Those bands being the Liars, the aforementioned soundchecking band, and headliners Flux Information Society. Screaming indie rock sandwiched between new-wave.

I more or less spent the remainder of the evening outside gabbing with my NY associates. First Jeremy and two of his friends he met during a meditation retreat in CA recently. Then Evan and Suzi. They all split and it was down to me, Jenya and Lisa. We walked up/down the strip several times trying to decide on a place to grab some food. Eventually settled on the same pizza place we ate at earlier.

The final band finished playing to the packed house a packed house means 10% of the door adds up to a nice chunk of change. Once again we score money without deserving it at all. Erik, drinking by the concessions display all night, sold nothing.

Once the crowd thinned enough we loaded out, our equipment in puddles of beer and broken glass. Jenya went with Lisa, and I hauled Erik back in the van. Thick fog and Erik snoring the entire way home. Good night's sleep.

4/13/01 Friday - Got up around 11:00. Erik already anxious to leave for his old digs on the Cape, which is understandable but he's always anxious to leave anywhere. Lisa made us oatmeal waffles for breakfast. Same lame ass 4-hour trip through CT/RI up to the Cape of Cod.

After thick weekend traffic, we arrived in Hyannis, right where we played 2.5 years ago, this time not in that art gallery but in the café around the corner called Prodigal Son. We loaded in onto its microscopic stage. Erik found out quickly his buddy Jay double booked himself and so we wouldn't be playing this show.

Erik went wandering around as Jenya and I went in search of dinner. Ended up getting relatively good Thai food at Ying's Noodles. Afterward, on the way back, we ran into Erik and sister Lacey in the street and headed back to the café.

Set up our stuff. Chatted with Lacey and an old friend of Erik's he hadn’t seen in 11 years. Then Erik started the set with the butchering of Jay's tunes. After fumbling through five of those we actually started the first of two "lite rock" sets for the café crowd. The crowd was a nice size, consisting of Erik's pals we saw in Boston a couple days ago, or last time we were here on the Cape, or people he hadn't seen in like 5-12 years. Also one guy who was an actual fan who heard about the show from reading our website of all things. Imagine that.

Anyway we played a second set and afterward sold a lot of crap. More money in concessions than all money from any single previous gig on tour. Plus we got door money on top of all that. That was nice. However, Brett, Erik's pal who was supposta hook us up with a place to stay tonight, did not. Instead I coerced Erik to call his pal Emily who offered her place to crash and there we went.

In the dark we found her house (she was outside waving at us). Met her hubby Dave (another Emily/Dave couple). We all hung out, playing with their dog, Daisy, drinking, talking, observing the pet frogs and finally sleep in the den. Snore central.

4/14/01 Saturday - Got up reasonably late. Lounged around outside in the pleasant New England backyard with the gang and the dog. Coffee and chat. Thanks and goodbye.

Next stop: Lacey's place up the Cape, mostly for Erik to visit his niece Maya. Last saw Maya at age 1.5. Now she's 4 and a whirlwind of energy, singing songs on the fireplace mantle, running in circles while listening to the Powerpuff Girls CD, being completely entranced by Jenya's "coily" hair. We adults, meanwhile, practically collapsed to sleep on the couch.

Then off the to restaurant to find Brett who we missed last night but he stepped out. Killed time on the corner shopping for shoes, getting Jenya a wrist brace (her wrist was still bothering her), browsing an Army/Navy surplus store. Erik found the gregarious Brett and we went out for coffee and hung out a while outside in the pleasant New England spring air.

Then off to Hyannis. Jenya and I went to find mallets (which she broke in Boston) but the drum shop failed to have them. Erik went record shopping. While Jenya and I were getting sandwiches the cell phone rang and we refused to answer it. I walked the phone a few blocks over to Erik and it rang again. It was Shihzad (from NY)! I walked the cell phone back to Jenya. Very tentative plans were made with him in case we get to NYC early enough.

Speaking of which, we were now faced with the option of bumming around 2-3 hours and wiat for Jay to get off work. Instead we hit the road for NY, since I was bored outta my gourd. Bye Cape. Hello same damn 4 hour trip down I-95 to Rockland.

Arrived in Rockland much later and much more tired than we thought. It was early enough to make a jaunt into NYC a possibility, but late enough that after Jenya called Anthony back at our house, then her dad, and then her pal Ruth in D.C., NYC was an impossibility. That was fine by me since I got to hang out with my sister who was in for the night. Erik was bumming since we didn't stay at the Cape but Jay never called us back anyway so whatever.

We all drank and played the Simpsons trivia game. Then we hit the New City Diner a place I used to hang out in high school all night long. This place had a total facelift since then, resulting in more food options at incredibly high prices, but with the same quality and service (and that sickening "I can't believe I’m back in Rockland" feeling). Ate up, played more Simpsons trivia, paid the check, split, drove home, crashed.

4/15/01 Sunday - Got up, showered, Erik once again anxious to hit the road. Lisa made us eggs and toast. Another nice breakfast with the kid sister, and then goodbye and we hit the road.

Nice drive to Baltimore - a lot of cars but no dead-stop traffic. Got into town with plenty of daylight hours and patience for record stores. Headed right to the Fleet Street area which seemed like a cooler place to hang out last time we were here. Not so great this time. A couple record stores with nothing special. A garlic pretzel. Accosted by many aggressive beggars, all with long stories.

We headed toward the club (Ottobar) last time in town we ate at a nearby gay burger joint. No such luck this time. Nothing was open. It was after 6:00pm on a Sunday. It was Easter Sunday. It was tax day. Ugh.

So we headed to the areas around the many colleges but couldn't find shit except boarded up buildings and large residential slum areas right next to the school campuses. An hour of driving and we couldn't come up with anything better than a Hardee's. We needed food so we headed back to Fleet Street. The only place open that seemed reasonable (and didn't have a terribly offensive phallic pun for a name) was Admiral's Cup. Mmm. Chicken sandwich.

Back to the club almost 8:00pm but nobody was there. It started drizzling, and we decided to just wait in the van. Pretty soon a car pulled up and parked. Somebody got out and approached our van. He looked like my old Binghamton, NY housemate, Joe, but it couldn't have been him. He walked right up to the driver side window and asked, "Matt?!" It was Joe. Holy shit! I lept out into the rain and asked him "What the hell are you doing here?"

Haven't seen him in almost 9 years. He just happened to do a web search for another one of our housemates who I mentioned on my website, and then caught wind I was playing this show. He lives an hour south in Centreville, VA, at this point. It was a real blast he decided to attend this show, especially since nobody else came. I pretty much gave him all my drink tickets for being the audience.

Turns out one of the other bands cancelled, leaving it just us playing first and then a local instrumental indie rock band, the American. They were nice, but had no draw. As well, various members of that band played here in other projects over the past few nights. And being Sunday/Easter/Tax Due Tomorrow, that adds up to maybe 3-4 people paid to get in. Tops. And where were all the people we expected to come? This was the location of our best show last time we toured this area. This time, possibly the worst.

At the end of the night we were handed $30 out of sympathy. That and Joe showing up were the only reasons to waste this day in Baltimore.

So long, Stinktown! We hit the road south towards Asheville, where Erik's mom and step-dad live. Jenya drove first shift past DC. Then Erik. We all crashed at some point at some rest stop.

4/16/01 Monday - I woke about 100 miles out and took over for the collapsing Erik. He crashed but woke up to navigate once we were in town. And a small town it was woods/farms/random stores. Pulled into the family's property, loaded in to the guest house, and then greeted the folks in the main house. Colleen and Dinny (sp?).

Despite it being 2:00pm, they began to make us dinner. Incredibly nice people. Erik's step-dad is also a musician/computer guy. He had his share of tour stories from back in the day. I played their grand piano. Checked out their barn in the back. Skipped into the main part of town to the one music store and they didn't have the mallets Jenya wanted. Damn!

Back home for early dinner. BBQ steaks, baked potato, hummus and veggies, salad, and RC cola. Dee-licious. Shot the breeze some more then went around the expansive yard taking band photos with the folks' digital camera. Jenya napped and I wrote in my journal. Apple pie was consumed while watching Law and Order. Erik crapped out as Jenya woke up to have her slice of pie. I stayed up the longest, chatting with our hosts about work and touring. Passed out at 10:00.

4/17/00 I got up since I couldn't sleep and it was still pitch black. Then I realized it was 6:00am and I've been out for 7 hours or so. Tossed and turned till 8:00ish, showered, then while Jenya showered Erik came by and pointed out the major snowstorm going on outside.

Yay! Snow! I haven't seen real snowfall in years. We had mountain driving ahead of us, but I personally wasn't too worried about bad road conditions in light of the snow not sticking too much and the quick and varied quality/quantity of flake.

I stomached 3 cheese blintzes for breakfast, packed up and hit the road. Bye and thanks to Colleen and Dinny, who spent these final minutes videotaping us eating and packing a box of random food for the road.

Erik drove us through the Great Smoky Mountains. It was snowing but warm enough so conditions weren't bad as expected. Once through the hills we stopped in Knoxville to get coffee. At the shop we got directions to the music store. Jenya finally found replacement mallets there. Thanks, Knoxville!

Back on the road to the middle-of-nowhere Murfreesboro. Thirty miles off any interstate. Tiny college/redneck town. Found the bar (the Boro), and the friendly twangy barkeep told Erik where all the record stores were.

So we hit the main square to kill time. One store full of used CDs/vinyl all on super sale, but nothing worth buying. Lots of antique shops. An internet café. While on the sidewalk one person warned me from a passing car, "Jesus loves you…" Thanks for the hot tip. No place to pee, so we headed back to the Boro to pee.

Erik stayed behind as Jenya and I went back to the main square and had an argument about where to eat, fueled by fucked sleep/food schedule giving me crushing physical depression and pseudo-illness symptoms. I got my way: Thai food. Sometime in the last five years a bill was passed ordering every town in the U.S. to have at least one Thai restaurant. The spicy food kicked my ass back to reality, but also yielded me nauseous indigestion for the remainder of the evening.

Once more back to the bar. Tonight we were opening for the Chamber Strings, a Goth/Mod outfit out of Chicago on the Kork roster. They themselves were in the throes of a shitty tour. So on top of everything bad about this show, Erik had to have a meeting with the band and explain why they were having a shitty tour. During that meeting Jenya and I played pool on a table so slanted all the balls kept falling into one corner pocket no matter shot was played.

The PA at this club fucking sucked ass! Shitty mikes, too, on top of that. One monitor was fried leaving one single monitor in front of Erik. The DI for the keyboard was fucked as well, causing it to work intermittently. Quite possibly the worst PA setup I ever played through EVER! Couple that with the low attendance and this was one uninspiring gig. At least the tiny crowd was polite and applauded between songs.

Jenya and I marveled how great the Chamber Strings looked considering they were on tour. Glasses on wine on their amps ‘n all. But they had more of a "sound" which meant the crappy PA destroyed any traces of it. The bass sounded good because the bass player borrowed my amp.

Loaded out, got the sympathy "door money" from the booker, hung out in the parking lot with the other band. Erik made the executive decision we were leaving now for New Orleans. This was our final long drive, so we might as well do it overnight. I felt like shit so I slept through several driving shifts between Jenya and Erik.

4/18/01 Wednesday - I woke as the van was frantically pulled off the highway and Jenya and Erik, tired and flustered, were trying to figure our where we were. Turns out they missed an interchange, so instead of going directly south through Mississippi, we're taking the scenic route through Alabama. All told, this boner added only an hour to the trip, plus I've never been to Alabama, so whatever.

Scary truck stop in Alabama. Lots of Jesus paraphernalia. I drove the last half of the state down to the Gulf of Mexico coast and into Mississippi. We stopped at a truck stop diner, which was cafeteria style. When I ordered the grilled chicken breast sandwich, Molly behind the counter said, "you.. sure.. do.. talk.. fast.." Really. She said that.

Rolled into New Orleans, my first time there, around 3:00pm. We found the club, which was really a new art space/performance space/bike shop/live-work space the size of a city block. Running the space were a couple: Cameron (female) and Stacy (male). The whole complex was called A.R.K.

Anywho, there were signs this was going to be well attended, for reasons not limited to (a) much talking up by the proprieters, (b) actual flyers all over town noting us as "Idiot Flesh's evil cousin." The core of the opening band, Machine Screw, arrived and they were already drunk and friendly. That's how people are around here.

The three of us wandered up Decatur Street right into threw tourist French Quarter. Erik hit a record shop right off. Jenya and I kept on going, ending up in the mega flea market of alligator heads, beads, voodoo dolls, and countless pepper sauces with funny labels depicting fire coming out of people's bottoms. Whatever. When Jenya went to get money out of an ATM she then realized she left her card at the aforementioned truck stop in Alabama this morning.

Considering this faux pas, it was no big deal we recovered Erik from the store, and Jenya used his cell phone to contact the bank and get the ball rolling as far as getting a new card. We all then got coffee/lemonade at a café and headed back to A.R.K..

Machine Screw were setting up. Turns out they're 8 people including a drummer who only plays an electric kit, so soundcheck took a while, but since those guys would be doing our sound, we filled them in will the facts and didn't bother checking ourselves.

With the newfound time, Jenya and I went to go nap in the van. This effort was nullified when, just as we dozed off, Erik entered the van, slammed the door, made a series of calls right outside on the sidewalk, entered the van, and slammed the door once more.

So we got up, set up our gear in the backstage area, then went in search of dinner. The drunk keyboardist took it upon himself to show us the town. He led us back to Decatur and toward a cheap felafel joint. "Hell, no," Jenya said. He then led us into some nearby jazz club as if we out-of-towners cared to meet the local scenesters. We just wanted to eat. He finally pointed out the expensive nice place and split back to the club.

Slightly expensive but delicious food. It was actually really nice to actually have a real New Orleans hour being it was our first time in town and shit. Food was intriguing in its preparation. Waiter had a delicious accent. Yay.

Back to A.R.K. and nobody was fucking there! Same old shit nobody just plain cares. Machine Screw played to a practically empty house. We went on to play for exactly 9 paying patrons. Had a scare during line-check it sounded like my tweeter was blown. But then it was suddenly fine. My equipment isn't liking this tour.

Played an uninspired set. During "Bobby Smoove" Cameron did some fire twirling. Contractual obligation, I guess, being as how we're "Idiot Flesh's evil cousin," and shit.

We managed to sell one CD. So where was everybody? Turns out the entire A.R.K. staff and their legion of friends were down the street at another event a funeral party for their circus rooster. Cameron evening suggested we go there instead to play, but we were too tired, or at least confused as to why they didn't just have the party at A.R.K. as well. Maybe then people would have seen us.

We went home we Trevor, an ex-SF transient, who was working the door. He lived in a Bohemian mansion with like 5 bedrooms, 20 ft. ceilings, all for $500 a month. We set up camp in the front room and crashed, me and Jenya on mats under a table and out of the way. Shleep!

4/19/01 Thursday - Woke up to Jenya and Erik leaving for coffee. They got lost and drove around forever, yielding enough time for to sleep, finally get up, shower, shave, hang on the front porch drying out my towel, fail to get the house PC hooked up to the internet, and fumble through a bunch of photos laying around of a naked man about to lie on a bed of nails and then the close ups of his bloody ass.

When those two returned Trevor was just getting into the shower. Met another housemate, Jay, who also once lived in Oakland a nice guy. He saw Idiot Flesh in Houston, and even at that SXSW show where me and Erik did a Mumble & Peg duo. And being involved in circus stuff he also knew Virginia's brother Christian. When Trevor was finally ready we split back to A.R.K. to get our equipment, and then he headed off to a job interview.

Hungry, we hit up a nearby felafel shop for lunch and coffee. What a beautiful day. Warm and a little humid made me miss the similar New York summer weather of my youth. Sat outside and enjoyed the slow service. Ah, the Big Easy. Old Swampy.

Got on I-10 outta there and circled around the Gulf of Mexico. Long trip out of LA and into TX. During the trip with hit a gas station where Erik took over driving. As we left the lot a shitload of warnings came on the dashboard about the traction system needed attention and the ABS system is off. What the hell? We pulled over at the next exit and checked shit out all seemed well and it's driving fine. So we chose to ignore the warnings.

Made it into Houston around dinnertime. Erik lived here once so he knew his way around a bit. Ate at Mission Burrito. We headed to the club early Mary Jane's. Loaded in. Helped Jenya set up her kit. Played a round of pool. Read a really nice article about us by this guy Kwame who interviewed us before the tour via e-mail.

Other bands loaded in the opening band Lost Episodes featuring Erik's old record store workmates and the headlining band Japanic which Erik wants to book via Kork. All nice people. But still, we had lots of fucking around time the part I hate most about tour. While chatting outside with some folks in the hot humid night air I got accosted by "Little Randy" who overheard me talking about touring and thus he felt obliged to shower me with information abot his whatever big Houston outdoor festival blah blah blah who fucking cares. He eventually split and hit the blues club across the way.

Lost Episodes started. Loud retro psyche pop. Jenya napped in the van, the tour catching up to her and all. I believe we played well and there was a great turnout, including the aforementioned two people Kwame and Christian. I actually liked the set despite the fact we played both "Driving me Backwards" and “Sara Smile.” I manned the concession stand and sold about $70 of stuff to some people who were seemingly impressed. Finally. One guy couldn't believe there was such a huge art rock scene in Oakland. Japanic played their fun-to-watch new wave set. The crowd thinned. The guy running the bar was happy with us and the turnout. He got many stickers and t-shirts.

This was possibly the best all-around show of the tour. Except the while packing an amp into the van, that squeezed my personal luggage bag out the side door and into a deep puddle of wet clay Texas mud. That really sucked. Bye to all, and we followed Christian back to his barn where he and his new wife, Page, live with their dogs, Oreo and Joan of Bark. Set up camp on the floor. Took forever to fall asleep as insomniatic Erik stayed up watching some cable flick forever. Then the dogs barked in the middle of the night. Sleep depravation city.

4/20/01 Friday - Woke up way too early to the sounds of Erik watching a Nader speech on CSPAN. Dogs jumping on us. Christian headed off to work as we slowly came to, washed up, and loaded out.

Being as how we were supposed to, according to Virginia, stay with her folks last night as opposed to her brother (though the latter made more sense), we had to make good by visiting the elders. Nice people, all Texas style. Talked about country music, hunting, housing finance, and roadkill. As we left they pointed out the blood in the street from the latest squirrel death.

On the road to Austin! Not very far, but very trafficked. Got into town around 5:00, hitting Guadalupe right off all the hotspot I went to multiple times back in the day when I visited Austin at least once a year. Hit Ruby's BBQ. Meat!!! Then Toy Joy, some pawn shop, and some CD store near the campus. I say a CD from one of the bands we were playing with tonight. From the looks of it, this didn't bode well as far as having a "good match" between bands.

Sun was setting, so we tried to check out the famed bats at the downtown bridge. Jenya loves her bats. At 7:45 people were already on the bridge. We tried to find parking near the bridge on both sides of it to no avail. Eventually parked illegally as Jenya and I find an observing spot underneath. Erik couldn't care less, so he just split to the club.

We waited under the bridge until like 8:30. We could hear them, and definitely smell then, but only a couple pioneer bats came darting out. Being as most observers were on the bridge, we ran up there. It struck 9:00 and there were still no bats! What a rip! Suddenly I noticed just below my feet a steady stream of those little buggers flying out, but unless you were at the perfect angle you couldn't see them at all due to the lack of light. And that was that. We gave up and headed to the club on foot, disappointed.

6th Street was hopping even though it wasn't SXSW time. By this time Erik unloaded all the equipment himself and found miracle parking right out front. First band, the Meteorites were setting up and we lounged about in the outside area.

Two women approached us, "are you Mumble & Peg?" I'm not sure of how they heard of us, but they both were from Oakland, and one was moving back to Arkansas and they were stopping in Austin for the night, and happened to see we were playing. Cool. As exciting as that was, it turns out the two of them would be 33% of our audience.

The remaining 66% were Gary and Aubrey old Idiot Flesh fans who got turned on to us way back, and they brought two friends. As the first band started their set of whatever rock we all headed to another bar for quiet conversation. For some reason the waitress didn't charge me or Jenya for our cokes.

Back to the club. The joke punk rock spectacle of Sexy Finger Champs had started already. I drummed up a set list and sometimes I don't know why I fucking bother cut half the songs I wanted to play and played "Amore and Medication" and "Sara Smile” anyway. The place cleared. I'm not sure why the booker wanted the out-of-town band to play last but we still got a $150 guarantee.

Livid about the whole lame show, I drank up some Jager and washed that down with Shiner Bock while moping at the Red River behind the club. When I returned inside I found Jenya talking to our Oakland pal Andy! What the fuck is he doing here?

Turns out he has a new lady friend who lives in Austin and was spending time visiting when he just saw our name on the marquee and stopped in. He missed our set, but whatever. We sat around catching up in this weirdest of locations.

Loaded out and headed over to Gary and Aubrey's place. They have 2 dogs and 4 cats animal hair central. It was like a party of animals when we arrived. Meow! Bark! Ksssh! The last sound was the sound of Goldfish the cat knocking over Erik's water glass. At 2:30 we were passing out on the couch when an unexpected housemate arrived (you mean more people live here?). He was ripped drunk and with three more drunk/speeded/coked up wastoids being rowdy because one just turned 21. Great. Jenya had the hot tip: wear earplugs. Thanks to that I was able to sleep.

4/21/01 Saturday - Woke up to one of the cats walking around, in, and under our blankets, poking random parts of my body with its cold, wet nose. It was like 11:00 and we had to get a move on. After quick washing we all hit a café up the way, then a Mexican cheapo restaurant (after Gary had to hit his van's starter with a hammer to get it start). Got 5 meals for $15 total. Huevos con chorizo muy delicioso. Bye and thanks to the nice couple for their hospitality, then on the road to Norman.

At one rest stop Jenya bought a large bag of spicy snack mix. Looked like vomit. Tasted like shit. She coulda easily bought a mounds bar for one quarter of the price but no! She bought the big ugly shit and threw it away after two unsavory bites. This boner was the source of much entertainment for the rest of the trip.

It was a long drive and we started late, so we didn't get into town until about 6:30pm. Meanwhile Virginia flew into OKC at 1:00pm and was killing time in those parts.

When we got into town we found the closed Medicine Hall. Then we headed to the part of town I was before with Species Being. It was surprisingly dead for a Saturday late afternoon. No people. Stores supposed to be open were closed. Erik called Virginia to tell us where we were and we met at a café where I hung out forever back in October. Happy to see Virginia, we headed back to the Medicine Hall.

In lieu of dinner, one of the few people there said he'd make salads for us. These came almost 3 hours later. In the meantime we loaded in, Jenya set up, Virginia napped in the van, Erik talked shop with the guy running the show, Giani (sp?). Some guy, Gabe, approached me asking, "are you Matt?" and he said he was setting up the upcoming Species Being show here in a couple of weeks, so we chatted a bit. I can't believe I’m gonna be back here that soon. Yeeesh!

So the band Syringe we were planning to play with bailed because the bass player had finals and had to study, thus canceling the tour. That left three bands. Opening were Huver and Stellar Chromatic. The former seemed like nice guys but ended up being the worst kind of annoying prima donna fuckers just 'cuz they were on a major label under the name the Nixons. The PA was kinda crappy and they were giving Giani the hardest time because of it, then took forever to set up, bitching and moaning before, during, and after they played. And then the split right away. I wish all the bad musicians in the world would just shut up and leave well enough alone.

Stellar Chromatic were much better on many levels. Plus the guitarist knew and loved our CD and psyched about us playing a real morale builder after last night. Also met another guy, Adrian, who was fascinated with the Oakland scene and had many questions for us in preparation of an article about Vaccination Records. Dispelled many weird rumors that spread all the way out to this part of the country.

Then we played. People stuck around and dug it. "Snow Tires" was requested. Sold a bunch of stuff in fact, our concessions case was emptied except for one t-shirt we brought the perfect amount of crap. This and Houston were tied as far as good audience response. Cape Cod wins for most money made but that was pretty much it. Tour's over, dude!!

Didn't get outta there till 3:30am. Then we followed Giani to his house which is up in OKC. We were hungry, so the Oaklanders went to a Whataburger drive-through for late night snax. Giani, the poor guy, took a shower and hit the road as he had to be somewhere and it was too late to get one hour of sleep. We crashed on his floor around 6:00am.

4/22/01 Sunday - I was the last one to get up around 11:30. After showering, Erik was still putzing around on the cell phone. We waited for him to go get coffee, but his plans were to go to another part of town out of the way. So we decided that this would be when we'd part ways Erik was to head to Germany to do a ridiculous solo tour, Virginia was to fly home, and me and Jenya drove the van all the way back.

Epilog: Jenya and I made it to Santa Fe that evening, ate delicious dinner at some happy hippie joint, but didn't stay in town since hotels were too expensive. Instead we stayed at a motel near Albuquerque which wasn't all that much cheaper. Made it to Flagstaff well before sunset the next day and got food for several days' car camping, then headed up to the Grand Canyon where we got some glimpses of it before setting up camp for the evening. Hiked around the upper rim the following day, then sped all the way to Death Valley by sunset. Amazing place. We camped that evening in the quiet heat. Hit many of the neat touristy spots the next day, then drove to Yosemite. A three hour trip turned into 10 hours since Tioga pass was still closed and we had to go all the way around the Sierras. That sucked. And when we arrived at the park we realized we weren't prepared for bear country. I panicked and we headed back to Sonora to stay in a hotel there. Hit Yosemite the next day, hiking around the valley and up steel cliffs to the lower falls. Beautiful shit. Drove home that evening during sunset. Twenty miles from home, Jenya's excited, flailing elbow nailed me right in the eye. I nearly swerved the van off the highway in shock. Clutching my now blinded eye, I made it to the next exit. I was fine but poor Jenya apologized the entire way as my cheek swelled up. Returned the van the following day and got a nice chunk of money refunded due to the ABS getting all screwed up back in Texas.

With Species Being: (March 21-25, 2001)
Frank Quits Smoking Tour - Spring '01

• Sun May 6th - San Diego, CA - The Casbah
• Mon May 7th - Day off hanging out in Phoenix
• Tue May 8th - Tucson, AZ - Solar Cult Gallery
• Wed May 9th - Austin, TX - Instore at 33 degrees
• Thu May 10th - Austin, TX - Red Eye Fly's
• Fri May 11th - Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
• Sat May 12th - Norman, OK - Medicine Hall
• Sun May 13th - Kansas City, MO - Hurricane
• Mon May 14th - Denver, CO - 15th St. Tavern
• Tue May 15th - Salt Lake City, UT - Ya'buts
• Wed May 16th - Reno, NV - The Zephyr

What a tour this was:

5/5/01 Saturday - We were supposed to play LA tonight, but the gig got cancelled too late in the game to try to book another one. I didn't mind so much since Of Montreal was in town. I planned to catch their show but when Jenya and I arrived in SF there was nary a parking spot to be had. We literally looked for parking for close to an hour. Meanwhile I was starting to feel like shit - I still haven't recovered from the last tour and here I was, about to embark on another semi-national. We already missed the opening act so we just bailed and headed home so I could myself some sleep. Fuck San Francisco.

5/6/01 Sunday - I had a relatively good night's sleep in lieu of seeing a really cool band the previous night. Nevertheless, Frank overslept and called me around 9:00 - he still hadn't gotten to SF and gotten the van and picked up Jai Young, etc. So I puttered around until noon when he finally did show up in the gold minivan. It had air conditioning and a CD player. Cool.

Frank quit smoking a couple days ago. He was still on the patch, but that would soon be unnecessary. Every day to follow in this story would contain a moment when Frank would announce how many days its been since his last cigarette.

We got on the road pretty quickly. A nice hot drive through the central valley. Stopped at In n' Out burger near Coalinga, and got gas near the Grapevine. The way Frank was driving (at insane speeds) we made it to LA by 5:00pm, and we blew through and made it to San Diego by 6:50pm. I called Jenya at this point outside the club (the Casbah) and left a message, myself in disbelief at the speed at which we arrived in SoCal.

With unexpected time to kill, the three of us hung out in Pacific Beach. Walked up and down the strip, enjoying to twilight and the beach air. Ate some nondescript Thai food. Back at the club we loaded in.

Panic! Frank's cymbals were nowhere to be found! After a few calming deep breaths Frank called back at the Nursery and they informed him that yes, he left his cymbal bag in the hallway. Whoops. So he had to be the dick and ask the opening band's drummer if he could borrow some.

We killed more time playing pool and Donkey Kong. Jai Young demonstrated astounding prowess at both, especially the latter. Talked with the nice crew outside, taking breaks as landing planes passed 100 yards over our heads en route to the airport. One of them saw the Idiot Flesh show four years ago at Brick by Brick where I was doing lights. The opening band, VIII Fraud went on. Nice people - hard rock. Both the drummer and bassist were in recent accidents of sorts and were on crutches. They recently played with our pal Brian Kenney-Fresno. All this small world shit, but then again we're still in California.

The last minute replacement band, Soul Junk, went on second. Turns out they're a Christian rock/rap band. Crazy dreadlocked singer played guitar/sax. The others were a DJ and three dudes, each playing Apple laptops. Despite their religious leanings, which I almost found offensive, they were pretty whacked-out in a good way, and drew a few people who actually stuck around for us. After the set, Jai Young asked the DJ guy, "So, did you guys meet in Church?"

We set up, Frank on the left, me in the middle, and Jai Young on the right with his Titanium laptop proudly displayed on the edge of the stage. This would end up being our lucky stage setup for the remainder of the tour. Musically we were on fire - one of the best Species Being shows yet, I would say. I performed mostly with my eyes closed and curly locks bouncing around my bobbing head, so at set's end I was shocked to look up and see a crowd still lingering and largely attentive to what we were doing.

We chatted with the VIII Fraud gang for a while as we broke down and sold some CDs and packed the van. With nowhere to really stay tonight and Frank's folks' nice pad awaiting us in Phoenix we hit the road right then. Jai Young took the first shift and I stayed awake, mesmerized by the full moon glowing on the sandy mounds as we skirted eastward right above the Mexican border. The lunar glow was so bright the ground almost looked as if it was covered in snow.

5/7/01 Monday - Our only day off. We hit a Denny's in Yuma. The only Denny's I would hit during all these tours of the past 8 months. Pretty amazing when you consider what the middle of this country has to offer as far as food. Frank drove the rest of the way to Phoenix.

We arrived at the gated community. It was about 8:00am and 172 degrees outside. I already met Frank's step dad, Artie, on the last national tour, but only now met his mom. After quick greets and pleasantries Frank crashed in the big guestroom as Jai Young and I had our two smaller beds in the second guest room. Big ol' snooze under the ceiling fan going full blast.

Got up around 2:00pm, hanging out all day around the house. Frank and I had a bagel lunch and a swim at the community pool before Jai Young got his tired ass outta bed. At this time the folks were preparing a steak and potatoes dinner for us. We ate up outside as the sun set over the majestic desert hills. The we waded in the jacuzzi which was not very hot but who cares when you're in freaking Phoenix.

I called my old pal Lehho who now lives in the area, and informed him that Mark Growden was in town and we made plans to meet at the Emerald Lounge where he was playing. Jai Young lingered behind working on his laptop as Frank and I headed out to go hang with the homies.

Frank and I drove all the way out to the club and immediately noticed Mark's brand new bus wasn't around. Last time he toured this area with his band (including Jenya) his van broke down. And wouldn't you know it, his bus had broken down in California before making it to the first gig in LA a couple days ago! The bartender filled us in with this scoop.

Lehho was inside unaware that Mark was going to be a no show, so I dragged him out to the parking lot where I gave him the poop. We shot the shit, caught up on the past half a year since he's left the Bay Area, and then we parted ways. I called Jenya to fill her in on this news, as she was worried she passed up a fun opportunity to tour with Mark this time around. Poor Mark.

Back at home we spent the rest of the night watching a Celebrity Deathmatch marathon until insanity set in.

5/8/01 Tuesday - Slow morning putzing around - shower, laundry, playing piano, watching satellite television, snacking, waiting for the FedEx truck to arrive with Frank's cymbals (they cost $76 to ship - thanks to Dan who shipped them). We split at 3:00 - Tucson was a mere 2 hours south.

We found the Solar Cult Gallery which was the only cool place to put on a show in this town. An art gallery/art space/performance space. Met the amazingly nice crew - Steve, Raoul, Hydro, and Matt the sound guy. They prepared tasty food which we ate up off the kitchen. Then we climbed up on the roof to watch the sun set. A train would regularly pass behind the club, the tracks about 10 yards away.

Desperate for coffee and adventure, Frank and I walked into town - It was incredibly difficult to find coffee. First we had to find the people which was impossible - what a dead town! We stopped in what seemed like a funky cafe but it was just a bunch of dudes hanging out waiting to play some music for nobody. A trio of women following us in there as if we knew this was the hip place to hang out. No such luck, ladies.

Our best bet was buying some coffee to go at a restaurant, however absurd that was. Got slightly lost on the way back. The opening band, Prepping Finger Salad, were setting up. Friendly bunch. So far everybody we met on this tour has been great.

It seemed like this would be a lame show, but a healthy gathering eventually appeared, including the trio of women we ran into earlier. This was the place to be, I guess. And despite the first band played a long set of local improv, the crowd stuck around for us, ready for a whole second set of out-of-town improv.

A second good show. I actually played some upright piano during the set. The train roared passed at opportune moments. Great response. Wow. The tour was seeming to be both musically rewarding and fun! Imagine that!

However, this was the first show of nine nightly shows in a row. And the next was in Austin. Pull out a map, people - that's a long ass drive to make between two nightly shows.

Bye and thanks to everyone - we loaded out and hit the road. I drove the first shift listening to 80 straight minutes of National Health. Frank took over and I feigned sleep in the rather uncomfortable back seat all the way to El Paso.

5/9/01 Wednesday - Jai Young drove the early morning shift as we entered the infinite and ugly I-10 drive through Texas. I rode shotgun, miserably unrested. I became alert as Jai Young passed a cop going over 90 MPH. The police's lights were on before we even passed him.

We pulled over and everything was cordial regarding the paperwork exchange. At the last minute Jai Young remembered to mention to the officer that he hails from Houston, but it was too late - the $93 ticket was already written. Now that careful velocities were in order, this made this long, boring trip even longer. We broke it up with some terribly prepared food at some nowheresville Texas Mexican diner. Frank had to send his fries back because they were undercooked.

We arrived in Austin at 5:00pm and headed right to the record store - 33 Degrees. My very first ever "in store" performance. We quickly set up, Frank and I went to get coffee at Mojo's (I've been there many times before over the years), and then we played a musically lame set. It was low energy because we were so damn tired from driving all night without a break. But who cares? This wasn't the great promotional gig we thought it would be.

In the small assembly of listeners was Scott and Dave from ST-37, along with Scott's son, Elijah. We'll be playing with those guys tomorrow, and staying at Scott's place the next couple of nights. As it turns out, Dave is an occasional drummer for Three Day Stubble, whenever he happens to be in the Bay Area, and Mumble & Peg played a gig with them at the Bottom of the Hill some time ago.

Anyway, it was now about 7:00pm and we were done for the evening. On the way to Scott's pad we hit the market and got some vittles to cook. At Scott's pad Frank did most of the food prep as the rest of the gang watched baseball. Zucchini, pasta, and chicken, oh my.

We loaded the equipment out of the van and headed downtown. Went straight to Lovejoy's - I've always come here when it's packed, but this time around we got a table. Drank a couple shots of Jager and shot the breeze.

Out of nowhere this girl approaches Frank, whispers in his ear, and I find myself being led back to a table with her and her two lady friends. I guess they wanted us three studs to join them. Me, I can tell this is going to be torturous small chat right off the bat, and I'm too tired to deal with meeting new people so I play the guy who doesn't say anything. Frank tried to get me involved by announcing I work for SETI, but this painfully goes nowhere. Jai Young is alienated when he realizes one of them is also from Houston, and she actually liked that town.

In no mood for these reindeer games, me and Jai Young stayed behind as Frank and the three women headed over to the Ritz. It is only a few minutes later that I remember that Frank has the van keys. So we had to trudge on over there. I volunteer to go on recon, paying $3 to get in. I found Frank instantly and he followed me back out. He wasn't sure what his plans were, but he was hoping to have a place to sleep tonight other than Scott's if only since Scott's two dogs were aggravating his allergies.

So me and Jai Young headed back to the pad - getting lost on the way home and losing all sense of direction. We crashed hard in Elijah's room (I should point out Elijah wasn't there). An hour later Frank called Jai Young's cell phone pleading for a ride back home. So much for those plans. Jai Young got his allergic ass.

5/10/01 Thursday - We slept good and late. Got up around noonish and showered. One of the few showers of the tour. Frank and I left the sleeping Jai Young to get coffee. Another cafe I've been to plenty back in the day. We played chess over our hot drinks and bagels. I actually beat him. That means Frank screwed up big time because I suck at chess.

Back to the pad, we got Jai Young and got cheap breakfast burritos at the Tamale House seconds before they closed. Went to Mojo's for more coffee and a game of chess between Jai Young and Frank. A long, boring stalemate that took over an hour to deal with. Hung around at Toy Joy. Frank bought a ball and nearly died chasing it as it bounced into traffic. Went to the main strip near campus, stopping in Tower Records and being quite stunned to find an actual Species Being J-card.

We headed back to the house to get our equipment and went to the club - Red Eyed Fly. The first of many clubs which I just played last tour with Mumble & Peg, and I had a real shitty show here last month. Not so this time.

We loaded in. Met this nice guy, Bill, from Boston with the total Bawston accent. He was just plain friendly and chatted up a storm, asking us where we're from and where we're going, etc. He stuck around for our set and everything, even after we abandoned him at the bar to go get some pizza on 6th street.

It was improv/space rock night at Red Eyed Fly. Starting off the evening was the local Curse of Blufuscu. They rocked, and during their set we got amped up playing air hockey in the front room. As we set up for our set, I got approached by Dave, a friend of Gary & Aubrey's and a fan of Mumble & Peg. He missed our show here last month, and sent me e-mail this morning - I wrote him back saying I was back in town with another band and sure enough he came. Wotta guy.

We played what was becoming a typical great set. Sold CDs. Got many names on the mailing list. ST-37 finished the night with some cool droning. Used up the drink tickets, loaded up the van, got some snack foods at the Whataburger drive-thru, and headed back to Scott's.

Mellowed out talking to Scott for a while, eventually collapsing to sleep. Oh, yeah.

5/11/01 Friday - Long sleep. Woke up feeling coated in dog hair. Frank went off to the gym. Little did he know he was about to have a day testing his ability to stave off cigarettes.

When he returned, we went back out to a cafe. I beat him again in chess. Came back as Jai Young woke/showered. To kill time Frank checked his e-mail, and quickly after seeing he had about 10 new messages, many dealing with booking upcoming gigs for the Sleepytime tour, he accidentally erased all of them before reading. This was followed by a half hour of stress as Frank called tech support and I failed to figure out why they got deleted. Nothing helped. Oh, well.

Bye and thanks to Scott, who really hooked us up during our Austin stay, and we hit the road towards Denton. Once on the highway and far enough away, Frank remembered he left his driver's license at the gym this morning. He tried calling information on his cell phone, but every number they gave him for the gym failed to work.

Then he got a call from St. Louis - supposedly his upcoming Saturday night show there with Sleepytime fell through due to complete miscommunication, with one booker accusing Frank of lying about playing there before (he never said anything of the sort). So he had more harried cell phone calls made to St. Louis, leaving messages on many machines trying to sort out that mess. Oy, oy, oy.

On Scott's advice we stopped in West, Texas, at the Czech stop to get some kolaches to snack upon. Good move. Yummy snacks. That sated us until we reached Denton, which seemed, upon first glance, to be a cool little hippie college town. Bands playing outside to some hackysack playing types in a field of grass.

We got lost trying to find the club, nearly going into somebody's backyard. Found our way to the real club - Rubber Gloves - and loaded our equipment into the shed around back. Shot hoops for a while in the back lot with Chris the booker. Talked with this music student, Mwanza, who was going to perform the opening set tonight, which would actually be a final project for his multimedia class.

Then we went out to dinner. The Jamaican place that was highly recommended was closed, but the proprietor of that place recommended a Chinese food joint down the street. Turns out Chris the booker was already there, so we joined him. Had a great meal - mostly vegetarian cuisine, discussing filmmaking, booking, and the like. I asked him if he worked with Kork and he gave me his frank opinions about dealing with Erik vs. dealing with Christian.

Back at the club, the opening multimedia project already started, featuring saxophone improv, slide shows, butoh-esque dancing, laptop electronica, and more. Jai Young's father and brother (who live in Houston) came up to see this show, so he went off to deal with the family. Meanwhile, I grew suddenly aware there was a sudden burst of rain falling from the sky outside.

I ran out the front door, watching the storm get quickly worse and worse to the point of horizontal, gusting winds carrying buckets of hard, hot water into the flooding streets. At this point Frank and I realized we had all our equipment in the shed, and there was no door on said shed. We needed to get back there - we got a bartender to run us back there. Frank and the bartender ran ahead of me - I waited a second to stay dry before the back fence was unlocked.

I darted in the rain. Within seconds I was completely drenched. And by the time I got to the fence, it was locked again. There I was, outside, in the open, rain dissolving me. I screamed for help but over the crashing thunder and loud music nobody heard me for a good 30 seconds. Eventually Frank came to get my sorry ass.

When I ran to the shed I found all our equipment getting rained on. This was fine for all the shit that was in hard cases, but my bass cabinet speaker was right out in front. The only blessing was it was facing inward, away from the rain, so the speaker cone was still dry. In the dark, we pushed all the equipment further into the shed. Frank grabbed a broom and began the interminable chore of sweeping incoming rain away from our stuff. I gathered tarps and towels in the shed in preparation to carry it outside and in the back door onto the stage.

The final project ended, and the rain let up a little but not enough to make this easy. Frank and I carried most of the equipment inside. As we loaded onto stage we found there were leaks in the ceiling, the biggest of which was dripping right onto the front, center of the stage. Because of this, I made Frank set up in the middle and I played off to the side.

I was drenched, making set up a nightmare. I took off my socks (eventually throwing them away). I changed my shirt with the shirt currently protecting my bass head. I took a couple deep breaths, focused, and calmed down. Though I was still tensing up due to stress, I was able to relax enough to eventually have a great time playing this show.

A pack of kids bobbed their heads during yet another great 40 minute romp. After the set, on kid admitted to crying during the final few melodic minutes of the set (Jai Young pulls out that Robert Fripp sample and it kills them every time). Lots of accolades. One dude was even wearing a Matching Mole t-shirt. This town rocks!

Really, it was the final band, Yeti, who brought out all the cool people. They played an amazing and loud set of Magma-like rock. Great playing all around - the keyboardist had nothing but racks of vintage synth/electric piano/bass pedal gear. It was awesome, and they have a cult following around these parts.

And they were all incredibly nice guys. Chatted as we all packed up. The rains have completely stopped by this point, leaving Denton with a pleasantly humid, breezy night for which the students to celebrate their last day of finals. We loaded out, and while pulling out, the guys from Yeti stopped our van since Frank forgot to pack a whole cymbal and cymbal stand.

Jai Young split to go sleep that night in a hotel with his dad and brother. Frank and I, however, went to party. I wasn't really in the mood for this, but whatever. We hit frat row, following some girl he met at the bar. She was with some guy, but that doesn't stop Frank. One party was hopping, but people were already splitting (I can't remember why - maybe the beer supply has been depleted). News of another party spread and we caravanned down the street. But nothing was going on. A third party right next to the first party was the new destination.

At this point I let Frank and company go on ahead without me. The van was parked right by a long line of frat houses. I had to walk a good block or two through a parking lot to find a collection of trees to conceal my act of public urination. Then I set up the two air mattresses on the back seat of the van, took off most of my wet clothes, and tried to get some shut-eye.

Frank returned at some point in the night and I vaguely remember some driving around but then he stopped and slept in the front seat.

5/12/01 Saturday - I woke up to more driving around. I got up and found Frank driving us to the cafe. It wasn't open yet, so more snoozing in the car until 8:00am. Then we went inside to drink coffee, read the sports pages, and played Frogger. We saw Mwanza in there, sleeping with his head down on a table.

Called Jai Young and made plans to meet at the hotel. We enjoyed a breakfast buffet with the Kim family, and then grabbed the baby of the family away and got on the road to Norman.

Got into town early, hanging out at that same old cafe near campus, playing Palace and eating pastries. Around this time I was reducing my coffee intake as the nausea wasn't really letting up after those nice cups of morning joe.

Killed time at the batting cages. Last time it was me, Frank, and Mitch. Now it was me, Frank and Jai Young, swinging at many buckets' worth of fastballs. I kept it to a minimum as last time I was sore for a week. So I took a break and took care of some laundry we had going on in a nearby laundromat.

After eating dinner at some sports bar kind of place and gathering our clean duds, we went back to the cafe corner to make phone calls and hang out. Eventually headed to the Medicine Hall.

The stage had been moved since I was here a few weeks ago. We loaded in, meeting Gabe who I met before. The only other person working there who I recognized was the dude who made Mumble & Peg some salads. Not this time, since my stomach was shredded, so no dinner for me and no more coffee this tour.

Gabe opened with a solo set. Crazy shit. Then we played to more than a few people. It was too early, really, as more people showed up after we played, including Vaccination Records fan, Adrian, and some friends he dragged along. So a bunch of people missed our set, including David, who we hung out with back in October.

Frank and Jai Young ate some late dinner from nearby food spots. I drank some Sprite. Two more bands were playing, the catchy indie-pop of Pistol Arrows and the purposely hellish 40 Minutes of Hell. I hung out outside for the most part, chatting with the cool people. I also took a long walk down long, quiet, dark, residential streets since I needed a moment of not dealing with being social. Word got around about a party at Earnest's house. I should mention that today was graduation day in town.

So we head to this party. Not very happening Earnest was trying to keep people outside as to not mess up his place. And the cops came within minutes to shut it down because of all the outdoor noise. So we gave up on partying and went right to David's pad, there with his girlfriend, Sonia, and we were set up with comfy places to sleep. Very welcome after last night in the van.

5/13/01 Sunday - Slept late. Showered. Frank made apple pancakes for everybody. We showed David how to play Palace and left at 2:30pm. Norman's a cool town. Onward to Kansas City, MO!

When we got on the highway and checked out the maps we realized how much we underestimated the distance. So Frank went into insane speeder mode (as opposed to caffeine speeder). We made it into town by 8:15pm because we stopped only once for gas.

Back at the Hurricane! I had a second chance to buy that Motorpsycho CD which I regretted not buying last time in town at the record store a block away, but due to the late hour the store was closed! Aaa! So I lost my second chance. As well, the tasty Mediterranean food joint around the corner closed within seconds of our arrival. Oh well. We loaded in, walked around to find some grub, settling on expensive burritos.

The opening band was the table-core ambient groove band TJ Dovebellyens, and they were taking forever to set up. This was upsetting, but the crowd was growing and growing ever so slowly. The Season to Risk guys were hanging out well, Steven was DJ-ing in between acts. They were trying to convince us tonight would be a good turnout, but it was a Sunday and shit.

But Frank and I both noticed that many couples were coming into the club, and not really hanging out with their partners. Was this swinger's night or something? Most evidence pointed to yes. Couples hanging out at the bar, some man approaches, introduces himself, he scans the woman up and down, then he leaves with the woman. Weird.

Anyway, the opening band begins and it was really cool shit but was going on for a really long time. This was freaking us out as it was approaching midnight on a Sunday night, but nevertheless the crowd kept getting larger.

Finally we set up and played. We played yet another rocking set not quite the romantic music intended for this setting, but the people who cared really dug it.

After the set, Frank made the promotional rounds selling CDs and getting people to sign the mailing list. I chatted up a storm with Aaron and Mark from the first band. Jai Young was a dancing fool. Turns out the gal he was dancing with was the subject of a sudden brawl between two other men. Took like five guys to keep the fists from flying and escort these two testosterone-addled freakazoids out of the club. Sheesh.

It was such a hoppin' scene that it got late fast, and we loaded out around 3:00am. Bye to all as we decided to head out of town right away. Before that we stopped at a nearby diner Chubby's. Got to chatting with the extroverted waitress and immediately discovered she was from Oakland. She used to live near where I live now, but split around 3 years ago to move to KC since she couldn't afford Oakland anymore. How depressing.

5/14/01 Monday - I was actually sleeping shotgun and woke up to the sounds of Frank cursing he just got nailed for speeding. I gathered my wits and unkempt hair as he pulled over. Another cordial exchange, this time with a Kansas cop, and this time Frank wins the $90 speeding ticket. What a fucking annoyance. I guess it could have been worse Frank had an expired license (he left the current one in Austin, remember?).

So we got to Denver early. Way early. Took the wrong exit in and drove all the way through town to get to downtown. Loaded into the club. Now we had all afternoon to kill I didn't get a great impression about this town last time, and now I had all day to get even less of an impression. Milled about at the dreadful pedestrian mall. It started to rain. Hung around as many phone calls were made at that place with the salads.

Went back to the club. Still nothing doing. I suggested we go bowling, and we went miles to the outskirts of town to find an alley. Expensive, but we played two games. Jai Young, once again shocking us with unexpected prowess, kicked our asses. I came in second thanks to occasional lucky strikes. That meant Frank was in third for those keeping score. When we left the rains have minimized.

Though we were freaking tired, Frank wanted to go work out. He drove around, finding a gym downtown. Jai Young and I actually slept like rocks in the van in the nearby parking garage. Took me forever to collect myself when Frank returned two hours later.

Back at the club, now that parking was legal we parked out front, and walked to the strip mall, getting some dinner at some coked-out tourist sports diner. You know, like TGI Fridays with pool tables and twenty televisions showing different games or action flicks and $8 chicken strips as appetizers. The waiter was totally wired on some drug.

So the opening local band never showed. I guessed they figured they had better things to do on a Monday evening. We set up and played to seemingly nobody. The only real bummer show of the tour, but we've been so lucky up to this point with respectable if not great crowds. And as it happens, one dude, Zag, was there and really into it and he actually came out to see us having heard the CD. Trip out.

We were wrapped up and packed up by midnight. Jai Young took the first shift and I rode shotgun. We listened to U.K. and Tortoise and then I tried to drift to sleep somehow in that uncomfortable bucket seat.

5/15/01 Tuesday - Jai Young was still driving, having never stopped, as the sun rose. I guess he was locked in a groove. Because of that we made much better time than we thought possible. Frank took over after getting gas and we made it into SLC by 8:30am. And as always, our first stop was the coffee garden. I feel like I know the staff personally at this point. And I always get the same thing - an almond croissant.

I called our pal Hope and woke her up. She gave us directions to her and Dean's pad, and we quickly headed on over. She had already set up some air mattresses and such, and we crashed hard until about 1:00pm.

Ate some breakfast, sat around the house shooting the shit. Watched a rented movie, "Croupier," and then Hope and Frank headed out to go hang at the University. Watched TV and nearly fell back to sleep.

When they returned we headed on out to the club good old Ya'buts. I was familiar with the load-in procedure here, so that was relatively painless. Saw Paul from the Red Bennies inside and other recognizable faces. The evil owner which wanted to kill me and my band last time through wasn't around. He never appeared all night. Phew. But the 50 gallon drum he threw at us was still out back a harrowing reminder of nights past.

We went out to eat. Found a good Indian place kind of expensive but we owed it to ourselves considering this difficult but very fun tour was coming to a close. Some of us needed coffee, so we hung out at some cafe/skater accessory shop. Kids were crowding around a dance floor and busted into the latest and hippest breakdancing moves. I would venture to say that none of these kids were alive when breakdancing started. At this point I realized I was hanging out at some establishment with grown people who were approximately half my age. And I was sad.

Back to the club, we met J-Bot, who is the mastermind and sole human member of the spectacle that is Captured by Robots. Each of us had mutual friends with J, and we're all from the Bay Area it's funny that I'm finally catching his act in Salt Lake City of all places.

At complete random insane saxophonist and friend of Jai Young, 99 Hooker, showed up. He was on his way driving to the west coast and his stopover in SLC coincided with our show. How about that? Some friend of Frank's also showed up that he didn't expect. Lots of happy vibes.

The third band never showed up, so we set up and started the music portion of the evening with another blast of rock and roll improv goodness. The crowd was huge. I just don't get how Species Being has been able to pull more of a crowd on off-nights at these clubs than Mumble & Peg on weekend nights. So be it.

Great response from the crowd, and I chatted with some very psyched people thanking us for playing their little neck of the woods. Also talked with some of the guys from Alchemy who I connected via e-mail a couple days ago and I told them I was coming back through that way and they came. God bless e-mail.

Captured by Robots set up and played. He used my bass amp. Schmoozed and packed up and loaded out after the music ended. It was raining. I've been so careful for the longest time to protect my bass speaker in the event of rain, and of course Frank brought it out and let the speaker get all wet he meant well, and I'm just being paranoid since it was harmless, but it made me upset nevertheless.

Back to Hope's. Stayed up talking with Hope and Dean. Since talked started getting real geeky, Hope and Frank crashed to sleep. That didn't stop me, Jai Young, and Dean from staying up till like 4:30am chewing the fat and computers, academia, and piano conservatory snobbery.

5/16/01 Wednesday - Up at 10:00. One more long day ahead of me. Showered. Packed up, said bye to Hope, and hit the long road to Reno. It was actually a quick ride through Utah and Nevada, mostly due to this insanely long and heated three-way debate about music and the internet. We pulled into Reno at 5:30.

Found the club, Zephyr, and loaded in and onto the tiny stage. They were playing "Orgone Therapy" which made both Frank and Jai Young emit full belly laughs. It was still early yet, so we hit the casinos.

I hate casinos because I'm a bad gambler. We kept it focused. Frank hopped from craps to blackjack. I actually sat at a blackjack table as well. I put in $10 and it hovered for about twenty minutes between $6 and $14. Once back at $10 I left the table. Good boy. Jai Young sat down at one slot machine and made $12 pretty quickly. Enough of this bullshit. We headed back to the club.

We ate some amazing Chinese food at a restaurant next door. Unbelievably good food, actually. In the outdoor area behind the club we played our last game of Palace. Since we were the only band there was no rush to get started. But on the flip side, we were heading home tonight and I was very much into getting going already.

Eventually started at 11:00. The moderately sized crowd were quite attentive. Some danced, including this bubbly British dude who showed us card tricks earlier. In fact, the crowd grew as people were so into us they ran out and got their friends to come on down. This made for a very energetic last set. And then Frank announced we were going to take a short break and come back for another set. Oh..

I wasn't into doing another set, and so I sulked as I was bored out of my skull as Frank schmoozed. He's good at schmoozing that's how he sells CDs and gets people to sign the mailing list. I just wasn't in the mood. I wanted to go home. The second set finally started to even my own amazement it was our most rocking set yet, but maybe that's because me and Jai Young threw in some old Fourth Generation Copy licks.

While still on stage I felt an amazing mental blow of some kind most likely from being completely physically exhausted, off caffeine, sleep deprived, and fully aware that the long string of touring during the first 5 months of this year is finally, finally coming to an end. This made me totally depressed and I couldn't deal with anything.

Frank schmoozed some more and Jai Young managed to meet some girl so I personally packed up all my shit, then all of Frank's shit, and then some of Jai Young's shit, and we were still far from leaving, so I took a walk around the block. We didn't get outta there until 1:45am. I got an ice cream sandwich at the gas station and felt a little better about life.

Despite all previous claims otherwise, Frank was unable to stay awake for the ride home. So I took over for an hour through Sacramento. It made most sense to drop Jai Young off first, so we went into SF and to his house. Got there around 5:20am. Loaded him out, exchanged goodbye hugs. Then to the nursery to load Frank's shit out and put the seats back in the van. Then finally, finally, I got home at 6:00am. Crawled into bed with Jenya and disappeared into space.

5/17/01 Thursday - I can't believe I got up three hours later and went to work.

With Species Being: (Sunday, May 20, 2001)
We played a barbecue show at the Bottom of the Hill with the same trio lineup as the tour. This was kind of a "welcome back" show as well as a "goodbye improv" show. We arrived way too early, eventually took our time soundchecking, and then chowing down on some amazing all-you-can-eat vittles. Project: Pimento played first, a lounge/cover band featuring a missing bass player and somebody who could actually play the theremin. Good stuff, but totally not a good opening band for us. They drew some well dressed lounge types who fled during our set. I believed we played quite well, especially considering I was still physically and mentally recovering from the tour, and haven't touched my bass since the Reno show. The Portlanders from Wadsworth were in town on tour and all stopped by. Speaking of Portland: Julie, who put us up during our last tour up there, also appeared at random during some days off in SF before moving to Big Sur. Trance/Hardcore Ybo Ybo had half their members detained before leaving Japan, yet they still embarked on this tour with a last-minute surrogate American drummer. No offense to the new guy, but I felt myself wishing they had their regular lineup. What a weird collection of music. Good crowd for a Sunday. And thus marks the beginning of the end of the marriage between Species Being and improvisation.

With Midline Errors: (Friday, August 24, 2001)
A benefit show at the Starry Plough for Mark Growden who needs money to bring his broken down bus which is still in LA. Lots of solo acts before the Tiger Lillies did a surprise guest segment, and then the Electric Pinata played a full headlining set. I was one of the many entertaining solo acts that started the evening. Others included Gobo Yaya, Deep Fried Happy Family, and Brian Kenney-Fresno, as well as short films here and there. I felt my slot was poorly rehearsed yet well received. Lots of people there who never saw me play solo. So be it. My little sister was in town and she got to see me play in some form or another. After the festivities ended, I had to house Brian who was up from Fresno only for the evening but was locked out of the Nursery so he needed a place to crash. We talked Warr guitar.

With Dropsy: (Saturday, September 15, 2001)
I wouldn't call this the Dropsy debut show. Dave called it the "beta test." It was Alex's birthday, so two of his bands played (us and Six-Eyed Columbia), as well as Mega Mousse, at his warehouse performance space on Piedmont Avenue. We only had six songs ready ("Sign the Bill," "Shiny Scenery," "Level Below," "Altimeter," "Throw Me," and "Hole in the World") and we are still missing saxophone. Nevertheless, it was fun to give this new band a whirl and present "things to come" to various friends and strangers who attended. I hung out a while after playing, enjoying the other two bands who rocked the house in their own special ways.

With Mumble & Peg: (Saturday, October 27, 2001)
Wow! The first Mumble & Peg show in over half a year! We played last after about 11 other acts as part of the annual "Murder Ballads" benefit show to raise money to fund musical therapy programs in schools. As usual, this happened at the Starry Plough in Berkeley, and it was packed. The general idea was for each band to play songs about murder and death and misery and whatnot. Other acts included, Thom Moore, Tommy Carnes, Hoarhound, Ramona the Pest (doing some outstanding Black Sabbath covers), Bitesize, and Noe Venable Trio, and more..

Now.. we haven't played together as a band in a long time, and Erik has been down on music in general (aggravated by his job where he's booking tours for several better-funded and better-promoted bands). So we've were quite uninspired to put our little set together. We started with our only original murder song, "Mirrorface," followed by a Melvins like rendition of the Police classic "Murder by Numbers," segue-ing into the perfect Shellac number "Prayer to God," and then finishing with the Idiot Flesh opus "Teen Devil Worshipper." Despite Erik's complaints about having to perform earlier, his histrionics were unparalleled and the crowd (which withstood the high volume) asked for more, so we encored with the old standy, "Hangman."

It ended up being a fun show - all bands kept to the schedule, bless their many hearts, so we got on fairly early. Jenya's costume was a hit (she recycled her Little Dead Riding Hood outfit from a couple years ago but now had all-white contacts which freaked everybody out). My costume was stupid - a ghoulish doctor with a bloody hospital shirt. Erik dressed up as the keyboard player for the Faint.

Despite the fun, it remains to be seen whether or not this was the last Mumble & Peg show. There's not a lot of inspiration right now, though there is talk of continuing as a trio under a different name, just to give ourselves a "clean slate."

With Dropsy: (Monday, December 31, 2001)
I'm only calling this a show because I haven't been doing much else, performance-wise. Beth & Eli were having a New Year's Eve talent show at their house. Before splitting early to go to another party where Jenya had to play drums, me, Dave, and Alex played a couple Dropsy tunes as a trio. Unrehearsed and silly. Both songs were in C minor and the E-flat below middle C was missing on the piano. I survived.