Show Journal 2005-05-26
Last Saturday Dave got a call from Nick 13 of Tiger Army asking if we wanted to play at the House Of Blues with them for a sold out show in their hometown of LA. Uhh … yeah, I think we would. It’s just less than 1000 miles so we headed out Wednesday night after work at around 7:00. We drove and drove and drove and drove and then we drove some more. In fact we actually drove straight through the night all the way to LA and arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed at the House Of Blues just before noon. We checked in and got assigned to our dressing room. Everyone there was super cool and friendly. The rooms were awesome looking and we all commented that we couldn’t believe how spoiled the bands that play these sorts of venues were. Eventually the stage manager (Joe?) came in, closed the door and said “Guys, I just got a call from Nick 13. He has strep throat and the show for tonight has been cancelled. The call just came in 10 minutes ago. Sorry.” We waited and waited for the punch line but it never arrived. We looked at the each other seeing if we heard something wrong. He was as serious as a heart attack and that 17 hours of driving we just endured came crashing down on our collective conscience like an anvil. He ushered us out to the restaurant and hooked us up with some free food and he went down to call some local promoters at some smaller clubs (you know, smaller ones … like the Whiskey and Roxy!) Dave got on the phone with Nick and gave him some grief for letting us drive so far for nothing but apparently the decision was made that morning while we were en route. He said he’ll try to get us on the two make up dates in July. If that’s the case then it’ll all be worth it. If not this will go down as the most disappointing drive to a show in modern recorded history. One of our collective favorite bands personally invited us to play a sold out show at one of the coolest venues around and we got nothing to show expect for a free sandwich and about $170 of gas bills. Not to mention we have to turn around and do it again. Strangely enough no one really got pissed or overly irritated. Obviously we were definitely bummed, but we all just made jokes out of it and took it in stride. The manager came back up with some leads for shows but we gracefully denied and said anything else would be a disappointment and that we’d rather just enjoy LA, see some friends and head back early. He invited us to hang out and get cleaned up in the big dressing rooms (with showers). After a stop by the Hustler store (and a sighting of Greg Proops) we decided it would be fun to head over to Universal Studios since no one but me had seen it before. During the ride over we noticed the van was overheating in the stop and go traffic, This is a little alarming since all LA has to offer is stop and go traffic. Nothing like driving down Sunset Blvd. in 80 degree weather with the heater on full blast. It got up to the red a few times, but we arrived at Universal without incident. We were all stoked to see the Psycho house and tram ride with Jaws. One problem. Actually … 53 problems. It now costs $53 per person to get into Universal. No thanks, I’ll just buy the postcard. After sweet talking the parking guy Dave called up our friend Staci and had her meet us over at the Universal City Walk which is basically just a glorified shopping center with shops and food. To pass some time we decided to go see Amityville Horror and relax in the air conditioned theater. The movie was ok, but the bad part was paying $3.24 for a 20oz Coke. Of course it was still $49.76 cheaper than getting into the god damn Universal studios. The movie ended and we tooled around for a bit and met up with our friend Robert at an Italian restaurant there. Between the 6 of us dinner was a blast and it definitely helped keep everything on the positive tip despite the circumstances. We picked up our new shirts from Robert and headed back to Eugene. Dave and Justin shuttled us across the grapevine and as hard as I tried I couldn’t just keep my eyes open and dozed in and out of sleep occasionally waking to find ourselves at different places and gas stations. Some time late in the evening (or early in the morning) Dave pulled over and got prepared to sleep in the van. Arrangement wise I usually sleep on the floor on the van. We brought a different cooler this time that was bigger than the usual one. (The usual one had transformed into ripe mixture of antifreeze and moldy food.) The new and improved cooler took up a big chunk floor space so I had the idea to tilt it on its side to save space. Had I not been so tired I would have realized that doing this would cause all the water to spill out the top. Unfortunately my brain functions were at an all time low. In mere second I ended up with a wet floor, wet mats, wet sleeping bag, wet pillow and a totally crushed sense of self worth. I toweled up the van floor and eventually fell asleep still wondering what it would be like to play at the House of Blues. It was so close, yet as I laid on the damp sleeping bag I realized it was still so very far away.
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