Show Journal 2005-07-12
Finally, sweet redemption. After our very disappointing, very expensive and very exhausting trip to play with Tiger Army last month we were rewarded with the chance to play two sold out shows back to back at the House Of Blues. Seemed like a fair trade to us. Our van was actually in the shop so we had to borrow a trailer from Thirty3 and ended up taking Dave’s G-ride. Compared to our nasty ass van, a 2004 Suburban withleather seats and a DVD player is not a bad way to travel. Just like last time we left right after work and drove 1000 miles straight through the night. As luck would have it the Red Bull van spotted us before we left and we all got hooked up with some free Red Bull. Pretty uneventful drive after that. We were all pretty stoked on just getting there so time flew. We eventually figured out how to get room to sleep two which was nice because the captain’s chairs really suck to sleep in. We nearly ran out of gas at some point near the border which added a little excitement. The only real bad news is that in California the speed limit is 55 if you have a trailer. Boo. That was kind of a nuisance because we had to drive 15 MPH slower than all the other cars. Strangely enough we still got there about a haf hour quicker than last time. We got to LA about 2 PM and checked into our hotel down the street. We unloaded and sat around waiting for Tiger Army to show up. They showed up, sound checked, we set up, sound checked and headed up for the buffet in our private dressing room. Yep, the HOB treats you very, very well. Did I mention they have an elevator? We were all pretty nervous so the time just flew right by. The doors opened at 7 and we played at 8. I think the room was about 80% full when we went on which is a whole lot of people. I don’t think anyone knew what to make of us. We weren’t playing rockabilly, psychobilly or any ‘billy’ derivative. To top it off we went for our black shirts, red tie look which we used on our last “special occasion show”. Lots and lots of blank stares. There were a few fists in the air but at the same time there were a few people with their head in their hands seemingly bored to tears. I definitely can’t say we played at 100%. After being up for 2 days I felt like I had concrete in my shoes and my hands just couldn’t move as fast as they needed to. At one point I just totally blanked out and had a “where am I?” moment. It was definitely a tough set. No one booed, spit or complained but then again no one looked overly impressed either. After the set we realized we did pretty well as lots of people came up to meet us. That was cool. The second band, Take The Crown, had a pretty lackluster response too so I felt a little validated by seeing that. Tiger Army was last and the place went berserk. They’ve changed a lot since we played with them back on their first tour but they still never seem to disappoint. Very cool. After the show we headed back to the hotel. Since I had to drive the sunrise shift I went straight to bed. With Staci in tow everyone else went on a quest for food. I barely even remember lying down.
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