August '05

June & September '07

April & May '07

May '06

March & April '06

January '06

December '05

November '05

October '05

September '05

August '05

July '05

June '05

May '05

Jan, Feb, March, April '05

2004

8/29/05

The good news is... I won my battle with PSP X studio... I finally got my money refunded.... the other good news is... I'm rid of my plague. The other, other good news is... we're finally done with the big festivals in the UK and I'm on the plane headed back to Portland.

The big two festies... Reading and Leeds... are always the best festivals on the planet. The crowds are the loudest and craziest that we encounter... Best of You mpeg... Sometimes it's a little scary... watching the Babylonian mass of humans undulate from the stage... occasionally a large hole will seemingly open up in the crowd... one or two people will fall or get pushed over then the domino effect will end up taking down hundreds of people. What's scary is that in a muddy field, people die in dog piles likes this. It's happened many times in the past. I know Dave is terrified of having someone die or get badly hurt at a Foo Fighters show... he's very aware of the crowd and sometimes when he sees a bunch of kids go down... he'll stop singing in the middle of a song and coach the crowd back to safety... He's a good man... That Dave Grohl is. 

Reading was incredible experience as usual... aside from crappy food, all was good. The sides of the stage were completely packed with punters or as the English say... "liggers"... I don't quite get this term. Sooooo many friends and family were in attendance... and celebs up the wazoo were all captivated with the Foo onslaught.  Dave followed the set list till about half way through... then just started calling audibles... It really looked like they all had a blast...  The crowd sung their hearts out. I actually saw some girl flash her boobs... you just don't see that very often outside the USA.  Not sure what that says about the states. hehe.  All I know is that it's a US custom that I wish would catch on world wide. 

Leeds was a little more work... but more fun because of it I think. The stage is built in the middle of a big hill... Trucks wouldn't be able to back all the way up the hill to the stage, so they built a loading dock at the bottom of the hill and a long ass ramp that had switchbacks all the way up to the stage... maybe 60 or 80 yards of uphill push.  It was quite a workout at 8am getting all our gear up. Sean had several strokes and is now talking out of one side of his mouth.  The Leeds local crew are some tough fuckers... only bested by the crew of the Barrowlands in Glasgow, Scotland.  The promoter of the Leeds show should give all that crew bonuses... it'll never happen.

It had been three days since any of us had gotten to shower... showers at festivals are hard to come by... and the ones that are there are usually disgusting...  cold water, piles of used mildewed towels, and usually the size of a porta-potty... That in addition to waiting in line doesn't really make a roadie want to hunt one down. But on this day at Leeds I couldn't stand myself. Mostly I was worried about getting the dreaded "gig butt"... a condition so crippling... men have considered suicide as an escape from pain.  The burning, the chaffing, it's all to much to bear. So on went my hunt for a shower. I found some.... long line of course. I needed to find a towel before jumping in line... so off I went to the band dressing rooms... usually towels there. WRONG! Production office... none. Finally found one, given to me reluctantly by the artist relations department. On my way back to crew showers I saw a sign for "artist showers"... AHA!! I stealthily snuck my way over to what was for sure a batter place to get clean.  NOT! These showers were literally porta-potties without toilets in them.  By the time I made my way back to the first showers I found... an hour had past and the line was twice as long. Discouraged and very smelly, I went back to the bus and sat in my stench for a while. Eventually I accomplished my mission... and boy did it feel good.

One of my favorite bands of all time played at both of the English festivals... Bad Religion... but just like the Pogues in Japan, their show time was just as our set change started, so I missed out on both nights.

The Foos once again made the audience their bitch and fucked their fannies hard.  A little more relaxed on this night, probably due to the lack of family and friends from the previous night. During Taylor's song Dave tried to break the drums again... glancing over at Sean and I during the drum kit's ass kicking only  to see us in hysterics. Watching him do this is very cartoon like... he makes Taylors huge drum set look small as it wobbles, almost tipping over with ever cymbal hit.  As Taylor's confidence grows with singing and playing guitar... every show he strikes new and interesting "rock poses" with the guitar.

Sean decided during the set that we should adopt a couple of kids on the side of the stage having a hard time seeing...

Anna and Colby I think were their names... Sean grabbed them and brought them into our tech world. where the eye candy is best. We scored them souvenirs and towards the end of the show we had them do our guitar changes with Dave and Chris. The look on Dave's face was priceless as little Anna walked out on stage at the end of the show... her little arms outstretched  to receive the guitar. He handed it over, happily but slightly bewildered. She handed the guitar off to me then clutched her heart breathing heavily at the shock of being in front of 50,000 people.  I guess that Dad came over to Sean after the show with tears in his eyes thanking him profusely for giving his kids a once in a lifetime experience squeezing Sean's hand to the point of broken Flanges and Metacarpals. It's that kind of shit that makes it all worth it.                   .... god, I'm such a sappy bastard.

The load out took a long time due to the "Alcan" of loading dock ramps and also to a gear split and trick repack since it was the end of this leg of touring. I wandered off to the band dressing cubicles to say my goodbyes...  a party was goin' on...  as usual on the last day of tour. Not a crazy as they used to be with so many of us  following the sober path.  But still fun. My good friend Paul Nuttall is the tour manager for Juliette Lewis's band... and after my confession to him that I was a big fan and had a crush on her since Cape Fear... he brought her over to me and rendered an embarrassing introduction.  She's a sweet girl. We took a couple pics together and I awkwardly ran off.  There were piles of hot girls everywhere but... as a bus driver once said to me... "I could fall in a barrel of tits and come out sucking my thumb".

I climbed in my bunk and had a short nap before arriving at a hotel near Gatwick Airport. Three hours in the hotel then it was off to the airport where we went through more security screening than I've ever encountered before. It was quite ridiculous.

Sean showed me the best picture ever... of his Japanese Visa.

Awesome.

I've got six days coming to me at home...  It will be spent recording and rehearsing with my band, going to the gym, and watching alot of American TV.

8/26/05

What will I rant about today? Hmm... how about my lame American ass's fascination with ice. Why do I love ice so much? I've been told it's an American thing. I don't know about that but it comforts me. I saw this movie a long time ago... Mosquito Coast... pretty good as I recall. Harrison Ford (I think) plays  an American inventor in the forties or fifties that gets fed up with American values and culture... goes completely nuts and takes his family to the jungles of Africa I think. They settle on a plot of land and make this utopian society in their small village. Nut job gets in in his head that his new invention will bring comfort and technology to all the so called savage tribes and uncivilized cultures of the jungle. What is this invention you ask? A giant ice machine.

Long story short it all backfires on the dude and shit goes completely sideways.... but I gotta say...  I like the way he was thinking. I don't know what it is, but I like my cold drinks. I know this rant isn't really going anywhere and is no where near as good as my usual complaining... but what the hell... I can't  be brilliant all the time. Ice... it's what's for dinner.

I was fairly recently shut down by a girl I had a crush on for a long time...  the old "let's just be friends" line. Why is that the hardest way to get shut down? I was hoping that some of y'all would send me some stories of your most embarrassing or painful rejections. Or insights as to unwanted affections....  If nothing else but to make me feel better.  Please... no stories that involve me. I promise I wont post them unless you'd like me to and then I would do so anonymously.

Big rock show in Paris today... They parked our bus about a fucking mile away from the main stage. We're actually parked just in front of and to the left of the "B" stage.  It's quite loud in the bus... there will be no napping today.  I'm going to make it my mission to find out who booked the "talent" for the "B" stage and kick his ass. Just awful.  The main stage local crew "stage manager" ...  is doing a great job of creating a clusterfuck. I'm sure that set changes will take twice as long as they should and everything will be running behind schedule quickly.

.... Wow...  Show over...  and it was surprisingly smooth... 

Largely due to this guy... Phil Danneman aka Big Daddy... He's our carpenter and also our stage manager. This is a man that has paid his dues in the industry. Worked for a million bands in a million different roles. I think he's done every roadie job there is and still has a good attitude... And he's a great kisser.

All hail Big Daddy.

here's a few misc. mpegs that I've forgotten to post over time.

D movie one...... D movie two....... D movie three....... Foo one...... Foo two....... Foo three

8/25/05

Umbrellas are the stupidest, most vain, rudest invention on the planet. Whether it's to keep the sun off you or the rain off you... it's lame. In this crowded, overpopulated world we live in... how can people justify  taking up all the extra space on a crowded sidewalk just to keep a little drizzle off their hair. Poking people in the eye and deflecting what wetness that may exist on to people around them.  And if it's really raining... umbrellas don't really do any good anyway... you get wet no matter what. BOYCOTT UMBRELLAS!!!!!

sorry for that rant... it's a strange pet peeve of mine.

Thanks to all for the well wishing on my plague. I'm not feeling better just yet but my heart is swollen with your sentiments... ...(and cholesterol).

Another rant I must have is about an internet business I recently purchased a product from. PSP X Studio... http://www.pspxstudio.com/ 

8/24/05

Upon waking up at the Holland gig.... I realized my cold had kicked in to overdrive. Ack... I felt like ass... I'm pretty sure I have the plague. I loaded in, changed a couple of strings then went right back to my bunk on the bus... slept all day till just before the show... I barely remember the show at all.  Good thing I took a couple photos...  Look like it was a big rock show in a tent.

Show finished and I went right back to my bunk...

Had to get off the bus to go through customs early in the am... We were heading to London via the train tunnel under the channel. They drive the bus into a boxcar and you just sit on the bus and chill... kinda like a ferry. 

We arrived at about noon at our hotel and we had to load in at the BBC at 4pm for a radio thing the next day....  The extra hands that were booked to help us never showed up...  BBC security were uncooperative and useless... what should've been a 2 hour load in took four... sick and frustrated was I.

The radio / recording session the next day was awesome... the studio we were in has amazing history... recorded every supergroup on the planet starting with the Beatles.

Right now I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the Royal Gardens in Kensington trying to psych myself up for tonight's Astoria show in my pathetic sickly state... I just can't seem to shake this bubonic plague. 

... thanks for the hundreds of emails of photo suggestions... some good ones... some bad ones (photos of Wiley)... and some that'll never happen... pretty much anything naked of anybody. 

8/20/05

Well, we made it through the High Field Festival in Germany without anyone dying... but barely.  Just before the band was to go on stage... all the roadies running around the stage frantically plugging thing in... we hear a Pop... Smack... then sparks and fire start shooting out of a light that was set up next to the backline gear....  the electricity coming out of our power distro was too hot... coming out at around 130 volts.... just as soon as that problem got ironed out...  CRASH...BANG... I turned my head toward the sound...  something big and heavy was falling out of the roof, just above the monitor console on stage left.  A 300 pound chain motor and chain fell from about 40 feet in the air. It just missed our 200,000 dollar monitor console by a couple of feet and missed our two dollar and fifty cent Wiley by about 6 feet. This could have been disastrous...  If Ian would have been standing at his desk when this thing came down... it would have been a sad night.

Saw some old Weezer pals today and a good friend from Portland.. Mike Frey. Out with Aphex Twin or something like that... 

QOTSA played a phenomenal set... just killing it. So tight.

Foo set was good too... Taylor broke a bottom head but that didn't slow anything down at all. Dave dedicated Up in arms to me and sang it to my ass.

I felt awful all day. My cold is getting worse... It's the worst... being sick on tour.

Gus's B-day tomorrow... looking forward to the shenanigans.

Y'all have to be getting bored with my crappy show photos... they're all the same every night... Dave in a red shirt, shot from stage right, big crowd, blinky lights... I know everyone love the photos of Sean... any suggestions for photos of anything else?

8/19/05

My luggage finally showed up late last night... three days wearing the same shorts, socks, and T-shirt... shit was getting really fucking rancid. God... if this happens again, I'm gonna lose my mind.

The show last night was tight but had a strange vibe... couldn't really put my finger on it. Maybe it was just me... I couldn't sleep at all the night before so I was a little loopy. Plus, I think I'm coming down with something. The stage sound was great last night though. The guitars sounded godlike.

This festival was just like the town... well set up, clean, organized and beautiful. Set amongst the rolling hills in farmland... nestled in a little valley. The actual concert site was on a racetrack... like a grand prix racetrack or something. Some of the guys went  hiking around the area but I wasn't feeling up to it.  I spent alot of time on the bus in my bunk.  Which brings me to how nice it is to finally have a bus... such a load off my shoulders. 

8/18/05

Euro Festival season is upon us. Euro Festivals are sort of all similar in the fact that they are all usually out in a remote field somewhere not near anything... most of these festivals have crappy access... one road in... one road out... So getting in and out takes a while to say the least. Almost always, these festivals are mud pits... they put down these huge metal, grated slabs that hook together to make roads so the trucks and busses don't sink in the mud. 

Portugal was no exception... First of all... I don't even want to talk about the flight there from Toronto... let's just say Air Canada made the list just barely below Southwest.  The saving grace of Portugal was our hotel... really nice. Amazing bathroom... and the gym in the spa was totally kickass compared to the typical hotel fitness room. However, The hotel was an hour and a half away from the gig so that kinda put a damper on things. On gig day... the promoter only sent two vans for our crew of  14 to take us to the site. This is my biggest pet peeve... when people send us an 8 passenger van....that's eight, smallish sized people crammed in on all available seat space... not to mention luggage. We have one of the biggest crews in rock and roll... an eight passenger van is really a five passenger van.  The ride to the concert was long and uncomfortable.... we did this ride four times that day. We loaded in at 10am then rode back to the hotel (once again, this is an hour and a half away) at 2pm... then back to the site at 8pm then back to the hotel at 4am.

The concert site was gorgeous though... in lush forest right on the border of Spain. A gross, polluted (but beautiful)  stream wound through the concert site and behind the stage. Just like I said before one road in and one road out... made our load in and out long and stupid... all the gear had to be taken out the big truck and transferred on to a little pickup truck then driven down this steep, muddy, cobblestone road to the stage then unloaded onto a sketchy, uneven, rickety loading dock on the back of stage.  The local crew scared me... a couple of them wearing thongs... I really thought someone was going to die or lose a limb on this day.

The audience watched from a pretty steep hillside... which is great for sight lines. Everyone had a great view. However, this kind of setup can be deadly for the kids in the front. In a mosh pit situation... gravity sends thousands of people forward to the barricade, squashing the people in the front. The way to prevent this is by having two or more barricade lines to slot the crowd up. But this was not the case... Thankfully no one was seriously hurt.

Great show... Dave was in rare form... lots of fucking around... I love relaxed shows like this.

Our flight to Salzburg was half good, half bad...  The crew was split into two groups for some reason. Myself, Bailey, and Geof flew earlier than the rest of the guys and it was nice to travel in such small numbers. But once again... luggage was lost. I am sure it's for the same reason as our Russian experience.  Air France to Paris then Salzburg Spirit to Salzburg.  Two airlines that are not in the same alliance with connection times that were too close and completely on the opposite of side of the Charles DeGaul airport.  Bound to happen. I've toured for over a decade and never ever had my luggage lost.  But, in the last two months this has happened twice.

I love Salzburg... This place has such a good vibe. It is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen... The best looking people I've ever seen... and lingerie shops everywhere... hehe.  Sean and I had a great day off walking all over this place. It is where Mozart grew up... also Franz Schubert, and Joseph Haydn. It is where "The Sound of Music" was filmed. Seriously y'all... I could stay here for a week and not get sick of it... I can't say that about anywhere else in Europe (No offence to Europeans... hehe... sorry). Sean and I walked through a really nice outdoor food market... across a river... through Mozart's childhood home... up this huge hill to a castle... down a cog... through some catacombs... and through several beautiful cathedrals.

Mozart's kitchen

Just like my new tat

Mozart's Clavichord

After the long walk up the hill to the castle... Sean needed some "me" time

Mozart's Sauerkraut

Sean... sneaking up on the local wildlife... he's like a cat sometimes.

At Mozart's home gift shop we purchased the best Mozart souvenirs ever... Mozart super balls... yes... super balls with Mozart busts in the middle. Sweet. My other favorite thing about this town is the street musicians... Amazing shit I saw today. Violinists, flutists, Tuvan throat singers, accordionists, guitarists, bouzouki players, and pianists. All of them phenomenal.

Seriously... My favorite place in Europe. A perfect place for a romantic vacation. Any Takers? (toasted... keep quiet)

Show tomorrow.

8/14/05

Winnipeg...  Not much to tell here... I loved my hotel room... somehow I lucked out and got a corner suite...

Good show... but a couple broken A strings for Dave really bummed me out... The first one happened right at the top of the show... the worst time.  Then later in the set... some jackass hit Dave in the eye with Mentos. Kids.... just to let you know... the Mentos thing is not funny anymore... it never really was... so leave that shit at home. As a matter of fact throwing anything on stage is lame. All you retards that think chucking your bands CD's on stage will get you discovered... WRONG... it will insure that they'll get thrown away.  Throwing shit at the band is just plain disrespectful. "dude!!! I love you man! Let me hit you with this shoe !!!!!". 

Day off in Toronto... I rented a car and drove north to a town called Berry to go see a Green Day show. What should've been about an hour drive turned into four hours due to what the locals call "cottage traffic" and also due to gnarly accident with fatalities. All I saw was a mini Van that looked like it had flipped over about a million times.

By the time we got there Green day had already started... My man, Rick Marino (Jimmy Eat World's tour manager), met me at the back gate with a super duper backstage rock star parking pass and a couple of passes. Thank you Rick for taking care of me. I was pretty bummed I missed the JEW performance but I've been lucky enough to see them many many times... they're great.

The Green Day show was amazing... they are so good at what they do. This is what I like about it.... #1... amazing value for your entertainment dollar... loads of production gags... (good lights, lots of reveals, pryo, confetti, waterguns, Q-beam, video).... #2... lots of crowd involvement. Billy Joe is so fuckin' good at working a crowd. Lots of sing alongs... and the part of the show where they get kids out of the crowd to play three chord rock is genius. #3... The show feels less like a rock performance and more like a frat party... also due to the slick production, crowd involvement and Billy Joe's great crowd control. They're not just rattling songs off of a set list... each song is it's own epic part of the party.  #4... I love how every member of the band is putting on their own show... with as much energy and punch as front man Billy.

Here's what I didn't like about it...  #1... I know for a fact it's exactly the same every night... Doing it exactly the same has some benefits... the production staff can actually plan the gags and make it consistently on cue and powerful... anything you do repetitively, you get really good at...  But, just knowing that Billy Joe is saying the exact same shit in-between and during songs and that they're dishing out the same mindless performance every night kinda takes the magic out of it for me. This is one of the biggest reasons I've retained so much respect for Mr. Grohl... he is so good at shooting from the hip. Every night it's different... from the set list to the ramblings of Dr. G... you never know what you're gonna get. #2... with the exception a couple of guys... green day has the grumpiest roadies on the planet. But I'd be grumpy too if I had to watch the same exact thing every night.

All in all... they were great... Great songs, great performance... I was highly entertained... massive props to all involved.

The Toronto was at one of the only sheds I've ever liked... The Molson Amphitheatre.  Right on the water, this place is has got a pretty cool vibe. Also, they've got the best catering ever. My pal Dennis came down with his brother and a couple of friends.

God damn... these guys are sooooooo Canadian.

Unfortunately Den's wonderful wife Libby could not attend so I spent the whole night cheering him up.

It was a good show though... Sold out... and whenever a show gets sold out here they give the crew a present. We got little mini mag flashlights with Foo Fighters stenciled on it. Sweet.

Were off to Portugal in a couple hours... Hopefully we'll all get some sleep on the plane.

8/9/05

Calgary... I wish that I had a little more time in this place... It seems right up my alley. The home of the biggest rodeo on the planet, I'm sure that there would be some good country music and culture for me to soak up.

Apparently early on show day the band was given the equivalent of the "key to the city" by the mayor. Also gifted were four white cowboy hats that looked very funny on the boys.

I found a crappy ping pong table in a corner and broke it out. Dave and I had a good game... the first in months. It was fun.

 While I was home I got some new ink on the back of my neck... Joanne Sloarch did it at Atomic tattoo in NE Portland. There's still some shading and color  to do but you get the picture. It's  a more metal version of 'the lion rampant". It's found on many European coats of arms.  Most commonly found in Scotland. I stayed with one of my best friends, Ruff Stewart, in Glasgow a few years ago for about a month and had such a good time I decided then that I needed to represent yo. But didn't get around to it till a week ago. 

Sitting in the Sheraton in Winnipeg... went for a swim... hotel gym was crap so I'm gonna have wee work out in my room, stretch a little then see what the rest of the troublemakers are doing in the hotel bar. Any of you Winnipegians wanna come down and show us a good time?

8/7/05

Edmonton. Big Mall. Good show. No Bus.

8/6/05

I love Vancouver... although I didn't get to skate any of the many kickass snake runs... I still had a good time.  My pal Kris Jamieson came up from Portland and my friends Dennis and Libby came down from Whistler. Den and Libby took me to a casino the first night in town where I had fun playing craps. I was up a couple hundred bucks for awhile... But I didn't bail out quick enough...  ended up 100 down. Crap. It was fun though and I played for a long time.

To stay in theme with the previous three months of touring... the crew got cock punched. We were all looking forward to this tour cuz it was to be a proper bus tour.  No flying. We would all actually get some sleep on the busses during the drives from gig to gig... We are now a crew of 28 I think.  Which is three busses.  They usually divide the busses up according to what time you have to wake up. Lighting, rigging, and production on one bus seeing as they have to be in first... then sound and special effects on the next bus cuz they're in next...  and lastly backline and briefcase guys on the last bus. Well... we were informed that our bus had broken down and would not arrive till our next gig which was Edmonton. So two of us would fly and the rest of us would have to pack on the other busses filling them to capacity. There are twelve bunks on a bus but it's pretty uncomfortable with that many... ten is kinda the most you really want to pack on them.  I had friends in town and I asked if anyone minded if I flew... that way I could hang out after the show and play with my pals... no objections. Geoff stayed behind with me. We were put up at a holiday inn out by the airport.

When tours get this big... communication is always a problem. There are six departments... sound, lights, lasers, video, set, and backline. This being the first show... it always turns into a clusterfuck. Everyone trying to get their shit up and running and fighting over valuable stage real estate. There was some really poor cabling etiquette going on. Everyone crossing each others cable runs... it just ends up turning into this giant mess of spaghetti. Once you start layering cables, it all has to come off in order. Which slows shit down soooo much.  Backline was supposed to set up and line check at noon on the fourth day of set up. Lighting and sound and gimmicks had four days to get their shit working and hanging in place. We sat around the arena for 9 hours on the fourth day before we could get our line check done.

On a good note... a really really good note... the show was fantastic (with the exception of some pretty cheesy video)... The boys killed it. The thing that really makes a good show for me is when I see the guys having fun... joking around and smiling... there was alot of that on this eve. More than I've seen in a while... it's a good sign. I bet all these upcoming shows are going to kick ass. Lot's of security breaches though. One shirtless fat dude got onstage and one other dude managed a stage dive.  The stage divers pal was right behind him but I caught it. I jumped in his way and pointed for him to turn around and go back. He tried to get past me so I grabbed him. The fuckin guy started to fight so I had to take him down. I pinned him on the ground and got him in an arm bar and a half nelson. Sean ran up and started yelling at the guy at the top of his lungs to stop struggling. He finally gave up and I gave him to security.

OK... here's a few words on crashing my stage. This is what I've seen a million times... some amped out dude without his shirt manages to get on stage... he freaks out and jumps around... maybe ozzies the crowd or something like that... then reality sets in... what the hell do I do now? In any other band the dude would be tackled, dragged off stage, roughed up a little then ejected from the gig. But in the Foos... Dave will acknowledge your presence then make fun of you in front of thousands of people. After of which he'll tell you to "get the fuck off of my stage" and I or someone else will escort either back into the crowd or out of the building depending on how much of an asshole you are. Girls are a different story... they don't take their shirts off (unfortunately), and they don't ozzy the crowd. They run straight for Dave and want a kiss or a hug or something.... ladies, Dave is usually in the middle of a song when this happens. Do you realize how lame it is to possibly ruin a song for thousands of people that paid to be entertained. Also Dave is MARRIED... it puts him in an awkward situation to say the least. You will be made fun of... probably humiliated in front of thousands.  I actually don't mind these types of stage crashers that much... it's usually fairly entertaining. The ones I hate are the stage divers... now that might sound like an old grumpy fart talking... but it's not. I've done my share of diving back in the day... usually in small clubs during a furious punk rock or metal show... and always into a crowd of folk that were expecting it. On the arena stages that we play... from the stage to the floor is about ten feet. From the stage to the barricade is anywhere from ten to fifteen feet. Most jumpers never even make it past the barricade. Stupid. The fucked thing is the people in the front are blinded by all the fucking light that Nathan, our light guy, is shining in their faces... also, their attention is fixed on Dave. They don't see your 150 to 200 pound ass flying off the stage, flailing your arms wildly, like you're rolling up the windows on your Volkswagen. It's usually a cute little girl that gets landed on and has to go to the hospital. If I catch any of you pussy stage divers... you can rest assured that I'll hurt you feelings really bad.  Slam all you want, crowd surf all you want... fuck... punch each other in the head for all I care... just don't send anyone to the hospital... even yourself. Remember the Pogo... now that's some fun dancing.

Sitting here in my hotel room in Edmonton, I've just been informed that our bus will not be showing up at all now... I'm curios as to what will be suggested to remedy this situation. I can tell you right now... they'll want to overload the busses that we've got for the rest of this thankfully short tour.  Whatever, as always... we'll do what it takes to make it happen.  It just sucks... I got my hopes up for a proper bus tour then they're squashed.  Apparently they've been trying to find busses for over a month now and there just aren't any available. The thought of flying for the rest of this tour or overloading the busses we've got just depresses me.

Does anyone out there have an RV they want to rent for a week?

8/4/05

Sorry Y'all... broadband went tits-up at my house and Qwest dropped the ball on getting me a router that can handle a block of static IP's with port forwarding. Some of you will be happy to know I moved my site to a real web hosting service, so your downloads should be faster.

My past couple of weeks has been fast and furious. From my last post...  The comic book convention was off the hook. Sooooo many people.... freaks.. the lot of them. Mixed among the trade show booths of comic publishers, movie studios, and independent film makers... was the occasional playboy model surrounded by overweight trekkies taking pictures getting autographs. I did find a couple of cool independent artists and comic books that were cool... one in particular... Marvin, the satanic raccoon. Basically, a devil worshiping raccoon ridding the world of stupidity with a baseball bat.  This dude also had a cookbook at his counter called "cooking with recoverable meats". I thought it was gonna be funny, but it was just downright disturbing.  Lots of recipes with aborted fetuses.

The D performance was in a huge conference hall... about 6000 seats. The movie studios were using it for preview screenings of upcoming releases and Q and A's with the movie stars. Right before the show was the King Kong screening. The Q and A afterwards was funny... It was Jacks crowd... no one really had any questions for the leading man or leading lady... everyone wanted to talk to Jack and ask about the D movie.  It was great.

The D rocked... the new songs are great.

My next week was gnarly.  Immediately after the show I drove back to LA from San Diego... 120 miles or so. It took me fucking 6 hours. Traffic Jams pretty much the whole way.

I woke up early the next morning and rented a moving truck... a 21 footer.  Went to my storage locker and loaded that out, stopped by studio 606 and grabbed a couple of things that were mine there, then went to my LA house and spent the rest of the day busting my hump getting all my crap... dense packed into the truck. It barely all fit.  I then spent a few hours cleaning... it's amazing... we were only in that house for a year and some shit was so gross. Geoff and Sean's Shower... fucked... they gave Geoff's dog Bella baths in there alot. I finally got in the truck and started driving north at about 8pm. I drove about 7 hours to Redding and grabbed a motel. I Finished the drive to Portland the next day. 

My house in Portland is already full of shit... it's amazing how much crap we accumulate in our lives.  I was pondering for the whole drive up how I was gonna fit all this new furniture and shit in my house. Now that I was at my house... I was gripped.  I did not open the truck. I just started... piece by piece, taking everything out of my house, and putting it on my lawn.  I had 5 days before I had to leave to Japan and I needed every bit of it. I wont bore you with the details of my "putting 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag" except to say that I worked all week to do it and stayed awake all night, the night before I flew to Japan just to finish. I closed the door on my storage shed at 4 am, packed a bag, then flew to Japan at 6am.

Japan was quick. Two hours in a van to the Tokyo hotel... sleep... five hours in a bus to Naeba, Mt Fuji... set up and line check... sleep... Rock show then drive right after five hours to airport hotel... sleep a couple hours then fly home.

Oh yeah... the show was good... great crowd... good solid rock.

Only drag was one of my favorite bands that I've never ever seen live played right when we had set change before our performance.  The Pogues.... Fuck... Oh well.

Four days of Blissful Portland off time awaited me when I got off the plane.

The day after I got back... My drummer Tommy, Pal Scotty, and I had a 7 am tee time for 9 holes. I hadn't played golf in over a year and a half and was a little nervous about sucking ass. Oh my god I shot a 40. I couldn't believe it. 5 pars, 4 bogeys.  So awesome.  I then hooked up with a great old friend of mine... Kris Jamieson. This guy... Snowboarding legend... now is an announcer / MC for ESPN.  X games and shit like that... he also does a syndicated radio show for EXPN radio.  Somehow he got involved with NIKE shoes and they fucking gave him a key to their private training facility called skate lab.  It's a kickass skatepark on the second floor of a warehouse in downtown Portland. Jaymo cracked the door of the skatepark at about 9pm that night... just after the sun went down and everything was starting to cool off. After firing up the sodium halide floodlights, Kris, My old pal Sean Donnell (the styliest skater known to man), Autumn and I tore that place up for hours. We had it all to ourselves... It was magic. I was nice to be reminded of how important skateboarding is to me.  "I never knew how empty was my soul until it was filled".  What a great day.

The Aladdin theatre was dark the next day... Tommy, my drummer is the theatre manager... need I say more.  We loaded all the band gear in during the day and had a great rehearsal that night. I've invited some extra players to join me for our show on Sept. 24th. Drew, who used to play with me in my old band Chum, will be playing some rhythm guitar and banjo, and Portland ripper Marilee will playing some fiddle. I hope to have an organ player as well. We spent our time re-writing my songs... re-vamping them to appeal to the shitkicker in me.  So now we play both kinds of music... country and western. Fellow roadie Geoff Templeton will be playing upright bass with me on bluegrass "Next Year".  It's gonna be a great night... on the 24th... Make sure you can make it.

It was very hard to leave Portland today. We flew to Vancouver tonight to start our Canadian tour. It's gonna be a great tour though... a proper bus tour.

I'll keep y'all posted.