Ah...and things improve...

Posted by Rayn



Well the second, third and fourth day of tour went considerably better than the first. Tuesday was spent preparing and consuming an extravagant breakfast and then swimming in the beautiful Coeur d’Alene Lake. Everybody was able to splash around except Jason, who was feeling fluish. After a few hours at the lake we headed to a new venue in Hayden, ID for dinner called the Rock Joint. Over pizza, we struck up a conversation with the booking agent there and got ourselves a show for Thursday night, which was awesome because we’d already had to cancel a few due to our horrible gas mileage. We headed back to Dave’s parent’s house that night with the spring back in our step.



Wednesday we had another ridiculous breakfast and then ran a bunch of errands before setting off for The Empyrean in Spokane, WA. The Empyrean is a pretty cool little venue, with a rock stage on one side and a coffee shop/poetry slam area on the other. We played first and there was literally nobody in the room when we started. By the time the first song was over, however, we had a nice little crowd and the show came to life. Highlights of the Spokane show include seeing an old friend from Portland, eating Clementine oranges in the sun, and watching a surprisingly compelling band called the Dead Millionaires, who were equipped only with an i-pod, a metal trashcan, and outstanding creativity. But the most memorable moment from that night was definitely during the last song when Jason climbed onto a stage monitor and it came crashing off the stage and down onto the floor, along with Jason, playing and grinning all along. We love Jason, especially since we were able to fix the monitor so it won’t cost us the few hundred bucks we thought it might. After all five bands had played we loaded up the bus and went to Dick’s, where all six of us got stuffed, I mean STUFFED, for about twenty bucks total. I effing love Dick’s. We took our Dick’s and ate outside of the bus in the parking lot of Frankie Doodle’s, the evening completed with light up Frisbee, angry pigeons, and literally hundreds upon hundreds of Dick’s jokes.

Thursday was my favorite. Again, we feasted like kings in the morning, this time on breakfast casserole a la Jason and bomb dot com smoothies. After we lazed about a lot, we went out in search of the perfect swimming spot. After a few tries, we really did find the most perfect spot ever on the Spokane River. We settled the Lily dog and Dave’s mom Sharron in the shade and then swam across the river to a sweet jumping spot. It was actually a pretty challenging swim for many of us, but it felt great. We all took turns leaping from a big rock into the water, except Jamie who was really pissed cause he saw some fish in the water and fish really, really freak him out. It was really awesome when I was like, “Hey Eric, look at me!” And then I accidentally totally biffed it off the rock. After a while Jamie grew some balls and jumped in, twice actually, and we were all very proud of him. We swam back to Sharron and Lily and swam around for awhile, and we even got Lily to swim a little for her first time ever. I should take this moment to let you know that Lily has always been the cutest dog ever, but we just got her hair cut, and they made her smell like strawberries, and when she was scooting around in the water with her little shorn coat I pretty much died of joy. I mean seriously, check out this dog.


Thursday night we played in Hayden, ID at the Rock Joint. A bunch of Dave’s friends showed up and we all had a really good time. We played two sets and let me tell you, by the end I think my clothes were more sweat than fabric. People were really down with our sound, and we got a nice little pile of green in the tip box. I have to say, besides the PA being weird, besides a few technical difficulties, and besides my voice giving out as early as the fourth song, we were effing awesome. In fact, I think we changed some people’s lives, based on their emphatic reactions. Or maybe it was just that everybody there was REALLY drunk. I think that’s it. After we played we were invited to come back Friday night to open for this giant show, featuring Bent Penny among others, and headlined by the Enigma, that guy who’s talents include sword swallowing, pushing power tools into his nasal cavity, pumping his own stomach, being tattooed head to toe with blue puzzle pieces, and you know, playing music. So that’s tonight, and it’s probably gonna rock balls.

Today was french toast (What the french, toast?) and some bacon (snack size murder). After breakfast we all bitched a lot about all the work to be done and then finally got started. We need to reorganize the bus, fix the fuel line (which has a hole in it, possible source of our mileage issues?), write the blog (check!), and complain about the heat a lot. More soon from your friends from the Aremis.