After a month on the road, I have to admit that it feels pretty nice to be home, sitting on the couch, X-Files on the T.V., laptop in hand, and reminiscing a 7,000 mile tour that took us from San Francisco to Seattle to Chicago to Texas to New Mexico and back. That being said, I'll do my best to remember the events as they took place ;) ...the pictures should help.
May 11- Bottom of the Hill
Our tour started off great with a sold out show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. It was a show set up by our friends the Tumbleweed Wanderers from Oakland, and they were kind enough to include us on the 3 band bill...Infantree, Rin Tin Tiger, and Tumbleweed Wanderers. Bottom of the Hill is definitely the coolest venue we've played at in SF so far, in terms of looks and sound quality, and we were really happy to open up the show. Paul Thomas, the sound engineer, was top notch and made our experience on stage seem effortless. Overall, it was a great way for us to kick off our month long tour.
Doin our thang 
Jordan
The beautiful audience
Rin Tin Tiger
Tumbleweed Wanderers
Leaving the club
May 17- The Skylark
After Bottom of the Hill, we headed home for the rest of the weekend, and on the 15th, we made our way to Seattle. Once again we were going to meet up with Tumbleweed Wanderers to play a few more shows while we were in Washington. The first of those shows was at a small bar called the Skylark. Although there weren't many people there, it was nice to be hanging out with Tumbleweed again. Also, the sound there was amazingly full and filled with warmth.
Jordan, Matt, and Alex hangin at the bar before playing
T.W. killing it!
May 18- Exploring Seattle/ House show
Since this was our first time in Seattle we made sure to do be tourists while we could.
...We explored the famous Pikes market place and got some good eats
...We stopped by the Pinball Cove at Shorty's bar
...hung out underneath the space needle
...went back to the hotel to relax and do some in-hotel editing before the house show
By the end of the day, we made it to our destination. We even got some jamming in with Tumbleweed on the porch before the house party started....just a couple of stoop kids
Matt and I...Mustang and Athena
Alex
May 19- Harmon Tap Room (Tacoma WA.)
This was our last show in Washington as well as our last show with Tumbleweed for this tour. Harmon was a pretty cool room that was located in the very back of the bar behind the kitchen in it's own room. They had great food and beer! I remember we played a fairly mellow set for an older- type crowd. Everyone really enjoyed our set and Tumbleweed ended the night. Unfortunately we couldn't stay for their whole set because we had to start making our way on a several day journey to Chicago.
May 24- Summer Camp Festival (Chillicothe, IL)
After leaving Tacoma, we spent five days in our mini van driving to get to Summer Camp festival in Chillicothe Illinois. Our drive took us through Bozeman Montana, South Dakota, Albert Lea Minnesota, and Peoria Illinois before getting to Chillicothe. It felt good to get to the festival and stretch our legs. Like the name suggests, Summer Camp took place on a huge grassy plot of land where people could set up tents pretty much anywhere. There were stages set up all over the place that bands could play on throughout the weekend. We opened up the campfire stage to a wonderful group of people. They stood close and really felt the the music. After we played we explored the rest of the festival and talked to some of the locals. It was a nice day.
May 25/26- Show at Martyrs/Exploring Chicago
The day after Summer Camp, we drove to Chicago to play a show at a club called Martyrs. We were scheduled to open up the sold out show with Chris Kasper going on second, and ALO headlining. Unfortunately, bad news struck when we pulled up to the club and learned that our van wasn't in good shape. We were lucky to even make it to the club because the car was overheating for several days. After taking it to the dealership, we learned that we were really lucky that the car didn't catch on fire because apparently it was so overheated that the two main head gaskets were warped and that it needed machine shop repair. Anyhow, to make a long story short, it was a long and expensive two days in chicago. On the bright side, the show went really well, we left the van to be towed back to Los Angeles, rented a new van, and even got to explore the city for a few hours.
Fun with mirrors
Goodbye shiny blue mini van :(
May 29 to June 8- Texas and end of tour
After we left Chicago in our new rental van, we headed to Texas for the last leg of our tour. For most of the shows in Texas, we opened up for a band called The Royalty from El Paso. They're a really great band with a solid style that reminds me of a futuristic Phil Spector. Our shows consisted of the Pine Box in Midland, Stubbs in Austin, In-store at Cactus Music in Houston, Free Press Summer Fest in Houston, and Cafe 806 in Amarillo. All of our shows were with The Royalty except the Shows in Houston. And minus the heat, all the shows were great! Also, to save the best for last, Jordan finally turned 21 while we were in Texas!!!
setting up at the Pine Box
The Royalty sound checking at Stubbs
Us at Stubbs
Somewhere in Texas
This is Jon Solo, our tour manager. We couldn't have done it without him. He literally drove all 7,000 miles and made sure we got to all of our shows in time. He's also an amazing pianist and plays with the likes of Brett Denin and Angus Stone. He even played with us at a few of the gigs on the song "What You Wanna Do". I happened to take this picture when he blinked, but he usually drives with his eyes open :) Thanks SOLO
Jordan eating like a king on his 21st Birthday
If you're ever in Houston, make sure to check out Cactus Music!
Free Press Summer Fest...
After we played I handed out some free demos!
Battling the heat
The Royalty being awesome at cafe 806 in Amarillo.
:)
That pretty much concludes our journey through the past month. Pictures provided by Skeleton Key Photography, Marina Trujillo, Jon Solo, Jordan Avesar, and yours truly. I tried to document as much as possible, but I'm sure there are a few things that I forgot or intentionally left out ;) It was a great experience nonetheless and writing this definitely brought me back. It's definitely good to be home right now and we've got lots of good things coming up so stay tuned.
