The Rainbow Connection

Our last night of the tour we played at Henfling's Tavern in Ben Lamond. It was a boot-scoot-and boogie kinda place, with bumber stickers in the window telling us to "Never Forget Ruben Salazar". I knew I would like the place. At first impression, these seemed like tougher folk, and not necessarily the kind of people you would expect to come up and shake your hand. Yet, everyone here was real friendly, and thanked us for playing. 

We spent the night in a cabin umbrella'd under giant redwoods in a Santa Cruz rain jungle. These trees were huge, the biggest I've stood under for awhile, and the rain drops seemed just as big. It was a steady assault, land mines of wet maple leaves and water run-off on the muddy street, and a round robin up the hill to the main road, started out the morning commute. Mikey -btw- has done a phenomenal job driving the 'ole Mallard from city to city. And this was the ultimate test. Really lean into it on the corners, test the brakes for maximum deceleration. The drive on throughout the day was pretty wet and windy. The weather broke for a couple hours, and as we passed by the city of Los Banos*, hanging in front of all the angry clouds was a rainbow shining above the city. I couldn't help but smile, it seemed like such a great metaphor for life. I know because I've seen some rainbows rising up out of some different banos in my own life. One of which came rising up out of the RV after Astra and I opened up the holding tank that night, but that's a different story! I guess when you stop and take a look around, there's the beauty of restoration everywhere, in every day. I see it in art. In music. In friendship. And it gives me hope. And it makes me happy to have been a part of something that has lifted others up in such a wildly positive and restorative way - and to have done it with such a wailin' crew. Mikey's choice cooking and sheet metal rock (c'mon Mikey - I know you got something harder than Cannibal Corpse) kept my heart jumpin' and booty bumpin - Janay's drive-by humor and silliness kept my sides aching and helped sedate my fears of generator shut-downs and more police pullovers, Astra's poise and steady handling of our tour manifesto, kept our noses pointed forward as we sloughed out the 2,000 mile, three state, 11 show, 12-day trek. There's a lot of reflection after a journey like this one, and when looking back over these past twelve days one thing stands out, we all knew it would come to an end. But here we are. Still here, anyways. And that's the nature of endings, it seems, is that they never really end. The world sleeps and rises. But the beauty of this world, and the vision we lead ourselves by can go only so far as we believe in ourselves, and only so long as we keep proving, over and over again, that we can dream bigger and do better than our forefathers did - and in our case here, to rock harder than all the other bands on the bill. 

Being on the open road with Astra, Mikey, and Janay has filled me with enough memories for at least the next ten years. And I want to say thank you to Astra for letting me rock the box with you on the road, Mikey for opening my ears and gut to new music and good food, and to Janay for setting up the merch table everyday. We never got the curtain call, but all y'all deserve a round of applause - or an apple pie, or something. Maybe applesauce for Janay.

*Oh, and no offense to anyone residing in Los Banos, CA. From a distance it seems like a very quaint place to live, and I see no reflection on the name to which it was given.

Cheerio!

-TIM

Need 2 signs to make the point. Ha!

Good Things Come in Pink Boxes

Voodoo donuts in Portland equals famous and bizarre donuts that make your teeth hurt so good with every absurdly sugary bite. Donuts topped with fruit loops and cocoa puffs, bubble gum and purple sprinkles. My elementary school friend, Allison Leix, came out to the Portland show and brought us 2 dozen of them!!! Such a sweet thing to do, but OMG! We really tried our best to work on them a bit, but were pretty unsuccessful.

We contemplated what to do with them. We didn't want them to go to waste since they seemed to be such a hot commodity. We trusted the donuts would find their way in the world.

The venue in Seattle was in an "up and coming" neighborhood called Columbia City and their were plenty of questionable characters swarming around. As Janay and I were getting out of the RV, one of them came up, asked for cash and was peering in thru the door.....made me real nervous. I apologized for not having any dough and offered him one of the boxes of donuts. He seemed disappointed at first....I told him not to eat them all in one sitting and to share them with his friends. Can only imagine what he told his homies when he walked back over to them, but it was definitely followed by a burst of laughter.

The other box of donuts traveled with us to Newberg, OR. where we had a little RV party and Tim made sure to dig into them a bit, the result being a number of donuts with one big huge bite out of each of them. I woke up the next morning and there were donut remnants everywhere. While stopped to get gas, Janay and I whispered about whether or not we should throw them away, considering they'd all been "tasted" and they were going on being 6 days old, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

So the donuts journeyed on with us to San Francisco. We played a killer show and saw some old friends. We decided to drive the hour and half to Sacramento that night. Janay drove with me sitting shotgun. Mikey had driven 11 hours that day so he napped. We took a turn a little fast on the Bay bridge out of San Fran and the side door flew open. Mikey was on it, quickly secured the door, and laid back down. Once we arrived in Sacramento at nearly 3am, he said "you know, when that door flew open, we lost something. I don't know what it was, but I saw something fly out." We all looked around fearing the worst......that one of our instruments or amps was now laying along side of the road or worse yet, catapulted off the bridge and into the San Francisco bay. We seemed to have everything and then.......I noticed the absence of the Voodoo donut box that had traveled with us at least a good 1,000 miles. "where are the donuts?" I said.....and we stopped for moment. Complete silence, as we all glance around and then erupted into the most delicious round of giggles and laughter we'd had the whole entire trip as we realized that somewhere along the Bay bridge in Frisco our donuts had decided to leave us and knew that if anyone stumbled upon them their epitaph would read, "good things come in pink boxes."

xoxo - Astra

Beginning of the End

So I have designated myself as the official tour driver, except for when I'm drunk. The driver's seat is pretty much the only place I feel comfortable while this thing is moving. I've learned it can be a treacherous thing riding in the RV with no seat belts. Just ask the donuts.

I'm sad that this will be the last night of the tour because every day so far has gotten better.

I've become accustomed to living in the RV with the other three, staying up late and getting up early to drive.

Last night was especially fun because my brother, sister and many of my old friends came out and afterwards involved ourselves in some heavy drinking and table dancing.

I've learned a lot about my fellow bandmates/tour manager over the past week and a half. I'd only spoken to Tim and Janay a handful of times before the tour and now can't imagine life without any of them.

I am excited to be near a good night's sleep in my own room, however, if I could share that room with Astra, Tim and Janay, it would make it even better.

Miguel L. Savior

Stuffed and ready to roll

We are on the road to Santa Cruz as I type, well feed, somewhat rested, and winding down our two week adventure. We had an awesome show last night at Fox & Goose. I personally really enjoyed Musical Charis and as it turns out Jessie (featured in picture), the front woman of the band, went to APU with me my freshman year. We also have a close mutual friend-what are the odds! This is a small world.

Still fighting my cold, it sucks but I am having a great time.

Our tour has flown by, but at the same time it feels like ages ago that I did the Costco run to grab food for our journey.

I get to see some old friends from APU at tonight's show! Woot woot! It is still drizzling and cold outside but our spirits are high. We have one last show and then tomorrow will be filled with tending to the RV, getting Betty in tip top shape to return to her rightful owner.

Mixed feelings about getting home tomorrow. I feel like I could do this for way longer than two weeks.

Hip Hip Hooray,

Janay

Yo San Franscisco - Yo Mamma

Watching Yo Momma on MTV at Mikey's parent's house. Pork Roast in the oven, rain outside, a late night behind us...taking it easy 'till we bust to Santa Cruz. Two things are certain, Sacremento provides good food and, Sacremento-nites rock to Astra Kelly. Sold the most CDs last night than any other night. People were coming up during the show saying the merch was priced too low. These people got an appetite, and they're waiting for that full plate. Our set got cut short last night, only played about a 25 minute set, but maybe that is the trick. Tease the audience. Wet the appetite. Let them be full later.

San Francisco was a trip too. They're a rowdy bunch. And being blocks from Haight-Ashbury, you never know who you're gonna meet. My sister broke in her new car and drove 6 hrs on the road to see us play at Kimo's. You guys rock! The opening band was great, they had a bluesy, grassroots sound, funky, John Lee Hooker-ish at times. Hmm....that's all I got for now....yo mamma's getting too good. Anyone wanna play the self-esteem game? Yo Mamma so fat when she sat down on in her new car, the wheels popped!

-Tim

Dayquil Delight...

Hey there, ho there,

It's true, we are on the back side of tour and things are getting warmer the more south we go. I some how managed to get a cold around Seattle/ Portland and am trying to find refuge from my sniffles and cough in a small bottle of dayquil bought on the road.

Tour encourages you to conduct your daily routine in some very unconventional places. I have brushed my teeth in many a gas stations, even a Walmart, laid my head on several different floors/couches, and did a little eyebrow maintenance in the passenger seat of the RV. We made a rule before we left, "number two at the venue", needless to say we have all "venued" at many random locations along the way- so much so that "venue" has become the new slang for well...you know.

We played at Kimo's in San Francisco last night and had a really good time, there were some great people there including The Last of the Steam Powered Trains and Suburban Slow Death. We hit the road after our gig and headed back to Sacramento to crash at Mikey's family's house again.

Having a slow paced day in Sac, watching TV, sitting by the fire and enjoying the company of Mikey's hospitable family.

JP