tour 4.05
Saturday, April 12 1997 Austin TX Emo’s w/Love Button
Zeph - This show wasn’t that great and we left right afterwards for Denver. We took the state highways which we rarely do and it was a good drive but very long.
Carol- our third show with love button and I’m getting kinda sick of them. everyone was there to see el flaco. i sat in a booth with the mailing list and this one kid crossed out her name cuz she thought it was for el flaco.
Andre - Matt tells me that we didn’t get drink tickets for the show but as he walks away I can see them hanging out of his back pocket. Good thing I had a couple of dollars of my own. Aaron pulls me aside and tells me ‘Dude, when you get high you’re really funny and fun to be around, but when you drink, it’s not cool.’ Apparently, in Norman I had offended the promoter, butI think it was his wife, but I don’t recall meeting either of them so I can’t be sure. We play on a big stage, elevated 5 feet or so off the ground. It’s kind of laughable. Leaving Austin, I think I have dysentery.
Sunday, April 13 1997 Denver CO
Lion’s Lair w/the Ted Bundy Band
Z - The Ted Bundy Band are one of the best we’ve seen on the road. The bass player had these great black-nylon pants with yellow embroidered letters going down the legs saying “ASSASSINATION”. A friend of ours came by and gave us all this meth amphetamine that she’d confiscated from her babysitter. Just as we started playing I told the band, “There’s five grams of speed in my briefcase.” Matt can’t do any because he thought he had a heart condition but he was excited anyway. We made 90 bucks on the show and then went over to our old guitar player Sean’s house. He had moved to Denver after quitting the band. We stayed there until the sun was coming up and we decided to go through Rocky Mountain national park. The park was closed. We had to back-track and then we decided to take the state highway all the way to Salt Lake and it took something like 17 hours.
C - so we go to denver and a ridiculous amount of amphetamines just fell into our lap. sean came to see us with his friend. we went over to his place and partied all night. sean put on physical graffiti.
A - There’s a strict ‘no drugs in the van’ policy, though it doesn’t apply to weed or whipped cream cans, so the balance of the speed, I am told, is given to Sean as we leave. I was flying by the time we left Denver and it seemed for a little while that the bad feelings I had generated had lifted. That’s what drugs ARE for. I suck up the beauty of the Rockies and for the next twelve hours chew the inside of my mouth to bits. The Hale-Bopp comet follows us to Utah.
M - Playing with these guys in Ted Bundy is a lot of fun. But when Zeph told me a few minutes before we went on that we already got paid and someone had GIVEN him 5 grams of speed, it just kicked everything up to level 3. Although I couldn’t and didn’t want to do those drugs, I was into the idea. Bands, especially on the road, should have a supply of uppers, right? But those in the band that chose to partake did almost all of it in the span of 24 hours. I drove the next day to Salt Lake City. Their inane and perpetual chatter and lip smacking drove me completely insane and I was driving in the mountains, taking the back roads and there were points were I almost drove off a cliff, I wanted to take them all out. It drives me crazy just thinking about it. This night has kept me from ever trying meth.
Monday, April 14 1997 Salt Lake City UT Burt’s Tiki Lounge
A - For driving through the desert all night, Salt Lake City rises up from below the earth like the mother ship in Close Encounters. Maybe it was the speed. Aaron is completely sick and plays the show sitting down. I have just enough energy to play the show but am completely wiped out for the next two days. Utah is weird with its members only clubs and reduced alcohol beer, but the people were very nice. Someone played the sound track to Vampyros Lesbos at the house.
Z - We barely made it there in time to play. Aaron was feeling very sick. He sat in the window sill behind the drums while we played. Andre and Carol and I hadn’t slept in two days but we managed a good show anyway. Two sets as usual at Burt’s.
C- we stayed up all night and tried to leave around 7 in the morning. matt was driving. we wanted to see the rockies, so we took back roads. the park was closed so we ended up back tracking and just driving and driving forever to salt lake. Me, Zeph and Andre wouldn’t shut up and it really annoyed Matt becuz he was totally straight and had to drive for hours and Aaron was sick. the drive was awesome though. we saw a little bit of the rocky mountains covered in snow. there’s something about being on speed and driving through the rockies. john denver’s rocky mountain high ran through my head all day. we got to burt’s real late and everybody at the club thought we weren’t coming. but they were really happy to see us. first we had to find matt an amp real fast and aaron looked too sick to play and me, zeph and andré were on the brink of passing out. we got though the show surprisingly well and went over to Rick and Jason’s. Rick and Jason were hospitable and generous as usual. some people came over and it was a party. Leif must be the biggest fan. he wouldn’t shut up about how inspiring this band is and how matt’s a genius.
