After the Minneapolis show, the guys from Mike Doughty's band told us they were leaving for Chicago at 2 am, so we waited until then to stay at their hotel rooms through the morning. Upon rising, we hit the road. When we arrived at the House of Blues Chicago, we were amazed by the architecture and acoustics of the main auditorium.
Those features, mixed with the energy of the audience, inspired an all-around great show.
After Mike Doughty's set, we drove to James's grandma Audrey's house, just 30 minutes outside of the city, where we chilled with James's parents and Audrey. This house that we stayed in was really incredible. It was truly a warm and cozy grandma abode.
The next morning, after breakfast, we drove 5 hours to the Beachland Ballroom, in James's hometown, Cleveland, OH.
After the show, we naturally went to James's parent's house and feasted on kale. James's mom - artist Cathie Bleck, took us on a tour of her artwork around the house and talked to us about different techniques she's been using in some of her new pieces.
After Wenzl went to sleep, Edu, Mike, James and his good friend Ari went to the basement and became enlightened.
In the morning, Cathie set up an incredible breakfast that filled us with joy. The rest of the day, however, was marked by a steak of bad luck. After driving for 2 hours, we encountered a massive thunderstorm with powerful winds. We checked into it further and found that there was actually a tornado warning in effect all along the Lake Erie coastline! So, we pulled into a CVS parking lot. Wenzl and Edu stayed in the car while James and Mike ventured around the aisles of CVS for an hour. James summarizes the experience in this video:
After our CVS adventures we headed into the storm. The sky was black. Rain mercilessly showered the roads with tremendous force. We were doomed. A sixteen wheeled vehicle shot past us creating a great splash of water which found it's way onto our battery. This caused the car to break down. We called AAA and told them we were in Ohio before exit 59 on I-90E. After about thirty minutes we realized that we were in Pennsylvania. We called back and gave them the updated information and they sent out another truck. After an hour of searching we realized we were actually in New York. Once again, we called AAA and switched our location. In a speedy 30 minutes a truck was out to help us. After cooling off, we continued our drive. We drove by signs reading, ¨Niagara Falls ahead¨, so naturally we stopped to check out the natural marvel.
We got the car started and went off to Brockton, Mike's home land.
We arrived in Brockton at 9am after a long and trying car ride. We all slept until mid-afternoon, awoke and ate a breakfast that Mike's sister created. After this we voyaged into Boston.
The energy from the audience at the show was really incredible. We left the gig in high spirits and headed off to Erik Van Dam's house. After an hour of relaxing, Wenzl and Erik began playing music which continued until early morning.
We woke up and ate an all american poison breakfast which jumpstarted our day. We parted ways and moved towards Philadelphia.
After the show, we went to a bar by the name of "Blur" with the guys from Mike Doughty's band, as well as with some new friends we met at the venue. After hanging for a while, two extremely generous fans by the names of Kendra and Kelly offered to buy us a hotel room where we could chill with them. James, Wenzl, and Edu decided to go spend the night at James' family friend Mark Ulriksen's place (an extremely talented artist who has illustrated many New Yorker magazine covers), while Mike took the fans up on their extremely generous offer!
That night, after talking about life and drinking red wine with Kenrda and Kelly, Mike, exhausted from heavy philosophy, took a long, relaxing bath in his private hotel room, right before getting the best night of sleep he'll have on the entire tour.
At 8 a.m. the next morning, Mike blossomed into his enlightened reality, inspired to walk the streets of San Francisco in search of excitement. At one point during his 10-mile adventure, he made friendly eye contact with a stranger, who creepily gazed into Mike's face long after the initial connection. After passing the stranger, Mike turned around to find that he was being followed! So, naturally, Mike decided to run. And so did the stranger.
After successfully evading the creep, the confused Mike decided to meet up with the rest of the guys, who were buying CDs at a GIANT Amoeba Music Shop near Mark's place on the famous "Haight Street."
After reuniting, we went to Mark's place, where we had conversations about life and art with him and his wife Leslie Flores, an extremely talented photographer.
The rest of the day was pretty chill. James was delighted to be able to play an out-of-tune piano at their place for a few hours (the first piano he's seen in 20 days!)
Before the last show in San Fran we were really strapped for time. Edu really wanted to shoot us under the Golden Gate Bridge so we rushed to the nearby park to do just that. Check it out here:
After that night's show, we decided to start the long drive to Portland, OR.
After traveling on highway 101 for some time, we entered a thick fog that slowed us down quite a bit for the next few hours. At one point during the drive, a thick fog had limited our vision to 20 feet.
We listened to Tibetan Monk Tantric music to pair with the ominous atmosphere. After a startling encounter with a deer on the road, we drove into a campground at Glenwood Ridge Park to get some sleep. At 7 am, the sunlight exposed us to a utopia of the tallest trees in the world, the Redwoods. We were overwhelmed with their extremely massive size.
We continued to drive for another 10 hours up the Pacific coastline, checking out the amazing forest scenery and enjoying ourselves immensely.
When we arrived in Portland, we quickly developed a strong affinity for the city. It had a very laid back feel to it. We played a great show to a very chill, positive and responsive audience. After Mike Doughty's set, we went to James' uncle John and aunt Heidi's place just outside the city. We arrived to find that John had laid out a beautiful fish taco assembly line on the kitchen table. After gorging on the delicious delicacies of the sea, we chilled out with John for a bit.
With our stomachs full and our senses fading, we hit the sack, only to arise to another beautiful meal laid out by John. This one consisted of his famous french toast, maple syrup, raspberries, and bananas. What a great man. Before we left, Mike decided he would give his saxophone stand to James' cousin Evan, who plays tenor saxophone in his high school band.
When the van started to look more like a rat´s nest and less like a comfortable vessel to live in, we decided it was time to clean and organize our hoochmobile!
We hit the road for 4 hours until we arrived at The Neumos Crystal Ball Reading Room in Seattle. After a quick soundcheck, we ventured next door and satisfied our residual fish cravings with fried cod and catfish with fries at the "Fish Fry."
After the show in Seattle, we went to James' parents' friends Marwan and Phoebe's place, which was one of the most amazing homes any of us have seen.
It was 4 floors high! After hanging and talking with Marwan in his kitchen, he guided us to his basement, which was like an apartment all in itself.
When we woke up, Marwan took us out to breakfast with Phoebe where we ate generously and made great conversation.
www.edsanca.com Our bandmobile has been trooping hard on the road thus far, but it's old, and since we left New York, we've traveled almost 8,000 miles!
Inevitably, we've begun to hear some strange sounds coming from it. So, we took it into the mechanic for a look. After having a few brackets tightened underneath the car, the noise went away. However, we were notified that there are 25 safety alerts in the van's computer! So, either our vessel is about to completely fall apart, or our computer is just going haywire.
We drove back to Marwan and Phoebe's place to retrieve our stuff and get a full tour of their house.
They were and are such great people. We thanked them for their hospitality and proceeded to a local music shop, where we had fun tripping out to a bunch of random sounds. We left the store with a variety of fun toys to play with, including slide whistles, kazoos, and a bicycle horn. Check out the sound of these instruments together!
Soon after we left Seattle, Mike and James decided that instead of driving, we should play music in a muddy parking lot off the highway, so we spent the next few hours in the lot experimenting with different sound creations. After our muddy journey, we drove 6 hours to the nearest Super 8 motel, where we rested our sleepy heads.
Upon waking, we drove about twelve hours through the beautiful Montana landscape. We sang, we argued, we conquered. On the twelfth hour we found ourselves at a large supermarket in the middle of Montana. It was there where we decided to buy a king´s feast-worth of food and 4 bundles of firewood. Then, we drove another 4 hours to Buffalo Gap Campground. We made a fire, ate, played flutes and talked about our journey thus far. Our original idea was to stay at the campground and sleep.
That plan changed quickly when we realized that the remaining drive to Minneapolis was 9 hours, with only 13 hours to get there. During the long drive, Mike and Wenzl talked about their pasts and futures while drinking massive amounts of coffee. After 3 hours, Mike was the only one awake, and found himself witnessing the most beautiful sunrise of his life. The sky was a beautiful pink hue which resonated wonderfully with the huge landscape. Soon after sunrise, Mike dozed off and pulled over to the side of the road. James took over and powered through to the wonderful city of Minneapolis.
With a little time to spare, Mike, Wenzl, and Edu slept in the car while James practiced tabla in the green room. The show that night was incredible. James wore his ski mask for the first half of the show, and took it off when someone in the audience demanded to see his face.
