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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!
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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."
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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.
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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!)
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We played a sold out show to 1500 people, the biggest show we´ve ever played!
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