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It was Halloween, James's Birthday, and we were in Lawrence, Kansas… All prerequisites for an amazing day. We left the Hotel early and stumbled upon a little sandwich barn where we fully indulged and took big bites of food.
After eating, we walked around town and checked out some shops. We spent about 2 hours in an old antique shop called "Blackbird Trading Post" where we conversed with a very cool man by the name of Gotfred Beardshear.
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He owned and maintained the store, which was full of great books, furniture, musical instruments, bones, fossils, and other great stuff. He also had many paintings of the walls, all of which were created by him.
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In the evening, we went to the Free State Brewery, where we drank some delicious beer.
When the night came and all the little trick-or-treaters were out getting their candy, we decided it would be fun to set up a live show on the street. Here is a clip of the spooky madness…
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We also had an amazing stranger sit in and sing a blues with us!
When the sun fell behind the horizon a cold wind carried the evening away and left us with a beautiful night and a nine hour drive to Denver. Invigorated from sharing positive energy with the people from Laurence we turned the car into a little home studio and started producing some good old Booty House.
Wilbur and James in the front seat whistled and hummed what ever Idea came to their mind and Wenzl programmed some software Synths. At some point WIlbur said, "its amazing I can just sing what ever I want and the computer reproduces it."
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A few hours later we found ourselves surrounded by pitch black darkness and sparkling stars. Wilbur got so exited that we pulled over to check out the vista. Edu took out some lights and a tripod and once again surprised us with his deep knowledge and passion about photography and started to do some time lapse light painting.
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We arrived in at the Bluebird Theatre in Denver just in time for sound check.
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As always, we told the sound engineer to turn up the bass on the channel of the contrabass clarinet until the walls and windows shook like someone who drank too much coffee. It is always a surprise how strong the subs of the clubs are and which walls or windows are going to start rattling first.
After all the levels and EQ curves where set we went across the street and ate some huge burritos. We finished them just in time to jump right on stage. Right before going on stage we were told our car was about to be towed so Wenzl and Mike rushed to find a new spot for our car. We ran as fast as we could back to the venue with literally one minute left before showtime. The adrenaline rush definitely helped us play a very energetic show and the people really seemed to go wild.
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Right after the show we were thrown into with another stressful situation. We had to cross the rocky mountains to get to salt lake city in the midst of a dangerous blizzard.
After an hour of driving 30mph through snow-covered and curved roads we realized we were not going to make to the show even if we were to drive all night. We decided to stay at a hostel and go south in the morning, making our way to L.A. After a nice breakfast and a heated argument with Wilbur, who was not so pleased about the idea of missing the show, we went outside and started setting up our instrument to played some music in a snow covered corn field.
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A truck driver by the name of Paul saw us walking through the snow with summer shoes and brought us three pairs of warm and snow proof boots and some hot chocolate. It is amazing how nice this guy was.
As we packed up to leave, a piece of the kick drum fell into the snow. Paul went to his truck got a shovel and insisted on looking for the lost hardware. After 25 minutes of diligent searching he found the piece. What a guy!
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Before we left, James thought it was a good idea to play a solo inspired by the beautiful field of snow.
We hit the road at noon and after a few hours of driving through the rocky mountains we stumbled upon a tiny deserted german restaurant.
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A roaring fire contained in a rusty kiln illuminated the wooden ceiling and melted the snow on our boots as we entered. We were the only guests in the entire place. The german couple that was running this place for the last 30 years served us some authentic german food and really made us feel as if we where in Germany. Wenzl was in heaven.
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After driving literally all night long we finally arrived at our destination, Arches national park(located in the middle of Utah). While driving through the park at 1am, we could all feel that there was some kind of incredible beauty surrounding us.
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There were gorgeous silhouettes of giant alien like sculptures dimly illuminated by a sky full of stars. The feeling this gave us was indescribable. We made a fire, drank a bit of whisky and got some very light sleep.
BANG BANG BANG. We were all jerked awake by a women violently tapping our window at 6:30am. "You didn't pay to come in last night! That will be twenty dollars!!" Without hesitation, Wilbur pulled a twenty out of his pocket and fed it to the banshee woman. She was pleased.
While leaving the park we took our time to digest all of the beauty surrounding us.
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There were incredible, giant red arches and rocks every direction the eye could see. We wanted to spend the day in this earthly paradise, but we had to get down the the grand canyon before the sun set. As we drove through the desolate land of Utah, James exclaimed, "I can totally see how people out here think they are getting abducted by aliens…this place is spooky!" After a few hours we decided some coffee was much needed after our night of little sleep. We stopped at a really cool coffee shop on the side of the road which was run by some local young people. The coffee was excellent and Wilbur made friends with a cool little dog named Ringo.
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As usual, we hung out for too long and were now strapped for time. We only had a few hours to get down the the Grand Canyon before the sun went down.
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After about six or seven hours we began seeing signs for Grand Canyon National Park. Our journey upwards now began. We drove on a corkscrew like road for about twenty eight miles before we reached the entrance to the park. There was no longer desert around us and all we could see was a beautiful forest of green pine. We were greeted by a very kind man that seemed to love his job. Our excitement grew stronger as we got closer to the view. We arrived in the parking lot as the sun began to set. Wilbur ran to see the view, leaving the others behind at the car. As he laid his eyes upon the spectacular sight his mind began to drip from his ears. His reaction can be seen here:
Wilbur was so blown away by the majesty of the canyon that he no longer wanted to play. He felt that making music in this place was disruptive to the other people enjoying the view and also to the serenity of the surroundings. Wenzl, eager to play because the sun was close to setting, went around to every single person present and asked if they would mind if we were to play some music. They all said they wouldn't mind. We set up and played two songs. This was an experience none of us will ever forget. The acoustics in the enormous canyon were incredible. It was as if the canyon ate our sound whole, sending barely any sound back for us to hear.
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The sun was now set and we were off to our next destination, Las Vegas. Having gotten no sleep since 6:30am, we were exhausted. We made the only rational decision, drive to Las Vegas, set up, and play for two hours on the street.
After a crazy night of playing for lost, drunken souls, we decided to drive to L.A. It was now 4:30am, almost 24 hours since we left Arches National Park. James decided he was perfectly fine to drive so he did just that, for another 5 hours to L.A.
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The rest of us slept while James drove, pounding coffee after coffee and practicing tabla syllables out loud. When returning to consciousness we were in L.A.
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and our driver was a coffee crazed madman named James who had turned into his alter ego, Dante Stokes(Golden Daddy). We were all completely tired and out of our minds when we arrived, so we decided to walk around Venice Beach. It began to rain and we took shelter in a nearby pub where we ordered four beers and four fish sandwiches. After this meal we could barely keep our eyes open so we went down the street to Edu's friend´s house Gabo to sleep a bit.
After a nice rest of two hours we were ready to play a show at the El Rey Theatre.
Before the show Wenzl and Wilbur meditated together to collect as much energy as they could.
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The show went quite well and the audience enjoyed the music. After the show we were everything but energized. This didn't stop Wilbur's excitement to get to the next city on our journey, San Francisco. After two hours of driving Wilbur decided it was unwise to continue on so he pulled into a comfort inn.
It was here where we finally got a full eight hours of sleep. We awoke semi-refreshed and ate a huge diner style breakfast. Our surroundings on the road were composed of beautiful rolling hills that appeared as if they were covered in light green velvet. After a beautiful 5 hour drive, we arrived in a rainy, grey San Francisco.
Now we are in The Independent getting ready to sound check and play the first of two shows here in the city.
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