Woke up in a cramped apartment in SLO and grabbed a shower. Despite the difficulties sleeping the night before, I didn't feel too terrible. Next up was laundry and Misty was nice enough to allow us to use her facilities and some detergent. We also packed up the van with Nathan, as he was traveling with us to Oakland. He was a one-man show for the gig, with a keyboard amp, two keyboards and guitars, a pedalboard and a mixer. And a music stand. But we have a big van so in everything went.
We got a late enough start and had to wait for laundry to dry, so we headed back into SLO for what amounted to brunch at a Cajun café. I got an omelet and the other dudes got some skillet that looked incredible. I wanted a less unique breakfast, but I enjoyed what I got.
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| Said skillet thing. |
After the food, we headed back to the apartment and Miles and I speed-folded our clothes. We dropped Nathan's car off at his place, then it was north to Oakland. The drive was about 3 hours or so and I napped a bit. I finally also busted out my earbuds. I've been not using them because I wanted to be present for convos, but at this point, I've heard most everything. But mainly, I'm getting tired of the same 4-5 CDs in the rotation (Neil Young, Tom Petty, the Who, the Beach Boys, David Alan Coe, and more Neil Young).
Listening to my podcasts was a nice touch. Of all things, I'm listening to KJ All Day, which is KJ Wright's podcast about football and his Seahawks days. It's really insightful and entertaining to hear his stories. They're not just about reliving his glory days, but about how he came up, who mentored him, how he's helping others, etc. It's cool to hear a human side to a football player, the fact that he's great on the podcast is a bonus.
I also have in my rotation the Smartless podcast, but the one I love the most is Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend. I started listening to that shortly after it started and can confidently say I've heard them all. And I'm not necessarily a huge Conan fan. I enjoy his humor, but sometimes it can be a little too "try too hard." That said, I do love his sidekicks/friends, Sona and Matt. I really enjoy their rapport and interactions.
CONAF does have Harrison Ford as his latest guest and I'm saving that for the ride back home, as that's gonna be our longest drive. I'm assuming there are no spoilers for the new Indiana Jones movie, as I haven't seen that yet and it will be my priority when I get home. It will be awesome to hear him on that podcast, so I'm looking forward to that.
We arrived in Oakland and it was highly reminiscent of a less grungy Pioneer Square. Some of it also reminded me of the Mission District from SF, only with less people and sidewalk poop. Me, Peter and Nathan walked around and checked some things out before we headed back to load into the club.
As with the Milk Bar and Make Out Room, the Golden Bull (apparently owned by Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day) is another shotgun style club, with a long room with a bar on the left and a stage at the end. One difference this place had was a staircase at the back of the stage that led to a nice little green room for the bands. That was a nice touch.
After we loaded in, I hung out up there and tried to get a few Zs in as Nathan was setting up and sound checking. Apparently he did the trick as I did fall asleep and as he was performing, I was trapped upstairs. I didn't want to distract by going down during his show, so I caught up on some computer stuff upstairs and chilled.
From what I could hear, Nathan had some cool backing tracks that he created with looping pedals and the like, and he played guitar and sang over the top of them. Very cool vibe and very melodic and hip. I could hear an appreciative crowd and when I went down to get set for our set, saw about 10-15 people in there.
I used my pedal that night, mainly for the tuner aspect of things. Sort of a security blanket, but better to have than not. I'm happy to say that I got through the first two songs with no bad notes, a first for this tour. In fact, I don't think I had many bad spots, getting through the entire set with a good performance. I got a bit bouncy and demonstrative on our last song, "So Many Miles," and then we finished. Some nice words from another bassist in the crowd, mainly about my singing. I do some backing vocals on a few songs. The parts are fairly simple note and rhythm-wise, but lyrically, I'm stumbling over some of Peter's words.
The last band was the Canterbury Bells, a four piece of dudes that looked like they stepped straight out of a Warped Tour pre-show opening act. The music was chill and they sang well, but it seemed like they were college freshmen (they were not) playing their first show. Decent players, great harmonies, songs need some seasoning.
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| The Canterbury Bells |
After the show, we packed out, grabbed a pizza next door, then headed to Peter's old college roommate's place in Benicia. I hoped it was a house, but it was an apartment, but larger than the one in SLO. That said, we still all packed into the living room, where I tried sacking out early, but had to listen to my mates laughing and talking until about 2am. More snoring and shuffling about, but eventually, sleep came, and that was that.
Quick notes:
- DT Oakland seemed nice enough but people kept telling me it was not a great spot. What I saw seemed pretty cool. Fairly vibrant, but not a lot of people on a Wednesday night.
- Miles and I got dinner at a place called Oakland Street Food and got to watch some Mariners baseball as they were in SF playing the Giants. Sadly, the M's lost 2-0.
- Stopped at a gas station for a quick break. Inside were a couple of circulars with bumper stickers. Mixed in with all the aggressively conservative stickers was one that said something like, "Be Nice" or "Spread Joy" or something ironic like that.
Which one of these stickers doesn't belong? - I did not know Oakland was home to both Bandcamp and Pandora; I saw offices for both when driving around.
- Oh! The bassist for the Canterbury Bells had a semi-relic'ed Squier P-Bass that sounded gnarly. Overdrive and a little grungy, reminded me of the bass tone on the "Mrs. Robinson" cover that the Lemonheads did in the late 90's. The sound guy told me that the bassist plugged into a Moog synth on stage that he had brought. After the show, I asked him about it and he said he basically used the Moog as a filter/preamp and sent the signal to FOH for amplification. Sounded really cool.
