BORN WIRED TOUR USA/CANADA 08

• Posted by QUICKBROWNFOX January 27, 2009 - 1,119 views
  QUICKBROWNFOX BORN WIRED TOUR USA/CANADA AUG 08 (Yes, it has taken me 5 months to finally finish this blogg. But we were starting new jobs, then xmass, new years, computer troubles, etc etc. See, there are excuses for lazyness. There was much more to this trip, like all the towns we went to and all the totally amazing wildlife encounters we had. This is just the rockstuff.) THE FLIGHT OUT 04/08/08 We flew out on North Western Airlines (NWA…ha ha) On the plane Elisa and I got split up due to the flight being over sold, so I got chatting to the guy next to me about music stuff. Oh, you’re in a band too, I say. What do you play? Guitar. Oh yeah, what’s the name of your band? “Er…(mudhoney)” Pardon? “MUDHONEY” That’s right everyone, say hi to my plane buddy for the next 10 hours… Mark Arm from Mudhoney! Mark tells me that they might not let us into Canada if they think we are gonna play gigs there and if they see our instruments or merch they will turn us away at the border, shit. Many questions (a few half pie porkies are spun as we don’t have performance visas) and a retina scan later and we are in the US of A. When we go to pick up our bargain hire car they tell us we have ordered the smallest one, uh oh. But when we go to the garage to drive off we are thinking, this cant be it? A brand new cherry red Impala with electric everything and a kick ass stereo. Luxury score! THE FUN HOUSE SEATTLE 06/08/08 After spending the day at the music museum and finding out just how famous Mark Arm is, we head to our gig at The Fun House. We get there nice and early so we have time to chat with Eric, a guy I made friends with via the GaragePunk Hideout on the internet.(a top bloke who runs his own record label/recording studio) He confirms what Mark sed about Canada, he gets hassles just crossing the border with an acoustic guitar! Too late now (although we still don’t know where we are playing in Vancouver yet) There was no kick drum turning up till 10pm so Nick from “Curious Mystery” (one of the bands we were playing with and totally rockin) went home to get me one, what a legend! One of the other bands was on tour as well and had lost all their drum sticks (they had 3 stand up drummers) so asked to use mine. They totally thrashed and trashed 3 brand new pairs and then tried to only return two sets. They offered to let us play with them in Olympia a couple of days later. The event manager said it was a good turn out for a Wednesday and we got paid. The sound guy said we could sleep at his studio next time we were in town. I asked him his recording rates, cheap as chips it turns out(espesh at that time, if you are converting from $ to £)We organize to do a recording with him in a few days. We had a great nite and met some awesome people, including an ozzie guy that had just smuggled some crack over from Canada on the bus (this will make sense later) THE CHARLESTON BREMMERTON 07/08/08 Bummer town (as it affectionately called by the locals) is a great little town a short ferry ride from Seattle. They have 4 tattoo shops just on one street. We drove straight to Shelly Story’s house. Shelly is, literally, a rocknroll gandma. The owner of the Fun House had given her our details so she could organise this gig for us. She was also letting us stay at her house, which contains the Hillbilly Punk Shop. She met us at the gate after locking up her adorable pitbulls and then proceeded to dress us in some fancy duds from her shop before plying us with booze. The drummer from her band “Sluts Of Steel” gave us a lift to the gig in her pick up truck. We arrived slightly late as we had been talking shit and drinking, the staff at the Charleston didn’t even know if we were gonna turn up and the first band had already started. This gig was fuckin awesome! The venue is half all ages, half licenced venue (you must be 21 in Washington state to drink) and is in an old movie theatre. The stage was huge and the sound was great. The hordes local young punk rockers really dug us and did this crazy dance were they go around and around in a circle parading past the front of the stage, mugging for the bands. We named this dance the bummer town strut. (methinks there is a song title in there somewhere?) After the show we were swamped with people giving us money for our free cds and getting us to sign their shirts and pose for photos, very strange to be treated like real rock stars. One of the bands cancelled but the other two were… REBEL SKUM and MILITIAS MISCHEIF. We ended up at some friendly locals house drinking beer till all hours before crashing out at Hillbilly Punk Shop. This was probably the best show of the whole tour but the only one we didn’t get paid for. Next morning Shelly took us out for a free breakfast! Granny Moonshine you rock! She is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Olympia is on the way to Portland, Oregon state. This is a very hip town, famous for Kurt Cobain having spent some time there. It is also the town where the stick stealing tour band offered to let us jump on their gig. After a million attempts to reach the guy on the phone (no luck) and getting to town and not seeing any posters up, not even at the venue and no locals knowing anything about it, we decide to flag it and drive on. We were almost in Portland when I realised I had left my bag, with all my money in it, at a Mexican restaurant! We sped all the way back and luckily someone had put it in the staff coat cupboard, whew. We went kayaking down the river and came within 30 ft of a bald eagles nest, awesome! THE TWILIGHT BAR AND CAFÉ PORTLAND 09/08/08 We arrived at the bar early,a totally groovy 1950’s diner, and were told not to come back until after nine. We went and booked into the cheapest, shittyist motel, everything you might imagine when you think about being on the road in America. After sitting around twiddling our thumbs and generally being bored shitless we finally hopped a cab back to the venue, only to find out we had missed the first band. The organisers didn’t even know if we were gonna turn up, just like Bummertown. (I’d just like to say that I always thought touring bands who turned up at the last minute were kinda anti-social but now I realise it is probably not their fault most of the time.) This nite was put on by “Pop Tomorrow” and as the name suggests it was a nite of pop/rock. Elisa’s microphone kept giving her electric shocks and the amp she was borrowing was more like a stereo speaker. The owner of the venue really liked us and gave us free booze all nite, inc huge glasses of straight spirits (they didn’t understand the concept of mixers) This whole show was recorded and broadcast on the internet inc an brief interview with yours truly. (poptomorrow.com) We had a great nite smoking inside (still legal in Oregon state at the time) The place was packed out and we got paid too. After some fun in America’s awesome wilderness, it was back to Seattle for a recording session at MOTHER OF BEAT STUDIOS. We had a great time recording, drinking and enjoying some of Seattle’s best homegrown. Nick from MOB is an awesome guy and we met tons of other great people there inc a guy also recording while touring USA. This studio is situated inside a warehouse where the guys also live. It has 40ft curved ceilings, floating rubber floor etc etc, great collection of mics, 200 guitars to choose from + over 40 amps. Nick set everything up before we got there and gave us a super sweet deal on the price as well as some couch space to crash on. Legend. Rang our contact in Canada to find out where we were playing, he couldn’t seem to remember just who we were. Shit. Next day we dropped off the hire car and got the bus to Vancouver Canada. Feeling a bit stressed about the boarder crossing with all our gear. We got Stopped at customs because we had fruit in our bags, whoops. The man at passport control sez to me… “Have a nice stay Mr Mean” We’re in, sweet! Arrive in downtown Vancouver (locals call it Vansterdamm for obvious reasons) and arrange to meet Elisa’s friend from New Zealand, NP STYLES. It was his idea for us to play in Canada and it’s his friend who is “organising” our gigs here. The whole reason we played in USA was because it was cheaper to fly into America than Canada. Downtown Vancouver is where they film all the Hollywood ghetto scenes. It is chocka with crackheads and junkies. Dirty, foul and seedy. We go over to the house where NP’s new band lives, KILL MATILDA, and listen to them jamming out while we drink on the porch. Then we go to a gig put on by the guy who is supposed to be hooking us up. He doesn’t wanna talk to us, hell, he bearly even looks at us. He has got us one gig. In all fairness to him, he had recently found out, the venue he put most of his shows on at had decided not to have any more live music. In all fairness to us, he was a jerkoff. We start looking for our own shows and manage to jump on the bill at a local punk rock pub… Spent a day hanging out at an outdoor festival for homeless people. KILL MATILDA were there playing their first gig with NP on drums. The organisers say we can play a set but things are running drastically behind so it doesn’t happen. THE KOBALT VANCOUVER CANADA 14/08/08 The people who are putting on an experimental music nite at this ruff as fuck but quite famous punk rock club kindly let us play on the bill. It is all free noise jazzwankery and geeklaptoppery. We jump up at the end of the nite for a very short set. As Elisa commented later, usually we are the trashiest thing of the nite but this time it felt like we were in the sugar babes or something, pure pop after screeching cellos. We went down a storm! Met some lovely folk, got wasted. THE ASTORIA VANCOUVER CANADA 15/08/08 That day we find out we are the only band playing at this rocknroll DJ nite And There is no gear supplied. Lucky for us KILL MATILDA lend us an amp and drum kit, which we bundle into a taxi. (We made sure they got in for free and gave um loadsa beer) The PA was a total piece of shit but we rocked out fox style and had the dance floor heaving with sweaty canadians. A great nite out and KILL MATILDA’S sober friend took all the gear home for us in his car. Got paid handsomely too. Back to Seattle on 17th, fly home to London Town 18th. Look for jobs. Would we do it again? Hell yeah, got heaps of choice contacts now, I never wanted to leave USA, who’da thunk, shame British economy’s fucked now as this would make it sooo much more expensive. Don’t forget to remember to check us out live. See it. Believe it. Much Love Brick Mean QUICKBROWNFOX XXX. CHECK OUT… www.myspace.com/ thecuriousmystery thecharlestonmusicvenue qwong twilightbarandcafe killmatilda thefunhouseseattle slutsofsteel mobstudios hillbillypunkshop.com poptomorrow.com bookyourownfuckinglife.com