WILL

The drive from Olympia to Seattle is only about an hour. We listened to Glenn Branca on the way. Lesson No. 1. It’s really good from what I could hear. Went to the QFC on Capitol Hill and I picked up some photos that I dropped off earlier. A really good roll! I failed to get another disposable camera so there are no photos after LA or before Seattle. Oh well. You can only take so many pictures of the dudes sleeping in the back seat. Also dropped off a 7” in the mail. 

Got back to the van and we headed over to the University of Washington to play a radio thing at 5. It was a great way to warm up and we had fun with the interview... I always ham it up when I’m in situations like that, I can’t help it! I’ll try to find a podcast of it. Here it is.

Afterwards we basically went to the Black Lodge to start setting up for the show. The good vibe started almost immediately. The place was packed out and every single one of my favorite people came to the show. Even some homies from Vancouver made the drive down to surprise us!

M Women played first and were really good. I like them more every time I see them and I got another copy of their 7” to give to Melanie. We also traded t-shirts. Our new t-shirt is selling very slowly... I don’t get it. I thought it was cool. Whatever.

This time I was determined to keep my spirits high for the set and not let anything get in my head. I wanted to shred. We did I think. Made some fairly big changes to the setlist and it did wonders... we were getting stagnant with the same order of everything every night and this helped a lot. I had a huge grin on my face for the whole night.

Our new song is sounding really good. It’s called “Ben’s Tour”.

Naomi played after us. This time we BARELY survived, but only because they had some technical issues. We even lent them a bass drum. But seriously. They are the best band.

Spent some time with my dear friends Luci and Josh, who are moving back to Australia after their semester in Vancouver. I’ll miss them a lot.

Drove home to sweet Vancouver and got home at about 4:30. Paul drove back with Anna & Vance, and I guess they witnessed a pretty intense accident right in front of them. Glad they’re OK. Vance also got a speeding ticket. What a day.

I’m at work again today but we’re playing at 360 Glen tonight and we’ve never really done a warehouse show. Not in a long time anyway. I guess we’re going to have a little barbecue tonight as a pregame activity - the Hausu dudes are en route to Vancouver right now! Dang.

WILL

I'm writing from Vancouver now. I'll try to remember the last two days.

Olympia was cool. We all love that city a lot, I think, but I can say that I'm fairly intimidated by it. It's pretty cool. I went to the post office and to run some errands in town with Bobby and Hugo. It was really cool to walk around and ask for directions. People weren't that nice but still.

Went to Quality Burrito and I had some guacamole. Not really feeling that place any more to be honest. I have a fond memory of going to that diner across the street but I guess they had another fire or something. Kevin picked us up, then they went to get a coat from the thrift store and I waited in the car and read a little bit. They went to the guitar store too cos Kev broke a string during our first song in Davis.

Went back to Neil and Nick's house and sat in the kitchen with everyone and talked shit for a while. Travis played me the new Naomi Punk song on his iPod, it's excellent. Nick showed us a drawing he did called "The Void". Oh yeah - four of us tried to take a nap in their roommate Jaden's bed, which is the most massive and comfortable bed I've ever experienced. We could have slept the entire band plus friends in that thing with room to spare. Apparently when I jumped headfirst into it Bobby couldn't even feel anything on his side of the bed. Only thing is that Neil had told us that Jaden wasn't coming home that night, but he did, in the middle of the band nap. Fortunately I avoided that awkward situation because I was too excited to sleep - I was in the shower when he came in. Sounds like Bobby might have cursed him out in his slumber...

Anyway we went to the house where we were playing in West Bay around 8 to start thinking about setting up and stuff. I think there was a mix-up because the people living there seemed to have no idea there was a show happening that night. But they let us do it anyway. I was a little worried that no one was going to show up but they did around 9:30 or so.

Naomi Punk played first. Best I have ever seen them. They played some songs from their new record and they absolutely murdered all of us. Never a good idea to play after your favorite band!!! I felt really weird during and after our set because NP literally just fucked with my head for 30 minutes... haha

Dana Jewell was great too. I heard Dana talking about one of the guys in his band who spends his days at the library and two bars in Olympia and that's the only way they can get ahold of him to have band practice. Pretty funny. There were some members of Pleasure Beauties and The Family Stoned in his band so I did recognize some faces there.

After we played I sat in the van by myself for a few minutes and I guess Paul had the same idea cos he came out and sat in there too for a while and we talked about touring and playing shows with really good bands.

Went back to the house and I fell asleep first like usual. Woke up before anyone else and decided to go for a run in Olympia. Ran all through downtown and up to the capitol building and everywhere else I felt like, probably went for about five or six miles. Felt really good and my outlook was better - found myself feeling pretty bummed after our show for some reason. Got back to the house and showered - Paul was the only one who was awake. I ate the rest of my baguette and brie - with my own plasticware I might add - Glad I had that in the van!

Eventually we decided we had dicked around long enough and that we should go to Seattle. Oh yeah - I forgot to say their other roommate was gone to Seattle for the night so we slept in his room. Anyway there were some acoustic guitars in there and Paul and I woke everyone up with some camp songs. I guess Neil and his girlfriend heard us too cos they were waking up too.

Went to get some coffee and then we got the rock outta there. I'll write about Seattle later!