Butch's Tour Diary

Olympia, WA @ The Finger Complex

2009-08-11T04:25:00.000-07:00

It is over.

Idaho!

2009-08-10T09:25:00.001-07:00

August 8th. Boise, ID @ The Baby Sale. Shelby has said again and again that the crowd in Boise was a great crowd. I agree: they were remarkable. Usually, the drunken (slash stoned) party crowd is not an attentive crowd. These folks were. And yet in between songs they chatted, laughed, hollered, and returned Shelby's banter. They were generous with donations, too. After the show, we attempted to get some shut-eye outside on a trampoline . . . but the night was cold, and one by one we took our blankets into the house to sleep on the couches and floor.

August 9th. Moscow, ID @ Ian's house. Before the show, Shelby made terrible pasta. He used gluten-free noodles which cooked to the firmness of a pencil eraser and to the texture, when chewed, of wet cement. The noodles failed to cook evenly, which meant some remained entirely dry and hardened and had to be spit out like pits every other bite. The sauce was a meatless red sauce, heated well, consisting of tomato paste, onion, and diced broccoli. This, I'll confess, didn't taste awful; only Shelby kept adding ginger ale to the mix, claiming adamantly that the best pasta sauces were always carbonated. On the side, some Tofurkey dogs were available for mixing into the pasta. But they were dumpstered and full of maggots. The dish also could've used more salt.

Salt Lake City, UT @ The Wood Shed

2009-08-09T09:10:00.000-07:00

No one attended this show. When we arrived at the venue, the place was empty. The door was shut and the lights were out. We had to break in through a front window and open the door from the inside to load in our equipment. We plugged in the amps, only to find the power had been shut off. Luckily, there was a Rite Aid next door, and an outdoor outlet on the side of the building in an inconspicuous place. We bought a very lengthy power cord, strung it into the venue through the broken window, and plugged in. Still no one had showed up for the performance. We sound-checked for about 15 minutes, taking our time, getting all the levels right. Finally, one person, a passerby with time to kill, wandered in through the open doorway and sat down at the bar. He tried for a while to get the attention of a nonexistent bartender, then set to work mixing his own GT. He drank, and we played. He left during "Caddy," the third song of our set. We stopped playing mid-song and put our gear back in the station wagon. Shelby bought some plastic wrap at the Rite Aid and patched up the broken window, then we headed toward Boise.

Denver, CO @ The R&R House

2009-08-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

We've been getting bored of playing the same old songs. I remember, when I wasn't in Sundance Kids, that hearing a Sundance Kids song was always a treat. No matter how often Shelby played music at my house, the songs were exciting to hear. But now, as a member of the band, I find that the songs are wearing themselves thin. Shelby and Erin feel the same way. That's why, in Denver, Colorado, we tried something different. We completely changed our sound, and we didn't use some clever alternate name to present our experimentation as a joke. No. The Sundance Kids have found a new musical direction.

Shelby now plays didgeridoo. Granted, it's not a real didgeridoo; it's just a Christmas wrapping tube, but it still works. He mics his didgeridoo and sends it through a loop effect pedal, to create a very weighty ambient sound. I play Gameboy on stage. This instrument choice was hotly debated within the band, but I fought for it. The deciding factor was this: the game Samurai Showdown includes a sound effects test menu, so that any of two hundred fight SFX can be chosen and played at will. They sound good. I run a chord from the Gameboy headphone jack through a wah-wah pedal and into Erin's bass amp. Erin sings and plays drums, as usual, but she plays much more aggressive beats and sings much more than usual. I don't always like her singing voice, because she screams a la Yoko Ono or Yamantaka Eye -- I prefer a more controlled singing voice -- but I cannot deny that her screaming fits the tone of the music with its oppressive, layered didgeridoo and wailing punching and grunting sounds.

The R & R House in Denver was the first crowd to experience this new incarnation of the Sundance Kids. They loved us. I'm excited to play Olympia. I think our old fans will love our new sound.

July 31st thru August 5th

2009-08-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

July 31st. Carbondale, IL @ The Skihouse. A tribe of Larry Bird-worshipping druids played this show. They performed a ceremony to channel the spirit of Larry Bird into one of their bodies. After a tribal dance and birdcall, Larry appeared in the flesh. He received the bass guitar and, communicating telepathically with Sundance Kids, told them which songs to play. They rocked and rolled, and the crowd (all Bird fanatics) cheered zealously. When the show had ended, a short cleansing ceremony was conducted and the spirit of Bird evacuated its interim host body. Nearby, in a small town in Indiana, basketball legend Larry Bird mysteriously lost conciousness for the duration of about thirty minutes. Upon reviving, he said, "I had the strangest dream..."

August 1st. Chicago, IL @ Platform 9 3/4. "Best show yet from the Sundance Kids. The bassist looked surly." (E. Adria Popp)

August 2nd. Madison, WI @ Nottingham Coop. Nottingham is a very big house with many rooms and a large kitchen with a 10-burner range and industrial-size refrigerators and there are many sofas and cushioned chairs in ballroom at Nottingham as well as two pianos, one prepared, and out back beyond the fire pit that does not meet fire code recommendations and the picnic tables sits the lake, which Nottingham residents say is too dirty to swim in, but on the third floor in the third floor bathroom there is a hot tub (soapy, at times, when being cleaned) in which a person might immerse him or herself in water.

August 3rd. Northfield, MN @ The Key. You cannot poop in The Key's toilet room. Bring a bucket with a lid.

August 4th. Ames, IA @ Ames Progressive. We played fantastically. Not only did we hit every note right, but we added notes that were more right than the ones we'd been playing, and we subtracted notes that were less right than the average note. Erin (who does not work so much with notes as with percussive sounds) kept perfect rhythm, by which I do not mean metronomic but confident, steady, and (perhaps even) soulful. Our amplifiers operated without being plugged into electrical outlets and our guitars grew half as many strings as they already had. (Shelby now plays 9-string guitar; I play 6-string bass.) Erin's bass drum grew in circumfrence, and the hollow of her floor tom became a tunnel through which one can enter a heavenly realm of pure sound -- pure sound being the truest means of expression for every animate soul.

August 5th. Lincoln, NE (no show).

The Past Week

2009-07-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

July 24th. Boston, MA @ The White Haus. Before we did anything in Boston, we got lost, trapped in our car. We circled and zig-zagged the many one way streets of downtown Boston searching for Massachusetts Drive. We'd passed it, of course, but had been in the wrong lane and gone underground, through a tunnel, for that one intersection, that most important one. We spent 30 minutes frustrated and driving through Boston's zany traffic. A street beggar gave us a hot tip to "go until you have to turn right, then turn right again when you want to," but his directions did not pan out for us.

July 25th. Boston, MA @ All Asia. We played first of seven bands. The money earned from the bar's cover charge was distributed based on each band's draw. One person showed up during our set: we made eight dollars.

July 26th. Philadelphia, PA @ The Mitten. We played an arcade machine of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker at a comic book store in Olde City. Dave End and Nick at The Mitten made us delicious vegan burritos. We ate sorbet and I smoked mullein. It rained. During yet another painful rendition of "Beuys Don't Cry,"I left the room and played my bass from an adjacent hallway. I just can't stand to see Shelby get all worked up.

July 27th. Danbury, CT @ The Heirloom Arts Theatre.We played with iji, Watercolor Paintings, Math the Band, and Total Dick. The venue was packed thanks to the local favorites, Total Dick. Unfortunately, all the fans of Total Dick are (apparently) meek accountants and notary publics. They did not seem especially predisposed to enjoy our music. Many of them unlatched briefcases and laptops and did office work during our set. However, oddly enough, everyone set their work aside and paid close attention during our performace of "Need 4 Nite-russ."

July 28th. Ypsilanti, MI @ The Dreamland Theater.
Near mile marker 146 on interstate 80, somewhere in Ohio, there is a rest stop. Inside that rest stop, there is a Nescafé vending machine that dispenses hot beverages. This vending machine offers, among other options, a Cappuccino of the flavor Butterfinger Frothe. Try it. (Below is a photo of Bimbo, Betty Boop's good friend.)

July 29th. Ypsilanti, MI (no show). We took a pleasant and short trip to the neighboring town, Ann Arbor. On the road, we noticed that the right rear tire of our overloaded station wagon was clunking loudly and rhythmically as we drove. We decided to ask a mechanic to check the problem out. He told us (and this is my clumsy, second-hand paraphrasing) that the wheel drum was bent and damaging the hub and the ball bearings, and that the cylinders were leaking and also damaging the ball bearings. We paid $525 for repairs. At a nearby Salvation Army, I paid $1 for Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, St. Alphonsus De Liguroi's Preparation for Death, and Anthony Burgess's The Pianoplayers. A great deal.

July 30th. Bloomington, IN @ The Schoolhouse. If you're in Bloomington, stop into TDs CDs and LPs, especially if you're in a touring band. They have a mighty selection of dollar-priced CDs, cassettes, and vinyl. Quick estimate: around 750 titles. The price for these titles is dropped to zero for touring bands.

Brooklyn, NY

2009-07-23T15:00:00.001-07:00

No show tonight.

What's Been Happening

2009-07-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

July 17th. Athens, GA @ Spillage House. After our set, I went to Subway and bought a five dollar Spicy Italian sandwich. I ate the sandwich across from a Dunkin Donuts. It tasted really good and left me thirsty. Once the show was over, we wandered around downtown Athens, past crowds of bar-goers and to The Grill. I drank lots of water there.

July 18th. Athens, GA @ Secret Squirrel. We brought Mountain Dew and Strawberry Milkshake Whoppers to the show. The whoppers were delicious. During our set, someone threw a beach ball at my head numerous times . . . perhaps in fun, but perhaps in malice. I grimaced each time upon being hit. We played in front of a projection screen showing footage from Woodstock '94. Right before our set, I pooped at a Huddle House.

July 19th. Nashville, TN @ Little Hamilton. We played with three hardcore bands. I wore earplugs during their sets, even while I was standing outside the venue. They were very loud. Kids moshed. Some musicians in the other bands got blood on their shirts and fingers and noses. Our songs went over surprisingly well. We stayed with a nice fella named Sean Conley and left the following afternoon.

July 20th. Asheville, NC. No show, but we stayed with our hospitable friends from the band Br'er.

July 21st. Greenville, NC @ Spazz Haus. Lots of drinking and lurid stories from locals about life in Greenville. The folks at the venue have been trying to keep it alive for some time, and it's gone through several incarnations that did not survive (for various reasons). We played with the synth-pop crooner Brandon Miles and others. About 40 people showed up to the event, although no more than a dozen came inside to watch our set. We made $42 in donations, good money, plus a cigarette.

July 22nd. Washington D.C. @ Juliana's House. Before the show, we toured around the city a little. I played Marble Madness on an arcade machine and stood awestruck before massive dinosaur bones in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I didn't reenact scenes from Mr. Smith Goes To Washington at the Lincoln Memorial.

New Orleans, LA @ The Artist Mansion

2009-07-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

The Artist Mansion has a tremendous tree house in its backyard. You begin up the tree house by climbing about eight green stairs, which have no railings. You proceed, then, across a ten-foot platform inclined very slightly upwards. Now you have reached the large trunk of the tree. A small winding stair corridor, enclosed in wavy sheets of plastic, takes you up another few feet. At the top of this corridor, a few lone stairs are attached around the trunk. They lead you to the first platform, a rough octagon about twelve feet in diameter, decorated with a large ceramic Buddha. Green and purple spotlights shine down on him from tangled tree branches hanging overhead. From this platform, another winding staircase (this one prefab and metal), its railing wrapped in twine, takes you to the second platform. More purple and green and blue lights decorate the area. A few precarious steps, from branch to branch, would you lead you off the platform and onto a large, traversable net strung from the tree across the yard to a small slide, which ends abruptly about seven feet off the ground. Or, you can continue up the tree by one of two routes: 1. climb up another roughly constructed staircase, or 2. enter a small enclosure near the trunk and lift yourself up through a hole in its ceiling. Now you are on the third and final platform. From up here, you can see down to the people scaling the net below, or even further down to the makeshift pool dug into the ground and covered in plastic.

Houston, TX @ Super Happy Fun Land

2009-07-16T10:10:00.001-07:00

Austin, TX @ The Moose Lodge

2009-07-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Santa Fe, NM @ The Danger Zone

2009-07-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

Our show in Santa Fe was a disaster. We played in a large loft space in a dilapidated warehouse. The building was constructed of tin stapled to a wood skeleton. The tin was peeling away and the wood was splintering. The stage (and audience space) was flimsy, and it shook slightly at every step. I would not recommend this venue.

Nonetheless, the crowd was energetic and ready to rock 'n' roll. Usually, we select what songs to play for a given show based on the attitude of the crowd. In Santa Fe, we chose low-energy songs despite the crowd, because we were afraid that any dancing or joyful movement would collapse the floor and everyone in attendance would fall from the loft to the floor below.

One of the show's attendees told a story about "reconstructing the venue after really great shows." Apparently, minor structural damage and non-fatal injuries are not uncommon at this venue. It was originally transformed into a musical space in 1987. Before that time, it had been a healthy and safe building, used primarily for storage of small electronics and office supplies. Since losing that function, the venue has fallen into increasingly dangerous states of disrepair. In 1994, it was temporarily condemned, then officially re-opened (or so our amateur venue historian claimed) the following year after a small bribe found its way into the right hands.

We played acoustic, and our set went without difficulty or accident. But the headliners, The Destructive Forces, didn't use so much caution. Their clank-and-pound percussion and weighty black amps literally brought the house down. Audience and performers alike were forced to flee the venue amidst falling rubble and squealing, distorted feedback from crashing speakers and instruments.

Tucson, AZ @ The HangArt

2009-07-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Phoenix, AZ @ The Trunk Space

2009-07-12T12:00:00.001-07:00

The Arizona sun is orange. Lawns are dry dirt, orange and sandy. Prickly, lumpy green cacti grow up along the streets. Scraggly bushes grow at their bases. The sunlight heats everything uncovered by shade. It fries the musical equipment in the trunk of our car. The finish on our bass drum has begun to warp. The guitars are melting. They go limp, and before the show we have to set them in the shade and fan them, waiting for them to stiffen and become playable. Of course, the strings require considerable re-tuning.

Los Angeles, CA @ Jaunita's

2009-07-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

We hit Venice beach looking for freaks and were disappointed. We saw a few small ugly pug-nosed dogs and a lot of shaved female legs, but few true freaks. (Even the World's Greatest Wine-O, who wore a sign proclaiming his title and sang, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, help get me drunk today," he seemed like a reasonable fella.) Eventually we ended up at Juanita's, the night's venue. After getting some dollar tacos down the street, and our free pitcher of beer, we played. Unbeknownst to us, a man was sitting patiently in the back of the restaurant, alone, wearing an acoustic guitar and a harmonica, smiling. We played, Margy Pepper played, and Blanket played. As Blanket loaded their equipment, we sat on the edge of the stage and finished our drinks. The man with the acoustic guitar approached us, introduced himself. A few minutes later, he took the stage. His name was Jetson. He wore jeans. The end of his belt hung off his waist. He wore modest glasses and smiled happily. The customers in the restaurant were drunk, but Jetson wowed them with a practiced set of originals and covers, including the occasional guitar solo (and with no backing band, these were indeed solos, ballsy solos). Halfway through Jetson's set, he won himself a free beer by covering "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay." I didn't stay to the end of his set.

Agoura Hills, CA @ Record Outlet

2009-07-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

We played with Foxygen and others.

Santa Barbara, CA @ The Biko

2009-07-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Santa Cruz, CA @ The Church

2009-07-08T08:25:00.000-07:00

San Francisco, CA @ The Pink House

2009-07-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

In San Francisco, I successfully navigated my way from Daly City to 24th & Mission (and back) on the BART. The underground waiting areas were ghostly, mostly quiet save the occasional rumbling of an oncoming train, then the shrieking as the train came to a stop. Both train cars I rode were not very occupied: only about eight/twelve people for sixty or so seats. The seats and carpets are rather clean, at a condition somewhere between medical clinic waiting room and well-lit roadside diner. Few of the passengers spoke. As the car reached full speed, it roared at a low, ambient volume, punctuated by dull clanking. At times, the train ran above ground, but more often it ran underground. Out the many windows, all that could be seen was black -- not a gray blur of motion, but a depthless black. The voice over the P.A. was, surprisingly, not automated. The driver of the train spoke: "The end of the line for this train is Daly City. If you are going to Millbrae, exit now for an easy transfer. The transfer is not so easy in Daly City."

Sacramento, CA @ The Hub

2009-07-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

Seattle, WA @ Dancelvania

2009-07-05T00:55:00.000-07:00

You slide back a wooden door and walk inside, through a corridor mirrored on the left and curtained on the right. Beside you, a counter top extends far enough to sleep three grown men, lengthwise, comfortably. You approach a floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the corridor, turn right. Here is the toilet, hidden snugly in a little nook. You sit, shit, raise the window blind and see through the glass an exquisitely graffiti'd brick wall. It shows a space scene of the Jetsons rocketshipping against a backdrop of distant stars. A book sits on the toilet tank, titled Reasons To Live. You flush, go to wash your hands and look in the mirror. If you wanted, you could spin, both arms fully extended, in a gesture of idyllic joy. You are in the bathroom at Dancelvania.

Olympia, WA @ The Finger Complex

2009-07-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

The crowd ate burgers, ice cream, salads (potato, pasta, and green), and corn on the cob. The music began at 3:30 P.M. We played last, in The Finger Complex, which is my house. Our set followed a bit of nob-twisting and button-pushing on fourtrack (gone slightly askew) by Evan Hashi. (He still sounded good.) Then, as usual, Shelby warmed the crowd up with a bit of conversation. I'm not sure if this was the beginning of our set or just a bit of amplified chatting.

We hadn't written a set list, so after two or three songs, we asked for requests. The first request was for a song I've never heard Sundance Kids play. (Both Shelby and Erin, though, know it.) The second request was for "Aladdin," – the song we'd given up on the night before. But tonight it went off flawlessly; that is: messily, loudly, and not at all badly.

Throughout the evening, I printed CD slipcases and some friends scissored and folded them up and pasted them together. Our merch case is filled with cassetes, CDs, and t-shirts. (No buttons this tour.) Tomorrow, we play Seattle with our pals iji. So far so good.

Olympia, WA @ Shelby & Erin's Basement

2009-07-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight we practiced from 5:30 to 8:15 P.M., our first practice as a trio in two weeks. Erin & Shelby are moving out of their house, so our practice space was awkwardly disarranged and a bedspring standing up on edge crowded us together in the room. We began by attempting to learn a new song, "Caddy." It's a rocker, as many of the new songs are, with an up-and-down vocal hook and a poppy, melodic outro on the guitar.

Later on, we attempted to play "I Party With Aladdin, But I Get Down With Jafar." (Maybe that's not the correct title. Check out the new EP; surely it's got it right.) Didn't go well. After a switching of instruments, some stifled strife, and a bathroom break, we gave up. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow.

Lastly, we ran through a handful of old favorites – "Beuys Don't Cry," "Pink Triangle III," "Step Stumbler," etc. I shoved some toilet paper in my ears and played at times from the adjoining room. We've become that much of a rock band. When we'd finished, we ate Tillamook bubble gum ice cream and disbanded till morning.