Sacramento
Ring (buzz) Ring (buzz).
I look at the clock. It’s 6 AM.
“Dude, you better not already be downstairs,” I sleepily mumble.
“Not even close,” says Mike.
So, here’s the deal: Mike was supposed to get to my place around 6:30 AM; head over to UHaul at 7 AM to pickup the trailer; head over to the studio to pick up the gear and be on the road and driving by 8:30 AM. All this because we had to be in Sacto by 6 and we were expecting rain.
What we didn’t expect was snow. Mike hit snow flurries (he’s from Victorville) coming out of the 15. Police were escorting the drivers down and he was going maybe 5 mph. He was hitting patches of ice along the way (hence the escort).
Fast forward to 9 AM. A wee bit behind, we did all the above and by 11:30 we were finally on the road. The good news is the drive up was easy with no rain, no cops (stay tuned), no real hazard or slowdown of any kind.
Picked up Flanders at his hotel in Sacramento (he flew up earlier on business), and we were at the club just a little after 6.
Club Retro is an All Ages club located just outside Sacramento in a suburb called Orangevale. It’s run by a church, so it’s no alcohol, no swearing, that sort of thing. This is actually the 2nd of these clubs in the area that we’ve played, and frankly I wish there were more. The people are very cool, pretty relaxed (especially compared to most normal bars) and, surprisingly, the sound and stage sizes are usually above average. The room was pretty squarishly big too, so plenty of space to build a draw on.
We played with our friends Red Collar, and the bands Go For Broke and Rona. Go For Broke was a fun young band of kids from the area and just all around good guys. Definitely some talent in that band; they just need some time under their belt, and they’ll just get better and better. Rona was a very tight trio (not sure where they were from) and played a great version of an ol’ Nirvana tune (Breed, if you must know). Red Collar, whom we met on our last norcal trip (at a different club), played just after us and they definitely had improved since the last time we saw them. It was great to see them as well as we sorta became quick friends with them.
We got up on stage, and were raring to go when…Steve‘s amp wouldn’t turn on. Nothing. No power, no lights. Nothing. I should note that his amp is a VOX. VOX, are you listening? He’s had this amp for just a few months and it doesn’t have any power?? Ugh. Fortunately Joe from Red Collar saved our ass. He let us borrow his Cab/Amp and we were able to get going.
Our set was 30 min, and frankly, a blast. A decent crowd for our 2nd time into Sacramento and we stayed throughout the night talking to plenty of new fans. I can’t tell you how pleased I was with this night: the bands were cool to hang out with, and it was a lot of great conversation with all the new Friends of Chance.
Went to Dennys afterwards and hung out with my friends Kevin and Tanya (Kevin the 1st of the FOC-Orlando contingent to see us this weekend) and called it a night.
San Francisco
An easy 2 hour drive (if that), we slowly made our way into the Bay area. Our first intent was to maybe hit the $1 horse races or some lark like that but plans changed when the VOX amp went out. So went to find a Guitar Center to see if any answers would be there waiting for us (hahaha: “Guitar Center” and “answers” in the same sentence. That’s fricking cute.) Oh well, we got nothing, but fortunately we had left a message the night before with our friend Kevin Siedel from the San Francisco band, Recliner to see if we could borrow his amp. Kevin called us back and said no problem. So we met him near his rehearsal studio, drove to it and picked up the amp and hung out with him at a local bar called the Connecticut Yankee over beers, nachos, snoring stories, and NFL Playoff games. Kevin was now the 2nd person to save our ass on this trip.
Got to the Rockit Room at around 7 PM (load in was 7:30). Spent 35 minutes finding parking for the van/trailer supersize combo. Ate Thai food at King of Thai near the club (I’ve had better but the soup that Bob got was on the order of wow/fantastic). Three bands in total this night: Miller was headlining and also playing with us was Love Not Dead. It was Miller’s CD Release show and they had video camera shoots, photographers and a strong desire to imbibe and “inhale.” Prior to our soundcheck, Mike and Steve were told that acid would be no problem that night if we required it. Acid? hahahaha sigh… Seriously, though, the guys in Miller were super sweet. Sort of a jammy old time vibe rock band…They called me up on stage during their show and I jammed keyboards for them during their set: Some old Skynard song; Get Back by the Beatles; Like a Rolling Stone by Dylan. That sort of thing…
For me (and i think even the rest of the boys), the highlight of the evening was pulling our friend Talmage up on stage. See, it was Talmage’s birthday, and prior to the holidays I gave him a non-voluntary assignment: learn the guitar part to Say What You Will. So, as per his requirement, Steve graciously let him borrow his guitar and Talmage got up and played the hell out that song. A little nervous at first (he had tons of friends in attendance, most from ILM. We met the animators of Yoda if you can imagine that!), nerves finally gave way to Talmage surrendering to the rock. Great fun.
The set was longer this time and we played the new single (Life & Life Only) as well as 9 others. The reception seemed strong here as well and that played out as a theme this weekend:
This was the 1st trip to Northern California where I felt we were starting to build something. Not quite a buzz; I call it more “first bloom.” Something to build upon!
Didn’t get to sleep til around 4 AM. We stayed at Bob‘s friend Jen’s place (thanks Jen!) and we were up at 8 AM and on our way.
The one sour note:
Literally 10 minutes away from the studio, just 5 minutes from our Hollywood exit, Bob got a speeding ticket. The seriously unrelaxed peace officer also gave him a “verbal” on being in the wrong lane. Apparently, in California, a van with a trailer is limited just like a truck and you can’t be in the left lanes. We didn’t know this, he let us go, but it’s no less ridiculous of a rule.
UHaul tried to charge us for 3 days as we were late. I was able to get them to be ok with 2. Sigh.
And in spite the last 2 things, I was VERY excited by this trip. I really feel like if we play our cards right, we’ll look back on this weekend as the weekend where things…started.
Thanks to all the new fans! We will be back up there hopefully late March, early April…
POST SCRIPT:
I just read Red Collar’s myspace page where there was a blog stating they were breaking up. Since this is nowhere near April 1, I’m afraid it’s probably true. Very sad.
