WYOMING!!! Just minutes out of Nebraska, the temperature is up (40 degrees), the sun is shining, we found the cheapest diesel price so far ($2.14/gallon), and we also snagged some veggie oil for the bus. Halelujah! I also just had the best Subway sandwich of my life (12 inch veggie sub on toasted “Italian herbs and cheese” bread, with banana peppers, green peppers, olives, spinach, lettuce, tomato, and honey mustard sauce). I’ve had this combination of ingredients before, but this time the lady wrapping the sandwich was so nice. She really hooked-it-up. 

 

Check out this video of the Wyoming grease run: 

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfiXq0ruHEw

 

Thank you Wyoming!

 

Band morale is high as we cruise the last 90 miles to Fort Collins. 

 

***

 

 

We arrived at the club with plenty of time to get some KILLER GREASE (the cleanest we’ve ever seen) from Taipan Restaurant (thank you). After filling the tank with vegetable oil and eating way too much food at Rasta Pasta, we got on stage and rocked a 60 minute set. There weren’t many people in the club, but by the last song (“White Lies”) people were starting to fill the dance floor, and seemed to be having a great time. 

Now for my favorite part of the night: ROCKING OUT to Bustle In Your Hedgerow, an absolutely all-star lineup of ridiculous musicians playing instrumental versions of Led Zeppelin tunes. In case you haven’t heard of these guys, you should know that the band is comprised of Marco Benevento and Joe Russo (from The Benevento/Russo Duo), Dave Driewitz (from Ween) and Scott Metzger (from Rana, and formely of Particle). I know I’ve written quite a bit in CAPS so far, but I’ll take it all back to emphasize that Joe Russo is an ABSOLUTE MONSTER ON THE DRUMS!!! I’ve seldom heard anybody rock with the true spirit of John Bonham…it was beautiful to watch. To top it all of, these guys were really great people—totally down-to-earth—the nicest rock stars I’ve ever met. We had a blast hanging with them. 

 

During the show, we met a crazy character named Jacob—a total B.A. (bad ass), who invited us to crash at his place (Thank you Jacob, you are the man!). We stayed-up pretty late listening to Herbie Hancock’s “Feets Don’t Fail Me Now,” and some Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and when we woke up the next morning it was 55 degrees outside and sunny. What a relief from the Michigan cold! After a quick stop at the local food co-op, as well as a great coffee shop called The Bean Cycle, we hopped on the veggie bus and started cruising to Boulder. 

 

This tour is turning out to be a pretty amazing experience. 

 

More to come…

 

–The [rewind] button

Day 4: Boston

A beautiful morning (aka noon – 4pm) at the carpenter family residence. Words can’t describe the beauty of this house nor the love that it contains.

One thing we always look forward to when coming to boston is the cannolis at Mike’s. ANYONE thinking about investing in the cannoli industry — this is the cannoli of the future. Imagine looking through the glass at 100′s of fresh, hand-made ‘nnoli’s in 20 varieties. It’s . . . perfect.

A day 4 mini-highlight: the paul mccartney and michael jackson music video for “say say say” i wish i could meet the people who wrote that script . . . i wonder if they live in a bathtub of jello tequila.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gWvBXS2t4A

Follow that with a post-thanksgiving thanksgiving dinner — good god.

DAMN IT GETS DARK EARLY, how is it only 4:30??

Load the bus after dinner, get to the club (Johnny D’s), load in during their local blues jam. They have a half barrel of grease for us! (“um, someone called and asked if we could save some of our throw-out grease for a bus . . . )

A lot of great friends showed up for the show, and a good crowd in general thanks to our beloved street team and a great article in the local paper.

Staff was incredibly nice, and how about kevin doing the splits 20 times during clubbing?

Good pre-game and post-game talk on the bus (dude, could you try that beat on the other snare? hey dave, can we get more of tyler in the monitor for the 3rd verse of all i do? MYF bridge is in a 4 measure phrase, lets wait till measure 7 for introductions, oh man i love that feedback delay loop in the break of lost in a day… holy $#! michelle and mike killed it tonight!!).

Someday we hope to have a show where everything can go wrong and no one in the audience will know . . . i guess we’ll have to have a few more of those shows to get some good practice. Is there a book about playing legendary drum solos in the face of screaming feedback?

End the night with the discovery of a pizza box to the right of the stage, filled with cookies, with a note saying:

Dear, My Dear, My Dear Disco,

we’ve baked no less than 3

class I narcotics into these

cookies. Can you tell which ones?

Just kidding, the only ingredient

was love.

Sincerely,

Miguel and Marilyn

. . .

Thank you!!

(and another point for the karma team)

Sincerely, the [record] button