May 25. Inferno. Madison, WI.

Madison rules! We had a great time playing, and it was a great show overall, with Hungry Lucy (of course) and a special acoustic set by Null Device.

Matt Fanale (in pic w/us above) was smart enough to create a lounge type atmosphere the really helped create a mood and a nice relaxed atmosphere.

We were all dead tired, so we weren't able to take advantage of all the cool things in Madison (Taliesin, The House on the Rock) but we got back to HL HQ before midnight, which was good, as we got to catch up on some much needed sleep.

May 23. Sleep.

Zzzzzzz...

May 22. Yeah. More Driving!

We traveled back to Hungry Lucy HQ for a much needed respite and prep for our journey to Madison, WI.

May 21. New Orleans, LA.
We tried to get out of New Orleans, but there were soooooo many people out, that it took forever. We had to get through Burbon street, where there were thousands and thousands of drunkards!!! We made it as far as Hick-something Mississippi.

May 21. New Orleans, LA

Our show went OK. This was a no frills event, so we didn’t get FX on the vocals and the stage had absolutely no room to move around. I finally felt that we were the annoying warm up band, and that people were there just to hear Hungry Lucy. Another thing that was interesting is that people didn’t seem interested in anything that they hadn’t already heard.

Once Hungry Lucy was done with their set, we found that most everyone who came were there for the dancing. We sort of felt like an inconvenience to the booze and disco. I don’t know why, but I spied 3 different people doing the robot to Joy Division, Interpol, Kylie Minogue and The Killers. The robots in the big easy need a firmware update, ‘cause their moves are far from fresh…

May 21. The Whirling Dervish. New Orleans, LA.

It is just too damn hot here! We’re playing at a place called The Whirling Dervish. It’s in the French Quarter. One thing about this area – there is absolutely no parking anywhere, and full of drunken idiots or people who are soon to become the same. It was amazing to walk into a bar on Burbon street and find it full of people slumped over their drinks and listening to Pink Floyd’s ‘Big Gig in the Sky’. I hope that some portion of the drunkards come in to see our show. We’ll see…

May 20. The Cavern. Dallas, TX.

Dallas was pretty incredible. I’m used to seeing weird security solutions in Oakland, but I found it strange that there was a guard posted at the entrance to the Motel 6! I guess they must have experienced some rash of drive in crimes or something.

Anyway, the show went well. The cavern was a small place, so it felt very intimate. The promoters Jeff and Toni were incredilby nice and let us get prepped at their space instead of the club. I got Jeff's review of Star Wars 3, since I won't be able to see it for a few more weeks... :(

We were the first band to go on, and everything went well. I forgot to change one of my effects on the last song, but it actually sounded good.

Next up was Machine In The Garden who had a great set. At one point, though, Roger broke a string and had to borrow my guitar. No prob. The show must go on!

Next up was Hungry Lucy with a great set as always. I found a few unique ways to film their set, like through mirrors and stuff.

The street we played on was amazing, there were probably thousands of people in the bars and walking down the street. It reminded me of my early days in Livermore or some scene from ‘American Graffiti’, It took us forever to drive a block.

That’s about it. We head for New Orleans tomorrow.

Pics of the DNA show in San Fran are available here:
http://www.dnalounge.com/gallery/2005/05-15/

May 19. Austin, TX. The show went well. The levels were a bit better, and some people actually showed up! Hungry Lucy had a great set that compelled some people to make out on the dance floor! I-Li received her first on stage shock from the microphone. Luckily, we were able to tap into a different power source prior to the show and fix the problem. 

May 19. Austin, TX. We're playing with like 2 million other bands in this darn town. We're@ Elysium. 

May 18. Driving Driving Driving

Today we drove from ABQ to Wichita Falls, TX.
Me tired.
Black Eye Photography took Pics of our Champaign, IL show: http://www.blackeyephotography.com/concerts/03may05/

May 17. Burt's Tiki Lounge. Albuquerque, NM.

The show was great! We performed at the unique Burt's Tiki Lounge. An interesting place that was full of thrift store trinkets and band stickers on every conceivable surface except for the pool table. You've got to have your priorities, I guess. Many many thanks for the generosity and support of Melissa at the Lounge!

We performed with an orgasmic synth pop group called Leiahdorus. They’re on the A Different Drum label, and you can check them out @ www.leiahdorus.com. Darla, the keyboardist showed us a little of ABQ, and we went to a really great restaurant/coffee shop.

Our show was well received by the crowd. We had some technical difficulties due to the altitude adjustment and lack of humidity. Yeah, that’s it. Actually, I accidentally switched the output between I-Li and my guitars. Since we didn't have a proper sound check, we didn't find this out until halfway through the first guitar song. We even did an encore of the DM cover, and everyone loved it.

We also got to chat with the great people who came out to see the show. The pic is of I-Li with some of those people: (L->R) Tommy T (http://www.dsbp.cx/ + http://www.cyberage.cx), Steen (the wonderful sound man), Clint (http://www.immortalcontinuum.net), and Art (Wurm).

May 17. Albuquerque, NM. We got a chance to meet the mother of one of our friends, Patrick. Included in the package was Patrick's dog, Tigger.  

May 17. AZ + NM. Driving to Albuquerque today.
We stopped off at the Petrified Forest in NM. I was delighted to discover this Richard Neutra designed complex. Really nice proportions in the buildings.

Tonight we play Burt's Tiki Lounge, something we've been extremely curious about.

Also, we there are pics of our LA show @
http://www.barsinister.net/soulslist.php?date=2005-05-14

May 16. Driving Drama

We drove all of today. We stopped by our post office box to find out that it expired and that they left a note in the box- when we were out. Oh well, we just had to fill out paperwork and were lucky enough to get our old number back.

We ended up in Needles CA, where if you throw a rock you'll hit Arizona. It was nice driving through Mojave at sunset. I was reminded of the hot rod mic kit I got from Mojave Audio (www.mojaveaudio.com)...

May 15. DNA Lounge. San Francisco.

Home! We arrived at our house at 3pm and got to chill with Lilu for an hour before heading out to the club. This was a great show for us, as we got to perform for friends and family in addition to everyone else.

The first thing about the show is that the promoter David is a great guy who made us feel welcome immediately and was really supportive.

Secondly, Gabe the sound guy is an amazing talent in the field. We was quick, efficient, supportive, and best of all, we had no feedback issues - the way it’s supposed to be!

Additionally, DJ Joe Radio was spinning really great grooves that fit the mood of the evening really well. There have been too many times where we have to perform after some raging EBM thing.

The show went really well. I-Li was able to joke around more on stage. That may have been due to the number of family and friends in the audience, or that we are feeling more comfortable with each other on stage. All in all a great night out!

Hungry Lucy were spectacular as usual, however I think most people had to go to work the next morning, as the crowd started to thin as the set went on. The remaining crowd was treated to a more personal show that showcased HL’s fantastic videos on DNA’s large screen. I accidentally deleted all the images of the Bloodwire set to make room for the Hungry Lucy set, so I don’t have any pics for y’all…

May 14. Bar Sinister. Los Angeles, CA. 

May 14. Bar Sinister. Los Angeles, CA. We played to a near capacity crowd of about 500. This was a great show. I-Li had some feedback problems with her mic, which she parlayed into a nice joke by singing about it in the song 'Overdue'. Many thanks and eternal gratitude to my bro Nic and his wife Megan for putting us up for the night/morning, as there was no room at the Inn. 

May 14th. The inimitable Anderson's Pea Soup Place... 

May 13th. After the show, we made it somewhere on I-5 in Washington. We drove from said unknown WA location and ended up in Stockton, CA around 1AM. It turns out the UOP graduation was the next day, so all the cheap hotels were booked. That, and it was Stockton CA. I got a great comment when I went to check out. The woman said "Unique haircut, what do you do with it?"... 

May 12. The Vogue. Seattle, WA. Oliver, Trevor and Stu grooving to Hungry Lucy's set. 

May 12. The Vogue. Seattle, WA. This place had a massive video wall and we took advantage of it! Again, we met a lot of really nice people and had a great time. We debuted our cover of Depeche Mode's 'The Sun and the Rainfall'. Thanks to everyone who attended. We hope to play Seattle again soon. 

May 11. Portland, OR. I love this video image, it totally looks like something from 'Night of the Living Dead!'  

May 11. Portland, OR. This is about how I remember the evening... 

May 11. Portland, OR. We played with 2 great local bands, Attenuated Euphoria - who was euphoric, but not very attenuated (that's a good thing). Then, we were treated to the eric synth masterpieces by James D Stark (pictured above).  

May 10. Shawn @ SLC show. (late post) 

May 11. Portland, OR. We played at the fantastic Sabala's Mt. Tabor. This is a renovated movie house. There are a few rooms that have converted to bar areas. The whole design idea seems to be based on horror movies, with large paintings from 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', 'The Exorcist', and 'Dawn of the Dead'.  

May 11. We drove from Pendelton to Portland. From Motel 6 to Motel 6...  

A nice picture of Shawn at the Salt Lake City show. :) 

May 10. Utah + Oregon.
We’re in transit to Portland, OR for our show tomorrow. I had some drama this morning. After the first load of luggage to the car, I managed to lock the car keys in the trunk. I had to call for a locksmith to come and unlock the car. It was raining and miserable, and so was I.

May 9. KRCL. Salt Lake City.

May 9. Salt Lake City.
I-Li Rotten. Singin 'bout Accusations...

May 9. Salt Lake City.
Utah is the 25th state that we’ve been in on this tour! It’s hard to believe that we’ve seen so much of the country. Too bad we haven’t had time to stop anywhere.

Today we drove from Cheyenne, WY to Salt Lake. We got to Motel 6 about an hour before we needed to head out to club. That means we didn’t get to rest much.

The show was at a club called Sugarbeats. It is an intimate space, which is nice, because it feels full when there are only about 20 people in it. The room is wedged between a coffeehouse and a record store - my idea of heaven!

First up for the evening was a co-interview between Hungry Lucy, Bloodwire and Jacob from Gothic Paradise. Our very first interview! We really appreciate all of Jacob’s help, and it was great to meet his wife and kids!

The first band to play really blew us away. They are QstandsforQ. They are a unique blend of sort of ambient folk I guess. They had great songs with interesting atmospheres and beautiful male and female voices.

Bloodwire went next, and well, I can’t remember a darn thing about it except that a messed up in a bunch of places. The audience was kind and attentive, and made us feel welcome. That’s a lot better than trying to perform to the “Hey, turn the music down, I’m trying to have a conversation” + drunken shouts of most clubs. I-Li was great as usual.

Next was Hungry Lucy with another flawless set. I filmed most of it, reserving some battery and tape for the grand finale.

Wait, there’s more! Next we went to KRCL 90.9 to do another tandem interview with Troy (The Sorcerer of Sound.) Once we were done, it was Midnight and time for Alan - a darkwave/Goth/DJ to go on, so we did another interview live for that. Each band played a few songs on the air. We even got a call during our first song from someone who wanted to purchase our CD! Pretty cool for early Tuesday morning.

Now, for the ultimate frosting - we were all starving, so we went to Denny’s. Apparently, we were the only ones to enter the establishment for about 2 hours. The waiter/host Chris was an amazing guy who kept us awake and happy for our stay there. Or were we keeping him awake? I’m not sure, but he put on a great show, and we loved it.

May 8. Happy Mother's Day! We're on our way to play Salt Lake City tomorrow... Must rest up and call our moms... 

May 6. Detroit, MI. 

May 6. Detroit, MI. 

May 6. Detroit, MI.