Bloodwire Tour 2005

End

2005-06-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

Home! Boy am I tired.
We will be eternally beholden to WarN & Christa for everything -

The wonderful opportunity to hang with them for 6 weeks.

Their boundless energy and enthusiasm.

Trust in their GPS, follow them around, driving almost 20,000 miles.

Through 34 states.

Untold bottles of water and Red Bull.

...and the opportunity to perform for so many warm, friendly, and excellent people!

May 30

2005-06-15T11:50:00.001-07:00

We drove the rest of the way home. Hey, Lilu! Hi, DoeDoe! Yo, Oakland!

May 29

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Immediately after the show, we exchanged tearful hugs with WarN + Christa and hit the road. The rest is somewhat of a blur. I know that we drove for 23 hours, ending up in Salt Lake City. Exhausted.

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I-Li @ Radio Radio

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Shawn @ Radio Radio

May 28. Radio Radio. Indianapolis, IN.

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Indianapolis was a great show. Radio Radio is a wonderful place to play.This show was a little special as it was the closest we got to HungryLucy's hometown of Cincinnati. It was great to see people lining up beforewe could even soundcheck! Thanks, Indy!

2005-06-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

After the Madison show, we got a chance to relax for a couple of days at Hungry Lucy Headquarters. Well, at least Shawn, War-N, and I did. Here's Christa slaving away at makin homemade pizza and pasta from scratch! And then we feasted! Boy did we feast! It was the best pasta ever! Thank you Christa!! You should get your own FoodTV special. :)

-ili

May 25. Inferno. Madison, WI.

2005-05-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

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.

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Zzzzzzz...

May 22. Yeah. More Driving!

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

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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

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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.

2005-05-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-05-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

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/

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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.

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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

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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/

2005-05-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

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).

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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.

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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

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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.

2005-05-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

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…

2005-05-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

May 14. Bar Sinister. Los Angeles, CA.

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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.

2005-05-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

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

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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?"...

2005-05-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

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

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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.

2005-05-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

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

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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).

2005-05-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

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'.

2005-05-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

May 10. Utah + Oregon.
Were 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.

2005-05-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

May 9. KRCL. Salt Lake City.

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

2005-05-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

May 9. Salt Lake City.
Utah is the 25th state that weve been in on this tour! Its hard to believe that weve seen so much of the country. Too bad we havent 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 didnt 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 Jacobs 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 cant 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. Thats a lot better than trying to perform to the Hey, turn the music down, Im 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, theres 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 Dennys. 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? Im not sure, but he put on a great show, and we loved it.

2005-05-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

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

2005-05-07T00:57:00.001-07:00

May 6. Detroit, MI.

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May 6. Detroit, MI.

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May 6. Detroit, MI.

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May 6. Detroit, MI.

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May 6. Detroit, MI. The Labrynth with Hungry Lucy. We had a great time tonight. Our monitor mix was much better, and we felt a lot more comfortable rockin out.

2005-05-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

May 5. Travel day.
We saw a bunch of dust devils. Here's one that was pretty neat.

2005-05-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

May 5. Goodbye, Chicago. Wish we could stay longer... Or persuade I-Li to move here...

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May 4. Chicago, IL.

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May 4. Chicago, IL.

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May 4. Chicago, IL. The Bottom Lounge with Hungry Lucy.
First off – Scary Lady Sarah (promoter/dj/hostess) is the greatest! She immediately made us feel at home. Here enthusiastic attitude was really helpful after the traffic jam, getting lost, and having to perform across the street from Wilco's sold out show. She got us vegan burgers that were near life altering in their deliciousness. We might need to move here just so we can get more of the fantastic food! Sarah is a superb DJ who chose completely appropriate music for the evening and created a great mix that was a delight to hear.

The show... The crowd was great! We made more friends, and everyone, EVERYONE, there was as nice as can be. Gary, the sound guy deserves extra kudos for being such a rad sound man and all around mood elevator. We were totally comfortable and confident performing with him, which is quite rare.

In the song "Caving In" I got myself off-track by accidentally stomping on my monitor cable, dislodging it. Suddenly, I couldn’t hear anything. In addition to that, my A string was totally out of tune, so my open chords were dreadful. I still have some volume issues to work out. Hopefully I can get some progress on that in time for the Detroit show on Friday…

sB-)

2005-05-05T07:34:00.000-07:00

May 4. Hello, Chicago! Of course, we hit town at rush-hour. I-Li was able to take this pic in a break between the semi's and SUVs that were crowding around.

2005-05-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

May 3. Champaign, IL.

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May 3. Champaign, IL.

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May 3. Champaign, IL. The Highdive club with Hungry Lucy and Subversion DJs.
This is the first time we get to see our name in lights! The club was beautiful. The sound was awesome - as well as the sound man, Bob.

Jason (DJ Zozo) is a great guy who is immediately friendly and lovable. We cannot thank him enough for all of his help. He is a great asset to the scene, and delight to work with.

The Subversion DJs (Brittany and Jim) were both really, really, really, really, really nice, gorgeous, friendly, and talented DJs. You must check out their fabulous band i:scintilla (www.iscintilla.com).

The crowd was amazingly supportive. Our set went well. Christa did some beautiful visuals based on our album cover artwork, and it looked awesome (literally and CA wise) on the massive screen. We owe so much to WarN and Christa for all of their help in this!

sB-)

2005-05-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

May 2. Oliver gets some bling from his friends in Cleveland...

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May 2. Cleveland, OH.

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May 2. The sound guy, known to all as Poop.

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May 2. Cleveland, OH. The HiFi club with Hungry Lucy and Sex Crimes.
We learned that Cleveland does indeed rock, but that maybe we don't.

We got to meet some really supportive fans who came from Columbus to see us.

Hey, Jay - I tried the vocal idea you gave me, and it worked way better than I could have imagined. Thanks!

sB-)

2005-05-02T05:25:00.000-07:00

May 1st. Ithaca, NY.
We didn't play today. Assemblage 23 was on the bill, and there were 4 bands on the bill already.
As a consolation, we got to offer our CDs for sale. They were supposed to play some tracks from 'Transformation', but not a single byte was heard.

The good side: We got to watch Hungry Lucy. I filmed a little and took some pics (below). We sold a few copies, based on the artwork, its proximity to HL merchandise, or that I-Li was all dressed up and working the table. I think it was probably the last one...

sB-)

sB-)

2005-05-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

May 1st. Ithaca, NY.
Christa's 'Apparition' is caught on the song 'Alfred'...

2005-05-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

May 1st. Ithaca, NY.
WarN hitting the skins 'In the Circle'

2005-05-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

April 30th. Pownal, VT.
I-Li has a great knack of hypnotizing any animal she encounters. Here is a pic of Marlow P. Dog after his session with I-Li the Beast Master.

2005-05-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

April 30th. Pownal, VT.
We visited Bennington and fellow Thorn Applet Andrew. Christa found a cute little newt outside Andrew's house. It did nothing but piss rain all day.

2005-05-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

April 29th. Salem, MA.
Christa pondering the touristy elements...

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April 29th. Salem, MA.
Bogus Salem still = good time!

2005-05-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

April 29th. Salem, MA.
We tried to find the real Salem, but all we found was a tourist trap.

2005-04-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

April 28th. Manray, Boston, MA. Camera's were not allowed in Manray. We can tell you that we had a great time. The sound system was excellent, and the people running sound were totally professional and a joy to work with.

2005-04-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

April 27 NYC -GW Bridge. We drove from NJ to Boston today. The weather was terrible. It got worse when the windshield wipers for HL's truck blew somewhere around Stamford!

2005-04-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

April 25th Danville PA. This was was friendliest place we've stayed. The pic is of our new friend and tourmate Oliver Mackley. Here, oliver is enjoying the sunset with the ubiquitous McDonalds sign...

2005-04-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

April 24 - Pittsburgh, PA. Hungry Lucy @ Garfield Artworks. The audience was great, and very friendly! Jordan Decay and Alexx Reed also played some wonderful sets.

2005-04-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Now this is a welcome sight! Chloe taking a nap on the couch. I-Li took this pic, as I was passed out in a chair nearby...

2005-04-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

April 22, welcome to Ohio...

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April 22 - Welcome to West Virginia...

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We would like to thank DJ Joey at Raleigh Underground/Legends for hosting our first live performance! He took such great care of us. We really appreciated all of the messages from our friends and family wishing us luck on our first show. Special thanks to Sensei John Burns at Rohai Dojo for spreading the word about our first show. I was surprised and happy to meet Elizabeth and Erin from Wolfpak Dojo. I felt the Cuong Nhu Spirit! Shawn and I had such a great time that we forgot to be nervous.

It was great to see Hungry Lucy play live again. It had been a couple of years since we saw them play live the last time in Portland, OR. They were awesome as usual. War-N's feverish bongo playing was quite mesmerizing! Christa's beautiful voice captured everyone in the audience including me. I couldn't stop dancing! I'll remember to bring my digital camera next time to take some shots of them.

Talk to you soon,

~ili

Raleigh, NC; April 21st

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2005-04-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

April 17th, Chandler, AZ
Our first stop was to catch up with I-Li's sister in Chandler, AZ. We spent some time joking around with their beautiful kids Jonathan and Loren.