End

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

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

May 29

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.

I-Li @ Radio Radio

Shawn @ Radio Radio

May 28. Radio Radio. Indianapolis, IN.

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!

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.

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