the motorway diaries

buy the new cd 'motorway' online here for $11.99

join the motorway propaganda team

this was typed on erics' laptop in a moving vehicle.still incomplete (it seemed like every time colin started writing his entries, the laptop would run out of juice, stay tuned for his entries).

check back often for additions/photos - all uncensored/straight from the laptop/camera to you.

click on images to enlarge

Wed aug 9 travel day

pete/---Well, we were off at 4pmish out of new orleans(only about 4 hours behind schedule-not bad really), ready for the 10 day trip ahead. Hopefully we don’t kill each other. The van radio was sounding pretty funky, so I decided to power up the system by hooking up an old power amp eric had lying around. After the stereo was in a heap on the dash, everyone doubted my abilities as a master sound technician and balked at my attempt to make our 12.5 watt stereo into a massive 600 watt thunderous wall of sound producing machine. After about 3 hours of splicing and dicing and a trip to wal-mart later (this is in no way a thumbs up to wal-mart, it’s just in western bum-fuck, there aren’t many choices), I had the system in a super-mega-roctastic state. We finally made it into dallas and got a hotel room and proceeded to celebrate like we are known to do.

eric/ We arrived in Dallas the night before and checked into an overpriced hotel with no pool, which they said won't be built till next year. Fortunately, we don't have to stay that long. eric w/ the machine that made the documentation of all this tomfoolery possible

Thursday Aug 10 opening for cowboy mouth in Dallas TX deep ellum live

mike/ First night jitters for me, awesome to be back with the Mouth.. -great to catch up w/ Rob and Griff.
Deep Ellum Live is a big, big room by golly and hotter this night with a frail AC than uptown Tips back in the day. We play we sweat, never stop sweating! Go back hang with Pete's very cool cousin drink lots. At the
merch counter we meet the youngin's and sign underage bodies- this bodes well
for the rest of the trip!

eric/ The show at Deep Ellum was hotter than monkey sh*t. Everything was wet. Walking through the crowd, I would see girls soaked with sweat, looking like they just ran a marathon inside a sauna. You know how wet girls turns guys on-Well, it does to me anyway.

It increasingly became more hot as the Mouth played. I don't know how Fred did it with all the energy he puts out. (This guy jumps rope before hitting the stage.) I would have dropped many sticks and had a heat stroke or heart attack. At the end, autographing all those wet bodies was exciting and rather head inflating. Being so wet, I remember on some people the ink wouldn't stick. (keeping it clean) One crazy girl let me try to autograph her face, but it didn't take. Enough of this wet body talk. I wish this town wouldn't shut down so early.

Pete/ Paul opened up the show, which he hasn’t done in quite a while. It was great he chose this particular leg of the tour (when we were opening) to start doing his acoustic stuff. We did a couple of dates a year or so ago with the MOUTH in the Carolina’s and Paul definitely got the crowd hyped up (which made our job a lot easier). It’s always rough trying to impress a crowd that paid $20 to see the headlining act. The crowd was very receptive. We even saw a couple of familiar faces singing some of the words. After our long grueling 30 minute set, we went to the back to push CD's. We did really well in CD sales, and there was lots of body autographing.

Overall, we all had a really good time, and I got to hang out with my cousin liz and her husband mike, who are super cool.

Friday Aug 11 the red eyed fly

click on images to enlarge

pete/ --This was a night off the cowboy mouth tour, and we were paired up with two local bands PONG, and the SEXY FINGER CHAMPS. We started the show, and proceeded to rock Austin’s ass beyond belief

.rocking the fly...photo by paris

It wasn’t nearly as crowded as Deep Ellum the night before, but the crowd was all ears. The sound guy was really cool and was very accommodating, a good time.

pete and colin after the fly show...photo by paris

colin rocking hard at the fly-paris

mike/ Many ups to Salil for hooking us up with sleeping accommodations while in Austin. the drive into Austin feels like home - we have good friends there and the energy of the city is refreshing. My cousin Jason comes out to hang as well as Lisa, and we make new friends too with whom we drink and chat. Red Eyed Fly is a cool hang-we play an energetic set to a small but growing crowd. Paris is awesome to be on the road for the first half of the trip-she creates a necessary buffer between us. I do not think she quite knew what to expect from us or the road but she is having fun and we drink Tequilla like badasses!We commandeered haircuts from her on a hangover morning -what a trooper! I think I ruined her coveted NIN t shirt by a shaving cream ambush sorry P - I will call Trent first thing in the morning.

mike w paris in austin

Props to James Demarest and his unsuspecting roomates for having us on their floor overnight- The first words
I heard that morning were "holy shit!!" from roomate # 3 who had no heads up about our vist, as he gets up to pee and has to climb over very sleepy and in some cases still drunk "guests".

Please feel free to insert the word "nub" into any song lyric for instant travel fun.

(ed note-nub refers to a saturday night live skit featuring buu-wheat)

Word up, Salil here. So after a grueling 40 hours of work, out of town guests and their various and sundry car problems, the boys showed up ready to rock the Fly (after they ravaged my precious red beans and rice).

Eric/ Thanks Paris for the fly2k, end of the world shirt,and those macadamian nut cookies which were to be found a couple of days later. Mike kept insisting to trash them, But hating to waste food,(you're gonna eat that?) I kept them for the rest of the trip. Cookies never really go bad anyway. The hard ones get soft and the soft ones get hard. Sounds familiar?

 eric looking all sexy ...photo..paris

  colin,pete,eric, paris, jason blum etc.

home

Sat aug 11 stubb’s bbq

click on images to enlarge

pete/ This was to be a late night party after a bigger show on the much bigger outdoor arena at Stubb’s.

The bill outside was stroke 9, cowboy mouth, splendor, rl-71(or something like that).

It was pretty packed outside. And cowboy mouth went on 2nd to last. I don’t know what stroke 9 was thinking, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to have to follow cowboy mouth. As expected, cowboy mouth proceeded to blow the other bands away-behold the awesome power that is cowboy mouth-

After the outside show, we got everything ready to go, the sound guy was a little frazzled (I guess since he had to work the show outside-I’m sure he wasn’t happy to have to deal with another band) so we didn’t get much in the way of a sound check. {more double exposed shots..ala motorway/fireworks (paris)}

We finally got started and proceeded to do a 45 minute set. About halfway through we got fred leblanc

^{fred leblanc and mike... photo ala paris}

up and did a replacements tune. A fun time. At the end of the set we got eddie eckert up (backupguy/drum tech for cowboy mouth) and he sat in on drums/vox for the kids are allright. Fred jumped up and sang the high harmonies. In true fred fashion, he pretty much took over the stage at that point-someone having fed him copious amounts of liquor, which always makes for an interesting time. Despite the club’s attempt to get out of paying us (many ups to our manager for faxing contracts ----I’ll leave the details to mike), it was a pretty fun time. It was off to salil’s to continue the party.

fred, pete, mike at stubb's(superimposed over a truck...paris had a problem w/ her camera...just about all of these pictures were double exposed)

from salil's party

Fred LeBlanc is over too after having jammed with us at Stubbs for 40 minutes. He and Colin take up guitars and play all the Who and Beatles stuff they have in common. A real treat for us and no doubt an honor for Colin who has been a DashCM fan years. What a night. On the drive to Austin we had stumbled into a tiny town which looked somewhat like a dry old Western movie set, mostly populated at that hour with a large, just off work, mexican community. Being the flea market-pawn shop hound that I am, I scoped out a little house with a clutter of things on the lawn that seemed to be for sale. We stroll down the road and into a musty old house.Paris and I spot a pile of used cowboy hats which she insists I try on. Well I do and she lights up-don't even look in the mirror- "how much?" Ten bucks it is and we are back to the van with what will become, according to Salil, a "trademark look" which I am grateful to have. Gotta get a 'head 'start on my genetic baldness anyway.Finally, props to Val at Bandwagon the booking agency which has adopted us as their baby band and sent us on the road. We really tested our clout there when the tired Stubbs staff insisted that they have no contract about us getting paid !! Who ya gonna call? John Isbel of course! His Izzness calls Val and the vacationing Isbel, not even at home, has the contract faxed to the very desk I am nervously sitting on. Well, the look on the manager's face as the fax machine burped out our very legit contract was priceless!! Thanks to Val and Madina who have been invaluble.

eric/ After scamming the only hot babe left in Stubb’s, we’re beginning to wonder-Are we sure it was a good idea to pick up super stud Salil for the rest of the tour. What were we thinking?

The after party, after the after party (most use of the word "after" in a single sentence) was a gas. We had a little late night acoustic jammy jam. Fred even showed up to hang and play a few tunes with us. Most memorable and feel good time was the late night or early morning hot tub and swim in the pool. Bedtime after 6am. eric w/ fred leblanc

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, part nub.

click on images to enlarge

paris/ Going on the road with Motorway sounded like my chance to be on MTV Road Rules.

 eric w paris

I relished the mere thought of traveling through uncharted territory in a van with 4 interesting musicians on a mission of transmission. Our version would have been called Road Fools and would trailered more like: 4 guys, 1 girl, together foraging through bum fuck everywhere, searching for Radio Shack, racing towards insanity in an oven with disco lighting and a futon. Had I known what I was getting into I would have brought my tequila huggie and oven mitts to relaspe in my new Wal Mart lawn chair ( blue to match the oven) that sat so prominently at the center of our universe and flipped over when Mike took wrong turns. The guys were truly incredible. They never ceased to amaze me.

Erics' ability to fall into a snore induced sleep in only 34 seconds, a sleep so heavy that only the slight breeze of a girls body leaning over him upside down (to find an often sought after but seldom used Atlas) could wake him from his heightened slumber. Pete was our mobile Sears repair man. With only sheer determination, mucho tape and a tiny sewing scissors, he restyled a radio into a powerful mega sound system. He fixed things that weren't even broken yet, and then I heard later that he was also able to break things that were already broken, go figure. Colin, this this fellow wakes up so funny that you wish you hadn't even slept those 3 hours. He knows the theme to the Nub Boat and will happily distort it in tune to the weak, the tired, the hungry and the hysterical.

Mike Blum, hmmmsexiest thing in a cheap black hat that I've seen down in these parts. These parts being Jarrel, Texas. Where you can grab ya'seff some Mexican beef jerky, an Upper Buttcrack Monthly, a cold drink and watch the dust fly.

(eating jerky and reading upper buttcr*ck monthly in front of mom and pop store just minutes after the cowboy hat had been purchased)jarrel,tx photo by paris

Mikes strength lies in his ability to cover your *ss in a poof of shaving creme without a sound and then keep the room from fulfilling their 2.5 hour sleep quota with his ping pong pillow laughter party. A wise Doughbudda once said: Nothing says true nubbin' like a gift from the oven", and traveling in the "Oven 'O Lovin'' with these 4 sweet,witty, talented and thoughtful guys was a treat. I was treated daily to the hauling of guitars, no less than 3 times a day:out of hot box, into hotel, into hot box, out to hole in the wall, into hot box, out to habitat, into heat stroke, out to HELLO!!! You get the picture.Call me "Doll of U-Haul". Have you ever been a patch of human carpet? I have.
Have you ever been awakened by the words, " Oh, f*ck, who are these people."
I have.Have you ever had to go to sleep with a hungry toilet begging for food. I
have.

to be continued......Paris

home

Monday aug 13th - Numbers in Houston

Salil: I got pulled over in Nat’s car at the airport, taking Paris to catch her plane. We weren’t wearing our seatbelts -ah! (Motorway does not endorse this dangerous habit, wear your seatbelts kiddies!) No ticket, but Paris had like 3 minutes to grab her flight. Nathalie’s radiator decided to go on strike during our 3-hour trek to Houston, not a good start, but I’m sure it’ll all turn out. The guys played before about 800 folks!

motorway at numbers in houston tx, opening for cowboy mouth

They sounded great, and I knew it was a good show when I hopped up on stage to grab guitars I heard a plethora of chicks begged for picks because ‘we love you guys’ Paul warmed the crowd up for the Motorboys, and they played one of the best shows I’ve ever seen them do, ever, everything seemed to come together. I decided to reserve my energy for the drive to Denver, I had first shift. Grn was my copilot - thank god he didn’t wear himself out playing dozens with Fred, that van doesn’t like new drivers, I think she tried to kill me. (Ed note grn=colin... pronounced gearn)

Colin/ I’m becoming quite alarmed at the increasing frequency of Eric’s sexual advances toward me. While drinking heavily, Eric starts saying nonsense like "Hey sailor, can I check your oil?"

eric checking his own oil

While quite honestly flattered, I don’t think I’m ready to make that step. He’s such a little whore anyway, drooling over sheep grazing by the highway. Anyway, I’m sorry to report that I have once again dived back into my cough syrup addiction. There’s no reason to fight it anymore. People tend to like me much more in my medicated state. We just passed the remains of an eighteen wheeler that had burned beyond recognition. Not unexpected in the middle of Oklahoma, but disturbing none the less.

 I am getting Pete to dig Red Sovine.(the undisputed king of truckdriving music)

He has a particularly pretty ditty about cutting another man’s ear off in a barroom brawl. I love shit you don’t have to think about. Entertainment on the road is probably more sophisticated now than ever before. That’s why it’s so satisfying to find a good old fashioned form of entertainment like a magazine. At a lovely little mom and pop store along the Interstate we found an issue of a periodical entitled BACKDOOR. I’m not usually much of a reader but I thought the in depth piece on the double input slut was quite riveting.

Rolling into Oklahoma City now. It’s about eleven a.m. and I’ve had about two hours of sleep..

home

Monday, August 14th - travel

eric/ We’re finally in Colorado after a long night’s drive from Houston. It will be 1053 mile stretch when we arrive in Denver. We thought we could make it in one continuous haul. It might have been possible if it wasn’t for the 4 day binge party through Texas. Mucho Tequilla & Cerveza, Ole’! It was decided we should pull over for some real sleep for a change before we kill each other or break up the band. It has come to our attention that this is the longest span of not being in a drunken stupor. I’m feeling pretty good today except for my back from sleeping on too many different surfaces. One thing I’ve learned on the road is by staying fresh with "asswipe’s" That’s pronounced ass-weepay. Speaking of ass. I think Colin is finally coming around to my sexual advances. The moon is full this week and in the Rocky’s, I’ll have my rocky mountain way.

New subject. We’re having a contest for naming our Van. To the winner will go a signed copy of our new CD "Underwater Demolition". Send entries now.

Update

-colin has temporarily dubbed the van THE BOUNTY and seems to think it will add a more regal air to our "vessel". The person driving can now be referred to as the ‘captain’ and if there is any dissension among the ‘crew’……a mutiny on the bounty. pete

Tuesday 15th - Lion’s Lair CO

Salil/ Show went well, very few people, but merch was sold and friends were made.

lions lair denver co w/ the opening band

It was chilly early morning when we all stumbled from the best dive in Denver to pack the trailer in the icy drizzle amongst the incoming eggs. It was time to work, and tensions were high amongst the troops. The Rocky mountain madness was slowly taking its toll on all of us. Winkler - we all knew he had cracked when he mistook Eric’s luggage rack for a vicious dandruffy cat that was invading his bathroom space. Pete jettisoned the insulting object across the four lane main street, chasing it down with a blood curdling yell, screaming something about futons and cat sperm while Mike looked on with a wicked suggesting grin that betrayed his recent possession by Beelzebub. Colin continued to boogie with himself, serenading a lamp post with "I see you baby, shaking that ass, smokin the grass, without any class" while fessing up to his fantasies involving Nell Carter, Edith Bunker and a sheep.. I’m scared. I’m very scared. Eric was outraged at the senseless destruction of his family heirloom, and began pacing up and down the street muttering about fruit loops and oil checks. The full moon insanity came to a head when Eric, his honor besmirched, challenged Peter the Rackslayer to a testicle kicking duel. Pete declined the age old southern tradition, instead offering to punt Eric’s derrier back to the hotel. In the end we managed to make it the five grueling blocks back to the Ramada with no blood spilled. Memorial services were held shortly after Eric put his mangled friend out of its misery.

home

Pete-

A foot note on the luggage rack-it was a piece of crap thing that I insisted eric leave behind from the outset of this adventure. Every time we opened the trailer, it would fall out and hit your shin. So after the 30th time of this happening, and eric not using it save one time, I snapped. I was wrong. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time, I looked over at mike, and his eyes seemed to say …do it…so I did. it would have been hilarious if eric would have had a different view. I was just fulfilling it’s destiny to be thrown across colfax street in a fit of rage. Surely the quality story that would be passed down to our grandkids would be worth any loss in property value. Anyway, how was I to know that eric was going to snap. He insisted that I go get it or he would kick me where it hurts. After a few harsh words were spoken, I agreed, and ran across 6 lanes of traffic to get the precious artifact. "you broke it!!" "I’ll give you the 25 cents the piece of crap is worth" eric than proceeded to re-jettison the object back from which it came. It would take me 9 hours to offer an apology. Sorry I remain. That which doesn’t make us kill each other makes us stronger….hopefully. anyway, so far so good-this trip Is pretty much a litmus test to see if we can really do this on a regular basis. It’s impossible to spend any length of time together without snapping, we’ll see how the rest of the trip goes. It’s one of those us against the world things right now, lets keep it up..

eric I would also like to rebut here, then put it to rest. Although, Pete may edit this later, there were numerous items in that trailor that were worthy of the jettison family. But it's not nice to pollute. I love you man.

Mike here/ -wasup yo- greetings from our highway hotel and to all who couldn’t be here with us. There is so much to tell so little of it printable- oh well we will do our best. Whatever you hear about farm animals in relation to this band be vehemently denied from the outset- consider this a bovine disclaimer. Big ups to Paris for making the first leg of the trip with us- poor kid never saw it coming! She figures yeah cool - a roadtrip with pals to do a little soul searching -Hah. Little does she know that the AC is only kinda working and that we have several long hauls from NO to Dallas-sleeping in for only 4 or 5 hours at a time- and she has the added bonus of dodging our drunken amorous advances- and perhaps worse than all that having to see some seriously un - young- un tanned half naked dudes- all reekin’

( quick interjection- None of us have ever been further west than Gretna and looking out over endless Colorado farmland, gently sloping and slightly parched with late summer heat is an amazing sight.

Mike: We had a great time back at the hotel with Jessica and Trevor

mike and pete w/ jessica and trevor at the lions lair

who took impeccable care of us at Lion’s Lair.

colin @ nicks? no, guess again..somewhere in denver..

We must have parted ways at 5am after drinking and swimming all night. An evening to rival any of the many at our own beloved Nick’s- Thanks you guys! no diving...motorway @the lions den (the best hole in the wall west of the miss.)

we miss Paris and all the goofy fun she had with us- Salil has masterfully guided us into the foothills of the rockies. Denver is so pretty. You have by now read about the perilous moments between Pete and Eric so there is no need to elaborate, although I will say I am not truly convinced that I had and evil come what may grin as Pete did his deed. Not to say that I hadn't suggested the jettison earlier in the trip either.

Wed August 16th on the way to steamboat springs

Salil - There’s something almost spiritual riding in the back of the van surrounded by Grn’s purple and red mood lighting, listening to Eliot Smith, driving through the Rockies in the rain.

Pete’s uncanny ability to call things into existence on the road (‘Hey, they usually have those signs that say FALLING ROCKS’ bam! Falling rock sign shows up) failed when us was most important (Hey, the Swedish bikini team should be hitchhiking ‘) We were devastated. Sniff.

Pete- well we’ve made it to the rocky mountains finally. It’s finally cooling off. We’re stopped on a steep incline where traffic has stopped for the moment. As we all venture off the side of the road as the van is stopped for the time being, we catch a view of a waterfall as we do our business. the mountains are amazing. no matter which direction you look, it's a scene from a postcard. you feel like you are on top of the world (not in a titanic/leonardo d'caprio kind of way, but in a i just climbed mount everest kind of way.... a bit of a difference).

It’s amazing how short of breath you get up here. I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch my breath for the show tonight.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I’ve been allergic to for the past week or so-I’ve deduced that it is mike’s frigging cat jizz pillow that has somehow found it’s way to every surface of the van. It sucks to be allergic.

  and cows swoon .

Colin has pulled out his acoustic and is strumming some john denver tune and substituted lyrics about cat sperm on mikes pillow-I'm so glad they can find some joy in my misery-that’s what bandmates are for I guess. Hopefully we’ll get there soon.

colin singing to the tune of pete's misery--rocky mountain cats......

Mike: my cat was not here to defend himself against Pete’s displaced rage. I have never seen a cat masturbate

home

August 16th Steamboat springs CO - The Tugboat

Eric/ After arriving to the club and unloading, we were handed the keys to what will be the most luxurious accommodations had this whole trip. It was a two- story condo overlooking the summit that could have slept comfortably well over eight people. Hopefully, we will be asked back during ski season.

Kind of weird scenario for the show. Everyone for the most part in the beginning was seated at tables for grub. Our best fan, a 10 year old girl, was eager to hang out, but was soon to be hauled out unwillingly by her parents. "But I’m not tired yet mommy!"

We did wake up an elderly woman in her fifty’s named Anna, from way across the street. She turned out to be way cool. She requested to hear "beast of burden" and danced with the stud Salil longer than he was prepared for. In fact, at this point was one of our highlights as practically everyone was on the dance floor. We did a long expanded version to take full advantage, with several solo’s, introductions and all. We really could be a cover band if we wanted.  

salil/ The only person we brought back with us to our sweet abode, was the soundman, even after Mike, against me and Pete’s pleas, gave away his rock n roll stage cowboy hat to the waitress.

and the hat was never seen again....eric w/ 2 waitresses from the tugboat.

Not that we were desperate to have people over, but this pad was a great setup for a killer party. The sound man ended up being a really kind bud, who crashed on the couch. Despite the numerous bed set ups, Colin also slept bolt-upright on a separate couch, his hand remaining stiffly curled long after we removed his last beer, in the shape of the can.

mike/ "You are the loudest band I have ever had in here, but I like you guys..."It is official our first dance tune "Beast of Burden" I gave my damn hat away with glee- not a drunken move to get into the fine waitresses drawers- honest- sometimes it is just nice to give things to people when they want them- we do not ever really own things in the long run and giving is hard when you like something. Paris is sure that the hat helps me get my swerve on and screamed so loud over the phone as I selected a new one. c'est la vie- the new hat is nice too. Besides Salil has a stake in the new one and can kick my narrow ass if I do it again. I think Paris can kick my ass too actually.

eric/ We learned a couple of things. One, we were the loudest band ever to play The Tugboat. And two, there be hiking in these mountains.

the band in the goldola ride up before the near fatal "hiking episode"

Salil/ Everyone save Pete decided to go hiking. Pete was fixing the rocktastic stereo for us. So there we were, on a two hour tour… Eric was running around like crazy on these bike paths having a blast. The rest of us ambled along getting some great pics. We reached a point with a beautiful view and Eric and Mike decided to sit down for awhile,

just moments before the "three hour tour" went bad....awfully bad.

catch their breath, and enjoy the rocky mountain high. Then the trip almost turned into something from ALIVE. It started raining, lightning, it was cold, and I (Salil) started to plan out worst case scenarios, we were only half way down the mountain and the only shelter we could find was a high voltage enclosure poster "DO NOT ENTER THIS ENCLOSURE". Cigarettes were being rationed, as was the water and the only Snickers bar between the four of us.

like something out of a charlie's angels episode....the guys coming down the mountain.

where the heck are they?

.August 17th Travel Day, Steamboat to Wichita, via LA. Interstate 70 - 9 to state hwy 40

next time we’re going to hit Denver by NOT going down Colfax for 8 hours. It to elysian fields baby.

home

August 18th - The ever elusive JAM ROOM< Wichita KS

salil/ After finally finding the club, we took a break to go find Mike a new hat, quite kickin’. Back to Jam Room. Mike walks out with a madman’s chuckle, which we didn’t understand until we walked in. The scantily clad women in leather took the MOTORWAY baby t’s and shredded them. It was like COYOTE UGLY in the twilight zone.

Pete/ we got to the club and were initially a little disturbed to find nothing but metal on the jukebox (save a nirvana and stevie ray vaughn), not a good sign. There was a girl that wanted to buy t-shirts and sign autographs…pretty cool.

what the heck have we got ourselves into. (and where is the chicken wire?)

eric/ The band signed the niptastic shirts for the Kansas babes. We’re waiting on food now before we venture back into the Metal bar (easier to fight our way out on full stomachs). We shall see.

pete/ Well, I figured it would either one of the best nights or one of the worst. It turned out to be the former. The first band was called trim and after every song they would announce that we were on after them which was really cool. Before we went on, we got aquatinted with the crowd. They were extremely cool and we relaxed a bit and had some frosty beverages…maybe a few to many. As we took the stage I got the feeling that anything could happen. I would have to say that it definitely was NOT one of our tightest shows, but we rocked. The crowd seemed captivated, though I could not figure out why. Maybe it’s because we did the kiss "allright whichita---are you ready to rock?!!" they responded very heartily.

We got a lot of names on the mailing list. After we played, it was kind of a blur, but I do remember taking a bunch of photos with ronnie the owner, and one of them was comprised of us posing in front of his stomach which had a tattoo of the state of texas on it….very bizarre. I am kind of scared to get the pictures developed…hopefully there won’t be any unsavory acts with farm animals or anything.

mike/ what follows are my very drunken and pukey impressions of our amazing night in Kansas. impressionistic verse rather than journalistic. If half of what you say is true maybe I am lucky if I don't know. There is madness, desolation and toothless love. Big tattooed guy doesn't scare me. What's scary is that sanctity is prudence meted out in jackrabbit rhythm. There is this tiny moment wherein, if you are looking, you are embraced by the bullies of the world . in that moment with sweaty beer embracing strangers you realize they are just as scared as you- perhaps more so because tomorrow they wake again to this life- we fill up and go. You can feel the ebb of energy pulse through the room hot and nervous- you wait for the snarl and glistening snap- you imagine getting good and bloodied, getting beaten to a pulp. like some prehistoric romp - genetic protection- caveman shit guarding your territory- when did we get so fucking civil. I am amazed at how you can pack up a van with music and love, go to a very different place, and have people return in kind, no questions asked. Girls used to much rougher treatment-almost pretty-beauty derailed-can blossom with
tenderness.

Thanks to Ronnie Lynn and especially Tracy

eric w/ babes

sat august 19

pete/ It’s about 1 pm and we are on the road to little rock. Colin’s driving and I am navigator. The rest of the guys are zonked out in the back. We got very little sleep due to ronnie the club owner insisting we do shots with him…it seemed like a good idea at the time, but I’m wondering now if we are a bunch of idiots. Some people never learn I guess. I think we got about 4 hours of sleep, not to mention a pretty mean headache. I think colin is a bit giddy, he’s started greeting all of the toll booth attendants in spanish.

"Hola senior!" He’ll say….i think he’s losing it.. aren’t we all though.

home

sat aug 19 juanita's

mike/ Well since our friends in KS saw to it that we would not sleep but for three ragged hours the trip to AK is hard and we run very close to late. Colin has become navigator supreme and even as we sleep, which he rarely does in the van, he fastidiously plans every turn and exit with an uncanny precision. we pull in with only 40 minutes to set up and change, and in my case, accept the fact that there will be no showering today. We have a swank dressing room this time and people have come to see us who have done so elsewhere- very cool. My amp decides that it needs to be plugged in properly( something
Chrissy has long since learned at her new school) and I spend the first disastrous three songs relearning. FUCK ME.
The crowd is beyond patient and the applause is heartfelt as I sheepishly strum the chords to what is our last set of the trip. Super nice crowd fills up our list. BigAssTruck are nice guys and the club does not dock our allotted time because of my mishap.!! Pete is approached by the ultrafine bartender and they hang out -and as a consolation prize we get to sleep on her floor. Thanks to Marlo for having us at her house- she hardly knew us and her cat was in heat but let us in anyway.

Sunday aug 20 the road home

pete/ We are on our way back to n.o.l.a. with mixed feelings. We are sad that our tour is over, but we’ll all be glad to get to sleep in our own beds for a change. What the hell, sleep is overrated anyways. We made it without getting in any major skirmishes and best of all without killing each other/breaking up the band.

The gig last night went well. We rolled into little rock with about 1 ½ hours to spare, so we didn’t get a chance to take showers or relax a bit. After a ten hour drive we were feeling pretty grimy. The place was called Juanita's a tex/mex resturaunt with a music club attached next door. The people were really cool. A guy came up to us and welcomed us to little rock and told us to have a good show. People in little rock were just as friendly if not more so than folks in n.o.

We didn’t get much of a sound check, but we did a check of the mikes and things sounded great. The sound guy really knew what he was doing, which was cool. The people responded to our intro nicely, and it looked as though it was going to be a rock o licious set.... then disaster struck. Mike’s guitar went dead ¼ through the first song. Colin kicked into the 2nd song and mike still didn’t have his amp working. Thank goodness we bought a backup guitar amp and salil was on the ball. We finally figured out what went wrong after about 5 minutes of troubleshooting. My bass amp had vibrated mike’s speaker cord out which wasn’t pushed in all of the way. We were rushing around so much before the show, it must have slipped through the cracks.

The rest of the show went off without a hitch. Sometimes those kind of things can derail the show, but we managed to get over it.

After the show we went next door to some after hours club and hung out with some of the staff from juanita's. i got to hang out with marlo who works at juanita's and is mega cool. she had to leave to go visit her parents. just my stuipid luck. she was extremely cool. maybe next time.

Overall it was a great night.

Mission accomplished.

sunday aug 20 11:30 pm

Well, almost,Just as we hit I 20 we had a blowout. To make matters worse, there was a lock on the spare tire that we didn't have a key for…any other band would have probably started crying and given up, but not motorway.

Luckily mikey b had an awesome set of tools. We hacked, whacked and tore that bee-ach apart. We went ahead and called colin’s roadside assistance and just as we had the tire off, the guy showed up.

What timing.

The best part about it was the tow truck driver gave us a killer short cut that shaved 70 miles off of our trip home. Rockin. Three hours till new orleans home sweet home

the motorway calendar

mike/ What a trip- one blow up(pete and eric) one blow out ( flat on I-20) and a complete blast all the around. Thanks to Salil Paris and my boys for putting up with my silly ass-Who's got the Keys?

pete/ we just got home checked my email--about 50 messages from folks we've met along the way..many ups to all of our new friends....we had a blast

home