"ROADTRIP!!"
Josh is at the wheel of his 1990 blue-flake Chevy Suburban, loaded with at least 50lbs worth of Ramen, cheese & PB crackers, Dr. Pepper, Spam, Sunflower seeds, Red Bull, Vienna Sausages, Axe Deoderant spray, deli meat, Doritos, and bagels. Joe is navigator; he has a white trash bag full of his "whites" he obviously washed and packed only hours before we hit the road. Nate and I (gio) are sitting in the back seat, iPods at the ready. Skreech is in the BACK back with mountains of snacks ready to pour over him at the next sharp left.

We're on I-40 west, with the windows down and our hopes up. It's our first tour. And then it happens. "What's that noise?" A clinking-scraping sound coming from under the hood, like rolling beebee's in a metal bowl. We have to turn around and get the timing fixed and the distributor something or other tightened (what do I know about this? I drive a VW.)

"ROAD TRIP!!"
We're on our way, for reals this time and we have five hours to make it to Flagstaff in time for load in. We pull into the parking lot of Studio 111 before the venue owner is there to unlock the doors. As we pull into an alley, we spot some "slimmies" walking down the sidewalk. Joe yells out the window "Hit by a Bus at Studio 111!!!" The girls turn around. It was like slow motion, like the moment in a cheesy romance flick where the girl flashes her "I want you" smile to the boy. They look at us, they smile. Joe locks his eyes with one of them. It was magic. And then the trailer hitch SCRAPES against the concrete crrrruuuunnncchhhh and they laugh and keep walking. Real slick. So we're the openers for this RockFest at the Studio111. It's an all-ages show and the sound is terrible. But we put forth a jammin performance anyway. I even get a chance to mosh with the kids. Merch sales are good, the place is packed and there are people hanging out outside on the street. Flagstaff is a beautiful town. We even got Crazy-eyes McGee's number. He tried to give us the keys to his house but we had to be in Phoenix the next day. Flagstaff is a beautiful town.

Have you ever been in Phoenix without air conditioning? If so, we are brothers for we have sweat copiously and choked on heat waves enough to know without words that Phoenix is hell on earth. It was September and 105 degrees. We play a gig at the Tupelo Tap Room. Strangely enough, a guy shows up wearing a Nunchuk/Fraction Records t-shirt, drunkenly confiding in others at the bar that we'll be recording in Weed in a couple of weeks. He has to go home after we play because of a really bad headache. Cheers to you, Drunk Guy.

We play another gig at Jugheads, a punk/rockabilly/grunge bar. Sid, the owner, pours beers with no restraint at no charge. He even buys a t-shirt. What a guy. The guys are outside watching Sin City on my computer and having a few drinks themselves when gunshots ring out, just a couple hundred feet away. Apparently, it was a drug trade gone wrong. We leave Phoenix in a hurry that night, fearing the heat of the desert from there to San Diego.

To be continued...

quote:

Strangely enough, a guy shows up wearing a Nunchuk/Fraction Records t-shirt,

Its good to hear we made a minor impact on the AZ area... lol
Can't wait to hear the new stuff! Keep us posted!

quote:

Nunchuk/Fraction Records t-shirt,

Actually is a NUNCHUK shirt not a damn Fraction shirt!
But thanks for the shout out.

Well...technically...it had both logos on it and since I tend to ride the fence, I figured I'd mention both. But whatever, the point is, there was a dude in AZ that was psyched about us being there and he happened to be wearing that shirt. Man, if we had one "the Drunk Guy" at every show, we'd be happy. If we had two, I think we'd wet ourselves.