Since the summer tour was a bit of a bust... okay, giant bust due to the complete and utter disorganization of the Total Liberation Tour, we decided to hit the road again on our own. We couldn't do much on short notice, so we just hit up the people that we knew. We were asked to play a local show called "Sabbathon" in SLC, and the day before that something called "Rememberance Fest" in Boise, so we just worked backwards from there. We could only get a few shows, so it wasn't more than four days we were gone. Our first stop was Mikey Hoods place, West Coast Worldwide.So, a bit of backstorey on Hoods and Mikey...
About three years ago, I played for this band called Opened Up. Hoods came to town and Opened Up, along with Cherem, played with them (Cherem covered Firestorm). As Opened Up was setting up, the Hoods bass player got up on stage and exchanged words with our bass player. He doesn't have a real good temper, so things escalated quick. Hoods bassist told us they were playing next and we needed to "get the fuck off the stage." We obliged and proceeded to heckle Hoods for their first two songs. They were heckled pretty badly and one kid in the crowd had a little toy gun that shot rubber pellets, and was shooting them at the band. Finally, Hoods had enough, packed their shit up and left. Everyone in SLC wanted to fight them that night, and I'm pretty sure Hoods were pretty into fighting whoever, too but I think half of them had the flu and figured it would be an unfair fight anyway, so they just split. Then the internet shit talking began. Both SLC kids and SACTO kids did their part, but it got a bit out of hand. Quick finish... Three years later, Mikey Hood asks us to come out and play Sacramento and we say yes.
In true Cherem fashion, we don't end up leaving Bill's house until around midnight. He and his girlfriend Misty were still packing. We make the rounds to the store for soda and what not, find a gas station and are finally on our way to Sacramento at 1 am. We decide to drive through the desert at night because our sweet van has no A/C and it's the middle of August.
Now, the ride to Sacramento was probably one of the best tour drives I've ever had. Dan the man was riding shotgun and Bill was rocking the seat directly behind us, so the two of them kept me company while I drove my usual night shift. Basically we waxed intelectual about a few of the finer bands from the early 90's. I happened to have a Grunge Mix cd, so we popped that in and talked about all the greats for hours; Mudhoney, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden...etc. We vowed that when we got home we'd start a band like that, but it's still never seen the light of day. Every once in a while at practice or before a show Dan and I will rock some Smashing Pumpkins, though. I think that's as close as we'll ever get.
Around 8am we rolled into Reno and tried to get something to eat and maybe win a little money. Well, since only Bill and Misty took off and Dan and Austin aren't old enough to gamble, I lost money for everyone. Putting ten bucks on black twice and losing just pissed me off, so I wouldn't do it anymore. Even with Austin's money, I said no. Because I didn't want to win and have to give that smug bastard his winnings. That's why I refuse to play the slot machines for my dad whenever we pass through Vegas. If I won with his quarter I'd pretend it was mine, keep the winnings, then just feel like shit for doing so. I think I won once for Austin and told him that was enough. We piled back in the van, and I tried to sleep a little while Bill and Misty watched one of the worst movies ever, Monster, on Austin's laptop. Sleep didn't really work because by then it was hot, and I could keep hearing Charlize Theron playing a white trash whore. Heat and whores. That's the stuff nightmares are made of.
We finally got to Sacto around 1pm, and didn't really know what to do. We looked for the venue, but couldn't find it. We called Mike Hood and he told us load in time was about 5, but told us where the venue was. We looked, and true to Mikey's description of "looks like an abandoned building" we found it. We spotted a Tower Records and hit that up for about an hour, then as I headed for the comic shop down the road, everyone else hit up the coffee shop across the street. I met up with them there, and we killed a few hours and I tried to nap, but it still wasn't working. Finally it was time to hit the venue.
As we rolled up, we were greeted by Mike. In the back of all our minds, all we could think was: "This guy just lured us to Sacramento so he could beat the shit out of us in his own town. We're so fucked." Not so. We joked about the whole thing a little bit, but put it behind us and he introduced us to the bands we were playing with. Bloody Sunday was on the show, and we were pretty stoked. Good guys. We'd played with them in the Vegas junkyard.
This is about the time we learned that we were basically following the Eulogy Records tour. The Warriors, Shattered Realm and The Judas Cradle were playing in San Fransisco the same night, which meant there was about 40 kids there. It was still fun, though.
After the show, we went to get some pizza in the ghetto. We didn't know it was the ghetto until someone told us, "Don't park on that street right there. If you can't see the van it'll get broken in to." So we moved the van to avoid theft, and oh the irony, Dan's brother calls right then to tell him their apartment had been broken into.
After some decent pizza, we decide to drive through the night to Washington. We head out with Clint behind the wheel and I got the first bench all to myself. We watched a little of Full Metal Jacket and I was spent. I finally fell asleep around 2:30 am. I'd been awake for about 36 hours and I needed some rest. It was short lived, though. I woke up around 6:45 and we were parked in a hotel parking lot and the entire van was asleep.
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