As we got closer to Redlands, Brook started making phone calls looking for something to do and somewhere to eat. Sure enough Baker’s was the place to be. Baker’s is amazing to someone like me. It’s a fast food place, but it has vegan tacos and vegan burgers—not to mention French Fries, which if it were up to me would be the only thing I ate. Well, that and Lays potato chips. We made a beeline for the Baker’s, ate and made our way to Loomis’ house to crash for the night.
The next day we did what we do best on tour, and that is a whole lot of nothing. French Fry burritos from Cuca’s and fancy sodas from Gerald’s were how we spent most of the afternoon. The show was to be at Tithemi (Thom’s church) again, but we still had a few hours before the show.
Then Brook got a text from Davin.
“Oubliette broke up,” he said.
We were all surprised for a collective 5 seconds.
“That makes sense,” Clint said.
"So what happened?" I asked.
Here’s what happened. We thought tensions were high between Bryan and us, but apparently that was nothing compared to what the tension between everyone in Oubliette was. When it comes down to it, it makes perfect sense. They’d never been on tour before and they dive right in to a full U.S. trek that keeps falling apart piece by piece. That will take a toll on you for sure.
After sitting around Fresno for a while before realizing they weren’t going to play at all, they found somewhere to spend the night. The next day as they were driving through the desert just south of Fresno, the engine in their van blew up. Someone came and looked at it and determined that it was a total loss. They were towed to a wrecking yard and sold the van for parts—and made a whopping $150. They were 2,400 miles from home with no form of transportation, no band money and skyrocketing tempers. Both guitar players and the bass player loaded all their equipment onto a Grayhound bus, bought plane tickets and flew home. Davin, Ben and Bryan got a ride down to Redlands and came to the show that night.
None of us were surprised and actually kind of relieved that we weren’t going to have to deal with them anymore. And as much as Clint still wanted to punch Bryan in the face, he held off. Figured he’d been through enough for one day.
The show that night was the most fun we’d had all tour so far. Can’t really remember anything else. We still had another day in the Inland Empire before our show in Corona the next night, so there were more French Fry burritos and fancy sodas to be had. And I never have a problem with that.
