NOT FORGOTTEN, BUT MOSTLY GONE

I seriously doubt anyone still looks at this page, but in the off chance that someone does, I'm making a little update.

This project is still very much alive, it's just not alive in real time. The method used to be that I'd write a piece and post it immediately, but I stopped doing that a long, long time ago. Like 4 years ago. Ooops.

I transferred everything that's on this site to a Google Doc and added every other out of town date that I've played withe Cherem, Tamerlane and Aftermath of a Trainwreck. I made little bullet points of things I remembered about each show and have been slowly plugging away at it ever since.

Earlier this year, I got a boring desk job that comes with A LOT of downtime. In some of that downtime, I've been pecking away at some of these stories and fleshing them out. The entry below (July 19, 2005 - Redlands, CA) is pages 49-50 of that document. I just hit page 116 this morning. Things are moving along nicely.

My goal is to have the whole thing finished by the end of the year. I'll let it sit for a month or so then dive back in for rewrites. I want to make the tone consistent throughout and hit all the little things that I missed along the way - anecdotes, side stories, new recollections, etc.

The plan is to put it together with some fliers, photos, set lists, news articles and things like that and make a nice, limited edition book. Mostly it would be just for the dudes in the band, but depending on how it turns out and how much it costs to manufacture, I might make a few extra available in the off chance that other people want one.

We'll see. I'm determined to get this finished. Whether or not anyone actually sees it is another story all together.

March 20, 2005 - Cedar City, Utah

We were on our way to Cedar City, but we were hungry as hell. We weren’t sure what our options would be, so we stopped in St. George to hit up our home away from home on tour, Fazoli’s. It was terrible as usual, but it filled us up and that’s all that matters. We jumped back in the van and drove the 45 more minutes to Cedar City.

As the show was getting started, people from Salt Lake started showing up. It was good to see everyone, and kind of a nice homecoming of sorts. Blake and Richard drove down to take the place of Clint and I, and it was nice to finally watch Aftermath from the side of the stage instead of being front and center with them. I enjoyed playing for them, and I think Clint and I did an excellent job, but they sound much better with Blake and Richard. That’s Aftermath of a Trainwreck.

The drive home took a little longer than expected, because it had started snowing again while we were gone. At least we were able to miss most of the shitty weather, and we had a good time. Sleeping in my own bed was nice, but it was short lived. I had to be back to school at 10 A.M.

March 19, 2005 - Phoenix, AZ

We stopped to fill the van in a little town called Yuma, Arizona. That city is really nothing more than a giant retirement home and military base. At least I think. My Grandpa lives in Yuma from October to April every year, and from the stories he tells, there’s not many people under the age of 60 down there.

As we pulled back onto the street heading towards the freeway, there was a small group of kids—probably 12 or 13 years old—standing around on the corner. They saw the van and trailer and figured we were a band on tour. One of them started yelling, so Jake rolled down the window.
“Hey, what band are you guys?”
“Taking Back Sunday,” said Jake.
The kids flipped out and started yelling at us to stop, but we just kept right on going. It was probably the funniest thing Jake did the entire ten days we were gone.

We rolled in to Phoenix and it had been raining most of the day, and much like Southern California, people in Arizona are afraid of the rain. I think they feel it’s a sign of the apocalypse or something and they won’t leave the house out of fear. That said, the turnout was a bit mediocre.

We did hit Chopstix on the way, but I wasn’t feeling too well so it was kind of ruined for me. It was a bummer, because that BBQ tofu is delicious and I totally missed out. I tried to save it, but after a few hours, it wasn’t even remotely edible.

Back to the show, we had been wondering all day whether Bring it Down was going to show up or not. We were all a little bit surprised when we got there and their van was behind the venue. Clifton, another band from Salt Lake, was just heading out on tour, and they were on the show as well. It was a like someone took a weird Salt Lake line-up and just moved the whole thing to Phoenix.

The tensions between Bring it Down and Cherem and Aftermath were running a little bit high, so we kind of avoided each other the entire night—or at least until Bring it Down left. They were supposed to co-headline with Cherem, but they talked to the promoter, switched with another band, played second and bailed as soon as their set was over.

Aftermath and Cherem played, the sets were both solid, but nothing special. One of our friends from down in Phoenix talked us in to playing Life of Agony for the final time on the tour, so we did. Again, no one knew what the hell it was. Fun song to cover though. We just couldn’t ever get away from it.
After the set, a few kids came up to Bill and told him they were bummed that he didn’t talk much during the set. They were so excited to see us play, and hear him say something awesome, but it was the last show, everyone was a bit burned out and the vibe just wasn’t there. Sorry to those kids that were looking forward to hearing a speech of some sort, but sometimes it’s just not going to happen.

After the show, we hung out and spent the night at an apartment that like 7 people lived at. I stayed up most of the night watching Family Guy and trying to find Bad Boys II, but never did. Finally fell asleep around 5 am, woke up at 10 and were back on the road to Cedar City for the final show of the tour.

March 18, 2005 - Oceanside, CA

When I woke up on the floor of Thom’s living room, Maryn was sitting by my head watching a movie. The first thing she asked was if I wanted to play, and since I’m a sucker for kids, I obliged. We didn’t do anything too active since I refused to actually get up off the floor, but we did what we could. Thom asked if I’d watch her while he ran to get her some juice, and I said of course. Ten minutes later, he was back with the juice, poured the three of us a glass and sat down. He asked about everyone that we hung out with in high school, if I ever saw anyone or what had happened with in their lives. I had to tell him the truth Most of them were either going through rehab or still in the thick of whatever their addiction was. It was hard to tell him about the kids that I used to be so close to, but now barely knew.

When everyone else was finally up we decided to get some quick lunch before it was time to pile back in the van. I ended up driving (surprise, surprise) and we were following Thom. About halfway there, while stopped at a stoplight, a car rolled up next to us and the old man driving informed us that the trailer was open. The first thing that ran through my head was, “Holy shit, is my stuff close to the front of the trailer?” Since I was usually the one to pack up, I had a pretty good idea where everything was, and felt a little calmer knowing my stuff was all towards the back. All the while, no one had done anything except for try and blame each other for leaving it open.

“So,” I said, “somebody want to jump out and shut the fucking thing or sit here and argue a little bit more.”

Dan jumped out, shut the trailer and got back in the van. The argument continued the rest of the way to the restaurant until we pulled in and everyone piled out to see if anything was missing. Only one thing was gone: Clint’s luggage.

He and I borrowed Thom’s car and retraced our steps back to his house, twice, but to no avail. It was gone forever. He wasn’t too broken up about it. He said the only thing he’d really miss was his Misfits shirt, and thanks to Hot Topic, those are now readily available. We got back grabbed a quick bite and were on our way to Oceanside.

I stayed in Oceanside a few times when I was little. Well, littler I guess. I’m not exactly huge now. Anyway, whenever my family would go to Disneyland, we’d rent a house in Oceanside or Balboa. I remember it being pretty nice, but when I was 6 everything was nice.

The show was at the Oceanside Recreation Center, right on the beach, and it was a benefit show. This was the show that Mike Hartsfield, he of New Age Records fame, helped set up. Two of his labels new bands, Angels Die and Hellfire Trigger, were on the show, so add Aftermath and Cherem is the odd man out. That’s not counting the opening band, Pink Robots, but I think we’d all just assume forget about them all together.

Now, being a Rec center, the stage was in the gym and it was huge. It was the equivalent of playing a high school dance only with less people; a lot less people. It was raining outside, and if there’s one thing that scares the hell out of everyone in California, it’s rain. For some reason, no one dares to leave their house if it’s raining in Southern California so there were very few people at the show. To kill time while we waited for some people to arrive, we played basketball. I tend to get a little competitive when it comes to sports, so I tried to take it easy, but it didn’t work too well. But my team won, and I guess that’s all that matters. See? That’s the competitive side.

When it was finally time to get our shit set up, Jake wasn’t happy. He didn’t want to play on the stage and was saying they weren’t going to play unless they could set up on the floor. I didn’t really care either way, and Brook wanted to play on the stage so he could run back and forth. He ended up being in the minority and we played on the stage and pretended to be a much bigger band than we actually were. Cherem played next and included River Runs Red for the three people in the crowd that knew it.

After we played, we met a kid that drove all the way up from Tijuana, Mexico just to watch us. He bought a bunch of stuff from us and Aftermath and that alone made the show worth it. To know that there were those two kids driving from another country just to watch us do our thing was the one of the best parts of the whole tour.

When we were all packed up, we piled in the van for the long drive to Arizona. We all have friends down there, so it was one of the places we were looking forward to the most, but after about half an hour of driving, Austin asked if we could swing in and visit his mom who lived in San Diego. None of us minded, and we ended up staying the night. His mom offered to take us to breakfast the next day, and we were kind of excited about that, but when the morning rolled around, we had all overslept and needed to get on the road if we were going to make it to Phoenix in time to get BBQ tofu that I’d been hearing about for a week and a half. Like I said, this tour was more about good food than good shows

March 17, 2005 - Redlands, CA

We pulled into Redlands about 2am, tired as fuck and ready for sleep. We were staying with Thom Green who played drums for Cherem in SLC a long time ago. As soon as we got inside pretty much everyone fell asleep, but a couple of us sat around and caught up with Thom for a little bit. Clint and the Rookie refused to wake up, so we left him in the van while everyone else got situated on the floor. After about half an hour of chit chat and Thom deciding it was time to turn in, I felt bad so I went outside to wake him up. I didn’t have the keys with me so I was reduced to knocking on the window. It took a good three minutes of knocking before they woke up, but as soon as they did, we headed back inside and fell asleep.

His daughter came over early the next morning, but she played in Thom’s room while everyone gradually woke up. The rest of the dudes rose and got ready, and while they did, Thom’s daughter, Maryn, asked me to play Polly Pockets with her. Since I am a sucker for little kids, she and I rocked Polly Pockets for a while until it was time for her to go to school. After Thom left to take her, we set out for Chico’s. Brook had been raving about it since we left SLC, so we were anxious to get there. It was about half an hour away, but came with a promise that it would be well worth the trip.

As we pulled into the parking lot, the house next door to the restaurant was having a garage sale. There was a guy standing by the back door keeping an eye on things, and when Austin got out of the car, the guy noticed Austin’s tattoos and said, “You get any of those in prison?”
“Uh, no.” Austin replied.
“Damn. Those are the best kind of tattoos.”
Austin wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, but it didn’t matter, because his attention had turned to Brook in the drivers seat, wearing just a jersey.
“Damn! You’re homeboy’s all blasted, huh?” He said.
“Yep,” Said Austin, “pretty blasted.”
At that point, Brook had parked the van and gotten out right next to his yard, within shouting distance, and the guy yelled out, “Hey, what’s that say on your throat Homes?”
“Dedication,” said Brook.
The old man nodded his head, took a drag of his cigarette and replied, “Hell yeah it does.”
We tried to contain our laughter until we got inside, and barely made it. Even if the food wasn’t as good as promised, that scene was well worth the trip.

The food was all that it was promised and we left feeling very satisfied, but then we noticed a problem. The parking lot behind Chico’s was too small for us to turn around in and too long for us to back out of. After about 20 minutes of trying every trick possible, the waiter from Chico’s came out with a box of Tofutti Cuties for us. At first we thought it was a sympathy gift because we were having such a hard time, but then realized it was probably more because we had left a very generous tip. While we snacked on those a few other drivers took a shot at getting us out of the parking lot. After over half an hour of trying, we finally unhooked the trailer with everything in it and put it back on after the van was facing the exit. Everyone was pretty irritated, so it was a quiet drive back to Thom’s house.


Back at the house, while everyone was taking naps and watching Anchorman for the seventh or eighth time, Maryn came home and she and I and Clint picked up right where we left off in our PP game. That got old pretty quick, and she came up with a new game that consisted of little more than her killing Clint and I and bringing us back to life. This was about the time that she re-named me Clayton for some reason. Not sure why, but that’s what she called me for most of the rest of the day. After and hour or so of that, her babysitter came so Thom could get to his church early to set everything up. Maryn and I and her sitter decided to let the dudes nap for a bit longer while we walked to the store for popsicles. When we got back it was time to go. We climbed back in our home on wheels and drove to the show.

Thom is the Pastor of an Alternative Christian Church, and has a place that doubles as a venue for bands when they need a show. It’s a nice place, and probably the only church I’ve ever seen that has Star Wars murals on the wall. It was still early, and no one was really there yet, so we all walked across the street to Barnes and Noble to kill some time. By the time we all got back, the show was ready to start and there were quite a few kids ready to have a good time. Thom’s band played and it was fun to watch him play drums again. He’d been singing in xDEATHSTARx for a while, but quit when they started touring. He’s a drummer at heart, so it was good to see him back behind a set. Aftermath played and kids were going off making it probably the best response of the tour. Cherem was up after them again and it was definitely the best show we played on tour, despite my string breaking halfway through our best song. We made up for it with an otherwise good show. After we were done, xDEATHSTARx came up and finished off the night. A good time was had by all, and after the show as we were all hanging around, this girl walked over to the merch table and sent several of the dudes into a lovesick haze.

As we got back to Thom’s, a bunch of the DS kids were hanging out and Thom put on a DVD of one of the funniest stand up comedians I’ve ever seen. I’m not much for stand up, but this guy was hilarious. It was a hell of a way to end the night.

March 16th, 2005 - South Gate, CA

We woke up around 7am and Dan and I decided we should drive to find a coffee shop somewhere. I think hanging out at random coffee shops is a staple on any tour we take, especially in LA because we like to sit around and watch how important people pretend to be. As Bill jumped into the driver’s seat, we started wondering how we were going to get out of the parking lot. It wasn’t big enough to just turn around in, so Bill had to pull off quite an amazing three point turn by backing the trailer into a covered parking spot. He did it much to our amazement and we were on our way. We drove to a Starbucks down by the beach and set up camp for a little while. Austin and Brook opted out of the coffee shop for more sleep in the van, but the rest of us had wonderful conversation that resulted in the formation of the greatest band in the history of the world. All I can really say about it is the name, The Guitarmy. Don’t be surprised when we take over the world someday soon.

The Rookie had never seen the ocean, so after a few hours of Starbucks we headed down to the beach to give the kid a look. Dan, Jake and Clint all got in their swimming suits to take a dip while Bill took a long walk on the beach talking to his girlfriend on the phone. We pretended that they were taking a virtual walk on the beach together while we watched the other three take a cannonball run into the water. It was March, so the water was pretty cold, but that didn’t seem to matter to any of them. While we were at Starbucks, our friend Kodee had come down to meet up with us, and offered up his apartment for a shower. We piled back in the van and drove to Long Beach to get cleaned up. When we were all ready, he took us to Native Food before we left for the show.

As we left Native Food, we stopped by another shop to see a friend of ours at work, but he wasn’t there, so we decided to head on to the show. As we were on the freeway I saw the exit for Compton, and after years of listening to NWA, I decided it would be a good idea to get off and drive around for a minute. That idea was immediately shot down the second I brought it up, but it didn’t really matter, because the exit that we needed to take for the show was the first exit past Compton. As we exited the freeway, we saw a homeless guy on the side of the road staring at us, a few seconds later we heard a loud “BOOM” and were convinced that the homeless guy was jealous of our sweet van and had thrown something at us. We didn’t think much of it and continued on our way.

The show was in South Gate, California, which is like a small Spanish city within LA, and about two blocks from the venue, I noticed that we were driving on a flat tire. We pulled through a parking lot on to a side street to get it changed. Thanks to our brilliant planning, we didn’t have all the tools we needed to get the tire off, so I set out looking for a hardware store that might have something we could use. A few of the other dudes went down to the venue to let the promoter know we were only a block away and to borrow some tools for changing the tire. Brook and I sat on the curb eating rice and soy sauce watching Clint and Austin struggle with the tire for about an hour before it was finally changed and we could continue to the show.

The venue was actually an old movie theater that had been slightly renovated to accommodate shows. It was definitely the creepiest venue we have ever played. The stage was huge and it was the only part of the room with any light to it. It looked like the set of an old horror movie. Aftermath was up second, so we set up our stuff and started to play. After the first song, the sound guy told us we only had time for two more. We were confused, but just made the best of it and rocked the two best songs in the set. As we finished, we tried to get Cherem set up as quick as possible to use as much time as possible. As we were setting up, Jake walked up to ask the sound guy why they got cut short and the promoter walked up to the stage with Rob from Bring It Down. Apparently, BID was to share a set with Winds of Plague, but the sound guy got it mixed up and thought Aftermath and Cherem were supposed to share. They started apologizing to me and I told them they were going to have to talk to Jake, because he was furious. Cherem played a full set and everything went alright, but after we were finished, I walked out to our merch table and Brook said, “Jake just took Aric (Bring it Down singer) outside.”

I got a little nervous at that thought because Jake has a pretty short temper as it is, and he had been trying to keep his cool for three days. He finally lost it. A few minutes later, Rob comes walking up to their merch spot, which was right next to ours and told their merch guy to pack everything up because they were leaving. They started getting ready to go and Jake walked back in with smoke coming out of his ears. None of the kids would look at us and we just sat in awe as they put their shit away and drove off. After the show was over and we were packing up, we decided to take bets on whether or not they’d come to the Phoenix show. They weren’t getting very good odds. We jumped back in the van and back on the highway towards Redlands.

March 14th, 2005 - Redding, CA

When we wake up the next morning, everyone was pretty rested. Driving all night then playing a show took a lot out of us, so we were in need of a good rest. We heard about a burrito place that had good vegan stuff, so we gave it a shot. After we were full, we debated about what to do until the show started. We had a few hours to kill and our options were kind of limited. There was talk of seeing a movie, but since we had seen one the day before, no one was really into it. The Redding kids told us there was a skate park not far from where we were staying, so everyone thought that sounded like a good idea and we went back to the apartment to get boards and head over.

Now, I’m not much of a skater, so I opted out and went back in the apartment with a couple of the other dudes. I was looking around the apartment for something to entertain me while the rest of them played video games and hit up the Myspace. As I was looking at the movies, I noticed a book that I had been looking at the day before at Tower Records: “How to Make Love Like a Porn Star” by Jenna Jameson. I had read an excerpt from the book In Rolling Stone a few months before and it seemed interesting, so I picked it up. Two hours later I had read about 70 pages of it. I stopped for a minute to hear a story of how Dan ate shit two seconds after getting to the skate park and acquired a huge bruise that covered his entire knee. I read for most of the day while Austin schooled the rest of the dudes at NBA Live2005 and the other dudes chatted on the internet to random girls.


At about 6pm, we decided to go eat again because this tour was more about food than anything else, and there was a Thai restaurant near the venue. After we were through, we got to the venue just in time to meet up with Bring It Down. Brook went over to square everything away, and it went much easier than we thought it would. We played the show, and like Sacramento, since we weren’t old school two-step, we didn’t go over too well. We started packing up, and Matt was nowhere to be found. He was on his cell phone the entire time we were loading the trailer, and that’s about the time we decided his new nickname would be Rookie, and that’s what we called him for the rest of the trip. When we were done loading, we headed back to Harry’s apartment for another night of video games. I was relieved that we weren’t going to see Bring it Down again until Phoenix because tempers were still rising.

The next morning, we found out that our Long Beach show had been cancelled, so we had a day off to spend playing video games. While Jake was browsing through the bulletins on Myspace, he found a flyer for our show in LA the next night, but with another band added to the bill: Bring it Down. This is about the time that tempers rose through the roof and a few kids became irate. Around 3pm we left Redding to drive down and stay with a friend in Long Beach, but we hit some bad traffic right around Sacramento and it took us a lot longer than we expected. Finally around 1am, we rolled into Hollywood with nowhere to go so Austin got off the freeway to drive around the city until we found a place to go. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone, so we started looking for hotels around Huntigton Beach. The cheapest hotel we could find was about $75, and we decided that since it was already two in the morning, and we would have to check out by 11 it wouldn’t be worth it. So we drove behind the hotel and fell asleep with the homeless guy that was camped out by the dumpster.

March 13, 2005 - Sacramento, CA

The drive from Portland to Sacramento was by far the worst of tour. Everyone was tired and trying to sleep in various spots of the van. I was the last one to get in after buying gas, so I got the shittiest spot in the van. It’s right behind the passenger seat and there is no way to get comfortable. I tried for about an hour. Finally, I just bit the bullet and tried to squeeze down to the floor between the first and second bench. It was hard, but at least I could stretch out and fall asleep. After about an hour of driving through canyons and mountains, it started to get really cold on the floor. I looked around and found Clint’s blanket, so I wrapped myself up and fell back asleep. About 45 minutes after that, Clint is reaching over from the seat in front looking for his blanket. I decided to be hospitable and give it up, but as he was pulling it off he realized that I was using it and felt bad because I was on the floor, so he let me keep it. Apparently, while Brook was driving he encountered fog that was so thick he couldn’t see more than five feet in front of his face. Didn’t really matter to me, because all I wanted to do was sleep. When the sun came up and we rolled into a gas station, Bill decided that he wanted to drive. He was really excited about it and jumped into the pilot seat and we headed the rest of the way into Sacto.



We got to Sacramento about 11am with nothing to do, so we repeated our form and went to Tower Records & Books. It’s a good place to kill an hour or so. After that, we hit up the Thai restaurant that we skipped over the last time we were in town. This one was much better, and we regretted our decision from last time. Still having several hours to kill, we found a mall with a movie theater and watched HITCH. It was alright, but not $10 alright.

After the movie ended, we piled back in the van and headed over to West Coast Worldwide. A few of the bands had already shown up, including Bring It Down. Now here’s the thing about BID: I like them as people. I’ve never had any problems with any of the kids in the band, and they’ve always been nice to me. But on this tour, they started getting on my nerves a little, and everyone else’s nerves a lot. Apparently, when they found out we were going on tour with Aftermath, they started setting up a tour of their own. The only problem was they were going on the same tour we were. Wherever we had a show booked, they’d get a hold of the promoter and get on the show. We were both working with Mike Hood, so when they got on the Sacto and Redding show, we didn’t mind, but they got on our Phoenix show and our Cedar City show. I still can’t place why this bothered the hell out of any of us, but it did.

The show was good for a Sacto show. There were about 50 people there. That’s pretty good considering we aren’t an old school two-step band. After the show, Mikey Hood hooked us up with the kids in the band Set it Straight who were down to let us stay at their house up in Redding. We played there the next night, so we were fine with driving up there, and they seemed like cool kids. After we got paid, we piled in the van and headed on our way. About 15 minutes after we’d left, Brook got a call from Mikey Hood. Apparently they door guy had given us too much money, and Bring It Down was acting like we stole from them or something of that nature. That added a little more fuel to the fire, but we told them we’d work it out with them the next night.

About 20 minutes outside of Redding, we were driving behind Set it Straight when all of a sudden we see sparks fly out from the bottom of their van. They start losing control and swerving back and forth across the highway. We keep our distance just make sure everything is okay, and they pull over to the side of the road. A few of us jump out and take a look. None of us are car experts, so we just kind of guess at the problem for a minute, but the bottom line is that it’s not going to start and they need a ride. We decide to roll it up the highway about half a mile to the next exit. They didn’t want to leave it on the side of the highway all night, and I don’t blame them. So, Harry gets behind the wheel and me, Clint, Dan, Matt and the other two from their band start pushing. We get the van going pretty fast, and we try to ask Harry how fast it’s going. One second, the guitar player is next to me pushing, then the next I look over and he’s gone. I glance back over my shoulder and all I see is him rolling head over heels down the hill on the side of the road. We all notice it at about the same time and start hysterically laughing. We laugh so hard that the van starts losing its momentum and we struggle to get it up the off ramp. As we finally roll it into a restaurant parking lot, we look back and see our van just pulling off and their guitarist walking down the side of the road. We load all their equipment into the van and we get everyone to Redding no problems. I’m still not sure what happened to their van.

March 12, 2005 - Vancouver, WA

After the house show in Boise, we found a kid that was willing to let us all crash at his house for the night. It was actually his parents’ house and they were out of town for the week. We stopped by the grocery store to get pasta and made a hell of a feast for everyone, and talked about old fight stories for a few hours. We always seem to do that: spend hours at a time talking about shit that happened five years ago with kids we’ve never met. The stories are funny to us, but to the kids hearing them, we must sound completely insane. Oh well. I guess that’s how Salt Lake gets the reputation it has.

The next morning, we were on the road to Vancouver, Washington. It was about a seven hour drive, so we weren’t sweating it too much. We hopped in the van and were on our way. The drive was uneventful, and I mostly retreated into the back and rocked out to my sweet tunes.

Vancouver is only about 15 miles away from Portland, so we decided to stop there to see our friends in the Dead Unknown and find something to eat. Brook is probably the coolest best looking guy I know. We got to Justin’s house and watched a terrible movie on the Sci-Fi channel for a few minutes before we set off to eat. He told us about a place called the Vita Café that was a bit like home style cooking. He said they had biscuits and gravy and we were sold. The biscuits and gravy was true and we all spend way too much money, but we were full as we set off for the venue.

Vancouver is just over a bridge and the place we played at was the basement of a church. We seem to get these places a lot. For some reason, Cherem and church are like peas in a pod. Not sure how it got that way, but it probably won’t change. Well, it might, but only if we start playing huge stadiums and I don’t see that happening. So we’ll take church shows. Brutal Fight rolled up just after we did in a sweet/deadly looking school bus and started unloading their Hot Topic worthy merch display inside. They had a credit card machine, which is a good idea, but easy to make fun of. We decided that we now accepted checks, but they had to wait until we got home and the check cleared before we could give them anything. No one really went for that idea when we pitched it to them.

Aftermath and Cherem were up first and second so we hit the stage to set up. Aftermath didn’t get a great response, but there were a few kids singing along, and it was fun. That’s all that matters I guess. Cherem got a little better response, I think mostly due to the Dead Unknown kids hyping us and we had met a few of the kids when we played Olympia the last time we were on tour. We decided to give the Life of Agony song a shot up in Vancouver, and to our expectations, maybe three people knew what it was. I think that made 6 kids in three cities that knew what we were playing.

After we were done, I hung out by the merch table for the rest of the show. The highlight of the night came when two girls started fighting in front of me. I was pretty excited, but I guess that kind of thing doesn’t happen up there too often, so it stressed everyone out. I enjoyed it though. After the fight, one of the girls came up to talk to me about touring and said she’d be down to help out if we ever needed it. Austin dubbed her my Vancouver girlfriend for the rest of tour.

We had a long drive down to Sacramento, so we piled in the van grabbed some cold soda and hit the road.

March 11, 2005 - Boise, ID

The house we stayed at in Idaho Falls only had one bathroom, and it was located in one of the bedrooms. I woke up at about 4am really needing to use it but not wanting to walk through some dudes room. It drove me nuts and I lied in my sleeping bag trying to forget about it for at least an hour. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and went in. There was another dude asleep on the bedroom floor that I almost stepped on as I was walking back to my spot on the living room floor. It was dark so I had to fell my way along the wall. I went slow and hoped that I wouldn't stub my toe and scream and wake the whole house up. I almost did, though. It hurt really fucking bad. I finally made it back to the sleeping bag and fell asleep for another two hours. I woke up again and decided to take a shower before everyone else woke up. Afterwards, I was still tired so I went back to sleep. Then I woke up with everyone else and we got ready to go.

The drive from Idaho Falls to Boise required a bit of back-tracking, but nothing too serious. Four hours later and we were rolling in to town. We drove past the "venue" we were supposed to play at, and it was a house. We've played house shows before, so we were ready, but we couldn't load anything in for another few hours, so it was off to a Boise staple: The Pita Pit.

The girl at the Pita Pit looked pretty pissed when all 8 of us walked in at the same time. She looked even more pissed when the A-man asked her to use different gloves for our falafel. After we all had our food, we walked across the street and sat on the grass to eat. Some black metal kid wearing high boots, and having another pair of boots attached to his back-pack walked by and asked us for money so he could buy weed. We all kind of laughed and told him no. At least he was honest. As we ate our food, Brook decided he had a crush on the Pita Pit girl and wanted to go back over but had no reason. Then I remembered I left my sweatshirt inside, and Brook jumped at the chance. He went back over but right before he walked in, another dude did too. Turns out Pita Pit girl had a boyfriend and Brook came back over broken hearted. But he did have my sweatshirt.

Still having three hours to kill, we headed for the mall. A girl that used to work with me had transferred up to Express in Boise, so I wanted to see if she was there, and she was. She was pretty surprised when I walked in. I told her I had moved to Boise and needed a job, and she got really excited. Then I told her that wasn't true and it sort of killed her spirit. She wanted to come to the show, but I figured a hardcore house show wasn't the best environment for a 30-year-old Express manager, so I never called her to tell her where it was.

When we finally got to the house, there were already a few people hanging around outside. Brook and Jake saw some cute girls and tried to get them in the van, but they weren't having it, so they blamed their misfortune on Matt. The kid in charge showed up and Jake, Clint and Matt went to look around. They came back out and told us we had to get in there and see it, so we headed inside.

I didn't see the upstairs, but the basement walls were covered with tin foil and there were lots of black lights everywhere. It looked alot like the set of a cheap porno movie, and it probably was. That's what I decided after we started loading equipment into a green room with a "SEX" sign and an arrow on the wall.



The place could hold maybe twenty people, and even that was pushing it. We didn't care and as soon as we started, shit got crazy. We played our hearts out and the few kids that actually watched us looked like they were having fun so we were stoked.

After the show, some kid let us stay at his parents house and we made a bunch of spaghetti. Then Brook and I spent the next hour organizing the Aftermath merch, took showers and went to sleep. Portland was 7 hours away.

March 10, 2005 - Idaho Falls, ID

Since none of us are as popular as you'd like to believe, we had nothing to do for spring break. No vacation time in Mexico or Daytona Beach for us- just some awesome touring. We also figured, "hey Aftermath of a Trainwreck isn't that cool either. Let's take them with us." With that, the spring tour 2005 was formed. There were just a few minor problems: Richard couldn't miss work and Blake had some legal issues that prevented him from leaving Utah. That left Aftermath with no bassist and no drummer. Clint and I volunteered our services so they could go and we could have some fun. We had planned on meeting at my house at 1pm and leaving from there. The only problem was trying to get everyone there by that time. It didn't happen and we didn't get on the road until about 4 in the afternoon. Aftermath opted out of buying a van for just the three of them, rented a trailer and we all just piled in the Cherem van. It was cheaper on gas and more entertaining. Not to mention the fact that I probably wouldn't have to drive as much. As soon as we all get in the van, Brook and Jake Aftermath hop into the very back and declare the entire back of the van their territory. Brook even threatened to put up a sheet to seperate the area from the rest of the van. They thought they were pretty clever.

This was probably the best put together tour we'd ever been on. We had garauntees and 11 shows in 11 days. We were starting to feel like a real band. Clint takes the first shift driving and I assume my usual post of shotgun as we roll up to Idaho Falls. Somewhere between SLC and IF there was a billboard for the Idaho Space Center and Brook told a story of the moon crashing into Idaho sometime in the past, and that was the reason they had the space center. There were other jokes made, and I'm pretty sure Jake and Brook were the only ones laughing at them. Paul from Idaho meets up with us at a gas station and leads us to the show. It's at a preforming arts center and the show is already underway when we pull up. The first band is just finishing up and we all race to the bathroom since we hadn't stopped the whole way.

The next band started up, and I'm pretty sure they were more concerned with calling the crowd pussies and telling them to move around than the actual quality of their songs. The people that owned the place told everyone that if the language wasn't cleaned up they were shutting the show down. That shut them up for a minute, but then they played another breakdown and instead of talking shit into the mic, the kid just yelled it. I guess he thought he was being sneaky.

I had a discussion with Brook about how I may not fit in with Aftermath style, what with the long hair, so I packed my camo shorts and jerseys to make myself a little more HC. As the rest of the dudes started setting up, I changed into my sweet threads and grabbed the bass. The Aftermath set went alright, despite some bastard hitting me with a beverage. I was a little pissed about that, but let it slide when someone came up and apologized for it after the set. I thought about putting on a real shirt for the Cherem set, but felt that would just look ridiculous and left the jersey on.

The Cherem set went over pretty well. Kids danced and there were a couple sing-a-longs. I was worried that they might shut the show down when Bill yelled "Where is your fucking hatred", but then I remembered it was our last song anyway. So fuck them.

After the show, we took the van to the house we were staying at and piled in a few different cars and went looking for food. One car went to Taco Bell and the other car went to get real food, because, you know, fuck Taco Bell. That's about when Brook decided we were going to go the entire trip without fast food. Most of us were up for the idea, but Jake, the A-man and Matt weren't too into it. After we got back to the house, we made some delicious Garden Burger meals and popped in a DVD. We watched a movie that would set the tone for the next 10 days and inspire countless quotes and numerous references- Anchorman.

March 17, 2004 - Las Vegas, NV

We'd never played Vegas before, but Aftermath of a Trainwreck knew some dudes down there and said it would be good times. We figured what the hell, and drove down there.

There was one problem.

As we left SLC we realized that someone had taken all the tapes out of the van. I hadn't brought any with me, because they were still supposed to be in there. We had one tape to last us the 13 or so hours it would take to get down there and back. We took the two back seats out and loaded 7 people into the van. Clint, me, Nick, Bill, Chris G, Misty and Megan. It wasn't really that comfortable, but I rode shotgun so I was fine. Misty brought a Cosmo with her, I hijacked it and read the whole thing cover to cover and it kept me entertained. We pulled into Vegas and head for Vegi House and immediately  after that it's over to Ronald's Doughnuts.

For those of you that don't know, this is a place that specializes in vegan doughnuts. I'm pretty sure it's only because they ingridients are cheaper, but who cares? They're vegan. We load up on those and head out to the venue. Brook gives me directions, and we follow them.

"Turn left at the women's prison and head to the end of the road," is the one line that still sticks out to me all these years later.

At the end of the road is a junkyard, and I assume we've taken a wrong turn. Not so. Aftermath rolls up shortly after and we're let in the yard.

The junkyard guy tells us not to go near the fence that borders the prison, as the guards get angry and start yelling.

We hang out for a while and wait for the other bands to get there, find a nice little piece of wood, make it into a table and set up our merch. Once again, Chris Purkey couldn't come because he had to work. He was being a pussy, basically. "I can't go. I have to work to provide for my wife and two month old son." I would have told him to grow up, but I think that's just what he did. So Brook pretended to play bass for us again. Most of SLC showed up and we played a good set. It was fun, Aftermath was fun, Bloody Sunday and Shattered Realm were good and we didn't watch Folsom.

When the show was over, we started on our way home. I'm not sure why, but this was around the time that I started to be given the task of night driving. So we head on our way. About two hours into the drive, I get really sick of my gangster rap tape. I eject it and begin singing Misfits songs to myself to stay awake. I was the only one up and I was singing quietly. Or so I thought. When we got home, Nick told me that he wasn't all the way asleep and heard me singing for about an hour. I was a little embarassed. Either way, we dropped everyone off and I went home to take a nap. My other band had a show that night.