A Band On Tour

Realizing that Julieann and I have been to far more concerts during my (ahem!) sixties than our entire previous lives... it would likely be a good thing to note what brought this about. As to why(?)... let's just say if your daughter or son had formed and was fronting two bands that were working hard and experiencing growing popularity you might feel the same.  Also, it doesn't hurt that we both like the music.  Our son writes songs with upbeat reggae and classic rock and roll overtones.  His other band does a Sublime tribute show.  

If you are not familiar with Sublime.. they were mainstream popular in the early 90's and enjoy cult status today.  Their run was cut short by the untimely heroin overdose death of Brad Nowell, lead singer/songwriter .  If you were to attend a Sublime Tribute concert today, you would be impressed with the variety, rhythm, and lyrics of their music.  You would be even more impressed with the number of fans who have basically memorized the lyrics to the songs and joyously shout them out as the band plays.

But then, this story is really about one adventure of a modern day group of troubadours with heart.  It is about a concert Julie and I are sorry to have missed.  Written by our son Tyler, it has been slightly edited for a PG rating and to protect the privacy of certain undeserving names:

May 22nd, 2009:  Started out as a relatively normal day on the tour... despite the debauchery from the night before which would be a worthy prelude to the story... another time.  We rose from the dead around 11:00am... just in time to use the hotel room for the first time simply to shower before our 11:30 checkout.  (Musicians are late for everything.)  

Around 12:30, we left Tacoma, Washington for a 3 hour journey south to Portland, Oregon where we had a show booked at The Blue Room.  At 4pm, we arrived at our destination and received a not so warm welcome from the manager.  Step one for a bar manager, be f**king nice to the touring musicians that come through your venue.  You may actually like their music and want them back... I digress.  

5:30pm... a friend from Portland picked us up and took us back to her place where we relaxed and ate dinner.  Matt stayed behind at the venue to do some work online.  At 7pm, I get a call from Matt, "Hey man, the dude here at the venue says that we are playing first tonight cause he owes some local band a favor and they are headlining... and btw, they can't pay us."  What the f**k... I'll be there in half an hour.  So at 7:30, we roll back into the venue parking lot determined to stir some s**t up.  We walk into the venue, straight up to the dude who booked the show and basically demanded an explanation.  (Imagine a retard f**king a football and you will share about the exact experience we went through talking to this guy.)  

I demand at least 30% of the door or we walk.  Btw, that is basically nothing in this business. Dude talks to his manager... no dice.  We walk.  8:00pm... driving basically aimlessly at this point.  With Matty behind the wheel, I yell at him to start looking for bars on the street.  The plan is to use the shock and awe method... drive the bus right up to the front door of any random bar and basically tell them we are playing there tonight.  We don't even get a chance to try that method.  

For ten minutes, I frantically call several different bars, "Hi... random question... do you have a band playing in your bar tonight?  No?  OK, this is Tyler with Anxiety Boy Management and I am driving down the street somewhere in Portland right now with 2 nationally touring bands. Basically we had a show fall through on us tonight and we are looking for a spot to play.  We will accept $200 or 15% of the bar sales for the evening."  Finally, I get a hold of some dude named Ed at a spot called The Refectory.  He's interested.  After a quick view of our websites, he calls back and it's on, except he has an event going on until 11pm at his place but he has a friend that owns a bar on the other side of town.  His friend is game for the surprise visit so we google Cactus Jack's and beeline.  9:45... we arrive at our venue for the evening.  

The place is small and full of locals... gawking at the giant tour bus parked 4 feet from their front door.  As quickly as we can, we unload our gear into the restaurant and set up.  Eddy is kind enough to loan us his pa system so we don't have to do sound... awesome.  11pm.. we start our set off with some good ol' Sublime Tribute.  We play for an hour switching back and forth from originals to Sublime.  

The crowd is small but rowdy and perhaps the most appreciative group we have seen on the tour.  We took a short break at midnight then played another hour til 1am.  At that point, we attempted to call it a night... no dice.  The crowd begging for more and we deliver.  At 1:30, we finally called it.  Had a pretty good set... about as good as it could have been while stuffed in the corner of a Mexican restaurant.  

During the set there was one individual in particular who stood out.  A weathered fellow with long stringy hair sat off the the left and had just a blast.  I remember thinking that the lady he was with was surprisingly hot for a dude of his... appearance.  But we meshed well with the guy all night, even hugging him at one point during the set.  He just kept yelling, "You guys rock!"  At the end of the night, I sat and talked with Jack, the owner of the club.  We settled up the tab, $200 for the evening of entertainment we had provided.  But at the other side of the room, the "weathered fellow" approached Jonny and asked if we accept tips.  "Of course!"  The gentleman laid a pile of cash on one of Jonny's symbols and told the guys once again what an awesome job we had done.  Then he disappeared into the night.  

A $300 tip... turns out the $140,000 Porsche in the parking lot was his... and he was a huge fan of us on this particular evening.  5 hours prior, we told a club just to go right ahead and f**k themselves and then we turned the night into $500.  

An epic tale... an epic win.  http://www.myspace.com/aproots