Thursday, July 29, 2010

Show 100: Madison, Faux-Op

In place of a pic from Madison, cuz the camera battery ran out, here's some from the No Show in Fargo.
TURNOUT: 10
MONEYS: 75
INJURIES: None

STORIES: Nice show in Madison. Theatre people turned out for this one. I got someone some water while they waited for the show to begin. This, all in all, was quite the solid last show. Fuzzy feeling and all. An aww show. Folks were great, both Pete's and our set went well and then we hit the road for the last time on our way to Milwaukee. Ode to Wisconsin.

Highwayku:
An eighteen ounce pee
in just a sixteen ounce cup
It's all on Gerald.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Show 99: Minneapolis, Medusa

TURNOUT: 17
MONEYS: 62
INJURIES: Unscathed!

STORIES: I've always wanted to play this place and now we've done it. Was a little disappointed by the organization but whatever, we heard some music, did the show and then got to hear some more music. There were also a lot of girls in dresses-- that always freaks me out. Got to stay with Brice of Ice Volt which was great and much much much appreciated.

Highwayku from Fargo to MN:
Driving at showtime
Burning stick will make up loss
Wet stick will bring tears

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Show 98: The Pangea House, Minot, North Dakota

TURNOUT: 12
MONEYS: $50
INJURIES: I fell on my head. Normally, I'm supposed to fall on one knee, then my butt, then my shoulder, but instead, for some reason i can't remember, this time my head went directly to the floor. Hard. Hard enough that i saw stars.

STORIES: Why not Minot? Probably because everyone assumes that a little town in the middle of North Dakota is a dumb place to try and make an infoshop or visit on a tour. Everyone is wrong. Minot rocks.

The show started out with a song circle, everyone taking turns playing songs on keyboards or acoustic guitars, sad songs, funny songs, covers. It had a real friendly community feel. Seriously, it was nice. Then it was time for Peter to play his harsh drooly loud set and for us to perform our messy violent play about powerlessness and futility. Suffice to say we felt uncomfortable and a little out of place.

But, we needn't have worried, cuz people loved the show, and we had a great group discussion about confronting empire and building radical alternatives. We learned a lot from the Minot kids, apparently North Dakota is one of few places in the US that didn't get too badly ruined by the financial collapse. Of course, oil speculators and real estate brokers are now moving in and blowing the economy up into a nice unstable bubble, with the help of the local government. Tearing down low income housing while a bunch of oil workers move into town driving up rents and tearing up the landscape to get at oil trapped in shale. Yes, neoliberalism seems to be targetting North Dakota. I'm hoping the kids we met might be able to convince the people of Minot that this money flowing into the community will even more rapidly flow out to big banks and corporations, that the inevitable bubble-bust is the fault of capital, not the minorities and non-xtians the right will surely blame, and that local politicians are working for the banks, against the people. We'll see.

Also, the Minot folks warned us that Fargo is a tough place to try and play. Their warnings proved justified. There will be no show report from Fargo, because nobody promoted the Fargo show, and thus nobody turned out. All we did was eat shitty over-priced taco salad and fill up with silent hate, then get back in the car and drive to Minneapolis.

Hiwayku:
This drive was very
long and very boring and
we had some soup too.


Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.




Show 97: Billings, MT, Pat's Place

TURNOUT: 12
MONEYS: $70
INJURIES: Cranial Drill smashed his knuckle bloody during his set, but we got out unscathed, in spite of starting the show with being thrown down blindfolded with hands tied behind my back onto a few cement steps in the doorway. That's right, I'm nimble!

STORIES: Drove straight to Billings from Seattle, 13 hours for a 5:00 start time. Peter and Kate did all the driving, and I actually got some fitful interrupted sleep in the back, but was still exhausted enough to fall asleep while performing. That's right, I'm narcoleptic!

The show was really solid, a smallish but appreciative crowd, good cookout food, harsh badass noise from Cranial Drill, PCRV, and DCLXVI. Couldn't have asked for more after the longest drive of the tour. Got some good sleep and headed on to N. Dakota, the home stretch.

Peter played his weird set, with the bass and chains.

Hiwayku:
Got a bed in back
the sky has been ripped in half
now this fucking train
(fuck that fucking bitch)

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 96: Seattle, Teatro de la Psychomachia

Vanessa Skantze, butoh dance with the Death Posture
TURNOUT: 12
MONEYS:$61 + $17 merch
INJURIES: My kneecaps, the caps of the knees as the caps of soda bottles, has been spurred.

STORIES: (This was dictated while I was tired and driving, but not too tired to drive, as, I was driving successfully, not that that should be used as the measure of what's alright.)

We played next to a strip club. The line up was showgirls, dream girls, columbia fire building, building of fire, then goth show hosts. Vanessa, who's pictured above, was great. These people do butoh!! They also have an altar, which we didn't take a picture of, because, in the lineup of buildings before showgirls was a large baseball stadium and we had to park blocks away and left the camera in the vehicle. Things were dark and moody in a nice, charged way, folks seemed to be having a good time, occasionally speaking or slapping on the floor during the performance. I felt kind of strange doing the show under stage lights, as i couldn't see anyone around me, which made me feel like i was in some sort of ice dungeon, where sometimes faces would appear on the other side of the ice. Like an igloo, like a transparent igloo. Like a dungeon. Wow! We are sure still driving. Hey, look, a deer.

People seemed to enjoy it though, and that's that. Hooray! 13 hour drive to Billings.

Pete played his quiet set, which he added crackley voice to, which was a crackley change, so to speak.

Highwayku:
Holy shit Michaud!
Empire war war war bad war
Holy shit JOHN MANNO!!

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 95: Olympia, Stump House


TURNOUT: 7
MONEYS: $55 +$5 merch
INJURIES: Unscathed!

STORIES: Stump house has cats! Two matching black cats that'll lick and lick and lick your fingertips! I was terribly exhausted and kind of sucking the mop before the show for some reason. Layed on the couch trying to sleep through high-volume sound checks.

Once the show started I was feeling better, mainly because the local music was awesome. Knot Pine Box might be my favorite music we've played with. After the show, I was feeling great. Maybe I need to start every day with being tied to a chair and pistol whipped.

Peter played the loud set. There's something very visual about these pieces Peter's been playing. Something that makes me want to make music videos for them. Maybe i'll do that.

Highwayku:
Dancing bare not bear
waiting for ships in traffic
makes ben get antsy

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 94: Portland, at 1486 Garfeild



TURNOUT: 21
MONEYS: $50
INJURIES: I felt like there were bugs crawling all over me all day. I kinda still do. What the fuck?

STORIES: Great show! A little bit of everything, good music, real discussion, good times hangin out. Seems like a good mix of people came out for the show, noise folks and anarchists, even some who're into theatre.

I don't have much more to say about the show. It was good and made me happy. I hope next time we come to Portland we won't already be kind of worn out from weird sort of shoddy times in California.

Peter played his weird set and also had a good time.

1/2 Highwayku:
another short drive
with nothing ha-

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 93:Eugene, at The Jazz Station

TURNOUT: 13
MONEYS: $42
INJURIES: I pinched Ben's armpit, visciously. (Ben wrote that)

STORIES: We got to the venue somewhat worn out from spending the earlier part of the day in the mountains, hiking around in the river. Chefkirk played with us which was nice. Pete played his quiet set for a nice audience whom he was familiar with from previous shows in Eugene. I felt somewhat dirty during the show. It took place in a gallery/jazz space that was nice and clean and my pants have been ripping continuously throughout this tour, not to mention the multiple layers of tape holding my shoes together. Oh, yeah, and I knocked a vase over during the show, broke character to say I was sorry.

Highwayku:
bland flatland transforms
mountaintops cut interview
oh gosh they're purdy

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

NATURE DAY! Oregon!

We forgot to bring the camera!

Uncle Dan took us out to hike around a creek and climb a mountain near Eugene. It was a really good time.

Picture us in your minds eye... we're frolicing in a cold mountain stream... we're sitting on the edge of a small waterfall... we're trudging up a thin mountain trail, accompanied by a half-black lab half-rottweiller named "Bubba"... we've reached the top of the mountain, which has some very interesting eroded rock formations... we're standing in our underwear ontop of the rock formations... there's a griffon, vaguely visible in the background... we're knee deep in a pool of water, thinking about swimming, but waaay to cold...

Now...

LOOK AT THAT FUCKING NATURE!!! IMAGINE IT!

NA-FUCKING-TURE!!

Show 92: Sacramento, CA The Hub

TURNOUT: 12
MONEYs: $40
INJURIES: Kate pulled me up by my fingers, which sorta hurt.

STORIES: Best California show of the tour! Tons of kick ass bands! Lots of fun. The performance felt a little lacking, maybe because the venue was hot little room and there was a really loud fan, when combined with the ear-ringing from the loud noise music, made things a bit hard to hear.

Peter was back on the drooly loud set (which, honestly was only drooly the first two times) it was fucking great and LOUD in the small space.

Half a Highwayku (it was a really short drive):
damn five dollar toll
the drive is ov-

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, comment on it or ask us some questions. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Show 91: Oakland CA, The Curch

TURNOUT: Questionable. If you go by the money, 5 people. If you go by the people, 15 or more.
MONEYs: 25
INJURIES: Ah, none, there was carpet.

STORIES: So we went from playing a house called women to playing a church actually filled with women. I've had the experience when gathering information for the Intentional Community of looking at different cities' statistics, like what is the average age of residents or what industries are the most prevelent and seeing the variables change, sometimes drastically, from place to place. And I find myself always biting my lip in anticipation, hoping that when I get to the gender statistics, there will be one city that just blows everything else away, that has the same fluctuations in gender as there are in age and industry statistics. Staring at the screen I think to myself, maybee this city will have like a 70 to 30 percent women to men ratio or 28 to 25 ratio with 47 percent of the population listed as "they do whatever the fuck they want." It's ridiculous that I'm always dissapointed when this doesn't happen.

Anyway, my hopes of having a venue populated by a high ratio of women to men turned out to be dissapointing. Not that there wasn't a high ratio but that this ratio produced something that made me want to consume my own thumb and possibly the remainder of my digits if there were anymore Miss Mary Mack hand slappy games done in conjunction with wearing what amounted to fancy pajamas.

Peter played his weird set. A few people watched him. Bass Haters were excellent.

Highwayku:
This is what we found
busload of slavic grannies
a mailbox and frooot!

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, comment on it or ask us some questions. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

bladh;ladkjg

Show 90: L.A. at Women


TURNOUT: 15
MONEYS: $15. merch $9
INJURIES: That spot where Kate slaps my head at that one part, it's starting to kind of break out in acne. Also my hair is getting too long and needs shaving. In other words my personal appearance is suffering some injuries.

STORIES: This place was punk rock. That's about all I want to say here about that.

On a positive note: a couple radicals with some who just moved to LA from Denver came to see the show, and contributed 2/3 of the money earned. Pedestrian Deposit are great musicians and we got to talk theatre with Shannon and this other guy. Xdugef and Shawn McCann were also quite good.

Also, we dried the sweat out of Ulysses' costume on the uncharacteristically well-maintained front lawn.
Peter played his "quiet" set, and sold more merch than us.

Highwayku:

Directions in hand,
Peter drives past the exit
Ben was sooo silly

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 89: L.A. at Echo Curio

TURNOUT: 6 in the beginning about 3 at the end.
SMELL: Fairly fresh. Smelled mildly of lavender.
BENCH PRESS: About two hundred. Not bad for such a scrawny place.
MONEYS: 20
INJURIES: It hurts, it hurts, oh god it hurts in my soul. (This is ben being slightly overdramatic)

STORIES: There were two skirted and pantsed people who walked into the space right before we were about to start which made me smile a bit thinking maybee somehow the press releases I'd sent out to the void had reached them only to see them walk out right after I did the "When you kill 500,000 children in order to impose your will on other contries, then you shouldn't be surprised when somebody responds in kind" bit.

Oh well.

John and Shannon of Pedestrian Deposit came and saw the show which was great and we had a discussion afterwards with them, Grant, and another guy who's on the neighborhood association and who I can't remember his name goddamn it. I feel like I sounded kind of straight-backed and bookish in this discussion which makes me a little nervous about what my brain and mouth want to do with the new information they suck up.

Other things: - The perfomance and general delivery of the show that night was a little shakey, went better the next night.
- You can't pee anywhere on Sunset Blvd but we did anyway.
- Pete played his loud set, the drooly one, which I watched with my eye's open this time.
Highwayku:

Smuggling apricots,
Where's the lush fertile valley
Barry White killed it.


Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it becuase we believe in artistic transparency.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Show 88: Phoenix AZ


TURNOUT: 9
MONEYS:
INJURIES:
Unscathed!

STORIES:
There was some press coverage for this show at the Trunk Space so some theatre folks decided to come out. Which was nice as it turned out to be a great performance, thankfully. This space was the hottest yet. It's amazing how fast the human body can generate sweat. I love it, it makes me feel like a seal just gliding through the performance like water.

Pete played his "weird set" with the bass and the 'I'm in a dream and am about to die by train or flying killer vampire bat' sound. It's the second time he's played it thus far and someone even bought a shirt.

HIWAYKU:

pricey oil change
wasting so much time in heat
back to Circle K! (to be said underneath: "hooray hooray hur")


Did you see this show?
If you did, write a review, comment on it or ask us a question. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Show 87: Bisbee AZ, Sully's Old Town Cafe


TURNOUT: 9
MONEYS: 71 + 46 in merch
INJURIES: Someone's ears. Cops were called during Pete's booming set. Nothing happened. Brian who owned the place was very excited about wasting the cops time.

STORIES: Bisbee is a small mountain town in Arizona that houses the happiest man ever, one noise dude and a few old men with facial tattoos. This town is great. The noise guy who'd contacted Peter about the show over email months ago just walked into the restaurant we were at and found us. Small towns are extra convenient at times. It was good to hang out with him for a while while eating delicious black bean burgers that held together nicely.

There ended up being a small but nice and enthusiastic audience for the show. Makes me think that next time we should take Brian's suggestion an ddo it for two nights, leaving room for word of mouth to travel. I always like coming here and seeing folks again. Great hospitality and lots of smiles. Bisbee is a place we'll likely come back to in the future.

The house we stayed at also had two goats, ducks, a greenhouse, an apricot tree and much more, not to mention the three kids.

Highwayku:
We drove to Bisbee
extremely uneventful
just a few palm trees. (to be said underneeth: "yuka yuka yuk")

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, comment on it or ask us some questions. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

NATURE DAY!!!

HOLY SHIT! Check out this goddamn NATURE!


Here's Peter pointing at a peak we're gonna climb! WOW!

Here we are on top of that peak! In our undies (or not) and VICTORIOUS!

This is where we gave up on following the hidden canyon to the beating heart of Zion. The terrible green rope rock thwarted our efforts.

HOLY FUCK LOOK AT THAT SANDSTONE!

NATURE WITH STEPS BUILT IN!!

We just took a dip in a hot spring! It was FUCKING NATURAL!


Highwayku!:

Lemons for tatas
emersed in hot salt water
cirtus prunes right up

Show 86: Prescott AZ, Catalyst Infoshop

TURNOUT: 15
MONEYS: $56 + $10 merch
INJURY: I will not cease to hit Ben in the head with the gun, on the other hand, he does not cease turning his head the wrong way right into the gun. Also, someone gave Ben a noogie at the end of the show.

STORIES: So, we pulled into catalyst infoshop, dropping Nicole off, and met some very friendly folks. This trait seemed to persit throughout the night. I always get a little nervous performing the show for friendly, welcoming people, don't want to scare them off or anything like that. We performed outside, in the driveway with motion lights, which occasionally turned off at dramatic moments. After the show there was a great discussion about the end of the play getting into morality and the many ways it can be defined. Speaking of morality, there were also a lot of dogs.

Peter played his acoustic set this time due to the outsideness. In the middle of it, dogs began fighting right in front of the table which Peter enjoyed. It was really nice to hear music and the outdoor noises at once, paying attention to the oddities of both.

Highwayku:
Through desert plateaus
we crossed the marble canyon with
mean three dollar gas

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 85: Salt Lake City


TURNOUT: 36
MONEYS: $72 + $40 fundraiser CDs + $36 merch
INJURIES: Kate can't seem to stop hitting me in the head on this tour.

STORIES:
Very adventurous drive. Just outside Salt Lake City there were signs warning of a three hour traffic delay telling us to take "an alternate route" without clear suggestion of exactly what alternate route. So we just got off the interstate and proceeded to get lost in the mountains. Long steep winding roads, epic music on the stereo, walking into a wedding reception at some hillside resort to get directions, all led us to a steep gravel road up to a beautiful mountain pass. It took over an hour, but was definitely better than waiting in traffic.

This was a great show, set up by John, who played Arthur in Paint the Town, our last touring show. An artist warehouse, someone's birthday party, ping pong and steel industrial ball berring bocce in the courtyard, a machete and hairy monster glove.

The first musician, Silvery Antlers played some very energetic and positive noise music, then we performed for a great attentive audience, then Peter played his harsh drooly set, real nice and loud, and then another great band, whose name escapes me, lots of enthusiastic shouting and layers and layers of guitar, drone and beats. Kind of overwhealming yet relaxing at the same time. Maybe it was the nine hour drive, but we all dozed off breifly amid the hugely loud waves of sound they put out. Grand.

We crashed at the Boing collective, which seems like an awesome place where we definitely should've spent more than a few conscious minutes, but we were very exhausted, and had to get on the road pretty early this morning if we're gonna get some nature in on our drive day.

ROAD HAIKU
(Denver to SLC):
Wyoming camels
now the water moves with us
mountain will kill us!

Did you see this show?
If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 84: Denver, The Blastomat


TURNOUT: 5
MONEYS: $20, +$10 merch
INJURIES: Kate's loose pants led to a loose gun, which led to repetitive elbow bruising. Time to punch a new hole in her pants.

STORIES:
We were in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time. Basically, there was a "lady-centric" experimental music and art festival accross town called Tit Wrench. We started booking tour too late to get into this festival (and we're not sure if Kate would be lady enough to cancel out Peter and I, anyways). Jo at Blast-o-Mat warned us that it'd be a hard sell, and impossible to book local noisers to play with us, but we went ahead with the show anyway, and it definitely coulda worked out worse, all things considered.

Peter played his "weird" set, which was pretty awesome. I need to hear them all again, but right now i think i'm favoring his "theatre" set, mainly because of the drool.

ROAD HAIKU (Lincoln to Denver)
Short naps and big skies
that's a level three keeper
long drive among cows

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Lincon, NE at Cultiva Cafe

Here are two pics from Nebraska, the top one is slightly more interesting.

TURNOUT: 23
MONEYS: 98
INJURIES: Ben reeled his head back hitting my chin leaving it all novacainy feeling. Also, I scratched Ben's head in one part by acciddent leaving two red streaks. Another also, the metal clasp holding up Ulysses' pants was torn asunder and needs mending.

STORIES: Our first Cafe show of the tour. Shane of Monsters of Pot set it up and it went great. On the high end of cafe shows to date. Went to a goth show afterward with Shane that reminded me that I haven't seen goth or people that can dance as gracefully as that one guy did in a while. All in all, stellar times.

Peter played his quiet set. Which wasn't very quiet, more like an alien heartbeat and demonic chanting monster. Rawr! I like it.

Here's the haiku from the drive there:

Rolling hills rolling
across Iowa farmland,
dear jesus I'm bored.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

SHOW REPORT 82: PS1, Iowa City.


TURNOUT: 12
MONEYS: $16 door, $9 merch
INJURIES: Kate found a dying cockroach in the hallway, thought it was a junebug, felt compassion for it, attempted to recessitate it with small droplets of water, which it heartily drank, stood up and became more lively until her efforts were foiled by the janitor who swept the dying thing up and threw it away while she was elsewhere.

STORIES: A slightly disheartening start of the tour. Some nice and enthusiastic people came out, but we didn't make close to enough to get us to the next city. A late start meant there were a few intoxicated attendees, who probably annoyed the more intent and appreciateive audience members and generally soured the experience a bit.

Peter played his "theatre set" which is big and harsh and loud, featuring a long sample from a Beckett novel. It's been a long time since I've seen Peter play, and he continues to kick ass.

Here's a haiku about the drive to Iowa City:

exits more exits
is that a tornado there
just a pointed cloud

Did you see this show? What'd you think? Comment here. We'd love to hear from you, cuz we believe in Artistic Transparency.

New Tour!

We're on our way!
Also, the Buffalo Infringement Festival on July 30 - Aug 1!

Solidarity Showcase Report...



This is just a breif note to acknowledge the success of the Solidary Showcase. We raised $222 for the AVL11 legal defence and brought together a diverse array of performers and audiences, had fun, shared talents, and raised awareness of prisoner support, the Columbus ABC, and radical action in general. Also, I emceed the event dressed as a cop named Officer Acab, which was silly.

I left the event feeling like it was a good start, something I'd like to repeat and expand. So we'll be doing that, starting with a special homecoming performance of Ulysses' Crewmen, at the awarehouse, with some musicians or something, and with donations going to someone's legal defense fund. Some decisions still need to be made, details will appear here, there and everywhere as soon as they're figured out.

Did you see this show? What'd you think? Comment here. We'd love to hear from you, cuz we believe in Artistic Transparency.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Show 81: The People's Summit


TURNOUT: 17
MONEYS: $57
INJURIES: Kate hit me with the gun, fortunately, it was a gun she'd fashioned out of sticks and duct tape, cuz we can't take the real gun accross the border. So it wasn't really injurous.

STORIES: That was a really good show. Performance felt great. Audience was great (if a little small). Attended some wonderful workshops on Venezuela, Empowering Women within activist community and The Beehive Collective. Also some intense debates on diversity of tactics and transformative justice. We got to hang out with old pal Kelli and her wonderful friends we met last time we were up there, hospitality!

Things we coulda done better: tabled and promoted ourselves more. Not have to hurry home and prepare for our tour so as to stay and participate in some g20 actions. As flawed as summit protests and actions seem, an acute reminder and direct experience of my powerlessness against state and capital might have felt better than the constant low level nagging feeling of powerlessness that came with not going to the protests.

Did you see this show? What'd you think? Comment here. We'd love to hear from you, cuz we believe in Artistic Transparency.