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.

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!

MADNESS!
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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.

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.