The HD California Tour (a quick recap)

Day 1- Wed 8/9
Seattle to San Francisco without stopping! Michael (unbelievably, astoundingly) did almost the whole drive himself, with Rob stepping in to take us across the finish line. Sure, I was basically just a passenger, but I've been on some long drives in my day and that was an unexpectedly easy and fun 14.5 hours. We ended the night at Heidi's place in Twin Peaks, deliriously watching Presumed Innocent before passing out from exhaustion. By the way, if you're ever in Willows, CA, and you haven't eaten for a couple days, you should go to the Black Bear Diner. We made a valiant effort, but none of us could actually finish our heroically oversized meals. We came across this bumper sticker in the parking lot: 1 cross + 3 nails = 4given. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Day 2 - Thurs 8/10
Speed-sightseeing in SF. Michael, Rob, and I went from Twin Peaks to the Castro (home of my friend Mateo's shop, My Trick Pony), Downtown (where Rob failed to sneak us past the guards at the SFMOMA), Chinatown, North Beach, and back to the Castro to Cafe du Nord. The highlight was definitely our happy hour pitchers of Anchor Steam at Vesuvio, former watering hole of the beat writers. We met up with Jeff, Sean, and our tourmates Let's Go Sailing at Cafe du Nord, and the show did not disappoint. It was a great room, an excellent crowd, and a fun time was had by all. Due to CDN's lenient age policy, a few of the younger folks were able to get in, including Sammi, who helped us out with postering. After the show, we drove a couple hours south of the city to Westley, where warm PBRs and microwave burritos lulled us into a stupor.

Day 3 - Fri 8/11
We finally made it to LA around 6:00pm after some surprisingly light traffic. The Largo show was possibly the most highly-anticipated show of this mini-tour for us. We last played there in 1999, while doing the first mix of King James Version. After a quick bowl of matzoh ball soup across the street at Canter's (it is a requirement to eat at Canter's when one is in LA, in my opinion) with Mindy and my cousin Mike Shea, I joined the band for a quick sound check. The show was as amazing as we had hoped, highlighted by some great performances by Let's Go Sailing's Shana Levy, Lauren Hoffman, and Jon Auer, who came down from Seattle for the LA shows. There was also a 2-song ("Gold" and "$12 Haircut") Love Hotel reunion, since Sarah Paul is now an Angelina. As for the HD set, it was great to play a toned-down show with a real piano for once! After the show, we retired to Brian (of the band Irving) Canning's apartment for a little too much whiskey and not enough air conditioning.

Day 4 - Sat 8/12
Another whirlwind day of seeing stuff. Mindy, MIchael and I drove from Los Feliz out to Santa Monica to see the ocean. It was still there. On the way, we saw some places where some famous people died of drug overdoses. Once again, we were joined at Spaceland by LGS and Jon Auer, along with the Oohlas, who were all great. We turned in a loose, energetic, rocking performance, quite a bit different from the previous night. Afterwards, a few of us made our way out to Laurel Canyon and stayed up all night in Andromeda and Joshua's backyard. Aaron Espinoza wore his sunglasses at night. In the hot tub.

Day 5 - Sun 8/13
After a painfully short nap, we managed to drag ourselves out of town and south to San Diego, where Mindy, Michael, and I went to a brief family (mine) barbecue before heading to the Casbah. It's a nice little club (Galaga AND Ms. Pac-Man), and we had a bigger audience than I was anticipating, but the mysterious SD curse was still in effect. Just a strange town for rock shows, vibe-wise, I guess. Maybe it was the low-flying jets. After the show, we parted ways - Michael and Rob drove the van back to Seattle, the rest of us had to fly back for work.