goodbye mountains

The mountains humble me. They are so massive and I am not: brilliant, right? For me they were the constant in our tour. They were almost always by our side, and always different. Even the same chunk of rock appears different every time you look at it. They are stunning and beautiful, and as we drive east this morning and the mountains grow smaller and smaller behind me I still keep looking back hoping they will follow.
Last night we played at the Vault in Ft. Collins, colorado. The venue is located in old town, and used to be a bank...hence the name. It was the last real rockin show of the tour, and we left it all out there. Boone and Ginny, you guys are the best! Thanks for putting us up and making the fort a second home. Tonight is meadowlark coffee in lincoln, which will give a more chill atmosphere to wind down the trip. We'll get to kick it with josh hill(of the josh hill band). Definitely check him out on myspace...he's in our top friends I think...mine for sure. Dude is super talented and funny as hell.
Wow, is the tour really over? I guess...but the circus will keep rollin as always. Our first show back in madison is the clean lakes festival at 11:30 on saturday the 6th. That night, of course is kenny's 4th annual birthday mustache bash, and you have my guarantee for madness.
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making this tour great; y'all put your foot in this...both of them.

Home, home is where I always want to be. - josh rouse

Cheers.

Colorado at last.

We've made it to colorado! woo....my home turf. The past couple of shows have been great for response and merch. We started in Manitou Springs, which is a little hippie enclave at the foot of Pike's Peak. That was accually a very strange show....not the show itself or the other bands, who were fantastic, but what happened two hours before we arrived really threw me for a trip.
Apparently that day someone jumpe off of the roof and hung themself on the tree directly next to the venue......yea. It was really creepy. Probably the strangest tour event ever.
Enuf about that.
Last night was Denver. We played at the Meadowlark Bar on the outside stage with three other bands. We played first and had plenty of time to hang out and catch up with friends. My sister and brother in law came out, as well as my old buddy ryan. One of the best things about tour is getting in touch with old friends and meeting new ones. I love it.
So nothing super fancy today.....I'm sure a weekend in Ft. Collins with Boone and Ginny will provide a plethera of blogging material :-)

Kenny said the sun would rise to our right making the window shade one of the greatest inventions yet. The sun actually rose directly in front of the van make windshields a candidate for the worst. Being awake at 6:30 in the morning isn't all that bad when you are camping next to the rio grand just northeast of Albuquerque, new mexico. It's actually quite beautiful. We drove from jerome, az which was one of the greatest stops on the tour. Jerome numbers all of 400 and is built vertically on the side of a mountain. It overlooks the sedona valley at an altitude contemporary to denver and the view, I'm told, spans 50+ miles. Jerome was a boom town for copper and grew to a population of 15,000+ by the late 19th century. The connor hotel was our venue and was the 1st concrete structure in town. The second floor brothel added in 1897 and provided a relaxing night on the town for weary prospectors. Kenny and I got the suite on the second floor of the Conner hotel...It's not like that, but it was pretty plush.
Our show was downstairs in the spirit room at 1pm on memorial day. We had the place rockin; locals and tourists alike. I saw a sign in jerome that said"Jerome, population strange.". The folks in jerome are really proud to live in jerome, and don't care about what the outside world thinks. When the mine was closed in 1953, the population dwindled to roughly 30 hearty souls and stayed that way until the late sixties. The counter cultural revolution brought to jerome an artistic community who rebuilt dilapidated homes, and reopened the shops to sell their wares.
Since then the town has grown into a tourist destination. The citizens are friendly, and the view is spectacular. If there was one location from our tour that I would move to it would be jerome; ashland is a close second.
In all arizona treated us great. Good friends were there every step of the way and we met some very amazing people. I think the Arizona region will be a great fall/winter tour destination.
We move to colorado as I type for the last 5 shows of the tour. Manitou springs tonight, denver on thursday, ft collins on friday and saturday, and finally lincoln, nebraska(which I clearly know isn't in colorado) on sunday.
This tour has flown by! We've set sales records for merch by a long shot. We traveled through 12 states meeting a great cross section of people and personalities. I can't wait to see everybody at kenny's mustache bash on june, 6th.
Rocky mountain high, colorado...that john denver was full of shit.

catching up

So the producer of boys 2 men, sushi chef for madonna, and the lucas cates band walk into a beach side home. No joke....just dinner.
We played san louis obispo last night, and I realized I haven't posted since portland. So here is a quick rundown on the last week of shows:
Portland: the Red Room
This was our first show with other bands. We stuck out like sore thumbs against the ambient rock sounds of portland. It went well, however, as we received a great response from the crowd and the other bands. The guys from long beach had their sound polished, but they were definitely long beach. Chet and I were cheering for the first band like we do when we're getting loud. The guitarist from the cali band was like "don't give me that, these guys suck.". Apparently they don't know how to be rowdy in cali...haters.
Ashland, OR: Alex's Restaurant
By far this has been the best two days in a row on the entire tour! Ashland is like boulder or madison but less pretentious and super chill. We learned they have a law there that allows anybody to be naked in public as long as they are not aroused or arousing anybody else. I guess this means if you're walkin down the street with a boner you're bound to have problems. Lucas tested this by dropping trou by the van and changing. Only the girl working with the outdoor merch at the tourist shop paid much attention to the full moon.
Both nights in ashland were packed to the hilt, and the energy was electric. Many of the same faces were in the crowd both night freely giving it up; it was incredible.
Mike gellings came up to kick it with us for both nights which was definitely a treat. He fits right into the ashland vibe.
We met some great people including kirsten and natalie. Saturday we went to kirsten's moms ranch house in northern california to relax. This place is completely self-sufficient and generates its electricity from solar power. Her mom's boy friend had a killer mustache, a shotgun, and a shirt that said "got balls," on it: equally amazing.
Kenny caught a big catfish, which made his trip. I got to chill with a baby llama named pearl, and lucas burned his armpit hair off with the help of chester. We call that trimming.
San Francisco: Grant and Green
The san fran experiences will rival any of the tour for being the best. We played a tuesday night for a slamming crowd! The sound was amazing and the energy was explosive. We met friends from england (and whales....catherine:-), and saw old friend from the high school days.
We stayed at kenny's brother Andy's house in benicia, north of the city. Trinity and Andy: you guys are the best! Thanks for the feeesting, weakenings, testicle toss, beers, rock band, the crowd on tuesday, and your overall awesomnity. We love you guys.
Which brings us to last night.
The beach house was perfect. Fifty yards from the porch was the ocean. Check my facebook pis to get the idea. We ate the most amazing sushi prepared by the man who cooked for the prince of japan, prince of malaysia, madonna, arnold, and naturally hulk hogan. It was the BEST sushi....ever.
The frog and peach in san louis obispo was kenny's birthday show! It was a pretty cool venue with largely a stale college crowd. You know, the kind that only dances at the end of the night because they are shitfaced, even though they wanted to dance the whole time but were afraid to like something they've never heard, and then after the show tell you how amazing you were and how they are going to "spread you shirt to all [their] friends" cause you are the "sickest" band they've ever heard-while their drunk buddy tries to tell you he knows julia roberts, charlie sheen, and has partied with emilo estavez......thanks bruno, but unless you can exacute a flying V right now I have no time for hoppy-breath bullshit.
It wasn't THAT bad of a night! Actually people were cool, and the listeners in the house were very cool, very real people who I hope to see again.
That should catch you up. We're driving to escondito, ca which is near san diego. Last night in cali.

forgive me missoula

Well, I made a comment about missoula yesterday that was a bit negative, and I'm here to ask missoula for forgiveness. You really aren't that bad. In fact I really enjoyed you last night. Your evening temperatures were mild, and you citizens were kind, fun, and engaging. I didn't really mean what I said about you being cold. I was having a rough day. I was sick. I was tired, grumpy, and jacked on caffeine. I ate a bad peach. I got mud on my shoes. I had a headache. My contact was bugging me. I surely didn't mean to offend you missoula.

-I accept your apology, mark.

Oh good, I was hoping to be back sometime soon. You really are a beautiful city. I enjoyed hanging out with jackie greene and drinking you all you can drink for 7 bucks micro brews!

-ok you're laying it on a bit thick now.

Sorry.

-i'm going to go eat some chocolate chips...semi-sweet.

Sounds good, the moments you are eating chocolate chips are better than the moments you aren't eating chocolate chips.

-Thick.

Ok bye! (On to portland tonight)

do i really need a title?

Is missoula the only place on earth where a coffee shop adjoins a bait and tackle store? I think you know the answer. So as I sit at Trout River coffee struggling to recall the events of the past two days I realize this is the best job ever.
We left our friends in Pochatello and headed toward craters of the moon national park. It was a bit out of our way but we had to see this geological wonder. The park is like a million acres of ash, pumice(I think that's the right term), and desolation. No trees, no plants-just rock and wind. Idaho is like a bunch of plains winding through rugged snow-capped peaks. It's like following the oregon trail; remember that game? Lucas was bitten by a snake, kenny has syphilis, jesse broke his arm, you lost a noxon and are delayed. Fortunately none of those thongs happened, but we did loose 5 pounds of food, 30 dollars, and a roadie trying to ford the river.
We stopped to camp for Lucas' birthday between chalice and salmon, idaho. Our camp site was prime real estate along the banks of the salmon river; it was beautiful!! Kenny and I were hanging in there with our sickness, but managed to help jesse and luker polish off a bottle of jame-o and tap the rockies to celebrate the b day. It was a raucous night of campfire cooking, drinking, jamming, and lighting kenny's farts on fire(there's video evidence). The next morning started with kenny's worst morning of the tour-not from the drinking...no no...it was the geese. They woke him up at 6am which made him a crabby raaby. After 3 hours of widdling a drum stick for chet he punched himself in the face-hard-trying to get river water to squelch the fire. He hit his head on the van and decided to sleep till missoula. Unfortunately,he missed a beautiful snowy ride over the pass to Montana.
Missoula was cold, both in temp and temperament. The bright spot was david and Rosalee cates's family. They have been great to us, and so far the highlight has been david's grilled cheese with yogurt and mustard...seriously try it, it awesome.
Last night we played the top hat, a legendary club that has hosted acts like jj cale, matt guitar murphy, bo diddly, molly hatched, johnny winter, and mojo nixon to name a few. We were guinea pigs on their new sound system, which was good and bad. It is finals week here and we felt it. The saving grace of last night was a tie between having the expirence of being on a. famous stage and having access to a ping pong table in the bar. It seems ping pong tables in bars are common in the west. Is it because its fun to watch drunkards chase a plastic ball around the bar?

Yes.

Jackie Greene, the frontman last year for Phil and Friends, is playing the Top Hat tonight and we were comped on the list, I think we will go check him out on our night off.
Incidentally picture that correspond to this trip, or I should say, this blog can be found on my facebook. There will be plenty of video posted once we return, but in the meantime you can get the idea in my mobile uploads folder.
Tomorrow we are in Portland, friday and saturday are in Ashland(oregon), and Sunday I get to reconnect with an old friend I haven't seen in 12 years, comedian Mike Simpson, in Reno, Nevada.
So I'll keep taking pills and keep my nose clean. You just make sure you stay awesome.

first day off

I think I really like pocatello, idaho. We drove 10 hours from tom's place north of paxton through wyoming and into idaho. Lucas or kenny are typically the starters, while I take middle relief(for the record those 5 hour energy shots really work, cause my 5 hour shift into pocatello was a breeze).
The venue was the 1st national bar; it was the night of isu's graduation, which must have been a small class cause I only saw one graduate(better luck next year guys). We were riding a bit of a high cause we learned on the ride up that we won 6 madison area music awards, including artist of the year. The show was great although kennys been sick with a cold. Even though we quarantined him I think I'm coming down with it. The pocatello crowd was super responsive and ready to dance. They liked to drink, not gonna lie, but nobody was disrespectful to anybody else whatsoever. The highlight of the night was Brett who came up to jam on his blues harp during Cougarville. It was awesome! He was a great player and added that extra cherry in what was already a great old fashioned pocatello expirence(did anyone catch that pun? I was pretty proud of that).
Today was sunday, our first day off and a day of relaxation; well,pseudo-relaxation. We've been staying with jesse(a college friend of john cates) and lee(jesse's girlfriend). They have been so kind to us and today lee took me on my first real mountain biking adventure. The pics are at my facebook page if you want to see the views. This was serious riding! Like, the bike had shocks all over the place and the terrain was everything from straight rock to dirt to logs. I managed to nail myself in the stones a coule of times while flying over some unexpexted rocks and roots...fun. We were out for about three hours and clame close to the snow. I compare it to skiing with a bike. The best part came at the end of the ride when we stopped by a friends place for his microbrewed stout...mmmm delicious. "Forgiveness appeared in the form of a beer" -Jake Freide
The only solution for rubber legs is driving 20 minutes south to the town of Lava where they have public hot springs. The minerals in the water are good for you,apparently and native americans used to frequent the springs before white settlers fucked it up for them. The coldest pool was a mild 105 degrees. The hottest pool was about 115, I think. It was like a bunch of humans sitting in a crockpot slowcooking all of life's problems away. There's an image for you. Tomarrow is Lucas's birthday so we're going camping at craters of the moon national park. It's a desolate million acres of volcanic formations, ash, and ancient lava flows where nothing grows and the lucas cates band will finish a birthday bottle of jame-o while sitting around a campfire...I'll tell you all about it...in a bit. Bye!

summerfest

I forgot to mention we're playing Summerfest in Milwaukee on the Harley Davidson stage on June 25th (thursday) at 2:30pm. Bye!

cold beer on a friday night

Somewhere between seeing a friend for the first time in 12 years and watching a wild tom turkey try to get laid I realized this tour was going to be special. Ceder Falls kicked our road time off in typical fashion; ragging drunk college kids packed into OP's trying to forget their finals. My old friend Steve came up from iowa city. We used to loose baseball games together when we lived in Estes Park, Colorado. It was a trip to reconnect; amazing dude. My family came through as well which was super special. Whether its family, friends, or otherwise Its always good to start a tour with a line out the door.
We picked up a show on friday in what was known until 5pm yesterday as "somewhere in Nebraska". I think after last night the town of Paxton will always sound like home. With a population of 605, Paxton is small town america; no really, google map Paxton. It will appear in the center of the US. (As an aside, we're filling up in ogalala,and I just peed in the nicest men's room I've ever used. It kind of makes me feel bad I didn't pay for anything). So paxton is a place where one of the three bars is called the Windy Gap; its a place where a cowboy in spurs and the full get up trips over the monitor and crushes kenny's pedal board...that's only happed in one other place (please refer to an earlier article at www.lostbetween.com entitled "Drunken Madman Topples Speaker"....you know who you are. Needless to say we'll be stopping by the hardware store today). It's a place where Josh Rouse's mom comes to your show and dances her ass off. Rouse is often played in the van. Google him; he's like, one of Lucas's favorite artists. Its always funny to see a bearded man act like a 12 year old girl.
The whole expirence was great. I've never felt so welcome like I did in paxton. The crowd was about 1/6 of the town, and they were all super supportivem. I have to thank Tom for his generosity and help in finding this very last minute show. He pimped us like hugh heffner and took us to stay at his hunting cabin in the sand hills just north of town. He's one helluva fun-loving guy....thanks for everything buddy, including that parting shot this morning :-)
See you all in Pocatello

western tour

What up y'all! It's been awhile, but I'm getting geared up for our western tour, so I'm trying to get in the habit of this whole blog thing. Stay in touch, check this often, and indulge yourself in the insanity that is a Lucas Cates Band tour. We're out for about a month, so I will try to access this from my crack berry and write some jibbrish. We're in Ceder Falls tomarrow night....more to come......talk soon.