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.

KZOO

Here we are at Conga Coffee in Mt. Pleasant (there really aren't any mountains, from what I can see......liars) interneting with Kenny on a push leather couch contemplating the different between tube socks and tambourines.
Woo! Opening night in Kalamazoo was pretty amazing. It started pretty slow cause we rollin into town like 5 hours early, the bar would only serve us PBR, and the other bands said that this club was in the armpit/ghetto of Kalamazoo.......sweet. When the music started rolling, however, the night exploded. We played with the Alex Mays band and Dooley Noted, and I realized its been awhile since we've shared the stage with bands where every member was outstanding!
Billy Clements was the bassist for Alex, and I have never been so blown away watching a bass get played. Google "one arm bassist" cause this guy didn't have a right hand, and he traveled the hell out of that bass! All finger tap.....unbelievable.....seriously....I'm either still drunk or really blown away still cause I can not get over this amazing display of technique(just kidding, I don't drink).
After the show we had to drive to Detroit, cause we didn't have a place to crash. i don't know how lucas did it, but we got there and are crashing with Rambo....seriously that's his name...John Rambo....no bandanna, for the next couple of nights.

Eastern Tour Eve.....

.....is kind of like Christmas Eve except there are no reindeer, or chimneys, and the only present you get is 10 days in a row in a van with three other dudes. That smells terrific! Seriously, though there aren't three other guys i would rather do it with. We start in Kalamazoo, MI at a place called the Corner Bar followed by:
Robusto's - Grosse Pointe Woods, MI Feb. 6th
Old Miami Bar - Detroit, MI Feb. 7th
Wilbert's - Cleveland, OH Feb. 8th
Howler's - Pittsburgh, PA Feb. 10th
New Oxford Coffee - New Oxford, PA (acoustic show) Feb. 11th
Sullivan Hall - New York, NY (Greenwich Village) Feb. 12th
All Asia - Cambridge, MA Feb. 13th
Jillian's - Albany, NY Feb. 14th

It's a nice little run. We haven't been that way yet, so I'm really excited to meet some family I've never met before and reconnect with old friends. Peace.

better late than never

So I really need to catch up on the last few shows. I'll hit the highlights.
Our show in Louisville was great. It was like 50 degrees when we stepped out of the van. You have to understand that when you live in Wisconsin you never feel 50 in January. Aside from being sick I was loving KY (the state). We ran into some friends and family as well as the "other" guitarist, Kevin, from Tantric; who, incidentally, was the loudest motherfucker in the club, and god bless him for it!
Salem, Illinois was a trip. Everyone was really great to us and we were treated like rock stars. I have never before had a crow of people cheering for a sound check. We played at Becky's Bar, which reminded me of your typical northern Wisconsin bar minus the snowmobiles and brandy old fashioneds. I think one of the coolest parts of the night there was when everyone busted out lit candles during our song "Candlelight" which kenny and lucas were prompted to do. I think there are pics of this at myspace.com/lucascates under "tagged photos".
There were only a couple of shows since that weekend namely the Up and Under in Milwaukee, and Malarkey's in Wausau. Now, I have to take a moment and talk more about Malarkey's. This place kicks ass! Tyler and Steena, the owners are class acts. They treat their bands well, they treat their customers well, and treat each other well. We played for a packed house...elbow to asshole for a majority of the night. This was the largest crowd I've seen at the bar ever....even the night kenny and i drank a ton of absinthe (real deal Czech stuff) I didn't see this many figures in the bar! It was great....thanks guys for another legendary night in the heart of wisco.

We're all Martyr's

In preparation for our Eastern tour in February The Lucas Cates Band is hitting the road for a long weekend.  We have to get used to spending 24 hours together...god knows that's a chore(for those of you who know us, you know nothing is farther from the truth).  Actually, we're like Captain Planet....when our powers combine we turn into a really tall green man who can fly and recycle.

  Last night we played Martyrs in Chicago with the Wu Li Conspiracy and the Steakhouse Mints, and had a blast!  Wu Li was all acoustic/folk with a twist of lime.  The Steakhouse Mints left me stunned, confused, entertained, and exhausted....they were awesome.  

The sound on that stage and in that room was some of the best ever, and the staff was wonderful.  It was a really great start to what looks to be a good weekend.   

This will be made possible in part by the new application Kenny downloaded to his phone.  Surprise, its the fart application.  So now I don't know if the farts are coming from Kenny or Kenny's phone until the laughter turns to looks of disgust.  Which almost makes me happy that I'm getting sick.

Whoever thought that you could drink away a sinus cold....is stupid.  I have a sinus cold, which kind of sucks on the road because I don't want to spread it to the rest of the guys.   

I also got to spend time reconnecting with some old friends who now live in the Chicago area.  Unfortunately they all had to work on Friday....suckers :-)  

See you in Louisview.

The Train Is A-Rollin'

Wow so much is happening right now i don't even have time to think. This is my first post of the New Year so let me get you up to speed. First of all I will be day job free as of Jan. 30th. The Lucas Cates Band is going to be out and about so much that it is senseless to overextend myself. I will be teaching private lessons while we are in town.
We shot our first music video last Sunday for the song "Through". It only took 12 hours and several locations but we got it done. It was a blast. I played the same three chords the whole day, changed clothes 10 times and Kenny and I got to act as cops....yea...I totally got the gun. Kenny wanted to have his shotgun in the vid, but the director thought it was over the top :-) When we post it you will have to watch us struggle not to laugh. I mean, I can't think of many situations where we are serious in real life, not to mention "acting" in a music video.
This week is the start of a busy year. The duo played live on The Morning Blend in Milwaukee, we did an interview with our local CBS affiliate about the upcoming year of tours, we have an interview and performance on WGN Chicago on Thursday to promote our show at Martyr's (Chicago), and then we hit the pavement.
The Eastern US tour starts the beginning of February in Kalamazoo, MI. See the details and full list of dates at www.myspace.com/lucascates. I think I'll try to keep a journal of our adventures while we are on the road.
I'm really looking forward to our gig at Sulivan Hall in New Your City. It looks like a cool venue and I've never been to NYC. I'll get to reconnect with my old Bass teacher, which in all honestly makes me really nervous! I'll also get to meet some family I've never met before.......Noxon's! The Noxon family is small but fierce, I hope they come out and support.
Until next time, y'all be good.....and "if you can't be good, be safe"-Lucas Cates.
I'll see you on the road.

http://www.zimbio.com/member/Swann/articles/3984880/LithiumRadio+18+Best+Albums+2008


This is Lithium Radio's Top 18 pick for the Best Albums of 2008. It's an honer to be on the list with these other amazing bands.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/music_directory/

This is pretty cool, too. The press release for the Lucas Cates East Coast Tour went out a couple of weeks ago and it was picked up by this site, PRWeb.com, and the Washington Post among others!

Thanks for your support everybody!