Summer Tour 2010: Hotter than ever!

Had you told me that when we headlined Everett, Washington's 4th of July festival, i would have smacked you.....prebably not, that's just not me....i would have smirked, then turned away so you couldn't see how I really felt, and continued to drink the sweet, sweet local brews that Washington has to offer.  Let's just say it was cold; and an equally if not greater than cold wind was blowing off the puget sound onto the stage.  Acouple beers and a spring coat later, The Lucas Cates Band was off and running(it was still really cold).  Accually the Summer 2010 tour began six days and six shows earlier in Madison, WI.  We drove about 10 hours each day to our show; unloaded, set up, played, broke down, slept(most of the time), and drove.  Our week in Washington began as a cloudy windy holiday, but ended a cloudless beautiful northwestern adventure as we had 7 days of total sunshine beginning July 5th. 
The tours have been great as the crowds are multiplying and merchandise is flying off the shelves.  The Pacific Northwest as been offically labeled (by me, so really not that official) a "hot spot"(but official enough for quotations) for the band.  There is a lot of excitement for the music and amazing response from concert goers which is why we will return to Washington and Oregon in 10 days to wrap up the summer tour. 
One cool band thing of note happened about a month ago.  We will soon(which means hopefully soon) be in "E-Cast" jukeboxes around the country as an unsigned band.  Both All the Pieces and Live at Sullivan Hall will be in the data base for all ecast boxes....pretty cool.  We are working with Touch Tunes currently to secure the same type of deal.  So say you are on vacation and you want a drink.....no brainer....go to the bar, BUT let's say you are on vacation....at that very same bar and you say "I'd like to make everyone in this bar listen to what I want to listen to," so you go over to the sweet juke box, AND you've already decided that like an unhealthy addiction you NEED to listen to The Lucas Cates Band.......NOW........well damnit you are in luck, cause we'll be there for you.  Now if it just so happens that you are staring a Touch Tunes Jukebox in the face, make sure you write them or your local congressman(or woman) and tell them we should be in Touch Tunes as well......simple, delicious, fish.

Suggested Music Listening:  Caravan (Single) - This is some serious new stuff from Rush.  You won't believe what you are hearing.

washington is accually pretty rainy, but awesome

Who the hell is fred meyer? Apparently I'm walking around in his store in Bellingham, Washington as I type. Ken is trying to purchase "a lot of socks," and can't find anything. Like shoes, size 13 socks are hard to find. Of course he is trying to get the best deal possible, which prolongs the process. No nikes; tiger wears them and now they are expensive-what a pussy. Looks like he settled with flipping a coin and got the goldtoe premium full cushion cotton quarters....nice choice.
Playing in washington has been a good choice for the lucas cates band as well. We have met many amazing people. Karen and Kevin put us up in Mt. Vernon after a 24 hour drive from paxton, ne(see an earlier blog about paxton, nebraska. The place is amazing). Trinka was gracious enough to let us crash at her lake house in glen haven, wa. I have pics on facebook, but the place was so beautiful...it had the fire pit, hot tub, lake, rehearsal space(her husband is a pro trumpeter, you heard him on like every aerosmith album amongst other things). We spent two days on the lake, surrounded by the clouds and trees. I felt like gorillas in the mist, except with bigfoot.
The 4th of july show went off well. We played on a cliff overlooking the ocean, or the "sound" as its called, for a park full of people. The show moved a bunch of cds and got us two more gigs for this week! The first was last night in everett at PC's and was a tuesday surprise ragger! Amazing crowd of people listening, responding, and gettin down. A local painter painted a "tour poster for us, and did a live painting on the reverse side while we played. It is safely wrapped in lucas's sleeping bag(also posted on facebook). It reminded me of san fran or ashland, oregon, which is a very good thing.
Tonight we play at the wild buffalo in bellingham. Word is there's going to be a good crowd. The press we picked up has generated a solid buzz in the pacific northwest. Beautiful country and beautiful souls have made this little run well worth the drive. The only disappointment is the fact that I have yet to see bigfoot....kind of like narr.

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.

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.

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.

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!

TLCB Wants To Play On This Cruise

Ok, who doesn't want to spend four days in the Gulf of Mexico on a cruise ship with John Mayer, Guster, OAR, etc? If you answered "Me," then you aren't human; it's very simple. I guess the point is that The Lucas Cates Band is in this online voting competition to play on such a cruise in 2009. The Mayercraft cruise is hosted by John Mayer and features a number of amazing bands. This year they want to bring unsigned artists along, so we're going for one of those spots. It takes 3 minutes to register on the site and vote (ideally for The Lucas Cates Band). If we can cause a stir then we get to play on the cruise, and if we play on the cruise y'all are invited! We'll just cram everyone into my cabin....it will be sweet, seriously.

You can find the link to vote at our myspace page : myspace.com/lucascates (the link is to the right of this post). Every vote helps! You can only vote once a day, but you can vote everyday! Go ahead; put it into your routine....kind of like.....brushing your teeth, or checking your email (for those of you who don't brush).

Thanks so much! Y'all are awesome!

I'm Thinkful for......yup I meant to type "thinkful"

I just drove for five hours in shitty weather(ice, snow, wind, etc.) from St. Paul, Minnesota to Madison, Wisconsin....the epic end to my Thanksgiving weekend. I also poured myself a strong drink(to relax from the tense drive) and now feel compelled to write some nonsense. I am really excited for the band. We are in that stage where things are happening, but we are still rocking the cougar bars in small-ass wisco towns; we can still play a four=hour show and people feel compelled to yell "Freebird"; there are still a million ways to spell Cates, cate, caates, catis, kates, kate's; backstage means a parking lot, a basement, a trash can, a Chinese restaurant. Don't' get me wrong, I am not trying to come off like a whiny bitch. To be honest, I kind of like it all. There is a satisfaction in setting up your own system, fighting for your payout, sleeping in the van, taking a sharking lot, and playing as much as you can.
This year I am thankful for my family and friends, as well as my band, who through thick and thin will always be my brothers. You guys are the best. I love you and look forward to every experience we encounter.

Mom! I'm on TV-sort of

Hi everybody! The Lucas Cates Band's (of which I am a part)southern tour leg of our cd release starts this Thursday, and we have some really cool opportunities while we are on the road.

Dirty South TV was started by a music video lover who became disgusted with both MTV and VH-1, as their focus turned from videos to reality TV and other things. He started Dirty South, and he shortly thereafter began “Live Sessions from the Dirty South,” which is now the #1 watched weekly indie music show. The Lucas Cates Band will be performing on Monday, November 10th from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Being on this show is a privilege, as bands, both local and touring, are clamoring for a slot.
G, the owner, CEO, or whatever you prefer to call him, loves our band and wants to do what he can to help with our exposure. To that end, Dirty South will now be feeding live from your show at the Atlanta Brewing Company on Friday night!
So, while we are on the road you can watch the performance at Atlanta Brewing Company Friday, the 14th and our in-studio show on the 10th.
This is a really big deal for us and we really need to generate as much support as we can. If you have a spare moment please tune in to Dirty South TV (don't worry, it's not dirty like that) or our live show on Friday. If there is a jump in ratings for this station they will know it's because of the band and this will open some big doors for us.

Here is the link to Dirty South TV:
http://www.dirtysouthtv.tv/LiveSessionsFromTheDirtySouth.html.

Thank you guys. Your support is appreciated so much more than you know. To see more dates/pics/details visit:
www.myspace.com/marknoxon
www.myspace.com/lucascates
www.lucascates.com
or find me of facebook!

much love.