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.
Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tour. Show all posts
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, August 13, 2009
"the town that greets ya"
At least that's what one passer by sain of me and kenny as we sat adjacent to a small city park in salem illinois while drinking our coffee. As I look at the main intersection of salem I feel like I'm back in the 1950's. Salem hasn't changed much; not the downtown, at least. We are playing here tonight in what has been fondly labeled "the cougerville of illinois". Our usual establishment, becky's, has been closed since we were last here, but TDubs(our local illinois promoter) has kept us in the salem loop at the Village Garden for tonight's show. We are accually playing outside the bar, so more people could see the show, and I'm told the town of salem changed a city ordinence so we can leagelly play outside. It helps that a few of our fans here include a county judge and various members of the city counsel :-).
Last night we played mabry's, in greenville, illinois....yea I don't know where that is either, but we did get to take a rollercoaster of county roads to get. I told chet that I had his back, just in case.
I met some interesting folks there inluding two traveling business men who are helping us in the indianapolis market, one dude who spent four months in a coma after a falling 284 feet in a snowboarding accident(he also had to jump from a burning plane last year....hasn't really been his decade), and a woman with a hole in her head...I felt it...it was weird....accually she made me feel it....it was weird. she was accually a very nice woman, and she came to the show with her boyfriend simply cause the heard about us, which leads me to believe that somehow rural america gets a news feed that the rest of the country doesn't subscribe to. I mean, we're in greenville. I think we should do a tour of towns with 5000 people or less and call it something like "getting some boon 2009 tour". Just a thought.
Last night we played mabry's, in greenville, illinois....yea I don't know where that is either, but we did get to take a rollercoaster of county roads to get. I told chet that I had his back, just in case.
I met some interesting folks there inluding two traveling business men who are helping us in the indianapolis market, one dude who spent four months in a coma after a falling 284 feet in a snowboarding accident(he also had to jump from a burning plane last year....hasn't really been his decade), and a woman with a hole in her head...I felt it...it was weird....accually she made me feel it....it was weird. she was accually a very nice woman, and she came to the show with her boyfriend simply cause the heard about us, which leads me to believe that somehow rural america gets a news feed that the rest of the country doesn't subscribe to. I mean, we're in greenville. I think we should do a tour of towns with 5000 people or less and call it something like "getting some boon 2009 tour". Just a thought.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
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
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
Sunday, November 30, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
but the words are mine.
Alright so let me catch up with our adventure. The remainder of our days flew by us. We bid goodbye to our friends in Sharp and Harkins Band as well as Mike Droho and Anthony, and traveled to Spartenburg, South Carolina. Now Spartenburg is famous (to me at lease) for two things. 1. This private all -girls school, and 2. the world headquarters for Denny's. Unforunately we couldn't get a grand slam at either! We played at Wild Wings, which is a restaurant chain in the south, as well as an awesome venue. Our sound team was amazing and we had some of the best sound we'd had on tour. Everyone we met that night was super cool and supportive even though throughout 3/4 of the show their backs were toward us while they watched that Patriots/Jets game. I can't lie, Chet and I were watching too. We had some friends who saw the Duo in Arizona drive from Maryland to see the show which was a show of serious dedication. The highlight of the night for me was seeing Chet and Richard have a dance party with themselves once we got back to the hotel room....and as you should assume this was fuled by booze, and my documented evidence of this event will never be shown. Friday night was SWANGIN'! We played at the Atlanta Brewing Company, which is THE place to go before you go out in ATL. Some of you might have seen this on Dirty South TV, but if you didn't it was in a warehouse and smelled like feet. The crowd was strong, though and we made a lot of new friends and sold a good number of discs. It was so hot in there I had never sweat so much...I felt like Styles...seriously I'm sure you can see it on the video. Many props go out to G from Dirty South TV who helped us out, and cracked me up when he was filming by holding one "rock and roll fist" in the air while he ran the camera and ate a massive sub sandwich....a man of many talents and styles...all awesome, by the way. After that we kicked it with some people from the show at Fox and Hounds. We drank some drinks, shot some pool, had a great time, and decided to go to the Pink Pony. Now did I mention Harie is one of the baddest dudes I know. This guy hooked us up with some premium apparel for his clothing line, Rejunio, and took us out that Friday for a night on the town!!! All I will say is this Pink Pony = VIP, Free Drinks, Free Hotel, and Jessica Linn a foot from my face. Swangin!!! Harie....we can't thank you enough for your generosity, hospitality, and overall awesome spirit. Thanks, brother! We wrapped our Atlanta session up with an acoustic show at Marlow's Tavern. We played on the porch above the restaurant which was heated and intimate. It was great to see some of our friends from the night before (not Jessica :-( and great to meet all of the new people. It was a great way to end our southern experience. Hey bartenders....y'all were the best! Now don't think this tour was all about boozin', after all we are professionals :-) Finally there isn't enough thanks, love, and appreciation that I could express with words to adequately show my love for Shirley, Georgia, and Teresa. Y'all are family to me and I love you very much. Thanks for making me feel at home away from home. I can't wait to see you...believe me you will just have recovered by the time we come back. Thanks for believing and let's keep this mutherfuckin train-a-rollin'.
Alright so let me catch up with our adventure. The remainder of our days flew by us. We bid goodbye to our friends in Sharp and Harkins Band as well as Mike Droho and Anthony, and traveled to Spartenburg, South Carolina. Now Spartenburg is famous (to me at lease) for two things. 1. This private all -girls school, and 2. the world headquarters for Denny's. Unforunately we couldn't get a grand slam at either! We played at Wild Wings, which is a restaurant chain in the south, as well as an awesome venue. Our sound team was amazing and we had some of the best sound we'd had on tour. Everyone we met that night was super cool and supportive even though throughout 3/4 of the show their backs were toward us while they watched that Patriots/Jets game. I can't lie, Chet and I were watching too. We had some friends who saw the Duo in Arizona drive from Maryland to see the show which was a show of serious dedication. The highlight of the night for me was seeing Chet and Richard have a dance party with themselves once we got back to the hotel room....and as you should assume this was fuled by booze, and my documented evidence of this event will never be shown. Friday night was SWANGIN'! We played at the Atlanta Brewing Company, which is THE place to go before you go out in ATL. Some of you might have seen this on Dirty South TV, but if you didn't it was in a warehouse and smelled like feet. The crowd was strong, though and we made a lot of new friends and sold a good number of discs. It was so hot in there I had never sweat so much...I felt like Styles...seriously I'm sure you can see it on the video. Many props go out to G from Dirty South TV who helped us out, and cracked me up when he was filming by holding one "rock and roll fist" in the air while he ran the camera and ate a massive sub sandwich....a man of many talents and styles...all awesome, by the way. After that we kicked it with some people from the show at Fox and Hounds. We drank some drinks, shot some pool, had a great time, and decided to go to the Pink Pony. Now did I mention Harie is one of the baddest dudes I know. This guy hooked us up with some premium apparel for his clothing line, Rejunio, and took us out that Friday for a night on the town!!! All I will say is this Pink Pony = VIP, Free Drinks, Free Hotel, and Jessica Linn a foot from my face. Swangin!!! Harie....we can't thank you enough for your generosity, hospitality, and overall awesome spirit. Thanks, brother! We wrapped our Atlanta session up with an acoustic show at Marlow's Tavern. We played on the porch above the restaurant which was heated and intimate. It was great to see some of our friends from the night before (not Jessica :-( and great to meet all of the new people. It was a great way to end our southern experience. Hey bartenders....y'all were the best! Now don't think this tour was all about boozin', after all we are professionals :-) Finally there isn't enough thanks, love, and appreciation that I could express with words to adequately show my love for Shirley, Georgia, and Teresa. Y'all are family to me and I love you very much. Thanks for making me feel at home away from home. I can't wait to see you...believe me you will just have recovered by the time we come back. Thanks for believing and let's keep this mutherfuckin train-a-rollin'.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Laissez le bon temps roulez
Last night kicked off a very busy next three months. The boys returned from their duo tour (a healthy six weeks long) on Monday and the whole band did two acoustic sets last night at the Bar Next Door. Seriously, that is actually the name of the bar. Its an old Al Capone speakeasy complete with escape tunnels and a kick-ass old fireplace. Anyway things are looking up for the Lucas Cates Band. Aside from the Thursday, Friday, Saturday shows each week, our CD release party is October 18th, we're playing Halloween with one of my favorite bands, Steez, the southern tour is kicking off the second week in November, and New Year's Eve looks like it's gonna rage (we're doing that show with Steez and Chafo...my side project of sorts).
I think the new album is on itunes already...I'm not sure. I happily do not handle the advertising/promotion/business end of things. There will be a solid push on Yahoo and other Internet sites for the CD. Of course, these days it's not about the album since people can just download songs. This is definitely an issue for me, I mean I know that it's all about downloads and making things easy, but there is something about an album: a time capsule of songwriting that is interconnected with the experiences of the songwriters, a musical snapshot of the artists moment in life, a collection that makes sense as a whole. You wouldn't take just the smile from the Mona Lisa, would you? OK, I'm NOT comparing the Lucas Cates Band to Di Vinci, but you get my point.
Wow, I got a little off track there. I think I just tripped over a soapbox or something and can't remember what I was talking about.
I think the new album is on itunes already...I'm not sure. I happily do not handle the advertising/promotion/business end of things. There will be a solid push on Yahoo and other Internet sites for the CD. Of course, these days it's not about the album since people can just download songs. This is definitely an issue for me, I mean I know that it's all about downloads and making things easy, but there is something about an album: a time capsule of songwriting that is interconnected with the experiences of the songwriters, a musical snapshot of the artists moment in life, a collection that makes sense as a whole. You wouldn't take just the smile from the Mona Lisa, would you? OK, I'm NOT comparing the Lucas Cates Band to Di Vinci, but you get my point.
Wow, I got a little off track there. I think I just tripped over a soapbox or something and can't remember what I was talking about.
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