The Van Story

This story will be told in the style of William Thomas Mansfield IV....because he is the greatest story tell who ever lived.....and continues to live...i can prove it, I just saw him last night, so I guess barring any unforeseen "indecent" he's still kicking.

So there I was behind the wheel of the greatest vehicle ever made prior to 1997.....the '97 Dodge DMC, the Dream Machine(pronounced with a hard ch...as in chicken), the Cheese Wheel, the buttratfarttub(its a pallendrome...like........noxon).

We stopped for a snack, actually we stopped because kenny's bladder decided to turn 65 years old on this tour and he has to pee every 100 miles or so....regardless, as we merged onto I-90 we heard a grinding sound come from somewhere under the car.....kenny and chet got out and listened and determined our back right was completely fucked and upon further investigation decided to change the tire. Turns out that son-of-a-bitch(willie style, remember) was worn down to the metal grid beneath the rubber itself making the tire damn near explosion. we unloaded the van, jacked her up, and changed the tire. Although we continued to hear the grinding sound, we decided to continue at a reduced speed to Spokane, our original destination and venue.

Everything was going smoothly. We ascended Lookout Pass which took us from Idaho to Washington, and began our decent passing the mountain town of Mullen and into the darkness of the Washington Rockies. About three miles down the road from Mullen I rounded a corner, following the river as it bent to the right. Midway around the corner the back of our van slammed into the pavement; the right rear tire and fallen off.....son of a bitch. At 65 miles an hour we began to swerve and fishtail toward the concrete divider in the center of the interstate, then back toward the edge of the road and the river, then the concrete, the river.....my breaks are slammed and the van is making a god awful sound....imagine nails on a chalk board....but the bottom of a 2,000 pound van against concrete-Kenny's is fist pumping shouting "you got this, you got this, you got this, you got this", and I'm trying to maneuver to the side of the road.

All completely instinct, all a flash of chaos....but it wasn't done yet. Like a pricey valet I parked the son of a bitch between the white line of the shoulder and the guard rail on a corner of I-90.........the dust settled.....i was amazed at the cleanliness of my pants.

"We're on fire!" is probably the last thing you want to hear, probably ever, but that's the first thing lucas said when he got out of the car. The rear right wheel well was completely on fire...mostly likely caused by metal scraping the pavement and a busted axle, break components and grease.

I never felt an ounce of fear during the ordeal of loosing a wheel until i knew we were on fire....i mean...we were on fucking fire!!! Chet in the panic threw a bottle of water on the well, which only made the fire bigger cause it was a grease fire.....I'm unlocking the back door with hopes of unloading my bass (and everyone else's shit too, but in moments of panic you get selfish)....Lucas, in his moment of brilliance and heroism sacrificed his pillow and smothered the fire, while we threw sand on the burning grease.

Fire out.....all that remained was the red glowing end of an axle which had melted and snapped. Ironically the wheel had rolled with us and landed next to the van.

Highway safety worker Scott(the silent three hundred pound type, no jacked....he never wears a jacket), Officer Louie Ochoa...the best cop name ever, and Darrell, the bands first ever driver, were on the scene. Police reports, road flares, sirens, flashing lights, a celebratory cigar(for not dying) were all out in force. Darrell the tow truck driver(which was more like a big flatbed with lights and our van drove us to the front door of Mootsy's in Spokane and helped us unload our gear. We played, rocked, and thanked the powers that be.....i guess it's just another story from the road....the crazy crazy road.

Thanks to my family Kirk, Renee, Jared, and Rickki and their friends for helping us out big time....giving us a place to stay and staying up way past your bed times to make sure we got where we needed to be. You are all so awesome. Officer Ochoa, Scott, and Darrell for keeping us safe on the interstate, and the guys at Bell Automotive for making our Dream Machine bigger, better, and stronger for future travels. Woo Hoo, the cheese wheel rides again.......................................................bye!

We just drove through dell, montana: population 35. Aparently there was a wreck on the highway and we've been diverted ontoo a two lane county road that
Parallels the railroad andk cuts through a beautiful ranching valley. Chet is consantly gaming, luker is playing saduko, ken is singing "funbelievable", comenting on ducks, and generally entertaining himself.
We played at a coffee shop/record store last night; pretty much heaven for me....I picked up Joni mitchell's mingus, amazing!! Turn out was good considering we book a little more than a week ago. Go to vinyl perk the next time you are in pocatello! Our friend, and local Pocatello harp player, BRAD(i got it right now buddy!) sat in on Cougarville. Hopefully he posts facebook video soon(hint hint) of our jam togeether in may. Thanks again brad n page for making us feel at home.
Tuesday in Paxton licked off the tour right, and as always kept us up past our bed times. Time and time again you guys proove that you really know how to rage; 600 strong! Thanks for keeping your kids out on a school night, commiting to a work hangover, and supporting us while we are on the road.
The next five nights are in Washington, I'll let you know what goes down, in the mean time if anyone asks you what kind of music the Lucas cates band plays, say "volcanic rock"....it's most fitting.

Car Story is Next....

no sleep till muscle shoals

I have been caught up in a fantasy world until our accomodations last night threw me back to tour reality. Needless to say it wasn't ideal, so let's go back to fantasy world for a moment.
Huntville, AL is home to one of the finest golf courses in AL and perhaps the US. The ledges is a private course and community where the lots(just the land) runs and average of $400,000+. You have to be a member to play there but in our Rock and Roll fantasy world we got to expirence all 18 of these beautiful holes, not to mention play in the clubhouse for a Jack Daniels/Kodak Film sponsered party. Check the facebook mobile uploads for the pics, cause it was amazing. We played for and hung out with our friends from Vision Source and Optimatrix, who treat us so well and are truly awesome friends. From late night sessions with the Gentleman Jack, to golfing, to grilling out, we had a fantastic weekend in Northern Alabama. Monday night we hit up the Bluebird Cafe, a legendary open mic located in nashville. The boys didn't get in before the open mic was finished, but it was pretty cool to see all the local artists do their thing.
Last night we played the Old Town Tavern in Sheffield, AL. The crowd was super attentive which allowed us to explore a bit more than usual. Not packed, but really fun.
I am so tired right now...I can't wait for a bed like the Embassy in Huntzville....but wait that was in the Fantasy World. I promise I'll be more entertaining next time.

"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.

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.

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 :-)