Nov 1st

It's already gonna be November! This year has flown by in a flurry of good times and crazy adventures.

Anyway, this show will be awesome so come out. I even heard that Balazo isn't such a shitty place after all(though I wouldn't bet on it).

See ya there!

Tomorrow night!

friday, october 16
yellow room
(2027 market st.)
oakland, ca 94609

SPIRES (first show back from us tour)
BEAU NAVIRE (demo release show)........Also recently formerly named Life Moves
MONGOLOID VILLAGE...... From Portland
+MORE

6-6:30 pm
donation$

Homeward bound...

This is our last night in NYC and it has been a perfect end to this trip. It's raining a bit right now and instead of raging all night like we've been doing since we got here, we took it easy. Everyone here has been super fucking cool to us and I can't stress enough how amazing it feels to have met such genuine people so far from home.

Here's to new friendships.

Chicago to NYC 2009!

-AL

Tour/East Coast trip winding down... sorta.

This post will not have photos. I have retired my DSLR for the rest of this trip and have been using my Yashica FX-3 almost primarily.

We've been kind of locked in New York since Saturday and made the decision to stick out the rest of our time here instead of going on w/ the rest of the tour into Baltimore. Since we got here everyone has been doing their own thing mostly and coming together as a whole only at night when we needed to all drive away for a show. The next show for Spires was gonna be in Baltimore followed by a schedule that pulls them further and further South. With the option of using Brooklyn as a home base after shows no longer available, we bid farewell to our friends and made other plans. Pat of Apeshit! is still being way fucking cool and letting us crash around until Sunday when Anna, Vicky and I head back to Oakland. We have quite a list of things to do before we head home.

Tomorrow night Drunken Boat is playing Oliver's house.
Friday night Apeshit is playing and so is The Jealous Sound somewhere else.
Saturday night Nux Vomica is playing and there will be a mansion party somewhere in Bushwick.

Phew.


Film stuff will be up after I get home.
Although Brooklyn is seeming more and more homey.


-AL

Non Fucking Stop!

First off... It's 6:19am.
I'm on 4 hours of sleep in the past 24 and waiting out a drunk rather than sleeping it off. Once we got out into NYC and Brooklyn in the daylight we found out that this shit is HUUUUGE! This place doesn't slow down for anything!
The ABC No Rio show was a lot of fun and there was surprisingly quite a few people there for being a matinee show. Those dudes bought the building for $1 and are now using it as a show space. So nuts.
The Glassdoor show was more nuts than anything. Our buddies Omar and Paolo made it into NYC despite car problems and Sanchez flew in just in time for the show. Oliver and Fox who recently moved to Brooklyn came out as well! It was pretty much just a huge hang out and it felt crazy warm.

My ABC No Rio photos were kinda bad and I wasn't really feeling into shooting the entire Glassdoor show. So...

ABC No Rio:

1994!...


Spires...


Malegoat(Japan)...


Algernon Cadwallader...


Right after this show was the show at The Glassdoor. This was a pretty cool place but then again I wasn't really feeling up to shooting the entire thing. I missed 1994! and a couple of others mostly cause I just wanted to hang.

Psychic Limb...


Spires...


Apeshit!...


After the show we said goodbye to a bunch of people we won't be seeing anytime soon which was really sad. A few others we will see soon in Baltimore. Jason, Anna and I tagged along w/ the Apeshit dudes to a bar somewhere in Brooklyn which was actually really fucking cool. We are now at Pat's(Apeshit) warehouse house while everyone is staying at an appt in Park Slope. Tomorrow should be nuts and we gonna be in Jersey by 5.

The sun is up again and so am I.

Don't sleep.
Ever.

-AL

p.s. still lovin life.

Currently in Brooklyn NY!

I feel as if I'm in some sort of alternate plane of existence where time no longer has a meaning. Days don't have names and the only thing that has any importance is where the next show is and who we're going to be with. Its 5:23am and I'm sitting in a kitchen in Brooklyn sifting through photos from the past 5 days while 6 of the closest friends I've ever had are sleeping around me. We made the drive in at around 2:30am from Philly immediately after the show. The streets in Park Slope were eerily empty and dimly lit. The warm calm air and smiling people we've known until now were replaced with cold strong winds and the first person we see is a drunk guy stumbling down the sidewalk with fresh piss down his leg. I don't really hold onto first impressions very well nor do I take my judgments made at 4am after a night of drinking and shitty food very seriously. If our time here in NYC is anything like our trip so far, I will be completely content.

The past 3 days in PA have been fucking amazing. And that would be an understatement. Everywhere we'd go we were treated as family. We got into Pittsburgh on Wednesday after around a 2hr drive and Garret was already making us awesome rice and fried pepper food. Garret and Ben have this crazy 3 story brick house on the North side of Pittsburgh w/ like 5 bedrooms and roof access.

Leaving Think Tank(Erica seeing us off, thanks dudes!):


View from the roof:


Pittsburgh is an amazing city. There are a two rivers feeding into one and a ton of bridges. A lot of the architecture is very old and has a certain character to it that isn't commonly found on our side of the country. We were all pretty stoked on the city and the housing is CRAZY cheap. Hmmmmm...
Apparently since the G-20 is a week away it has all of Pittsburgh Police on edge and house shows non-existent. Lucky for us one of the Outclassed dudes were able to score a show at a bar called Kopec's. This was an extremely fun night getting to see both bands following the break up of Outclassed and being around so many friendly people. There was free beer to the bands and free food for everyone!

Who Goes There?...


Spires...


Ed Hoculi...


After the show we all went back to John's place and partied down for a bit. Garret took us around a cemetery which was really cool and creepy. Definitely a good break after our party extravaganza in Chicago. Brendan and Zach were some of the nicest/party hard dudes in Pittsburgh. Such good times.

The next morning we all reluctantly got up and packed our shit for another 5hr drive to Lancaster. We were finally due to see Chris and Mike.

Jacob and Vicky(not getting up):


After loosing Brum and me shitting my pants trying to push a fart out, we got on the road. We also decided to make a stop once into Lancaster for some party things to make our arrival really crazy. We filled the van w/ balloons and armed ourselves w/ poppers and roaming candles. We drove around Lancaster for the next half an hour getting lost and stuck in traffic but we finally made it.

Surprise!...


Vicky and Jacob plotting an attack...


Mike showed a few of us around the town a little and I have to be honest, Lancaster seems like a pretty sweet place to live. It was very cozy and homey.

The show was set up at Chris' job, Senorita Burrita. A lot of people came out and all the bands that played were a lot of fun. Even the order the bands were in worked very well. I remember as Slingshot Dakota played, I looked around the room seeing all my close friends and new friends smiling, dancing, hugging and couldn't fucking believe how perfect and comfortable the feeling was for being 3000 miles from home.

We Were Skeletons...


Boys And Sex...


Boyfriends...


Spires...


Slingshot Dakota...



After the show we just kinds hung around for a bit before we headed back to Chris' place for party time. The night was very chill and drunk and I slept in Chris' Pooh suit to keep warm.

The next morning we all went on over to Mike and Stevie's place for breakfast. They have a 4 story loft apartment that is less than $100 more than I was paying for my room in Oakland a month ago. What the fuck. We spent the day eating rad food in even radder company before heading off to Philly for the show.

We finally got to the warehouse that was hosting last nights show almost 2 hours late. But it wasn't that big of a deal I guess. This place was fucking massive! The show space was on the 3rd floor and the roof was just over the 4th. There are about 9 people living there and are too some of the nicest, generous people we've met.

Views from the roof...


Downtown Philly...


Ed Hochuli...


Spires...


Boyfriends...


There were two other bands I didn't shoot mostly cause I just wanted to hang out and not have a camera in my hand for once. We didn't stick around to check out Philly which is kinda lame but I guess the decision was made to sleep not on a warehouse floor. So we're here now in Brooklyn.
At this point the sun is up and it's right around 7:30am. Everyone but me is still sleeping away and I should be doing the same. We've got a full day tomorrow w/ shows at both the Glassdoor and ABC No Rio. There are a slew of people to meet w/ and Sanchez is flying in too! Fuck yeah! Our buddies Omar and Paolo flew in from Southern California yesterday and we got to see them in Philly. They'll be here in today as well.

I outta get some rest now.


Totally lovin life right now...

-AL

Currently in Lakewood Ohio!

At this moment, I'm sitting on a second story porch in Ohio outside of the Think Tank house who just hosted a show. Alex and Erica live here and are super nice, letting us crash, shower and wash clothes here. They even held the show up for a bit because we got here 3 hours late. This was mostly due to me riding around Chicago, getting lost and passing out on a sidewalk for an hour in my hungover/still drunk stupor. But we made it! I even managed to puke on the side of the van at 70 mph and annoy everyone.
Whoops!
Anyway, I'm totally diggin this slow mid-west slowed down, warm nights, happy people everywhere thing we're doing.

Think tank house:



So Chicago was fucking awesome!
Anna, Vicky and I were up at 3 in the a.m. and we landed in Chicago at around noon. We took a 30 minute train ride into the area surrounding Wicker Park and had a few beers there as we waited for the dudes to meet us.

Waiting in the Airport:


Our plane:


After we meet up w/ the dudes we milled around the city for a bit and got some really good food at Handle Bar. Definitely a good call on Brum's part. The show last night was at the Cunt Collective in Logan Park. This was a sweet sweet place ran by really rad and helpful women. There was roof access and the L was literally 10 feet from the window behind the bands.

From the roof:


The L:


I took a bunch of really bad photos at the show but I have been shooting more film than digital so hopefully those are much better.

Suffix...


Teenage Cool Kids...


Spires...


New Yorker...


This was followed by 90 beers at the Phat Farm or Frat Farm or something. Bad idea.

Anyway, I wanna hang out w/ my friends now so until next time...

We're in Philly tomorrow.


-AL