Friday, August 15, 2008

Homestretch.

blah blah blah blah Denver, Colorado was great. Blah blah blah blah Salt Lake, City was as strange as it always is. Blah blah blah Seattle, Washington is tonight, and tomorrow I get to turn 28 years old. Now, If I were turning 28 a few years ago I might have just gone on a long ramble about taking stock, looking forward and just generally assessing where my life is but to be honest I'm not really feeling any of that. For the first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to getting older.. I've come to realize that every year I get older I only learn more ways to express and enjoy myself and this is no bullshit to try and convince myself that getting older is cool since I have no choice in the matter. My breakdown is 74% 18 year old and 26% 60 year old... My mom says I still look 20 and others say I rep Like an old man drinking tea and playing chess in the park. Whatever.

So the homestretch, the run down the west-coast begins today the moment we pull up in front of El Corazon and I gotta say that its a great feeling. Kay Kay joined up on the tour in Denver and we've all been impressed not only by their live show, but their similar approach to jamming and writing music. Having all of our friends open our tour and having our new lovers Portugal the Man on this tour have made is grrrrrrrreat. I must say that this has been one of the musically best tours I can think of that we've ever done. Watching Portugal jam out before we go on definitely stokes me out and anyone else who knows what I'm talking about knows that your love for a bands music can be boosted quite a bit by your liking for them as people...which can work adversely as well.

My legs itches, bad... I hate mosquitoes. During our 836 mile jaunt from Salt Lake City to Seattle (of which we are still en route) we stopped at a spot in northern Oregon by the snake river. It was a really beautiful spot where the river was winding out of the mountains and continued its way down in to the valley of Oregon yokes-ville. After sitting in a van for 8 hours there's nothing like a beautiful park or some natural sight to supplement the breaks which are often spent at a flying-j, or some other random corporate consumer incubator. We all walked down the river and began the ancient and primal activity of.. throwing rocks. For lack of energy or anthropological knowledge I'll spare you my theory on this activity and its ability to connect us with our friends earlier on the evolutionary time-line (or the nothingness that existed if you believe that sort of thing). What I will say is this; Throwing rocks is legit. We sit in a van burning gas and playing I-Pods, a GPS unit with a British accent directing us through engineered roads while we pull a trailer filled with some of the most expensive electrical equipment around. This collection of materials and circumstance is pulled and rolled through every major metropolitan area in the US and the time not spent in a club is spent on every man made creation as far from nature as one can be for about 90% of the time. So when we find a beautiful river, and a stick in the mud 40 feet below us at the bank of the river, it is a beautiful contrast and a therapeutic activity to say the least... A bunch of grown ass dudes just throwing rocks. Go throw some rocks and get those creative juices flowing. Just don't sit out by the river at sun-down and get munched by mosquitoes like we did, thats the part thats NOT legit.


Why hello California, we're gonna hang out in a few days.

7 comments:

Ohio Nate said...

That was poetic.

Happy Birthday dude.

Sanchez said...

happy birthday bro

rhett said...

happy b-day steve. its my birthday tomorrow too. thats pretty fucking weird. madonnas also turning 50, and it'll be the anniversaries of Elvis and Babe Ruth dying. its always been strange having people celebrate two of the greatest icons in music and sports deaths on the same day i was born. always makes me realize what little ive done so far in my life. ill be 23.

Abbie said...

happy two eight. safe travels as you wander down the coast. twas a pleasure to follow tour for multiple days as you messed up the midwest with the rxb goodness.

side note: i was in omaha to see good old war early this week, and everyone was all butt hurt your show had been cancelled there. my favorite was a kid wearing an rxb shirt who proclaimed loudly "rxb isn't even that good anyway." omaha obviously isn't that smart.

Ohio Nate said...

Hey Abbie. Every band has a handful of dumbass fans. I don't think it's fair to knock Omaha just because of a few off handed bitter comments.

MArissa said...

happy birthday !

n8lieby said...

My wife and I saw ya at slim's on monday. epic! It was our one year weddin' anniversary. Made for a great night.