hookslide * vocal band : scrapbook : april 1-3 2004

—April 1-3, 2004—
Southern California/America Sings Tour

Long Beach, CA

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Our tour to Southern California was different from our previous tours. For one thing, it was in the spring instead of the fall. It was kind of strange; it was just backwards or something, I guess, and we had to look out for that nasty time change Springing Forward at us. For another thing, there were no airplanes. After our last few tours, we decided that we'd all be much better off without airplanes. At least, the four of us would certainly be better off without airplanes. Not to mention airports - but that's a whole different story. For a third thing, we finally all realized what our common bond was: Breakfast. It turns out that all of us have a particular fondness for this meal, which explains why we're able to create music together. Go with me on this one.

So, we piled into Jon's parents' minivan (yeah, 'cause we're a real hard rockin' band - but it's a step up from the Volkswagen Golf, which is our normal mode of transportation! The Golf, by the way, is now running completely on biodiesel, which is diesel fuel made from soybean oil), which is now affectionately referred to as "The Silver Bullet." It kind of was left with a big ego, ever since it killed that vampire. But we all knew what was at stake..so we threw our sound in the back, and minivanned our way down I5, past the...numerous landmarks...of which I can think of none, through the grapevine (I heard it!), and down into The City Of Breakfast.

We were scheduled to be in Westlake Village, CA, for our first performance at Westlake Village High School. They have one of the strongest choir programs in the country, and their director, Alan Rose, makes sure of that. Alan is one of the most energetic men we've ever met. I think despite the fact that he has 300 choir students, 95% of the choir's energy comes from Alan. But the choir students clearly love him, and we saw why instantly. The Westlake Village show was really important to us, as the first show of this year's tour season, and thanks to Alan and his choir, it was fantastic! We did our normal hour-long set, and had a long and scattered autograph session afterwards. I thing the weirdest thing we signed was a stuffed Batman; we didn't even know that stuffed Batmen were in vogue these days. It's probably not even in vogue to say "in vogue." Hip, cool, groovy, awesome, rad - yeah, I'm getting old...

Friday was our first day of really good breakfast. Thursday's breakfast was alright; we'd gone to the International House Of Pancakes (which is neither International nor is it a house, and they serve much more than pancakes - discuss.), and done alright, but Friday was something else. We went to a place called Mimi's, and suddenly, we were in heaven! For some reason, Jon insisted on having lunch while the three of us had breakfast, but we decided later to forgive him for it. Jon's the one person in the band who definitely does his own thing. It's clearly true on stage, and as we discovered that fateful morning at Mimi's, it's true off-stage as well. Luckily this was the type of restaurant that served pancakes, huevos rancheros, and pot roast. Luckily this was the kind of restaurant that did not put all of these things on a single plate.

And luckily, that night was our headline gig at America Sings! For those of you who were not aware, America does, in fact, Sing!! America Sings is an organization that puts together these giant weekend retreats for school choir kids, with workshops during the day and concerts in the evenings. It's kind of like Woodstock for kids, but...well, different in some very important ways. Now THIS was a real treat, and possibly the only thing that could've followed the tremendous show at Westlake Village the night before. With over 2000 kids in the audience, this was by far the largest crowd we'd ever sung Funkbus to (we've performed for larger crowds, particularly at baseball games, but we're not really free to do OUR set in those cases -- I hate to think what we'd have had thrown at us if we'd launched into Funkbus at the Coliseum before an A's game. And come to think of it, that crowd was probably smaller.). And, we had the pleasure of meeting Kirby Shaw, childhood hero to every choir student in America! Truthfully, this event was beyond any words I can write, so luckily we took pictures and movies. Their entire staff were incredibly friendly and helpful and nice, starting with their leader John Jacobson.

Well, after two consecutive nights of singing for school kids, it was time to "retox." So after a kickin' breakfast Saturday morning at The Crest, Saturday night we sang at a French lounge/listening room on Sunset in LA called Taix. That's pronounced "Tex," at least in SoCal (probably not in France, but who really knows??). The food they served was NOT Taix-Maix. I'd better stop before they put a haix on us. They told us we could sing as long as we wanted, so that's exactly what we did! We sang everything we knew, and it wasn't so much a question of how long we wanted to sing, but how long we could sing. So, hours later and with dead voices, we retreated to the hotel room, where the three of us left Jon (see, told you) and attempted to find some nightlife.

There was no nightlife. We paid $20 each and stood in a line to get into a nearly empty club that served orange juice and Coca-Cola, and contained six people breakdancing to the loudest beat-trance music I'd ever heard in my life. We were in there for an hour and ten minutes, but that's only because the time change Sprang Forward while we were inside. We don't have good luck with clubs that have lines. We don't really want to talk about it.

And, that was pretty much it! Our breakfast experience at The Crest Cafe was SO good that we went back Sunday morning, ordered all different stuff, and then hit the road back to San Francisco, and promptly started packing for St. Louis.

Set List: Westlake High School

Love You Madly

Celebrate

Try a Little Tenderness

Thank You

Kiss From a Rose

Don't You Forget About Me

Mustang Sally

Ride

Gone

Apache Wedding Prayer

Disco Inferno