random harley photos

finale 2

Oakland show, final show of tour was ok. good turn out but the Portland show went down better for us. for dinner up the road was a vegan soul food take away place, pretty much the vegan version of sloppy, fatty, ‘black man’ food – or fried chicken, Mac n cheese etc. I had a southern fried chicken burger, deep fried crumbed tofu patty, with BBQ tofu pieces, vegan cheese , tomato and lettuce with added powder spice! the best/worst burger I’ve ever eaten. soooo naughty but so tasty!!! said our goodbyes followed by an overnight drive to LA. stopped at a dudes house to freshen up (which took 7 dudes nearly 4 hours) we headed into Hollywood to catch up with our mate MJ (pinks personal assistant). ate more amazing vegan food at vege grill on sunset blvd (see below chicken burger and sweet potato fries) then headed up to the tourist spot to see the famous theatre bit, stars and names on the footpath and hand prints in cement etc. Marilyn monroes star was a hit along with ol’ frank! there was a red carpet for some new Disney movie and saw the actress Mandy Moore from a distance, along with Ryan Adams which drew more of a wow factor between us lot (alt rock country player). Tonight we are staying at MJ’s house in Venice beach so I’m assuming the day following will be focussed around that area and possibly Orange County too.

finale 1

few more shows here and there, some good some not so good. but overall response has been more than expected with some shows superior to Aussie shows. nothing too much to chat about in cities other than Portland last night.   the drive from salt lake to Portland was simply amazing. the most beautiful drive on tour, 80pcent of the 7 hour drive consisted of a huge river to our right, with breathtaking mountains and cliffs with waterfalls in the distance to the right, with similar cliffs hard up to our left. Photos don’t give it justice as usual. we arrived around 2.30 to the outskirts of Portland and all I could think about was how close we were to Seattle and nirvana history …ahh well! so helmet, emma, callum and mo, aussie friends who met up with us at the venue. sooooo good, missed those two lads heaps! we headed up to a vegan strip mall and had a pepperoni and seitan sanga, then we grabbed some drinks, everyone got lokos and I stuck to my pbr and we headed down to the worldwide famous skate park 200m from the venue called burnside. the park was featured in Tony hawk 1 on playstation which I played a bunch as a tacker. cool to see it in real life! then an another old Aussie friend Rachel vezer met up with me, we shot around the corner to a bar and caught up and reminisced about the old days and people, great to see her too! show was great, bit of a drama with our driver so Aaron the trucker from ghost inside took the overnight drive to Oakland.
so we arrived at 10am, and San francisco is 15mins from Oakland – boom! 5 hours in SF, golden gate bridge viewing, Alcatraz from afar, good ol pumpkin spice latte, amazing city, a huge mall we hunted down that had amazing vegan cuisine in a food court – chicken pesto roll! SOLID RON!

 

the vice

rockys

so I saw snow falling in a city for the first time in Denver last night! I felt like an excited little kid, sooo good to see. although it means it’s darn cold! so we got shelter in the Irish pub across the road from the venue, which of course had Guinness, and that’s where I stayed till we had to get onstage. this did not aid my performance, as I thought I killed it but later told I didn’t do so well ha!! the boys were all good about it though. the pub was great, dark, smallish, no shamrocks and rubbish, good Guinness, an array of whiskeys that the two bar blokes fed me on the house, I got to choose songs on the iPod, listened to Monto by the dubliners which made my night! bought the shitty bar tshirt for 10bucks and left a happy lad. Denver – tick. overnight drive to salt lake city, in the morning the views were amazing! driving through canyons of red rock either side, followed by snow capped mountains and pine trees, damn pretty! now here at the venue for ANOTHER gig, less than a handful left now phew!

kansas city blues

again we played slightly out of the city, Kansas city this time. before the show as a group we shot off to taco bell and a servo to grab a couple of drinks! sketchy area!! shitty cars filled with black men with their windows down, dudes wearing all red (gang colours), dudes with prison face tatts in taco bell, guys trying to sell drugs near the venue and to top it off Aaron from ghost inside found a bullet shell in the parking lot at the venue. coooool! so safe to say we didn’t venture out of the van/venue after taco bell. show was ok, due to the stage, Matty and I had our back up microphones facing each other, so any time we had to do vocals we would lose it laughing as we look into each others eyes singing rep your hood. bit of a laugh! tonight was a loss for words (bostons) last show due to them heading off to europe. bummer!! a great send off none the less, all bands watches the whole set, and Carl first blood and I played I want you back, sad to see some good fellows go. definitely made some solid friends in that group. overnight drive to Denver Colorado. it’s super cold, the boy is rugged up, sipping on a pumpkin spiced soy latte, in a clean Denver city, chuckin a wifi hang yiewww!

yahhh

After the tall buildings of the windy city to the low and spread out Milwaukee. I was hoping to run into young Andrew bogurt and give him a serve, I’m sure he’d be able to hold a million dollars above his head, at arms reach and make ME cry! so our friend from canada, stu’s new band living with lions supported us, great band and great dudes. the venue was built as a german quarters in the war but obviously didnt get used, therefore alot of venue exploring was due. climbed through a wall and found secret doors, an empty pool room, and climbed up a small spiral staircase to come out on the rooftop, best view of Milwaukee city – ty looks so little vs the city in the pic below. weird show though, but straight after the our set we shot off into the van to hang/party at Andy Hurley from fall out boys mansion! 190 PBR beers, pool table, ping pong, great company. a solid night was had! lack of sleep and beers didn’t help me fighting off my cold situation….ahh well. a dismal day drive to Des moines Iowa for another weird show, I think now we are in the Midwest, the shows suffer compared to the east coast. Ty and I shot off for some Ron, a spaghetti house, garlic bread, fettuccine mexicana, and an open salad bar for $8 thank you very much. after the show (where I am currently) we stayed at zacs house. boys partied till 5am, I set up the sleeping back, bought a dark snickers bar and a diet root beer and called it a night in the PM stages of the night.

coooooold

nothing too much new to report but shows have been real good, sometimes the response is almost bigger than it is at home. Cleveland city was real good, reminded me of Baltimore but on a bigger scale. ate at another real nice vegan place, had a pizza burger. mock beef and salami with the typical pizza toppings on a burger, horse! take away cream cheese bagel and a buffalo chicken panini yiewww! So Detroit was next, super sketchy city. old boarded up buildings covered in graffiti and a large black American population. we got told not to leave the venue and we certainly did not! there was a bowling alley under the venue which ment we got free games! show was almost if not the best of tour, played bass on I want you back cover with a loss for words and nailed it, heaps of fun! rode with the band after the show and had some drinks at the promoters house and now stationed an hour out of Chicago city near the venue. it’s certainly not warm here. all is good, still a bit to go, but real keen for home.

and again

sooo, another red bamboo meal – BBQ ribs and veggies. I want even start to explain how good it was, I’m sure your sick of me praising Ron! followed by a Starbucks pumpkin spice soy latte and off to Poughkeepsie. COLD! show was good, drank a 40oz olde English malt liquor which is a stereotypical drink for the African American folk, tasty! so it was Halloween night and us Aussies were the only band not to participate, only because we put red bamboo before Halloween shopping! ghost inside dressed up as ghosts, white sheets over the heads with shorts underneath. Jim had wire fronts, mid set I cut his jocks with scissors – naked Jim… hats off to the man, he rolled with it for about 3 songs before I got him some shorts! all shot for their DVD so it went down a treat. more huge fights in the crowd ended the show early though…cool man!  after the show we drove to Massachusetts to stay with a Jj sweater named Joe. he’s a tattooist so on my thigh got an eagle, with take it easy written whilst holding a red bamboo. why not, was free! show in new Hampshire was great, top 3 of tour. downstairs from the show was a bar that had 32oz pitchers for $3.70. pretty much a jug, crazy!! headed back to joes house where he was holding a house party, overwhelming but I found a quiet corner and had a good yarn with a traditional skin bloke from Boston named dan. great bloke. it was vigil from ghost insides birthday so he got a face full of cake, which in turn covered his clothes and shoes. at the party he washed his clothes and discarded his new vans (shoes) due to cake coverage. so now I own a pair of clean cake free vans 😉

today we’re driving to syracuse and whilst driving through the beautiful orange, amber, red and green autumn (fall) trees, listening to acoustic tunes with thoughts of how fortunate i am to have tara in my life, and to have a family who I love dearly. miss you lot X

bit of a weird show in Syracuse, not bad though just a weird stage vs crowd setup. ate some awesome tofu and veg peanut curry for dinner followed by an old english. our good friend nat perry came down from canada to say hello, awesome to see her with an included barrel of laughs. after the show we ate again at a vegan place called strong hearts, soo good! like a cafe, sandwich vibe, I had a mushroom and garlic seitan sandwich with vegan cheese. best sandwich I’ve ever had! sleep at a dudes house in Rochester, to burger king for breakfast … coool man, to Niagra Falls. keeen! Amazing! Soon there will be some shots worthwhile from a camera other than my iphone! heres some relative photos, two i havent explained are the haberno doritos, actual hot! and the chips, which can act as a holster, there are belt loops! so american….cooooool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

big apple

new jersey show was great!! yet the most violent show I’ve been too, big meat head men with too much testosterone, mainly during first bloods set! we left the show early to head into Manhatten, bit of a trek but we got in just after 1am. we came in on the Brooklyn bridge which is the best view of the city scape and wow, what a sight! crazy! got a park and met up with some NY buddies and went to a bar, drank Brooklyn lager, ate at the oldest falafel house in NY, followed by bens pizza. by far, times a million, the best pizza I have EVER had! the grandmas special, similar toa margarita but less cheese, and dollops of fresh tomatoes basil and paste, topped with chilli flakes, totaling for $2.50 and bigger than the size of my head! big!
shot back to our drivers house in long island, to then head back into NYC the following day. most mental traffic, saw a guy on an offramp from a hwy open his car door and poo on the road!!!! argghhh! made it to our destination – red bamboo. some say the best veg restaurant in the world!! buffalo wings and a chicken Parma roll! ridiculous to say the least! I then shot off for 15mins to go check out the new York hardcore tattoo shop. owned by some old hardcore legends, tick! Lars fredrikkson from rancid was on there, that’s big stuff! didn’t sweat him just did a passive acknowledgement ha! shot off to the show in garden city and Riggs from madball was working the door, and the show was run by the dms crew (a notorious hardcore affiliated crew), I felt like a little sweaty kid. not a bad show, more hangs with NY mates and good times were had. dennys diner on the way back to long island, sleep, awake and soon off again to red bamboo !