04.28.09 – Rochester, NY

Well rested and relaxed. Ready to hit the road again (we’re already in route to Albany).

Rochester was good times. We luckily hooked up with a great guy, Charlie, on couchsurfing.com and he let us stay at his home for 2 nights. Very cool. He showed us around town on our day off (yesterday). We had a mellow day of eating, drinking, smoking, playing Wii, eating, drinking, smoking, catching up on 24, sleeping. I wish everyday was like that. Hehe.

Our show the night before at Bugjar was pretty cool. Bob the owner is a really cool guy. We met this guy Phil who seemed to be a really big fan of ours. Took our pictures, asked for autographs, bought our shit… Pretty cool. So far we have been to a few cities where there were some “hardcore” NA fans. It’s fucking amazing that we have this, but it’s also a little strange. We’re nobody’s and people are nearly fanatical. I’m not questioning it though. Anyway, there was an okay amount of people for a Sunday night. We played with two other bands, both experimental. Apparently, the experimental scene in Rochester is pretty big. Huh. The first band, Crush the Junta was pretty good.

04.26.09 – Cleveland, OH

“Herro Creverand!” That’s how we started our set, no joke. It was pretty funny. We figured that they’ve probably heard “Hello Cleveland” a thousand times from every band that comes through town, but we still wanted to say it so we put our ninja-spin on it. Hehe. Turns out the Clevelanders were into our shit! Right before we played a good amount of people just showed up out of nowhere. It was looking bleak before that.

We also got more footage of “drunk-guy-dancing/fake-fighting” while we were playing. We have a number of these dudes on video now. We’re going to make a compilation video and it’s going to be funny as hell. Sorry drunk dudes! We seem to possess some people to go crazy.

Anyways, we effortlessly ripped through our set (we’re pretty in shape now). Again we had no place to sleep so we put out the announcement and got like 3 offers. Great! We ended up staying with a couple of very cool guys, Dan and Ben. Before that we all went to eat at a 24 hour diner called My Friends. Good food! These group of people were very cool. I’m glad we got to meet and hang out with them. After eating we went back to their pad and played a little pinball at Ben’s (yes, he just got a machine), fixed our heads, and crashed. All in all, another great night! Can’t wait to go back to Cleveland.

We are just arriving to Rochester. We’re staying at a guy’s house I emailed from couchsurfing.com. He’s letting us stay for 2 days too. Yes! The Internet is great. Hopefully tonight’s show goes well.

Our first day off in 18 straight performances is tomorrow. HELL YES!

04.23.09 – Grand Rapids, MI

Wow, WHAT A SHOW! But first, let me tell you what led up to the GR show….

So in Indianapolis, a couple of L.A. friends (whom we only met one time), drove 3 hours to come to our show! Wow. They are hard core about the Academy. Fucking rad. So we drove way out to BFE to stay with them. Luckily, it was half way between there and Grand Rapids, so it cut our drive the next day down to only 2 hours.

So while I was driving to Grand Rapids I pulled the stupidest move of the tour yet. No, I didn’t get a speeding ticket. In one split second, while I looked down to look at the iPod, I fucking ran into a curb. I was maybe going about 20 mph. We ran into the curb kind of hard with the right front wheel. We were like, “OH SHIT!”. I pulled over and we looked at the wheel. The damn rim was bent and air was slowly leaking out. DAMMIT, we are in the middle of NOWHERE! For real. Nowhere. No open garages. No AAA. No nothing. We were 20 minutes to the next town, but we weren’t even sure if there was a garage there that could help us. I got us into the car and (perhaps stupidly) sped to the next town, trying to get there before the tire got flat. We DID NOT want to have to get the spare out and change the tire. This would have meant taking all the equipment out of the van and all that crap. The tire pressure light in the van also came on. CRAP! We have to hurry. So we eventually made it and luckily found a tire place pretty quickly. I told the guy about my stupidity and our schedule. He was very helpful and actually fixed the rim. Also luckily, it turns out I didn’t mess the rim up, only the lip of the rim, so we didn’t have to buy a whole new one. (note to you who rent cars: always get the collision insurance! that would have reimbursed me if I had to pay for a new rim. Nice!) After 30 minutes we were back on track. Phew!

We got to Grand Rapids and killed time at Starbucks and found a hotel near the venue. Our friends, El Ten Eleven, who also played with us last night, hipped us to the hotel. It was great to have a nice, clean place to shower and rest (even though we didn’t get that much sleep).
The venue, Founders Brewing, is amazing. Good sound. Great food. Amazingly nice people. And a large selection of beer! They had this new beer that just came out (they brew their own). It was called “Nitro Pomegranite”. IT WAS THE BEST BEER WE’VE EVER HAD. Sooo good! Anyway, Metavari opened up the night. They are a great band from Indiana. Very good and cool people. We played second and played a great set. Over an hour and we weren’t even tired! I think it’s a combination our stamina building up and the sound there being so good we didn’t have to play hard to hear ourselves. It felt great. The people in GR were so into us. They really appreciate good music there. I love that. I have total confidence that the next time we go there there will be a lot more people there to see us. We got a lot of positive feedback. We’re stoked.

We are tired today. Didn’t get enough sleep from staying up and chilling with the ETE boys for awhile at the hotel and having to wake up early to fix that damn rim (for nothing). Off to Detroit now. Tonight should be another good show! Will keep you posted…

To the east!!

Driver to the east… Whoo… Ok a cop has pulled us ove while im writting this.. The second one so far bring up the tall to amy 1 indo 1 i got mine the other day!!! I was going a humble speed of 88! Cmon now!! Mine is $100 fine amy’s 75fine… Oh well… Casualties of tour!
Columbia was awsome! We met a band called peace by pounching! Great muscians! And a swell bunch of guys! They were gracious enough to let ninjas invade they’re home.. Special thanks to jack greg tomas and the only other filipino in columbia, leo! Pinoy power..for they’re hospitality! We got silly and listened to max rumba and neurosis on cassette!!
It was a breath of fresh air playing a good show in columbia… I feel a real sense of community there.. Like “we got your back” attitude! It was refreshing…
Specialy after some of our recent shows like salt lake city where no one parties on a saturday night! Or kansas city when the only other local band didnt even show up… We ended up playing for the bartender, the sound man, and this guy brandon who was the only guy there for us! Cool dude.. He bought a cd and helped us load the van…
Yes we still have a long road ahead!!! Go ninja go ninja go!!

04.22.09 – Columbia, MO

Columbia is a damn cool town with damn cool people. We got in about two hours early yesterday so we walked around the downtown area and put up posters and talked to people to try to promote for the show. Everyone we spoke to was very nice. Some even said they’d come to the show, but of course they didn’t. It’s cool though.

Mojo’s is a cool venue. Decent sound. Pretty much as soon as we arrived and we met one of the other bands, Peace by Punching, they offered us their place to stay. Fucking cool! They didn’t even know us or hadn’t seen us play yet. Very cool of them. PbP are an amazing band. One of the better that we’ve played with so far. They are doing something different and original. Plus, they are the coolest group of guys. We all got along well. The show itself was good too. We played well and people were into it. Some assured us that the next time we roll through they’ll bring 50 people. We’ll see, but I’m sure people will talk, so that’s good. Overall, I great night.

On our way to Indianapolis now. 6 hour drive plus a one hour time change. Entering Eastern time zone soon!

04.20.09 – Kansas City. MO

Our KC show, despite there being only like 4 people there, was still actually pretty cool. Only one person was actually attentively listening though (thanks Brandon!). What was cool about it was the sound at the Record Bar was great. We also got two, free delicious pizzas, free drinks and we got paid at the end of the night. We weren’t expecting the pay, so that was nice. That money ended up paying for our hotel room (the first we had to get so far!) So although there was hardly anyone there, it wasn’t a totally bust.

One thing that was totally lame was the opening band totally flaked out. Didn’t even show up. What the fuck is up with that?

Playing for an empty room is pretty humbling.

4/20 bitches!

So we’re on our way to Kansas City, Missouri. We got a late start, partly because I almost forgot my camera at our friend’s house where we stayed. Close call. Anyway, I took the first 3 hour shift. No drama. Nice. Indo takes the second shift. Despite the multiple warnings from our Denver friends, various random people, and of course myself, about speeding, what does Indo proceed to do? Get pulled over by a state trooper for going 88. Speed limit is 70. *sigh* The cop was actually pretty nice and only put 79 as his speed so it won’t go on his record. Lucky..? We’re back on track now. We’ll be getting into the city later than we’re supposed to be. Oops.

Last night’s show in Denver was pretty, well, weak. Apparently, Sunday nights are local band nights where they get a chance to bring in there friends, which these bands didn’t really do. Since it was out first time there, no one came to see us (except my two friends). Plus, we hear Sunday nights are DEAD in Denver. Everything did close early. One good thing was the booker/owner liked us and said he’ll put together a better bill around us next time. Cool.

After the gig our gracious hosts treated us all to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. VERY cool of them. Of course the food wasn’t as good as L.A’s Mexican food, but it wasn’t bad. If I were a food critic I’d give them 3 out of 5 stars. I wish I were a food critic…

We all slept pretty well, although not long enough, last night. I got an actual bed which was comfortable as hell. Denver is the last city where we know anyone where we can stay until New York. This is where the adventure starts.

4.19.09 – SLC/Denver

Not sure about Salt Lake City. I hate to say it, but I’m gonna say it right here. What’s up with the “private clubs”? I hear they just passed a law starting in July that will abolish these clubs, but no one could give me an answer as to why they even exist. Weird.

As far as the show, it was aight. We’re getting tighter every day. Donkey Punch even joined us for the last time. We love him. SLC missed out, man. Hardly anyone was there despite the fact there was a somewhat large picture of us in one of the local papers. At least we met some more great people who will help us out, should we decide to come through again.

On our way to Denver now. There’s nothing to see here on I-80. B-O-R-I-N-G. Looking forward to tonight’s show though!

04.18.09 – Boise/SLC

On our way to SLC – 04.18.09

So where were we? Ah yes, so that house party in Portland was pretty fun. We played in the basement. There were a decent amount of people and the bands, Junkface and Dudes of Chaos, were amazing. Sucks that it was Bo’s last show with Dudes. He’s a badass guitarist. They are right up our alley! And thank you to Randy who set up the show, fed us, and let ninjas invade his house. Fuckin A. Anyway, everyone there was into it and it was fun having people pretty much on top of us while we were playing. (I’ll post pictures of these things when I get a minute.). I also have to give a special thanks to Briana and Craig who let us invade their home.

Boise – We didn’t know what to expect because our last experience there 3 years ago was weird. This time was totally different. The club was awesome and so were the people working there. We had a lot of competition from other venues that night (other big shows happening) so we weren’t expecting a lot of people to be there. There ended up being about 50 or so people there while we were playing. The sound at Neurolux is really good. Being the 8th day straight of playing is also helping the sound get tighter. Overall it was a great night. We even got lucky and found a place to stay! Thanks Erin!!

Not sure what to expect in Salt Lake City tonight. Of the many gigs we have high expectations, tonight’s is not one of them. More later!

Portland, OR – 04.16.2009

It’s our second day in Portland. The weather has been great. We have been very lucky. I guess we brought our nice SoCal weather with us.

Man, we are burnt. Staying up until 5am every morning is tiring! Yesterday we had our in-store performance at Everyday Music here in PDX to a whopping (maybe) 10 people. Standing room only, I tell you! So yeah, it didn’t go so well in terms of attendance, but we were going to have the day off anyway, so why not play? After that we went with our friends to Ground Zero. It’s this badass arcade that has old school video games and beer! Fuck yeah! It was way fun. Track and Field is fun as hell! Also notable is Voodoo Donuts. They have some crazy ass donuts; ones with Cap’t Crunch on top, ones with bacon, some with mango filling and Tang on top. Kids: It’s important to eat healthy while traveling and getting little rest.

Tonight we’re playing a house party. I hear it always goes off so it should be good times. More late nights and long drives to look forward to! See you in Boise.