Our first time playing in San Francisco couldn't have gone better! With good company in tow (Rufo Chan Jr. of Los Angeles band the Terrapin and our good friend Riley), we left Friday evening with plans to stop in King City for the evening, perhaps a bit after midnight. In taking the road less traveled - and by that, we mean the barren, spooky 46 west - we didn't roll into the small town/glorified trucker stop until 3:30am. It felt good to have a beer (or two) and toast to a successful first leg of our journey. "Pop Memories of the 60s" infomercial was our sweet soundtrack until the birds started chirping and we knew we had to get some shut-eye.
The next morning, Courtney presented each of us with a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses that she had purchased prior to our departure, saying "I felt we had to have these." We took a quick photo in front of our rock n' roll palace before setting out to Pirate Cat Radio in SF. We spent the night in room '143'...just pointing that out to those of you that might remember '90s text code!
The next morning, Courtney presented each of us with a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses that she had purchased prior to our departure, saying "I felt we had to have these." We took a quick photo in front of our rock n' roll palace before setting out to Pirate Cat Radio in SF. We spent the night in room '143'...just pointing that out to those of you that might remember '90s text code!
Pirate Cat Radio was FUN. Super casual, cool environment, broadcasting from their indie coffee shop. DJ Molicious and DJ Tim put us at ease. We had a nice on-air chat, and they played "Tongues" and "What!" during the segment. We worked out an acoustic version of our new song "Squeeze" in the van on our way to the studio that went off quite nicely. Before we left the booth, DJ Molicious and Tim launched into the naughty portion of their program, "Sexy Time." Most of us obliged our host and hostess by reading from the SF Craigslist "Casual Encounters" board.
After the interview, we stuck around for some raspberry lambic and conversation before heading off to the Haight-Ashbury District. That evening, we stayed with our friend Ronnie from the band Waiting Room, who we would play with at The Hemlock Tavern the following night. Ronnie is not only a talented banjo player and songwriter; she is an extremely gracious hostess, makes a damn good breakfast, and lives with one of the coolest cats in the world, Vinnie. Sunday was our big day; we awoke to a ton of activity going on in the park down the street. Unbeknownst to us at the time we planned our trip, our visit would coincide with Bay to Breakers, a history San Francisco-based foot race that is celebrated city-wide. San Franciscans dress up in outrageous costumes... or, as you can see from the picture below, opt to wear nothing at all.
We made our way deep into The Haight to do a little 'busking'. Mack is a street-performance veteran, but this was a first for Courtney, Cecilia and myself. Amoeba Music SF seemed like the perfect location for winging an impromptu acoustic set; a couple people joined in (singing alternate lyrics, of course) and a trombone player accompanied us on "Whiskey Coke." We had a couple hours left before the show, so we headed over to North Beach for a stiff drink at Vesuvio, the famous beat poet hangout. Although we would have been happy incubating for hours in this perfect drinking establishment, we had a show to play.
The Hemlock Tavern is a perfect spot to play an out-of-town show. There's a built-in patronage, the sound is decent, and we were lucky to be on a cohesive bill of bands we had never played with before. T-shirts and CDs were sold, and we made some new friends that really seemed to like the set. After a successful conclusion to the musical potion of the night, we set out on our drive home through the early morning hours. Thanks to our friend Rufo for safely piloting us back to Los Angeles.
"Choose life, not snacks..."
C-horse was definitely bitten by the tour bug. We will assuredly be venturing out again soon!
- Lindz
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