I have three shows in Oregon this week:
Thursday Sept 7:
Terminal Gravity
803 E 4th St
Enterprise OR
7PM, Free
Friday Sept 8:
Bent River Restaurant
535 Bargeway Rd
The Dalles OR
8PM, Free
Saturday Sept 9:
Velvet Lounge
805 NW Wall St
Bend OR
8PM, Free
And then on Sunday afternoon we have a show sponsored by the Canadian Consulate at the Seattle Waterfront, right by the Great Wheel, open to the public:
Waterfront Stage
1401 Alaskan Way
Pier 58
Seattle, WA 98101
2:30PM, Free
Ahoy! I’m excited to get on the road for a couple of days, we’re going on a little tour across Washington state next week, Phil will join me on cello. It’s going to be fun to get out of town and meet a bunch of new folks and see some other cool parts of the state.
Thurday, Feb 5 The Handle Bar in Spokane WA
Friday, Feb 6 The Viking in Spokane WA
Saturday, Feb 7 der Hinterhof in Leavenworth WA
If you live in any of these areas bring some friends out to the show, we’re going to have a great time. If you don’t live there but know folks that do, spread the word!
See you soon!
Best,
SJ
Days 6 and 7. Why does it have to end?
So much happened in seven days, I’ll never be able to describe the whole tour in a blog. Overall, it was an exciting adventure for all of us.
We are very indebted to the folks that helped us get the heck out of town and offered encouragement from home. Just knowing that they were home keeping track of where we were and how we were doing and cheering us on helped give us tons of confidence. Thank you!
And then to all the folks we met on the road, at shows, at pubs, on the streets, cafés, gas stations, etc., and came out to connect with our music, you’re the reason why we packed that SUV to the point where we were all smashed in and drove too many hours in a day without knowing where we would be sleeping, eating, showering, peeing or pooping. We love playing music for you, plain and simple. We LOVE it.
It was really great to get out of LA for a week and meet and play for folks in NorCal and Oregon. I really like what they have going on in their towns and cities. The vibe they create is laid back, fun, kind, the food and beer is delicious, the scenery is gorgeous with all the trees, mountains, and rivers, and they really value music in their lives. The venues we played were friendly, professional, and committed to getting good music for their patrons. LA venues can learn a lot from the venues up north.
NorCal and Oregon, we’re coming back soon. I promise. We love your beer, we love your little hippie enclaves, we love your food, we love your vibe.
See you soon!
Love,
SJ
Day 5, still alive!!!
Today was another sightseeing day. Gabriel and Emma went to a museum while Luca and I went eating and drinking. That’s not exactly true, but not exactly false either.
My friend Greg who lives in Portland came by and picked up me and Luca and we went to a couple of cool bars. We also tried some food at these carts that Portland has all around town, kind of like how Venice Beach has the food trucks that swarm around on popular nights. But these carts are here all the time. Surprisingly tasty and inexpensive, which is good for poor gypsies like ourselves.
One of the bars we went to had a large outdoor seating area with wooden beer hall style tables. Right where I sat down someone had carved a “Venice 13” skull into the table. It was nice to have a little taste of home defaced coincidentally(?) right in front of me.
Our last show in Portland was interesting. We met one of the other bands and they graciously offered to put us up for the night. Ghost Town Waltz, you guys rock! One of our previous cellists was also in town by coincidence and she came to our show at the Ash Street Saloon. Meghan, it was great to see you! We really have liked everyone we’ve met in Portland so far, really good folks.
We’re off to Eugene for our last show up North on this tour. It’s a place called Sam Bond’s Garage and we’ve heard lots of great things about it so we’re looking forward to another fun show. I love living in Venice Beach, but LA just doesn’t have the great vibe for music that Portland does. Portland, rock on with what you’ve got, we’ll see you again soon!
All the best,
SJ
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Day 4 of the tour. The best yet. We had some time to wander around Portland, meet a lot of folks, get into a little trouble, play a couple of shows, etc.
First off, if you haven’t ever been to Portland, you have to go to Powell’s Books. It’s the biggest bookstore I’ve ever seen, it pretty much takes up a city block. They have everything, including free WiFi for me to update our tour journal right now.
We also found a great toy store which kept us occupied for about an hour with great stuff. Pictures attached.
The highlights of the day were our shows of course though. We had only planned one show at the Goodfoot Pub, which was a full set in-between a really great open mic night. The other players were much better than you’d see at any open mic in Los Angeles. After that show we hung out and met a bunch of cool folks and had some delicious local micro-brew beers and a slice of pizza that almost convinced me to only eat pizza for the rest of my life.
We then hightailed it over to another pub a few miles a way that we heard was having a great jam session that night. It was better than great, it was magical. The pub was called the Pub At The End Of The Universe. The layout of the place was so interesting with odd little rooms that led into each other and each one had really laid back folks just hanging out. Everyone was so friendly and eager to hear about Venice and I was interested to hear about what they all have going on in Portland. it was 1AM on a Monday night, and the place was packed with neighborhood folks just out for a good night. So good.
Oh, and the pub also had a delicious veggie lasagna with garlic bread and more micro-brews. Yes, I had two dinners.
Talk to you tomorrow, I hope the beginning of your Summer has been as fun as ours.
Cheers!
SJ
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Day 3. Holy smokes, this was the longest, most action-packed, draining, and rewarding day on the tour so far.
It started off with me waking up before everyone else and making tea. And when I say “making tea”, I mean “almost burning down our host’s home”. Fortunately, Gabriel woke up and saw the smoke coming off the stove and saved the day. The tea was still lovely.
We packed the SUV to head up from San Francisco to go to Portland. It was an 11 hour drive, and we saw some beautiful rivers, lakes, mountains, volcanoes, etc. Luca made more room in the back so we didn’t have to hear him complain as much. However, the Italian football team tied with New Zealand (congrats to all my Kiwi friends, great match!) and was despondent for the next couple of hours. We’re sure Italy will come back in the next match for a win…
We arrived in Portland and hung out at the venue for a bit. They had a vending machine for musicians with guitar strings, drum sticks, guitar cables, etc etc. Super cool. They also had Galaga, pinball machines, and really great local folks. Some of the other folks playing that night were exceptionally weird and wonderful (including a performance piece about the first monkey in space from the perspective of the monkey). The venue (Slabtown) asked us to come back and play a residency there and considering how much we really like Portland it sounds very very tempting.
Totally exhausted from the drive and the show we rolled back to the motel. Gabriel and I pretended to be a gay couple and then sneaked Emma and Luca in after so we didn’t have to pay extra. Touring on the cheap is not for the faint of heart.
We’re getting much tighter as a band, playing our derriers off, and having a lot of fun, which is exactly why we’re here.
Tomorrow we have the day off from traveling so we’ll have some time to explore Portland before our show that night.
All the best,
SJ
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Day two, muolto successful. We had a great time with our host family and headed later in the day to San Francisco. SF is such a great city, we need to come back many, many, many times. The Brain Wash was a bar/diner/laundromat (in the back). Just like SF, the Brain Wash was totally eclectic.
Emma should never be allowed to parallel park, unless of course we have an extra 3 hours to kill.
The crowd at the Brain Wash was really fun, dancing, grooving, drunk, young, old, just cool. After the show we headed out and Gabriel ate a whole pizza by himself. We’ll be heading out to by some larger pants for him tomorrow.
Sorry I don’t have more pictures, we had some technical difficulties with our camera. But we’ll definitely take more tomorrow on our way to Portland, Oregon.
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Talk to you tomorrow!
SJ
PS. If you want to check out when/where we’re playing on this tour, go here: https://www.sjatr.com/shows
