TOUR DIARY:

The EARACHES

excerpted from
HARD UP ’05:

 Some Kinda Tour
A tale of booze, broads, bikers, and broken thumbs

Stork Club, Oakland CA: Woke up in some cow town rest stop on the interstate. Started the day with a giant burger from Carl’s Jr. It had bacon on it so I figured it qualified as breakfast. Hit Oakland early. Oakland is depressing. Found the club. Zak and Joe had a long talk with a wino who promises to show up at the gig later. We then proceeded to try and hunt down The Valley. Finally hooked up with them at their swank Motel 6 on the bay, and took over their shower for an hour or so. I’m always glad to see The Valley, but we were especially glad this time as Dan was our ‘friend indeed’ and we’re all getting sick of each other by now.



The Stork Club was really cool and the staff were the friendliest and most professional we’d met yet. The singer in the first band jumped around a lot and broke stuff. Then The Valley cleared yet another room with their sonic majesty, converting a few of the locals and all of the staff. There was a cool pinball/pool lounge in the back of the joint and most of the crowd stayed there, missing a great set. We took the stage and rocked out to the best crowd of the entire tour, turning in our best set. FINALLY, this is what it’s all about! It took nine freakin’ days but now we sound like a band on tour. HOT AND TIGHT! Joe is just one bad ass motherfucker playing on that broken thumb. Hammerlock brought along a pretty big biker following, and they all really dug us so it was a real blast. (Two different biker clubs in one week! My daddy woulda been proud.) Hammerlock then proceeded to tear it up for a good hour or more with some gold old fashioned outlaw rock and roll. Great sleazy slide guitar and when that bass player stepped up to the mike to talk between songs, we couldn’t believe how well she was playing given her slurry drunken banter. The crowd loved every minute and so did we.