Sunday was one of those long days, a day where each section seemed elongated and stretched out like silly putty. It gets thinner and thinner and holes begin to form and the light shines through and then finally when just a few strands remain connected, time gets wadded back up into a ball only to be pulled apart again. The morning seemed to take forever, waiting on us all to get our shit together and packed into our Volvo 240 wagon. We were blessed enough to be borrowing gear from Highway Patrol allowing us to all go in one car.
The drive seemed to take forever, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. The grapevine was covered in sunshine and snow, the hills refracting light like gigantic prisms. People were lined up on the empty frontage roads, parking wherever their cars would fit and flocking out into the white fields with makeshift cardboard sleds and thermoses of Campbell's and coffee. From the mountains the 5 empties out into a wide flat valley emerald in color from our weeks of rain. When we stopped for gas we received scary news: Josh, the lead singer and guitarist for Highway Patrol, was sick with a high fever and they were on the verge of regrettably canceling their performance.
Now Josh is a subject of a whole other blog that I'm planning for February as part of my Heywood musical history month series, but the long and short of it is he's my best friend and I've never had the pleasure of playing with his band and for a while I was very saddened by this news. However, it all worked out and judging by the below photo, he seemed well enough to rock the hell out of Hotel Utah.
I guess that's the funny thing about playing shows, especially when you're on the road. The whole day revolves around 1 hour of activity and no matter what you do, the day feels long but the show is over before you know it. Hotel Utah was no exception. My parents and Aunt and Uncle were there as well as my best high school and college buddies, so add that to roaring, incendiary sets by us, Highway Patrol, and Reduced To Ruin and you have a show that is over in a blink of an eye or a swig of warm rider beer.
The evening continued with an after party at Josh's home across the bay, and we stayed up way way way way past our bedtime discussing sordid stories from our past love lives and drinking ourselves blind.
Monday was another road day in order to get back in town to finish the recording of our 826LA song, "Mexican Food." Unbeknownst to them, we crashed Matt and JQs pad and did the vocals in their little studio since S Foye was house sitting. We'll owe them some mexican food when they return from South Africa. The vocal recording went smoothly, if not a little crankity. Todd and Heather really fleshed out my main line, adding a lushness the previous versions lacked, so for that I am excited. The song reminds me a bit of early Helmet and Sonic Youth mixed with a really over the top chorus sung in rounds. I can't wait to share it with everyone.
Tonight we finish our adventure at Spaceland, so please come hang out with us and celebrate the conclusion of 96 hours of Summer Darling.
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