-March 23, 2006 -
The Last Tour Journal Entry
I'll fill everyone in on all the craziness of the last week. First off the fifteen hour drive from Tucson
to Austin was totally insane. By the time we got to Austin
I think we all were a little crazy. Nothing better than spending a whole day in
a van that smells like a locker room with a broken toilet. Also the last 100 miles of the drive were on
a highway that was surrounded by 1,000 deer.
Day 1- Our first day in Austin
was a busy one. We had an early show at
Headhunters. It was pretty great. My dad showed up and drank some beers with
us. We got to see Bryan
and Lee from the label play in their new band called Snake Trap. They were good. It was all instrumentals and super
tight. After we played our old bro's The
Spiders played. We hadn't seen them play
with their new bass player yet. His name
is Colin so I already liked him. They
put on a hell of a show. I love that
band. After that we moved the gear down
the street for our showcase that night.
Before our showcase we all split up to check out other bands. The Count and I went and saw The New
Pornographers at Stubbs. They were
really good. I think I'm in love with
Neko Case. Oh yeah did I mention that
there were thousands of super hot girls everywhere. Just thought I would add that. I feel in love forty times in four days. Anyway the Australian Cattle God Records
showcase was great. Tia Carrera was
awesome as was Gorch Fock. We played a
fun set and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
The fact that we sold a bunch of merch at a SXSW show was pretty
cool. The ladies from Tsu Shi Ma Me Rae
were there dancing up a storm.
Day 2- We played a little show at a place called Woody's
that evening. It was fun. A band called Megazilla played earlier and I
liked them a lot. They are from Columbia
MO and used to be in Transponder. We played to about 10 people that night. Those 10 people's lives will never be the
same again. After that we headed
downtown to see some shows. The Count
and I went and saw the Eagles of Death Metal.
The Capn and Danger went and saw Hank III. All of us came back pretty happy. I liked The Eagles a lot. They put on a hell of a show. Also this band called Mark Mullman played
earlier before them. It was like seeing
the bastard son of Billy Joel and Bobby Con.
Totally fun and awesome. Later
that night The Count and I met a “traveler/bum” named O'Colin. He had a switch blade named Marie. I thought we were gonna die. Instead we had a really weird conversation
that went on for way too long.
Day 3- We went and saw The Spiders in the afternoon. There was a girl there with a Playboys shirt
on. I was happy about that. The Spiders were great as always. After them was Pong. We saw these guys last year at FXFY. They are the so damn fun to watch. I haven't seen too many bands that smile that
much on stage. That night we were in San
Marcos. The
Spiders threw us a BBQ and then we were off to play the Triple Crown. The people in San Marcos
like the Playboys more than anywhere else in the world. They have a drinking game in the bar for our
Gladis Knight song. When it comes on the
Jukebox the last one to point their hand in the air has to buy a round of
shots. Well when we played the first
note of that song live everyone in the bar shot their hands in the air. It was great.
Capn played a solo on the bar.
Chris Spider said it was in his top five favorite shows ever. That makes me happy. The Spiders and Imperial Battle Snake were
the other bands to play. Both were f'in
great. The International Playboys love San
Marcos.
Day 4- Fuck By Fuck You was crazy this year. I bet there were at least two hundred people
there. It was rainy out side and it
didn't seem to bother anyone. I think
fourteen kegs were consumed by the end of the day. Bands that really stuck out in my mind were
Shellshag, DMBQ, The Emeralds, Gorch Fock and Reverend Peyton and his big damn
band. Gorch Fock played a hell of a
set. DMBQ really impressed us. They are F'in crazy! At the end of their set they destroyed the
drum set with this huge rock. Wow. We got to hang out with Win from the label
and talk about album art. They seem
really excited about putting out the new Playboy stuff. That makes me happy.
Now that SXSW was over we headed out to OK City. The show was on a Sunday so we weren't
expecting much out of it. Our good ol'
friend Beth took care of us when we got to town. She had sandwiches and pizza rolls waiting
for us. Then we were off to the
bar. The bar was called The Hi Lo and it
was amazing. It looked like it was built
in the 60's and then never refurnished.
Holy cow was the show great.
There were a ton of people there and they knew the words to our
songs. I don't even know the words to
some of our old songs so you can imagine my surprise. Anyway we got paid really well and had a
great time. Beth we love you.
Next we were off to Denver
with just a couple hours of sleep.
Little did we know that Kansas
had other plans for us. After we made it
into Kansas the snow hit. When I say the snow hit I mean zero visibility
and no highway to be seen. The only way
you could see the highway was the tracks the crazy truckers left for you. So we were going extremely slow by this point
and kinda figured we were gonna make it to Denver. Well after two cars drove off the road trying
to pass us they closed the Highway and dumped us in a town called Oakley Kansas. We got one of the last hotel rooms in
town. Seriously! We stayed at the Annie Oakley Motel wow was
it great let me tell some of it's amazing traits. Cigarette burns on the blankets, no towels,
what looked to be a blood stain on the chair, urine stain on the floor(trust me
two of us smelled it) and a used fly swatter(still had fly parts on it) hanging
above the ice bucket. Bob from the Volumen
could not have stayed in this room. Well
after almost dying on our drive that day we sat in our new suite and watched
comedy central and ate pizza.
Well after realizing that we were going to miss our Salt
Lake show as well we just decided
to head straight home. Nothing to
exciting about that. We did see a
Jackalope in Wyoming and that was
neat.
So that's the end of The International Playboys SXSW PBR
Tour 2006. Here are some folks that we
would like to thank. Brian
Foss(Seattle), Gator(PDX), Book of Maps(PDX),
The AX(PDX), Charles(Sac), Jolene and
Jason(Oakland), The Mothballs(Oakland), Lew and Daisy(LA), Abe(LA), Steven and
Luna Rei(San Diego), Mick from the Tower Bar(San Diego),The Knockout
Pills(Tucson), Don and Julie Morton(Tucson), Mike Hickey(Austin), Win, Brian
and Lee from Australian Cattle God Records(Austin), Gorch Fock(Austin), The
Spiders(San Marcos), The people of San Marcos for being so damn cool,
Megazilla(they are from Columbia MO but we hung out with them in Austin), The Imperial Battle Snake(from Chicago),
Beth(OK City), Justin(Laramie WY). I
think that's it. I'm sure I forgot some
people. Love you all.
xoxo
Monty
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