Tour Journal v.2

This is the ongoing transcription of the few hundred pages of tour journals that I wrote from the late 1980's up through the mid 1990's. During that time I toured performing in my own bands as well as with other bands working as a roadie, driver, merch guy and finally as a tour manager.
For the best effect start at Tour Journal v.1.

July 3rd, 1991.

Drove today from Memphis to St. Louis, went straight to our hotel. The club is about 5 miles away, the place is fucking huge!! About the size of the Moore or the Paramount back home. We got fed, the show was great. The club had a projector set up to work from a VCR so during the set we had Cannibal Holocaust playing over the stage. It looked so fucking cool! After the show we went back to the hotel, a bunch of people showed up and we watched Salo till 5am.

July 4th, 1991.

We got invited to a 4th of July party in Illinois and we had the day off so we called the guy who's having it and get him to come pick us up in Missouri. The party was cool, a band called the Fartholes played, they had 5 kegs so everyone was bombed. Me, XXXX and XXXX were sitting in the backyard bullshitting when some guy comes up and gives XXXX a baggie with 2 huge gnarly looking beatles inside. XXXX comes up and he's already fucked up and XXXX just hands him the bag and says "XXXX hold onto this for me." Without looking at it XXXX stuffs it in his pocket. About 5 hours later after XXXX had puked all over, passed out, woken back up and started drinking again he reaches into his pocket and he's yelling "What the fuck is in my pocket", he pulls out the baggie and one of the beatles has chewed its way out and has been biting him. Oh my god I fucking lost it, that was the funniest shit ever!! At about 1 am we finally find someone willing to take us back to St. Louis which was like 40 miles away.



July 13th, 1991

I've been busy and un-motivated so I haven't been keeping track of the journal so here's a bit of a recap of the highlights of the last week. On the 5th we played at the Outhouse in Lawrence Kansas. I've been waiting to go to this club since Underdog told me about it in 1987. Fuck! The club, the scene, the town... everything is rad. I don't think I've been to a cooler place. It's like playing in the backyard with 800 people. That night we had a big ol' party at the hotel, lots of really fucked up people to make fun of. The next day we started our drive to Minneapolis, went as far as Des Moines Iowa then got a hotel. The 7th we drove from Des Moines into Minneapolis. I went and saw a matinee of Terminator 2. Really cool club, 1st Avenue, same place that Purple Rain was filmed. I guess that Prince owns the place. Played with Downside who are a great band and hung out with lots of Straight Edgers. Also had another big debate with Hardliners. After the show we started driving south to LaCrosse Wisconsin.

On the 8th we got to LaCrosse, home of Black Label Brewery so XXXX is super fucking stoked since he lives off that shit. We went on a tour of the brewery then drove to Madison Wisconsin. Played a fucked up show to a bunch of young kids. XXXX and I went and bought two cases of Black Label and sold them outside the club to kids for $2 a pop. We each made about $40 from that. Very fucked up town, one cool thing though was a local tattoo dude who offered all of us free tattoos back at his shop. XXXX, XXXX and XXXX took him up on the offer and all got pieces done. I would have but as it was they didn't get back to the hotel until 8am and I needed sleep.

On the 9th we drove from Madison to Hammond Indiana. Another fucked up show, this time to all metal kids. Had another big hotel party. XXXX is really starting to get stressed out cuz none of the girls he picks up at the shows will fuck him. Me and XXXX just laugh. Some of the stupid bitches they brought back to the hotel stole my Slayer hat and wrote on the van. The shit came off the van but the Slayer hat was not replaceable so I'm really fucking pissed.

The 10th drove to Cleveland. I was kind of leary of what kind of reception I'd get down there when I run into any hardcore kids. Met up with Chubbie Fresh and we hit it off. He plays me some new Integrity and I end up with a deal to put out the Integrity LP!!! I'm very stoked now!! At the club we hang out with Dwid, Jason from Confront and Erba from Face Value. After the show we drive towards Toronto for a while. Tonight we rent 2 hotel rooms so XXXX and XXXX can have their hotel party and me, XXXX and XXXX can sleep.

The 11th, XXXX fails to get laid once again so he's really mad tonight. This is like is 5th attempt, all failures!! I keep my laughter to myself but XXXX doesn't hold back. XXXX is pissed. We drove to Toronto, no hassle at the border at all which is a surprise since the last time we crossed in Blaine we got totally hassled and XXXX got strip searched. Toronto was a bunk show, after we drove back to Buffalo New York where we had rented a room earlier in the day.

Tour Journal v.1

I spent a lot of time from the late 1980's up through the mid 1990's working for touring bands or touring in my own bands. Pretty killer way to spend your 20's. Well throughout that time I kept tour journals. I thought it might be interesting to post some of my journal entries. I'm going to keep names of the people and the bands I was with out of the these posts so every time you read XXXX it's either a person or band. Enjoy.

June 27th, 1991.

Left Seattle at 11:30 am and drove 26 hours straight to Denver. In Ellensburg we passed some guy in a Starsky & Hutch car with personalized plates that said 'Honch'. The guy followed us from Ellensburg to Billings Montana, about 600-700 miles. Every couple of hours the guy would pass us like in The Hitcher or something. Just outside of Billings, about 4 am, we had pulled in for some gas, I walk out and here's Honch staring me right in the face. By this time we were all sure that this guy was some serial killer so I'm fucking speechless as I come out. XXXX is signaling me from the van to not talk to the guy. It was very weird.

June 29th, 1991.

Drove today from Denver to Wakeeny Kansas. Stopped at Prairie Dog Town in Oakley and saw a 6 legged cow and a 5 legged cow. A serious freakshow but the owners of P-Dog Town were this really cool older couple who told us that Adrenalin OD had come to P-Dog three times. We traded XXXX shirts and posters for P-Dog shirts. Talked with the old guy for awhile. It was fun. Grateful Dead played Denver the same night as us. They must be playing somewhere east next cuz all day we passed fucking hippies in lots of store bought tie dye and birkenstocks. It was enough to make me sick! The real funny thing was at P-Dog we're all laughing and joking with the owners and these 3 GD dorks come in acting totally stuck up like they're too good to see a 6 legged cow. Fucking Dicks!

June 30th, 1991.

Drove today from Wakeeny to St. Louis, completely uneventful. Highlight of the day was having the guys tell XXXX stories, I wish that guy was still in the band cuz it sounds like he would do some crazy shit. We're staying at a nice hotel, went swimming and got hassled by the maintenance guy. Put a serious damper on the evening.

July 1st, 1991.

Drove from St. Louis to Memphis. Got to Memphis at 4 pm. Rad Club!! Promoter cooked us a huge pasta meal, fucking delicious. We got anything we wanted from the bar. During the show XXXX starts putting the moves on some ladies, things are going smoothly. He has to bail cuz it's showtime and XXXX have to get up to play. While they're playing some huge skinhead starts hitting up on the same girls, well... one girl spits on the skinhead, he goes and gets some girlfriend of his to beat this girl up. She goes and gets some dude friend. Well all hell breaks loose and these guys are fighting right in front of the merchandise, they throw each other onto the tables I'm using and shirts, LPs, hats go flying. Very fucked up!!! After the show some metal kid comes up to me and says "Are you XXXX from XXXX?" He says there are some people outside who want to talk to me. I go outside expecting to brawl with some hardliners who might be pissed about all the shit I talk about them. Well the hardliners are there but before I can get into it a huge group of people come up around us. It's basically a bloodthirsty crowd who want vegan blood. I just left them to themselves and loaded up equipment, I am at work and all. An hour later I see that they're still out there with even more people arguing. Fucking assholes.

Okay... So we're gonna stay the night at XXXX's brothers house. So XXXX's brother, XXXX, XXXX and XXXX go in one car and me, XXXX, XXXX and the brothers roommate go in the van. We're following the other car and the fucking girl can't drive. First she's going down a one way the wrong way, just driving like a fool. We finally get to the apartment and these guys start partying, they roll up these huge joints and pass them around. XXXX's brothers roommate gets totally fucked up. This guy is fucking high, all the guys are but he's fucking blasted. We've got tomorrow off so we're gonna hang in Memphis and check shit out.

July 2nd, 1991.

Well I woke up at 7:15 to XXXX's brothers roommates alarm going off. An hour later he still hadn't woke up and turned it off so I got up and closed his door. At about 10 am I got up and the roommate is sitting watching TV. It seems that he's been fired for being late!! XXXX and XXXX immediately get the guy stoned again, as if the Seattle weed hasn't fucked up his life enough. It's impossible to put into words how fucking funny this whole situation is. At about noon we all go to Graceland with some girl that XXXX had hooked up with from the show. Graceland's actually a pretty cool place. We get back to the apartment at about 5pm and the roommate has been alternately sleeping and gorging all day. They get him stoned once again. XXXX and XXXX are fucking evil. This poor guy, at this point his brain is gone, he has no job, his girl comes over and chews him out... The whole time we're all just cracking up. At about 11 we go to some party where an XTC cover band is playing, totally fucked.

Bigfoot on the Blackfeet Reservation

Is Bigfoot roaming around Kiowa Camp in Blackfeet Country?

By John McGill, Glacier Reporter Editor Wednesday, March 1, 2006 7:52 PM MST

“I took my kids for an outing on New Year's Day,” said Bruce Schildt who lives near Kiowa camp in Blackfeet country. “I took them up Cut Bank Creek to play. We were on our way home, but we drove up toward the mountains up by Grandpa's Lake. Toni Rae found a footprint, and we came back and took pictures and took them to Fish and Wildlife and they checked it out.”
Schildt's kids had discovered a line of 30 or 40 inch large tracks in the snow. “The footprints looked like barefoot human footprints, but they were about three times as big,” said Schildt. “They were frozen in the mud up there.”Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Director Gayle Skunkcap said his department has received telephone calls “from Kiowa camp to Cut Bank Creek,” asking about the possibility of Bigfoot living in and around their homes. “There are a lot of trappers out with beartrack snowshoes,” he said, noting the particular style of snowshoe is much smaller than the generally long devices used in the past. “There's a lot of pothole lakes up there, and trappers using bearpaws, but we take all calls seriously and we investigate.”Skunkcap said most of the calls he'd received came in a week or more after tracks were seen, so a definitive verdict has been difficult to reach.“I've never seen an official document as to whether Bigfoot exists or not,” he said, “but I've also not seen an official document saying there's ever been any injury to anyone by a Bigfoot.”Of the tracks discovered by Schildt, Skunkcap said only one looked like it might come from something unusual, but his department is taking no chances. “People are calling and asking if I see one should I shoot it?” he said. But shooting is likely unnecessary, said Skunkcap, since no record of an attack on any person has ever been recorded. But also, people should consider what they might be shooting at.
“I'd say if you see one don't shoot because if it's someone playing a practical joke, you could wind up hurting somebody,” Skunkcap said.


At left, Bruce Schildt’s kids stand near a line of tracks their father believes might belong to Bigfoot. The tracks were discovered Jan. 1, when the elder Schildt notified Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife and had them investigate. The best track is the one above. Schildt reports the tracks are about 18 inches long and 10 inches wide, and the stride is around 39 inches. There were 30 or 40 tracks, said Schildt, including one very clear print.

Engrish

These pictures are an example of what you can enjoy by visiting engrish.com. Thousands of examples of the Japanese peoples love of the English language.

Hey I'm sure they laugh just as hard at us when they read what all those gay misspelled Kanji tattoos really say.

Eli Guardipee v.1

Eli Guardipee aka Isinamakan "Takes Gun Ahead"

B. 1856 D. July 1942.

My Great-great Grandfather. Eli was a trapper, hunter and guide from the Blackfeet (Pikuni) tribe of Montana. Eli befriended many historians while living in, on, around Montana plains and Glacier Park area. Because of this quite a lot has been written about Eli by such noted historical authors as James Willard Schultz and founder of the first Audubon Society George Bird Grinnell.

A passage describing Eli that has always inspired me was written by Schultz in his 1907 book My Life As An Indian.

"The Pikunis and a few lodges of Bloods arrived soon after we completed the post, and came, too, one who was to become and always remain a close friend of mine, Eli Guardipee, named by the Pikunis Isinamakan, "Takes Gun Ahead." He was of that family for which so many places in the north are named, as, for instance, the Guardipee Crossing of Bow River. He was but a year older than I; tall, slender, very intelligent, kind of heart, brave to a fault; and the most successful hunter, the surest shot that I have ever known."

Wow, you can see how this could inspire somebody. Another piece by Schultz from his book Blackfeet and Buffalo delves a bit into the shooting skills of Eli as well as offer a little insight into Eli's and what I believe to be the Indian sense of humor in general. This one is a bit long but the payoff is classic.

"In the summer of 1881... we set out one day to hunt deer in the big grove below our traditional post and were following a dusty game trail when we glimpsed three deer speeding through the brush, heading to cross the trail ahead of us. They came on in single file, and as each one leaped into the open of the trail, Eli fired at it with his '73 model Winchester repeater. He fired three shots about as fast as I could count them, with the result of three dead bucks lying within a yard or two of one another. Some shooting.

Of fat cow buffalo meat and buffalo tongues we always had plenty. Deciding that we would like to have some fat antelope ribs for a change, we set out to hunt on the plain to the south of our post - Eli riding a small, slow mare, and I on my fast buffalo horse. We ascended parallel ridges of the long, steep badlands of the valley, planning to get together up on the rim of the plain. I arrived on top just in time to see Eli riding out from the head of a pine-timbered coulee, going as fast as his little mare could carry him, and pursued by a huge grizzly bear. He was shooting back at it, apparently without effect, and with long, swift leaps it was gaining on him. I was too far away to be of any help - all would be over in one way or another before I could reach him - but anyhow I set out to try to do the impossible, my heart aflutter with anxiety for him. Oh, why, why hadn't he ridden a good horse? I groaned as I saw the huge bear, regardless of his shooting, fast overtaking him, and he always such an accurate shot. Never having experience it, I did not realize that to shoot straight back with sure, killing effect from a swiftrunning horse was something that could not be done. Watching the bear gain upon him sickened me. I realized that with, at most, three more leaps it would be upon his horse's back and mauling him. And then, just as the bear was making that last leap, he fired again, and what was my relief as I saw the huge creature flatten down upon the grass and lie still.

When I rode up to Eli, he was down off his horse, looking at his kill, and calmly chewing gum. "Well! What a narrow escape you had. I thought it was to be the end of you, " I managed to stutter. "Sa! Matsikiwa (No, it was nothing)," he said. "

I love it!

My family lived on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in and around Browning, Montana until the late 1950's when my grandmother moved to State Line, Idaho with my father, my uncle, my aunt and our cousin. Except for our cousin Carol-Marie, who lives back on the Reservation, my dad, aunt, uncle and grandmother have all passed away. Their kids have spread ourselves around Idaho and Washington and most of us try to get to the Reservation when we can, usually for me its the Indian Days Pow Wow in July or on side trips from Glacier National Park.

To Eli and his son and grandson Thomas and Coleman, to Coleman's son Ron, my dad, thank you.

New Reads

Just picked up Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover. I'd read Conover's Rolling Nowhere: A Young Mans Adventure Riding The Rails... A couple years ago. Great read in one of my favorite genre's which I'll call Hobo Adventure. Newjack has been popping up on my Amazon recommendations list for at least two years due to my many purchases within one of my other favorite genre's, Prison History, and yesterday I just happened to pass by it at the library. Fortuitous. I'm about 60 pages in since last night and so far it hasn't disappointed. I'm normally more interested in old Prison history, Newjack is set in the mid-late 1990's.

Just finishing up .45 Dangerous Minds: The Most Intense Interviews From SECONDS Magazine by Steven Blush & George Petros. Wow this was a great read and another great score from the new release section of the library. For you not in the know. Seconds Magazine was a music-centric zine based out of NYC from the late 1980's up into early 2000. Seconds tagline was The Art of The Interview. Very appropriate as Seconds interviews were art. Always obscure and always in depth Seconds delved mostly into the underground of art, music, culture with their subjects. In their decade plus run they have interviewed thousands of underground notables from Walter Gorilla Biscuits to Anton LaVey. .45 Dangerous Minds compiles 45 of the editors favorite interviews along with a couple thousand random quotes from others. It'd be difficult to pick a best interview from the 45 published though I am partial to the GG Allin, Wino and Rahowa pieces, it's a piece of cake to pick my favorite quote.

"If music is like sex my music would be pornography"
- Masami Akita/Merzbow

There are many other great quotes but this one is currently my pick. I've taken to changing it up in my mind depending on the band I'm listening to or the dream band I'm singing for. Just substitute whatever phrase or word you want for pornography. Examples: Rape, prison rape, double penetration, premature ejaculation... You get the idea.