I know it's been a minute since July but give me a break, the computer is not my most desired location. It's frustrating and difficult but I like doing these pages so here goes:
Screening tour shirts
Dyeing tour shirts
Tour was the best and worst tour ever! It started off with the kick off show in Oly which fucking ruled beyond words.
Constant fireworks and ramp sessions accompanied every set. Dead Weight, Safe and Sound, Outlook, every set killed it including Adjustment's, duh. Grimace's stuck out for me because although I was behind the drumset I could tell it was utter chaos. My drums did not stay up for much longer than a song and a half over and over, an entire watermelon was exploded, we all dressed in work gear, the room was filled with smoke and explosives... every set was this vibe. It was amazing. We also blew up a TV... Two TVs actually.
Blowing up a TV
I wish I had footage of the show because it was definitely one of, if not, the best show of the year. We then packed it in and left all our friends and took two cars full of gear and people a straight shot to Redding. In Redding we picked up our friend Jared's van to borrow for the tour, holy shit thank you Jerad. Jerad is for the boys 100% as we called him a few days before, he was totally down, and he let me paint the van. Much love and thanks. We began our adventure by heading straight to the ropeswing at Whiskeytown lake.
Ladybug at Whiskeytown
AUSTIN!
As the pictures show, initially it was fun. Many a ladybug was dropped off of the swing and we convinced Austin to give it a try. Then came the shitty part. I tried to convince people to ride on my shoulders and swing off of the rope swing. I have pulled this off before but never here so everyone was skeptical. Seth volunteered and we took off. The rope sagged immensely and we smashed into a rock. The result was my back getting gashed up and Seth's jaw getting broken. We didn't know it was broken the whole tour but when we got back he had to get it wired shut. Here's an action shot:
We then left in pain to go play in Redding and the show was fun as hell.
Robert and I did some bad boy shit and scammed a shitload of really awesome materials to help us have fun on tour. I'll leave it at that. Then we took off for Sacramento to meet up with our good buddy Ben Dewey of HIV fame.
Oly, Bremerton connection circa 2005.
We kicked it in Sacramento for a minute, skated an indoor skatepark until we got kicked out, and swam at the river. We then played a super sick show with our buds Side Effects and DCOI before terrorizing the town all night.
Side Effects
DCOI
Adjustment
We left first thing to kick it with our friend Ricardo in Santa Ana where we were fed, taken care of, and brought to sick beaches and skate spots. That night we played with JFA at Unit B studios and skated and skanked the night away. That night fucking ruled so hard. JFA is still ripping as shit and their live set was intense. Ricardo took us on a hike the next day up to a bowl on top of a mountain but by the time we got up there we found that the flat bottom and the coping had been torn out! Still sick though. I also lost my shirt there and was shirtless the rest of the trip. A sad, sad day... until we hit the beach again. Robert sticker slapped some yuppie valet service while the dude was sitting in his chair and my board got run over by some douche. All in all still an amazing day.
Eating dinner at Ricardo's... rough neighborhood
ATSX and JFA
Hike spot
Torn out bowl
Crystal Cove
The next stop was Tijuana so we were quick to get out of there. We had friends there who had multiple ramps and a bowl in between some apartment buildings you have to jump out of a two story window to get to. We got stopped at the border and they made us open up the back of the van. It was ridiculous because we had a shitload of absolutely visible illegals, a stack of fireworks (a massive stack Robert stole), bolt cutters, and an array of other items we would have thought we'd get fucked for. All they did was wave us through so we were happy. Chris and Shaymo let us paint the side of their house which is visible from the highway, let us skate all their DIY spots, then play on the porch of their house. The day was amazing. We had a long drive ahead to Tucson and we wanted to beat the heat so we left that night. On the way back in I got pulled over for stopping too fast and was extorted for money. I talked the cops out of it by acting like I didn't understand and proclaiming I have no money over and over. Back into the US we got shit because neither Robert or I had passports. Robert gave the dude a bunch of shit but he let us through. So began the downfall...
TJ and San Diego
Pups killing it
Ramp at their house
Shaymo shred
Chris Lein Tail at their DIY spot down the street
Me trying to get a wallplant on a board that was not mine (still pissed dude ran it over in Santa Ana)
We drove through the night and it was still in the high 90s coming through the pass. We posted up at our friend Che's and got ready for the show. I searched high and low and found a pair of 149 hangars to replace my broken one then we headed to a fullpipe to skate. The pipe was a bust because it was wet but there was a sick ditch spot nearby we skated. Time came for the show and we jammed out before going back to Che's to sleep.
After the show, American flag miniramp
Ditch skating
Ditto
We woke up and decided, against better judgment, to drive during the day to Phoenix to go swimming. It is generally 20 degrees hotter in Phoenix and was already in the 100s and the poor little van couldn't take it. We broke down in a cloud of smoke about 40 minutes outside of Tucson. We got towed to the nearest repair shop after waiting six hours in the heat with no water. Robert and I walked over to some laid up trains and a Union Pacific guy was nice enough to give us a couple of bottles of water.
Broken down
Target practice killing time
Bummed
After the tow we met a dude who told us he'd fix it for $400 but it'd take 2 days. We would be missing shows and were bummed but we took the offer. He then informed us the next day our engine was fucked and we needed a new one which would cost us $500 more. We accepted because we had no choice and promised Jerad his van would return. By that time we exhausted our band fund and had to dip into our pockets. Fortunately we were able to borrow Colter's parent's car to drive to Flagstaff to play that show and accrue some funds. We killed time the usual way by swimming everyday, skating, bad boy shit and shenanigans.
Swimming at an old folks place
Seth skating
DIY spot in Tucson
Finally dude said our engine was fixed so we got the fuck out of there ASAP! I noticed the check engine light kept flashing so I stopped to check coolant and engine oil and everything seemed fine. We drove a bit longer and I noticed the oil pressure kept dropping and rising... not a good sign. I called the dude and he reassured me 'everything was just fine'. We kept cruising stoked to finally get out of Arizona state and a few miles over the California border the engine fucking blew up. I yelled at an insurance lady forever until she finally approved a tow even though the van wasn't covered and we were taken BACK to buttfuck Arizona. This time we ended up in some bullshit town called Yuma. That name will forever haunt me until the end of my days. We all rested assured that it would be fine because we saw what appeared to be a crack in the oil pan. That information coupled with the fluctuating oil pressure made us feel we'd be cruising out of there soon. Below is pictured our high spirits enjoying dinner hoping it'd get checked out in the morning and be nothing.
Leaving Tucson
Broken down part 2
In the desert
Swimming before the tow
Hard as nails
Dinner before purgatory
So morning came in Yuma and the auto shop place opened up. We had them look at our van and a piston had broken through the bottom of our engine... we were fucking pissed. They said it would cost at least $2000 to fix. We were unable to afford that by any means so we scrambled for options. I called the dude who towed us the previous night because he was awesome and he informed us there was a guy who fixes people from out of town real cheap and real quick. I called the insurance and faked it again but got called out this time and had to fight for it. Eventually the tow truck driver came for us anyway and towed us to a guy named Victor's. Dude driving the tow truck was some white power dude who was super stoked we were a band and wanted us to come back to his place, swim in his pool and eat dinner. He said we couldn't drink though and I explained none of us did, then he said we couldn't smoke weed and I explained we don't do that either. Then he asked if he could smoke weed. Then he told us we couldn't cuss because his daughter was home. He dropped us off and fortunately we never saw him again. Victor's wasn't open until the next day so we had to wait thus missing a show at Etnies skatepark and one at Ricardo's the next day. Some white power bum with swazis tattooed offered to fix our van, we denied. As we pulled up we met Cuervo. Cuervo was this sick ass traveling dude with face tattoos who was living on some millionaires lemon farm after crossing the desert with his pack mules. We shot the shit for a bit and he let me ride his mules. He then informed us there was a river we could swim in and that he'd meet us down there. We walked to what we thought was the river which turned out to be a disgusting drainage area. We jumped off a little bridge into it so we were still happy. There was a train laid up next to it so me and Robert broke in and opened the door. We got some flares to sell to junkies and some cool union pacific/work memorabilia. We walked a little further and found the real river and boy were we bummed we swam at that other spot. Night came and we were all bummed as hell. We slept outside in the park and just fried to death because it was in the 100s.
Cuervo's mules
Just kickin it
The train
In the train
Look how flooded that shit is! Also that's the train bridge to jump off
The next day we were informed Victor could fix our van for 1300. We ran through a list of insane options trying to find a way home but knew in the end we had to bring the van back. We went for it and talked him down to 1100 but it would still take him 2 days to get the engine and a day to get it in. Basically the rest of our tour was blown so we accepted it and pissed in the wind. The river was the most flooded it had been in 20 years so we took advantage of that. Robert and I jumped off the train bridge and found a rope swing at one point. Victor saw we were sleeping in the park and offered for us to stay in one of his houses he had for rent. We were ecstatic because it was actually too hot to be outside during the day. We posted up in there and destroyed it. Our days consisted of sitting in the air conditioning playing video games til the sun went down then in the evening either skating the school, swimming at the river, going to the mission, dumpstering pizzas, or doing bad boy shit. You can see some of the shenanigans on the Adjustment tour video I posted earlier. We met this kid we called chicken shit that loved us and took us everywhere. He took us to this sweet free water slide park on the reservation where we all went down the slides a bunch together because no one gave a shit working there. He asked us if we were in a gang because Robert and I both had ACAB tattoos and we said yes. He asked what it meant and we said 'All Cops Are Bastards', his response was, 'that's not true though'. Turns out his dad was the sheriff. He told the Sheriff all about us and he met me later, he was not pleased, wouldn't even shake my hand. A FEW FUCKING DAYS LATER the van was fixed and we gave our sincere appreciation to Victor. He informed us the dude in Tucson straight up ripped us off and didn't replace the engine he merely patched it. We had Colter's dad (300 miles away) go in and get $500 back for us from the dude to pay Victor. We said a final serious fuck you to Yuma, left a skateboard for chicken shit and got the fuck out of there a day after Austin took a Greyhound to get back to work.
Our room inside Victor's house
Victor's home for rent
We had to go over the pass out of Arizona again and we saw aliens pictured below. We then went straight to Ricardo's to get fed and hang. He tried to get a show together for us but it fell through so we went to the beach. Dude totally hooked it up, couldn't of done it without you Ricardo we love you. The whole time we were broken down he raised money for us.
The first aliens we saw in the distance
First contact
Kayla nursing a wound sustained skating in Yuma
Ricardo, our boy!
On our way home we tried to get on the Urban Blight, Creem tour show in LA because we were playing with them in other bands on Oly and Seattle days but were denied. Dude was lame and show was stacked with No Tolerance, Night Birds and Knife Fight. Great show but wish we could have played. I had never heard Urban Blight but Colter and Kayla assured me they were sick. Was pumped to come home and play with them because they fucking ruled. In the vein of a lot of early 2000s hardcore like Striking Distance, 86 Mentality, Blue Monday, etc. etc. Taking the best of Agnostic Front's United Blood and making it contemporary. I don't know how I missed that band they fucking rule but it's probably because they're from Toronto, very far from me. I'll put their records up later because I picked them all up. Anyway enough of plugging that band ADJUSTMENT rips. The first tour had a little snafu but we're back and kicking ass. We're writing for a 7" and doing a short stint in Canada the 18th to the 22nd of October. We will also have a brand spankin' new song we just recorded available on Not Normal comp "Welcome to 2012" in the near future. If you want tapes or shirts email me.
Download the tape
Watch the tour video
