If This Is It...Typing...

Yesterday afternoon saw the Scissors boys off towards home and Quinn back to Livingston to sleep in his bed, thus finally (and completely) ending the tour this year.

Billings is a bit of a blur. There were six bands on the bill and we were fourth. Loads of people showed up and the place got quite crazy. Those Billings kids sure know how to drink and mosh to music. And I mean any music. As long as it was quicker than a waltz, the floor was roiling with kids. They also know the words to quite a few of our songs, which was wild. I know I’ve said it before, but actually seeing someone in the crowd mouth the words to a song you wrote is pretty amazing.

So to simplify the story of Billings, Julia showed up, we played a good set (and Quinn chipped a tooth. The problem with crazy moshing and no stage is that people in the band get hit.), and then Julia and I quickly went to our hotel room for some time to conjugate some verbs. I don’t know what the rest of the band did that night, but I do know they all made it to Livingston the next day to play our final show at the band shell in the park.

The band shell show went fairly well. GGTS continued to play at the top of their game, while we managed a decent show (although definitely not our best). Merchandise was sold, kids got their “I am enjoying this show” on, and, all in all, it was a pretty afternoon. After the show, we headed to Quinn’s grandmother’s house for a tasty yak burger BBQ and a few drinks. I had to work the next morning (and do laundry), so my stay was cut rather short. However, I understand Quinn took the GGTS boys around to see all the sights in Livingston that night with a little help from Chris.

Friday, I worked. After two weeks straight on the road, I immediately went back to grinding stones. I was relying on Chris and Julia to take care of the planned camping trip we were to go on that night with GGTS. Unfortunately, Chris needed time at his house to get ready for a trip to Minnesota to see family the next day, so the camping was cancelled and we instead headed to Chris’ house after showing GGTS our favorite Bozeman bar (The Molly Brown) and favorite burger (The Cat’s Paw). They were suitably impressed by both bar (we happened to hit on cheap Pabst night) and burger (we happened to hit on cheap Olympia night) and also by Chris’ house (we happened to bring more booze than we knew what to do with).

The night gets a little blurry after this, but I do know that I drank quite a bit, but not nearly as much as Matt and Quinn. I also know we played our new dice game (which I will be happy to show people, although I can’t really explain it) and beer pong and that game I don’t know the name of where you stand around with your friends drinking.

The next morning started rather slow. Chris was damn near packed by the time most of the boys woke up. We slowly got everyone moving enough to go get some breakfast (chicken-fried steak at the Cat’s Paw) and then finally sent them on their way.

All in all, it was an exhausting, stressful, frustrating, exciting, amazing, fun-filled two weeks. I’d do it again, but hopefully gas prices are a little better next time. Anyway…I’m done with this one.

Thank yous from the whole story:

  • Everyone in my band
  • GGTS
  • The Damage Done
  • Jesse from Pretty Boy Thorson and the boys from Down We Go for coming out to see our show in Ballard
  • The Matrix Coffee House
  • All the Olympia kids who were so nice
  • Longshots for being so helpful
  • Jordan and Keil from Final Summation for making Sacremento so comfortable
  • Nick and Sonya for all your kindness
  • Alex and Rich from Outta Gas
  • The Double Down Saloon
  • Jen and Jay in Denver
  • Norm and Whiskey Throttle
  • The Continental Club for putting up with us
  • Sarah in Billings for waking up and 2 in the morning to let 7 random guys into your house
  • and everyone else who came to all the shows, bought a CD, or just helped us in some way I forgot.