Carlsbad.

So I'm sitting here at my great friend Karen's house in Carlsbad. I'm full of burrito, I've finally caught up with my girlfriend, and I think it's time to update.



We played in Santa Rosa. It was a pretty good time, STZ and All Teeth are always a good time to watch. We pulled up to the show, and I recognized STZ's van immediately, I then heard a huge scrape/crash noise. Jay gave their van a racing stripe, against everyone else's wishes.



But when you're in Sabertooth Zombie...



After staying with Jay and Eric and their Pantera covered apartment, we made our way to Olivehurst. I don't have any pictures from there, but I can say that Reviver fucking rules. We played in Santa Rosa and sort of met, but actually hung out in Olivehurst. If you're into B9 style hardcore, they're definitely you're thing. They reminded me kind of Defeater, but last time I checked, Defeater doesn't have an ICP loving juggalo of a bassist nor do they cover American Nightmare. So score 1 Reviver, score 0 Defeater.

For us, that show was probably one of the best we've ever played. Not necessarily the crowd (although small, they were awesome). But for us personally. If you were there, I don't need to retell the story of Chris (not me) guitar soloing with a milk crate on his head getting slapped with a fleshlight dildo.

After Olivehurst we made the trek to Los Angeles.



We played at the Blak Top with a bunch of bands that weren't really our thing (minus JCHP which were pretty rad). It was mostly beatdown style hardcore, somewhere between Terror and Suffokate. I was pretty bummed after In Desperation played because they had a really solid set and a ton of kids walked out because they weren't "br00tal" enough or so it seemed. I was even more bummed when after our set, they went into this pretty oppressive and one-sided Jesus speech. And hey, if you're Christian, or religious at all, much respect to you. We as a band don't agreed with a lot of organized religions and ideas that can easily culminate into human oppression as we see throughout history. But this guy talking was saying some pretty outlandish shit. Not to mention the promoter fucked us on money pretty bad too. But hey, Jesus has bills too I guess.

Me and Chris got up early after a long night of partying (in which I vomited, was dogpiled, and woke up with a condom covered in mustard, tabasco, and filled with coco pebbles in my underwear). And got some breakfast together including some recovery mamosas. We then made our way down to San Diego.



We played at this record store called Music Trader. It was pretty rad. We had a great set, Karen came out with some friends that for some reason painted their faces like this:



But for some reason I've always really liked playing in a record store. I don't really care if kids go all apeshit or whatever. But the vibe of thousands of bands surrounding you is just sort of cool in a weird way. I'm constantly reminded of my girlfriend, tour can be tough on relationships. But I got a keeper.



But after one beer, I realized that my body wasn't going to accept any more alcohol. So we went to Jimmy's to camp in his back yard. We sort of split up now that it's our day off. So I'm chilling in Carlsbad and enjoying my day. I'll write more soon.

Day 1.

I'm sitting in one of my favorite places in the world, the Thunderdome in Redding, CA. The Thunderdome (2.0) is home to my best friend in the world, Ben Paulsen. Along with his girlfriend Anastacia, Joey Rice, Jack Thurman, and Nate Corbin, the Thunderdome is probably the best hangout ever. A couple hundred dvd's and vhs line the wall, homemade kombucha, and of course, Buckley. The greatest dog ever (I shouldn't neglect Shiva Bonesaw and Jesus the cats either).

I'm writing from the singular chair in the living room. I'm the only person awake right now. Out of everyone, I probably got the most reasonable sleep. I drove after our show in Olympia to Wilsonville, which was a little less than four hours. I switched with Chris and I slept until about 8:45 A.M. when we arrived in Redding.

The show last night was great. A good grip of kids showed up, Lawson took great care of us. And we met some nice people, and got to play some serious FirstWordSecondWord. Also, it was Luke's first show playing bass for us. He rocked it, I think it was wearing his contacts and making faces like really made the difference in a solid set.

I'm going to nap for a bit I think. That, or I'm going to just update all of the social narcissism websites I subscribe to.

Off to Santa Rosa!

0 days/Day one

So here I am. It's 10:40 A.M. PST in Portland, Oregon. I'm sitting on my bedroom floor one last time for the next couple of weeks. I'm really excited, a little bummed, and thankful that everything came together. I'll definitely have some pictures of actual things in the next entry, but for now, thank google images.

Tonight. We're heading to Olympia, Washington. Capitol of Washington.



We're no strangers to the Pacific Northwest, and it'll be our second time playing in Olympia. Last time we played in Olympia, it was with From The Depths (ex-Catharsis/Requiem) at a black house. When I say black house. I mean there are several. All over Olympia, a dentist purchased several houses and painted them black to drive down costs of local housing because an all black house apparently looks "bad" and brings down an entire neighborhood (sort of more info here http://olyblog.net/olyblog/black-houses). At least in price. Also, from Olympia residents, I have confirmed that if you look at the houses on a map, they make the points to make a pentagram. Whatever it is, it rules. And the show was awesome. Tonight we're playing a someone's house that does shows called Chester's. If you're reading this and you live the greater Olympia area and want to hang out, you can find more info from our Myspace (link in first entry).

As always. You can follow me on twitter if you want play by play of what's happening on tour (link in first entry). I'll try and write in the van after the show, but I'll definitely have pictures to share tomorrow at the latest. Til then.

6 days

Ever since we parted ways with terry. Things have been nothing short of nerve racking. There still two tour dates that need to be filled. But there's an underlying feeling like everyhing is going to be okay and everything is going to come together. We bought our van. It's a champ. We ordered two new shirt designs. And it just feels like I wanted it to. Just a month late. Haha.

13 days.

It's thirteen days until hell and reason leaves for tour. And I thought it might interest people if we did some sort of tour blog. Maybe it will take off into a more personal thing with information. And it won't be myspace. Anyway. This is it. The final two weeks before tour. It looks like all the gaps are going to get filled in. But this is everything for now. Obviously all dates are with in desperation.

9/1 Portland house show tba
9/2 Olympia, wa @ chesters
9/3 Santa rosa, ca @ some art space
9/4 olivehurst, ca @ that one garage
9/5 los angeles, ca @ johns friends
9/6 San diego, ca @ music trader
9/7 so cal tba
9/8 Fresno, ca @ cyc
9/9 suckah free @ submission art space
9/10 sacto @ branch st
9/11 terrorist party in Reno at fort ryland
9/12 redding, ca @ mlk center
9/13 drive home.

If you want addresses and whatever for show info or full lineups goto our myspace. But it's likely that from here on out. It will simply be quick/lazy posts from my iPhone and will hopefully hold some funny stories, and maybe dive a bit deeper into the world of touring in a band no one gives a shit about. Also. I'll probably be ranting about what were listening to, eating, and doing day to day. Also, if you want play by play. You can follow me on twitter(.com/mistergrossly).

Jason

Www.myspace.com/hellandreason