Adventure #90: Two Day Mini-tour with The Michael Character

I suppose given the community I run with, it shouldn't be surprising how often I encountered these little coincidences on this tour, but it's always still a little surprising. Starting with the Kowabunga! Kid micro-tour, the micro-tour-that-wasn't with All Over The Place, the run-in with Catherine Feeny, and now another totally coincidental micro-tour with The Michael Character (which people keep calling The Michael Project for some reason). This is Pen Pen and some cassettes, which are totally back.

Despite the number of mutual friends, it's surprising Jimmy Ikeda (The Michael Character's (not Project) lead singer) and I haven't crossed paths before. But anyone that Greg McKillop considers a friend is probably a good person. I get to the venue in Phoenix and we immediately hit it off. He's been traveling more or less the same route as I, just a few days ahead. Where my single person and a stuffed penguin in a PT Cruiser has felt cramped over 8000 miles, he's been in a full band in a Honda Accord. I'm not totally sure how they fit everything in there, so I'm assuming it's actually a TARDIS. This is Pen Pen and some zines, which are also back.

It's good to see Sam again, and our planned Bradley Manning argument is far less heated than I'd expected. It lasts a good minute or two. It was pretty anti-climactic. He makes a few valid points I hadn't considered about Bradley not redacting names when he leaked info, which is a fair concern. But I wont be withdrawing my nomination for Bradley for radical sainthood any time soon. It's tough to leave Arizona so soon. I barely spent 16 hours there, but the drive to Albuquerque is long, so I get up at the crack of 9ish the next morning and hit the road. This is Pen Pen meep meep.

Reactivi had suggested I stop by Arcosanti after I'd complained on Twitter about the lack of tumbleweeds (or road runners. Or coyotes. Or ACME supply stores. What the hell Arizona? Why are you ruining my childhood?)... I didn't have as much time as I'd like to explore, but I wandered around a bit until the unmistakeable sound of a rattlesnake reminded me that I'm wandering around in the desert alone, and despite my Klingon upbringing, today is not a good day to die. This is Pen Pen reasonably certain the Arcosanti people don't know what urban means.

I make it to the show a few minutes after The Michael Character Project and am greeted by what's become an unfamiliar sight after the past week of fun but sparsely attended shows. People. Lots and lots of people. More people than can fit in the room. A plethora of people. Poet after poet gets up to read, then The Michael Charaject then me. Then more poets. One of whom lives actually kind of near me in Brooklyn and is in Albuquerque for the summer. He reads 2 chapters of Stephen Malkmus / Steve Albini slash fiction. It is sheer genius. I literally tear up with joy. I don't even. It's basically everything that I want to exist in the universe. We can all stop this art charade, people. Creativity has reached its peak. Everything we do from now on is bullshit. This is Pen Pen and a genuine autographed James Ikeda rock (not notarized).

The mobile zine distro is decimated by the folks at the show. They apologize, but that's what they're here for. I figure if I return to Brooklyn zine-less then my mission is a success. There are other ways, I suppose, to measure the success of a tour. But that seems like as arbitrary a metric as any. The Michael Project and I head back to a hotel. We watch Louis CK stand up and pass out. Wait, that sentence is confusing. Imagine if you will, Louis CK standing up and then just suddenly passing out. That's not what happened. We watched him perform a stand-up comedy routine on TV, then we all pass out. Subtle differences. Keeping in mind that this tour began with what remains one of the best days of my entire life, this is a pretty damn near close second. These nights, where everyone is earnestly engaged. Where all the performers support each other. Where conversations are had, and genuine friendships are made. These are why I tour. This is Pen Pen at a cheap hotel in Albuquerque which is most likely a front for Heizenberg's current meth manufacturing operation.

Adventure #59: Summer Tour 2012 Amarillo, Texas

I woke up on Saturday in a pile or clothes and boxes in a basement in Albuquerque, after having spent the past day off recording with my friend Tap in his studio. This is the glamorous life. My morning ritual on tour is to double check all the details on that day's show. Mostly this is to figure out what time we need to be there / leave wherever we are. So looking through my e-mails with The 806 in Amarillo I kept noticing a curious thing: the date said September 9th. That's not possible. We're playing in Austin on the 9th. Amarillo is on the 8th. And oh crap. This is Pen Pen wishing we'd slept in a little less and maybe been high on slightly less morphine while booking this tour.

So I did what I do best in times like this: I panicked. Once I'd done that for a little while, I did what I do second best in times like this: I internetted. I started cold calling places in Amarillo that had music and didn't look like they had anything on the schedule. Amarillo's got a pretty big music scene, so thankfully there were a lot of places to play. Steve from Moe Dogs said they didn't have anyone and if we showed up with a PA we could play and they'd give us some free food. This is why I bring a PA on the road. It was about 10 minutes after I hung up the phone, relieved that I realized this was a hot dog joint on Route 66 and odds are good there would be no food I could eat there, and more importantly that they'd not really be that into an effeminate Jewish animal rights activist vegetarian with a bright pink mohawk and his nails painted blue. This is Pen Pen realizing we might be walking off a cliff.

But oh Amarillo, way to prove us wrong about basically everything. Texas has a lot of stereotypes. Most of these are reinforced by former presidents, recent primary presidential candidates and King of the Hill. Amarillo doesn't conform to any of them. My friends Dave and Molly who put us up are really rad bohemians, and even the bikers at Moe Dogs dug our stuff. Sure one of them made a crack about my fingernails, and when one of them asked for an 80's cover I asked if he liked Prince, because I'm really good at reading people. But whatever. We had a pretty great night, and decided we'd rather stay in town and keep our obligation to The 806. This is Pen Pen both being and visiting a Route 66 roadside attraction.

It was strange having a whole day without having to drive anywhere. We've only done that twice on this whole tour. We drove up and down Route 66 looking at some of the roadside attractions and exploring Amarillo. Then got back to Dave and Molly's with some time to actually hang out and spend time with my friends before the show. How novel! The show itself was fun, but small. Sundays. Whatareyougonnado? We made a few new friends and mostly just heckled each other and used it as an opportunity to play songs we haven't really been doing on this tour. It was funtimes. Add Amarillo to my list of places that are always rad. This is Pen Pen and a giant red hot.

This is a song I wrote one time. You should download and share it with your friends.