Colorado > Arkansas: "Another Day Living the Dream"

We began the long trek from Colorado to Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon. We had about 850 miles to cover, but our set at the Mulberry Mountain Festival wasn't until Thursday evening, so we had plenty of time to cover the drive. Little did we know...

Less than halfway into the trip, in the middle of nowhere in Kansas, we blew a tire on our trailer. And it wasn't just a flat tire, it was a seriously shredded-to-the-bone mutilated tire. Unreal! This wouldn't have been too big of a setback, except for the following complications: (1) Our spare was a little bit shady and not suitable for the 1000+ miles we had to travel to get to Arkansas and then home to Chicago; (2) Due to our remote location, it was over 2 hours until AAA came to our rescue (though we did pass the time watching the meteor shower, which was pretty cool!); and (3) When putting our spare on, the AAA guy informed us that the wheel bearings on our trailer were dangerously loose and would need to be fixed ASAP or the trailer would spontaneously combust, or something terrible like that.


Getting out the spare tire, packed deep in the trailer. Music gear all over the shoulder of I-70 with traffic whizzing by.

We got up and running again, and continued east at the AAA recommended 50mph until we found some civilization...if you can call it that...remember, we're in Kansas, people. So where do we find a new tire and someone to fix our trailer at midnight on a Wednesday? An internet/GPS/cell phone combo attack finds an on-call tire shop about 50 miles from our breakdown site in Salina KS, and a groggy employee met us at the shop and sold us a new tire and spare (for actually way less than we were getting back home, even with the latenight surcharge...score!). We decided to get a hotel in Salina, get up early to get the trailer fixed, and still hopefully roll on to the festival with plenty of time to spare.

Oh, but that would be too easy, wouldn't it?! After solving the tire problem, we got back into the van to head to a hotel and saw that our "Service Engine Soon" light was on and noticed that the van was shaking pretty heavily when idling. Gimme a f*cking break! We now have both van and trailer repairs to deal with in the morning, and making it to the festival is looking pretty grim.

Adam and I were assigned the morning repair duty, getting up at the ungodly hour of 8:30am to start making phone calls to see who could do these emergency repairs and get us on the road. We found a local repair shop that could do both the van and trailer, and after checking things out, quoted us a time frame of about 2-2.5 hours to get the work done. Our festival set was at 10pm, and we had a little shy of 7 hours to drive; this should work. But, 2 hours turned into 4+ hours, complete with much pacing in the repair shop waiting room, and we didn't get back on the road until 3:15pm.

Jordan manned the wheel for the entire drive to Arkansas with expert speed and control but it seemed that all the forces were against us: an attempted gas/bathroom pit stop where all the facilities were closed, a gazillion toll stops slowing us up, a closed road and detour in Tulsa, and consistent 75mph speed limits leaving no room for our clunky rig to get ahead of the GPS arrival time. We rolled into the festival grounds right at 10pm, the supposed start to our 2 hour set, and had a slew of friends and crew waiting at our stage to get us loaded in at lightning speed, along with a bunch of fans awaiting our set and providing a nice warm welcome.

The downbeat was only 45 minutes late, and we played our asses off to a raging crowd for a full 75 minutes. You'd have thought we'd be tired and lifeless after such a debilitating 24 hours, but we ended up being so energized to have finally made it and to have such an appreciative crowd. It was really one of the most rewarding sets in a long time!

Post-show, we finally had a chance to slow down, hanging out with friends and catching some of Lotus' set. We left the festival around 2:30am and began the hour plus drive to our hotel that night. As if mocking us, our low fuel light came on just as we departed, and of course, we're in the middle of nowhere with no gas stations for at least 30 miles on our route of mountainous roads, and who knows if they'd even be open at this time of night. We could have gone half that distance in the wrong direction to get gas, but decided to just take the risk. Running out of gas would be a pretty comical way to end the day, so even the bad end of the outcome would make for a good story.

I drove us expertly through the mountain roads, barely stepping on the gas pedal and using momentum to propel us down the mountain. Driving 32 miles didn't even push the needle below the red line, and we made it to an open gas station with plenty to spare. High fives and woo woo's ensued, and another day of living the dream had come to an end.

Many thanks to AAA, Commercial Tire, Oard's Auto Repair, Mike A, Micah, Ronny, Tiff, Kevin, Mike R., the festival stage crew and fans, and the many others who helped give a happy ending to our day from hell.

Colorado Recap: 8/7 - 8/11/09

Our Colorado run started off with a latenight show at Denver’s Dancin’ in the Streets Festival on Friday August 7. We arrived to the festival in the late afternoon, just in time to catch some of Steve Kimock’s set. I scoped out the new bass player and had a nice little reunion with the band and crew. FGC hit the stage around midnight, with Kimock and Kreutzmann throwing down next door in Cervantes. Our set was a random ebb and flow of people as folks filtered back and forth between the two shows in the adjacent venues, so it was kind of a weird scene. But we had a good time, and got to hang with Mike from Lotus after the show, and made a new friend, Drew, who helped us load out and even gave me a tie-dye shirt which I am sporting as I type this.

Saturday’s show was at Mishawaka Amphitheatre in the mountains outside of Ft Collins. We set our GPS to the address on the website and proceeded on the lovely drive through the mountains right along a river. Something obviously wasn’t right when our GPS declared our arrival in literally the middle of nowhere with nothing around, and no cell signal for miles to call for directions or get online. We reset the GPS to the city center of Bellvue, the town where the venue was located and turned around to head 20+ miles back where we came from (a good 45 minute drive on those windy mountain roads). About 5 miles into the backtracking, we pass the only sign of civilization for miles, the Mishawaka Inn, and I suggest we pull over and ask for directions. No more directions needed; turned out that this was the venue...how funny!

This was a very cool venue indeed, with an outdoor stage literally right next to a river and surrounded by mountains. The only drawback was the infestation of bees, and I spent the better part of the daylight hours frantically running from them. After getting set up and soundchecked, we enjoyed some dinner on the patio, the Cubs game in the bar, and the classic rock sounds of the opener, Dead Floyd. We then hit the stage for an extended set, and the crowd was enthusiastic and raging.

Sunday’s show was back at the Dancin’ in the Streets Festival, this time on one of the outdoor stages for a short set during headliner Leftover Salmon’s setbreak. Right when it was about time to start loading our gear out onto the stage, the sky took on a threatening look, and the rain suddenly started coming down in buckets. The storm lasted for only about a half hour, but the rain delay meant no setbreak for Leftover Salmon (thus no space for a “tweener” set for us), and not to mention, the stage we were supposed to play on became completely deluged in water. We were pretty bummed about the canceled set, but still managed to enjoy the evening hanging out with The Heavy Pets and Mike and Chuck from Lotus.

On Tuesday, we headed up to Breckenridge to play a show with Dirty Dozen Brass Band at 320 South. We were particularly excited for this show because the guitarist from DDBB (Jake) was a classmate of ours in music school, so it was cool to reconnect with him. In addition to being the opening band, we were also commissioned to loan some of our gear to DDBB, who were traveling without backline. Adam’s amp functioned fine for our set, but during the changeover between bands, it conked out for some unknown reason, leaving Jake without an amp. A totally lame and random turn of events, but Jake eventually recruited another amp and we got to hear him shred with this legendary band. Mad props to him!




Now we’re headed back across the country, stopping at Mulberry Mountain Festival on the way home. Stay tuned for more reports from the road!

Denver Travel Memories: Attack of the Chocolate Pomegranates

We're currently en route to Denver. Since nothing interesting has happened so far (aside from seeing a super tan and fit 50+ year old woman hula-hooping and talking on her cell phone next to her car at a gas station in the middle of Nebraska), I thought I would tell the story of my last journey to Denver.

FGC did a 5-night run in Colorado last March. I had the luxury of flying out there after doing two shows in Virginia with Steve Kimock, while the rest of the band made the long drive out from Chicago in our van and trailer. While in Virginia, I was given a huge bag of my precious coveted chocolate pomegranates by Dr. Lora, good friend of the Kimock bunch and unofficial chocolate pomegranate dealer. Rather than lug the entire bag on the flight in my back pack, I made a travel-size portion using the ice bucket baggie from my hotel room, and put the remainder of the choc-poms in my checked bag.

During the flight, I broke out the baggie and happily munched on the addictive chocolates while watching some movies on my laptop. When the flight landed, I got up from my row and looked back to make sure I didn't leave anything, noticing a brown smudge on the seat. I thought to myself, "Oh great, I sat on a dirty seat for the entire flight?" Oh well, didn't think much of it.

I made a stop in the bathroom once I got into the airport and was completely mortified to find a huge brown smudge on the back of my jeans. Did I poop my pants and not even realize it? No, a quick (and awkward) sniff revealed foul play by chocolate. How did this happen? I then pulled out the remainder of the choc poms from my backpack to find that the flimsy ice bucket baggie from the hotel had a hole in it, and all the while that I was eating these things on the plane, they were, unbeknownst to me, dropping into my lap, between my legs, and melting all over my ass.

Has this embarrassing incident made me paranoid about eating chocolate pomegranates since, or turned me off of them altogether? Hell no; I am addicted to them as ever. But it has taught me to always look behind me!

8/1/09 3G's Festival, Black River Falls, WI

Saturday began with a long drive up to the 3G's Festival (Grateful Garcia Gathering) in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. We were excited to be the Saturday headliner for this small festival, on Jerry Garcia's birthday no less.

The 3G's Festival was your standard hippie music festival, complete with many bands, camping, peaceful dirty hippies, and a good time for all. The only part of it straying from the norm was the festival grounds, which when not hosting the occasional music festival, is otherwise known as the "Adults Only Sexual Freedom Campground." When we pulled into the festival grounds and saw the "Adults Only" disclaimer at the gate, we weren't quite sure what this entailed until we saw some nudists and later found a barn full of treasures which Adam had way too much fun exploring:




Adam enjoying some light reading...


Our playground tour guide asked if we wanted to try turning the electricity on in the cage. We politely declined.


Kids, don't try this at home....



Musically, the show was a blast. The stage sound was great, and we whipped out a few Jerry tunes in honor of his birthday, getting a little adventurous with an impromptu Shakedown Street > Get Outta My Life > Shakedown Street (which Jordan only mildly butchered, maybe because he got distracted by the heavy-set naked guy in the audience).

Post show, we enjoyed a nice hang with some fans and friends while loading the trailer in slow motion. Thanks again to Johnny and Tim and the 3G's crew for a great festival!

The blog is back! 7/31/09 Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines, IA

FGC has had a uncharacteristically light summer up until this point, but we're back in full swing, and I'm hoping my blog will be too. We'll see.

Yesterday's show in Des Moines started out with some ups and downs. The first "down" was having to get up early for the 6+ hour drive and be on the road by 11:30am. Musicians brains do not compute before noon. I tried to ease the pain by buying everyone breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, the day's first "up." Aren't I sweet?

We get on the road and encounter another of the day's "ups". I check my email to find that I had beaten the Red Lion Hotel chain's Best Rate Guarantee and scored 2 nights of 2 rooms for FREE for the band's travels to Colorado in a couple weeks. Stickin' it to the man! I wasn't happy for too long, as when we stopped for gas about an hour later, we realized that our video camera and audio recorder had been swiped out of the back of our van while we were loading up at our house that morning. LAME.

We tried to shake off the bad news, instead focusing on the mountain of work ahead of us for the evening. Luckily Des Moines fan, Dax (from now on spelled "Daxxx" cause it's much cooler), was on hand to help load in and set up our gear and light show. Using our lights always adds an extra hour or two of setup, and getting 'em rigged up at the Mews was no easy feat, involving ladders and death-defying acrobatics. I pleaded "girl" and did not participate beyond running cables.

The place filled up and we started off the show with a brand new tune we've been working on ("G Song", for now), that we weren't even sure was quite ready to be debuted, but our Des Moines crowd is such a comfortable and welcoming bunch that it's always easy to be risky there. We pulled it off pretty well, and the second set unveiled 2 more new songs, an original temporarily called "F Song" or "Groove Cheese", as well as a Medeski Martin and Wood cover called "Wiggly's Way." It's a shame we didn't have our audio or video recorders on hand to capture this show; it was certainly a fun night!

We ended the show a few minutes before curfew and enjoyed some time hanging with the fans before they got kicked out, and then the joy of tearing everything down. We got to our hotel close to 4am and crashed hard.



On to the 3G's Festival today to rock Jerry Garcia's birthday show!