Tomorrow I head out to Wisconsin to play a local festival called Metro Jam with The Pretty Flowers. The promoter of the event had heard us on the local college station and asked us to play right before the headliner of the event, Drivin’ N Cryin, who had a few minor hits in the early 90’s. Needless to say, the promoter has been great so far and we’re looking forward to playing in a city, or state for that matter, that we’ve never played before.
The out of town of it all got me thinking about my first ever out of town gigs with From. back in 2002. A couple of months back I wrote about From. and how they were my first of many things as a musician. That piece fired up the dead synapses in my brain and got the memory juices flowing, so to the best of my ability, here’s my story from our first ever tour. This is a Part 1 because I don't have time today to finish…
In 8 months, From. had accomplished quite a lot. We were 17 and 18 respectively, and aside from school, music was all we wanted to do so we were able to book shows, play parties, record a demo and garner a dedicated local following in that short amount of time. When we graduated high school, our bassist and singer Dan decided he was gonna go away for college, essentially putting the band to bed. Before he left however, we decided we’d do a small tour and record our album. We did both.
The tour, booked for July of 2002, was to be a quick five day jaunt up the coast. Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Ashland, Oregon and Reno, Nevada were the stops and we did it with our closest band brothers Two Minute Hate, later named Rock Goggle Fantasy. They were a more spastic punk band and with our proggy-surf style, we didn’t really fit on paper, but we always played great shows together and got along well. One great thing about the South Bay music scene at that time was that not every band was similar and that all that incongruity led to some interesting shows and outcomes. (I made a compilation CD that demonstrated this in 2003. More on that another time.)
The Two Minute Hate guys had done a few out of town shows in the past, so we leaned on them a bit to get it going. They booked Santa Cruz and Reno, arguably the cooler venues, and I booked San Francisco and Ashland. For San Francisco, it was truly a pre social media, DIY, phone book, cold call thing. I called about 30 venues in the city to no avail, but finally, at the last minute, I booked a beach dive on the Wharf. The second show I booked was in Ashland, Oregon with the help of my cousin who lived there at the time. We leaned on local friends and family to crash with, including an old Tower Records coworker who had just moved to the city and let us wreck her place.
(Heather, a great old Tower Records friend, who put us up and an awkward 18 year old me)
Our best friend and band confidant Tony had a van hook up from his parents who ran a production company. We were lucky enough to secure a windowless production van for the week with the promise that we’d take care of it, even though it was a bit beat up already. When his parents weren't looking, we adorned the car with our band logo and put an artichoke on the antenna just because. The TMH guys had to take 2 cars, 1 minivan and one compact. We were thinking about space and practicality, not green…
(Our trusty steed)
(our logo)
The night we left, we had a send off party at a friend's place, said goodbye to our girlfriends, and took off for the open road. Like idiots though, we wanted to leave at 10pm so we could get to our first destination, Santa Cruz, at dawn. Not sure who came up with that, or why, but that’s what we wanted to do.
NOTE: Overnight driving should only happen out of necessity or time. When you’re 18 and excited it’s fun, otherwise, I have found it to be a drag over the years. After about 10 minutes of driving, Tony wanted to stop due to some foot issue, so I took the wheel and basically held that role the entirety of the trip, including the scary final night, which I’ll write about next time… I had never driven a van before that night let alone parallel park in one, so again, more firsts.
(Daniel vibing out to Pink Floyd and yes, we used that map behind him. No GPS in 2002.)
This overnight drive to Santa Cruz was the first time I realized I loved driving on the open road. Since then, I have mostly done the lion's share of tour driving in my bands, with exceptions of course, and I do it without protest. When I’m driving, I am present and see the sights and places that America can offer if I’m looking. That, and I am a control freak…
Since the van didn’t have a CD player and we didn’t bring many tapes, we brought with us a battery operated boombox so we can play CD’s. Daniel (guitar) put on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” CD and to this day, when I hear the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” I immediately think of that night. The more north we went, the darker the skies and the brighter the stars were. The space and mood of that song really did convey our feelings that night. I can’t speak for everyone, but I got a sense we all felt liberated and excited, heading toward the unknown abyss of touring. We didn’t know what to expect, but we were stoked to be there with each other.
“Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun. Shine on you crazy diamond” - Pink Floyd
Next week: The Shows
The next part of this story will be for paid subscribers. I thought long and hard about it and I figured it was worth doing more paid posts. I am putting to good use what I have and I love doing this Substack, but it does take time to do and time is all we got. I appreciate the support, the love and the feedback thus far!
“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.”
—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 123.3
Thank you for reading. I hope you’re all healthy and happy.
For anyone who knows anyone is Manitowoc, WI, here’s the site for the festival on Saturday. Spread the word!
https://www.metrojam.org/
As someone who spent most of my life in a van like that, I love this.