Aloha From the Road 02

I've been away from a internet connection the past couple days. This is a log of the rest of the SugahDaddy tour.

Last entry ended before the gig at Don Quixote's in Felton (15 min from Santa Cruz).

Tuesday, May 30
We got the club early about 5 pm. The place was surprisingly bigger than I thought it would be. There was a booth for the soundman and he was really good. Did the whole set-up thing and did a pretty thorough sound check. The place even comped the band dinner, very nice. Although I was tapped out on Mexican food after that. The crowd wasn't that big, but the people who came were pretty stoked. We started with an acoustic set (played a lot of recorder and sing back-up) then went into our electric set. Got to sell quite a few CDs and talked story to a lot of the after the show. I thought it was a good as a Tuesday night could get. This guitarist Terry Hyatt came and sat in on the 2nd set. Great player.

We finished up the show and packed up. It was starting to get cold and everyone was so tired. We found a little pastry joint and got some donuts and jo'. Feeling jacked up on crappy coffee and sugar, we drove about an hour back to San Gregorio.

Wednesday, May 31st
We all slept in and got up refreshed. I spent the morning checking my horn and organizing my clothes. We went down the road to this girl's cottage/cabin she built on this high hill. She works for the Wilderness Tracking station that where we did our Sunday gig. It was a trip! She built it out of hay and mud! It had a little kitchen, bedroom, and tiny fireplace. I didn't see the bathroom, but i think it was an outhouse of some sort. She spent a few hundred bucks on it. The floors were reclaimed wood from a barn. We had lunch there and it was so good! Homemade bread, tomatoes from her friend's garden for the sauce and fresh strawberries from a farm down the road.

After our great lunch we packed up again and headed to Menlo Park to the next gig. The drive was pretty nuts, it was a long winding road up and down. I thought i was gonna get sick, but finally hit Woodside and the road got straighter. The gig was a private gig for this center that had a "school of rock". They had us come back after last year's successful gig. Some of the kids got to do a few numbers with us with their parents watching. The kids were stoked their parents could see them perform. We also talked to them about being a musician, i.e, practicing your instrument, being on time, learning how to use equipment, etc.

After the gig, a friend of ours brought us to the Flea Street Cafe'. Its a restaurant that specializes in organic local ingredients. It was some of the best food I've had ever. I got to eat this delicious rib eye steak and great Caesar salad. We got to stay at this condo/house that was nearby for the next two nights. The drivers were particularly happy about that. No crazy roads tonight.

Thursday, June 1st We got up early and went back to last nights gig to pick up the sound stuff and drumset, they were cool to let us leave it there last night. We spent the day checking out Woodside. I was working on my design stuff during our down time. Got to read some of the "Da Vinci Code" paperback I bought at Costco before I left. Wanted to read the book before I scoped the flick.- enjoying it so far.

The Pioneer Inn. We get to the gig around 7pm and set-up. What a dive. We did this place last year and hope they would do a better job in promoting the gig his year. What a crappy gig. There people that were there really liked us -especially the door guy. He liked us so much he was on the dance floor while we were playing and didn't collect any door money. At the end of the night he only collected $10. The bar tender was so pissed at the door guy that he gave us a nice chunk of the bar sales (still wasn't that much), but much mahalos to him. We decided that the Pioneer Inn bar is off the list of places to play in the future. Too bad, so sad.

Everyone was a little sour so we went back to the condo. Everyone went to bed without a word ready to put this day behind us. Got some reading in.

Friday, June 2nd
Everyone's spirits were up this morning. Kalani and Ricky left earlier that morning to do a radio interview. They called us and had their car had stalled. Darrell, Jason and I got packed and went to go see them. We got to the place to meet and it looked like they got the car running and left. Since they had no cell phone, we just left and assumed they were OK. We headed over the mountain back to San Gregorio. We were going to have a BUSY day ahead of us.

We got back to the farmhouse in San Gregorio and met the rest of the fellas there. We headed to the Old Princeton Landing in Half Moon Bay to set-up the sound for the gig later that night. We found out that the opening band flaked out and bailed the gig. We didn't care. Our friend Chris, who was helping us with the sound called his band and got themselves a gig. After we set up we stopped at Tres Amios for a quick bite. Carnita burrito, winnahs. So good and cheap!

After inhaling our food we headed back to our next gig, the San Gregorio store. Its a cool country, general store place. There's a little bar, cafe, activist books, camping supplies, and candy bars. We played a lot of our acoustic music. I was surprised to see a lot of people showed up. I guess news travels fast in a small place like that. The owner was an Iolani grad back in the 60's or 70's. He was super cool and took care of us. "what are you drinking?".... The alcoholics in the band were stoked. I had my fill of root beer, so I was good.

With the gig at the General store done, we headed back to the Old Princeton Landing. Chris's band kicked it off and the vibe was good, even though a little loud for my taste. We went on and people were excited to see the "band from Hawaii". We were well received and finished strong, it was a packed house. People were still hangin' around the dance floor when we done so it took us a long time to get our gear and axes packed.

Finally, after getting outta there, we were supposed to go to this lady's house who said they would make us breakfast. We decided to check it out. When we got to the house, they just started cooking and we were sooo tired, that Darrell and Jason decided to go back to the farm house. I thought about it, but I was so hungry. We started eating at 2:30am and just wanted to bail. I found out that I had to drive one of the cars back. Ricky and I jumped in the Jeep Cherokee and headed back to San Gregorio. The road was so foggy, I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me. I couldn't tell if the sides of the road were trees, a bridge, a cliff or rocks. It took us painfully long to get back. Finally we get back and It was 4:15am. On top of that, I we were freezing our asses off.

There's no way I was getting up early on Saturday.

Saturday, June 3rd
I actually got up early and took a walk outside. Our last gig was a hundred yards away. It was called the "Llamapalooza". It was a yearly party they had on the farm. They were setting up tents and stuff. We did last year' and they invited us back this year. After a walk in the woods, I decided it was way too early too and cold to be up. So I went back in and read my book after which i ended up snoozing until lunch. I got up and killed a few hours reading my book, by then there was a frenzy of activity outside my best bet was to stay inside. The entertainment started up around 4pm with the Hip Pocket Jazz Quintet. I really liked these guys last year, and was looking forward to hearing them again. I went outside, sat on a bale of hay and watched. I realized the bass player and the sax player didn't show up. This left the guitarist, Rhodes keyboard and drummer to handle the tunes. They were still pretty good. The guitar player motioned to me play, but i realized my horn was in the van and the van was taken to town for shopping. I finally got my horn and the sax player hasn't shown up yet. So I got the horn out and sat in. I played on a few tunes (luckily i knew them), and their sax guy finally arrives with this pained guilty look on his face. I didn't find out why he was late.

The night saw a few more bands and we went on about 10:30 pm. So much for the scheduled 9:30 pm start. We were just happy we didn't have to drive anywhere. We did a power-set and the crowd was stoke. I could tell that we were feeling the fatigue from the night before. Finally, at the end of the night, there was and "All Star Jam". It was weird, cause' they made me pick the 1st song but I knew only the Jazz guitarist and Keyboard player knew what to do. I called out "All Blues" by Miles Davis. I figured it was pretty simple. What a nightmare. I don't know how we finished the song, but the madness finally ended. After that I got off the stage and chilled out the rest of the night. I was by the bar and the jazz guitarist was chillin' too. There were so many guitar players on stage, he wasn't into it. We chatted and planned to have me play a whole set with the Jazz quintet them next year.

Sunday, June 4th
Our last day of the trip. I got up just in time for us to leave for SFO. Too bad we didn't get to go into the city this time. We did the whole airport thing and luckily the lines were non-existent and security checks were super fast. Nothing too much happened aside from the people in front of us row having the major B.O. Flight sucked as usual, plane felt so tight.

By the time we landed I was feeling like i was starting to get body aches. I got home and snoozed the road trip away.

till the next. m