DAY TWELVE - MONDAY, MAY 10, 2010 - ORLANDO

Ok.. so most of us spent Mother's day at DisneyWorld in Orlando.. thanks to some great old friends and fans of the band. Some of us felt too guilty and went back to the hotel to cry. It seems that back at the hotel.. Ricky's toilet overflowed and flooded the whole 2nd floor... everything was trashed! Whoops. Anyway, Monday morning was an early morning as cleaning crews and vacuums woke everyone up. Its seems they had to pretty much rip out most of the second floor carpet thanks to Ricky's toilet.. oh well!

Crash, uncharacteristically, spent a lot of time and energy finding a basketball and a basketball court to play the big showdown against the KOO KOO KANGAROO posse. A court was found and we met the KOO KOO posse a few miles away at the big show down. They got to pick the team and chose Nate, Crash and the MCBC vs. NEIL, BRIAN and DJ GABE. Apparently, they didnt think the MCBC was very athletic ...mmm.. welll they may be pretty right... but the Aquabats team spanked the Kangaroos pretty bad! Sorry dudes... It was a nice try.


However, most of us enjoyed a friendly lunch at good 'ole waffle house afterwards

Anyway, they lost so they had to load in all of our equipment .... in and out.. of the club tonight.. ha!

Downtown Orlando's the Social club is pretty legendary and we've been playing there for a long time. .. First time back in 1997... wow! At any rate... long story short.. the show was great.. it was really tight.. and intimate.. lots of fun!!

Guys from Koo Koo Kanga Roo dressed up in these crazy-awesome bodysuits and crashed The Action Design's great set, whoa yeah!


EC Sinclair even joined us on stage for Hello Goodnight!




We met some new friends and said goodbye to old ones.... much thanks to the ACTION DESIGN and KOO KOO KANGAROO for a great tour..

They showed up for the last song in swim gear and the crowd rushed the stage.. it was chaos..but fun chaos!.


We left the Social at 1am on a sold out Monday night?!

Our airport shuttle came at 4am...

AWESOME!

Chris P. and E.C. Sinclair headed off in the van for the Californias.. and we say farewell ...for now..

DAY ELEVEN - SUNDAY MAY 09, 2010 - ORLANDO

TODAY we have a day off!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY FROM ORLANDO!! FLORIDA!!

BOO YA MOMS!

DAY TEN - SATURDAY, MAY 08 - ST. PETERSBURG

Up ...not so early today. We slept in til about 9am or so and got on the road to ST. PETERSBURG.. It's a beautiful drive that takes you out over the water and over a giant bridge that looks like this..

We got to the State theatre and loaded our stuff in very swiftly. We noticed some renovations and what looked like some new sound equipment. We did sound check and noticed that the sound was really great.. the best we'd heard at the State Theatre, ever! We were excited to play the show! Things are always better when you can hear everything. After sound check we said 'Hi' to the guys from the opening band Victims of Circumstance... They were all real nice dudes and I guess they were all members of the AquaCadet Faction! YEAH DUDES! We noticed that out in the street in front of the State theatre that the city was setting up for some kind of street fair kind of thing. It seems that the neighborhood was also more lively than we'd ever seen it. There were new shops and art galleries all up and down the street. The MCBC went into a store called the MERCH store or something like that... he was just about ready to buy a Bad Brains shirt .... when he over heard the shop keepers talking about the show at the State that night. "You Couldnt pay me to watch that band .. they are terrible... i hate them", was the conversation overheard by the Bat Commander... ha! Awesome! Needless to say, no money was spent in that store.. 'You couldnt pay me to buy anything there.." Haha

Most of the dudes went out to a fancy Italian restaurant while the MCBC and Ricky Fitness bought Sushi from a street vendor at the street fair... OISHII!

After Eagle Bones and MCBC talked with their friend Rob for a while, everyone ended up at the Italian grill to watch the Lakers/Jazz game. We had to get back to the venue before the end of the game, but it wasnt looking good for the LAKERS!?!
We got ready and noticed the crowd was pretty pumped up. What ever the Action Design, KOO KOO kangaroo and V.O.C did.. the crowd was foaming at the mouth.. it was excting!

THE SHOW - was really good.. probably one of the best shows we've played in a long time... well at least since the night before! HA!! The sound was great.. the kids were great.. we ended up playing songs we weren't going to play.. like RED SWEATER, CAT WITH 2 HEADS and LOBSTER BUCKET. It was great !! And .. at the end we even got to help some young 'uns stage dive into the crowd at the end of the show!! Thanks to the really great crowd, great sound, great crew at the State Theater, it was definitely the best show we've ever played at the State Theatre!! BOOYAH!
(check out some more of The Fixler's photos from that night by clicking here)
WE loaded up the van and headed off to ORLANDO to stay for a few nights. GOOD NIGHT!

DAY NINE- FRIDAY, MAY 07 - FT. LAUDERDALE

The MCBC'S cell phone went off at 5:30 am, which may seem unremarkable but seeing that he went to sleep at 2am, it' a mystery, to some, why he even answered it at all.

But he knew, it was the SURFER DUDES! The kids from last night they met in the dirt floor dressing room! Local Floridians, Ryan Sullivan and Jake Clark were on their way to pick up the MCBC, Ricky, Crash and any other one of the Aquabats that had the gumption to arise after three hours of sleep to go surf in the ocean as the sun came up.

The Bat COMMANDER called Crash, Ricky and Russian Inmate Evan to arise and join him for a surf party... but alas .. only Crash had the raw power to arise from his sleepy tomb. Ricky and Evan had thrown in the towel ...before they even got wet... too bad dudes..

Ryan and Jake picked up the MCBC and CRASH MCLARSON in Jake's grandmom's Cadillac ...SWEET RIDE HOMEY! And they rolled in style down to the beach.

Our two new surfer dude buddies lived right by the Pier on Jacksonville beach .. and they even had extra boards for the two groggy super chums.

The conditions were clean, it was sunny and warm, slightly off shore winds and our crew pretty much had the beach all to them selves.. Here is the MCBC going right on a little ripple while Jake checks it all out. Look at the commander go! WOOOOOOT!

Crash, The MCBC and the DUDES had a great time catching little waves, talking junk to the fisherman on the pier and enjoying a beautiful morning in nature on tour. Such an event is a really rare occurrence on the road.... enjoying a morning on tour.. is virtually impossible. But, somehow the dudes got lucky and were able to feel the blessing of being alive before noon.

The MCBC and Crash got back to the hotel around 9am and said their goodbyes to the surf dudes. I guess the 'dudes' Ryan and Jake were coming out to the shows tonight in FT. LAUDERDALE and were bringing mad peeps... so that would be fun too.. ! Hoo Hoot!

The band all climbed into the van around 9:30 am and the road was met with a little less resistance... at least from the MCBC and Crash, who were super pumped about surfing... In fact, it was a little annoying to the rest of us who were still grumpy from waking up too early.

We got into the parking lot of the little strip mall in Ft. Lauderdale, where the club was located around 3pm. The CULTURE CLUB is the name of the venue tonight and also the name of a very funky 80's pop band...FYI. This is actually one of our favorite clubs to play in Florida, because it is legit. the sound is great, the light show is great, the dressing room is decent. It's like the owner of the club actually cares about it .. and the bands that help to bring it revenue.... WEIRD! The club owner is actually a really cool guy and the backstage dressing room is filled with pictures on him and other bands that have performed there in the past. Everyone from KING DIAMOND to THE KILLERS, PANTERA to THE CRAMPS. GEORGE CLINTON to THE BUZZCOCKS. It has been quite a history for the CULTURE CLUB. We also like this club because there are AWESOME places to eat around it and the hotel....right next door has hundreds of wild iguanas running around sunning themselves on the rocks and curbs out in front. The MCBC actually caught one on a previous trip. CHECK IT!


At any rate, load in was a breeze, soundcheck was heavenly.. because it actually sounded good.. and dinner was amazing! We ate at a little Italian market at the end of the strip mall parking lot. It was super yum yum. We went back to the hotel to relax a little and chase a few iguanas up the wall.

Tonight's crowd was BANANAS! There was 1000 (ok maybe 600) screaming, dancing crazy fans! We all thought tonight was the best show so far... the sound was great, we played fast & furious and everyone had fun.. No fights! Hooray! the Surf dudes even showed up for SHAKAS! We all had a great time!! It was really great!

Dont know how else to describe it... Guess you had to be there... !!!

We packed it up and headed off to the hotel! What a day!

DAY EIGHT - THURSDAY, MAY 06 - JACKSONVILLE

Once again! Up early to hit the road in time to make it to the next city! We were heading to Florida! And what a drive it was!
We made it to Beautiful Jacksonville! For once, we got to the club early and no one was there. The club is called Jackrabbits and its pretty legendary. Everyone has played that at one time or another. We have also played here four or five times and tonight.....we would play here again!! It was pretty hot and humid and we were just sitting there waiting to get into the club, so everyone split to go do laundry.. you can imagine the stinky clothes piling up in your bag after awhile...it starts to leak onto your clean clothes and then suddenly... you have a trunk full of stink. Well, lucky for us there was a coin laundromat ...right down the alley from the club. And, boy, was it ever awesome. Coins in, water comes out! OH THE THRILL!

After doing laundry, we all rushed back to sound check where .. tensions started to creep in... Between stinky clothes, lack of sleep, and the heat and the small stage, dudes be starting to get grumpy. Almost like a REAL rock band...ha...Nate tried to help the mood by putting on some cute shorts and tuning everyone's guitars. It was cute but it may have bummed more people out than was intended.

After sound check we rushed over to the local Super 8 motel to check into some cheap rooms and go SWIMMING.. in the hotel pool....across the street. We were like little frogs on the pond.. jumping in, swimming, and jumping in again... OH THE JOY!

Back to the club to catch the tail end of KOO KOO KANGAROO. Who have, incidentally, challenged the Aquabats to a 3 on 3 basketball game and seem to be talking an awful lot of junk about the Aquabats losing. Well, their set was good... but... they may be in trouble.


Action Design is always great and we love playing with them. I think the kids have a harder time accepting them though because they have the tricky misfortune of beign wedged between two HAM bands. Bands that are playing for jokes as much as they are playing music. Might be tough on the Action Design at times. Fortunately, for the most part, the kids that come to the shows are all pretty open minded and understand the Action Design wouldn't be playing if we didn't like them.

We hit the stage around 10pm and it was a full on punker type show.. small stage, small room, lots of people smashing into each other.. it was pretty gnarly. We had a great time and played the hits like they were on fire..? i guess, we did pretty ok. No one threw bottles at us.. or even worse pulled a gun on us... so that was cool. Our Russian prison parolee Evan came out on stage in some pretty short shorts during Pool Party.. .. they looked a little like these...

After the show we met some kids out in our dressing room... which looked incredibly like the dirt parking lot.... ok which was the dirt parking lot. Standing in an alley, changing out of your sweaty superhero costume on the broken glass littered dirt... is really kind of glamourous if you think about it. It so macho...

Kids just poured around the side of the building as we were changing and loading out.. not too private but... what can you do?
We met two cool surfer dudes, who were actually from FT. LAUDERDALE but were up in Jacksonville for school. Ricky and the MCBC were discussing the finer points of surfing with these two young dudes and the possibilities of surfing Jacksonville Pier in the morning were discussed. Numbers were exchanged and a plan was hatched to go surfing early the next morning! HOORAY FOR SURF!

As we finished packing up, someone in the band thought it would be funny to spray Ricky with a fire extinguisher .... but it wasnt funny. Ricky got extinguisher powder in his eyes and lungs and a dark cloud of bad vibes spread through out the camp. We did our best to fight of the flames of turmoil but we all realized it would be best to get back to the hotel and sleep it off.

Back safely at the Super 8. Jacksonville... tonight was great.

DAY SEVEN - WEDNESDAY, MAY 05 - ATLANTA!

CINCO DE MAYO!

We were up early ...7:30 am... no one wanted to drive.. everyone wanted to sleep for a long time... in a bed.... but we all piled into the van and Nate took the wheel. He was not afraid to drive .. that is for sure.. We drove and slept and drove and slept ..nodding off and on taking turns waking Nate up while he was sleeping an driving behind the wheel.

After a dreamlike few hours.. we awoke to what we all thought was a mirage..... a DEL TACO.!!! Smack dab in the middle of South Carolina... We gassed up the van and everyone went and got their DEL TACO on... MMMM Yummy..

Back on the road to ATLANTA... the car began to smell funny... but no one knew why....windows were rolled down and t-shirts were worn as stink masks.... I guess maybe someone had too much red sauce on their MACHO COMBO!

We got a little bit lost on the way to the club... Eagle Bones suggested someone use their GPS on their iPhone.... WOW! Why didn't anyone think of that before!?

When we finally pulled into the sketchy, craggy parking lot of the MASQUERADE club, we noticed there were some unfamiliar band types unloading their gear there already. The Masquerade is actually an old cotton gin that has been converted into a rock club.. There are three rooms...a smaller dungeon room downstairs, a medium room over behind the club and the bigger room upstairs. I guess there was a metal rock festival going on upstairs... with BLEEDING THROUGH, BORN OF OSIRIS, SLEEPING GIANT etc. There were lots of tattoos, camouflage cargo shorts and large hoop earrings loading equipment upstairs as we were told we would be playing in the Dungeon... downstairs.

We all noticed a dead rat by the door to the downstairs and knew we were in the right place. We loaded in, set up and did sound check in a pretty short time... and then most of us had to get out of the dungeon! We went up the street and checked into the Highland Inn on Highland street.. If you are ever in Atlanta.. it's a great place to stay! There are so many cool places to eat and visit around the Highland Inn. Chainsaw, Ricky, Crash and the MCBC went to eat next door to the Inn at a place called CASA DEL SOL... since it was CINCO DE MAYO.... of course.. The Food was awesome and organically grown so we didn't feel bad about the ozone layer...this time. We walked the the street and passed the Atlanta cupcake factory... mmmmm... and to the corner of NORTH and HIGHLAND where there was a man selling homemade popsicles!! He had all kinds of unusual flavors and combos like Banana Cinnamon, Mango Habanero, Green Apple Lemonade, Grapefruit Ginger and Strawberry Margarita.. We all got delicious all natural popsicles from this dude sitting on the corner! HA! It was awesome! We thought about doing some laundry but.... we wouldn't have enough time before the show so we decided to wait until tomorrow.. Our friends Matt and MIke Chapman came down to visit and show us around.. Matt and MIke are pretty rad dudes.. they created and made HOMESTAR RUNNER for years and years and are real swell pals. They took us over to a place called Manuel's Bar and Grill ... right across the street from the Popsicle man.

They treated us to a Georgia staple... boiled peanuts...?!? I guess they throw a bunch of peanuts in a pot and throw in a bunch of salt and boil them up.. They were actually really good! We discussed their history in the ATL and some possible upcoming projects etc. We had to bail out to the club, so we said our goodbyes to the Brothers Chaps and that we'd meet them later at the club.

We got back to the Dungeon of the Masquerade .. and local band 5050 SHOT were playing. They played some pure skank it up new school ska complete with checkerboard sombreros and everything! CINCO DE SKAYO!..........

Next! KOO KOO KANGAROO did their things .. that they do.

ACTION DESIGN then demolished the stage..

It was a little annoying that the sound from the Heavy Metal upstairs apocalypse was .....bleeding through.. (no pun intended.. just a coincidence) but you just had to try to block it out. Back in the dressing room.. which smelled like moldy dressing.. maybe that's why it was designated the 'Dressing Room' ... maybe that is where Ranch Dressing went to die... who knows? At any rate, back in the dressing room we all got ready for another battle of wits and wills... as we heard the intro music we all locked hands and did a cheer.. .. well .. we yelled something... or other..

We hit the stage and pulled out all the stops! it was AMAZING.. !! .. .. maybe. About four songs in we noticed ATLANTA'S own superhero Sentai wrestler... yes.. the legendary .. DANGER WOMAN!!! WE pulled her up on stage and performed her theme song... called... DANGER WOMAN!!

She did some great moves and dances while we played the song and then after the song.. she told the crowd she had a new song of her own... She began to sing and .. we .. just started playing along.. I think any one that was there could witness to the magic that happened.. it was truly Magical! After the ....um...song... Danger Woman warned us her Danger sense was going off and that we should be careful... she felt that forces of evil were coming for the Aquabats.. We all thought maybe she was just feeling the music coming in from above our heads.. Music that sounded like someone was cutting down trees with chainsaws and wood chippers while cookie monster yelled at the guy from reservoir dogs who was screaming back because his ear got cut off... I sensed danger too.

We bid our farewell to Danger Woman and played PIZZA DAY. We were shortly there after attacked by the Time Sprinkler .. and the Time Sprinkler from the future.. they tried to erase time with a magic sword and heralding trumpet.. but we battled them back to the best of our ability.. it was almost awesome.

We played some more songs.. Jimmy the Robot hung in there with a duct taped saxophone ... and we made it to the end of the set. We helped some youngsters experience their first stage dives during pool party and we got to throw out the child of a former band member.. Brian Croxall. Brian used to play trombone for the Aquabats in the EARLY days.. He was there with his wife and two kids... One of which.. little Chaz .. got the royal treatment and was flung into the crowd by the MCBC! We hope he made it safely back home! We said our farewells and left the stage. We hung with The BROTHERS CHAPS a little after the show.. One of Ricky's old friends from Junior High came back to hang out. and we met some great kids and fans. A group of kids made some pretty cool homemade aquabats shirts! Good one guys!
We packed it all up and got in the van..

As we left ... the promoter told us .. that even though there was SEVEN METAL BANDS playing up stairs tonight at the Masquerade .. we still sold more tickets for the dungeon downstairs.. WE BEAT THEM BY TEN TICKETS!! HAHAHA!! It just goes to show you .. ..... .......something... happens .. .when you... do something....!!!

Check out this lil guy!


GOOD NIGHT!!

DAY SIX - TUESDAY MAY 04, 2010 - NORTH CAROLINA!

We rolled into Chapel Hill, North Carolina shortly after 1pm Tuesday afternoon. The trip was some what uneventful but we did have some fun truck stops complete with truck stop food along the way. Crash and Jimmy found some Krispy Kreme donuts, Evan got some hot dogs, everyone else had various delicious snacks except the MCBC who had some gross looking chile lime flavored pumpkin seeds. Sick!

At any rate, Chapel Hill is a BIG college town and our hotel was painted with mural after mural of NC sports teams in action.. and since all of us are HUGE jocks..we felt right at home. Nate and the crew dropped off the bats at the hotel and went to unload the trailer at the club, called the CAT'S CRADLE, in nearby Carborro, the next city over.

Most of the band rested up while others went out to local food marts and eateries for more delicious snacks! Ricky Fitness, Chainsaw and the Bat Commander all found themselves at a nearby TRADER JOE'S and found the most delicious of healthy snacks..!! It was awesome.... I guess.... if Dried fruit, Smoked Salmon, Cottage Cheese and Japanese Crackers are your idea of a good time. They were annoyingly stoked on healthy snacks... They kept talking about TRADER JOE'S!! I guess they need a sponsorship from ... TRADER JOE'S.

We all jumped into a cab for the 35 minute car ride to the club... even though it was only ten minutes away.. what a gip! Chapel Hill and Carborro are cool little Hamlets with lots of yummy places to eat and cool little stores to shop at. The CAT'S CRADLE is a legendary club that has been around for years and years. The band happy to learn the sound guy was a former crew member of the SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS! BOO YA! We did our sound check and then argued for an hour if the MCBC should shave his real mustache.. he was out voted 10 to one.... that he should keep the real one.. We visited a surplus store which was awesome, Ricky got a hair cut, Jimmy met a young lady who liked to dig through trash in public... and she dug away.... until the cops came and took here away.. I guess she was... 'off her rocker."

The Action Design and Koo Koo Kanga Roo were awesome as ever, check out these shots of Koo Koo Kanga Roo!


The SHOW was awesome.. we fought some crab people and really worked them ... with guitars and everything.. until chainsaw threw a giant piece of crab man claw and little too hard and broke Jimmy's saxophone... woops.. So with broken sax we carried on .... asking the kids to sing the horn parts.. which was awesome!

It was particularly awesome when we played LOBSTER BUCKET and CAPTAIN HAMPTON!! It was great fun. It was also fun seeing old friends and meeting new ones! WORD KIDS! We packed up like donkeys and headed back to the Hotel.. There we witnessed the LOS ANGELES LAKERS defeat the UTAH JAZZ on TV! I LOVE FOOTBALL!

Goodnight Homies..

DAY FIVE - MONDAY MAY 3RD - VIRGINIA BEACH!

We pulled into the parking lot of Ocean Front Hotel right on the.... Ocean front of Virginia Beach.

We all crashed in our beds and woke up to the soothing sounds of waves gently crashing on the soft sands of the Atlantic Ocean. The weather was really nice and we still still had a few hours before our show at the club here in VB. Ricky and the MCBC actually went jogging! Nate and Jimmy went to eat fresh fish at an amazing sea food restaurant. Eagle Bones and Chainsaw caught up on work. Bones with his school work and Chainsaw with his carpentry business. Crash went to the local YMCA to play basketball with the locals and Evan and Chris explored the local eateries with much gusto. Before we went to load in our equipment at 2-ish.. some of us decided to go cool off in the ocean.... it was freezing cold so that didnt last very long.

We loaded in our stuff after 2:30pm at the club called THE JEWISH MOTHER right in the heart of Virginia Beach. This legendary club has been doing all kinds of shows for years and years and is quite the hot spot in Virginia. Our first impression was that it was a tiny club with a tiny stage but as we got to know the people at the club and the cool sound guy named Peter, we were assured that it was going to be a fun show.

Soundcheck lasted about an hour and after sound check we were given a menu to THE JEWISH MOTHER's delicious looking kitchen treats. We were all super stoked on the food. It was awesome! Highly recommend going there if you get a chance or are ever in Virginia Beach. The food was all fresh and really tasty. From amazing soft shell crab to the burgers to the GIANT DAD'S DAGWOOD sandwich that has 5 pounds of meat AND 3 pounds of cheese. If you can eat it in an hour, you get it for free and your picture on the wall. Only three people have done it in the history of the place. Sounds like a MAN vs. FOOD episode challenge. At any rate, we were really stoked on the food, staff and overall radness of the JEWISH MOTHER, VB YO!

At 8:30 KOO KOO KANGAROO hit the stage and immediately got everyone out on the dance floor to do the most ridiculous dance moves ever invented. It seemed like everyone was ready to have a great time and by the end of the set, people were laughing and dancing along ready for a fun night.

THE ACTION DESIGN came on stage and played awesome. It was great to see the contagious fun energy really transfer back and forth between the stage and the crowd to get everyone up dancing and having fun. The Action Design really killed it!

We were next and before we set up the MCBC realized he had left his ipod and the intro music in his hotel room. The club was too small to do the video screens etc. so the MCBC took off on a jog to the hotel that was 5 blocks away! He made it back just in time, the other bats were done getting ready and everything! Playing a show at a smaller club is always fun. The crowd and the band and right there in each others face and everyone is going crazy. And tonight was no exception, it was pandemonium from the first song! It was a fun... albeit sloppy set from the band of hungry heroes. Old classics like CD repo man and Tarantula.. a cover of DEVO's Snowball and the Descendents' Suburban HOME as well as a bunch off songs of CHARGE. It was a wild punk rock dancin' night. We brought a young newbie fan up on stage to dance with MR. LOBSTER... A local lobster pulled out of the sea to dance and sing the all time classic LOBSTER BUCKET! It seemed to be a hit.. at least with MR. LOBSTER.. I guess the young fan was allergic to shellfish.. whoops.. How could we know?



Anyway the show ended and we got to hang with some great fans .. old school and new school. It seems a lot of VA friends had been waiting 10 years for us to return! WOW! I cant believe it had been 10 years since we'd played there. You wouldn't even have know it was a Monday night either, there were so many kids there! It was awesome!

Most of us walked back to the hotel, rather than helping Nate, Evan and Chris load the van... sorry dudes.. we are lame...
Some guys went out for some late night dinner and dancin.. but most went back to shower up and snooze.

GREAT NIGHT! VB! WE SHALL RETURN!

DAY FOUR - SUNDAY MAY 2ND - TRAVEL DAY - OH THE JOY!

We all awoke a little groggy and fell on the floor of our hotel rooms at the same time. It was really weird. Crash, MCBC, Bones and Nate headed off to Sunday morning worship service to give thanks and show respect to the creator. The rest of us had a grappling match and practiced the new East Coast Hardcore 'Dancin' styles ... until Ricky Fitness accidently back hand punched Chris P. in the throat. He has two adam's apples now. Poor guys.

After the church crew came back, we all piled into the van and began the long journey to Virginia Beach. We got lost a couple of times. And then found our way to an Applebee's somewhere in Delaware. We watched the LOS ANGELES LAKERS swat the Utah Jazz down ....again... which warmed our hearts as we ate a late lunch of Applebee's finest food and drink. Oh the Thrill!
After .. a long time.. of getting lost we made our way to a beach side hotel in beautiful Virginia Beach. Tomorrow Morning.. family surfing .. east coast style..
WHAT UP VIRGINIA!!

(Sidenote: At tomorrow's show, whoever shows up first wearing a bunny costume gets two free tickets. Any other bunnies will receive a free sticker!)

DAY THREE - SATURDAY MAY 1st - BAMBOOZLED!

Mayday! Mayday! Its Saturday and its the first of May. This officially makes it MAYDAY! What is Mayday? Why do we Celebrate it? I am going to do some research!!.....

...someday.

At any rate, we woke up this morning and got all ready to go to the big show! Bamboozle! WOO HOO! This is going to be the best rock show in the parking lot of a major sports venue we've played in YEARS! We hailed a cab and all six of us (remember Chainsaw is hanging with the bros) piled into a van. We told the driver to take us all the way! yo BAMBOOZLE! WHAT! WHAT! Anyway, he told us he couldn't take us all the way in .... as soon as he noticed the traffic lined up to get into the venue. It was a little suspicious but we swallowed our pride as he dropped us off about a mile and half away from the artist's entrance... It was good because we all got a chance to acclimate to the warmer New Jersey weather .. and we were all sweating by the time we finally made it to the artist entrance.. so that was cool. Luckily Tour Manager Nate showed up to the entrance driving a family sized golf cart and was able to shuttle us into our... patch of asphalt that had been reserved for us just next to Paramore's luxury pop up tent. But it was pretty rad we were slotted to play the main stage! .. At a major festival?? the Main stage? the Aquabats? Must've been a mistake.. but we'll take it what ever it was. There were no dressing rooms due to the fact that they used to use the locker rooms at Giants stadium but .. they are tearing it down and it is all condemned etc.. So we got everything ready right there in the midst of backstage rock and roll ....'awesomeness' Chris P and Evan were in full effect getting stuff right and Brian and Neil from KOO KOO Kangaroo came to help too.. Our buddy Tragedy Jake was there too, he drove his motorcycle there and then it dawned on us.. the MCBC should ride Jake's motorcycle on stage!?!? YES! Great idea.. he could drive onto the stage and then rev the engine.. kick down the kickstand and then do a backflip off the bike seat! PERFECT! It was all set... until the greasy dudes backstage told us .. 'THAT AINT GONNA HAPPEN BUDDY!" Oh well.. So we found a sombrero full of candy backstage and threw it into the crowd.. which was probably.. just as good...

...I guess.

3pm- We came out on fire and the heat from our rock jets turned blue after a few scorching numbers!! It was also pretty hot, as the main stage at mid day was facing directly into the burning sun. It was pure joy.. sunshine and gold! Anyway, the set wasn't too bad. WE love the East Coast kids 'cuz they keep it real! Fo Real! The MCBC even grew a real moustache!! Fo REELZ! We had a great time. Eagle Bones showed up we had two amazing guitar warriors on hand to shred the invaders with rock-someness. We even played Suburban Home from the Descendents and noticed that only 10 kids new the song.. 10 out of like 5000 kids in front of the main stage. Weird. I guess its weird old dude music now.

After we played we got to say hi to some friends and even catch some of Hanson's set.. They didn't play MMM Bop.. so we were ....MMM bummed. We also got to catch some 'new school' bands and .. let me tell you.. yeah. Against Me played a pretty rad set but Bullet for My Valentine played and had a wall of 24 guitar speaker cabinets.. four speakers to a cabinet.. so 7000 speakers total ..... and that was the most entertaining thing about their set... Doing math on their stage. Then this hardcore band played and like all these angry tough looking sad clown people started flailing and freaking out in the pit.. it looked like they were fighting,,, but they weren't .. Evan told us they were 'dancin'. I have seen 'dancin' before but these guys were.. freaking me out.. large adult dudes.. flailing their arms like they were on fire at defenseless humans trying to get out of their way...It makes you think that DEVO-lution.. must be real after all.. Then even weirder we watched a few songs from Angels and Airwaves... until the singer guy said they were the 'best kept secret' (on a major label) of the festival and that "they wrote this next song to change the world" and then i think they played a U2 song... it was strange days indeed... we ran for van!

We escaped just in time.. Chainsaw and Ricky Fitness didn't make it over the fence and were forced to hang out with KOO KOO KANGROO. They were super stoked to see the FAR EAST MOVEMENT because they rocked... Ricky even caught a tee shirt... well.. ripped one away from several screaming teenage girls.....

...and then finally... they too escaped the clutches of the Bamboozle.

After a full day of hot sun and crunchy new school cookie monster hard core we were pooped. So, we all regrouped and caught a cab into Manhattan for a night of celelbration! A bunch of us went out to Anthony Bourdain's restaurant LES HALLES on Park Ave. We all sampled each others French food in American Portion sizes. We all enjoyed being alive! HOORAY FOR FOIE GRAS!! It was awesome. A toast to the East Coast. GOOD NIGHT NOW!

DAY TWO - APRIL 30th - HANG OUT DAY in NEW YORK CITY

We got up to what felt like an early van call of 8:30am.. ..and of course most of us sat in the van and waited while for a couple of routine laggers who shall go unnamed...

We wanted to get out on the road early because we had a day off... (due to the BAMBOOZLE rule that we couldnt book another show within 10 days of the 'Bamboozle").

We drove and listened to 'Plastic Beach' for a while and then switched the MCBC's ipod to shuffle.. what a weirdo.. vintage children's music, prog rock, classical, western soundtrack music, punk, iraqi pop music and 70's electro dance... this man has some weird music up in his pod.

After sitting in traffic on the George Washington bridge for what seemed like HOURS! We finally made our way to the hotel in beautiful SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY! Just across the river from Manhattan.. we checked in and scattered into the city..of .. apples or something like that! Most of us went and had lunch with our old pal Mike. Then we went and met up with our old pal Jake Szufnarowski! Jake is the man about town and whenever we are in NYC he takes us around and shows us a good time.

He got us all tickets to the Yankee game so we all went down to the BRONX and watched the Yankees destroy the White Sox together! it was pretty awesome. The new stadium is cool! The Yankess scored a bunch of touchdowns and won.. or something..! Go NEW YORK! We felt like... super cool .. after that. We took a train back to times square and said our good byes to Jake, even though we knew we would see him tomorrow and the BAMBOOZLE! Anyway, we then headed over to John's Pizzeria to eat and watch the LAKERS! The Lakers hit a bunch of home runs at the last second or something and won the championship of the universe! SPORTS IS COOLEST!

Back to Penn station and back to Secaucus for sleep .. tomorrow BAMBOOZLE!

DAY ONE - APRIL 29th, 2010 - HIT THE ROAD to PROVIDENCE!

We gathered our forces together last night at about 7:30pm. We all met at the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California and like the Duke himself prepared ourselves for an arduous journey across an unknown frontier! As we got on a plane, we realized that once the plane took off.. there was no getting off... the easy way...this was going to be.. gnarly. The flight left at 9:30 pm PST and landed in Newark, New Jersey at 4:45am EST. We sleepily stumbled off the plane to make our way to the next gate to catch our plane to Providence, Rhode Island. Once we had located our gate, we realized the plane had been delayed and wasn't leaving until 7:50am..so we had three and a half hours to ...bleed out of our eyes! We waited.. and when we finally got on the little plane, we were all to tired to breathe... many of us, fell in and out of consciousness as the prop plane began to sputter and whirrr into take off.

We finally landed in Providence, RI at about 9:20am EST and collected our things, eagerly awaiting the taxi ride to a nearby hotel and... a bed.

We checked into the fancy but amazingly inexpensive ($85 bucks a night!) Biltmore hotel in downtown Providence, a landmark hotel in the city. We were impressed immediately by the classy historical vibe but once we got into the rooms.... WOW .. WE have all stayed in Hotels all over the world but this hotel is a front runner for most comfy beds ... in the WORLD! It could have been a combination of not sleeping all night and the loss of blood (out of our eyes) but I am pretty sure none of us have slept in a more comfortable hotel room bed.. ever... OH BOY! I cant wait to go back.. and SLEEP!

We got up after a few hours of straight sleep trippin' and headed over to the club just a few blocks away. We met up with Chris P. and Evan S. our crew chiefs who had left Orange County, CA on Monday to drive all of our gear.. and the van.... across the entire USA in a few days.... I guess on long night of flying isnt as bad as we thought.. those dudes looked HAMMERED!

LUPOS is the name of this old school theatre/club in the heart of the city. It's a pretty cool old theatre and seems pretty historical in its own right. We did sound check and realized ..maybe the sound system was pretty old too... Love the club, love the staff .. the speakers.. need to be replaced.. NO matter.. we knew what had to be done.. speakers or no speakers.. we needed to rock!

Local act LEMON came out and danced the night away to the SKA and rock music that made kids dance in the mid 90's ..somewhere in time. they were all pretty young dudes but knew how to play really well and look like they were .. most importantly .. having fun. Speaking of having fun.. next up.. from Minneapolis... was a two man tour de force.. called ... KOO KOO KANGAROO.
It is hard to explain these dudes and what they do .. but .. here is a you tube video to see what they are like..

We first met this ..uh.. dynamic duo on tour last time and we asked them to come out and play some more shows with us! Some people might be scared of this .. but... WE LOVE IT! HA! It's so ... dorky! It's perfect! The crowd seemed to love it too! Good job, you dudes!

Then the ACTION DESIGN played some great songs and got the crowd nice and foamy. the ACTION DESIGN are a great band and good friends too.

Next up.. THE AQUABATS! We played some old songs and some new song and some songs we didnt write... !! It was going great until we got attacked by these crab like sentai dudes.. it was lame .. until we beat them up!! HOORAY FOR PEACE...THROUGH VIOLENCE!

It was a fun show! Muffled sound..but a fun show.. Eagle Bones was missing in action.. but we brought out the CHAINSAW to do some heavy cutting. I think Eagle Bones will be back soon though... but the CHAINSAW came through and cut down some...songs...?

We saw our friends Kimmy and friends from Boston who made the trek! Kimmy's pal Amber was dressed up like the hamburgler! With a magic marker mask! Wow!

We had to load out or equipment fast because... as it happens quite often... the club was booked for a 'DANCE club" to begin at 11pm... It looked like the Jersey shore bus unloaded a bunch of spray tan, hair spray muscle people into the club at the precise time of 11pm. We fled!

Back to the Hotel and to the greatest bed ever.. good night now!

Tour Video!

Hey Kids! While we were on our awesome tour with Yo Gabba Gabba, BONES was able to take some behind the scenes video footage with his little digital camera and edit it all together. Hope you enjoy a little sneak peek into one of our most magical journeys on the road yet!

St. Louis!

Hey Kids! We have been so busy working on our new record since we got home that we almost forgot to write about our final stop on the tour...the gateway to the west...and hometown of DJ Lance Rock...ST LOUIS! So we arrived at the amazing FOX Theatre just an hour before showtime.

When we got a chance to wander around backstage we saw signatures and artwork from some of the amazing shows and bands that have passed through this historic theatre...like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera....Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, and 38 Special!

After rocking the first Yo Gabba Gabba set, Ricky, Jimmy and Bones went and ate some great burgers across the street at "The Best Steak House". That was its real name, and it lived up to it! During the second performance, emotions ran high, as everone was sad this was our last show of the tour. DJ Lance Rock even expressed his love for St. Louis and some of the amazing talent it has produced (like Michael McDonald ). After rocking our final Yo Gabba Gabba performance that afternoon, Jimmy and Bones fell into a food coma backstage. Eventually we made our way over to the Firebird for our last club show with Mustard Plug...so sad. We were cheered up when we saw the club was packed and the kids were going crazy. Three young fans did their first stage dives ever that night when we broke into spurts of old punk classics from Minor Threat and Black Flag.

The best part is we finally made Tim Shaw laugh. He made good on his promise and before we knew what was happening, he did a New York Hardcore style front flip stage dive into the crowd during the song "Pool Party". The crowd seemed to take this as a cue to go even crazier! Bodies were flying everywhere and before we knew it kids were all over the stage. We went straight into our final song "Awesome Forces" with what looked like a mini-riot happening onstage! Wow...Hardcore! What a great end to an amazing tour. Thanks St. Louis! (Read a review here )We said a long and sad farewell to our good friends in Mustard Plug and three short hours later were on a flight home.

Cincinnati/Covington!

Late last night we pulled into a parking lot down the street from the venue for the Yo Gabba live show. Yo Gabba Gabba was going on at the ARONOFF theatre in downtown Cincinnati. We all slept but the MCBC had to get up at 6am to do an interview on a local news station about the Yo Gabba shows and the fact that he was a creator of the show. He stumbled back into the bus at 9am and crashed until it was time to get up for the first show. The first show was at 2pm and went off as usual but there were a few technical problems.. DJ LANCE's mic wasn't working at first and Crash's mic somehow wound up in his hands while he was trying to play the bass! Weird!

After the first show it was great to meet some fans of the Aquabats and the YGG thing! Ricky went off to find some drum sticks at guitar center and Eagle Bones and Jimmy the Robot went to a museum downtown that had some 'art' in it. Some guy who does photo shop treatments of other peoples' photos and art...some guy named Sheppard Fairy. He is starting some kind of revolution or something.

ANYWAY!! We got back to the Aronoff center for the second show and did our thing.. then the tour manager for YGG, Mike pulled us into the hall and said, "keep those costumes on boys, I want you to meet someone." He took us to a little room and there before our eyes in all of his funkadelic majesty was the rock and roll hall of fame legend...
BOOTSY COLLINS!!

I guess Bootsy had asked to come down and check out the show because his grandson was a fan and then Tour Manager Mike asked him if he would do the Dancey Dance segment in the live show!! WOW!! Maybe some of you don't understand how AMAZING Bootsy Collins is but check out his Wikipedia page.. it will blow you away. This man played bass and came up with Bass lines for James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic and so much more! The man is a living legend. DJ LANCE ROCK came in and was blown away. I guess DJ LANCE's first concert was going to see Bootsy's Rubber Band as a boy and being blown away. DJ LANCE is a huge fan and it's safe to say without BOOTSY there would be no DJ LANCE ROCK! We all took pics together and slapped high fives.. BOOTSY was so kind and gracious to a bunch of music nerds geeking out all over him!
THe BIZ showed up for some pics too! DJ LANCE, BIZ MARKIE, BOOTSY COLLINS and DJ COOL V.. and the Aquabats.. ?? NOW THAT"S FUNKY! It was an amazing moment in the history of music! HA!

Anyway, BOOTSY came out and taught the kids how to do the peanut butter stomp! The best part was when he said to the kids, "NOW! Squish it baayybee!" It was amazing!

We met some Aquabat fans at the show too! Some friends that had come without kids and some with! We chatted and told them we would see them later on that night at the MAD HATTER club across the river in KENTUCKY!!

Later we drove over to the Mad Hatter club not too far away.. but technically in Kentucky. We met up with MUSTARD PLUG and we had a show!! We also had a contest where if you made a shirt with stage manager Tim Shaw on it you could get into the show for free! One of the girls that was at the Yo Gabba show earlier in the day had a home made "DEMOLITION ...TIM SHAW" Shirt on!

She won! And got into the show for free! Now, Tim didnt know we were doing this until we pulled the girl up on stage and announced her as the winner! HA! THIS IS TIM'S REACTION!!

HA! it was really funny!! ..mmm I guess you had to be there.

ANYWAY!!! The show was a sweaty, loud, raucous, crazy good time! We all had a fun time singing stupid songs and being sweaty nerds! The kids were great! We can't wait to come back...even if the club smelled like pee!

GOOD NIGHT!! Tomorrow St. LOUIS!!

Fort Wayne!

Last night we left DETROIT with spirits high and drove through the night to FORT WAYNE, INDIANA. It wasnt a very long drive but we were able to get some sleep before our 11 o'clock am show at the EMBASSY Theatre. Now, when we say show we really mean we go out on stage at one point in the show and play one song... That one song is Pool Party. So, there is a lot of hustle and hassle that goes into us just coming out for one song. It's a great opportunity though and we are really grateful that we have a chance to be there at all these shows. The Yo Gabba LIVE show is pretty amazing. To think it was just a dream a few few years ago and now its touching so many families lives across the world... is pretty amazing in itself.

Anyway we played the one song and then everyone split up to explore beautiful FORT WAYNE! Stage Manager TIM found a really cool antique store and said we should all go back after the second show. Chris Partida found a thrift store and came back with a nice flannel shirt... that smelled like old people...mmmm. Chad and Jimmy even found an awesome old burger shop called POWERS BURGERS!! The onion-burger smell sure was powerful..

Anyway, we played the second show where Nate and Tim talked the MCBC into doing a sketchy backflip off of the speaker cabinet.. The MCBC was a little freaked out about it and vowed to never do backflips again.. at the Yo Gabba shows...for now. HA. The show went good and fun was had all around. Later in the show BIZ Markie came out to do the Beat of the day. One little girl complained to biz.. 'you just spit on me!" There was laughter! ha! NOBODY BEATS THE BIZ!

Later, after the show and after we'd all changed etc. Tim Shaw led the expedition to the Antique store with many treasures... The MCBC found a really great FEZ for 10 bucks... he also found a 60's BATMAN mask, a Pillsbury Doughboy Doll and a Crackle toy from Rice Krispies! Chris Partida scored a strange bearded tiki man head from FIJI and a wolfman ring and Eagle Bones nabbed this set of vintage 50's tarot cards... SPOOKY! Tim Shaw decided not to buy any thing after all and we left with treasures in hand!!

Back at the bus Hurricane was getting the bus ready for the drive to Ohio. We all quickly took turns taking showers at the hotel and jumped back on the bus just in time! We saw a large woman on a vespa driving down the highway and then we stopped at a SUBWAY to use the toilet. No number two's on the bus. Its the law of Rock and Roll.

See you tomorrow.

Detroit!

After enduring a night of riots and revelry, we awoke on the curbside of the legendary club ... ST. ANDREWS! Seeing how last night was ST. PATRICK'S, we knew there may be a spiritual connection to tonight's show. It also made sense that our bus didnt get burned down during the night.. the Saints were hard at work protecting us from harm!

The day was rather uneventful other than dodging pan handlers and ducking from sketchy dudes. Jimmy the Robot has been reading the Walking Dead comic books (by Robert Kirkman) and felt like Detroit would be a great place to film the movie adaptation of the comic series. The MCBC went on a search for SUBWAY because he is on the Jared diet now... "whatever it takes"

As sound check finished and show time grew near.. we knew something special was going to happen...then as we all looked out the window we saw two parking attendants across the street start fighting with each other!! It was awesome! They were using the little orange parking flags to beat each other silly... We figured they had both been scheduled on the same day to work even though only one was supposed to be there.... there was blood.. over a parking job.. Hey at least they loved their jobs enough to fight for it!

The club explained there would be no 'hospitality' tonight because ticket sales were low... so we got no water and free chips... we couldn't understand it.. MUSTARD PLUG and THE AQUABATS in DETROIT... it seemed like there would be some thing special to that...but... as we prepared for the worst...

Then suddenly ... kids started to line up .. the line went around the block!! Hallelujah!! The Luck of the Irish held strong!! Hooray! the club swiftly filled up!! WOW! It was great!

Also! Miraculously! Some guy with an acoustic guitar was singing songs of praise and joy to the kids in line! It was so cute! I wanted to cuddle him and give him marshmellow peeps! He was so cute out there on the sidewalk singing ska anthems of positive joy!! Too bad he wasn't on the bill. He seemed like such a nice guy though, I'm sure he will make friends and get lots of shows in the future! Good luck buddy! Whoever you are!

At any rate! MUSTARD PLUG was awesome as always! They even do a cover of FUGAZI's classic WAITING ROOM! We really love playing shows with those guys.. they are super cool and really good guys.

THE SHOW WAS GREAT! The Detroit/Michigan fans were super great! Dancing, Singing along, Stage diving.. and pretty much going nuts.. They were even forgiving of a less than 100% MCBC who's voice was at the edge of disaster. The time sprinkler was even there and we destroyed him quickly!

The fans were great! And we even got to help some little fans do some stage dives...whoops!

After the show, we were able to meet a bunch of new fans and friends... give hugs and really had a 'spiritual' moment hangning with everyone. We even hung out with our old friends Rebekah and family! What a fun night! Things were so awesome.. St' Andrews even bought us two large pies from PIZZA PAPALIS! The best pizza ever (in Detroit)!! It was such a great night we were blessed for coming to Detroit! Bless you, Michigan, bless you.

There was a dance party on the bus to celebrate our blessings!

...ON TO FORT WAYNE!

Toronto! - St. Patrick's Day!

The next morning we awoke to the sounds of Canadian Leprechauns singing hymns and praising the shamrock shake. Yes, kids, it was St. Patricks Day in Toronto... ok well.. I guess it was St. Patrick's Day all over the world...

We hustled to get ready for a big day full of song and dance and green. We played the first Yo Gabba show with unusual flair. Nothing seemed to go wrong.. and the bass rig.. seemed to be working consistently ... Yes... the saints preserved us on this the lucky day for the irish. We walked around Toronto after the first show and realized that it was also SPRING BREAK!! What a great idea. To combine St Patrick's Day and SPRING BREAK!! There was going to be a lot of vomit to clean up after this day. Eagle Bones and the MCBC walked around the mall downtown close to the ELGIN theatre but the MCBC kept getting strange looks from people for his 'unique' mustache... He was crushed .. he could have sworn that Canada was way more open minded...

Anyway, after lunch we once again took the stage to the sell out crowd at the ELGIN for the second Yo Gabba Gabba show of the day! It was amazing.. the Yo Gabba Gabba live show is pretty incredible....just saying. Y'all should sneak in and check it out.

After the shows.. we didn't have a club show .. so we knew ... it was time to PARTY.. SPRING BREAK!!! ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! TORONTO!!! This was shaping up to be the mother of all party nights.. we even ordered a cake.... and then.. the roof caved in..
Our bus driver .. 'Hurricane" decided... we needed to leave early for Detroit.... WHAT?!?!
We left Toronto a 6pm!!! THE SUN HADNT EVEN SET!!! WHAT ?!!? WHY?!?!
We went through the border and were boarded by some customs officials who thought we were one of those bands that have contraband.. WRONG!!
We did have a half drunk Shamrock Shake from McDonalds.. but.. that doesn't really count...

We got through the border and headed into downtown DETROIT... it was 9pm... or 10 ish...
Most of the group was determined to celebrate the holidays but .. unfortunately we lost SPRING BREAK as we crossed the border....

Anyway, as most of the guys left to 'explore' the concrete jungles of Detroit... Stage Manager TIM and the MCBC hung back to chill out... WHEN.... not even 30 seconds later.. someone tried to jimmy his way onto the bus... to presumably .. jack stuff.... WOW!! WE WERE BACK IN DETROIT!!

It finally hit us.. we wouldn't want to be anywhere else than in the city of broken glass... ..DETROIT BABY!!