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..