Suburban Home Records

So we not only survived out trip to Salt Lake City, but we had an absolute blast. Only Thunder were kind enough to let me travel with them and to allow us to pick up a bunch of crap from IKEA for our new offices. Here is a quick recap:

• A 30 pack of PBR on our way to Grand Junction and the Vinyl Collective beer cozies, I guess you can say we tested them out to make sure they did in fact keep beer cold.
• We collectively made an on the go playlist on Justin’s IPOD which included Portugal the Man, Small Brown Bike, Paula Abdul, Minus the Bear, Shellac, Michael Jackson, The Playing Favorites, Jawbreaker, and much much more.
• Our good friends at No Coast Sushi took care of Ghost Buffalo and myself and at one point, all of the Sushi Chef’s took me back into their freezer to shotgun a PBR. Man, I hadn’t shotgunned a beer in so long.
• Both Only Thunder and Ghost Buffalo rocked it, but unfortunately, the attendance was pretty small. I told Ghost Buffalo that I would dance on stage if they played “Bones”. Right when they started playing the song, I got up and did my Elaine dance from Seinfeld.
• After the the show, the venue had a DJ afterparty where we all rocked it. The moment the DJ played “Ace of Spades”, we were singing along wielding our air guitars and rocking out. So much fun.
• On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by a gas station where the Beef Jerkey was calling my name.
• Went to a kick ass breakfast buffet in the morning before heading out to Salt Lake.
• Made it to Burt’s Tiki Lounge where they were having a BBQ so we rocked burgers, pasta salad, dogs, and more.
• Started drinking 3.2 beer and 1 ounce shots at Burt’s which is what bars in SLC have to serve. Our crew drank them out of all their PBR and even though we drank over a hundred beers between our crew, none of us got drunk.
• Only Thunder rocked it and few of the guys from Gaslight Anthem said they absolutely dug their set.
• Hung out with the Gaslight Anthem dudes who are all super rad. They were not stoked to drive for 24 hours straight after their set to make it to their next show.
• The Gaslight Anthem totally rocked out. Check out a few of Geoff’s videos he took of their set. I highly recommend this one in particular.
• Spoke to the Gaslight dudes about the album they just recorded, they are stoked!
• Said our goodbyes to Burt’s Tiki Lounge which included the promoter and Geoff talking shit to each other (jokingly, but I did not know that at first). The promoter compared Only Thunder to Quicksand and Far, they were stoked.
• Woke up early the next morning, went to IKEA, got our shit, ate some Swedish Meatballs, and hit the road. It was a long drive, but we made it home.
• Geoff farted for 10 hours straight, NOT COOL!
• Pedro at one point grabbed a blanket which happen to have battery acid on it. He was using it as a pillow and after a few minutes, he felt his skin burning. He asked Justin what was on the blanket which Justin answered, “Battery Acid”. Pedro’s skin not only got red, but he started having blisters. I called Poison Control who instructed us to clean the area and to find a shower so he could clean the area further.
• We made the questionable judgement call to get Thai food in the small town of Rawlins, Wyoming, and it was fantastic.
• Made it back to the office, unloaded the furniture, and went home.

The trip was an absolute blast, I miss touring with bands. Make sure you visit Geoff’s blog where he posted a ton of photos from the trip. There are links to each of his posts by day, there are so many great photos.