First blog. Kablamski. We made it. That's what I have to say. We. Made. It!! Being that this is the first blog entry that I'm writing why don't we start it where all good stories begin, the top.
It was the day after Christmas and all through the house,
Not a tractor was running, not even a plow...
Wrong story.
I was in Hampton, VA the day after Christmas with my amazing folks and one helluva little brother. The plan was that TJ and Kinnie would drive down from NYC, in Purple Reign (our van), to pick me up. You know, meet the folks, make some face time and convince them that we weren't crazy for doing this. There was even going to be a homemade meal of food in it! Snap! Mother Nature, the mother of us all, decided that just should not be the plan. Snow for the city and snow for the bay. Lots of snow. I did get an extra day at home though, which is never a bad thing. The script changed and we adapted...
Back to the city I went, where I had many more loose ends to tie up than I thought (thank you Mother Nature). Well, I will tell you this, we crossed all our t's and dotted all of our lower case j's. Purple Reign went into the shop and got the loving she deserved, my apartment got the cleaning and proper packing up it deserved, Killian (my cat) got one more night of parental affection and our friends got one more chance to drink with us (lucky them).
3:30am. We got in our van and went to the space to pack up our dreams and get the hell our of dodge. 4-5 foot snow drifts on every curb made it an extra special experience for us three early risers, but we succeeded. Dad, I don't know if you'd be especially proud of that packing job (he's the king of packing the trunk), but it made due until our first chance to do it right. That first chance happened to be Mustang, OK. Like champions of old we mowed through the day and night for 28 straight hours. In case you're wondering why I chose "mowed" to describe our forward motion I will tell you. We've got a little leak in the muffler, so PR (Purple Reign) likes to give us a little talking to. You know, let us know she's still with us.
During that 28 hour blast from the future to the past we met up with Mr. Aaron LaVigne (download Aaron Lavigne & The Downtown Crowd immediately!) and had some Chipotle and a jam fest. It was the first of many and you can give it a look and a listen at http://www.youtube.com/yesteamgo.
We made it to The Moss Ranch in Mustang, OK in one piece. We were fed, showered and cared for 5 days. It was our artists retreat. We recouped, rested and prepared ourselves for the second push. We played some new tunes together and recorded the first of many live tracks (engineered by Stan "the man" Moss and Son). You can download your free copy of The Changing at http://www.reverbnation.com/jonathanwalsh.
By Monday evening the itch to get to Cali was unbearable, so after a Mexican Fiesta prepared by Mama Moss we took off. Again we put PR through another 28 hour run across the country. I didn't think that I'd ever say this, but both of these big drives FLEW by. Did we have a three person rotation? Yes, but we still logged those hours on our bodies and it didn't leave a mark.
We stopped for one off the road excursion and that was to see The Mystery Castle. It was a castle built in the desert by a man, that the guide called 'The Builder', who had TB and moved to Arizona for dry climate. How do I describe it? Eccentric. Just like me. For more info on this crazy little place check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Castle.
After a little picnic we got back in the car to mow on out to San Diego, as we had two open mics we wanted to play that night. We were rolling in and we were doing it REAL hot! We came to find out that maybe were rolling in too hot. Right outside of the CA state line we got out of the car to take a band pic and stretch the ol' building blocks. We got back in the car and as we pulled back onto the road I noticed that I was struggling with the wheel. Had my strength been sapped by another 28 hour drive? Was I giving up? Was PR giving up? Holy busted power steering belt Batman it felt like I was wrestling with a bear. The car started to over heat and we were forced to pull over 50 feet past the state line. We three builders looked under the hood of that '98 Dodge Ram with good intentions, but that was about it. Me? Not an auto-mechanic. That is for sure.
We ended up getting to a gas station, calling AAA and being towed 50 miles to El Centro where we had a slumber party in the van outside the repair shop. Slumber party essentials: Jack In The Box, Yellowtail, great people and The Big Lebowski (laptop style). We got up the next morning cleaned and dressed PR's wounds and spent the day making moves in El Centro.
We rolled in hot around 7pm to our hosts, Art and Janice, house in San Diego, CA. They had made us stuffed mushrooms (as an appetizer), tossed salad, homemade mac and cheese followed by homemade brownies and coffee for desert. The kindness of strangers. Out of control. Art joined us as we made our way out the door to go to our first open mic because he was a photographer and wanted to shoot us (can it get any more awesome?!?).
The Tipsy Crow was to be our first site of destruction, but they had fed us some homemade fibs. Everything from the open mic calendar to their answering machine confirmed that there was an open mic there every Wednesday. Lies. All lies. I'll tell you one thing that was true though. Every review complained about the bouncers and barkeeps being douche-tastic. True.
We turned the beat around, got back in the car and headed to another, which had been going on for a couple hours, but we were determined. We got to South Park Abbey and were the last ones to sign up on the list and were the last ones to close the bar. By the end all we had were some stragglers and a few new friends, but what'd we do? We accomplished anyway. We killed it and were offered a gig for tomorrow night (Friday, January 7th), pending managerial approval. We also made a couple new contacts and leads on potential gigs.
Tonight we hit Rebecca's Coffee House and see what kind of noise we can make there...
Thank you to all who are supporting our dream along with us. Thank you TJ and Kinnie for inviting me on this journey. Thank you mom and dad for giving, giving, giving. I'd never have made it this far without you. Thank you Patrick for being my best friend and the best little brother period. Life wouldn't be the adventure that it's been so far without you. Thank you to The Triad for being my best friends and always having amazing listening ears. Thank you to my Ellen's Stardust Diner family. I miss your voices, talent and friendship. Thank you NYC for making me battle ready. Thank you life.
Now, go build your dreams.
Yes Team, GO!
Jo-Seph
http://www.reverbnation.com/jonathanwalsh
http://www.youtube.com/yesteamgo
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