fucked the dog part 2

for the next 4 days, alex and Q drove us around, introduced us to all their friends, and basically just showed us a good time....if they were at work, the 3 of us would just go to the dollar theatre and watch a movie, or hang out in jack in the box for hours drinking water and surfing the internet on my laptop....

finally, Lopez, the owner of the transmission shop called us and told us the terminator was fixed....it cost 1300 bucks....we tried giving them 1000 and my guitar, but he said my guitar was ugly and he didnt want it...haha. oh well, it was worth a shot...

the next day was the last show of the mexico portion of the tour....it was in.......

Piedras Negras, MX

we drove down to mexico, just the 3 of us...the dudes in the red alert were going to come along, but they ended up having to work......the directions we got to the show were completely impossible to understand. they were all in spanish...we had a street name...thats it...no adress, just a street name....so we get to the border, go through all the checking of bags, trailer, blah blah blah......and we asked the border agents how to get to the street that we were looking for....we showed them the directions we had.......did i mention they spoke no english???
SOMEHOW, between the 3 of us, we were able to understand the hand motions they were giving us while telling us directions in spanish, enough to make it to the show with suprisingly little trouble..... the show was definitely in this kids backyard on a residential street....so cool...

sergio (our fill in drummer) was there before us....then our best friend Luis showed up....it was so awesome getting to see him again....he had good news and bad news for us....the bad news was, gravemaker couldnt make it to this particular show for whatever reason....the good news was, he got thr promoter to gaurantee us 150 bucks for the show, AND even better news, that luis was coming to the next 2 shows with us...STOKED!!! oh yeah, and he gave me and matt his band shirts....

we set up merch and waited for the show to start....there was at least 100 kids there...everyone was REALLY nice...since it was so close to the border, there were a few kids that spoke perfect english......that made things a little easier...the opening band only played cover songs....it was pretty cool...they played songs from bands like The Clash, sex pistols, Ramones, rancid.....pretty sweet....then a bunch of metal bands, then us.......this was our first show and the beginning of our nightmare of playing shows with sergio on drums....fortunately, we played through horrible equipment and the kids didnt care how bad we sounded because, it was hella embarassing....... he definitely pulled the songs off way better in practice before the tour than he did at the show....it was still a great show though...the kids were great...there was a group of girls that stood in the front and screamed the whole time as if our band was the beatles or something....after the show, we sold tons of merch, signed lots of autographs, took lots of pictures....oh yeah, and one of the girls that was in the front screaming the whole time, didnt want to stop taking pcitures with us, and as her friend was taking one of the pictures, this girl DEFINITELY french kissed me....and she didnt speak ANY english what so ever.....aaaaahhhhhh, only in mexico

later we ate a bunch of good food at a little hole in the wall then made our way back to the states....we got to the border check at about 2 am....of course they checked our bags, trailers, blah blah blah, and they sent luis to the main office to get his passport checked since he isnt a US citizen....he came back to the van and he looked like he had just seen a ghost....they fucking denied him entry into the US!!!!!!!!!!! what the fuuuuuck?????? they said he was supposed to have a permission slip of sorts to leave mexico....basically they just wanted money....so what we did is, bought luis a bus ticket from nuevo laredo, to laredo texas....they didnt give him any trouble there...

this is where things started going downhill. we made it back to texas, we met up with the dudes in grave maker at the hotel room that they stayed at, met the 2 new girls they had with them (weird) and made our way to pick up luis. after we picked up luis, we went to the bank to get all the money that we put in sergio's bank account. i put in 500, matt put in 400 and eric put in 100. so, we were of course, expecting sergio to withdraw 1000 dollars and disperse it between the 3 of us accordingly. to my suprise, sergio came back from the teller and said to me, in his voice that sounds like a mix between an ewok and a dying alien, "hey, uuhhh, i might be a little short paying you guys back all your money, i had to buy some shit in mexico" of course, at this point my blood is boiling like crazy. i try to keep cool and tell him, "look dude, if we dont go back to the van with 1000 dollars cash, there is going to be a problem....the problem of course being, YOU STOLE MONEY FROM US!" and his response was, "well, what was i supposed to do? i had to buy shit in mexico and i didnt have any money..." - you are probably asking yourself, "is this guy for real?" sadly, the answer is yes.....yes he is....so i said, "ok, how much money do you have?" he said, "530 dollars, but i can get the rest of the money by tomorrow" so i told him it was cool if he just gave matt and eric their money back, and i will wait for mine for the next day. no biggie, right? so, shit for brains, calls his mom, she tells him that she transfered 500 doallrs into his bank account.

since my bank account closed, due to the whole mexico fiasco, and even if it wasnt closed, there were none of my banks in the area, i asked sergio if i could just use his debit card that was linked to the bank account that his mom deposited money into, to pay my cell phone and insurance payments. he said "no problem" so i get hs card from him, call verizon wireless to make my payment, and they said that the card i tried using was DENIED. what the fuuuuuuck??? so, then he had his mom give him her savings account # and routing # so i could pay my cell phone payment, via electronic check from their account. i made the payment, it went through, its all good. then instead of going through all that hassle again for the insurance payment, he just gave me the rest of my money in cash. i wish i could say that was the end of the story, but by the time we get to arcata, CA, its going to open wide up again and get much worse.

the laredo show was AMAZING. definitely one of the best shows of the tour. a ska/punk band played, some other good hardcore bands played...and our boys in the Red Alert KILLED IT. they were so fuckin awesome...definitely check that band out. oh yeah, and i sang a song for them. 7 seconds, young til i die. (thanks guys!) and bailey played bass for one of their songs while Q, the bassist of red alert sang. we had a really great set that night. the kids were awesome, shit for brains pulled all the songs off good for the most part, it was just really really great. of course, grave maker was amazing as usual. it was so awesome having our frined luis with us. he made the show so much more fun. we sold TONS of shirts and cds that night. i think the most of the whole tour actually.

afterward we went to taco palenque, ate until we got sick, then slept our asses off.

we drove to mcallen texas the next day. this was almost as small of a turn out as the lubbock texas show. the opening bands were interesting to say the least. one of the bands did a good hatebreed cover. now, we cut our set down to about 6 songs because sergio could handle most of the songs on drums. and for the mcallen show, we basically only got to play 4 of those songs, because all of a sudden, he forgot almost ALL of the songs. so, we played an embarrassing 4 song set, and i basically left the venue, wanting to kill sergio, then of course kill myself. somehow, we still got paid good money, and ate at taco plaenque again for the last time, then slept at the promoters house. early the next morning, matt and i went to mcdonalds to get some iced coffee (have you ever had iced coffee from the fast food tyrants? if you havent, and you arent vegan, and you dont mind giving money to big corporations, i suggest you try it. its fucking delicious. otherwise, its probably not for you) and we went to get haircuts after that...which i regreted big time, because for some reason, the lady ended up giving me a marine cut, and i just dealt with it, as opposed to having her shave the rest of it off. matts haircut was much more pleasing to the eyes. but then again, matt is just way more pleasing tho the eyes than i am in general.

the show that night was in corpus christi texas. very small turn out. the people that DID show up were all really cool. we got free pizza. we played with the band, The Golden Age. they ruled really fucking hard. sold a few shirts, made new friends. pretty good night.

after that, we made our way to forth worth, texas. the show was supposed to be in dallas, but for whatever reason, it got moved. the venue was really awesome. it reminded me of the che cafe, but with out a kitchen. they had lots of graffitti and political propaganda and zines and shit like that. they also had what they call, the "free store" basically people just donate clothes, games, whatever, and you can take whatever you want for free. i took a pair of jeans that i later found out didnt fit me. the show was GREAT. so much better than the night before. somehow, i managed to convince a bunch of kids to get naked and mosh for us in exchange for free t shirts. oh yeah, they also had a rope swing in the middle of the venue. and bleacher seating. both of which got utilized. the local band from that show that really stuck out was called, Decades. SUCH a good band. kind of like a mix btween modern life is war and the suicide file, but more punk. after the show, we all ate at the waffle house. and austin, the guitarist of decades, PAID FOR ALL OF US TO EAT!!! this was insane...who does that? honestly? what a great guy. that night, abunch of dudes decided to go to this stripclub in fort worth that is owned by vinnie paul of pantera. apparently you get in for free if you have a valid and current tour laminate. those of us that arent into strip clubs (including me) , stayed behind to sleep. i guess by the time they got there, it was closed for the night anyways.

after parting ways with our new friends in Decades, we went to Altus, Oklamhoma. this show was really cool. the venue was in the basement of a comuntiy center that they called, the blue room. because all the walls were painted blue. AAAAAAAND the room was air conditioned!!! so awesome. this place was chud city...in a really good way. everyone was really nice. LOTS of cradle of filth t shirts, thick black eye make up, really big ball chain necklaces, etc. oh yeah and one kid had straight up, real vampire teeth...nutz! it was an awesome show. we had tons of fun..although, i cant say we played very well. it was still a good night. we stayed at one of the othe bands house. i cant remmeber the name of the dudes, or the band. and i feel like a dick for it cause they were great people and a great band. oh well. i woke up the next morning, somehow cuddling with john (i wasnt complaining. he is a hot dude) me, matt and eric went for a walk to check out the town. it was really cool. its like the town was in a time warp and stuck in the 1950's. or at least it looked like the 1950's as portrayed in movies. then we drove to witchita, Kansas.