fucked the dog - finale....uuuuuh finale

the only reason why i made this in 2 parts is because its so fucking long.
so, where was i? oh yeah....

so we thought, lets make some calls and see if we can find someone to fill in for us until we get to southern california, where our drummer lives. we had 3 shows we needed a fill in for. monday - reno. tuesday - sacramento. wednesday - fresno. by the time i got cell phone service, it was 3pm on sunday. i called phil (among lots of other people) from the band 5 victims 4 graves. they are from sacramento. i told him the situation and i asked him "do you think your drummer would be down to help us out?" he was like, "nah, probably not man, but give it a shot anyways." he gae me his phone number. i have never talked to this guy before in my life, i had no idea if he even knew who our band was. i called the number that phil gave me and to my suprise, jake answered right away. i told him what was up and asked him if he would be down to fill in. he basically responded with "wait, how did you get my number?" we talked a little bit more and he said, "yeah dude, ill take some time off work and help you guys out, a friend of mine has your cd and i will learn about 4 songs by the time you get here." STOKED!!! so we drove to sacramento, dropped off shit for brains at the airport (good fucking riddance) got directions to jakes house, picked him up, booked time a a rehearsal studio, and had practice from 10 pm to 1 am. let me tell you....Jake FUCKING RULES at drums. he had 4 songs down perfect. i couldnt believe it. such a rad dude as well. we dropped him off, then went to hang out with our friend Jim rice and his girlfriend amy. they made us some awesome vegan blueberry muffins. so so so good. the next day, we went to del taco, ate some food, bought some drumsticks for jake at guitar center, picked jake up, practiced for another 2 hours, then headed over to reno. we were really lucky to be on this show. we had a hard time getting a show this day and i called my friend brandon from the band, 1618, and he got us hooked up with this show. ceremony played, as well as All Teeth (these guys RULE) and a really good locl band called, Land Locked. the show went REALLY well. although we only played 4 songs, we sounded SO GOOD. Jake really helped us out a ton. it was a great show for us.

we stayed the night at my parents house, and my mom made a rediculous amount of food for us for breakfast. after we ate, we headed down to sacramento to play at the R5 record store with Pressure point. i fucking love that band. they are so good and such awesome guys. again, our set went over very well, short and sweet, but really good. everyone had a great time. we went back to Jims house to hang out. then walked to the store to buy tortillas and beans. on the way back to his house, jim pointed out to me that peets coffee leaves unsold baked goods outside their door when they closed. i didnt believe him and he said "whatever, go see for yourself" so i did, and he was right. so fucking awesome. there was so much good shit in there. scones, tiger tails, cookies. amazing. the next day we at at a really good vegan thai place. then picked up jake one last time and headed to fresno. we got to Kats house really early, so we decided to roam around through the set of Road warrior. we were throwing rocks through windows in this OBVIOUSLY abandoned building. and these 2 dudes in a plumbing truck pull up looking like they are ready to either rape or murder us and say " you cant be throwin rocks and breakin stuff here. this is private property" weird, but whatever, we left, and went back to kats house. jeremy, the guy who hooked us up with the show came to meet us there. he informed us that it would be a very small turn out, so rather than playing outside lke last time, we will play inside this old fucking shack in the backyard that is lit by christmas lights and looks like tons of people have been murdered there....awesome. it was SUCH a fun show. kids were actually circle pitting and moshing for us in this tiny ass room. so cool. we sold a shirt to literally everyone who showed up, and got a few donations. i love those kids out there. always show us a good time.

rather than driving back to SAC to bring jake home, he suggested that we just buy him a train ticket. that was really cool. it saved us tons of time and money. so, the next day, we are hanging out with jake, waiting for his train to come (by the way, we stayed on a fuckin grape farm that night, and the house we stayed in had about 20 cats....moving on) and i get a text message from verizon wireless, saying that my last payment was made with an electronic check, that bounced.......AWESOME. so i called sergio and told him "dude, the payment you made on my cell phone didnt go through...you bailing on us cost us 300 dollars, so the way i see it is, you owe me 600 dollars" he replies with, "i dont have any money...you can sell my drums if you want." (later on, once the tour was over, i found out that they werent even his drums. he was borrowng them from a friend. what a fuckling pile of dog shit) i was able to borrow some money to make my payment and not have to pawn the drums right away. we took jake to the train station and sent him back home....we would have been SO FUCKED with out jake....that guys rules so hard...

our next show was in cathedral city in southern california. it was in a tile shop of all places. it was really cool being so close to home...but lets cut to the chase....the show SUCKED. I had huge expectations for this show....there were lots of kids, and it was a great night...for whatever reason, they just didnt like us. whatever....it happens.

the last show of the tour was at my favorite place...the che cafe in san diego. such a good night......all of my friends from home were at the show, it was a beautiful night, and it was with great bands. Verse, Killing The Dream, Rotting Out and at the last minute, our good friends Masterpiece got added to the show. we opened the show, had a great set and then i got to see some of my favorite bands...it was a perfect ending to a great tour. Thanks so much to Grave Maker and everyone else that helped us out or hung out with us....It was truly an amazing 5 weeks.