The Volunteers California Tour
Mike drunk in San Fran
Mike using nonverbal communication to express his feelings towards Dan
When we first started we never imagined we would make it to Alcatraz
Our name in Lights in Berkeley!
First night of the tour at blakes in berkeley
The Lava lounge was a great place for us to play our first show in Los Angeles
The streetwavers get down at the Scene in LA
This is Candace, she is awesome!
Come on stage and dance with us!
Young, Loud and Snotty
Rocking the the Scene in LA
Rollercoaster at Disneyland
Dan at Disneyland
Killing it at the Echo in LA
Mike on drums in Los Angeles
Kiss or Kill
Mass singalong in Los Angeles
Three of our hottest fans
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Dan's Tour Diary
It has a been a crazy few days, I've just now had my first chance to sit down and catch my breath so I thought I'd let you guys know how things have been going so far. We left on Thursday from JFK airport and flew Jet Blue which was really cool because they had TVs in the plane. Flying in a plane is the most boring thing in the world, but this time the 5 hour flight wasn't so bad cause I got to watch Cheech and Chong!
We arrived in San Francisco and went directly to the Olympic Hotel and checked in. The area we were staying in is called Union Square but it was really nothing special. We spent our first night in San Francisco bar hopping in the Lower Haight area as well as the mission area. We had a lot of fun but were a little bummed out that the bars closed at 2. In New York 2 o clock is just about when things start to get good. So we ended up back at the hotel relatively early and after eating some dominos pizza we went to sleep.
Next day when I woke up Mike was already out sightseeing. We quickly got dressed and jumped on the trolley car to meet him at Fisherman's Wharf. Fisherman's wharf is a major tourist spot; it is kind of like a Disney world type of vibe. There is this area where a bunch of sea lions, about 50 or 75, are all just chilling on these wooden platforms. They are pretty ugly creatures but its cool to see all of them together hanging out. A few of them had numbers tattooed on their sides. Perhaps those sea lions had escaped from Alcatraz or something, which was the other cool thing about Fisherman's Wharf. I was really sad we didn't have enough time to do the tour of Alcatraz prison which you could clearly see from the Pier, but next time I come back I am definitely going to make time for that.
At 2 we jumped on the Bart train to go to Oakland to get to the rehearsal studio where we were going to be warming up at for that nights show at Blakes. The Bart train is a little different from the NYC train system. It is actually pretty similar to the NJ transit. They have phones in all the stations near the train and if you have a question about which train to take all you have to do is pick up the phone and someone is waiting to help you.
When we got the studio we were greeted by a guy named Michael who had actually just moved to Oakland a few months ago from Brooklyn. When we got inside the studio there were a bunch of guys hanging out. Being that it had been since wednesday night that I had last smoked pot I was kinda fiending for some herb. Luckily, two of the people hanging out had medical marijuana cards, which apparently you can get pretty easily in California. Once you have a medical ganja card you can go to these places called Cannabis Clubs and buy some really amazing pot at really cheap prices. One of the guys gave me a handful of some of the best herb I had ever seen/smelled and we were psyched!
After rehearsal we went back to San Francisco to get ready for our show. By 730 we were back on the Bart train again heading towards Oakland, our destination was Downtown Berkeley where our show at Blakes was to be held. It took a while for us to get there but once we did we got set up and hung out at the bar where we drank Hemp Ale which was a pretty good beer I've never heard of before. Our show that night kicked ass. The crowd was great and we rocked hard. The people were really supportive and we had a blast. Thanks to Josh and Desiree of Three Udders Productions for promoting the show and making us feel at home. After the show Josh took us back to San Francisco where we after partied at Mezzanine. There was a huge festival going on during the day so a lot of guys from all the bands were hanging out at the party. We had a good time but after a while we ended up back at the hotel to smoke the joint, which was so strong that we still have not finished smoking it. After that we passed out and when we woke up the next day we had to hustle to check out and get to the airport to get our flight to LA.
When we got to LA we got into the 4 door pickup truck we had rented and headed to Redondo beach where we are staying for a few days. We relaxed for a bit and had dinner before heading to the nights show at the Lava Lounge. When we got there the guys who were supposed to loan us their gear were late so we had to ask another band to use their drums, thanks to Sonntag for saving our ass in that moment and thanks to the OAOTS for hooking us up with the show. Our show at the Lava Lounge was even better than Blakes. We are getting tighter every show and people are really loving the new songs. After the show was over we headed over to the pad of Sean and Nick from the Atomic Missiles. They lived close to the Lava Lounge. It was really nice to see those guys again. They moved out to LA from Brooklyn almost a year ago and I was really glad to see how well they are doing. After hanging out with them for a while we got in the pickup truck and headed back to Redondo beach, we got home and we passed out.
When I woke up the first thing I did was sit down and write this letter so this is where the story ends for the moment. Thank you so much to everyone who has come out to the shows, it has been awesome meeting so many people who got into us through myspace or word of mouth. The party continues tonight and shows no signs of letting up. If we haven't seen you at one of the shows yet we hope to see you tonight or Tuesday.
Hope all is well, we will write back soon with more stories from the road!
Dan Goddard
The Volunteers
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