Hayden’s Blog

Mexican Border, 5000kms on the clock

If you're new, you should subscribe to my RSS feed so you can see when I've updated. CHOICE!

Last time, Hayden was just about to play a show in Hollywood, LA. What will become of our touring hero? Read on to find out…

Well the show in LA was nothing special. We were playing a venue called the Troubadour which was more of a rock venue than anything else (recent acts who’d played there included the Mars Volta). Had a decent sized crowd there. A really annoying venue sound guy. One of those people who’s the king of his own little world.

The next day we hung around Hollywood for a bit, not really doing any of the touristy things (although I would have loved to). We drove to San Diego in the afternoon, which took ages because of LA’s terrible traffic.
We were playing at a place called the Casbah – a small venue right next to the airport. We spent ages just standing outside watching the planes coming in to land insanely low over the building right above us. We were sure that they were close enough to throw a shoe at.

Along with Ferraby Lionheart (our touring support) we were on the bill with an excruciatingly bad pop-rock band. Luckily I wasn’t allowing into the venue until we played (the 21yr drinking age thing again) so I only had to endure their soundcheck. Went and had dinner in Little Italy, which seemed like the nicest part of town. Had my priciest meal of the tour so far at $25 (our daily allowance is US$20). The crowd at the show was really odd. They all seemed like they were there for the crappy support act, which meant our music sounded really odd to them I guess.

We decided to knock some of the drive to Phoenix off that night, so we bunked down at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. The next day we saw some of the most amazing landscapes that we’ve experienced so far on the tour. We were driving the I-8, which follows the border between California and Mexico. Crazy deserts and rocky hills and Cacti. We got really close to the Mexican border at times, and saw lots of border patrol cops. We even saw the blockades they have to stop Mexicans from trying to get into the country. They’re of course debating at the moment whether they should build a Berlin-style wall the length of the border.

We crossed into Arizona, and headed northeast to Phoenix, AZ. Our gig was in this really small, slightly sleezy bar called Rogue. We were the only band on the bill because it was a club night. One of the New York Dolls was DJing, along with Bjorn and John from Peter, Bjorn and John (that catchy Young Folks song). The bar obviously wasn’t used to having any bands, because they only had a few mics and not much of a PA. But we made do, and actually ended up playing a really fun show.

I had decided I wasn’t going to drink earlier in the evening, but we were treated really well by the venue, so I ended up drinking a wee bit (having decided not to have dinner till after the gig). This proved a pretty bad idea, cause the alcohol hit me straight away. We drove about an hour out of town to a place called Casa Grande (again, in the middle of nowhere) to stay for the night.

In the morning I felt about as bad as I’ve ever felt. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us, and about an hour in I ended up taking a bit of a puke in the carpark of a Waffle House in Tucson. After eating some chips I felt a bit better, and we continued on our long journey through New Mexico into Texas.

We stopped off just before the Texan border and bought some fireworks. They sell them all year round here, and they’re insanely powerful.

We finally pulled in for the night (after 12 hours of traveling) in a place called Sierra Blanca (which is apparently the biggest sewage dump in the US. Thanks Louis for that tip). Met a really cute stray dog at our motel. Let off some fireworks. Played some Texan cricket (pretty much normal cricket except on dry dirt, and fielding requires the added skill of avoiding cacti and snakes).

Today we spent another 10 or so hours in the car. We’re now in Austin, TX. Our van is pretty awesome cause it has 2 TVs and a Playstation in it, so I’ve been playing video games for hours. During the drive we stopped off to let off some more firecrackers, and to buy some sweet wrangler jeans at a Texan cowboy store for $20! Turns out I’ve gone up a size in jeans since being here. Depressing, but not surprising. Mikey Havoc also gave me a call to do a little interview on bFM about how the tour is going so far.

Some quick stats on the tour so far:

• We’ve now driven over 5000kms in the US
• We’ve been in 6 different states
• 3 different time zones within the US
• Played 9 shows, 1 radio live to air, and 1 record store gig
• Earned US$360 of per diems
• Lost a digital camera
• Eaten way too much fast food

It’s 2am, so I better hit bed.

So long for now.