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Yesterday's News - Episode 666

Damn, Vegas was fun! This tour was quick and that was our last show before heading home. We've got two jet setting cowboys taking a plane home after Vegas. Me, Steve, Bryan, and Johnny will get the van and the gear back to Seattle. It'll take us a couple of days, and even though this was a short tour it's always great to get back home.

After dropping the boys off at the Salt Lake City airport, we stopped for some food and enjoyed the fresh air. Tiny Dancer found a farm kitty:

....and we witness a family walking their goats:



Here is a quick look back at some of our memories:

BRYAN & TINY DANCER IN BOISE

BRENT AMAKER AND THE RODEO, Western United States


EATING PIZZA IN DURANGO

SELLING MERCH IN FLAGSTAFF


PLAYING MUSIC IN FLAGSTAFF

JOHNNY TAKES A NAP IN THE VAN

ON THE ROAD


I won't bore you with the rest of the long drive back to Seattle. Thanks for staying up with our adventures.

Our next Seattle show is at El Corazon on Sept 7th. We are playing with country music legend David Allan Coe. This is gonna be a good one, so if you are anywhere near Seattle, come out and drink some whiskey with us.

And stay tuned for our new comic coming out in 2010. Here's a pic of Sugar kicking some ass in Mexico:


Until next time,

Brent

Yesterday's News - Episode 5 "Vegas Baby!"

It's a typical morning after a show. Cowboys wander the streets of a small town looking for food. Some sleep in, while others make the move to keep the tour rolling. Usually Sugar is the first one up (unless it was a particularly rough night), and you will find him looking for breakfast. I ended up grabbing some food with Sugar and Ben, while the others tended to their hangovers. Tiny Dancer was having a particularly tough time this morning, so it was better that he just walk the neighborhood and chain smoke. We are on to Vegas next and I'm pretty sure Tiny Dancer needs the kitty.


Have I mentioned that our new drummer, Bryan Crawford, has been kicking some serious ass? With only a few shows under his belt, he is living the Rodeo lifestyle and keeping everything together every night. It's tough dropping into this band, and he has done it with ease. Good work Bryan!


On that note, I should say it has been hard to even contemplate a tour with out Mason Lowe. I've learned over the years that we never really replace a cowboy in this band. We just move on to something different. I pretty sure Mason has been on everyone's mind this trip. It was really tough moving on after his departure and it's particularly hard to be on tour without him. The Rodeo marches forward and Mason is one cowboy who definitely left his mark. Here is a little look back at Mason:

MASON SHOTGUNNING BEER IN MITCHEL, SD

ON THE PLANE TO EUROPE.

DRINKING WITH BRENT IN BERLIN.

ON THE BEACH IN CALIFORNIA

OUR SOON TO BE RELEASED COMIC!


If Mason were here, he'd be telling me to cut out the sentimental crap. So I'll get on with the blog - Vegas Baby!

We get on the road and pass the time by checking out some rough mixes from our up coming release. These are brand new tracks!

On our way to Vegas we find our first Adult Super Store and we are excited to stock up on some porn. The porn selection has been scarce this tour, and I've read Tiny Dancer's copy of Sticky Buns about 50 times. We need some diversity in our collection!

So you can imagine my disappointment when we roll into the parking lot to find the porn store is closed and won't open for two more hours. Bummer! That's OK. Things have a way of working out for the Rodeo. Right after we get there, a car pulls into the empty parking lot and a nice lady gets out. We tell her that we are on the road and in need of fresh porn, and guess what? She has a key to the store and is ready to help us out. That's right, an employee of the the Adult Super Store opens two hours early for the Rodeo so we can stock up on supplies and get to Vegas. Now that's hospitality! I didn't catch your name, but thanks for the leg up Ms. Porn Store Employee. The Rodeo won't forget this act of kindness.

After stocking up on porn, we find a little road side stop and grab a beer. This place is a wonderland. Check it out:


We make it to Vegas for a show at the Dive Bar. We've had a tough time communicating with the booker, and to be honest we aren't even sure if this show is confirmed. We decide early in this tour that we would just show up at Dive Bar, start loading our gear in, and assume the sale. They have been good to us in the past, so we are hoping it won't be a problem. WE NEVER RECEIVED ANY WORD FROM THEM THAT WE ACTUALLY HAVE A SHOW PRIOR TO LEAVING SEATTLE.

The band walks in the club carrying gear and the bartender yells "Hey it's the Rodeo!" I ask which slot we have and he tells us we are headlining, which means we can play whenever we want. We decide to take the second of four slots and play at midnight. Hell Yeah!

And there's more good news, The Valkyries (from Seattle) are also on the bill. The singer introduces herself and says she's been looking forward to catching one of our shows. It's cool to be running into Seattle folks in Vegas and this is an all girl metal band. Right up my alley and perfect for a Rodeo show!

Here is a clip of me rocking out to the Valkyries following our set:



We also met some cats from L.A. called the Heavy Young Heathens. I traded one of our CD's for vinyl. I've been diggin' on this record ever since we got back from tour. Two guys with a shit load of gear:



After the show we checked in to our favorite place to stay - The Hooters Hotel and Casino. Hooters is right on the strip and rooms are super cheap. We hit the slots and eat some late night food. I won $150 on a $5 slot in a drunk moment of gambling. It pays for the evening. Here are a couple of shots from our late night breakfast:




GOOD NIGHT!

Yesterday's News - Episode 4

Saturday morning in Durango is good. We are sleeping in hotels this tour! This is a major upgrade from our last string of dates. Everybody got to sleep in a bed and while this doesn't help the hangover, it does help our backs.

The Abbey Theatre was kind enough to let us stash our gear at the venue after the show. This means we gotta wake somebody up to let us in so we can get our gear. After standing outside the club for awhile, I wake up my manager back in Seattle (Leigh). She puts me in touch with someone who can let us in. So we park the van in front of the Abbey and wait. Doesn't take long before we get loaded up, grab a bagel for the road, and get movin'.

The drive to Flagstaff was shorter than the others, so Tiny Dancer insisted we stop for some thrift store action:


Well, a tour is not complete without a good traffic jam. We hit a couple of them on this trip, but the one on the way to Flagstaff was a doozy. Check it out:


Despite this little set back, we make it to Flagstaff with time to spare. Our show is at the Hotel Monte Vista. This is a great roadside stop that gives us free lodging and a place to play our music. It's also known for it's ghosts! Here are some pre-show clips:



And of couse, there was another whiskey baptism. Flagstaff knows how to have a good time!



At some point Johnny and his camera will get on your nerves:

Every proper show should end with a re-cape:

So everything worked out good at the Monte V. We continued to drink into the night and closed the bar down. Good times!

Yesterday's News - Episode 3

So we wake up in Salt Lake City and we pretty much want to get the hell out of town as soon as possible. Usually when we feel like this it's because of some shit we started. Not the case in Salt Lake Shitty! Not only did this town give us the cold shoulder, but Sugar is flying in at 9:00 AM and we are really looking forward to having the whole crew on board for the tour. So we get up early, get out fast, and skip breakfast.

While we are waiting on Sugar to arrive, Johnny catches me on camera cleaning up some trash:



And the man arrives. We caught it from two different angles. Look how happy Tiny Dancer is to see Sugar:




Tiny Dancer can't wait to show Sugar the new cowboy pillow he found for the van:



Who are we kidding. Can't skip breakfast! Now that we've got Sugar we stop for some AM vittles:



So we eat our food and get on the road. Next stop Durango! We're excited about this show because Durango has been good to us in the past AND we are playing a theater show with Supersuckers. Sweet! We get an hour or so under our belt before the coffee goes straight through us. Everyone's gotta pee and NO rest stop in sight! No worries, we're cowboys:



It's good to pee....



The Rodeo loves touring and we pick something up in every town. We played CMJ last fall and discovered real New York pizza. Since that tour, I find myself constantly looking for good vinegar to throw on top of my New York style pizza. It's never the same, but I keep looking. I should just wait it out for our next East Coast tour, but I keep searching. We had some pretty good pizza in Durango. Johnny captured a candid moment of us eating:



Here is a little slice of our Durango show:



.....and as usual there was a healthy turn out for the Rodeo baptism:







Someone jacked up Sugar's glasses at the show. He talks about it later in the hotel room:



Looks like it's time to turn in.

Yesterday's News - Episode 2

3 piece Rodeo playing for food in Boise


Day 2

Our day starts in Boise and ends in Salt Lake City. We're itchin' to get to Salt Lake cuz that's where we pick up another cowboy. Ben flies in at 6:15pm, so we gotta make tracks to get there in time.

I'm able to catch a few Zs in the van and in a sleepy state I take the time to rip on Johnny. Check it out:



The drive isn't too bad and we've got extra room due to missing cowboys. We don't waste a lot of time stopping, cuz we want to be on time for Ben's pick up. I'm a little jealous of the fact that he gets to jet in to town with fresh clothes and zero miles under his belt. I'm not so jealous of the fact that he is traveling by himself. It's always more fun to cowboy up when you're in a pack. Here's a shot of us picking him up in Salt Lake.



After picking Ben up, we hoof it downtown to see if we can get into some trouble. Ben is hungry, and he gets cranky when he is hungry. We drive in circles for what seems like an eternity and out of sheer frustration, I book us some rooms at the downtown Marriott. I make a proper entrance. Tiny Dancer helps me with the cape in this one:



As luck would have it, we have a room on the sixth floor overlooking an outdoor concert featuring Sonic Youth. Free concert from the comfort of our room. Hell yeah!




After the concert, the flood gates open around our hotel and to our surprise the Sonic Youth fan base in Salt Lake City is comprised mostly of douche bags. Drunk, or on drugs, countless long hair racist fucks are wandering around yelling profanities. Apparently cowboys aren't welcome in Salt Lake City, and most of the profanities are directed at us. What the hell? The insults are so retarded they don't even warrant a response. We choose to ignore this shit and simply mark Salt Lake City off our list of places we want to visit. Tiny Dancer quips that it might be a good idea to offer up S.L.C. as a target for future terrorists wanting to take out a US city. After debating this comment at length, we decide it may be a better idea to simply add Salt Lake to our black list. I'm certain there are some good folks there who have found a way to live side by side with the concert goers. God help them all.

Here is one of the cowboys enjoying a smoke after the concert.

Yesterday's News

We just finished a week long jaunt to Durango, CO with several tour dates in between. We crammed so much driving into the short trip that I was unable to blog in real time. The good news is that Johnny brought a new little gadget on the trip that shoots HD video. We caught a bunch of random shit and documented it in a series of short video clips. Starting today I will be posting these clips with some back story each day in a segment titled "Yesterday's News". Here is the first segment. Enjoy!


Day 1 of the summer tour:

Four of us drove the first chunk of the tour (Me, Johnny, Tiny Dancer, and our new drummer Bryan Crawford). Ben and Sugar would be meeting us in Salt Lake City. I Arrived at Johnny's house at 6:45 AM. I expected him to be late, but this time he had a good reason. There was a girl in his bed! Good job Johnny, this is a major improvement over your prior excuses. Here are the first few clips of the day:


Bryan fell back asleep after we called and told him we were running late. This gave Tiny Dancer a chance to smoke another pack of cigarettes.



When you spend hours on the road, it can get a little boring. We spent a good chunk of the first day playing with all the cool features on my new I-phone. Not a very cool cowboy move, but you do what you gotta do to pass the time.



And of course there was some tension.

And some hat pranks. This is a Howdy Don't!

We got some lunch at a taco truck.

But at least Johnny got some sleep.

We made it to Boise that day and played a three piece set at Donnie Mac's Trailer Park Cuisine. Great place. We met some folks and got drunk. Donnie Mac gave us a free meal. Bryan shot some pool.

Johnny dreamed of playing poker, and Tiny Dancer smoked cigarettes "in doors". We brought some bottles of jack in the van, but Boise treated us well enough that we didn't even need to crack a bottle. We passed out in a hotel after tearing it up with the locals. It was a good end to a long day. Oh...., did I tell you how much I love Binaca?