8/26 - Santa Barbara, Cali - Velvet Jones - As I’m writing this, I gotta be honest I don’t remember too much about the show but I know you SB repped for AOTP! I think it was one of those venues where they separated the 18+ crowd and 21+ crowd which always make for strange arrangements of fans and merch and food and drink. One thing I do remember was the beautiful area on State Street where we performed and did some shopping/sight seeing during the day. Oh yeah, I remember that I changed my lyrics in Battle Cry this time because the moshpit led to a crazy distraction that just forced me to pause in amazement then chant “pit! pit! pit!” That was fun and SB was live!!And peace to the cat I met at the end who was “for the dogs” like myself. I can talk about dogs all day everyday. And oh yeah, Beyonder, rape jokes are never funny…but especially when they are Kobe Bryant rape jokes and we are IN cali! Crowd no likey that.

SANTA BARBARA!

8/28 Utah, Murray Theater - Me, Reef, and Outerspace hit up Brisk’s studio to lay down some vocals for Pure Presure in the afternoon. Reef and Planet nailed their shit in one take. Pretty impressive, but I expected it. After that, we got ready for the early, early show (doors were at 6:30). We had a good time here! No pics for proof though. Damn. I thought I snapped some photos here. The crowd was wild, alcohol FREE, and a female most pit started during some of our Esoteric vs. Japan tracks. Yeah, all girls banging into each other to the music. Tough to concentrate with that happening, but yes, it is always encouraged! Oh and happy birthday to Ginny, you and your husband are real cool peeps!

8/29 Boulder Colorado, Boulder Theater - We had a long-ass drive out here, cutting through Wyoming we had the breakfast of champions:

TACO BELL X KFC X WYOMING = PUKE

We also hit a rest-stop in the middle of nowhere for gas and saw what many determined to be an addict with a little 4 week old pit bull. It has no name and she wasn’t interested in naming it. She told us she bought it for $80 in Mexico and planned on selling it for a $1000 in Denver. This girl sickened me. She had it running loose on the island where truckers pump gas (like a moron.) so I snatched her up and told her how to treat a dog. I had a real urge to bring it with us on the tour, but I think that would have enraged half the crew so after doing what I could with the irresponsible owner, we bounced.

Cute Fucker

The Boulder show was a blast. The fans out here are great and the city itself is dope! I feel like living here is a good move. Each time we’ve played here has been a great experience and kids really rep. That sounds cliche, but it’s true. Boulder will tell you! We decided to throw “Watch Me” and “Deathgrip” back into the set tonight. Sound system was a banging one too. I threw my Akomplice hat to the crowd (good lookin Akomplice!) and cats tore it up, but I found myself signing it at the end so I guess it survived. We had another pit break out during Battle Cry, and that is always a spectacle. Loved this show. Peace to my man B-Ill for coming out!

CRAZY BOULDER KIDS

This morning we got ready to head to Colorado Springs. I woke up and found this pic on my phone:  Nuff said.

The X-man

I miss him!!

BIG UPS TO UPPER PLAYGROUND

Fresno was crazy though, yall definitely showed us a lot of love and the pit that broke out during our AOTP encore was nutty!! On a Monday night too? You really gotta respect the women in the front though people, they aren’t trying to throw elbows like you! That was definitely good to see some wild shit though, because the energy you give us really motivates us to give it back to you (how cliche does that sound? It is true though). It’s been a lot of fun working the merch booth too, meeting a lot of cool and interesting people (re: mohawks, face-piercing, home-made 7LES t-shirts, etc). Lots of people asking about 7L’s whereabouts, and I let them know he is back in Boston doing his thing, working on beats, djing benefits for my man DJ Kon (best wishes to you man), and holding it down like no other. Besides, he looks like he is in good hands below:

7L GETS IT IN

San Luis Obispo 2/25 - We checked in the hotel, hung out by the pool then decided to do a little shopping because I left my coffin full of sneakers in Fresno. Also, if anybody comes across the classic green A’s fitted hat with the yellow brim at size 7 1/2 or 7 5/8 please yodel at me! You would think that would be easy to find out here! I keep trying to shop for Xavier, but I’m not coming across anything that I can’t get in Boston yet. I see all the same baby clothing stores and have yet to come across that shady kiosk that will sell me the “My dad rapped in San Luis Obispo and all he got me was this undersized onesie” piece. We were very excited to rock this venue because we have heard so many crazy stories about SLO, and I believe Jack Kerouac spent some time here. Speaking of that, one of Kerouac’s biggest fans, Jawn P of Top Choice Clique was the subject of some backstage talk as Vinnie Paz grilled me for a historical overview of their career. He likened them to Philly’s Tuff Crew. I liked that comparison. While we’re on the subject of phenomenal writers, please don’t judge me on my writing on these blogs, I like to think I’m better than this and my head is pretty much pounding every second that we are not on stage. I’m not sure if we have any of the Esoteric vs. Gary Numan cds left for the rest of the tour because for some reason that disc is a hit in SLO county. We had a blast and the turnout was dope!

FANS IN SAN LUIS OBISPO REPPIN!

BEYONDER MAKIN FRIENDS

Santa Barbara is tonight yall! See you there at Velvet Jones on State Street! The show is gonna be ill!

I attempted to jack In-N-Out's Optimus Prime

8/21 - Pomona you guys definitely rocked with us! We met a lot of really cool-ass people in Cali so far, and have heard a lot of good things from folks. The “Saving Seamus Ryan” flyers and stickers are flying around everywhere here. One thing that makes me a little uncomfortable is when I hit the merch booth and I see kids buy shit, going thru our catalog of cds telling their boys “nah nah nah THIS is the dope shit, stay away from this one” and it is always different shit. I’d like to point out that some of the most sincere compliments I’ve been getting come from people talking about “A New Dope.”  That might baffle/anger some of the old school fans of ours, but I gotta tell you it feels good to hear that from heads. FYI - We have made the out-of-print Esoteric vs. Gary Numan cd available here on the tour, so hit the merch booth if you want a copy. Pomona definitely, definitely respresented tonight! And yeah, to those wondering, I passed on contributing to the AOTP Battle Cry performance because I couldn’t remember a word of my measley 8 bars…I didn’t know we were rocking it! I guess I’ll youtube it now and try and recall what I said other than “Manny Ramirez” for the next show. I don’t have any pics from this show, so I’ll leave you with this: I think 7L has publicized our love affair with In-N-Out Burger in the past (we don’t have them on the East Coast), and honestly this particular branch was a godsend at 1:30am somewhere between LA and Pomona. I really wanted to hijack this vehicle outside. Now for some reason the pic is above this little blog entry and I have no time how to figure out how to bring is down here. Oh well! Scroll up.

8/22 - San Francisco - Yo so we have all been stuck at this hotel by the airport so getting into the city of SF was a big adventure.  We had the day off today (8/23) and Crypt is goin’ nuts here…punching coke machines and basically looking to punch people to entertain himself. This makes me uneasy. Here is the exterior of our hotel:

the hotel...it is by the airport....and i guess the train

This may be the most suspect hotel on the tour as of yet, but hey, free innernet so fuck it. We did a little shopping on Fillmore, Haight, and some other spots today. Shit was freezing out, it felt like I was at the Topsfield Fair. Ok, about the show last night….so yeah, we’ve played at “The Independent” before, and have had a blast. This time definitely took the cake though, because before and after our set, DJ Beyonder of the Bladerunners (of course) had the whole house throwing their W’s up and he turned it out with some West Coast classics. We definitely had some fun…plus rocking the AOTP joints “Dump the Clip” and “Murda Murda” at the end of JMT’s set with a few drinks in me was highly enjoyable. Got to catch up with Sabac of Non-Phixion fame for a few, DJ Stef came thru, and Paz helped me acquire some GOLD for Pterovision.

Vinnie telling me not to wear dog shirts on stage...me not taking him seriously

Another highlight happened after the show, where some really cool cats had asked me about my son Xavier and my dog Logan, and then quizzed Beyonder and myself about the history of “Be Alert” (one of our first records from 1997). Hmm were yall the ones yelling “Rebel Alliance” and “Protocol” during the set? I never asked. That’s all on tape, but we’ll have to preview that before we put it out there. Good fun all around SF!

Me and Beyonder performing Daisycutta in SF

Tomorrow night we are live in Fresno, CA! A Monday night! Should be the best Monday I’ve had since last Monday. Saving Seamus Ryan is in-stores 9/22!

-ES