Kix Mead in Twin Falls, ID - September 2nd en route from Portland to Denver (oh and for the record, "Kix" came from the days of T9 texting... type in L - I- Z and K-I-X is the first suggestion; hence the nickname).
Our final date on our 2011 Summer Tour was in fact Denver, CO at Lion's Lair - September 3rd. This was our 2nd visit to Denver over the past year (last summer we hit up The Walnut Room w/ Flashbulb Fires and Fierce Bad Rabbit), this time around we joined Kissing Party {pictured below} and The Fingers Of The Sun. Kissing Party is a fantastic indie-pop group w/ a female lead vocalist, Deirdre, who doubles her time with The Roller Dolls; a nationally ranked and recognized Roller Derby team in Denver... so sick. Their single, "The Homecoming" from The Hate Album was on a loop the entire way home from Colorado to Kansas; check 'em out - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kissing-Party/223137740232
Once Elizabeth and I got off the road we hit up Pratt, a small town in south/central Kansas where we grew up for a two and a half week visit seeing family. Plus, Elizabeth's older brother Kyle, was getting married on 9/10/11 and so we decided to spend that time in Pratt instead of rushing right out to San Francisco. During the visit I worked at The West Wash (pictured below); a car wash off of old Highway 54
Only a few days in on the visit and my mother had a house fire at the childhood home that I grew up in. Her boyfriend was digging trenches for a new water sprinkler system and clipped a gas line. The ditch digger engulfed in flames and ignited the side of our house.
Elizabeth rushed to the Wash where I was working and brought me back to the house while this was all going on. If I may say so, I'm really quite good at staying calm and collected under "tense" circumstances.... this is one of those instances where that was unfortunately not the case.
I discovered that my youngest child, Milli Star (a small grey cat) was still inside, so was the entire catalogue of Mammoth Life's sounds stored within our Roland RD-170 keyboard... I lost it. I came hoofing up to the house, and grabbed a cement deer statue/ ornament in the front yard and smashed the front left window. If the fire men where too busy putting out the fire, I figured it would be no trouble to just help myself into the home to save my cat and keyboard.
All the fire fighters going in and out of the house stopped me and said I could not go in... they could go into our home, but I couldn't!? Lost it again. I have a terrible time when someone tells me what to do... I've never kept it a secret; rock n' roll kid by birth. During this episode, we have the Pratt Tribune (local newspaper) taking photographs of the whole incident and so in the heat of the moment, I obviously flipped them all off!! One of the ambulance drivers was unbelievably aggressive and began shouting at me, waving his hands, etc. I calmly asked him to try that again with a different tone and he lost it. So I lost it a third time. I began telling him to go fuck himself, yada yada yada, pointing an aggressive finger back at him and so on. So he called in a police officer. The officer later came to the site in street clothes (only in Pratt, KS) and asked me my name. I began to turn and walk away not knowing this was an officer and he pulled my hands behind my back to hand cuff me and threw me up on the hood of the ambulance!!!
By that point, I myself knew that I had become hysterical and had COMPLETELY lost it. As a result, I put myself in "time out" to calm down, so I went next door and swung on the Elementary School swings for about thirty minutes watching from a far... lol.
And as it turns out, the fire was maintaned, kept from penetrating the house and the only real loss was some external damage on the fence, and siding... and one broken glass window in the front of the home via yours truly.
Following Elizabeth's brother's wedding, as well as a stint house sitting for my traveling Grandparents in Pratt, we packed it up and moved on about the third week of September. We ended up in Kansas City... Elizabeth's cousin Carrie put us up in a spare bedroom in her new two story home while we formulated a game plan for getting to SF. No immediate jobs surfaced for Elizabeth or I so we spent a week in KC. Last week of September I got a call and an unbelievable opportunity to spend all of October in the Northern California mountains... I jumped at the chance. Flew out on October 4th and while there in Nor Cal, discovered rock n' roll, hung out w/ a wild crew I dubbed "The Lost Boys," and got the once in a life time chance of visiting "NeverLand"... I'm now prepared to compose and lay down Mammoth Life's third studio album.
Pictured here (above) on site in Mad River, California aka NeverLand. During my time spent there, Elizabeth did stay in Kansas City. We decided that her time could be spent most productively by seeing all of her family before our San Fran move. While there in KC, Kix Mead got a new hair-do! I love the bangs; bang-a-rang!!
I met so many great people in NeverLand during the month of October. So many cool people in transit to other wildly fantastic adventures. I met the traveling soundman of the indie husband and wife, pop group, Tennis. I also met a professional banjo player who's latest item of note is an original score featured as the theme song for a new HBO series. I even met a dirty skater from Vegas who's band Black Camero opened for such notables as RATATAT and MGMT. Oh, and did I mention members from Oakhurst!? So many great people there... I consider them all family now. So much love and respect. Pictured here (below) with some of the crew aka The Lost Boys.
Oh and while there I did get out and catch the Red Woods... these are the ones that the scenes with the Ewoks from Return Of The Jedi where recorded in!! Pictured below with the fantastic Zach Daniels
My time in NeverLand will never be forgotten and I already look back on that time so fondly. Thank you for everything Lost Boys!!
I flew back on November 4th, just in time to catch Neil's belated birthday bash at Casa Agave in Lawrence Fucking Kansas!! Elizabeth and I spent about three days in Larryville before we gathered all of our possessions back up from the storage unit and headed west. Here is a picture of our going away party (Panda Circus is even present); thanks everyone!!
We officially left for San Francisco on 11/11/11. Pretty smooth sailing through Denver. From there though, we headed a little north to get on I-80W. We hit unbelievable weather in Wyoming. Please note that in that state, when there are signs everywhere saying "no small (or lite) trailors," they're talking about Uhaul trailors too... the wind was 50 mph w/ gusts of up to 60 and 70 mph and then came the snow... our Pathfinder and double axel trailor was sliding all over the road. At one point we completely lost control of the vehicle and nearly rolled the SUV into the ditch... traveling from Laramie to Rawlins (thinking that we could beat the weather) we pulled off in a small town inbetween w/ all of 275 people called Elk Mountain.
It was dark, the snow was blowing sideways, we about got into a serious car accident and we just wanted off I-80W. Took a total chance pulling off onto country road in this kind of weather... tracked down Elk Mountain, which we didn't even know if there was a hotel, and found a bed a breakfast. As we see it, and pull into the drive way, they lose power... so thankful that light decided to hold on long enough for us to arrive. We would of really been up a creek...
Due to the weather, we lost two days on the road, and had to stay in Elk Mountain til the weather past. While there this bed and breakfast had a bit of history. The Garden Spot Pavillion was an old dance hall in the 30's and 40's and brought in such notables as Louis Armstrong, and country greats like Jim Reeves, Hank Thompson, and Tex Williams (of the Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette fame)!! Here's a signed frame of Tex Williams from the bed and breakfast!!
We eventually left and fought the weather that had subsided a bit, and made it west with no damage to the vehicle or trailor thankfully. We stopped in Nevada one night and then Sacramento the final night on the road to see our besties Blake and Jesse from Musical Charis. Pretty good chance they'll be playing bass and drums for Mammoth Life in San Francisco and SAC!! More details soon...
Following the adventure that was, during September and October, we finally made it to San Francisco on November 16th, 2011!! We moved into our new Inner Sunset apartment and pictured here is Kix Mead and I on our balcony in SF!?! We still can't believe it either!! "Even the impossible is possible if you just believe that it can be"
To quote Quinton from Panda Circus, "The Saga continues! Bet this next chapter is a real page turner"
