the clarendon hills arrive at the last day saloon and encounter short round loitering outside. "yo, jason. what's up?" apparently, the goon (an ex-cop) working the door wouldn't let short round play because nate and james are underaged. this is why the c-hills avoid playing 21+ shows and bars like the plague. jason played a short acoustic set, while nate and james snuck into the bar down the street and got drunk. the c-hills met jenny choi for the first time. for a high school english teacher with a masters in linguistics, the profanities spill incredibly from her mouth like water-- particularly "bizzatch." the c-hills played last and pepito delivered a near fatal flying karate kick directly to elbert's chest which knocked the wind out of him. he was pissed.
thursday: palo alto
another bar... this time a trendy hip hop pool hall in downtown palo alto. thankfully, pepito smuggled several underaged kids in without incident. while the c-hills northwest tour was all about breaking equipment, the asians in indie rock tour seemed to be defined by breaking bones. aside from nearly decapitating elbert with another high kick, pepito almost lost teeth by crashing into the drumkit and blindly launching his bass into the air which fell squarely on his mouth. covered in cuts, broken glass, and spilt beer and coffee, pepito hightailed it back to san francisco to see friends forever, leaving elbert and christine to fend for themselves against a mob of frat boys who thought the c-hills "fuckin' ruled, brah."
(side story: denver's notorious nomads of noise, friends forever, set up shop in an unassuming parking lot by the clit stop late thursday night. on word of mouth alone, at least a hundred odd kids turned out to witness first hand the smoke, the bubbles, and the fireworks of friends forever. words cannot fully express the fleeting fifteen minutes of eurphoria that came pouring out of their van, but the smiles plastered across everyone's face comes close. friends forever
is proof positive that happiness is indeed a cacophanous contagion. the hospitals and pete the genius opened.)
friday: berkeley
the c-hills played a surprise ten minute set in the gilman store. staying true to the theme of broken bones, elbert was branded with a bloody lip by a recklessly swinging microphone. afterwards, an excessively modest derek kirk kim introduced himself as a "friend of hellen jo
" (!) and graciously bestowed the c-hills with copies of his graphic novel "same difference and other short stories." when asked about how they got hernandez and burns to draw their record cover and t-shirts, elbert and pepito just smiled politely and shrugged.
saturday: los angeles
sharing a van with scrabbel down to los angeles was a good idea. but stowing nine of us in one van already half-loaded with equipment was bloody brilliant! rendevouzing at 2am, the c-hills, scrabbel, and ralph from mud stuffed themselves into mud's van for a giddy late night cruise to southern california. with no seats and no windows, it was a pitch black sea of random limbs, smelly feet, uncontrollabe giggling, and contorted sitting positions. the seven hour trip was a sleepless, mind-numbing, body-aching, sweaty, surreal affair punctuated by dan lee hurtling through the air prior to our 9:30am arrival in west hollywood. of course, it was the best thing ever.
upon arrival at tony's apartment, sleep was postponed, and breakfast at astroburger topped the agenda. afterwards, the c-hills and scrabbel fell asleep with "the worlds scariest police chases IV" on the television. the afternoon was spent wandering around sunset junction, where the c-hills feasted on lemonade, samosas and deep fried oreos. after the muffs played, it was off to spaceland for the show.
the spaceland show was fun. the clarendon hills (along with dan lee from scrabbel) donned matching blue EMT jumpsuits, while jailbait, hellen jo and kim jammin, not only snuck past spaceland's draconian security, but shimmied and sashayed on stage with the c-hills in rebellious defiance. there must be something about the last show of tour that invites chaos and destruction, as everything seemed to break down. pepito's new bad habit of jumping karate kicks broke elbert's guitar mid-way through. in retaliation, elbert dashed himself upon the drumkit in a noisy tantrum. pieces went everywhere, as pepito spiked his bass into the mess. with drum parts, hardware, and cymbals strewn across the stage, nemo will probably never lend their drumkit to anyone again. oops.
afterwards, martin wong shared an illuminating, off-the-record conversation with the c-hills on punk rock, ethnicity, and his vision for giant robot. then back at tony's apartment, a party was just getting started. illuminated by christmas lights, scrabbel gave an utterly magical impromptu acoustic performance at 3am. hellen's cello was simply awe-inspiring. the c-hills sheepishly played a few acoustic ditties and passed out. upon arriving back home, the c-hills bade farewell to ralph, elbert went straight to work, christine went to sleep, and pepito went to catch the AWK show at slim's.
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birthday parties galore:
*** SATURDAY, AUGUST 30th @ 1488 harrison, apt. 304, san francisco. 9:30pm. free. ***
come celebrate the dual birthdays of pinoisepop prince jesse gonzales and animator extraordinaire dino ignacio! the party is going down at dino and nina's swanky loft in SF. the skyflakes and charmin are playing too. and as a bonus cup, it is also the world premiere of dino's animated video for the skyflakes song "bad thoughts." this party will be off the hook.
*** SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th @ the canvas gallery, san francisco. 8pm. $5. all ages. ***
it is elsie monster's birthday, and she is throwing a virgo-inspired party. aside from the c-hills, the skyflakes, puddingstone, and sugarpuss are bringing the noise.
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