Aug. 2 - El Paso @ Bombadier's

We left Austin, TX on Sunday, Aug. 2 at around 10:30 a.m. and headed out to our first show of the tour in El Paso, TX. After about an 8 hour drive we arrived at the scheduled venue: Hiney's Bar and Grill. Dave and I got there pretty early......somewhere around 6pm or so. Ready to stretch our feet, we got out of the tour vehicle, which is for now known as THE SPOOK because of its shiny black coating. After stepping in to the venue, we realized it was very much like El Paso's version of a Hooter's. As we began laughing at the situation, we decided we definitely were ready for our first beers of the trip. So we stroll up to the bartender, who's wearing nothing but extremely short, tight, spandex type shorts and a tiny red tank top, and ordered ourselves some 24 oz. Fireman 4's on draft.

In typical fashion, after a bit of beer, we stepped out for a smoke on their patio. Still no sign of the promoter...........therefore, we decided to kill some time talking to some of the locals. 3 mexicanos and their chubby female friend came out to the patio and joined us. They quickly began to explain to us that they were rolling on Ecstasy. They all worked for the Reliant call center........if you don't know about Reliant, they are a huge energy provider in Texas including areas of Houston, El Paso, Pasadena etc. Also, they are responsible for Reliant Stadium, where many concerts are held and home of the Houston Texans. Anyway, so these kids are completely rolling hard and talking about the party scene in El Paso in all it's glory. Ha!

We bullshitted with those cats for a while, still waiting on the promoter. Finally, he shows up......a gentleman by the name of Charles Hurley. The first thing he tells us is that there's been a problem with the venue and that the show is actually going to moved to another place Bombadier's. This actually turned out being better for us. It's Hell Paso.......it's tour.....that shit happens. So we were lucky enough to catch our new friends Papermoons from Austin, TX as we were leaving for Bombadier's..........otherwise they wouldn't have known the show had moved and would have been completely shit out of luck. Bombadier's ended up being a really fun show......Papermoons were awesome. If you've never heard them check them out here: http://www.myspace.com/thepapermoonsband

After they played, we went up and did our thing...........as all the jager bombs and Dos Esquis started kicking in. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun. The end of the night found with a collection of drunken musicians from all the bands getting together and singing strange covers of Tool's "Sober", Knockin' On Heaven's Door, some Black Crowes and more........totally fucking silly! We'll be posting pics really soon...........all in all a good show.......lots of good peeps, some friends in the audience, met some new ones, sold the new record, and got paid. Gotta love guarantees........pics coming soon. We'd like to thank and give a huge shout out to Vito Gonzalez, who is my brother from another mother, for coming out and bringing friends. Also, thank you so much for letting us crash on your couches and the drinks. We woke up hungover and began heading to Phoenix............the hottest place on earth!