Rademacher with Airborne Tour Diary : Day 1

Our first day of tour was a blast.

For those not in the loop, we are embarking on a six-week west coast tour that includes twelve dates with LA locals made good The Airborne Toxic Event and The Henry Clay People.

Our first night was at the House of Blues in San Diego.

I couldn't sleep well the night before, woke up at 6 AM, and then we drove 7 hours from Fresno to the venue. On the way down, we stopped at our friend (and Greer's mom) Jo-Anne's house to pick up the new RIP GARDENSIDE CD. We had all the copies delivered there. We picked up the box and continued down to SD.

On the way, we popped in a CD to take a listen. To our dismay and horror, we discovered that every single copy has clips, noise, distortion and skips. This is a major bummer. I have to call the manufacturer today and ask him to replace them as soon as possible. But, essentially, the CD we wanted to sell on tour won't be available. Que lastima.

After that, we got to the venue and things settled down. The staff at the House of Blues was really, really cool. That is kind of rare for us. We know a few good sound guys and stuff, but it is great to see a really nice group of people working hard to make the night go well.


We played first, to a small crowd. My amp fell over like two or three times during the set, but that wasn't such a big deal. Annoying, but not the end of the world. We had one little bump when we were playing the song "Arkansas" -- I jacked up the intro and came in early, but most folks probs didn't notice.

I think I would give our performance a B. But we have ample time to step it up a notch while we're out on the road. By the time we get to noisepop, we should be pretty solid.

The Henry Clay People played second and put on an enjoyable show, unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the shrimp po'boy that I had ordered, so I spent a large portion of the set in the greenroom wolfing down crustaceans. I shall try and listen more tonight. They have two new members.

The Airborne Toxic Event, on the other hand, got my undivided attention. I haven't seen them live in over a year and all the touring and practice has payed off. They played wonderfully. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to get as into the set as I did. Some of the new material is great. The stage antics are cool. And the level of musicianship is high. These kids can play. I was impressed.

There are some cool photos that capture the vibe of their set over here :

http://flickr.com/photos/chickrawker/tags/airbornetoxicevent/

Tonight we're playing the Henry Fonda. Which is way bigger than the room we had last night. Should be an eye opener. I think this will be the largest crowd we've ever performed for.

Also, our friend Josiah from Light FM, sent us an MP3 of a new tune that we recorded with him. It sounds really good! Hurrah.