Hippieville, OR

Tuesday, September 11, 13:00 in the bus somewhere in Northern California.

Northern California. One of the most beautiful places I've ever driven through. Already on our first tour here I fell in love with the scenery. This morning that also had a nice smokey flavour since there was a forest fire up on the mountains.

Last night we played the Hawthorne Theatre in Portland, OR. Venue's not even close to the downtown area. I guess the area is indeed called Hawthorne. Hawthorne Boulevard is another one of my favourite areas in the USA. Sort of a hippy village with a rather European feel to it. Or should I say Canadian. Nice bars, coffee places, little shops and first and foremost: Crossroads Music. A used vinyl record store that hosts several sellers under the same roof. We've been there every time we've visited the area and every time I've also found something interesting to buy. This time was no different. Prices are rather reasonable as well. I had a big pile of LPs and 12" singles with only $70. As regular customers we do get a discount nowadays too! Blackfoot, The Johnny Van Zant Band, Blackfoot, etc.

I didn't wander far from the venue. There is pretty much everything you need really close. In Vancouver I didn't have a single drop of alcohol and right next to the venue in Hawthorne was a Fred Meyers store with probably the beverage section you'll find in the USA I decided to reward myself with Blackthorne cider. Nice. And later also some Strongbow. It was a sort of a long day again, waiting for the showtime, but not that bad. Nice sunny weather and cider.

Venue again is not the best possible. It is sort of a nice and comfy for others, except the bands. Basically no backstage at all. No private toilet, let alone a shower. Still I sort of like the venue, probably mainly because of the surroundings though. If there is one venue that I am willing to forgive it's showerlessness it is Hawthorne Theatre.

We did indeed play a tighter set yesterday. Songs had quicker starts and we sort of kicked ass in general too. Audience was great too. Lots of crowdsurfing and stagediving. There was a minor fuckup with Kalle's wireless and my monitor's cable was broken as well. Other than that, all was good. Except for the bottle shower of course.

We had a sort of an early bus call at 1:30. We did have some old friends sitting with us till then. Rather relaxed evening. Since the drive to San Francisco is rather long and the long days sitting in the bus lounge are slowly eating you from inside I tried to stay up late so that I would sleep late too. I sort of managed. I did stay up late, so that went well, but I still woke up after 5h of sleep. Seriously annoying. We're still at least an hour and a half away from San Francisco and I've already been up for almost 5 hours. This is getting rather boring.

Anyway. We're on our way.