Oakland, California

The bay area hosts one of the most amazing cities in the country, San Francisco, but we were playing in Oakland, one of California’s armpits. So be it. In Oakland we arrived at a coffee shop slash restaurant with a small patio in back for smokers and a small room off to the side where we would set up and play. On the odd yellowish walls of this room hung cryptic artwork depicting cartoonish figures with Buffalo, I did not catch the meaning, but enjoyed the work regardless. The artwork and the brightly colored walls may have been perfectly suited for a child’s nursery, but instead we would fill this room with noise and clean out the caffeinated ears of the small crowd. The show somehow happened in this odd space and I believe we made it through the performance relatively unscathed.

After a few more cups of coffee than I needed, an old friend Meliss, took us over to her neck of the woods in Berkeley. We spent a few hours at a bar in the area abusing our livers and playing darts. Outlasting the bar, we moved to the street, where we spent several more hours hanging with Meliss and avoiding the end of the night. Meliss and her boyfriend Shawn were kind enough to let us all crash on their floor when the night finally did end.