1/13/09 The Stage Door MT. SHASTA, CA
after a lazy morning in Stockton, we beelined north toward the great mountain looming in the distance. Mt. Shasta is known to many to be an energy vortex and we certainly can't deny such claims based on the fact that every time we've been there there's

locals The Exorcism of Wilford Brimley opened the night with their hard to pin down proggy eclectic shreddery. with two of them still in high school, they helped get out a younger crowd. it was rad. they were a lot of fun. and big thanks to our friend Sarabecca who with the help of her promotional arm Girl Genius Music Promotions turned this Tuesday on its head. check out the video of the last song of our encore below... not the best of quality, but you get a good sense of the party... thanks to our "tour manager" Rachael for the footage...
"PANCAKES" at the end of our encore:
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we stayed that night with our friends Esther and Richard whom we met when we toured through Shasta with the beloved Evy Llyan... we had a great time with them and they were very generous with their space and even surprised us with post-show snacks when we got there! major bonus.
1/14/09 Sam Bond's Garage EUGENE, OR

afterwards we saddled up the Ghost Ghost and headed to Portland... we were psyched. it was a joyous ride all the way there. we rolled in to the Mees lair around 2:30 in the AM and did our best to contain our excitement and ease ourself into sleep...
1/15/09 Doug Fir PORTLAND, OR
this in many ways was the culmination of tour... we hatched the vision for this show while in Wyoming waiting for James Brown -- the Grown Children tour wagon -- to get fixed in the midst of our tour out to CMJ in New York City with Jared Mees and co. the rest of the tour was pretty much built around it. not only was it our first time back to Portland since Music Fest Northwest in September, but it was a reunion of sorts for us and our beloved family, the entourage, our teammates JARED MEES and THE GROWN CHILDREN
this show was sooooooo much fun. some other PDX buddies WORLD'S GREATEST GHOSTS opened the show. they absolutely destroy. please check them out. and they're good people. thankful to keep such good company. by the middle of their set the place was pretty well filled out... i think the rest of this can be told in some pics (all of these below were taken by Sam Guerrero):
WORLD'S GREATEST GHOSTS

FINN RIGGINS



JARED MEES and THE GROWN CHILDREN


there are a bunch more photos from the Doug Fir that Sam Guerrero took if you go to the TenderLoving Empire flickr site. or there are a bunch more as well as others from our tour at myspace.com/finnriggins
the Doug Fir show was rowdy. tons of old and new friends there. it was a ton of fun. thanks to everyone that came out and to everyone that helped make it happen.
1/16/09 IKE Box SALEM, OR

1/17/09 day off. PORTLAND, OR
goes completely against my nature to purposely schedule a day off on a Saturday of tour, but we desperately wanted some quality time with people we love that we don't get to see very often. all of this happened on this day. if we were lucky enough to spend time with you on this day and you're reading this right now know that we are very grateful for the time we spent together. it was an amazing day. it will not be recounted here for we saw and hugged and played with too many awesome people to go into all the gory details. just know that we love you and look forward to more of what we had on this day. THANK YOU.
this is a piece of truth we found in our friend Lucas's OZ Cafe:

1/18/08 Fort George Brewery ASTORIA, OR
had a nice luxurious morning before piling us, our "tour manager" Rachael, Jared and Brianne Mees and Jeni Rose into the Ghost Ghost and taking a family road trip over to the Oregon Coast and the mouth of the Columbia and more importantly the beloved home of the Goonies... Astoria, OR... we rolled in as the sun had just set and decided

show was at the Fort George Brewery as part of their Sunday night Astoria Hideouts series. they fed us some fine fine morsels and we set up and played for close to two hours. ended up playing lots of old stuff and sort of aired out the rep. it was really fun and a great end to this little west coast tour. had a great time with Jared and Brianne all weekend, but the family roadtrip capped it off nicely. especially with the addition of Jeni Rose.
we headed back to Portland after the show. and slept in the next day before heading back to Idaho and our new home in Boise.
thanks to everyone that made this little tour sooooooo much fun. really. thank you. it wouldn't have been the same without you.
here are a couple of pretty photos on our drive home:
MT. HOOD
COLUMBIA GORGE
///reporting for all of us finn rigginses.
///love,
///gilbert