Finn Riggins Bathroom Graffiti Blog

oh the places you'll go...

2009-11-06T17:32:00.012-07:00

Ok... so here's some stuff from our stint on the road so far this fall... it's out of order... but it's here...

Doesn't everyone want to be on the list? This was in the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco.

From the Blue Moon Tavern in Seattle... most everyone I know likes ice cream...

When all else fails you can just reference a movie line...this is from the Hut in Tucson AZ

where truer words ever spoken in a ladies room at a bar... still from the Hut

the last from the Hut... sometimes you love things so much you forget how to spell simple words...

i'm pretty sure that this was also from the Blue Moon in Seattle... but mostly I like that it was on the ceiling...

This was a sign in a Thai food place in San Francisco... I always wash my hands after watching network news...

Starting with the best from the past...

2009-10-31T16:12:00.003-06:00

It's overdue for me to start this blog... I've wanted to do it for a while now... One of the things about being on the road so much is getting the experience of seeing A LOT of public restrooms, and thus a lot of bathroom graffiti. I wanted to start out with sharing my favorite graffiti from our previous adventures. The pictures are from the ladies room at the SOUNDPONY in Tulsa OK... I'll follow soon with the nuggets from the current tour... enjoy...

new location for blog updates

2009-09-21T14:45:00.002-06:00

hey y'all. just wanted to make sure you knew that our tour blog is now being hosted at FINNRIGGINS.COM so go visit us over there and continue to keep up with our travels!!

thanks!
FR

new album VS WILDERNESS + Fall 2009 Tour of the Western States

2009-09-03T13:23:00.006-06:00

oh man.
been lettin this blog get dusty this summer... but for good reason! lots of exciting things have been in the works. our new full length album is done! it's called VS WILDERNESS and we're super excited about it. it will be officially released nationwide on OCT 13th and once again the amazing folks at Tender Loving Empire handling everything with it. in fact, you can pre-order the album from them right now, follow this link: VS WILDERNESS PRE-ORDER

also, we're excited to announce that the new album will be available two weeks early exclusively through iTunes on September 29th.

once again Lloyd E Winter IV did all the album artwork and it's absolutely gorgeous. pumped to share it with y'all!!

which we'll be doing via a monster Tour of the Western States this Fall!! including a nice stretch of shows with Built To Spill and Disco Doom in November. so excited for all of these and to get out there and see y'all and share all these new tunes with you. as for all of our Midwest, Eastern and Southern friends, we apologize for the delay, but we promise we'll be out there in the springtime. thank god.

FINN RIGGINS FALL TOUR 2009

9/19 PORTLAND, OR -- Music Fest Northwest @ East End
9/24 BEND, OR @ Silver Moon Brewery w/ Church
9/25 LA GRANDE , OR @ The Crawlspace w/ Church + Yeah Great Fine
9/26 GARDEN CITY (boise), ID @ Visual Arts Collective w/ Talkdemonic + Church
9/30 MISSOULA, MT @ The Badlander w/ Drunken Prayer + Broken Valley Roadshow
10/1 SPOKANE, WA @ The Empyrean w/ Little Teeth
10/2 CLARKSTON, WA @ Hogan's w/ The Murrs
10/3 MOSCOW, ID @ 1912 Community Center w/ The Holiday Friends + Rhythmmemory
10/6 BOISE, ID @ Record Exchange
10/7 PENDLETON, OR @ Pendleton Center for the Arts
10/8 MCCALL, ID @ Forester's w/ Jared Mees & The Grown Children
10/9 GARDEN CITY (boise), ID @ Visual Arts Collective CD RELEASE PARTY w/ Le Fleur + Boy Eats Drum Machine + Jared Mees & The Grown Children + A Seasonal Disguise + Vagerfly
10/10 PORTLAND, OR @ Berbati’s Pan PDX CD RELEASE PARTY w/ Jared Mees & The Grown Children + World's Greatest Ghosts + Typhoon
10/12 SALEM, OR @ The Space w/ Phantom!
10/13 OLYMPIA, WA @ Kitty X House
10/14 BREMERTON, WA @ The Hi-Fidelity Lounge
10/15 BELLINGHAM, WA @ Whaam All Ages @ The Old Foundry w/ Go Slowpoke + Keaton Collective
10/16 SEATTLE, WA @ Blue Moon w/ Doctor Doctor
10/17 EUGENE, OR @ house show w/ The Daveys
10/18 ASHLAND, OR @ Alex's Restaurant w/ Kites & Crows
10/19 MT SHASTA, CA @ The Stage Door w/ The Lottery
10/20 CHICO, CA @ Chico State University --noontime--
10/22 SAN FRANCISCO, CA @ Hemlock Tavern w/ The Dont's + Total Hound
10/23 SANTA CRUZ, CA @ The Crepe Place
10/24 SANTA BARBARA, CA @ Muddy Waters Cafe w/ Verna Beware
10/28 LOS ANGELES, CA @ Silverlake Lounge w/ Starving Daughters
10/29 SAN DIEGO, CA @ Bar Pink
10/30 TUCSON, AZ @ The Hut
10/31 LAS CRUCES, NM @ halloween house show
11/1 PHOENIX, AZ @ The Ruby Room
11/3 PROVO, UT @ house show w/ Shark Speed
11/4 SALT LAKE CITY, UT @ The Woodshed w/ Shark Speed
11/5 LOGAN, UT @ Why Sound
11/6 POCATELLO, ID @ Benton Street w/ Spondee
11/7 REXBURG, ID @ Hogi Yogi's Attic w/ Spondee
11/11 BOISE, ID @ Neurolux
11/12 MOSCOW, ID @ John's Alley
11/13 PORTLAND, OR @ Wonder Ballroom w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/14 PORTLAND, OR @ Wonder Ballroom w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/15 EUGENE, OR @ Wow Hall w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/17 BELLINGHAM, WA @ The Nightlight w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/18 VANCOUVER, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/19 SEATTLE, WA @ The Showbox w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/20 SEATTLE, WA @ The Showbox w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
11/21 SPOKANE, WA @ Knitting Factory w/ Built To Spill + Disco Doom
12/2 SALT LAKE CITY, UT @ Kilby Court
12/3 VAIL, CO @ Agave
12/4 DENVER, CO @ Hi-Dive w/ The Pseudo Dates + Vitamins
12/5 NEDERLAND, CO @ First Street Pub

more december dates to be announced soon. keep up with updates at myspace.com/finnriggins

see you soon!
the finn rigginses

spring NW tour!!

2009-04-28T10:40:00.012-06:00

updates updates updates.

rad shows the last couple of weeks. a big Benefit for the Boise Bicycle Project at the Visual Arts Collective on April 17th with the freight train of fun Jared Mees & The Grown Children and our fellow Boise rippers Le Fleur and Juntura. raise a bunch of money for the BBP and had a whale of a time. the next day, The Grown Children and us headed to La Grande for another amazing chapter in the epic annuals of The Crawlspace... offically Crawlspace VI. with Test Audiences and City of Animals who were better than ever. a surprise set from pretty radical travelling troubadors Come Gather Round Us sealed the deal for what was possibly one of the best Crawlspace shows ever...

thanks to our buddy Shaun Daniel, here's a glimpse into the crawlspace vortex... and of one of our new songs... :
"Wake" by Finn Riggins (Live at Crawlspace VI)

then last friday we helped host a sweaty sweaty dance party at Fresshies in Hailey... a classic indeed. Fresshies never fails. they know how to bring it and our love affair is a magnificent one. on Saturday we played a private birthday party in Fairfield at the ancient Breezie's Outlaws Saloon. it was off the hook. amazing people. amazing stuff on the walls. amazing party.

in between all this we've been finishing up writing for the new record and preparing for our little NW tour... starts tomorrow. as soon as we get back, we head in to the studio for 4 days. followed by the shows with Built To Spill. busy times. but the big ball is rolling and we're excited for it all.

below are the next month of shows, as always, help getting the word to people in these areas is appreciated to the power of forever.

4/29 MISSOULA, MT @ The Badlander w/ The Chalfonts + The Magic Square
*4/30 LEWISTON, ID @ Lewis & Clark State College SUB Ampitheatre 11am-1pm
4/30 MOSCOW, ID @ John's Alley w/ The Holiday Friends
5/1 SANDPOINT, ID @ Three Glasses
5/2 CLARKSTON, WA @ Hogan's Pub w/ Bart Budwig
*5/3 MOSCOW, ID @ Moscow Renaissance Fair in East City Park
*5/5 SPOKANE, WA @ The Empyrean w/ local guests
5/6 SEATTLE, WA @ The Comet Tavern w/ The Globes + The Glasses + The Magic Mirrors
*5/7 PORTLAND, OR @ Tender Loving Empire for 1st Thursday w/ Church
5/8 BELLINGHAM, WA @ The Rogue Hero w/ The Russians + The Mumbles
5/15 GARDEN CITY (boise), ID @ VaC opening for BUILT TO SPILL. w/ Juntura
*5/16 EAGLE, ID @ Eagle Island Experience Festival w/ Built to Spill + others
5/20 BOISE, ID @ Neurolux opening for MIKE WATT
*5/22 HAILEY, ID @ Sun Valley Brewery w/ Tartufi + Low Red Land
*5/23 the sticks, ID @ Ranch Fest w/ Tartufi + Low Red Land + Test Audiences + Le Fleur + Hillfolk Noir + Milo Duke + Piers Lamb + stars + bbq + camping + beer + fun

*denotes ALL AGES show
full details at www.myspace.com/finnriggins

check out Lisa playing drums:

and hot Cam:

to see more photos of hot Cam and his hairdos and more by Rachael Dara Fisher go here

also, here are a couple of photos from the Cherry City Music Festival we played in Salem, OR a few weeks ago... courtesy of Sam Guerrero:

for more photos from CCMF and from the Tender Loving Empire vaults go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tenderlovingempire/

that's it for now. more soon.
love
gilbert

thank god it's springtime

2009-04-13T16:01:00.008-06:00

took a nice long break from this particular blogosphere.... wanted to throw some updates your way...

Boise has been treating us very very very well. we've been loving it here and the music scene we walked in to has been very welcoming and is particularly vibrant right now... which has been exciting.

back in February we took part in a really cool event that featured 26 Boise bands over two nights at the Visual Arts Collective for ROTATING TONGUES 2 -- a local festival and live compilation recording. each band played one warm up song and then two brand new songs they'd never recorded or performed live before. it was an amazing event to witness and be a part of. the fruit from that endeavor is being harvest this coming weekend as the double disc compilation is being officially released on Saturday April 18th -- National Independent Record Store Day. our new song The Collider kicks off disc 2. you can get a sneakpeak of that tune on our myspace site as well as some brief back story on the song on our myspace blog... for more info on the record as a whole go to www.rotatingtongues.com. very excited to hear the whole thing because all the bands really rose to the occasion.

that event really got the ball rolling for what's been a spring very focused on new material as we prepare to record a new album in May... we've been starting to air out some of the new songs at recent shows including this past weekend in Oregon... great shows in Pendleton and Ashland and capped off with the Tender Loving Empire / Boy Gorilla Showcase at the IKE Box in Salem for the Cherry City Music Festival. what a fantastic weekend. we had a blast and want to thank everyone that came out and rocked out. and thanks for all the feedback on the new material! there will probably be some photos posted from CCMF on the TLE blog soon...

been playing a bunch of fun local and regional shows this spring... including 3 days with LOW RED LAND just over a week ago, a sweet St. Patrick's Day show in Boise with IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN and MICROBABIES, a wild set at Tubapalooza up in McCall in a snowstorm -- i had snowdrifts on my keyboards!! -- it was amazing. also a fun benefit back in March for a really cool and crafty crew doing some rad things for the Boise community called THE MEND PROJECT. also a couple of great trips back up to our old stomping grounds of Hailey for shows at Fresshies and the Sun Valley Brewery and an epic bithday party for our friend Tibby in her sister's living room... and lots of great stuff at the coolest venue in the NW -- Visual Arts Collective -- located in Garden City, which just happens to be in the middle of Boise... weird, i know, but true. and awesome

and that was all during our "break"... in two weeks we leave for a 2 week NW tour and as soon as we get back from that we go in to the studio to track the new record (slated to be released in September on Tender Loving Empire!!) followed immediately with two shows with Built To Spill then a show with Mike Watt & The Missingmen then our big Ranch Fest party out near Fairfield on the Bouiss ranch for Cam's birthday featuring a bunch of our band friends (Tartufi + Low Red Land + Test Audiences + Le Fleur + Hillfolk Noir + Milo Duke + Piers Lamb)... all in the 2 weeks right after tour... so yeah, May is going to be pretty crazy. all very very very exciting stuff though... we won't be doing any major US touring again until the fall when the record comes out, but we'll be playing locally and regionally a decent amount this spring and summer as well as enjoying Idaho while we're here... definitely need to get outside in the mountains!! our most up-to-date show schedule is at www.myspace.com/finnriggins. lots and lots of stuff on the horizon... more info on the new album to come to light soon soon soon....

oh yeah, another new track will be released in about a month on the new Tender Loving Empire compilation that will be released on May 16th. our tune MAHONEY is on disc 2. this year's TLE comp is bigger and badder than ever. one full disc of only Portland acts and one disc for non-Portlanders. some names you might recognize on this year's comp: Starfucker, Jared Mees & The Grown Children, Tune-Yards, Boy Eats Drum Machine, Kickball, World's Greatest Ghosts, Super XX Man, Dirty Mittens, Typhoon, Low Red Land, Halloween Swim Team, The Dont's, Geographer, Small Sur and on and on and on. sooooo exciting. for more info go to www.tenderlovingempire.com

anyways, that's a quick run through of what's been happening and what's going to happen. will try and keep this a little more up-to-date as we move forward...

thanks for listening.
on behalf of all of us here at camp finn riggins...
>>>>>gilbert<<<<<<<

PS if you haven't already found us on facebook... we're right here

JANUARY 2009 WEST COAST TOUR PART II: mt shasta! eugene! portland! salem! astoria!

2009-01-26T01:32:00.020-07:00

///the tour headed north and to chillier weather once again, but we continued to be blessed with plenty of sunshine and great shows...

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 been an element of magic in the air. this night would bring that front and center. despite being a Tuesday night, a bunch of people came out and turned The Stage Door into a rippin good time.

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

woke up in the morning at Esther and Richard's and when we walked out to head to breakfast we found our driver side mirror in the middle of the road as someone had clipped in the middle of the night and didn't bother to fess up to their crime... it was mostly funny, but kind of bummer as the cost of fixing it loomed over us... but if there's one thing tour teaches you that's the ability to roll with the punches... and so we headed to the Black Bear Diner and indulged in a glorious breakfast with the sun shining up over Mt. Shasta, and when we got back to the van we borrowed some duct tape from Richard and strapped the shattered mirror back on and continued north...

it was a pretty drive up into Oregon and we rolled in to Eugene just after dark amidst an appropriate amount of fog. it had been over a year since we'd last played in Eugene since we had to cancel our June date there at the last minute due to Cam's grandma falling ill... so we were excited to be back at Sam Bond's Garage and we had hooked up with THE DAVEYS once again who we'd missed playing with that time... this ended up being a really fun show. The Daveys were a blast and Sam Bond's never fails us. met a bunch of rad people and got the big disco ball going round and round and round. and the fog outside only added to the mystery of it all.

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

friday night marked our return to our favorite former morgue in Oregon... the IKE Box. it was another foggy night as we drove in, which seemed perfect in so many ways. show that night was good. nice crew of kids out and up for the adventure. local DSR opened with his haunting tunes and voice. really enjoyed his set. Julian from Mill Race sat in on keys for a couple of tunes, which was rad. Jared Mees & The Grown Children followed and were in hilarious form. like i told them at the end of their set, i really do enjoy their sets that are 2 parts music 1 part comedy. it was a riot. rad rad rad Salem trio MILL RACE followed. we've played with them several times now and absolutely love their quirk and skill. pretty wild stuff. we closed the night out. it was good. i sweated a lot. which is good. there was dancing. and hooting and hollering. all things good. we're thankful to have such nice people come to our shows when we're away from home. THANK YOU.

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 we'd take advantage of the joy ride offered by the huge bridge bridging the Columbia and connecting Washington and Oregon... so we sailed our trusty steed up and over and across the mighty Columbia and then back across and over and down into the nice little town of Astoria...

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

JAN 2009 WEST COAST TOUR PART I: Reno, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sacramento! Low Red Land and more!

2009-01-23T10:26:00.015-07:00

///another west coast tour in the bag. it was a fantastic one. we're thankful for the springlike weather in the Bay Area and even up in the Portland area -- lots of sunshine and clear roads -- and thankful to our "tour manager" Rachael, to Low Red Land, to Jared Mees and The Grown Children and to everyone else that came out to the shows, everyone that played with us, danced, put us up, pitched in in any sort of way... we had a blast. here's a recap:

1/7/09 Red Rock Bar RENO, NV

our "tour manager" Rachael had flown out from North Carolina to help keep our mast pointed skyward and our ship sailing in the right direction... for the most part, it was her first taste of the west... and we were excited to share it with her. after a couple of days of taking in some of the finer things Idaho has to offer, we packed her and her massive suitcase (appropriately nicknamed the "man eater") into the Ghost Ghost and sailed into the barren wastelands of Nevada for an 8 hour drive through the desert... not the best introduction to the West, but an appropriate one.

show that night was at the Red Rock Bar, an art bar of sort that our friends in Portland-based No Go Know had recommended to us. we played downstairs in the billiard room, a cozy living room like space. the place was rad, and we were psyched to be in better hands in Reno this time around as the clientele and staff were quality folks. that and both locals we played with were stellar and great to work with. Check out The Touques... they played first and are sweet. then after us The Copied Copied played. they were hilarious and really fantastic. power went out toward the end of their set and they did a good job of rolling with it.

after the show, we piled in and made the trek through the foggy night over Donner Pass and down in to San Francisco... we rolled in around 5am with a spirited mustachioed Mark Devito awaiting us at his apartment in The Mission....

for those of you unfamiliar, Mark is the drummer for Low Red Land, he hosted us for the next 5 days... he took very good care of us... and he kicked my ass in basketball a day later...

1/8/09 Monterey Live MONTEREY, CA

this was the first of 4 shows with LOW RED LAND who absolutely destroy and have become like brothers to us all. so we were psyched to be getting a good solid dose of them. we got in town just as the sun was setting and headed to the beach to take in the Monterey Bay. saw some seals swimming around and a bunch of tide pool life. it was beautiful out.

show that night was great. Monterey Live is a cool little place right in downtown. nice small theater vibe to it. good crowd out. Low Red Land sounded as good as ever. local rockers Beezle closed the night out to a rowdy crowd of local lovers. we made a bunch of new friends.

1/9/09 The Crepe Place SANTA CRUZ, CA

woke up in San Francisco and took advantage of yet another beautiful day as it got up to 60 degrees and was incredibly sunny out. Mark and I met some of his friends up at a basketball court on Knob Hill from which you can see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. while Lisa, Rachael and Cam walked around the nearby wharf and some other sites, i got absolutely punished on the basketball court proving to myself once again that i need to find more ways to get exercise. the view was awesome though.

we rolled in to Santa Cruz well after dark, but we were stoked to be back. had a great show at The Crepe Place in June and this one didn't disappoint. ate some unreal crepes and then rocked the place out. Adam and his crew are awesome. once again Low Red Land lived up to my internal hype. former locals March of The Mannequins closed the night out with their three-guitar assault and good humor. their van looked like a monster truck. it was amazing.

1/10/09 El Rio SAN FRANCISCO, CA

went on a nice walk through the mission on our way to brunch at Luna Park where Mark works and was working this day.... had the most amazing breakfast. the most amazing french toast, bloody marys, fruit, eggs, etc etc etc. and a smores fondue for dessert. it was ridiculous. spent the afternoon sleeping it off.

show that night was off the hook. our friend Lynne from TARTUFI had hooked the show up and was bartending the whole night. made for a pretty wild show. El Rio is rad, has an outdoor area and a separate bar area and a show area. lots of people everywhere. caught up with Joe from THE DONT'S as well as Brian from Tartufi and lots of other SF friends. really good to be back there.

locals THE PROVISIONALS opened the show. really dug their set. dancey and fun tunes. they were followed by BY SUNLIGHT from Seattle and their epic tunes. their myspace describes them as Steely Dan Real Estate which i'd say is fairly accurate. check em out. good guys. Robert (guitar player) recorded the new Low Red Land record that we absolutely love. we played after them and then LOW RED LAND crushed the place to end the night.

afterwards, sleep was written off as a last cause and we romped around until the sun came up... it was hilarious.

oh yeah, it was a full moon... i'm sure that had something to do with it...

1/11/09 day off. san francisco, ca

we embraced this day off with open arms... granted the lack of sleep the night before helped... we pretty much married ourselves to the couch all day and some of us boys watched a bunch of football. Cam and Rachael, who had managed more sleep the night before, showed some initiative and cruised out to Half Moon Bay for part of the day. they get a merit badge. then we all made dinner together and went to bed early.

1/12/09 The Press Club. SACRAMENTO, CA

monday night Club Pow! at The Press Club. we played first, then geared up for a night of reverie with our buddy Travis Silvers who'd made the trek up from Stockton for the show. Low Red Land played after us and we clung to every moment as it was our last show with them on this trip. they were louder and better than ever. you could tell that they were in their element and could really let 'er rip. it was rad.

after them, a sweet female fronted band from San Francisco called LOVE LIKE FIRE played. really enjoyed their set. really nice people too. THE DEFINITE ARTICLES from SF and Sac closed the night out.

afterwards we said our sad sad goodbyes to Mark, Neil and Ben of Low Red Land and then sailed our landsharks off to Stockton to crash with T. Silvers for the night.

///good place for a break. consider that Part I. i'll post the rest of the tour soon. i'm off to take a walk and breathe some fresh air...

///for all of us finn rigginses
///love, gilbert

PS there are a bunch more tour photos posted on myspace.com/finnriggins in the January 2009 West Coast Tour album

2009! Boise! West Coast Tour! NYE! La Grande! Wow!

2009-01-06T01:14:00.007-07:00

///wow. been just over 2 weeks since we posted here... and so much has happened... christmas, 60 inches of snow, lots and lots of shoveling, lots and lots of cookies eaten, wild and super fun show at Fresshies in Hailey, incredible New Year's Eve show at The Crawlspace in La Grande, OR with a rad rad group of people and the amazing Test Audiences crew and our beloved and longtime friend Milo Duke... a fantastic kickoff to 2009... still reeling from it's awesomeness....

and as of a few days ago, Finn Riggins has officially relocated to Boise, which we're very very excited about. all kinds of great things happening around here and it's exhilarating being in the midst of it all. so much so that we intend to stay relatively close to home for the next several months with no extended touring planned until at least May as we work on a new record... except for this little two week West Coast Tour that we leave for tomorrow...

1/7 RENO, NV @ Red Rock Studios
*1/8 MONTEREY, CA @ Monterey Live
*1/9 SANTA CRUZ, CA @ The Crepe Place
*1/10 SAN FRANCISCO, CA @ El Rio
*1/12 SACRAMENTO, CA @ The Press Club for CLUB POW!
1/13 MOUNT SHASTA, CA @ The Stage Door
1/14 EUGENE, OR @ Sam Bond's Garage
# 1/15 PORTLAND, OR @ Doug Fir
# 1/16 SALEM, OR @ the IKE Box
1/18 ASTORIA, OR @ Fort George Brewery
1/20 BOISE, ID @ TBA -- Obama inauguration party!!
1/27 GARDEN CITY, ID @ Visual Arts Collective
1/29 SPOKANE, WA @ Baby Bar
1/30 MOSCOW, ID @ 1912 Center -- Friends of the Clearwater Benefit
1/31 KELLOGG, ID @ Dirty Ernie's -- USCSA Collegiate Ski Races after party!!

* w/ Low Red Land (san francisco)
# w/ Jared Mees and The Grown Children (portland)

for full details on each show visit our myspace site www.myspace.com/finnriggins

here's a good picture of Milo Duke celebrating late night on New Year's Eve...

wow.
see you soon.

///gilbert

Utah! Southeastern Idaho! ping-pong ping-pong! dance prtys! snow and ice age!

2008-12-18T03:09:00.014-07:00

///last weekend was fun. super fun. we played in Logan, Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah and in a fun little college town near Napoleon Dynamite country called Pocatello, ID. we played with friends. it snowed. we played ping-pong till our elbows were sore. the weekend ended with a wild dance party at the Nash. there was sweat. there was laughter. there was shady late night mexican food. there were no regrets. and only slight tummy aches.

please listen to Asher in the Rye if you want fun and classy tunes. Ashlee is awesome. played with her and Julia Mecham in Logan and SLC. we could hug them and squeeze them and love them forever.

also in love with Spondee and those holding down the Pocatello fort, the terrific and keytar wielding Warbonnet. they aided in the awesomeness saturday night in Poky. Spondee also made it down to Logan on thursday.

also check out SLC locals Patter Stats... we had a great time with them as well.

ASHER IN THE RYE 12/12/08 Kilby Court SLC, UT

ASHER IN THE RYE 12/11/08 Why Sound Logan, UT

PATTER STATS 12/12/08 Kilby Court SLC, UT

SPONDEE 12/11/08 Why Sound Logan, UT

SPONDEE 12/13/08 First National Pocatello, ID

WARBONNET 12/13/08 First National Pocatello, ID

thanks to Gary and Christina for the 16 bean soup and the ping-pong tourney.

///gilbert

Palestra.net live performance and interview 10/20/08

2008-12-10T16:50:00.004-07:00

///back on the morning of October 20th on our way to Cleveland, OH we stopped in Columbus, OH to film a live performance and interview with Palestra.net at 1305 Studios... they posted it in three separate videos and we thought it would be fun to share them with y'all... we played DeTamble Wings, Pancakes and Geology and discussed the tunes and several other hot topics... check out what came of it. thanks to Brian Phillips and the Palestra and 1305 Studio crews for having us and taking such good care of us... not sure we could've rocked before noon otherwise!! it was a lot of fun...

PART 1. DeTamble Wings

Part 2. Pancakes

Part 3. Geology

///FR

spine of idaho!! boise community radio!! super xx awesomness!!

2008-12-10T11:41:00.009-07:00

///above is the view from the top of Whitebird Hill just North of Riggins, ID... after all the miles and epic drives we've travelled all around this country, we were present once again to how incredible the north-south drive through Idaho is... what we like to call the spine of idaho... 6 hours of diverse and glorious country, most of which following either the Payette or Salmon Rivers... if you've never been, it comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... and from some folks that have driven a whole helluva lot of roads in the lower 48.

last weekend we drove that drive north for shows in Moscow, ID and Clarkston, WA with our friend and labelmate Scott Garred aka Super XX Man. and then back down the same gorgeous way for Boise Community Radio Benefit at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City on Saturday night... Super XX Man played that as well.

thursday's show was a bit of an experiment as we set Super XX Man up at the One World Cafe with local Bart Budwig for an all ages and free early show, then when that was done we started the show right down the street at John's Alley with Yarn Owl from Pullman, WA... they were rad. played with Ted and Javier before when they were in Ether Hour, really like this new project of theirs... mostly focused on Javier's songs. very cool. after them we closed the place down with a couple of long sets. the Alley was rowdy as usual and led to a late late night... thanks Simba for the late night Kenyan food!!

and thanks once again to the McMurtry's for hosting a pre-show dinner at their place with us and Scott. chicken & dumplins! oh my!

friday's show was really special because Scott grew up in Clarkston and hadn't played there in several years. we got to meet his mom Jean and she was very nice to open up her house to us and to cook us a good 'ol American breakfast in the morning! show was really fun that night. really cool crowd came out to see Super XX Man and he slayed them with a bunch of songs about growing up in Clarkston and around the Clearwater River and whatnot. heartwarming to say the least. we were excited to be back at Hogan's in general as we love the place, but this was a great added bonus. thanks again to Tony and Skate and Bailey and Sam and the rest of the Hogan's staff... they took great care of us and rocked out with us until closing time... Scott took some great pictures from here and from the whole weekend and posted them on his photo blog for the Willamette Week's Local Cut... check it out here (his camera is much nicer than mine) http://localcut.wweek.com/2008/12/08/super-xx-man-pea-and-lentil-tour-wa-and-boise-id/

a huge honor travelling and playing these shows with Scott and fun to get his insight on things. he's put out 12 albums now as Super XX Man! so cool. and he currently works as a music therapist at a mental institute in Oregon and it's obvious that he's great at this job. his 12th album "There Will Be Diamonds" just came out on Tender Loving Empire last month and it has some amazing tunes on it... definitely recommend picking it up if you haven't already...

last show of our little mini-tour was a Boise tour homecoming show for us and a benefit for Boise Community Radio, which we are really excited to support, especially as we're moving to Boise... finally the Treasure Valley has independent radio!! not fully on air yet, but well on its way once the fundage is raised. all very exciting. so thanks to Gavin + Jeff + Art Hodge + everyone else involved with helping get BCR off the ground!

show that night was at our new favorite venue -- the Visual Arts Collective or VAC. and our new friends The Very Most from Boise were nice enough to play with us... great to finally see them! Jeremy writes fantastic tunes and i have a hunch we'll be seeing a lot of them, and probably playing a bunch more together... and we'll be sharing a practice space with them come the beginning of the year!! glory glory! Scott played after them to a really really appreciative crowd. nice long set and at the end Lisa and I jumped up and sang the backup vocals on "Medication" -- a song that i absolutely love. it was really fun.

thanks to everyone that came out for the cause and to welcome us home! and for sticking around, it was a really fun show and it was great to see all your smiling faces! thanks to Jeremy Martin for donating his time behind the soundboard, and to Julia Green for donating her time and effort on the beautiful poster she did and to Sam and Anneliessa and the VAC for hosting and for being awesome.

here are some more photos from the weekend (make sure and check out Scott's photo blog!!! link above):

super spicy pad thai before the boise show...kind of got us all a little freaky...

///gilbert

Happy With What You Got Bash

2008-12-03T15:14:00.005-07:00

///we celebrated being back in Idaho and having what we have, even if it's not much, with a bunch of our Wood River Valley friends the day after Thanksgiving... Friday, Nov. 28th... in our friend Adryan's woodshop / apt. in Bellevue, ID. party started early with a potluck and big group mural effort... spirits were high. it was a fantastic way to help celebrate Adryan's birthday and being home from tour...

our buddy Piers Lamb and his band featuring Gravy McDavy (patrick) from The Maladies on lead guitar and Matt Guyer on drums got the music started with some alt-country rock and roll. we played a couple of super fun sets after that.

thanks to everyone that came out and welcomed us home. so rad to see you all. we'll be playing at Fresshies in Hailey on FRI DEC 19th. if you don't see you before then, hope to see you then.

mural turned out awesome. don't have final photos of it, but here's a couple other shots of it in progress...

///gilbert

THANKS giving

2008-11-27T11:21:00.010-07:00

///been a long year of touring and adventures for us here at camp Finn Riggins, but we'd be fools if we didn't acknowledge that it's all been made possible by the help, generosity and support of so many friends, family and colleagues around this great country... in the spirit of the holiday, we're going to do our best to give THANKS to everyone that has played whatever small or big role in helping us do what we do day in and day out...

THANKS to Mike, Deb, Phil, and Grandma Bouiss and Danielle, Alex, Lamar, Marty and Loren. to Bruce, Laura, Nina, Kevin, Heather, Josh, Jared, Gracie, Jacob, Peter, Sasha and Gianna Simpson. to Dave, Sylvia, Karen and Trina Moody. to Dan, Barb, Janet and Jerry Gilbert. to Ed and Anita Jeffs. to Sten, Susi, Bill, Barbara, Scott, Steve and Dorothy Bell. and to all of our other family both near and far away.

THANKS to Brianne and Jared Mees. to the Tender Loving Empire family. to the Grown Children -- Megan, Kevin, Sam, Jake, Jordan, Sean and Brian. to Scott and Michelle Garred and Super XX Man. to Jonny and Boy Eats Drum Machine. to Nadine Mooney. to Bob Keal and Small Sur. to Holder, Teal, Jack and the rest of the Starving Daughters. to Sam "G-Force" Guerrero, Sarah Long, Dave Nuss, Cameron Browne, Hannah from Spectre, Burnside Distribution, Lloyd E. Winter IV, Santiago Uceda, Rusty Jordan, Brent Harada, Jeni Larsen and Julia Green.

THANKS to Neil, Mark and Ben of Low Red Land. to Brian and Lynne of Tartufi. to Bill, Wayne, Josh and Annie of Test Audiences. to Rich, Marc, Barak, Ory and Steve of Woven. to Tony of Orem The Sink. to Corbie and Andy of Where The Buffalo Roamed. to Travis and Ali Ward and Hillfolk Noir.

THANKS to Travis Silvers, Milo Duke, Evy Llyan, Hope and Joseph von Stengel, Jeremy Martin, Noah Beck, Ryan and Marisa Gibler, Tune-Yards, Le Fleur, Marty Bauer, Steve Knecht, The Mutineers, Man/Miracle, The Dont's, Nat Baldwin, Asher in The Rye, The Awful Truth, Dylan Clark, The Points North, The Woodrow Wilsons, Kristin Friesen, Hello Shark, America Owns the Moon, Thomas Paul, Piers Lamb, Bob and Heidi Trombley, the Pajamma Jamma Beach Bash crew, Jerome Nobles, Brandon Thompson, Brad Schmidt and the Welgunzer crew, the Hermosa Girls, Absolutely Parched, Bella and Victoria, August and Christie Agosti, Brian and Merry, Run Rabbit Run, Bill and Muddy Waters Cafe, Abigail Noveen and Chris, Tiffany and Eric Carpenter, Wes Wallsworth, Josh Kettleshake, Jamie and the First National, Forrest Collins and Anne Devereax, Tim Hillman and Carrie Jackson, Scott LaBarbera and the Oriental Theater, Larimer Lounge, Jim McTurnan and CAT-A-TAC, Mariah Palmer and Mike and Indy, Barack and Michelle Obama, Gary Vance and Christina Osborne, Burt's Tiki Lounge (SLC), Purr Bats, Laura Goldhamer, Brooks Center Arts in Denver, Paper Bird, The Lisps, Zebra Junction, IQEQ, Ned Evett, Jeremiah, Doug and the rest of Box Awesome, Barometric, Dean Armband, The Oven, Kyle Crawford, Soundpony Lounge, Amy Brown and the Dinosaur House in Fayetteville, Roger + Chris + Ryan + Joe of The Counterlife, Robot Lake Records, The Moving Front, Jamie and the Station House Bistro in Russellville, Stan Strasner of Let's Jam Productions, William Blackart, Fort Delicious, Logan and The Godbey, Fashion Show, Love Baby Blue, White Water Tavern in Little Rock, JJ's Bohemia in Chattanooga, Coy, Antebellum, Justin Ringle, Horse Feathers, Jeremy Sharp and Kevin and Ben, Brian Smith of Telluride, The Burgundy Curtain, The Soul Bar, Kevin and Helios Eye, Shantytown in Jacksonville, David and the 511 House in Florence, Tony and Kelly, The Mountain Yellers, Daylon and Snug Harbor in Charlotte, Leah, Shuffle Magazine, Alanna and Eddie of Jews and Catholics, Black Skies, Tim and Jenny of Captain #1, Jeff and Scott and We VS The Shark and Pegasuses XL, Secret Squirrel in Athens, Werewolves, Celebration of Life crew, Bicycles and Gravel, Gemini Cricket, Jesse and Kathleen, Grey Milk, Kavarna in Atlanta, Ashley, Speedsquare, Radix and The South French Broads, the New French Bar in Asheville, Andy and Horseshoe Productions, Stephanie and Chuck of Stephanie's Id, Cherie, Rachael Dara, The Garage in Winston-Salem, Josh Neas of J's Indie Rock/Mayhem on WQFS in Greensboro, Nyos, The Blind Tiger, Waffle House for late night dining, I Was Totally Destroying It, The Pneurotics, The Nightlight in Chapel Hill, The Reservoir Bar in Chapel Hill, Gray Young, Marty Bauer, The Soapbox in Wilmington, Adam Smith and Ponchos From Peru, The Nothing Noise, The Village Tavern in Charleston, Richard and 21 Eleven in Greenville (NC), Jeff and The Spazz in Greenville (NC), 520 Entertainment, Disco Banshee, Adesola and the East Carolina University entertainment board, R3V3RB in Greenville (SC), Dup and Saint Solitude, The Illbotz, Doug Cheatwood and The Bastards of Fate, Martin's in Roanoke, Jessica Riddle + Kevin + Brian and company at WUVT in Blacksburg (VA), The Lantern in Blacksburg (VA), Dahlak in Washington DC, Michelle and Barack Obama, Paul Mitchell, Leigh McIlvaine, The Village Church in Baltimore, Cameron Blake and his band, Bob Keal, Beatbots, Caleb Stine, the Talking Head in Baltimore, Infinite Honey, Jason Dove, The M Room in Philly, Pat's Kind of Steaks in Philly, Fresh Cut Salads, Gentlemen Christ, Horse in the Sea, Shannon and Evan of Anthropic Records, Cloud Minder, Sharks VS Knives, Mark Sheehan and Sierra Grille and The Elevens in Northampton (MA), Jose Ayerve and the Nuclear Waste Management Club, Watcher, Mark Schwabe, Curious Buddies, Miranda LaPolice, Mike Borden, Connecticut College, Harmony Markey and Moultonborough Academy (NH), The Simpsons, Brett Deschenes and The Buoy in Kittery (ME), Unnatural Witch, Ray Craigie and Belmont High School (NH) concert band and theory class, The Barley House in Concord (NH), Rose Gray, Dana Unger, The Hippo, Amy Newcomb, Jason Mills, Jamie Wiener and A-9 Studios and Alex and family, Langdon St. Cafe in Montpelier (VT), Laura Rosenthal, Neil, Railroad St. House, Lincoln and Hello Shark, Radio Bean in Burlington (VT), Villanelles, Lendway, The Slip, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, The Low Anthem, Eclectic Recording Studios in Burlington (VT), Josh Hirshfeld and the CMJ Music Marathon, Fanatic, Spectre, Merrill and Patrick of Sister Suvi, The Charleston in Brooklyn, Arlene's Grocery in NYC, The Lit Lounge in NYC, Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn, Mercury Lounge in NYC, CMJ.com, sonicbids.com, Amplifier Magazine, Impose Magazine, Lost Dog Lounge in Ithaca (NY), LIZ BAGEANT, Pat's in the Flats in Cleveland, See Urchin, Marie & Cliff Hershman, Sarah Nowicki, Steve (lightning fingers), Brian and palestra.net in Columbus (OH), Tree, Big Dani and Mary, Tree's Farm in Middletown (OH) and the family around it, Burnt Grass, Rhino's All Ages in Bloomington (IN), The Cinemat in Bloomington, Busman's Holiday, Rob Freeman, Sean Magwire, Voodoo Organist, The Elbow Room in Ypsilanti (MI), Child Bite, America Owns The Moon, Tufty and Radio Radio in Indianapolis, The Elbow Room in Chicago, Cal's Liquors in Chicago, Raise High The Roof Beam, Miles from All Things Lucid and Kilo Records, Makeshift Prodigy, Can You See the Sunset (dot com), Violent Vicious and the Vagabonds, Brighton MA, Andre and The Mill in Iowa City, windmills, Anti-Civ Records in MPLS, Themes, Quadruple Double Deuce House in MPLS, Mike Gill and Dead Hipster Productions in Missoula (MT), The Badlander in Missoula (MT), Friend Friend Friend Fest and crew, The Swell Season, The Independent, Brent and The Awful Truth, Agenda Clothing in Rexburg (ID), The Really BIG Show in Pocatello (ID), Poky Free Bikes, Levi Montana Keller and Chenoa and the rest of KISU, Jamie and the First National, Warbonnett, Spondee, The Future of the Ghost, A.W. Feldt, Travis Shipley, Kilby Court in SLC, Will Sartain, The Beauty Bar in Las Vegas, Jah Funky Punkys, The Direct Method, Pulsar Presents, The Prescott Family, Boise Bicycle Project, Sam and Anneliessa and the Visual Arts Collective, Golden Spun, Low-Fi, The Crawlspace in La Grande, Waypoint Studios, Satellite Gallery, Crossing The Blues La Grande Summer Festival, The Crepe Place in Santa Cruz (CA), Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco, Frances Ferrell, Katie Poole, Chrissy Graham, Abbie Anderson, Sarabecca and Girl Genius Promotions, The Stage Door in Mt. Shasta (CA), Charles and Alex's Plaza Restaurant in Ashland (OR), Sam Bond's Garage in Eugene (OR), Millenium Music in Portland, Berbati's Pan, Southern Belle, Newspapers, No Go Know, Willamette Week, Music Fest Northwest, Nick Caceres, The Artisterty in Portland, World's Greatest Ghosts, White Fang, KBOO, Ah Holly Fam'ly, Saw Whet, Slabtown, eremy Petersen and OPB, Dornfeld, The IKE Box in Salem (OR), Breviamor, Insomniac Folklore, Seahorse, Daniel and the Yakima Sports Center, The Dimes, Peter and Great Pacific in Pendleton, Experience Music Festival, Farmer Brown's, Equal Eyes, Jeremiah James Gang, One World Cafe in Moscow (ID), John's Alley in Moscow, 1912 Center in Moscow, Moscow Food Co-op, Bookpeople in Moscow, Friends of the Clearwater, Alan Solan and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Radio Free Moscow 92.5FM Moscow, KUOI 89.3 FM Moscow, Brenda Guettler, Jables, Sara Foster, Kris Pettersen, Mary Packer, Andy Jacobson, Larson Hicks and Sterepathic Records, Voltron, Invincible Dude, Mike Wilson, Mikey's Gyros, Louise, Jerry + Amy + Ben + Abbie McMurtry, Ben Walden, Noel Palmer and Ashley Martens, Eric Martin and Julia, Nate and Carrie Lowe, Brandon Woodland and Nara Croft, Josh Ritter, Prichard Art Gallery, Kenna Eaton, Bart Budwig, and the rest of the awesome Moscow Idaho community!!!... Chrisy and The Empyrean in Spokane (WA), Blakesley Presents, Farm Circle, Cyrus Fell Down, Jimmie Denny, Josh Simon, Hockey, The Finger Complex in Olympia (WA), Shelby and Sundance Kids, Revolt & Virginia, Yoghurt, The Magic Mirrors, Michelle Hazen and Will, Flowmotion and the Summer Meltdown crew, Jessie Duvall, Tony and Skate and the rest of the Hogan's Pub in Clarkston (WA) crew, Kristen Friesen, Lewis-Clark State College, Whiskey Jacques in Ketchum (ID), Buffalo Bites in Ketchum (ID), Mati and Greenscool, RU, Tibby and Dana Plasse, The Mountain Express, Dana DuGan, Heidi and the Wicked Spud, Northern Rockies Folk Festival, Whitney + Greg + Justin + Mike + Harry from Plum TV, Jake and Adam and the rest of the Fresshies crew, Chris Simpson, Jenna, Hallie, Julie, Adryan, Luke, Craig Campbell, David Fox, Mary Poppen and the Music Garden, Erik Gillberg and The Maladies, Kari Haugen, Carrie York, Tyler, Tyson, Jeff & Daniel, Native Landscapes, BB Deck, Julia & Eric, Wes and Marina, Heather and Matt, Lyndsey, The Damphools, Hailey Music Walk, Banditos, The Silver Dollar in Bellevue (ID), Kim Stocking and the Bellevue Labor Day Festival, Hailey Farmer's Market, Ketchum Farmer's Market, Will Caldwell and Ketch'em Alive, and everyone else in the Wood River Valley that continues to support us... Music on the Mountain Festival, Ryan Peck and Music From Stanley at Redfish Lake, Patrick and the Sawtooth Music Festival, Neurolux in Boise (ID), Justin from Too Much Distortion, Gusto's in Boise, the Record Exchange, Amy Atkins and the Boise Weekly, Chad Dryden at the Idaho Statesman, Flying M Coffee Garage in Nampa (ID), The Red Machine, The Very Most, Or The Whale, Boise Community Radio, University Pulse, Jennifer Orr and Backstage Pass, the Boise Beat, Castrati, Craters of the Moon, A Seasonal Disguise, Vanessa and the Garden City Public Library, Brian and Amanda, Matt Connor, Eric Rothwell, Erica Cantrell, Ryan Furniss, Aaron Hird, Sarah Thompson, Sara Sorenson, Kamila, Built To Spill, Travis Barrett, Josh and Kali Malone, Luke Hayhurst and everyone else in the greater Boise area that continue to be a support for what we do...

THANKS to all the college and independent radio DJs and music directors that have given our records attention and helped get the word out, and to all the other radio shows and stations, weeklies, newspapers, magazines and blogs, reviewers and interviewers that have helped let people know about Finn Riggins and when we're coming to your respective areas... you continue to make a huge difference in our endeavor and we're honored.

THANKS to everyone else that's come to shows, danced, bought cds, shared food with us, shared shelter with us, shared their shower with us, shared ideas with us, and given us your time and energy in any sort of way... even if you're not named here on this massive list for a year's worth of thanks giving, it doesn't mean that you're not appreciated, just that this list is really really long and we're imperfect and very very human. feel free to remind us. and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. it is because of you that we can continue to do what we love to do. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU.

love
FR

home! final week of tour! pirates! squirrels! colorado! soundpony! fireworks! georgia! nebraska! oklahoma! tennessee! arkansas! buckle up!

2008-11-26T19:35:00.025-07:00

///after an epic end to tour in Nederland, CO on Saturday, we woke up Sunday morning and basked in our new found freedom and enjoyed the aftermath with our buddies Forrest + Anne + Tim + Carrie in Ned... at around 1pm, with snow beginning to flurry, we thought it best to hit the road... we had our sights set on home... 13hr and 777mile drive ahead of us... we made great time on clear roads -- best drive through Wyoming ever!! -- and rolled into The Helibase at an easy 2:30am to sleep in our own beds... we took Monday off to rake some leaves and get unpacked, then Lisa and i cruised to Boise yesterday so that my dad and i could go hunting overnight... back in Boise this afternoon and poised for a Thanksgiving Day feast... definitely got the feast rolling on Saturday up in Ned, so we're good and primed... but before we roll in to thnksgvng, i wanted to recap the final week of tour... which was one of the greatest weeks of tour...

11/14/08 Charlotte, NC

we were very excited to be back at Snug Harbor in Charlotte and it didn't disappoint. we played with Black Skies (chapel hill, nc) and Pride Parade (athens, ga) both of which were a little more metal than us, but we all got along great and the place stayed rockin through our closing set... what a rad pirate bar 'ol Snug Harbor is... Daylon and crew have a special thing going. love playing there. they took great care of us and we once again had a great crowd... the place was pretty off the hook... lots of buddies around too... Marty! Corbie + Andy (where the buffalo roamed)! Leah! Josh!... and after the show we cruised about 80min to Spindale to meet up with a buddy from Hailey in the infamous Tyson Deal... she's from around those parts and hauled across the country to catch us before we left them parts... we stayed at her grandma's house that night in Spindale... and took cold showers in the morning since the hot water was non-operational.

11/15/08 Athens, GA

so good to see Tyson... and we were lucky enough to have her cruise to Athens with us... she had gone to school at the University of Georgia in Athens... so she was especially stoked.

round 1 in Athens was a house party / festival that we had been invited to by friends called the Celebration of (Southern) Life Festival... held out in the country north of Athens and modeled after the Celebration of Life Festival that our friend Dylan Clark has hosted up in Massachussettes the last couple of years... he was who let us know about this southern version and it happened to coincide with when we were already going to be there... his band The Points North were in town for it and our mutual friends Captain #1 (who we played with in Athens in the spring) were also a part of it.

we showed up around 6pm to a tight-knit gathering and potluck. the festival was a no drugs no alcohol event, which was great since we had a late night show to play. the evening was packed full of living room entertainment from the likes of Bicycles & Gravel + Grey Milk + Gemini Cricket + I have read other books besides Catcher in the Rye + The South Will Rave Again... it was pretty wild. and homey. we had a great time. we played in the middle of it all. there was body moving. and life celebrating. it was fun. and by 11:30pm we were rolling in to Athens proper to begin round 2.... btw, our friends from Chattanooga -- Jeremy and Ben -- had met us at round 1... and headed in to town with us... oh my...

round 2. our friends from We VS The Shark had set us up to play an after party for the Black Lips show at the 40 Watt and the Grails / Silver Apples show at the Caledonia that night in Athens... our set was at the Secret Squirrel and started around 2:45am. at about 2:15am all the post-shows crowd started to roll into this very well hidden little squirrel hole of a warehouse / house venue. Jeff had procured a keg to lure them in. we were shocked. the place packed out. and crowded the stage. and rocked out hard with us. the walls were shaking. lights were going out. spirits were hangin from the rafters. we slayed until about 3:45am. then local inhabitant of the squirrel -- Wyatt of Werewolves -- closed the night out. epic night in athens. at about 5:30am we went to sleep out in the country north of Athens once again with some of Tyson's friends who ruled -- Samantha + Michael. wow. Jeremy and Ben joined us as well. big sleep over. fantastic morning to follow... breakfast and back porch basking in the Georgia sun.

11/16/08 Chattanooga, TN

after a nice and lazy morning in Athens, we said goodbye to Tyson and Sam and Michael, and Jeremy + Ben + and us straddled our steeds and headed for Chattanooga... we were pumped to be back at JJ's Bohemia in Chatt where we had a great sunday night show in the spring with locals Antebellum and had really hit it off. they weren't available to play this time around, but Stratton made it out and between him and Jeremy and Ben they helped rally a fun crowd. this time around, we'd combined forces with our old college buddy and former Moscow, ID music scene compatriot Justin Ringle and his new project Horse Feathers. it was fun to see Justin, and in all honesty, an honor to play with him again. i've always dug his projects, all the way back to Two-Play Color and Echo Ave. and he's doing well for himself these days as Horse Feathers' latest album just came out on the highly respected Kill Rock Stars. much deserved.

despite no locals on the bill, between the two of us, we drew really well for a Sunday night in Chattanooga and the show was a blast. really great to meet Justin's partners in crime: Heather + Nathan... and catch up in general... as well as rock it out with our Chatt friends and Rachael who trekked over from Asheville, NC for the night of festivities. Jeremy + Rachael + us hit up the historic and awesome Aretha Frankensteins in the morning for breakfast before hitting the road to Arkansas early monday morning...

HORSE FEATHERS @ JJ'S BOHEMIA in CHATTANOOGA, TN 11-16-08

11/17/08 Atkins, AR

long drive through Tennessee that day was pretty glorious... we almost stocked up HUGE on fireworks but at the last minute, purchase nearing completion, we thought better of it... we'll delve into the black market of fireworks on some other trip... the temptation was magnificent... they don't mess around in on TN.... pretty much every gas station is gigantic and looks like this:
and that's a pretty modest one... show was originally supposed to be in nearby Russellville where we played in the spring, but had to be moved to The Godbey in Atkins, AR... which turned out to be a really sweet spot in a pretty abandoned warehouse... word is is that Atkins used to be a pickle manufacturing mecca until the pickle plant relocated overseas in 2002 so that their pickles could be packaged by cheap sweat labor... and it's wake... awesomeness like The Godbey... and not-so-awesomeness like no jobs for anyone... it's also a dry county, and everyone drives 10miles to giant liquor stores for their medicine... it's all pretty strange... but back to the show... great show for a Monday night. locals Love, Baby Blue and Fashion Show got the night rolling. then we rocked some love songs. then our two-day tour partners who are some of the specialest Arkansasans we may ever know, The Counterlife ruled to close the night out.

seems only fair that they warn you upon entering "the natural state" to buckle up... it's a great place... but it's special, and deserves fair warning...

11/18/08 Little Rock, AR

we made the mistake of passing up on offers to crash and instead went hunting for our second hotel room of tour... and settled for a stanky and nasty Motel 6 north of Little Rock... we might still be scratching from whatever nastiness that place left with us... don't get any wrong ideas, we're clean... but damn, that place was nasty and a waste of $$$$

we rolled in to Little Rock early and cruised the town... the downtown area was struggling to stay alive... Cam and I stumbled upon a men's clothing store going out of business in downtown -- surrounded by boarded up storefronts -- and talked with the clerk of 39 years about the end of an era while we shopped for some fancy man clothes... no scores, but enjoyed the company and the Little Rock history lesson.

show that night was at the White Water Tavern and part of their long running Tuesday night Arkansas Rocker Review series. our buddies in The Counterlife had set it up and recruited locals The Moving Front -- whom we played with in Fayetteville back in March -- to play as well. ended up being an awesome night. The White Water is ran by some high quality folks and we were well taken care of and it was a fantastic crowd for a Tuesday night... maybe the best Tuesday night show ever. really really fun. and on top of it all, at the end of the night our buddy John Duncan -- friend from the Moscow days -- strolls in and surprises the hell out of us... hadn't seen him in like 3+ years... and he just happened to be in Little Rock visiting his grandma and got wind of the show just in time to catch us as we were packing up... we were in shock. we treated it by going to a nearby Waffle House with Duncs and The Counterlife. what a crew! crashed at Roger + Ryan + Joe + Chris's friend Ann's pad. another epic late night adventure and slumber party!

THE COUNTERLIFE @ WHITE WATER TAVERN in LITTLE ROCK, AR 11-18-08

11/19/08 Tulsa, OK

so Lisa's amp had decided not to work at the show the night before... Mark from The Moving Front had loaned her his amp... but we were playing alone at the Tulsa show so we ran around town trying to find someone to work on it before our scheduled dinner date with my cousin Scott and his family... we didn't have any luck, so we went to the Soundpony where the show would be at and tested it out... sure enough, not working still... and then it started smoking... so i quickly unplugged it and called a number i'd gathered earlier for a guy in the area that specialized in tube amps: Rick Potter. he took my call and invited me out to his place immediately. Rick is pretty much my new hero. he stopped his dinner and took me into his garage / shop where he custom builds tube amps and does repairs. he's a longtime guitar player and could relate to our predicament and hooked us up under the emergency at hand. within the hour, he had Lisa's amp fixed and me on my way to catch up with my relatives only about 45min late... awesome catching up with Scott + Tonya + Ali + McKinzie! wish they didn't live so far away, but psyched our line of "work" brought us through Tulsa again so i can catch up with them... i have a feeling we'll be back... Tulsa is fun. and the Soundpony rules.

show that night was at the bicycle bar the Soundpony Lounge again. loved it in March. loved it in November. bartender Eric was a riot, and Brad from Cain's Ballroom next door ripped it up with us late night again and celebrated our mutual love for IDAHO. nice little crowd of quality and goodness. the Soundpony is a place that needs to be experienced, not talked about. so i stop now.
we drove into the night and crashed in the Ghost Ghost for only the second time of the whole tour...

11/20/08 Lincoln, NE

we were hoping to see our buddy Liz Hitt, but we rolled in late after a long blustery drive through Kansas and she worked late, so we instead settled for epic Indian food in Nebraska... yeah, weird, but truth, at a place called The Oven very close to Box Awesome -- the home of the show that night.

Box Awesome also holds a special place in our heart. ran by quality people (thanks Jeremiah + Doug + Nick + co.!) and a really cool space. once again a pretty small turnout, but atleast the locals we played with were rad. both utilizing loops and doing it well. check out Barometric as well as Dean Armband when you get a chance. dig.

despite Liz's offer of coziness at her place, we opted to get a head start on the big drive to Denver and hit the road after the show and crashed at a rest area on the frozen tundra of Nebraska for one of the coldest nights we've ever spent in the van... we survived, but it was gnar.

we thawed. then hit the road for Denver.

11/21/08 Denver, CO

we had a goal of getting in to town early so that we could catch up with our Pajamma Jamma Beach Bash and Hermosa House buddy Susy and meet her new son Penn... goal was accomplished just after 4pm. so good to see her! doing very very well. nice to meet the young and valiant Penn... all 3 weeks of him. while we visited, we also took the opportunity to take showers for the first time since Little Rock. stanky stank.

show that night was at the Larimer Lounge in Denver and had long been a beacon of awesomeness calling us through tour... it was setup for glory... but then two weeks before the show the headliner Apollo Sunshine jumped ship for the following night at the Larimer and the local behemoth CAT-A-TAC that we'd teamed up with broke up, leaving frontman Jim McTurnan to hold up the fort on his own. so the show had become a promotional debacle, and it showed with the turnout. last minute local additions to the bill The Pseudo Dates were a pleasant surprise as openers, but them and their handful of peeps checked out before The Ocean Bed -- another new local -- took the stage.

all in all, we enjoyed the opportunity to hook up with Jim and to play at the Larimer Lounge. they treated us nicely and we got to rip it up with our pals Tim + Carrie + Brian... who thankfully stuck around for our "headlining" set.

so Denver was a slight disappointment in the midst of a really amazing final week of tour... but the following day and night would make up for it 7-fold.

we stayed with some of our bestest friends in the world that night -- at Mariah and Mike's -- in Boulder despite the full on bark assault from their "guard" dogs when we showed up in the middle of the night... it was intense, and unfortunate cuz it woke up them up...

11/22/08 Nederland, CO final show of our FALL US TOUR

enjoyed a lazy morning as Mariah made us strong black coffee and some eggs and potatoes... then, while Lisa took a nap, Mariah + Cam + I went on an incredible little hike up in the foothills outside Boulder. the weather was pristine. 65 degrees. sunny. no wind. we sat on rocks in the sunlight and talked past, present and future. very grounding moment as the end of tour can sometimes be tumultuous.

not sure we deserve such an incredible day and overall end to tour, but we are very grateful for it and have some of our best friends in the world to thank for it. show that night was at the First Street Pub up in the tiny town of Nederland -- about 30min up a canyon and into the mountains outside of Boulder. no cell phone reception. it had been nearly a year since we last played up there.

our friends Forrest and Anne live right down the street from the bar and had taken it upon themselves to host a Thanksgiving potluck before the show with the help of Tim and Carrie and a bunch of other awesome awesome folks. Mariah and Mike and their freind Adi made it up as well. Forrest and Anne procured a giant turkey and cooked it up as the main course and so many people brought so many amazing things. and afterwards, we celebrated over at the First Street, which on top of our potluck crowd and the "Neddys" on hand, there was a great crowd. lots of dancing and overall enthusiasm. it was incredible. THANK YOU Forrest + Anne + Tim + Carrie + Mariah + Mike + Adi + Jamie + Tory + Jim + Jackson + the rest of the First Street staff + everyone else that made the night an absolutely perfect end to a long and amazing tour and for that matter, year of touring. our busiest yet.

we're still reflecting on it all... CMJ + Obama + DC celebrations + low gas prices (as low as $1.59!!!) + family portion of tour with Jared Mees & The Grown Children + 12,000 miles! + so much more... still processing... more to come... several shows around Idaho in the coming weeks... and NYE at the Crawlspace in La Grande, OR on the horizon...

stay tuned...

///gilbert

cheap gas? atlantic ocean! reservoirs! the carolinas! disasters?

2008-11-14T16:53:00.015-07:00

///gas prices have been steadily falling, but when we saw $1.79 we were ecstatic. back in June we were paying $4.79 in California... incredible. been making a huge difference on this tour... granted, no one has any money, so we're not making much.... but still... we're excited about the savings.

just rolled in to Charlotte, NC. bathed ourselves in the Atlantic Ocean off the South Carolina coast yesterday... we're officially headed West from here on out. only 9 shows left. 10 days of travel to go. wowzas. this stage of tour is always a bit strange. mixed emotions about the impending end...

last night was one for the record books. those of you that were there know damn well what i'm talking about... wow. i'll see about tactfully communicating the incredible events, but first, rad show in Chapel Hill on wednesday...

11/12/08 Chapel Hill, NC

played at The Reservoir Bar with our tour buddies Where The Buffalo Roamed and new friends Gray Young. after a Trivia battle of epic proportions, the rock show ensued. go check out Gray Young right now. rad guys. really stellar post-rock trio. we all loved their set. there's a video below that'll give you a good taste.

Chapel Hill / Durham was a blast. ate BBQ. saw friends. enjoyed the architecture and the scenery. thanks to Marty for hosting us! thanks to John + Joe + Curtis from I Was Totally Destroying It for coming out! thanks to the Q Shack for some incredible pulled pork butt! thanks to Bill for the trivia schooling! here's the video i promised:

GRAY YOUNG @ The Reservoir Bar in Chapel Hill, NC

11/13/08 Mt. Pleasant, SC

long rainy drive down to the South Carolina coast, but as we closed in on Charleston the skies cleared a bit and the rain subsided... awesome drive to the coast and our beach of choice near the Isle of Palms... several bridges over marshlands and channels and rivers... low flying clouds and fog and bursts of sunlight... ships and ports... fascinating landscape...

Cam and i succeeded in our mission of swimming in the Atlantic Ocean while Lisa combed the beach for shells to modest success. Cam swam in his underwear. i unleashed my fur coat. the water was warm. we combed the waves for sharks to no success. oh well.

show that night was at the infamous Village Tavern in Mt. Pleasant... home bar of Band Of Horses... and a place that's seen a lot of great bands roll through it... we were excited to be there and were greeted by a rowdy happy hour crowd that helped us feel at home right off the bat. heckled us from the getgo. and bought merch before we even played. some buddies we'd gained from our stops at the 511 House in Florence, SC came out for the show... thanks Tony + Kelly!!!... we laughed all night with them. and then crashed at their cozy pad and got the full Charleston experience for brkfst. what a rad town. they also got to experience, with us, one of the greatest rock and roll disasters any of us had ever witnessed... they know. we know. if you were also there, you know. if you weren't there and are impossibly curious... drop us a line and inquire and we'll gladly tell the tale... like Lisa said, "the musical equivalent of the Hindenburg". i thought i could tell it here, but i realized that i shouldn't. it was that disastrous. luckily no one is hurt. they are lucky that they aren't. seriously. it got that weird.

here are some more photos of the non-disasters in South Carolina... to further clarify, we were witnesses to said disaster, not involved, so don't worry... we are fine... and since no one was hurt, still laughing and trying to make sense of it all...

this morning, outside of Tony + Kelly's house in Charleston... Where The Buffalo Roamed (corbie + andy) and Kelly are pictured... we parted ways with WTBR today... they will be missed.

sail on young sailors! show tonight is at a pirate bar here in Charlotte, NC... Snug Harbor!!

///gilbert

11/11/08 Winston-Salem, NC. art-o-mat

2008-11-12T14:47:00.005-07:00

///had been hearing great things about The Garage in Winston-Salem, NC and we now see why. literally a converted garage, it's nearing it's 10 year anniversary as a music venue. great high-ceiling warehouse type space. nice big stage. nice sound system. class act staff. lots of old knick-knacks all over giving it a very rockabilly bar type of vibe. we were psyched to be there.

show was a lot of fun. Where The Buffalo Roamed stampeded the place with songs of heartbreak and noise states, false prophets and desert landscapes. the Finn Riggins set that followed was a little typically atypical and capped with a rare but room appropriate Beyond City Lines... desert landscapes of our own... and dedicated to Alanna from Jews & Catholics who also grew up in southern Idaho.

three tours through North Carolina and now three shows with Jews and Catholics. and they grow on us more and more everytime. really unique in that it's a duo with electric guitar + vox (eddie) and upright bass (alanna) with a well programmed drum machine. and they rock live. we met them through our infamous and handsomely stellar friend Milo Duke who grew up with Alanna in Idaho Falls, ID. this was our first show with them on their home turf, and despite it being a Tuesday it was super fun. and their set featured a bunch of inspiring new tunes, as well as a killer cover of Hank Williams' "Ramblin Man" which i looooovvvve. and their version was as haunting as it should be. and very venue appropriate.

The Garage is one of the coolest venues we've played. and we've played a lot of 'em. very down to earth and spacious. very audience and musician friendly. highly recommended to all.

here's a video clip of Jews and Catholics playing their intrumental tune "Ambulance"

thank to our buddy Marty for the late night Waffle House slaying of grease food and the cozy place to crash... woke up under these trees in a beautiful Durham, NC neighborhood this morning...

///gilbert

roam ye buffalo roam... the carolinas

2008-11-12T08:56:00.018-07:00

///in the aftermath of the big Obama victory and the celebrations that we were lucky enough to be a part of in Washington DC into the wee wee hours that night, we awoke and made our way across Virginia... an absolutely gorgeous drive... sunny and warm and the fall colors were beaming with pride for our country. these are days i will never forget.

it's been a week now.

a week ago, our friends in a little folk noise duo called Where The Buffalo Roamed met us in Blacksburg, VA from their respective homes in Carrboro, NC (corbie) and Asheville, NC (andy) to begin a stretch of shows with us throughout the region. kicked off at The Lantern in Blacksburg, VA thanks to the kind kind folks at WUVT 90.7 FM(jessica! kevin! brian! etc etc etc!). The Lantern was sweet. show was magnificent like all shows are magnificent. in their own little ways. like how tighty whiteys can dangle from man ass while guitar is thrown about in a shredding manner. very Dynamite Club of you sir. WUVT is a magnificently ran student radio station. like none other. and they're in the business of throwing glorious shows too, for that they shall be forever thanked.

but in all seriousness, Virginia floored me. one of the most moving drives across land i've experienced recently, which sort of says a lot, cuz we drive across land with unyielding frequency. and i'm constantly moved by the ever awesome landscape this planet has to offer, but a lot of factors made this particular drive extra magnificent. the Shenendoah River! Shenandoa River Valley! lush and dying into fall all at the same time. sunshine! Obama. etc etc etc. and it's always nice to cap a day like that with a rock show. i could do without the scantily clad spazz punk, but that's just me.

WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAMED @ The Lantern in Blacksburg, VA

>>>begin highlight reel<<<

11/6/08 Grandma's Noise Livingroom @ R3V3RB in Greenville, SC
no lie. grandma was there. and she liked it loud. art space. Saint Solitude (asheville, nc) came and played too. one man indie pop tunes with loops and beats. Dup. good guy. sound was awesome in grandma's noise livingroom. big fan. i fell in love with a lamp. afterwards us and team buffalo nailed some greasey grub at a Waffle House then sailed our respective schooners over the hour or so sea to Asheville, NC and Andy's house for a night of philosophical musing and deep deep sleep.

i love lamp.

11/7/08 New French Bar. Asheville, NC
best asheville show yet. stayed with our Moscow friend Cherie. she made us spaghetti and caesar salad. and halloween candy. oh wow. met her cats and her housemate Joe the bike mechanic. played with Asheville keys and drum duo heroes Speedsquare thanks to our mutual friends in Stephanie's Id. New French Bar is pretty low-fi, but pretty happenin. lots of traffic. WTBR opened the show on some friendly turf. then put on a dance clinic during the Finn Riggins and Speedsquare set. Optimus Prime helmet ruling all. in the morning Cherie made us egg mcmuffins with her egg mcmuffin maker. and angels sang on high.

this is what North Carolina looks like right now:

it's been that awesome. that's a glimpse. my shoddy digi camera only does it so much justice. on the other hand, this really did drive by us in North Carolina... apparently a new class on the NASCAR circuit:

your eyes do not deceive you. of course that's a giant grocery cart on a trailer that apparently doubles as some sort of racecar. why wouldn't it be?

11/8/08 The Soapbox Wilmington, NC
our marvelous pals in Ponchos From Peru were nice enough to host us in Wilmington once again. show in the spring with them was awesome and we were pumped to be back. they had recruited The Nothing Noise from Chapel Hill but with Wilmington roots to come join the party again as well. and this time the show was upstairs in the juicy part of the venue with the juicy sound and stage. Adam + Matt from Ponchos even made us dinner. tempeh and salad and lots of goodness. we love those guys and there science and sexy ways. their living room is gloriously decorated with band gear and gadgets. i dream of such a place to go home to.

show was super fun as expected, despite the continuing decay of my synth and it's pestiness on stage the last week... morphing patches and pitch in the middle of songs... it's been a bullride with it recently. my calloused hands have barely been able to keep me in the saddle... but i've been managing. that and we axed a couple of synth heavy tunes from the set on the fly... yarrrrrr.

yay for elevators! Matt from Ponchos with all the gear crammed in

PONCHOS FROM PERU @ The Soapbox in Wilmington, NC

11/9/08 day off. Fuquay-Varina, NC
much needed day off. had been two weeks since our last one and would be two weeks until our next one. scheduled it to spend time with Lisa's sister Sylvia, brother-in-law Dave and nieces Karen and Katrina. they're awesome. we had so much fun with them. since our last stop there they'd gotten Rock Band and were all about it. so we all rawked. and they all played hooky on Monday to rawk with us some more.

Cam shreddin some Rock Band drums with the Moodys

daddy long legs in the Moody driveway

11/10/08 Spazz Haus Greenville, NC
our third time in Grvl. first time at a Spazz sanctioned event. it was everything we would expect. holy gloriousness. tiny room. packed. sweaty. rawkous. and awesome. super fun site. we played first. then WTBR. which led into WTBR and myself laying down beats for the 520 MCs. about 2 hours of nastiness. some switcheroos. the night ended with Nolan Smock on drums, myself on keys, Andy or Corbie on guitar and the MCs around 3am. as wild as any house show should be. on a monday. not without drama and not without cops and not without busch light. lots of it.

///more updates soon... including photos and some thoughts about last night's show in Winston-Salem.... at The Garage... so cool. highly recommended.

///gilbert

11/4/08 Washington DC

2008-11-05T02:59:00.007-07:00

///OBAMA!!!!

it's now 5am. still up. show at Dahlak was surreal. all the other bands cancelled for a variety of reasons... we were the last band left standing. they fed us. we played very very little. just enough to help celebrate in between speeches. unvelievable night. spent it with my childhood friend Leigh McIlvaine another friend from Idaho Paul Mitchell and our buddies Woven -- Rich, Barak, Steve, Ory, Mas, Mark -- and several strangers of all types at Dahlak, an Ethiopian restaurant in Washington DC on U St. NW...

DC erupted into celebrations all throughout the streets... so amazing. spirits were sooooo high. right after Obama was declared the winner the streets came to life... Cam and Mark + Rich + Barak from Woven helped get the street parties started early with pieces of Cam's drum set outside of Dahlak... corner of 18th and U St NW...

Obama's speech floored me. floored everyone around.
McCain's speech moved me too. good man. intense moment.

U St between 14th and 9th was absolute mayhem for a good chunk of the night... until atleast around 3am. dancing on cars, in the streets, everywhere... everyone high fiving everyone else... hugging... absolutely ecstatic. fireworks, drums, pots and pans, music, chanting, horns honking, and an overwhelming sense of relief and joy. the celebration just took over. the cops were awesome. if they weren't fully taking part, they were doing their best to stay out of the way, keep it alive and keep everyone safe. it was as if this huge weight had lifted off of the nation, off of DC and everyone could breathe freely again... unforgettable...

here's another taste of the massive street party that erupted on U St. it was incredible.

so thankful to have been able to spend this momentous evening in the epicenter of everything that tonight pertained to, but mostly thankful that Barack Obama will be our next president. i'm speechless and still processing... but i truly do feel like the tone of America changed drastically with his election, and for that i'm grateful and extremely excited to see what the future will hold for us all...

lots of love from all of us at Team Finn Riggins on the ground in our nation's capitol during this historic moment in time....

///gilbert

11/3/08 Election Eve. Baltimore. + recap on the last week of shows

2008-11-03T23:46:00.030-07:00

///unbelievable show tonight at the Village Church in Baltimore... in Hampden. probably the most gorgeous space we've ever played in. old church from the 1800s. beatiful woodwork. sound was pristine. nice size. it was a perfect place to play on this eve of the election. great mood and energy in the building. local Cameron Blake and his band opened. they were really great. well put together songs and well performed. great spirit. helped set the mood right off the bat. and we have them to thank for setting the show up in this amazing room. nice little crowd for a monday and they were all super nice and generous. really can't say thank you enough.

our buddy Bob Keal of Small Sur made it out as well. chillin at his place right now. so good to see him and to get some hangtime. he rules.

last several shows have all been amazing in their own little ways...

WED 10/29/08 Kittery, ME
started the day by visiting with the band and theory classes at Lisa's high school alma mater -- Belmont High School -- in Belmont, NH thanks to her old teacher Ray Craigie. we had a blast. we setup and played right in their classroom... and the kids asked great questions. and we ate hot lunch. my favorite.

ended the day in Kittery, Maine at a new art/performance space called The Buoy that our buddy Nat Baldwin had helped hook us up with. Brett + Al + Jeremy + Ryan and everyone else involved with the space were such good people. we had an amazing time. the show was really fun. we played first. then locals Unnatural Witch played an all improv sound experimental set that was super cool. right up my alley. great scene. i really really enjoyed this show. met some fantastic people. here's some photos and some video of the Unnatural Witch set...

crashed that night with Nat and his girlfriend Laura and his brother Niles out at Nat's grandpa's cabin on the rocky shore of the Atlantic.... with East facing windows. i set my alarm and got up at 6:20am for the sunrise. so peaceful. so awe-inspiring. it was very cold, but worth every moment.

this morning and sunrise was a major grounding moment for me. felt incredible to be there right then aka here right now. complete peace with the moment. thanks to nat and laura and brett and all of you that continue to make it possible for us to do what we do...

THUR 10/30/08 Moultonborough, NH
woke the rest of the crew up and we quickly packed up and embarked on a beautiful morning drive to Moultonborough, NH for an early afternoon show at Moultonborough Academy.
played an all-school assembly at the academy to 300+ kids in their auditorium. and we ate hot lunch again. my favorite. the assemby was a blast. the kids were soooo fun. after the assembly we stuck aorund for another hour and chatted with the music students before school ended.

we were back that night for a night concert in the auditorium. this time with a high school band called The Brewmeisters. they were great and a fun opener for the evening. we had so much fun at Moultonborough Academy. thanks to Mrs. Harmony Markey for making it happen and all the kids that helped make it so fun. especially enjoyed the signing of foreheads that a bunch of kids insisted on... i bet their parents really love us now... :)

FRI 10/31/08 New London, CT
spent the morning with Lisa's family then hit the road for New London, CT for a Halloween show on the Connecticut College campus that our buddy Mike Borden had set up.
show was in The Barn where bands on campus practice. really really cool and cozy space. we got it warmed up with Glitch then Antoinette with Mike on guitar with us -- which was rad. by then some folks started to show up and we rocked for about an hour to a dancey and fun crew before yielding to the spooky forces of the evening and moved on to the various events around campus... Mike took really good care of us in general and even hooked us up with a mix cd for the road.

after the show, cam and i cruised with Mike to the big Halloween dance in the student center. place was packed with drunk college kids in costumes. it was intense. i didn't last long. grinding in hot rooms just isn't my thing anymore. cam on the other hand... :)

SAT 11/1/08 Northampton, MA
great show at The Elevens in Northampton, MA. Mark Sheehan brought us back to town and this time set us up at The Elevens... pretty classy place right in downtown. Mark is awesome and can't thank him enough for the support and for all that he does for independent music in the area... he ended up billing us with two locals releasing new albums.... and sandwiched us right in between them. really awesome show. great sound. great bill. great crowd. all the bands were tight and a pleasure to work with.

Mark Schwaber and his sidekick Sarah Gomes kicked the evening off with a gorgeous set of tunes. I guess they'd recently toured with The Swell Season, who we'd had the pleasure of meeting in Missoula back at the beginning of May... we could definitely sense the similarities.

after them, the first of the two bands hosting an album release party -- Nuclear Waste Management Club -- which is essentially a sideproject for Spouse frontman Jose Ayerve with which he has an all-star group of musicians backing him up including Peyton Pinkerton of the Silver Jews and Ken Maiuri of Pedro The Lion amongst others. super tight. fun to watch. all super nice.

we followed them. our set was a blast. then after us the other local releasing a new album -- Watcher -- closed the night out. also rad. definitely check all these folks out. all fairly hard to describe. all very talented.

after the show we kicked it old school with our buddy Miranda La Police. the awesomest. the most coolest. the most funnest girl on the street. old Johnson State College buddy of Lisa and I. she's le shit. love her. so good to see her and goof off into the wee hours with her again. and she has the coolest apartment with the coolest decor. we had way too much fun

SUN 11/2/08 Philly
we were on a Philly cheesesteak mission. shocked we didn't pursue this mission when we were in Philadelphia in April. nonetheless, we forgave ourselves and were determined to make up for it. we googled the infamous Geno's and Pat's steakhouses and set the GPS directly for them. i was asked Geno's or Pat's? the night before. we chose Pat's King of Steaks based on less flashiness, proximity to our parking spot and less McCain / Palin signs. :)

amazing experience. fastest food ever. and best fast food ever.

show that night was at The M Room again. this time with Horse In The Sea from Chicago who were pretty cool. nice people. pretty poppy Belle & Sebastiany music. also on the bill were two local bands that both reminded me of Ween in their own way, which is crazy, cuz i don't know if we've ever played with a band that reminded me of Ween... and we managed to play with two of them this night... granted, we were in Ween territory, but still. they were definitely both quite different from Ween, but the Weenisms were aplenty. and i was very grateful for them. loved both of the bands. very cool stuff. and super nice people. definitely check out Gentlemen Christ as well as the uber jazzy strange pop and awesome Fresh Cut Salads. it was a fun show, despite being pretty thin on paying customers. thank goodness the bands were cool.

thanks to Shannon from Anthropic Records for helping put the show together. and to Evan and Dave from Cloud Minder for coming out. and big big thanks to Shannon, Evan and Carl for putting us up. and to Vitamins for being a crazy ass kitten and bouncing off the walls the whole time we were there.

11/3/08 Baltimore, MD
that leads us back to where this entry started... i fell asleep in the middle... so now it's last night... amazing amazing show last night. the church space was unbelievable. perfect way to spend the eve of this election. and my dad's birthday, which i was saddened to be so far away for and dedicated the set to him... between that, the space, the election eve, and the opener Cameron Blake, it made for a very inspiring evening.

11/4/08 election day. it's finally here. tomorrow could be a brand new day in America. may it be so. we're headed to Washington DC today to play at an Ethiopian restaurant called Dahlak and presumptively celebrate an Obama victory... can't wait.

thanks for listening. going to post a bunch more photos on our myspace site... and maybe to our flickr site too.

right on.
talk to you soon.

///gilbert

10/27/08 + 10/28/08 recording. Burlington, VT

2008-10-31T09:35:00.014-06:00

///woke up before daylight in New Hampshire to hit the road for our 9am load-in for a recording session in Burlington, VT. beautiful sunrise on our way. fog. fall colors.

our friend Jamie Wiener engineered the session at Eclectic Recording Studios. with just two eight hour days to work with, we focused on 4 songs. three of which have been in live rotation for awhile now: Battle, Bus Pilot and the new version of Mahoney (My Homie). the fourth song we laid down is brand new. we started practicing it the week before tour and have played it a few times on this tour to help get it ready. it's called Antoinette.

we got drum tracks for all four songs done on the first day as well as keys on Battle, then cruised back to Jamie's farm house about an hour away north of Montpelier and ate dinner with him and his wife Alex. they cooked up their rooster that had been killed by a weasel a couple of days before. it was surprisingly good. we slept amazingly.

next morning we got to hang with their kids Finneas and Zephyr as well as their goats and pigs -- super cute -- before heading back into Burlington to finish up. we had an amazing time at their farm. really blessed to have such good people in our lives.

second and final day of recording went great. busted all the keys, guitar and vocal tracks without any major problems. curious to hear how it'll all turn out. no direct plans for release just yet, but it felt good to get the ball rolling on some new recordings.

cruised back to New Hampshire that evening in a pretty nasty rain / snow / sleet storm, but made it safely to Lisa's parents house and hit the sack since we had an early date at Lisa's high school alma mater in the morning.

///gilbert

10/26/08 day off. new hampshire

2008-10-31T09:24:00.006-06:00

///super beautiful fall Sunday in New Hampshire. spent it with Lisa's family -- the Simpsons. riding bikes. hangin with bunny rabbits. checkin out old cars. getting shot with airsoft guns. playing Legos. watching star wars. and eating some good home-cooked food. and some much needed rest.

thanks Bruce + Laura + Nina + Kevin + Heather + Josh + Jared + Gracie + Jacob Simpson!!!

10/25/08 Concord, NH

2008-10-31T08:57:00.007-06:00

///back at The Barley House in Concord, NH -- ground zero of the infamous New Hampshire presidential primaries. lots of memorabilia on the walls and a shrine to Ronald Reagan next door. awesome.

fun show. thanks to Rose and Anne and Dana and everyone else for making it out. and thanks to Cory for having us and feeding us some good grub. nice crowd for a good chunk of the show.

rainy rainy night in 'ol New Hampshire. torrential downpour as we were loading out... the friggin Nile was flowin underneath the van... it was pretty hilarious. we got very wet.

///gilbert

10/24/08 CMJ Music Marathon New York City

2008-10-29T14:40:00.004-06:00

///we ended up having two shows at CMJ on Friday. the first being part of the Portland Showcase at the Knitting Factory during the day... we were grouped into this showcase thanks to our friends at Tender Loving Empire... load in was at noon. it was intense. three floors of rock music. all day.

we played right in between good friends and Tender Loving Empire labelmates Super XX Man and Jared Mees & The Grown Children. it was a tight stage. we rocked it hard. it was a our last show with The Grown Children on the two week family tour we'd been on and had started in Clarkston, WA. their set after ours was the bestest. it raged. we were all onstage for their last song. perfect end to two weeks of awesomeness.

the whole Portland Fest day was a big love fest with friends. our buddies Merrill and Patrick from Sister Suvi even made it over. soooooo good to see them. very bummed we weren't able to catch any of their sets. we also made some new friends in Strangers Die Everyday who played before Super XX Man and were very very cool.

here's a blogger review from this afternoon set... that includes some very kind words aimed at us: Best of CMJ includes a big photo of lots and lots of the people that performed that afternoon... including Lisa and I (in the back).

we wrapped things up at the Knitting Factory then headed over to Williamsburg (Brooklyn) for our night CMJ showcase at The Charleston... grabbed some epic pizza across the street, then hunkered down for a rather strange but super fun show with Capitol K, Peachcake and Team Genius. all were super nice. we closed the evening out at around 1am to a cozy and rowdy basement of friends and friends of friends and CMJ showgoers in general... even our recent tour buddies Low Red Land showed up to rage with us... and The Grown Children! and Scott from Super XX Man! and Marty! and Steve-o! and Kyle! and so on and so on. fantastic end to a wild wild couple of days.

things got really weird after the show at where we were supposed to crash nearby... so we said goodbye to The Grown Children then cruised back to Steve-o's for another night of comfy, but not very much sleep...

///gilbert

10/23/08 New York City

2008-10-29T14:14:00.004-06:00

///rolled into NYC around 6pm and headed straight to Greenwich Village and the church where we were supposed to check in for the CMJ Music Marathon that was already two days over and would be what we would be up to for the next two days. www.cmj.com

after getting checked in we met up with The Grown Children then went on a direct pursuit for Indian food. we succeeded in that mission, but parking was a whole nother story. Jared and I drove around for a good 30 min before finally settling on a spot near the restaurant... turns out it was metered until 10:30pm!! so i got nailed with a $65 parking ticket... not too stoked about that...

but the amazing Indian food made up for it... as well as the company...

from there we cruised to the Lower East Side and spent the evening venue hopping catching a bunch of CMJ shows... highlight being bumping into our friends from We Vs. The Shark and then catching their side project's set at the Cake Shop... Pegasuses XL. it was awesome. although sound at the Cake Shop wasn't all that awesome. soon found out that the best part of CMJ was bumping in to friends and chillin with friends... friday would embody this spirit super well... thursday was a good start...

also dropped in to the Mercury Lounge, the Living Room, the Bowery Ballroom, Crash Mansion and Arlene's Grocery. ended at Arlene's and just hung out at the bar since we were with our friend Steve who didn't have a CMJ badge... super fun night. hangin with Jared, Brianne and Megan in NYC. we were all very excited. we were originally supposed to play a Fanatic showcase this night, but it being cancelled allowed us to just chill and roam... it was nice.

we all crashed that night at Steve-o's place in Brooklyn. yet another late night.

///gilbert

10/22/08 Oneonta, NY

2008-10-26T21:14:00.008-06:00

///unbelievable drive through rural upstate New York between Ithaca and Oneonta. rolled into town around 5pm and headed straight to Hope and Joseph Von Stengel's place... good buddies of ours from the Moscow days... they were hosting a pre-show potluck and invited us over for some grub and hangtime.

show that night was a benefit for the Oneonta Teen Center and held there as well. what a rad space. decent crowd came out on a rainy and cold Wednesday night. it had been set up by Joe, who has collaborated with us on several occasions now doing projections with his MAshUp, RE-Mix Digital MEdia SHow. the space worked great for the collaboration. the whole show was videoed and we should have footage soon. really really fun working with Joe. check out more of his work and philosophy at culturerecycling.com

Jared Mees & The Grown Children played first. here's a few photos and a video of "Slabtown (Friday Night)" featuring Joe's projections... keep in mind that this video is lo-fi off of my digital camera, and not from the video that the venue did... still pretty cool though... note Zissou Cam dancing....

Joe's always been a wealth of quality conversation... thus we conversed into the wee wee hours... lots of big thinking. psyched we've been able to schedule stops in Oneonta on all of our tours out East... this was the first official show though. cool town. look forward to more.

///gilbert

10/21/08 Ithaca, NY

2008-10-26T20:50:00.003-06:00

///long rainy drive through north western Pennsylvania and in to New York state up to Ithaca. cold and rainy was definitely the theme. beautiful place though. still plenty of fall leafery remaining for our eager eyes. lisa, however, stayed focused on her reading addiction...

show that night was mostly about visiting Ithaca and seeing our BFF Liz Bageant. all of those things were accomplished marvelously. show was fun, although pretty sparsely attended. good times. cool place. Lost Dog Lounge. right in downtown. thanks to Sprocket for having us and for incredible hospitality.

another wild adventure after the show as The Grown Children's infamous van James Brown was once again not starting... we pushed it around in the rain for awhile with some drunk guys, then shuttled everyone to Liz's house for some sleep.

///gilbert

10/20/08 Cleveland, OH

2008-10-22T11:05:00.011-06:00

///got an early start from Middletown since we had an 11am appointment in Columbus, OH to film an in-studio performance and interview with Palestra.net. we met them at the studios in the 1305 Artists Ltd building. really nice place. great staff. thanks to Freddy and Jason for their hospitality!! and to Brian, Nick and Dan from Palestra for having us and asking some fantastic questions. we played three tunes: Detamble Wings, Pankakes and Geology. and interviewed for about a half hour. should be posted on their site in the next couple of weeks.

from their we headed north to Cleveland. the drive was gorgeous. 65 degree fall day in Ohio. fall colors ruling. rolled into Cleveland and the home of Cliff & Marie Hershman -- parents of Jake from The Grown Children -- in Shaker Heights. super rad place and they were incredible to us. lots of food and comforts of home. beautiful yard. and a basketball hoop. my inner basketball star came out immediately.

show that night was at a funky little place called Pat's In The Flat's tucked in an industrial part of Cleveland, just down a hill from the hip Tremont neighborhood. Pat's is owned and operated by Pat -- an older lady and an obvious institution in Cleveland. newspaper articles and photos on the wall talked about and showed that Pat's has been bringing blue collar Cleveland and alternative underground music together since the late 80's. lots of history.

show ended up being a blast. not a huge crowd, but a great crowd. lots of dancing and merrymaking. a fun fun sextet from Kent, OH called See Urchin opened the show and set the fun knob on high from the getgo. one of the most fun shows of tour so far. after sweaty sweaty Grown Children and Finn Riggins sets, local Sarah Nowicki provided a nightcap with her perty tunes on elec. guitar with some help from cello player Matthew. solid night all around. and we made some great new friends.

thanks to Steve (lightning fingers) for setting the show up, Pat!, See Urchin!, Sarah and Matthew!, Cliff & Marie!, the Grown Children, and everyone that danced and made this Monday night show in Cleveland super super super fun.

SEE URCHIN

///gilbert

10/19/08 day off. middletown, oh

2008-10-22T11:02:00.002-06:00

///sunday. spent the day relaxing hard and catching up on some internet bizzzzz. thanks to our buddy Josh and his Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bob for the hospitality and cozy place to hid out at for the day and night!!

10/18/08 Tree's Farm Middletown, OH

2008-10-19T21:46:00.008-06:00

///we were super excited to be back at Tree's Farm... we befriended the family in April on our last tour when our old friend from Moscow, ID -- Josh Kettleshake -- set us up to play in their barn after a show in Cleveland fell through... we had such a good time with them that we routed them back in on this tour... and this time, we were going to help them celebrate their daughter Mary's 10th birthday and what would probably be the last music fest/party at the farm.

with The Grown Children in tow, we rolled in around 5:30 to homemade chili and sunshine and a happy happy Tree and Big Dannie and Mary and friends. after munchin some dinner we got the PA and stage setup on their back porch and got the opening band Rev & The Hot Carls started just after sunset. they had put up some crazy lights shining on the trees above the stage and this blue light that responded to the music. and a bonfire to help keep us all warm since it was definitely pretty chilly. it was a Halloween Costume Party too, so that definitely helped increase the intensity of the setting. pretty trippy all around.

Tree's Farm regulars Burnt Grass played second. and featured our buddy Josh on drums. they were dressed as Alvin & The Chipmunks and were suckin helium balloons on stage. very hilarious set. it was obvious that they were amongst friends and family. even sang a fun song about the farm. amongst other things.

we were scheduled to play a first set before The Grown Children and a second set after them... made for a wild night. our first set was fun and included lots of tunes that we thought Mary would be excited to hear since she probably wouldn't still be awake for our second set... we closed with her favorite song "A President, A Pacifist, An Auto Restorer" and it featured most of The Grown Children onstage in their bandito costumes and sombreros and local trumpet master Jason. here's a video of that tune from a distance... gives you a decent idea of the setting... so fun.

HOLLOWTREE FINN RIGGINS TREES FARM

after that, The Grown Children played a good long set. it was wild and fun as usual. and sounded great in the blue light. really interesting to see them in that setting. once again, Cam played the whole set with them as a bonus drummer. i enjoyed it all immensely.

from there it kind of gets crazy. our second set consisted of Pankakes, Thumbs To Muse, Mahoney > A Whale, A Fish > Blackrock. then we started bringing up members of The Grown Children, starting with Kevin on additional drums at the end of Blackrock. then Sam (fiddle) and Jake (bass) joined in. they're also known as the appropriately-named Team Of Mavericks. it got crazy from there. played an old tune of mine from the Oracle Shack days called MIC, then a pretty sloppy but inspired Pump It that included my Tall Tales rap... all for our buddy Josh.... then for awhile we jammed on several different things old and new before bringing it back to some tunes to end the set... Geology > Glitch > noise freakout > Battle. it was pretty rad. the six of us really settled in together for the final stretch. really enjoyed the Finn Riggins Mavericky Grown Children set. we've been getting a kick out of recent superjams with our friends. this was pretty damn fun. and the perfect setting to rock it out like that.

by the time we were all packed up and crashing out it was around 4am or so. wow. big thanks for the day of rest today. and on that note, i'm off to bed.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to Tree + Big Dannie + Mary + Josh + Josh's Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bob for the cozy place to stay today and tonight and for dinner and for cookies and for the opportunity to watch some baseball + everyone else that made the Hallow Tree Jam such an incredible experience.... it will definitely be much much much different than NYC in 4 days... wow.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/17/08 Bloomington, IN

2008-10-19T21:13:00.008-06:00

///woke up to an epic brkfst at Denny & Joan's. they were unbelievable hosts. 5 star hospitality. impossible to thank them enough. they even came down to Bloomington for the show at Rhino's All Ages that night. and danced. on stage. as did everyone else that night during the Jared Mees & The Grown Children set... despite bunches of kids outside the venue, they were all apparently uninterested unless the music inside was "christian hardcore". talk about a limited worldview.

so yeah. big room. not that many people. only a couple for the local opener Sean Magwire's set.... our set was booming around the empty building and the 30 or so people there now were scattered around the room... so when The Grown Children took the stage they insisted that everyone join them on the big big stage... which effectively shrunk the performance space and made for a fun set. lots of sing-a-longs and booty shakin. and Cam setup most of his drums and played the whole set with them. Jake dangled from the rafters. it was awesome.

Rob Freeman of Kevin's former band Stranger Lazy closed the night out... with Kevin on drums and a bass player... show was over before midnight... which led to a really really fun afterparty a little outside of town with a campfire and some tasty beverages. some serious family tour bonding went down. it was pretty stellar.

more photos from the evening:

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///WIZARD ROCK FEST indeed
///gilbert

10/16/08 Indianapolis, IN

2008-10-19T16:22:00.011-06:00

///rolled into Indy in the late afternoon to an amazing welcome from Joan and Denny Fitzpatrick (parents of Grown Children drummer Kevin Fitzpatrick) who would be our host for the evening and the following morning... they had cooked up a bunch of spaghetti and salad and bread and all kinds of other goodies for us. it was quite the smorgasborg. we heart Joan and Denny. they are some of the sweetest most fun people we've ever met. they were incredibly generous and a blast to hang out and chat with. our stop there really set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Kevin grew up in Indy and used to play in a band around the area called Stranger Lazy so he was super stoked for this stop on the family tour... he had helped recruit AMERICA OWNS THE MOON -- his favorite Indianapolis band. and wow, we all know why now. def. check them out. really killer stuff.

show was at a super classy place called Radio Radio ran by Tufty -- the bass player of the Zero Boys and now Bigger Than Elvis as well. Radio Radio was obviously ran by musicians. it was an incredible pleasure to play there. and Tufty and Ronnie and Jeff were all super cool. got a good chance to talk music and history with Tufty. what a rad guy.

a bunch of Kevin's friends and family came out to the show, which was really fun. it was a really really great night. spirits were very high. here are some more photos from the evening:

JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN

AMERICA OWNS THE MOON

KEVIN and his friend MEGAN

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///THANK YOU JOAN AND DENNY FITZPATRICK!!!!
///gilbert

10/15/08 Chicago, IL

2008-10-19T15:24:00.006-06:00

///rad rad show at the infamous Cal's Liquors in Chicago this night. setup while watching the last debate between Obama and McCain. it was pretty sweet to be watching it on Obama's turf. lots of enthusiasm for the spanking that Obama unleashed on McCain. helped fire up a spirited show.

the setup in Cal's is a lot like a house show. we setup on the floor and played first right in the middle of this old bar right in downtown Chicago. it was rowdy from the getgo. really fun set. then the Grown Children crushed the place after a long weird day for themselves. raising everyone's spirits. it was a rad crowd. for that, we have Cal's to thank, but most definitely the local headliner RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM.

RHTRB were rad. definitely check them out. really really fun set. very thankful to have hooked up with them this time around. our best Chicago show yet. by far.

big thanks to Mike (cal's), Raise High The Roof Beam, Miles from Kilo Records for helping with this show, Joe and Jake from Makeshift Prodigy for the epic place to crash south of Chicago... late night jams included... and to everyone else that came out to the show!

here's a video of the last song of RHTRB's set. rad tune. and unleashed a little dance dance in 'ol Cal's... fun fun.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/14/08 Iowa City

2008-10-17T13:07:00.006-06:00

///lots of windmills popping up all through Iowa. rad to see. obvious why despite being in traditionally red state territory, that Iowa is strong for Obama. really inspiring to see rural America on board for a greener future...

show that night was at The Mill, a historic venue in Iowa City, and part of a new Tuesday night series called Tuesday Night Social Club. cool scene. finally played in Iowa. the odd doppleganger of Idaho in the minds of many of confused Americans... apparently according to the number of times the two states get mixed up, despite being very very different geographically. good town though.

played with a rad Chicago band called Brighton MA. great guys. dug their set. and their encore was one of the longest strangest experiences... it was wild. and ended with Kevin (grown children) on the drums with their lead guitar player and bassist and an audience member on vocals for an absolutely epic version of AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long". unbelievable.

BRIGHTON MA www.myspace.com/brightonma

the finale:

thanks to Andre, The Mill, Sam, Tuesday Night Social Club, Ben for the place to crash, Craig from Public Space One for helping set the show up, the folks at KRUI for the same and for helping to promote, and everyone that came out to the show.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/13/08 another epic drive day. wyoming - south dakota

2008-10-17T12:45:00.010-06:00

///we ended up cancelling our Minneapolis show for this particular monday night due to venue issues, van trouble for the Grown Children and questionable road conditions ahead... turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we didn't get out of Sheridan until about 5pm... we were blessed with a big 'ol full moon for our late night drive though... pretty amazing. we drove until the wee hours by moonlight... crashed in the van for a couple of hours in South Dakota... before getting up with the sun and continuing on to iowa city... gnarly drive.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/12/08 drive day. montana - wyoming

2008-10-13T13:57:00.011-06:00

///woke up to slush and sun in Bozeman. the Grown Children's van James Brown wouldn't start the night before, but Kevin and I cruised over in the morning and managed to coax him into firing up by throwing in some fuel additives and jumper cabling it to our trusty Ghost Ghost. after a stop at the Co-op we trekked off toward Iowa City... 1249 miles away...

our Minneapolis show the next day had been cancelled due to the backup venue being closed by coppers... which was a blessing in disguise with snowy roads in front of us and a limping James Brown...

the drive was gorgeous. tons of snow in some places. fall colors still on the trees... obviously an early snow... it was beautiful. roads were mostly dry and we made good time. cashing in the day in Sheridan, Wyoming. landing a cozy place to stay at the Trail's End Motel. ate dinner in their lounge. sipped some whiskey rocks. and got a solid night of rest.

hit the continental breakfast this morning... now James Brown is not starting again and we're waiting on some service help. the lounge here at the Trail's End has been incredibly accomodating with Wi-Fi and coffee... hope to hit the road soon. Iowa City is still 1000miles away. we have 28hours until we have to be there. hope is not lost...

we'll keep you posted.

here are some more photos from our drive yesterday...

JAMES BROWN

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/11/08 Bozeman, MT

2008-10-13T11:16:00.003-06:00

///long drive to Bozeman. stopped and saw my sister in Couer d'Alene. she baked us cookies. by the time we got to Butte, MT it was 29 degrees outside!! 29 degrees!! on October 11th!! right after Butte we crossed the Continental Divide in a snow storm!! a snow storm!! on October 11th!! it got nastier after then. lots of semi-trucks struggling up slick roads... we didn't have much trouble and powered through to Bozeman... The Grown Children were having a little harder time and moving slower... so we sprinted to the venue and setup to play first in their stead... they showed up right before we started...

show was at The Filling Station. and was a benefit for Stephanie Tooey, who has an inoperable brain tumor and in need of some help with her medical bills... the weather seemed to have kept folks from coming out. pretty disappointing considering it was a benefit. we appreciate Grant from Compound Productions for the effort... but he was definitely pretty bummed on the turnout.

we played a power set then cleared the way for The Grown Children who sounded fantastic in that room. too bad there weren't other folks to appreciate it... after them, the fascinatingly different and lounder and scarier Gnarwail shredded some gnar on us all. pretty cool mathy proggy stuff behind the barking vocals. scary clown up front. and struggling gorilla mascot. it was pretty classic. during their set several of us were trying to get The Grown Children's van -- James Brown -- to start.... the king of soul didn't seem to enamored with the cold. he would eventually decide to stay in the parking lot for the night while we all cruised to our hotel rooms. winter was already here. we didn't even have time to get our xmas tree up yet...

locals Liquefaction closed the night out to pretty much us and a couple of girlfriends. nice guys. but we were happy to roll out. pretty weird night all around. snow. van breakdown. poorly attended benefit concert. metal bands playing after us. it was strange. but all part of the adventure.

thanks to Grant for having us. and for hooking up hotel rooms and pizza. the hotel rooms were incredible considering the snow and nastiness. Bozeman, we hope to be back under better circumstances. take care.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/10/08 Radio Free Moscow Benefit in Moscow, ID

2008-10-13T10:51:00.005-06:00

///once again back in Moscow helping our friends at KRFP 92.5 FM Radio Free Moscow throw a party to celebrate their birthday party... their 4th Birthday Party!! and raise some money for their valiant effort of community radio in 'ol Moscow... our favorite place on earth. and one of the most amazing communities in this country nestled in the unassuming Palouse of northern Idaho... www.radiofreemoscow.org

it was a costume party. it was a dance party. it was a community potluck. it was a benefit. it was a birthday party. it was a reunion. it was a prty prty. it was sweaty. and it was fun as all getout.

Jared Mees & The Grown Children slayed the dance party early. they are killin it. so psyched to be traversing the country with 'em. we're havin a ridiculously good time together.

locals Jables and Brian & Katrina and DJ Tom Willis also contributed to the festivities. thanks to all the volunteers that help make KRFP run on a day to day basis and for all their help with this event. thanks to Adrienne Vincent! Sally Perrine! Rufus T. Firefly! Eric Martin! Leigh Robartes! and all the other major players at KRFP and in Moscow in general. you rock. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU MOSCOW!!!!!!

check out our travelling mascot. and no, we're not Palin fans. far from it. in fact, we're trying to bring the Moose back to integrity and decency...

this was our last show in Idaho until after Thnksgvng.... from here we're headed East...

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/9/08 Clarkston, WA

2008-10-10T15:29:00.005-06:00

///finally back to Hogan's Place in Clarkston last night... met up with Jared Mees & The Grown Children and got the family tour portion of this tour rollin with the fine fine Hogan's peeps. they fed us nicely. full tummies as this adventure gets rolling... and a decent crowd for a thursday in 'ol clarkston too. place got pretty rockin with some body movin and rowdiness.

JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN

we'll both be back to Hogan's on Friday DEC 5th and this time with our labelmate and fellow family SUPER XX MAN. very very excited for that... mark your calendars!

thanks to Tony, Skate, K Friesen, Mur.nut, the rest of the Hogan's staff and everyone else that came out and donated some fun to the fun factor.

big KRFP Benefit show in Moscow, ID in a few hours. so pumped.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

10/8/08 Boise, ID

2008-10-09T13:43:00.006-06:00

///this tour is now officially off the ground. crazy show in Boise last night with our brothers from other mothers WOVEN (los angeles). moved it at the last minute from The Bouquet due to complications with their remodel and new ownership... had to cancel Woven in Boise a year ago due to a venue remodel, then Woven cancelled back in February due to a massive snow storm... we were on the verge of going 0-for-3 with Woven in Boise... until Justin Cantrell ("too much distortion" on BSU radio) and Jennifer Orr (backstage pass) stepped up and helped us move the show to Gusto's -- 5 blocks up Main St. -- just 3 days before the show. heros!

it all ended up being really fun. started the evening with homebody friends eating Amanda's amazing pork carnitas. unbelievable. they sent us with a huge tub of chocolate from the chocolate factory that Amanda works at. absolutely amazing.

caught up with Woven and local openers The Red Machine down at the venue and MacGyver-ed together a sound system. thanks to Woven's sound jedi Mas, the show ended up sounding pretty damn good. especially Woven's massive soundscape. radical. we had some good good buddies out (martin, susan, leif, kelsey, travis, simpson) and thus took advantage of the early evening to pal around with them. our set was wild. on the floor. definitely inspired. dug the halfpipe inside. dug the sound of boards riding it. Woven is also currently on a big U.S. Tour... check out their dates and if you're anywhere close to one, highly recommend doing whatever you can to catch them. www.myspace.com/woven

post-show we continued palling around with questionable associations.... then cruised to the Pie Hole and got some slices. then dropped C. Simpson off. got some coffee. and by 3am we were on the road for Lewiston. we had a 9:30am PST load-in for an 11am show at Lewis-Clark State College. we were able to gung-ho a good chunk of the drive up the spine of Idaho before pulling over and dropping the seats back for a nap between about 5:45am and 7:45am MST. it got cold in the van. started frosting in that two hour span as we were pretty high up... just north of New Meadows. it was a weird and restless 2hrs of sleep. i got us further on up the road to Riggins, ID... then Lisa took over and finished it off while i got a good solid hour or so of quality sleep in the backseat.

we arrived at LCSC at 9:35am to find out that the show had to be cancelled due to a scheduling conflict with a State Board of Education meeting going on at the same time... the show will be rescheduled!! and we're off to take some naps and rest up for the clash of the titans tonight in Clarkston, WA @ Hogan's Place with Jared Mees & The Grown Children.... the beginning of the epic 2 week FAMILY TOUR!!! portion of this latest !!! tour.

///it's 2pm PST. Oct. 9th. goodnight.
///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

FINN RIGGINS FALL 2008 U.S. TOUR

2008-10-08T09:12:00.004-06:00

tour poster by Santiago Uceda www.santiagouceda.com

we're leaving today!!! here's the full itinerary:

10/8/08 BOISE, ID @ Gusto's (w/ Woven!!) - 9pm
10/9/08 LEWISTON, ID @ Lewis-Clark State College - 11am-1pm
*10/9/08 CLARKSTON, WA @ Hogan’s Place - 9pm
*10/10/08 MOSCOW, ID -- KRFP Benefit (Halloween Party!!) @ 1912 Center - 7pm
*10/11/08 BOZEMAN, MT @ The Filling Station - 8pm
*10/13/08 MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ Castle Greyskull (w/ Burger Thirst) 8pm
*10/14/08 IOWA CITY, IA @ The Mill - 8pm
*10/15/08 CHICAGO, IL @ Cal’s Liquors (w/ Raise High The Roof Beam!!) -- 8pm
*10/16/08 INDIANAPOLIS, IN @ Radio Radio (w/ America Owns The Moon!!) - 8pm
*10/17/08 BLOOMINGTON, IN @ Rhino’s All-Ages Club - 7pm
*10/18/08 MIDDLETOWN, OH @ Tree’s Farm ((Halloween Party + B-Day party for Mary!!)) - 6pm
*10/20/08 CLEVELAND, OH @ Pat’s In The Flats (w/ Sea Urchin + Trouble Books + others!!) - 8pm
*10/21/08 ITHACA, NY @ Lost Dog Lounge - 8pm
*10/22/08 ONEONTA, NY @ Oneonta Teen Center (w/ Joseph von Stengel on visuals!!) 7pm
*10/23/08 NEW YORK, NY -- CMJ Fanatic / TLE Showcase @ John St. Bar & Grill 8pm
*10/24/08 NEW YORK, NY -- CMJ Spectre PDX Showcase @ Knitting Factory 11am **early show**
10/24/08 BROOKLYN, NY -- CMJ official Showcase @ The Charleston 8pm (we play at midnight!!)
10/25/08 CONCORD, NH @ The Barley House (two sets of Finn Riggins!!) 9pm
10/29/08 KITTERY, ME @ 2 Government St. (all ages, BYOB) 8pm
10/30/08 MOULTONBOROUGH, NH @ Moultonborough Academy - assembly + wkshp during the day
10/30/08 MOULTONBOROUGH, NH @ Moultonborough Academy 7pm (all ages, open to the public)
10/31/08 NEW LONDON, CT @ tba
11/1/08 NORTHAMPTON, MA @ The Elevens 9pm
11/2/08 PHILADELPHIA, PA @ The Manhattan Room 8pm
11/3/08 BALTIMORE, MD @ Hampden Baptist Church (w/ Cameron Blake) 7pm
#11/4/08 WASHINGTON D.C. @ Dahlak 9pm
#11/5/08 BLACKSBURG, VA @ The Lantern (w/ Dynamite Club!!) sponsored by WUVT 90.7 FM 9pm
#11/6/08 GREENVILLE, SC @ R3V3RB 8pm
#11/7/08 ASHEVILLE, NC @ New French Bar (w/ Speedsquare!!) 9pm
#11/8/08 WILMINGTON, NC @ The Soapbox (w/ Ponchos From Peru!!) 8pm
#11/10/08 GREENVILLE, NC @ Spazzatorium Galleria! 8pm
#11/11/08 WINSTON-SALEM, NC @ The Garage (w/ Jews & Catholics!!) 8pm
#11/12/08 CHAPEL HILL, NC @ The Reservoir Bar (w/ Gray Young!!) 9pm
#11/13/08 CHARLESTON, SC @ The Village Tavern (w/ The Burgundy Curtain!!) 8pm
11/14/08 CHARLOTTE, NC @ Snug Harbor (w/ Black Skies + Pride Parade) 9pm
11/15/08 ATHENS, GA @ Celebration of Life Festival (w/ Captain Number 1 + The Points North!!) 6-10pm
#11/15/08 ATHENS, GA @ Secret Squirrel (Parts & Labor Afterparty with We Vs. The Shark!!) 11pm
11/16/08 CHATTANOOGA, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia 9pm
11/17/08 RUSSELLVILLE, AR @ The Crazy Burrito (w/ The Counterlife!!) 7pm
11/18/08 LITTLE ROCK, AR @ The Whitewater Tavern (w/ The Counterlife!!) 9pm
11/19/08 TULSA, OK @ Soundpony Lounge 9pm
11/20/08 LINCOLN, NE @ Box Awesome 8pm
11/21/08 DENVER, CO @ Larimer Lounge (w/ Apollo Sunshine + CAT-A-TAC!!) 9pm
11/22/08 NEDERLAND, CO @ First Street Pub 9pm
11/29/08 HAILEY, ID @ The Mint 8pm **Homecoming Show**

* w/ Jared Mees & The Grown Children (Portland, OR) -- FAMILY TOUR!!
# w/ Where The Buffalo Roamed (Carrboro, NC) -- corbie!!!

for full details on all these shows visit www.myspace.com/finnriggins

see you out there!

love
the finn rigginses

Basecamp. Yurts. Mountains. Knees. Dance prties.

2008-10-06T11:05:00.012-06:00

//pretty wild weekend as we got our Fall U.S. Tour officially kicked off in some serious style... and with a rather weird hiccup... we'll start with the hiccup...

cam and i drove up to Basecamp (30 miles east of Ketchum up over Trail Creek pass) on friday night. hung out with Mati and RU and slept like babies in a yurt being steadily hit by rain all night. woke up to sunshine and amazing fall colors saturday morning. ate some breakfast. then hung out in the wood stove-powered hot tub and took in the scenery. in doing so we eyed a hike across the way that we decided to embark on.

about an hour later, as we were about to undertake this mini adventure, Cam was taken out by a horny dog (Cuz) chasing another dog (Camas). Cuz slammed into the outside of Cam's left knee. at first seemed like no big deal, but Cam soon turned pale and was obviously in pain and concerned about the damage. after giving him about 40min to gather himself and assess the situation, we decided to cruise him back into town to go to the emergency room and have it checked out. what a freak accident!

by 5pm we had Cam in a new knee brace, an MRI scheduled for monday, a pizza, and Lisa and our friend Tyson loaded up in the van and headed back up to Basecamp in high spirits. the fall colors are incredible around here right now, and this area of Idaho was new to me and some of the most beautiful country i've ever seen. and there's a lot in Idaho that already astounds me, so that's saying a lot. we were even treated to a rainbow on the way back up...

BASECAMP

a nice little crew made it up for the evening. the event was mostly a birthday party for RU and for another friend Ric. a Libran Hoopla!! we had a family dinner together in the main yurt and hung out by the fire as the sky cleared and a starry starry night in true Idaho fashion opened up above us. there were 12 of us. RU, Mati, Ric, Tibby, Jocelyn, Luce, Willow, Tyson, Lindsay and us. it was awesome.

at some point it was decided that we should indeed play to properly kick our tour off. and that we should do so in the main yurt where it would be warm. we setup our more minimal and quiet ensemble. sang happy birthday to RU and Ric, and then celebrated with a big family dance party in a yurt. one of the coolest little events we've ever been a part of. we played two relatively short sets. the second got a little weird and wild as any show inside a yurt in the middle of nowhere and in the middle of the night should... all in all, we were very thankful to be amongst such good friends and couldn't have asked for a better send off on this latest adventure...

tour starts in two days!! it's our third full U.S. tour in the last 12 months. crazy to think about. almost a year now since our album came out! so many amazing things have happened in that relatively small span of time... hard to believe. thank you thank you thank you to everyone that has been a part of this macro-adventure in however you have been. big or small. we've been cherishing every little moment with all of you!! and could never thank you enough for being constant reminders of what is good and exciting in all of us.

and speaking of which, i'd like to point out that Basecamp is the brainchild of Mat Gershater. an amazing spirit. he runs an outdoor camp for kids from there called Mountain Adventure Tours and has been doing so for over 10 years to help expose kids to the outdoors and the environment. he has started a new organization called Greenscool that is geared toward donating and installing renewable energy systems at poor schools around the world. Basecamp is the home of this operation, where he hopes to model new green technology and structures and lifestyles. He just got clearance for the windmill that he will be installing soon. Check out Greenscool at www.greenscool.org.

some more photos from the day after and our drive home:
Mount Borah in the clouds:

definitely going to miss Idaho for the next two months... but lots and lots of other beautiful parts of this country to experience along the way... super pumped.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

CRAWLSPACE 3: 9-26-08 La Grande, OR

2008-09-29T10:46:00.012-06:00

The legend continues... The Crawlspace / Waypoint Studios / Test Audiences / La Grande continue to host some of the coolest events that we've been blessed enough to be a part of... and Friday Sept. 26th -- CRAWLSPACE 3 -- was certainly no different. the Test Audiences and Waypoint Studio crew raised the bar once again with a brand new warehouse space right next door to the Waypoint Studio space that hosted the first two Crawlspace Invitationals... this one, scrubbed from it's years as a metal-working shop and cleared out... stage built on one end... merch table... bar... ping-pong table. tons of dancing space. 400 capacity easy. mind blowing what they've done to the place. and we and some friends helped them christen it on Friday... it was beautiful.

Avery Hook & Jeff Grammar kicked the evening off around 9pm with all of Test Audiences backing them up and Greg Rawlins also getting in on the action. a big family affair. very appropriate way to kick things off with everyone on stage part of the core of this rad scene around the Crawlspace and the budding art / music scene in La Grande...

after a short break, Test Audiences, the official hosts of the evening and our good good friends ripped into a big set of TA awesomeness... Avery, Jeff and Greg all stuck around on stage and kept the family spirit alive. here's some video of some goodness...

check the sick theremin work by Bill. :] rad tune. www.myspace.com/testaudiences

our buddies from Boise LE FLEUR made the trek over for the show and were Crawlspace virgins... stoked to have them there... and they sounded soooo good in the new space... Ivy's gorgeous vocals booming off the warehouse walls. you have to check them out: www.myspace.com/lefleur photo below by Shaun Daniel

things were running behind and kegs were going down like bowling pins, but at midnight:30 JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN took the stage for the first of several Album Release Parties they'll be doing around the country for their new album "Caffeine, Alcohol, Sunshine, Money". which is stellar. and even features one of us finn rigginses on keyboards and some backup vocals on some tracks...

anyhow, they unleashed one of the most chaotic and crazy JM & TGC sets i've ever witnessed. complete mayhem!! in a most awesome way. i think there were as many interlude jams by the band in between songs with jared dealing with technical difficulties as there were songs played... all the songs were off the hook. in the middle of "Working & Drinking" another technical difficulty and the need for water led Jared to offer a deal for the first person to get him some water could finish singing the song... Lisa came through and her and Megan sang the end of the song with Jared in the crowd playing guitar... it was pretty epic. this photo by Shaun Daniel is proof... what a crazy set. it bode very very well for the family tour that we'll be embarking on with JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN in just over a week... very very excited for it.

we took the stage sometime around 1:45am to 4 empty kegs and a surprisingly strong showing of peeps still there... luckily the Test Audiences crew had gathered donations in the middle of the Jared Mees set and managed to buy several more cases of beer... that probably played a big role in keeping as many people there as there was...

it was a pretty wild set for us as well... super high energy despite the hour... we wrapped up a little bit after 3am after a few different encores. probably could've coaxed us into playing longer if we didn't have to hit the road due to a job i had to be at at 10am six hours away in Ketchum, ID... we packed up and hit the road for home just after 4am PST... we rolled in to Hailey just after 10am MST... i was a little late... but considering i was running on barely an hour sleep and made the effort... my boss was more than understanding... i finally went to sleep at about 2am later that night... pretty crazy 48 hours for sure...

anyhow, it was yet another epic adventure at The CRAWLSPACE in La Grande... and we can't thank our friends in Test Audiences enough for being so awesome and such radical hosts... thanks Bill + Wayne + Annie + Josh. you rule.

our buddy Shaun Daniel took all of these black and white photos above... and a bunch more sweet photos from the evening, check them out on his flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaunmdaniel/sets/72157607552011068/

definitely keep your ears and eyes peeled for more Crawlspace adventures as the legend continues...

our FALL US TOUR kicks off this Friday with a huge fun event in the mountains out Trail Creek... and then we're off... full tour itinerary at www.myspace.com/finnriggins

below are some more photos of our own from last Friday's show at the Crawlspace...

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///love, gilbert

look to the left... team Finn Riggins managed to notch 3 collective wins on the ping-pong table and make the ping-pong scoring wall...

TEST AUDIENCES

September 2008 NW Tour

2008-09-18T23:20:00.027-06:00

///we just got home a few days ago from a pretty stellar 10-day tour of the NW and Inland NW. here's some recap and some highlights...

///9-4-08. The Red Room. Kennewick, WA.

opened for Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson (brooklyn, ny). what a rad rad place the 'ol Red Room is. staff and everyone were so good to us... had home-cooked lasagna and an epic salad. some chips and salsa. and a bunch of veggies and fruit. it was pretty heavenly. show was fun too. we played a 30min power set, then cleared out for the MBAR team. enjoyed their set as well. they were good peeps. thanks to Caleb and Bryson and all the rest of the staff and family for such a rad start to our little mini-tour.

here's a link to a review of the show in the Tri-City Herald:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1362/story/306415.html

and here's a link to some video from our set courtesy of the Tri-City Herald:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1330/story/306543.html

after the show we packed up and headed to Portland... rolled in late night and crashed with the Mees's.

///9-5-08. Music Fest Northwest. Portland, OR.

spent the day chillin in Portland and helping out around Tender Loving Empire headquarters. played that night at Slabtown as part of the TLE Showcase for Music Fest Northwest with labelmates Nick Caceres, Super XX Man, Jared Mees & The Grown Children, Boy Eats Drum Machine. we played right in the middle. the turnout was fantastic... especially considering all the amazing bands playing at the same time... the TLE Showcase slayed it. friends and friends of friends. loved everyone's set. wouldn't have wanted to me anywhere else all night...

here's a link to a review of MFNW with some kinds words about our set:
http://www.nonstarvingartists.com/Members/zaphmann/zaph-mann-on-music/archive/2008/09/16/musicfest-nw-2008-it-added-up-to-what

here's a link to a whole bunch of photos from the night (thanks SAM!!!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tenderlovingempire/sets/72157607148884225/

///9-6-08. Music Fest Northwest. Portland, OR

we took this day off to hang out with friends and check out some music at the festival... got some QT in with Milo and Jess and Noah... and Jared and Brianne Mees... hung out at some industry panels... munched some pizza and traded witty small talk and booking tips... stood in line to see Ratatat and Les Favy Fav... settled for free ice cream from the Ice Cream Man... later that night caught our old friend Justin Ringle with his band Horsefeathers at Holocene... super quiet and rad... from there saw our buddy Sean shed some drums for The Wherewithals at Rotture... then some of the Hillstomp set at Slabtown before heading for sleep... early morning looming ahead...

///9-7-08 Moscow Food Co-op Parking Lot Party: 35th Anniversary Celebration Moscow, ID

got up at 6am and headed inland toward Moscow... had a parking lot party to help setup. i used to work at the MFC and used to be such a huge part of all three of our lives, so we were pretty excited to be a part of this celebration. this show would also be the first of 7 shows in a row we'd play with our buddies

LOW RED LAND from San Francisco. www.myspace.com/lowredland

Ben Walden kicked the party off with some cameos from Von Walden (dad) and Henry... Dan Maher followed despite having been stung on the tongue by a hornet that morning. the Kim and Kenna delivered a spectacular update on the status of the Co-op on behalf of the Board of Directors... and after them Low Red Land slayed some Co-op folks of all ages, shapes and sizes. our set started right as it was getting dark... for a sunday night, Moscow sure brought it's game face and a bunch of people shredded some dance moves on the asphault. it was super fun. all in all, another Co-op success.

we post-partied at the new Shari's in Moscow. 24 hour grazing. we grazed hard all crammed into a cozy little booth. 4th meal had some guest stars in Mary Packer, Andy Jacobson and Sara Foster -- who would end up housing Low Red Land and Cam for the couple of days we were there...

///9-8-08 John's Alley. Moscow, ID

slept in. then slept in some more. Cam took Ben out for a run on Moscow Mountain... and hooked Mark and Neil up with some bikes for a little Palouse bike ride... we all met around 4pm and destroyed ourselves on the basketball court out at Mountain View Park. after some showers we cruised over to Jerry & Amy McMurtry's place for some BBQ, beers and we all helped crank out some homemade ice cream for desert. pretty epic.

show that night was off-the-hook. even on a Monday night, Moscow represented hard. and the Alley got danced and danced and danced till last call. it was pretty ridiculous in the fun factor.

///9-9-08 The Empyrean. Spokane, WA

The Empyrean has become a little bit of a home away from home... always excited to be there... with friends like Rhea and Chrissy and Michelle and Mike and Sean and his brother etc etc etc.... Sara Foster even came up for the show... it was a decent crowd for a Tuesday. locals Dominik Bar and The Farm Circle sandwiched the other two of us... Low Red Land shredded. The Farm Circle closed. what a rad group of kids. sweet tunes. a harp! lots of instrument switches. fun fun stuff. we scored some cookies then cruised to Couer d'Alene to crash with my sister.

///9-10-08 The Badlander Missoula, MT

thai spicy thai spicy thai spicy put all of our digestion systems through the ringer... those of us willing and qualified, employed the Wild Turkey to battle the intestinal demons... to mixed success. show was put on by Mike from Dead Hipster. we opened. dusted off Combover to kick the show off. it was a playful and fun set for us. Low Red Land followed with the thunder. locals Wartime Blues closed out the night why the rest of us celebrated being in Missoula...

got to catch up with our old Moscow friends Mamie and Kevin before the show. what sweethearts! oh my. it was awesome. we crashed at their cozy pad that night. so so nice of them. especially since we had another early morning awaiting us...

///9-11-08 Common Ground Cafe McCall, ID

got up around 7am for an ambitious day of driving and exploring. we were excited to take Low Red Land over Lolo Pass and along the Lochsa as we crossed back into Idaho. and we all had our sights set on Weir Hotsprings... as they were stoked to experience some natural hot springs...

just had to make a quick stop as we were all still processing the Thai Spicy experience...

turns out there's bears in them there hills...

drove a little ways more down the road and parked. after a nice little hike we were all bathing together on the side of a mountain... Bort (mark's dog) included:

Bort couldn't stop attacking the water. she's fierce and relentless:

we then began work on the Neil Thompson mansuit calendar for 2009...

then we continued on down through the epic spine of idaho drive... rolled into McCall around 4pm and slammed out setup at the Common Ground... all spiffied up since last year... new stage location... bigger stage... sand pit for dancing and chillin... Brian and Pam are awesome. please please support this place when and if you're ever in McCall. they've always been really good to us and do a lot for that community...

show that night was rad. great turnout. lots of dancing. big moon. 9/11. Ben (low red land) recently took part in Run For the Fallen... a non-political run to honor all the men and women that have lost their lives in Iraq. check it out: www.runforthefallen.org those guys lost a really good friend in the war, just two weeks before he was supposed to come home. pretty moving talking with them about it. this run sounded incredibly moving.

hung out with some locals into the wee hours. crashed at a nice cabin that was generously provided by Ben's ex-girlfriends parents. super cozy night for all of us.

///9-12-08 Visual Arts Collective Garden City, ID

super casual morning in McCall... then hit the road for Boise. stopped just south of Banks to go swimming in the Payette. sun was out. water was crisp. it was awesome. continued on and hit up Chiang Mai for some better Thai food than what Thai Spicy had to offer in Missoula...

show that night was a little disappointing turnout-wise. headliners System & Station rolled in late since they were coming all the way from Denver... we started a little before 9:30. we had a nice little crowd of folks that had come out. some buddies and some new friends. it was rad. most of them stuck around for Low Red Land, but when System & Station started there were just about 10 of us there. they had had a long day of driving, but they did there best to energize.

a new friend of ours, Mary Anne, took some photos... here's a link:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=260371418&albumId=1236561

///9-13-08 First National Pocatello, ID

all week we'd been talking about doing a SPORTS show. it had been decided that we'd pull out all the stops for the tour closer in Poky. it's a fun place and we knew it could handle it.

show was awesome. a perfect way to end what turned out to be a very successful tour with Low Red Land. all around. they're rad. we all got along marvelously. very very similar wavelengths. they have a new album that just came out yesterday. it is sooooo good. go to www.myspace.com/lowredland to hear more and find out how to get yourself a copy...

sweet local band Spondee opened the show with a set of fun fun pop tunes. def. check them out: www.myspace.com/spondee123

here's some photos and videos from the SPORTS! night tour closer at the First Nash... go to www.myspace.com/finnriggins for more photos from this night and all of this tour...

NEIL

MARK

BEN

GILBERT

LISA

CAM

LOW RED LAND -- WEIGHT OF NATIONS

LOW RED LAND -- LANDMARK

LOW RED LAND w/ Lisa Simpson -- HAWK'S DIE (acoustic)

FINN RIGGINS -- A WHALE, A FISH

show ended with an unprecedented and pretty epic SUPER JAM with all of FINN RIGGINS and LOW RED LAND on the stage. unrehearsed and unscripted, we unleashed a 15min or so psychedelic improv to celebrate a love fest week of touring together. i suspect we all will tour as one once again... not sure when, but odds are very good that it will happen... thanks to everyone that made it out to any or all of the shows!! it was a super fun tour. appreciate all of you support, your energy, your dance moves, your generosity and good spirits.

///more details on our Fall US Tour to be announced soon. know for sure that we'll be making some appearances at the CMJ Music Festival in NYC and several other dates out East... full, regularly updated, tour itinerary at www.myspace.com/finnriggins

thanks for listening!!

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
//gilbert

summer 2008

2008-09-17T00:22:00.027-06:00

/// things never really slowed down after the spring tour... we headed full bore into summer... most of the rest of May was spent at home working during the weeks, then playing shows either locally or regionally on the weekends.

some highlights:

///weekend trip in May with stops at the Yakima Sports Center in Yakima, WA where we played with The Dimes... followed by an early early morning to hustle to our set at the Eagle Island Experience Festival in Eagle, ID

/// one of our bestest friends TRAVIS SILVERS coming out to hang in Hailey with us and then hitting the road for some shows... he was on the good ship from 5/22/08 till 6/3/08. so good to get such a solid dose of the Travis factor.
TRAVIS SILVERS:

/// big ranch party we hosted on Cam's birthday on 5/24/08 out at the Deb-Da-Doo Ranch. we invited a bunch of good friends from all over and several other bands as well... Test Audiences (la grande, or) + Hillfolk Noir (boise, id) + Craters of The Moon (boise, id) + Thomas Paul (boise, id) + Piers Lamb (hailey, id) all made it out and helped us rock the barn into the wee hours. it was a pretty rowdy day and night. things got a little bit crazy by the time we took the stage at midnight. it was an incredible party. there are some big visions for next year... we'll keep you posted.

/// the weekend after that we did a little family mini-tour with Jared Mees & The Grown Children. Brianne even made the trek helping the family be fully in tact. we kicked it off with a Boise Bicycle Project Benefit at the Visual Arts Collective down in the Boise, ID area. Golden Spun and Low-Fi also rocked that show with us all.

from there we cruised to La Grande for the CRAWLSPACE INVITATIONAL II with Test Audiences, Greg Rawlins and Shawn Daniels as well. friggin incredible show. completely off-the-hook. so so good. really set the table for the CRAWLSPACE INVITATIONAL III that will be going down in a couple of weeks on 9/26/08. these are unexplainable. they must be experienced.

TEST AUDIENCES (la grande, or):

from there, the family tour headed up to Spokane the next night to play at The Empyrean, which was rad. then ended the little mini-tour with a special sunday show at the One World Cafe in Moscow. so fun. really got us excited for more family touring... which is coming to fruition this fall when Finn Riggins + Jared Mees & The Grown Children will tour together across the US for 2 weeks to the CMJ Music Festival in NYC.

MEGAN & BRIANNE:

we stayed in Moscow for a couple of extra days and celebrated Lisa's birthday in our old stomping grounds.

/// two weeks later we hit the road for a 3 week West Coast Tour... most of which were with our buddy Tony aka OREM THE SINK. we picked him up in L.A. and dropped him off in Portland... helping him move up to 'ol PDX.

quick rundown of that tour:

6/11/08 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT
--quiet but fun show. especially enjoyed the post-show basketball with Gary Vance.

6/12/08 Beauty Bar Las Vegas, NV
--rad outdoor show amongst the buildings and powerlines. super muggy and hot. cool crowd. we didn't get shot. major bonus. both of the local bands were fun.

6/13/08 backyard BBQ show at Bella's House Fullerton, CA
--started the Friday the 13th festivities off with a really fun set in our friends' backyard to help them house-warm. nice little neighborhood event. lawn chairs. potluck. dogs. kids. chillin.

6/13/08 The Michelsen Compound West Covina, CA
--met up with our friends Asher in the Rye (logan, ut)... featuring our buddy Ashlee house... and also united with our new tour buddy Orem The Sink for the late show... another house party. this one inside. and the sweatiest show of the summer. oh my. Asher in the Rye were rad. they all came back to Bella's with us and we had a sleepover. it was epic.

6/14/08 Muddy Waters Santa Barbara, CA
--another epic show at Muddy Waters. played with locals Run Rabbit Run. Orem The Sink opened. rad show. super high energy. our friend Abigail Noveen took some sweet photos... most of which are posted on our myspace site www.myspace.com/finnriggins...here's a taste:

BRIAN of THE MUTINEERS:

--we stayed with Brian and Merry from The Mutineers... they gave us the royal treatment... so good to us. fed us nicely and entertained us thoroughly. AND we got a much needed night of cozy rest. what sweethearts.

6/15/08 $ucka Free $unday @ Que Sera in Long Beach, CA
--we took our time getting out of Santa Barbara... went over to our old Moscow friends Tiffany & Eric's place and had some breakfast. then early afternoon went to an all women's art opening in a rad backyard and Lisa played a solo set for an hour or so

--show in Long Beach that night was kind of a wanker. except for the fact that we got to rock with our most beloved buddies the WILDLIFE REFUGEES featuring Matt & Mark Clatterbuck and their sick bass player Stevie.

6/16/08 day off Hermosa Beach, CA
--spent our one day off of this West Coast tour with our friends fondly known as the Hermosa Girls down in Hermosa Beach, CA. Susy, Kelly, Heather, Lindsay and co. took good care of us. it was fun being back as just nearly a year ago we had stayed there while recording "A Soldier, A Saint, An Ocean Explorer" in neaby Torrance, CA. rad folks. we had a great night off with them.

--Cam and I rolled up into L.A. late night to hang with our buddies Woven. great to see them as well. we'll be playing with them again this fall. very excited about it.

6/17/08 The Airliner Los Angeles, CA
--met up with our friend Augie up in Van Nuys, CA before the show. played some Wii. then watched the Celtics slaughter the Lakers to with the NBA Finals.

--show that night was weird and crazy... but strangely good. first band were jerks. our set was pretty rippin. have some long lost video of it that we hope to bring to light at some point... Church (portland, or) closed the show that night. they're friends of friends. fun to play with them. very cool stuff.

6/18/08 The Zombie Lounge San Diego, CA
--buddy from Idaho: Wes Wallsworth happened to be in the area and we added him to the bill at the last moment. little party with friends. fun and divey evening. Orem The Sink played as well.

6/19/08 The Continental Glendora, CA
--wow. almost all i can say. that and Rusty Jordan. Starving Daughters. Absolutely Parched. Orem The Sink. Summer. all in the house. and everything felt so right and hilarious. oh my.

6/20/08 The Crepe Place Santa Cruz, CA
--Orem The Sink is now fully in the van and on tour with us. we got stuck in crazy traffic due to a raging forest fire. we made it alright.

--played that night with MAN/MIRACLE www.myspace.com/manmiracle rad rad band that used to live in Santa Cruz... now based in Oakland. show was phenomenal. super super sweaty and cramped. lots of body movin. definitely a highlight.

--afterwards we all went skinny dippin by moonlight in the ocean. pretty unbelievable. definitely check out Man/Miracle. so fun.

6/21/08 Satellite Lounge Reno, NV
--had a nice drive up to Reno. stopped and some of us went swimming in Donner Lake near the top of Donner Pass... Reno was crazy weird as usual. played with St. Lawrence and The Touques. pretty sparse. oh reno. we enjoyed the adventure of it.

6/22/08 Mama Buzz Cafe Oakland, CA
--returned to the 'ol Mama Buzz Cafe for the first time in a while... fun fun. nice and early sunday show. dug the art that was up at the time. nice little crowd for a sunday. Orem The Sink slayed it.

6/23/08 Cafe Du Nord San Francisco, CA
--highligh of tour. played with good friends TARTUFI www.myspace.com/tartufi and THE DONT'S www.myspace.com/thedonts. only bummer was Orem The Sink had to sit out. show was packed at the classy and pretty big Du Nord. had a bunch of friends come out. really really fun show. Tartufi completely floored the place at the end of the night. played mostly new stuff. incredible. hung out into the wee hours in the city with them and some other buddies. then cruised back to Berkeley and crashed. (thanks to Chrissy for the comfy place to crash for a couple of nights!!)

6/24/08 Alex's Plaza Restaurant Ashland, OR
--hooked up with our buddy Jeni up in Ashland and she would host us for the next two nights... ate an amazing dinner at Alex's. the show that night was sweet. nice crowd. Tony was great. and we toned everything down volume-wise, but were able to keep the energy up. cool scene. fascinating scene on the street after the show. trippers and cops and general merry-makers... and it was a tuesday. couldn't get over the guy standing in the street intensely urging us to marvel at his shiny purple bike with him. that guy and the fella standing in the street with his arms stetched to the heavens yelling all kinds of fantastical things that the cops were slowly surrounding. it was wild.

6/25/08 Stage Door Mount Shasta, CA
--a friend we met our last time through California -- Sarabecca -- had since started a promotions company called Girl Genius Music Promotions... and she put together this sweet show for us. it was really fun. great little room. by this point, we'd fully fallen in love with Tony and his Orem The Sink stuff. and we'd been sitting in on his sets the last several shows. he's rad. really really fun tunes. really hilarious and awesome stage presence. you have to check him out. www.virb.com/oremthesink he also helps run a collective called the Prescott Family. here's a little video to wet your appetite:

6/26/08 Sam Bond's Garage Eugene, OR
--due to a festival cancellation for the impending weekend, this was to effectively be our last show on this stretch... and definitely our last with Orem The Sink... however, early on in the drive Cam got a call that his Grandma up in Portland had suffered a severe stroke and that the rest of his family was flying in to Portland ASAP as it was unknown if she'd make it through the night. he kept in touch with his family and we tried our best to proceed as normal. upon arriving in Eugene, we had decided that Lisa and I would try and play our set and we would get Cam on a bus. we talked this through with the venue, trying to accomodate as best we could... we got to the bus station and discovered that another bus wouldn't be leaving until 9pm. it was 5pm at the time. not wanting Cam to have to wait, we decided to cancel and we all headed north to Portland. definitely a bummer way to end the tour. but we all made the most of it and were more interested in making sure Cam could be with his family. ironically, we were going to play a special show at the retirement home that his grandma had been staying at two days later on saturday the 28th.... we just missed her.

--cam's grandma died 2 weeks later with her whole family around her. sounded like a perfect way to go... and we're thankful that she went so peacefully.

///July was our first real sense of being home... we kept busy, but everything was very local. played all kinds of fun shows around the Wood River Valley... it was really really nice... sleeping in our own beds and being a part of the community we live in...

///toward the end of the month we hosted JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN as they were wrapping up a West Coast Tour of their own. super fun weekend. rocked Whiskey Jacques with them on a friday night... RIP Whiskeys!!! that was our last show there... it burned to the ground earlier this week... it will certainly be missed. we also cruised down to Pocatello with them for a night of ridiculous joy at the First National. then escorted them up to Redfish Lake where they played the Music From Stanley Series and got their minds blown by the Stanley area. we picked up our buddy Merrill (tune-yards, sister suvi) in Stanley and brought her to Hailey and we all had a massive sleep over. family family family fun.

JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN @ Redfish Lake... check the dancing bug nets...

///other highlights of the summer:

--appearances at the Northern Rockies Folk Festival + Music in the Mountains + Summer Meltdown + Bellevue Labor Day Festival + Ketch'em Alive w/ Fareed Haque Group + Wicked Spud

--hosting Or, The Whale + Chase Pagan at the Visual Arts Collective with Golden Spun and Craters of the Moon. sweet sunday night show.

--rocking the Garden City Library!!

--killer show at The Artistery in Portland, OR with World's Greatest Ghosts and White Fang on 8/7/08... that elicited this rad poster by Lloyd E Winter IV:

--Madison Street Music Fair outside The Empyrean in Spokane, WA on 8/10/08!!

--triple header on 8/23/08. woke up in a rest area in Oregon after a serious night of rock in Payette, ID the night before. got to La Grande, OR by 10am to setup for our noon set at Crossing The Blues: La Grande Summer Festival. played from noon - 1:30. hung out for a little while then headed to Boise for a show at the Neurolux with Le Fleur. was supposed to be Hockey as well, but they got stuck in Denver due to van trouble. the Neurolux show was super fun. bunch of friends and we absolutely love Le Fleur. good buddies. as soon as that show was done at 11pm, we cruised out to Farmer Brown's in Meridian, ID where we would be closing the Outta Town Git Down: an after-party for the Tour De Fat that took place in Boise that day... we were supposed to go on around 12:30am after Kamphire Collective... we didn't end up going on until 2:30am. played a 2 hour set until 4:30am. really really inspired and fun set at that. we were stunned how many folks rocked out with us that late... super fun. pretty epic day all around. we crashed hard when all was said and done.

--our friends Eric & Julia's wedding right here in Hailey on 7/19/08. oh my. what a riot!! holy dance party!

--camping!! actually got some camping in this summer... and some fishing!!
a little hug-and-release for ya:

///i think that covers most of what transpired this summer... it was a good one... not a lot of slowing down... in August we also finally found sometime to start rehearsing and writing new stuff as we gear up to record another album this winter... in the meantime, lots more action this fall. just finished a 10 day tour of the Northwest and we hit the road in three weeks for another big US tour. details coming very soon. for full itinerary go to www.myspace.com/finnriggins

///thanks for listening.

///reporting for all of us finn rigginses
///gilbert

moving forward

2008-09-16T22:13:00.016-06:00

///our apologies. but the everyday life of being a musician has got us wayyyyy too far behind on this blog. so here's a quick summary... then we're moving back to the NOW.

spring tour wrapped up like this:

///Day 56: 4/30/08. driving day across minnesota and montana. slept in the van. went a little stir crazy with home looming oh so close.
note how far till our destination... 1140 miles!! 18:57 hours!!!

///Day 57: 5/1/08. played at FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND FEST at The Badlander in Missoula, MT. a rad three-day festival hosted by Dead Hipster Productions. we helped kick it off on the first night. it was a sweet bill with 7 other rad bands. they had two stages and banged out band after band after band. also on our night: We Vs. The Shark + His Mischief + Tuff Mo + Apples of Dischord + Arrows To The Sun + Good Neighbor Policy + Deny The Dinosaur. all were pretty sweet. we hit it off particularly well with We Vs. The Shark. rad rad band. and awesome people. look for more meetings between Finn Riggins and WVTS in the not so distant future...

WE VS. THE SHARK (athens, ga)

///Day 58: 5/2/08

crossed into Idaho for the first time in 2 months. it seemed more beautiful then ever. althought we had two days before we'd actually be home home, we were all pretty excited to be back in Idaho.

we played a really cool show at Agenda Clothing in Rexburg, ID that night thanks to our good good buddy Brent who hooked it up and played with us as his super duper self THE AWFUL TRUTH. also on the bill that night were Johan The Angel + Canoe.

afterwards we "partied" super hard into the wee hours drinkin Dr. Pepper and watching Molly Shannon. it was epic.

THE AWFUL TRUTH:

///Day 59: 5/3/08. ended the primary 9 week stretch of the tour on a super high note headlining THE REALLY BIG SHOW in Pocatello, ID... an all day festival to benefit KISU 91.1 FM and Poky Free Bikes... it was held at the Portneuf Brewery. all day the bands played outside. it was a great lineup. included our buddies Low Red Land (san francisco) as they played an acoustic set and The Future of The Ghost (slc, ut) who we had played with 3 weeks earlier in Vermont... pretty wild. also locals A.W. Feldt, Warbonnet, Jessica McAleese and Libbie Linton. it was a fantastic day. then the evening ended with a super long Finn Riggins set inside the brewery... it was cramped, but made for a lot of energy. what a blast. afterwords, we ran over to the First Nash to try and catch the end of Low Red Land and Dusty Rhodes & The River Band... but missed them and settled for some late night antics over at the Best Western where we were all staying... all in all, a rad way to end tour. (even though we'd only be home for three days... we'd be home nonetheless...)

LEVI & CHENOA -- KISU Djs and super cute hosts of The Really BIG Show

WARBONNET (pocatello, id)

///Day 60: 5/4/08. home.

back to the HELIBASE:

as a reminder, here's what our yard was like when we left for tour:

we were home for three days before continuing on for the final leg...

///Day 63: 5/7/08 played at the Great Pacific in Pendelton, OR. a dark horse show indeed. really really cool crowd. especially for a Wednesday night. great show. great food. thanks to Peter and Ken and everyone else that played a role in it. we hung out for awhile afterwards then hit the road for Moscow...

///Day 64: 5/8/08 woke up in Moscow!! thanks to our buddy Sara Foster for letting us roll in super late night... our long lost pal Liz met us bright and early... waking up in Moscow is almost more like waking up at home then at our actual home... we were pumped to be there... despite knowing it would be short lived. we played that night at the infamous John's Alley. our friends THE MAGIC MIRRORS opened the show and what a rager it was! wowzers. us and the sweaty dance party rocked right up until closing time... the bar quickly pushed everyone out the door, we packed up and hustled home for our 3 hours of sleep that were awaiting us...

///Day 65: 5/9/08 got up at 6am and hit the road as we had an early appt. with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) in Portland at 2pm to record an interview and live performance for later broadcast. here's a link to the OPB site that has photos, video and audio of it all: http://opbmusic.org/performances/45-Finn-Riggins

after the OPB session, we caught a quick bite with Jared & Brianne Mees and Mr. Jerome Nobles, then piled in and headed for Salem, OR for a show that night at the IKE Box with Insomniac Folklore + Seahorse + Breviamor. Jerome joined us. it was a fun show. we were glad it was an early one. we cruised back to Portland, dropped Jerome off then crashed super hard at the Mees's comfy pad after an incredible 36 hours.

///Day 66: 5/10/08 played an absolutely epic house party out in Southeast Portland that night. it was off the hook. completely incredible. packed basement. lots of sweat. lots of "totes". lots of "not my chair not my problem". lot of banter and sweat and unruliness. what a blast.

///Day 67: 5/11/08 Mother's Day. we all called our moms, then honored them by first rocking an in-store at Music Millenium in Southeast Portland in the early evening. then we packed up super fast to run over to Berbati's Pan to load-in for the TENDER LOVING EMPIRE 1ST BIRTHDAY PARTY. which was amazing. just a big 'ol happy family. and truly the end of our monster spring tour. it was an action packed show with Nadine Mooney + Super XX Man + Saw Whet Sideshow + Southern Belle + Newspapers + Jared Mees & The Grown Children + Boy Eats Drum Machine... and we polished the night off just after midnight. incredible turnout. especially on a sunday. we ate birthday cake and whooped it up. so blessed to be surrounded by such good good people. very very very thankful we are. thank you all for being in our lives and being inspirations and support for all that we do!!

here's a link to nice summary of the evening... and from there you can link to all kinds of photos thanks to Sam G:
http://tenderlovingempire.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-birthday-tender-loving-empire-by.html

SARAH LONG (the cutest ever) with the special Finn Riggins cookie she made for the party:

///Day 68: long long drive home. but home at last... for atleast 3 weeks this time...

reporting for all of us finn rigginses:
luv,
gilbert

Day 55: Quadruple Double Deuce House. MPLS, MN 4-29-08

2008-08-19T00:06:00.006-06:00

\\\While driving into Minneapolis we got a phone call from one of the guys involved in setting up the show that night saying that the warehouse space called Future Pasture -- where the show was set to happen-- had been closed down just the night before, and that the show had been moved to a basement across town... No problem.

\\\apparently, and according to the kids we hung out with that night, Minneapolis was already gearing up for the Republican National Convention, and the FBI has been quite active there in preparing for the event. In conjunction with local authorities they are working to shut down DYI venues and are investigating the local anarchists and other politico types. Our show that night had fallen victim to pre-convention "cleansing" if you will... pretty awesome.

\\\that spirit was carried forward into the basement of the Quadruple Double Deuce House... torches held high...

\\\Anyway, we got into town early enough to meet up with an old Boise neighbor of Eric’s: Leigh McIlvaine. Leigh had been finishing up a master’s degree in urban planning and was kind enough to let us stay with her, and hang with us at the show and post show. Plus she reminded us all of Eric’s love of Snoop Dogg from a previous life...

\\\The show was fun and sweaty and full of rambunctious spirit... and reminded us all of the days of Le Coldlab in Moscow (idaho). There were five bands playing in the basement, and the mound of equipment was considerable. The night started out with local band THEMES, a four piece with guy/girl vocals. Nice people, great conversations, and they’re moving to Portland soon. We really hit it off.

\\\THEMES

\\\We played second to a rowdy and fun crew crammed into the basement... it was beautiful... we were followed by Gumbi (north dakota). After them, we wanted to hang with our buddies so we packed up and headed to a local bar with Leigh and met up with the members of THEMES. It was nice to hang out, play darts, and relax a bit post-show. This was all facilitated by getting to stay with Leigh in her apartment. We tried not to keep her up too late since she had to go be a grad student the next day.

\\\a little video of THEMES

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\lisa + gilbert

Day 54: Nottingham Co-op. Madison, WI. 4-28-08

2008-08-17T22:29:00.011-06:00

\\\woke up in the van once again. got straight to work.

\\\We had taken a route out of Chicago the night before that would allow us to avoid paying any tolls. Illinois isn’t the most expensive state to drive through, but instead of having a method to pay based on where you get on and off, you end up having to stop 15 times (give or take) at toll booths where you pay $1.80 or some other nonsensical, non-even amount of money. Not only is it hard to see this money at work in any state, it’s a big traffic jam around Chicago especially. We managed to drive in and out of Chicago without paying a single toll. Kudos to our GPS babe for sure.

\\\All the same, our little detour took us past the jelly belly factory in the morning. Behind the candy factory are some other big factories, and en enormous smokestack spewing huge amounts of white smoke. It looked ay first like the jelly belly manufacturers were fronting for some other huge industrial pollutant-type facility, but no, they’re just neighbors.

\\\We went first to Milwaukee to meet up with Moscow transplant Nate Lowe. He met us downtown at an historic market. We had a great lunch hanging with Nate and catching up. Talking music, and teaching, and books, and politics, and houses, and the rest. After lunch we wandered the market a bit before saying goodbye and heading on.

\\\Madison is really cool, and the state capitol building is enormous and beautiful... at least from the outside... it was a rainy drive in to town...

///We played at a place called the Nottingham Co-op, it is right on Lake Mendoka, and resides among many a frat and sorority. In fact the building used to be this kind of establishment, and now it’s a housing co-op. It has a large communal area, and about 20 rooms that rent for a varied rate depending on size. Members have communal meals, taking turns cooking, and also share many chores around the building. One member that Cam met at dinner had been living there for 11 years. The Co-op hosts shows regularly, and we set up and played in the main room.

\\\We were joined by a couple of great local solo acts: Oedipus Tex + Icarus Himself. Both were rad and very nice. It was a small but appreciative crowd on what ended up being the coldest day + night of tour by far... 54 days in... the room sounded great made for a great night of listening. nice big old room.

\\\Eric aka Oedipus Tex

\\\Nick (aka Icarus Himself) and his girlfriend Katie were nice enough to let us stay with them a few miles away from the co-op. So we got to hang out with them and their brand new kitten that night and the next morning. I think Cam got a little bit too much kitten love in the nighttime. It was, perhaps, the most vocal kitten I have ever been in contact with. He had a great time cuddling with Eric in the morning and I had my turn petting him too.

\\\yay for kittens.

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\lisa + gilbert

Day 54: The Elbo Room. Chicago, IL. 4-27-08

2008-08-17T22:07:00.007-06:00

\\\woke up nice and late in Bloomington and cruised back downtown to experience the original Waffle House, a place not connected to the chain restaurants that we’re known to frequent, especially late night. This waffle house is a local establishment, and is the reason that the chain stores are called something like Waffle and Steak in Indiana. The place has been there for a long time, and the menu is bigger and more varied than the average waffle house. It was a huge and decadent breakfast. we were proud to be maintaining our very important research into local and awesome restaurants around the country.

\\\We got to Chicago in time (despite some traffic) to hit up some Chicago style deep-dish pizza before our show. Completing our research for the day...

\\\We played at a venue called the Elbo room, the same place we played in the fall with Woven. This time we had similar problems with local acts cancelling, but we were joined by local act Violent Vicious and the Vagabonds, who were sweethearts and did manage to get some friends to come out on short notice for the show. It was a small but enthusiastic crowd.

\\\Everything ended early, which we were thankful for, and packed up on high gear and headed a few blocks away to see some music for ourselves... We had found out in Ypsilanti that one of the bands we played with there -- Child Bite -- was going to be playing with our good musical friend Merrill from Sister Suvi in Chicago at a venue called Fuck Mountain. We headed there hoping to at least catch a few songs. It was tricky to find, but once we did get there Merrill -- as her solo project Tune-Yards -- had only played one or town songs since the bands had gotten shut down by the police after a noise complaint. So we got to catch most of her set... which was awesome. Merrill is amazing and it was rad to see her solo, and certainly made us all look forward to the next time we will get to see / play with Sister Suvi again.

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\lisa + gilbert

Day 53: The Cinemat. Bloomington, IN. 4-26-08

2008-08-17T21:37:00.010-06:00

\\\woke up to this sign in some small town in Michigan... hmmmm....

\\\with the gas prices rising as we traverse the country... we jumped into our first expedition into Indiana... where we crossed paths with the Obama campaign once again...

\\\we played at a cool indie film store / movie house called The Cinemat

\\\balloons hauled from some other event by Addison from Busman's Holiday. helped the mood amp up to festive.

\\\Busman's Holiday was fantastic and fun. check them out at www.myspace.com/busmansholiday

\\\here's a video for another taste... super hammy.

\\\we decided to treat ourselves to a hotel room -- only the second splurge out of our pocket for a hotel room on this tour. it was nice on the outside. and surprisingly cheap. once inside we understood the low price...

\\\we slept well though. and slept in.

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 52: The Elbow Room. Ypsilanti, MI. 4-25-08

2008-08-17T21:22:00.005-06:00

\\\our first expedition into Michigan...

\\\we played at the infamous Elbow Room in economic torn Ypsilanti, MI... pretty interesting scene.

\\\played on a pretty good bill. made for a fun and rawkus show. we played second after I Became The Sky... after us Detroit's CHILD BITE played and then So Cal's VOODOO ORGANIST. all were classy. and rowdy.

\\\child bite

\\\voodoo organist

\\\we had a friend in Katie Duke (milo duke's sister) show up, which was fun. all in all, good show. but we were ready to roll out of town and cruised south towards indiana... ate at a crazy little truckstop diner in the middle of the night then crashed in their parking lot... wow. another weird epic encounter with small town america...

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 51: Tree's Farm. Middletown, OH. 4-24-08

2008-08-17T20:52:00.010-06:00

\\\woke up in a truckstop somewhere in Pennsylvania after putting a small dent in our 566 mile / 9hrs and 20min drive to Ohio...

\\\the drive across Pennsylvania was pretty epic. in length. but also in beauty.

\\\we went through a few tunnels throughout the day

\\\showed up at Tree's Farm by about 4pm... quite the change of pace from the night before...

\\\played inside the barn on the farm. from the minute we showed up it seemed as though we'd landed in heaven. so peaceful. so green. weather was unbelievable. a pace much more like our idaho lives. what a blessing. and the show was super fun. played with locals Tibetan Yeti Hunter, featuring Josh Kettleshake on drums -- an old friend from Moscow. their trumpet player ended up sitting in on a couple of tunes in our set. Very cool scene. definitely a highlight of tour.

\\\the hosts -- Tree, Danny and Mary -- took such good care of us. Tree is a chef and cooked a marvelous dinner and breakfast the next day. the long drive was well worth it. all of us were well rested and recharged for the final stretch of tour as we parted ways with the farm the next morning... thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

\\\PS here's a little taste of the serenity we tasted on Tree's Farm:

Day 50: The M Room. Philly, PA. 4-23-08

2008-08-17T19:58:00.012-06:00

\\\woke up and headed to Philly, our first real move West and thus homeward. the drive took us back through NYC and the Holland Tunnel.

\\\rolled into hot and steamy Philadelphia just a day after the Pennsylvania presidential democratic primary where Hillary Clinton eeked out a win over Barack Obama... not in Philly though... pretty sure Philly went to Obama... saw lots of remnants from the campaign...

\\\cruised into Fishtown, the neighborhood where The M Room is located -- where we'd be playing that night. found parking on the street. Cam proceeded to clean himself up while i walked around to check out the venue.

\\\we then headed into downtown Philly to meet our friend Marty (from north carolina) and one of her friends for dinner... drove past Philadelphia City Hall... absolutely amazing building. check out this wikipedia entry on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_City_Hall pretty awesome.

\\\played that night at The M Room with three philly bands: Media + The Psychadelicates + Rasputin Secret Police. it was a fun show. and we had a bunch of friends there which made it all the cooler... thanks to the Cloud Minder / Anthropic Records crew -- david, evan and shannon -- for coming out! thanks to Trevor (triangle shirt factory)!! and to Marty and Ashley!! and to Kevin and Kate and Brian.

\\\we had a big drive to Ohio the next day, so we packed up and hit the road for the long trek across Pennsylvania...

\\\reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 49: Univ. of Rhode Island. Kingston, RI. 4-22-08

2008-08-17T19:23:00.009-06:00

\\\woke up next to the atlantic ocean in newport, rhode island. spent a good portion of the morning by the water collecting sea shells and taking breathing the salty air.

\\\cam and i fulfilled our mission of eating fresh lobster. it was amazing. turns out the lobster in rhode island is pretty epic too.

\\\lighthouses rule.

\\\drove to Kingston, RI to play a show at the 193 Degrees Coffeehouse on the University of Rhode Island campus with a rad band from Rhode Island called Milo.

\\\milo. (not to be confused with the man. milo duke. different all together. but still awesome.)

\\\we slept in a couple dorm rooms on the UofRI campus that night. thanks to the kate and her friend that offered up their cozy jail cells. it was a fresh experience to say the least. it was awesome. yay for beds!!

reporting for all of us finn rigginses
\\\gilbert

Day 48: Never Say Never Ink. Beverly, MA 4-21-08 + best sleeping spot ever

2008-07-21T22:58:00.014-06:00

After saying good-bye to my family we headed towards Beverly Mass via the NH seacoast (there’s only 18 miles of seacoast in NH). We stopped in Hampton Beach and had lunch at one of the restaurants along the beach. It was a little bit cold, and certainly still off season. Our waitress was nice enough to give the guys free coffee and Cam left with an extra bowl of chowder.

We got to Beverly and headed to Never Say Never Ink, an art store that we played at in the fall. The people who run it are super nice, and were excited to have us back. We had to hold the show off for a while due to a complaint from the business next door, but it gave the crowd a chance to fill out and in the end it was a good Monday night show. The opening band was an interesting instrumental (mostly) local high school band called And the Sea Was Ours. They’re creating some cool sounds as a young band.

The show ended fairly early, at least by our standards, and we decided to drive and find someplace to sleep. The guys wanted to head towards the ocean, and I was game for that. So, we headed to Newport RI. By the time we got there it was pretty late, and I as really tired. We did find a great spot right on the ocean to park and sleep, and since it was off season no one bothered us for parking there over night. It was beautiful to see the moonlight shining on the ocean, and hear the waves crashing all night. We were right next to an old fort/home/now park. It was once the summer home of a wealthy family, and then turned into a military point during the war, and then later returned to family who then allowed it to become a park area. It was amazing to think that it used to be the summer home of a family, and seemed like a very romantic place to spend the summers, between the ocean and a large acreage with paths through blackberry brambles and shrubs.

Here's what it looked like in the morning:

definitely the best place we slept & woke up all of tour. maybe best ever. it was unbelievable. we took our time in the morning for sure. collected tons of shells and breathed the ocean air deeply.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses:
the simps + gilbert

Day 47: day off. New Hampshire. 4-20-08

2008-07-09T10:05:00.003-06:00

Our last day off with my family. We headed over to my brother and Sister-in-law’s house for lunchtime. After food we watched the new “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movie with the kids. It was nice to just chill and do something very family centered like that, laughing with the kids and sitting on the couch with my family. I don’t get chances to see them as often as I wish I could, so I appreciate normal things like that a lot, especially in the middle of a crazy adventure. It keeps me grounded. It’s really a blessing to have a great family that supports me and my band mates in following our passion. It was a treat to be able to hang with them as much as I did (and we did) over the time we spent in the northeast.

-lisa

Day 46: The Q. Worcester, MA. 4-19-08

2008-07-05T21:53:00.008-06:00

Worcester MA is a city with an often mispronounced name. Growing up in New England, I grew up knowing it was said “woostah” instead of a more phonetic version. Of course, you can say “wooster” and locals won’t look at you funny, but don't stray any further than that if you don’t want to stand out. There are some other interesting-to-pronounce places in Mass, but that’s not really the point of this story...

Anyway, the show was set up by our buddy Dylan Clark who we met when we played with Tiger Saw in Seattle almost a year ago. He plays drums with Tiger Saw, but had set up this show with a new project he's playing with as well now called The Points North. We were pumped to be hooking up with Dylan again and trusted it would be a sweet show.

We got there early to meet up with Dylan and some of his friends for dinner at a vegan Chinese restaurant up the road. After not feeling great the night before, I did my best to steer clear of too much soy (a slight challenge in a vegan Chinese food place) but enjoyed some veggie wonton soup. The place also makes some pretty killer coconut milk smoothies. The rest of the crew mowed down some tasty looking dishes and the entourage was stoked. Both of Dylan's friends were from Wisconsin. One was there to stay: Emily. The other, train jumpin Perry, was only in town for a few days before making his way back to cheese and beer country. They were good company. Spirits were high.

The show was at The Q, a locally owned coffee shop with a cool artsy vibe and decor. The space was fairly small. As was the stage. We picked up right away that it was going to be a quieter show. We unloaded our light setup, which we were excited about as these stripped down sets had been a blast as of late.

The first two bands were from Boston. The Woodrow Wilsons played first. They were fantastic. Loved every minute of it. Rad acoustic instrumentation. Great tunes. Smart lyrics. Good peeps. Check them out for suresy. www.myspace.com/thewoodrowwilsons

The Points North followed. Somewhat similar sound to the WWilsons. Made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside and all over. Wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. you can find them and their sweet tunes here: www.myspace.com/thepointsnorth Big thanks to Dylan and Chris for bringin us in under the wing for this show and for singing good stuff and for taking such great care of us.

Our set was super fun.

Nat Baldwin played last. He's from Portsmouth, NH. Brought just himself and his stand up bass for the show. Crazy amazing stuff. There's a video below of one of his tunes. He'll be playing in Boise this summer with Jared Mees and Hillfolk Noir. We're stoked to have him out and to be playing with family. He did some wild contrabass improv stuff in the midst of his eccentric pop tunes. Word is he used to play with The Dirty Projectors. Good guy. check it. www.myspace.com/natbaldwin

We drove home to New Hampshire that night. The next day would be our last day with the Simpson family. Then Monday would bring the beginning of our homeward movement.

(Lisa wrote the first half. we collaborated on the rest).

on behalf of all uf us finn rigginses...

love,
gilbert

Nat Baldwin playing "Lake Erie":

Day 45: The Barley House. Concord, NH. 4-18-08

2008-06-25T14:54:00.005-06:00

We were excited to be back in the capital of New Hampshire, one of the main hubs of the presidential primaries... only a couple of months ago it had been overrun with candidates and press and primary madness. We were playing at The Barley House once again... during the primaries they made a name for themselves as the home of the Hucka-burger. It's a funny little place. Right next door is an office that appears to be a tribute of some sort to Ronald Reagan.

Lisa was feeling horrible and was having a hard time getting herself together to play. As show time rolled around, Cam and I ended up starting the show by ourselves... wandering our way through a couple of pretty loose interpretations of some old tunes: MIC [ ] and Faroh. Luckily, Lisa was able to rally and joined us for a wild and wooly first set.

check out this blog about the show... i'll let her fill you in: www.18milesnh.com/2008/04/sailing-seas-with-finn-riggins.html

in general, pretty fun show. really great to see some New Hampshire friends. some new ones and some old ones. even Paul Mitchell (an old friend from Idaho) cruised down from Maine to hang out. so cool.

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gilbert

Day 44: day off. team splits up. 4-17-08

2008-06-25T14:21:00.005-06:00

Cam and i woke up at our buddy Jamie's Vermont farmhouse to a clear and brisk april morning. It warmed up quickly though. Amazing day. We made some waffles with Jamie then stepped outside and met his goats before rolling in to Burlington, VT for the day. We caught up with Jamie later to check out his studio: A-9 Studio. good chance we'll do some recording there when we're back out East in the fall. He's got a great setup. and great taste.

We tracked down some monster burritos for dinner then cruised to the Higher Ground to catch a show... Surprise Me Mr. Davis was in town, and we're long time fans of The Slip (who play in SMMD) and thought it would be a fun way to spend our day off...
we ended up helping them with merch and chillin. it was fun. chatted a bunch about the state of the music biz and what the future holds for bands like us and them... lots of good things going on, but it's getting tougher and tougher to travel as extensively as we have been with fuel costs booming right now... curious to see where the next couple of years will take us... and the scene in general... we finally decided to roll as they began packing up... we drove for about 40min then crashed in a rest area... btw, had a good time with the fellas and girl from The Low Anthem too... good peeps, enjoyed their opening set... we had a good time behind the merch table together...

Lisa, on the other hand, had ridden back to New Hampshire with her friend Harmony the night before and spent the day hangin with their dog Samson while Harmony was at school (she teaches). They got to spend the afternoon together and lisa got a whole day off from us boys and some bonus time with her parents that evening. Seemed like a much needed rest for the Simps.

yow.
gilbert

Day 43: Langdon St. Cafe. Montpelier, VT. 4-16-08

2008-06-23T01:10:00.004-06:00

hellooooooo!! shark.
we played at the Langdon Street Cafe for the first time since Sept. on a super beautiful April day in the humble little capital of Vermont. and played with our new buddies HELLO SHARK. oh my. still can't stop listening to 'em. some special stuff for sure. www.myspace.com/hellosharkvermont

had a handful of old VT friends come out to this show. so cool. Jamie W. and family, Andrew, laura, meg, steve lichti, harmony... it was a special little evening. thnks y'all!!

after the show, Lisa jumped ship and headed back to New Hampshire with Harmony, while Cam and i cruised up to the Weiner Compound out in the Vermont sticks... where there was lots of snow and mud to creep through... and a nice quiet nights sleep awaiting us... with a day off to follow...

reporting for all of us finn rigginses.
gilbert

Day 42: Railroad House. Johnson, VT. 4-15-08

2008-06-04T23:58:00.006-06:00

lisa and i met in the tiny town of johnson, vermont. lisa got her undergrad at johnson state college there. i schooled there for one whole year. we were excited to be taking this project there for the first time. and it was a beautiful day to do so. we enjoyed a nostalgic drive through the vermont countryside and got to town early enough to romp around some old stomps. mainly campus. the tiny little JSC campus. then met our old friend Laura downtown at a new pizza shop. lisa commented on the little changes in the town and how time had made her a stranger in a town that she used to be so tight with. tis the nature of a college town though... always changing. always being reinvented by new faces and ideas.

the show was on Railroad St. at a house appropriately dubbed the Railroad House, home of Lincoln from Hello Shark -- the host for the evening. it was a tiny place. we spent the early evening getting to know the place and its inhabitants. it was good. real good. got us excited for the show.

right before music got rolling a big crew led by our friend Laura, which included some other old friends of Lisa's, showed up and turned the gathering into a party. oh my. Hello Shark played first. helloooo shark! they were rad. raucous and raw. inspired tunes. i've really grown to love the shark. and my button that says so.

we played next. we decided early on to play way stripped down and without vocal mics again. so we did. vocal mics probably woulda been nice, but we cut it loose anyhow. it was a rockin set with some great crowd interaction during most of it and an amped up dance party despite our low volume. it was exciting.

our new friends The Future of the Ghost (slc, ut) played last since they were running way behind time. as soon as we were done, we decided to setup our PA so that they could sing through mics. they were sweethearts. and they proceeded to blow the place up. their set was pure mayhem as the party had certainly reached that magical place at that point. check the video for a little tasty taste. their set featured a sweaty dance mess, a bloody nose, a noise complaint and a visit from the defenders of the peace. it was a blast.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses.
-gilbert

PS thanks Laura for the cozy place to crash!!

Day 41: Moultonborough Academy. Moultonborough, NH. 4-14-08

2008-06-04T23:19:00.004-06:00

monday morning and we had a 10am show. yep, 10am. pretty much flipped our bodies on end, but we were able to rise and make it happen as we were pumped to be playing at another New Hampshire high school. we had been invited by Lisa's longtime friend Harmony to play for her music students and some other classes at the Moultonborough Academy. we played in their beautiful auditorium and answered questions from the students for an hour or so. we drank soda pop. and had the van packed before noon. pretty wild. the kids were great. helped haul gear. and had good questions. they made us laugh. and yeah, our day was done at noon. pretty much felt like a day off at that point.

we really would love to play high schools on a regular basis. nice way to connect with kids and share with them an approach to music that's not necessarily easy for them to find. and it's fun. and unique. and there's no cigarette smoke.

reporting for all of us finn rigginses.
-gilbert

Day 40: day off. new hampshire. 4-13-08

2008-06-04T23:12:00.004-06:00

enjoyed a mellow day off with Lisa's family in New Hampshire as it was getting it's first real glimpses of spring. if nothing else, our tour is definitely succeeding in providing us with a nice long springtime. and for that, we're very grateful.

-gilbert