Thoughts from the road: Oatie Paste EP Release run, December 2016

Just returned Sunday from a few days out on the road with my band Oatie Paste. We played two shows, one in our hometown of Durango and one the following night in Grand Junction. Due to snow, we traveled through Moab, Utah on the way up to Grand Junction. The canyon country is absolutely beautiful.

Friday night's show at the Balcony Backstage in Durango was, in typical Durango fashion, a total shitshow. Great crowd, tons of booze, and a good time. Except for the dickhead sound guy, who I witnessed cussing at the opening band End This Year for having two guitar players. Literally. The dude was irate because he had to mic up an extra amp for one band. I had already made the entire night super easy on him by backlining drums, bass, and guitar amps so that he didn't need to switch up the setup for each of the three bands.

The show went off though. Buster's Ghost killed it. I've known those guys for years and their singer/guitarist Dan Szabo is the guy that recorded our new EP as well as our last full length album In Bar Form. Our set was good, we played solid for the first hour. Then the tiredness and (in the case of Brandon and myself) the booze started kicking in. It was pretty sloppy after that, but it was our party. Overall, it was much more succesfull than our last cd release party back in 2008 when we were kicked offstage for being too drunk after about 45 minutes.

The Junction show was great, minus me breaking a string onstage (only the second time I can remember that happening.) We opened up for local band This Foul Year and Denver rockers Bud Bronson and the Good Timers. Bud Bronson is one of the best bands I've seen all year. Amazing show, fun stage presence. All three bands were celebrating new album releases so the vibe was great in the venue all night.

After three nights on the road with little sleep and constant action, I was exhausted ont he drive back to Denver on Sunday.