TOURSPIEL '06
HOLY SHIT and BEAR PROOF SUIT Milwaukee's Best Ice Tour 2006 (motto:"Wisconsin--You're Among Jerks")
Jan 1, Minneapolis--Played at Mala's which is this amazing space in a warehouse behind a bike shop and right next to a police station. Beautiful art all over the walls and run by really nice folks including Ski who we stayed with. They have kegs at shows so there's always plenty of beer. A thrash band called Formaldahyde Junkies opened--they played Milwaukee this past summer. They were really energetic and pretty decent musically. We played and I broke my only guitar string of the whole tour beginning the second song. Grabbed the other guitar, returned a few-natured barbs from the crowd and we got throught the set pretty well considering we were all still hungover and tired from NYE the night before. Holy Shit smoked, of course. After the bands were done the DJ played "Diamonds And Rust" by Judas Priest so I threw a dollar at him. The house we stayed at had people going nuts in the kitchen til the early morning but I was done. Thanks Ski.
Jan 2, Omaha--Woke up and went to the Somalian deli/market on the corner cuz we heard they sold camel meat. No camel meat was on the menu so we ordered some huge gyros and sat down to eat. The proprietor came over to chat and I asked him about camel meat and he got very excited and said that yes they DID sell it to take home "...but the white girls don't seem to like it." He told us about growing up in Somalia with his pet camel and gave us camel meat cooking tips, too. I like to see a man who loves his work and this guy loves dealing camel! We were driving to Lincoln where we already knew the show had fallen through but we had a place to stay. We were just outside Omaha when Eric called from the other vehicle and said "Fucked up. The dude's house is in Omaha, not Lincoln." So they stayed with someone else in Lincoln (40 miles further) and we met up with Dave and his cat Moe who we renamed Cool Hand Moe because he tried to escape when Dave wasn't around. Dave works at "the coolest bar in Omaha" which is called Brothers so he took us there for free pool, a killer punk rock jukebox and the worst beer selection in the history of mankind. Two outta three ain't bad. He also has a collection of crazy old keyboards and synths in his basement which he cranked up prior to sending us to bed with a viewing of "Desperate Living" by John Waters. Thanks Dave.
Jan 3, Tulsa--Weather suddenly turned warm and sunny and we pulled into Tulsa with directions to head directly to the venue which was the top of a parking garage in the middle of downtown! The streets were deserted but we saw black-clad folks descending on the garage in question so we pulled in and drove up to the eighth floor roof to find people hanging out and drinking beer. It was a beautiful warm night--power came from two outlets on the roof so it was just the two Wisconsin bands trading off songs in the moonlit night blasting through skyscrapers and a billion blackbirds perched in the trees across the street wondering what the hell was happening. The show went off without a hitch and we headed to Timmy's house to drink beer that tore my guts up the next morning and play Dance Dance Revolution for the first time ever. Ever seen the DDR Heavyweight division go at it? Cuz it was me against Tony Schwader and I'm pretty sure all the ladies in attendance were the winners. Thanks Timmy.
Jan 4, Tulsa--No Denton show so we stayed in Tulsa an extra day. Absolutely gorgeous weather! Timmy took us for lunch at a Mexican place and then we met up with Holly and Naomi and drove around looking for a park to play baseball at--we brought balls, gloves and my bat on tour with us cuz Milwaukee doesn't fuck around. Found a park in a rich neighborhood that was like playing on cement since that whole part of the country is drought-plagued right now. Hit the ball around, climbed rocks down by a creek and generally spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon outside. That night the girls took us to a college jock bar where their friend bartended because it was free beer with student ID from 8-11pm. I showed my Fleet Diesel Fuel card and said "I graduated trucking school six years ago--how bout it?" Of course I drank my share of free shitty Bud Light or whatever. We raised hell and had fun--the National Championship game was on tv so voices were raised and people were having a good time. I hadn't been in a bar like that in years so once Andy Junk climbed up on the bar to light a fart at the drunk couple making out next to him, I knew it was time to go. Thanks Holly and Naomi.
Jan 5, Fort Worth--Played to a small crowd at 1919 Hemphill which is a great space in a city that seems to have virually no redeeming qualities otherwise. This was the first and only time we played after Holy Shit (due to a coin toss) and will be the only time for eternity or until they promise to suck because as much as I like and am proud of BPS and what we're doing, when HS is ON they are my favorite band in the world and CAN'T BE FOLLOWED. Like this night for instance. Borrowed clippers and cut my shockingly-long hair off--sorry ladies. Thanks Michael and Crystal.
Jan 6, Austin--Played at Beerland with a new band called Uncool Niece who were, in fact, very cool. Red River Drive in Austin has all the live music places in a row in a three block stretch so they just put chalkboards out front with the night's bands. I can't tell you how cool it was to walk down a sidewalk and see a big sign that says TONIGHT--HOLY SHIT! BEAR PROOF SUIT UNCOOL NIECE 10pm. Crowd was great and included some past Milwaukee visitors like Lew Houston, Ben Snakepit and our host JJ, the DJ spun many personal punk faves and they had Galaga! Yours truly had the high score at the end of the night despite the throwdown challenge by Schultz. Afterwards we went back to JJ's house and had a nice little party, then passed out around the corner at Lew's house.
Jan 7, Austin--No show in Beaumont or Jackson so we spent a second day in lovely Austin. I woke up early, showered and hit the streets with a list of record stores and directions to get my vinyl fix before everyone else was functional. Met the crew plus Ben Snakepit for lunch at a killer joint called the Tamale House then drove to a park for the Austin vs Milwaukee baseball classic! Much fun was had but here's all you need to know--1. I hit a baseball farther than I or anyone I personally know has ever hit a baseball and 2. We kicked their Texas asses. After that beatdown, everyone drove to a self-storage warehouse on a dead-end back street for the show. Bands rent storage units for practice spaces since the house don't have basements in the south--we plugged into one of the units and played outside in the parking lot. The show started at 1am. The first band looked like high school girls and were called Finally Punk--they were obnoxious and cool and lots of fun. We played next and I introduced us as "Finally Metal from Milwaukee". Then Strange Boys from Dallas played and were excellent musically like a super-tight rocking Mystery Girls-type thing but I totally couldn't deal with the guy's screeching voice--if they got a decent singer they'd be outstanding. Holy Shit then started playing right when the cop (who looked like LL Cool J) showed up. All he asked was that they play inside the building instead of outside so everyone packed into one of those small-ass storage units and Holy Shit ripped it up and then Army Of Jesus who play rocking early 80's-style hc did the same. The party was at Lew's house and apparently ended with multiple cans of paint dumped all over his yard but I passed out at JJ's house because it was already 5am and I was done. Thanks JJ, Lew, Max and Ben.
Thus ends the first week of tour--more later.
-Ryan
Jan 1, Minneapolis--Played at Mala's which is this amazing space in a warehouse behind a bike shop and right next to a police station. Beautiful art all over the walls and run by really nice folks including Ski who we stayed with. They have kegs at shows so there's always plenty of beer. A thrash band called Formaldahyde Junkies opened--they played Milwaukee this past summer. They were really energetic and pretty decent musically. We played and I broke my only guitar string of the whole tour beginning the second song. Grabbed the other guitar, returned a few-natured barbs from the crowd and we got throught the set pretty well considering we were all still hungover and tired from NYE the night before. Holy Shit smoked, of course. After the bands were done the DJ played "Diamonds And Rust" by Judas Priest so I threw a dollar at him. The house we stayed at had people going nuts in the kitchen til the early morning but I was done. Thanks Ski.
Jan 2, Omaha--Woke up and went to the Somalian deli/market on the corner cuz we heard they sold camel meat. No camel meat was on the menu so we ordered some huge gyros and sat down to eat. The proprietor came over to chat and I asked him about camel meat and he got very excited and said that yes they DID sell it to take home "...but the white girls don't seem to like it." He told us about growing up in Somalia with his pet camel and gave us camel meat cooking tips, too. I like to see a man who loves his work and this guy loves dealing camel! We were driving to Lincoln where we already knew the show had fallen through but we had a place to stay. We were just outside Omaha when Eric called from the other vehicle and said "Fucked up. The dude's house is in Omaha, not Lincoln." So they stayed with someone else in Lincoln (40 miles further) and we met up with Dave and his cat Moe who we renamed Cool Hand Moe because he tried to escape when Dave wasn't around. Dave works at "the coolest bar in Omaha" which is called Brothers so he took us there for free pool, a killer punk rock jukebox and the worst beer selection in the history of mankind. Two outta three ain't bad. He also has a collection of crazy old keyboards and synths in his basement which he cranked up prior to sending us to bed with a viewing of "Desperate Living" by John Waters. Thanks Dave.
Jan 3, Tulsa--Weather suddenly turned warm and sunny and we pulled into Tulsa with directions to head directly to the venue which was the top of a parking garage in the middle of downtown! The streets were deserted but we saw black-clad folks descending on the garage in question so we pulled in and drove up to the eighth floor roof to find people hanging out and drinking beer. It was a beautiful warm night--power came from two outlets on the roof so it was just the two Wisconsin bands trading off songs in the moonlit night blasting through skyscrapers and a billion blackbirds perched in the trees across the street wondering what the hell was happening. The show went off without a hitch and we headed to Timmy's house to drink beer that tore my guts up the next morning and play Dance Dance Revolution for the first time ever. Ever seen the DDR Heavyweight division go at it? Cuz it was me against Tony Schwader and I'm pretty sure all the ladies in attendance were the winners. Thanks Timmy.
Jan 4, Tulsa--No Denton show so we stayed in Tulsa an extra day. Absolutely gorgeous weather! Timmy took us for lunch at a Mexican place and then we met up with Holly and Naomi and drove around looking for a park to play baseball at--we brought balls, gloves and my bat on tour with us cuz Milwaukee doesn't fuck around. Found a park in a rich neighborhood that was like playing on cement since that whole part of the country is drought-plagued right now. Hit the ball around, climbed rocks down by a creek and generally spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon outside. That night the girls took us to a college jock bar where their friend bartended because it was free beer with student ID from 8-11pm. I showed my Fleet Diesel Fuel card and said "I graduated trucking school six years ago--how bout it?" Of course I drank my share of free shitty Bud Light or whatever. We raised hell and had fun--the National Championship game was on tv so voices were raised and people were having a good time. I hadn't been in a bar like that in years so once Andy Junk climbed up on the bar to light a fart at the drunk couple making out next to him, I knew it was time to go. Thanks Holly and Naomi.
Jan 5, Fort Worth--Played to a small crowd at 1919 Hemphill which is a great space in a city that seems to have virually no redeeming qualities otherwise. This was the first and only time we played after Holy Shit (due to a coin toss) and will be the only time for eternity or until they promise to suck because as much as I like and am proud of BPS and what we're doing, when HS is ON they are my favorite band in the world and CAN'T BE FOLLOWED. Like this night for instance. Borrowed clippers and cut my shockingly-long hair off--sorry ladies. Thanks Michael and Crystal.
Jan 6, Austin--Played at Beerland with a new band called Uncool Niece who were, in fact, very cool. Red River Drive in Austin has all the live music places in a row in a three block stretch so they just put chalkboards out front with the night's bands. I can't tell you how cool it was to walk down a sidewalk and see a big sign that says TONIGHT--HOLY SHIT! BEAR PROOF SUIT UNCOOL NIECE 10pm. Crowd was great and included some past Milwaukee visitors like Lew Houston, Ben Snakepit and our host JJ, the DJ spun many personal punk faves and they had Galaga! Yours truly had the high score at the end of the night despite the throwdown challenge by Schultz. Afterwards we went back to JJ's house and had a nice little party, then passed out around the corner at Lew's house.
Jan 7, Austin--No show in Beaumont or Jackson so we spent a second day in lovely Austin. I woke up early, showered and hit the streets with a list of record stores and directions to get my vinyl fix before everyone else was functional. Met the crew plus Ben Snakepit for lunch at a killer joint called the Tamale House then drove to a park for the Austin vs Milwaukee baseball classic! Much fun was had but here's all you need to know--1. I hit a baseball farther than I or anyone I personally know has ever hit a baseball and 2. We kicked their Texas asses. After that beatdown, everyone drove to a self-storage warehouse on a dead-end back street for the show. Bands rent storage units for practice spaces since the house don't have basements in the south--we plugged into one of the units and played outside in the parking lot. The show started at 1am. The first band looked like high school girls and were called Finally Punk--they were obnoxious and cool and lots of fun. We played next and I introduced us as "Finally Metal from Milwaukee". Then Strange Boys from Dallas played and were excellent musically like a super-tight rocking Mystery Girls-type thing but I totally couldn't deal with the guy's screeching voice--if they got a decent singer they'd be outstanding. Holy Shit then started playing right when the cop (who looked like LL Cool J) showed up. All he asked was that they play inside the building instead of outside so everyone packed into one of those small-ass storage units and Holy Shit ripped it up and then Army Of Jesus who play rocking early 80's-style hc did the same. The party was at Lew's house and apparently ended with multiple cans of paint dumped all over his yard but I passed out at JJ's house because it was already 5am and I was done. Thanks JJ, Lew, Max and Ben.
Thus ends the first week of tour--more later.
-Ryan