BD!!!!

…and band.

Nick Dobbratz from Sugar and Gold.

Pam, Jerome, and Robo.

Robo, Nick, and He-Man 

The Posies

Deerhoof from what seems like 10 miles away.  One of the best bands I’ve seen in a long time.

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As a matter of fact, a new thing I like to do at the end of each tour is to do a bit of a “food recap”: Aurally chronicalling all of the fine and not-so-fine cuisine that was eaten over the course of the tour.  While I won’t do a meal-by-meal rundown in this particular post, I will say we had some great In-N-Out, some decent Thai, INCREDIBLE blueberry muffins made by Mona, Miller’s stepmother, and Bret really seemed to like the tuna melt at the Apple Peddler, which can be found on HWY 101 just north of Eureka.

What I will do, however, is give a little rundown of each show, hopefully accompanied by a few pictures along the way.

May 15:
Although we didn’t actually play a show this day, we did drive up to Castella and stay with Miller’s father and step-mother.  We arrived after dinner unfortunately, but were greeted with beers and a campfire down by the river.  Beers were consumed, laughs were had, and times were generally awesome.  It was truly a great start to the tour.  The highlight of the night for me was when Robin was telling us a story about homeless guys talking about the rat pack, and he got so animated with the telling of the story, he fell back off his chair and into the river.  Nick and I laughed for about and hour and a half!

May 16:
We arrived in Portland, Oregon at a cool little venue called Valentine’s.  It was essentially a bar with a PA and no stage, but we made the most of it.  Some great friends came out, including Gabi Espinosa, who engineered our latest record, which will be coming out on American Dust Records.  Gabi is a super sweet guy, a great engineer, and tried to buy a single donut with a credit card.  I can’t speak of a man any more highly than that.

Gabi and Nick enjoying the opening band

The headlining band that night was called The Caps.  They were pretty cool.

The Caps kicking some ass

May 17:
Robin found this really cool place to play in Eureka called The Lil’ Red Lion.  I remember a few months ago when Robin was trying to get ahold of the people at the bar to book the club.  The only way to get a gig there is by calling the club and talking to the owner.  Old school and awesome.  Anyhow, the venue was super cool, and the bill was even cooler.  It started out with this super trippy one-man-band called Mister Moonbeam.  This guy spent almost an hour setting up his little station on stage which consisted of hidden smoke machines, little twirly wheels, and a keyboard and a computer, well hidden of course.  He would basically make loops and then layer more loops on top until he had a killer groove, then he’d run up to the front of the stage and sing some trippy stuff.

Mister Moonbeam

After that we played to a very enthusiastic crowd.  We even got Mister Moonbeam to come up and freestyle when we played Moonglow.

The third band of the night was called Straightjacket Striptease.  I believe this band was all students from Humbolt State.  The band was led by a female guitarist and singer, who really reminded me of someone I might have seen playing in a band in Monterey in 1994.  The drummer of this band was also particularly awesome to watch.

Straightjacket Striptease

We finished the night staying at a friend of Miller’s in Eureka.  Nick snapped a winner worth sharing:

May 18:
We had a pretty hefty drive back to SF, and we ended up going straight to our next show, which was at Simple Pleasures, a coffee shop on Balboa Street in the Richmond.  This was a super mellow gig, more of a rehearsal for our bigger SF show a few days later.  It was rad, the coffee was free, and Doug showed up.  Can’t beat it.

Shalants at Simple Pleasures

May 19: The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz, CA
I really love this place.  The owner, Adam, is a super cool guy who really has some great music at his place.  This gig was actually put together by Britt Govea, who puts on shows all around California with his company (((folkYEAH!!!))).  The sound was great, people listened, and the band that played after us, Ramona Falls, was also great.  My good friend Ryan Genone also came to the show, and we kicked it after the show and caught up.  Not much more to say about this show, really.  It was just generally all around awesome.

May 20:  Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, Davis, CA
I know, I know.  A thai restaurant?  First a crepe restaurant and now this?  Well, it’s a good point, but the fact remains.  Both places have great music, and a good fan base to support it.  Our friend Garrett Pierce put this show together and played a duo set with Timothy James Wright.  Killer stuff.

Timothy James Wright

My mother’s partner, Mary Anne O’Shea, made a surprise visit to the show and snapped some good ones of the Shalants. 


Shalants do Thai.

May 21 – Chief Crazy Horse, Nevada City, CA
A killer show in a killer town in a killer venue.  Greg Ashley opened the show with a solo performance.  We played shortly after, and then The Moore Brothers closed the show, ending with an amazing rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean”.

The Moore Brothers

May 24 – The Knockout, San Francisco, CA
The last show of our tour turned out to be one of the best.  It was a huge bill, consisting of Dark Sun Sky Pilot, Harry Merry, The Bitter Honeys, and us.  We didn’t end up playing until around 1am!  Fortunately, our dedicated fans stayed until the bitter end.  Speaking of bitter, The Bitter Honeys totally ruled.  



The Bitter Honeys

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Recently Colin made the wise choice of going solo, and I’ve had the pleasure of co-producing his record.  We’re still a long way from a full-length album, but we’re almost finished with the first single, Dizzy, and early Monday morning we starting shooting the music video for the song.  The video features Kenley Collins, Project Runway alumni and karaoke host-extraordinaire.  Stay tuned for the song and video.  It’s going to be great!  The whole project has a very 80′s feel to it.  We’ve incorporated lots of DX7 synthesizers…

Here are a few shots I took from the video:

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Stay tuned for some Shalants shows as well.  We’ll be touring the west coast in May.  Hope to see you out there, friends!

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I must admit, I love playing with Bart, but after seeing him solo, I wonder why he even needs a band.  He’s so good at guitar, he is the whole band.  It’s totally amazing.  He completely captivated the whole crowd, and left them wanting more.

Bart Davenport and band playing a wedding.

Bart’s been staying with us as well.  Turns out he just did some sort of stop-motion hip-hop music video about the old west, and Bart played none other than Black Bart, the infamous Wells Fargo bank robber from the 1870′s.  A little bit of internet investigation got me to blackbart.com, THE internet hub for all the latest information about Black Bart.  Black Bart would leave a little poem after every robbery.  Here’s one of my favorites that I read:

“I’ve labored long and hard for bread,
For honor and for riches
But on my corns too long you’ve tread,
You fine-haired sons-of-bitches.”

Go get em, Black Bart.  And you too, BD.

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