On the Road is a feature where Vegas musicians give us an inside look into touring life. Today’s entry comes from local punk band Rayner, who toured the west coast with Melted leading up their Punk Rock Bowling appearance. Here’s Rayner frontman Dany Panda:
May 18th: Day 0:
Dear journal, Show at 11th Street records today. Can’t believe we get to play with Jeff Rosenstock, can’t believe we’re going on tour tomorrow, can’t believe we’re playing Punk Rock Bowling in a week.
Show goes great! Playing new venues is always a blast and a great opportunity to play for new people. Upset took the stage after us, my first time checking them out. Yea, I got their record. Finally, Jeff takes the stage. Good news, 11th records is still standing. Couple of new fans, new friends, and a great time.
May 19th: Day 1
Hit the road three hours late, but we were all feeling good. The drive over the mountain was scary, but the van made it. Got to riverside, we missed the first band, total bummer. Slightly Violet goes up, they’re funky, I dig it. Up next is Be Still Kid. Rad band, rad dudes. Their approach reminded me a little of Brand New’s The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (check them out too!). The venue, Clash City Station, has a super professional set up. So when we get to hit the stage, the sound is awesome! We rip through our set, and felt really good about the positive feedback. This was also our first night with Melted. They of course killed it. Because the stage area was so big, Melted decided to play an intimate set in front of the stage. Brilliant idea! Anyways, high fives all around, big thanks to clash city and the bands, then we headed to Manny’s aunt’s house for some sleep.
May 20th: Day 2
Wake up, wash off my hangover, and we need food stat. Hug and thank Aunt Judy, and we head out. Big thanks to Sasha Shonfeld who hooked us up at her family’s restaurant; Warehouse Pizza. Left that place stuffed and with awesome new tattoos. Our show that night was in Encino, less than two hours away, so we had time to kill and Encino Man references to make. We decided to head to El Segundo, because De la soul references are tite, and to get our hands on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull IPA. “Wait, did you say that’s Paige?” Triple bonus, WWE Diva Paige was stopping in for a beer. She must have seen our Instagram post saying we were going to be there. We head out early to Encino so we can ride up highway 1, and we cut through Topanga state park. Guys, seriously, beautiful drive!
We show up to the surly goat with plenty of time to spare. The beer selection here was out of control, the bar already had a great vibe. We gather our bearings, set up the gear and get the show on the road. First up was our buddies Born Rival’s, they set this gig up and have helped us out tons in the past. They they just released a new album and it was great to see them perform it live. We took the stage next and the energy was fire. A couple of people from the patio came in to dance along, and it feels pretty great to be in a different town and have people singing along. Best show so far? I’m feeling it!
Melted was up next. Man, this venue was perfect for them. In this intimate venue, their frantic energy completely dominated the room. Finally, what I came all the way from Vegas to see, Spanish Love Songs. Four really cool dudes playing some heart wrenchingly honest music.
This night was definitely in the running for best show of the tour. We went to Kyle of Spanish Love Songs pad to crash. A blessing since it was so close. Tomorrow we start again.
May 21st: Day 3
Captain’s log: stardate 05.21.2016, we have truly been spoiled on this trip. Again, we hit the shower rotation with some shower beers. Kyle takes us to Lotus vegan for some good Thai He was great company and we’re stoked to make friends with these guys. We part ways with Kyle, resist the urge to blow money we don’t have at Universal Studios Hollywood, and head south to Seal beach. When we finally get there it turns out the pier is closed. It was too cold to swim, but we still dipped our toes and did an impromptu beachside photoshoot.
We were stoked for tonight so we headed to the Venue, Programme Skateshop, pretty early. This place is literally just a record and skate storefront that is dedicated to the DIY lifestyle. They first got on my radar when Bane played a show there, since then I’ve seen tons of other great bands include the shop on their tour schedule. We were pretty stoked to be on the list of touring bands that has come through.
The lineup for tonight was again basically catered to us. As an added bonus, our buddies in Hard Pipe Hitters stopped by on their way home from a show the night before. First up was Spanish Love Songs, they wanted to play first so one of their kids could catch the set. And que the adorable groans. They again were great, and it should be mentioned they are also going to be playing Punk Rock Bowling, and stuck in my head for weeks to come. Up next was us, and as we always do, we played our little hearts out. Rory even ripped his pants and had to stand in place (don’t know if that was supposed to be a secret). Up next was a band that I was really excited to catch for the first time, New Way On. They have a great poppy rock n’ roll sound which is warmed by the addition of a keyboardist. Unfortunately, the keyboard didn’t come through as well in the small shop, but the energy did. Guess I’ll just have to catch them again to get the full experience. Closing the night out was Melted. I honestly don’t know how they do it every night: Justin (singer) seriously looks like he’s putting it all out.
We high fived our new friends, promised to hang with our boys in SLS at Punk Rock Bowling, kissed HPH good bye (but we kept Kiel!) and headed down to San Diego for the night. We arrived at about 2 am and we ended the night with some of the best burritos from Colimas.
May 22nd: Day 4
I wake up to the boys already showered and with a plan to meet up with our boys in Ash William. I get berated by our host Drew (thanks for having us again) for not finishing my burrito in one sitting and we head out to Waypoint. Brunch was fantastic and we had a great time.
catching up with Ash Williams and Mitch from San Diego Punk. We sampled our fair share of the great San Diego brews while we waited for the show; it’s safe to say we were well entertained.
San Diego is a beautiful place and it might bias my opinion on all events that occur there, but goodness was Red Brontosaurus a rad show. The Venue was a rad community record shop which also sold (what I guess could now be called retro) video games. Records were moved out of the center of the store and that was our stage. First band up at this gig was Squarecrow, they’ve been working hard getting their new CD ready and prepping for an upcoming tour and it showed. I was surprised by the turnout, Squarecrow and Ash Williams did a great job getting people out on a Sunday afternoon. The audience that was there, was there to listen to music. We were excited to play and I can only imagine Melted felt the same. They played next and true to form they were electric. We took the stage next and man did we sweat up a storm in that little hot box. Another great show, and people seemed to like us, or at least our sunglasses. Ash Williams closed up the show. With a love for sci fi and classic punk, Ash made sure to finish off this party with a bang.
There was little time to hang out after the show, we all had work the next day. Hugs, high fives, and more promises to hang at Punk Rock Bowling. We drove home that night and all headed to work the next day, very tired.
May 31st: Day ???
Three days of straight rock n’ roll partying led up to our Monday gig. We were all terrified we wouldn’t survive. Despite the best efforts of dozens of amazing bands, an uncountable amount of drinks, and tons of friends, we did. What kind of efforts? Try Spanish Love Songs, Death by Stereo, H2O & Good Riddance playing the most pit-tastic show as the opening to the weekend. Brunch shows Saturday and Sunday with Pears and Success were pretty off the chain. Then we immediately had to make our way to the festival. Look at them Melted and Be Like Max boys on the main stage, don’t they look cute? Oh shit! We’re up tomorrow! We still hit the Light Speed Go, Teenage Bottlerocket and Red City Radio show. They played till like 2 the night before our show and none of that was even the festival headliners. You can read all those reviews at PunksinVegas.com.
We start the day of our show like any other tour day; spoiled with showers and beers. This was definitely the gnarliest hangover and pre show jitters, though. No thoughts of breakfast, just the job of loading up the van and driving to PRB. It only took five minutes to drive from our little hotel to the festival grounds and like thirty minutes to get set up. Everyone was super cool, and obviously seasoned in running a big festival stage. I was not. So I did my best to stay out of the way unless I was needed.
We had a tent with Sic Waiting so we were trying to kill time hanging out with them, but every now and then I got little fits of anxiety. I took a deep breath and pushed it out. Honestly though, the wait was awful. So much anticipation and then all of a sudden it was time. We’re on stage our sound tech tunes us in and ask how it sounds. It’s amazing.
Whatever nerves I had go flying out the window. It was an amazing feeling being on that stage, I’ve been going to PRB for seven years and to be involved with a festival with so many bands that brought me into this scene was a trip. Keeping in mind all the great sets I’ve seen over the years, I just tried to perform on their level. Compared to most venues we’ve played in the past this stage was huge. I’ve learned to keep some sense of where the boys are while I jump around. That was a non-issue on this stage. I was running all over that mug, and I even found a little hole to disappear into for a second. Some might have thought that I was trying to escape the heat for a second, but honestly I was surprised it wasn’t too bad. The stage was shaded the whole day so it stayed relatively cool. Relatively…
Well that’s about it, our set seemed to go over well and I was on a high about it for the next few hours. Especially when people came by our merch table to say hi. We basically just spent the rest of the day celebrating and watching tons of great bands. We lost a taco eating contest to Sic Waiting because Jared is coward, but we still partied with him and the band all day. Thanks for reading!
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Rayner photo by Anthony Constantine
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