On the Road with Alaska (part 2)

On the Road is a feature on Punks in Vegas where Vegas musicians give us an inside look into touring life. Today’s entry comes from Vegas emo band Alaska, who is currently in the midst of a fall tour. Here’s Alaska frontman Joel Kirschenbaum:

9/30
Day 7: Redlands, CA
Woke up in LA for the third day in a row. Ughhh. Nick made himself a pancake. Cody made himself a pancake. I, the protagonist of our story, made everyone else pancakes. We went to Cheesy Pizza in Colton, CA and got some bomb free vegan pizza. We showed up early to the venue/record store and looked around. I picked up a 12″ recording of the moon landing. That’s chill. Show was great. Hung out with our boys in Welcome To Limerick/bivouac. Watched “The Voice.” I love Gwen Stefani, but that shit is sooo weak. Night bb.

10/1
Day 8: Fresno, CA
Woke up took a shower. Left my phone charger at the house we stayed at. Stole a bunch of cheese from Walmart. Drove to Fresno. Hung out with yung wineglass and yung entertainer. Walked to taco bell. Saw a big train. Fresno ain’t so bad. Played at a venue called Milf Mountain. It was v bitching. Drove to Watsonville.

10/2
Day 9: Watsonville, CA
Woke up at our bud Shane’s house. Went and ate a burrito at some place. Went to the beach and drank orange juice all day. I made a beautiful face in the sand. We saw dolphins and dogs. We wept into the waves. Zachary Wichers of Nazareth. Our skin stained by the sun and our pores poured full of salt, we left. What a holy beach. What a holy day. We headed to our friend Shane’s Dad’s tile warehouse to set up the show. It was super tight. Once in a lifetime kind of energy. We headed back to the house for some post-life sleep.

10/3
Day 10: Fremont, CA / San Francisco, CA
We headed out from Santa Cruz area and went to a guitar center in Gilroy. Got a new cable after being an asshole to those people. Went to Panda Studios with a twelve pack of Fat Tire. Some fun english boys in Landscapes were hanging out. We talked shit on everyone and drank a 211. I took a shower. Sam had our album on the wall. We made it to the big leagues woo. Cool stuff, love that boy, always killing it. We headed to San Francisco and went to the wharf. Pretty chill. Got a free bucket hat. We stayed at our friend Mia’s apartment! Yay! I love Mia she’s the best! Homie for life.

10/4
Day 11: Oakland, CA
We headed to eat bagels at House of Bagels. Way yum. There was a huge free festival going on at Golden Gate Park and Deltron 3030 and Built to Spill played. I sat in a camping chair at the van making sure we didn’t get towed and drank some beer. Zach also hung with me and we made friends with some of the cuties who walked by. We went to Amoeba and watched The Drums for free. It was rad. My friends Kendall and Courtney met up with us and we walked back through the park. Good convos and a real peaceful walk through nature. Necked some beers on the way. Eventually, we headed to Oakland for the show with a full Highwind. The show was at a house called Casa de Kitty. My good bud Teddy lives there. Teddy’s cool because he hates everything but he’s so cute. Everybody Row is the sickest band ever and seeing them play was perfect. Tons of friends came out and everybody was really supportive and happy. Good vibes for days. Lots of talk of love in Oakland that night. We headed to Stockton to sleep at Macdad’s place. As we were called to sleep under the 50 in plasma screen flashing espn, I couldn’t help but think about the truly powerful bonds facilitated by touring. Spending 4 hours in any town with someone is the perfect amount of time to love everything about them without having to deal with their faults or their moods. Trynna fall in love everyday for the next 53 days. That’s all there is.

10/5
Day 12: Stockton, CA
Woke up at Macario’s dad’s house and ate papas y huevos y tortillas. Did laundry. Cleaned the cozy cove. Macario’s dad made us pico de gallo y arroz y frijoles y carne asada. Went to the Dude Ranch. Based Mega climbed a train. Ken the angel of our heaven gave us nugs and booze. What a guy. Place Called Home played and they were really drunk. I played our set with my bucket hat on and had the most fun I’ve had playing in ages. We left to Reno.

10/6
The drive to Reno was mad beautiful. We stayed at Tyler’s dad’s place. Lots of love for fathers on this tour. We went to Lake Tahoe and spent all day there. We meditated on rocks and drank beer in the clear beauty of the water. There were some crawfish that we played with. We left the lake and got pizza. Our buds Tanner and Andrea came over to the house and shared some beer and good hangs with us. Twin Cities beat us in the inaugural basketball pickup game. We only lost because I wasn’t on the court. Put me in next time coach, wasssuppp.

Check back soon for more of Joel’s tales from the road.
Alaska photo by Hunter Wallace. Tour photos by Joel Kirschenbaum.