On the Road with Alaska (part 3)

Oct 20, 2014 Posted by Joel Kirschenbaum In On the Road Tagged Alaska Comments 0

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:

10/7 Reno, NV
Day 14: Woke up and went to Walmart. Boooooo. We did basically nothing all day until going to the house venue. It was a real cool place called Ft. Rayland I guess. There were tons of friends of ours there and it was so awesome. Probably 50 some kids came and packed out the basement. It was the best feeling seeing buds on buds on buds. After the show we went to our friend Tanner’s apartment and stayed up drinking and chatting. Nick went skateboarding.

10/8 Redding, CA
Day 15: Usually staying in the same town for 3 days sucks, but Reno was a beautiful blast. My friend Victoria got us all into the campus cafeteria for free and we ate breakfast/lunch, what a babe. We said bye to our friends and wished them well as they headed to their afternoon classes and we headed off into the nether of tour. The drive from Reno to Redding was comforting and green. We ended up going to In N Out once we arrived in town. Then we met up with Dillon! That kid is so cool! I’m trying to get on his list of cutest emo boys so I’m kissing up! But for real, he hosted our show on a slab of concrete in a park. We partied ’til the cops came. This band that sounded/looked like Papa Roach opened for us with a Rage Against The Machine cover, too sick, too nostalgic. Reminded me of Vegas local bands. I didn’t drink any beer, so I played like shit. After the show we went to a bridge called the Sundial. It was real cool. Talked about diy music and whatever with a bunch of new homies. Redding fucking rules, aye.

10/9 Eugene, OR
Day 16: Zach bought a bag of cheese puffs. I drank 3 beers in the morning and ate like 4 of the cheese puffs. We went to a mcdonalds and i tried to order a large fries but the lady screwed up my order and gave me a medium instead. Showed up to the show in Eugene almost late. It was at this real cool spot called The Boreal that is volunteer ran by our friends in Southtowne Lanes. We played one of the best sets of tour so far and it felt rad. I just channeled some pissed of energy about girls and shit and poof! we rocked out. Southtowne Lanes played also and they were insanely good. We stayed at our bud Matt’s house and partied or whatever. I made a quesadilla. We talked about Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance. These are my people. Great boys, miss em already. (Miss them so much more now while editing this)

10/10 Portland, OR
Day 17: We did some laundry at Matt’s until 2. Then we went to Voodoo Donuts in Eugene. Our bud James, also from Southtowne Lanes, works at the donut shop and got us a ton of donuts for free. What a beautiful angel. Oh mannnn. We headed to get some pizza in Portland. Our friend Matt K. from Southtowne Lanes works at this pizza place in Portland so he hooked us up with free pizza and cheap booze. Like whatttt. Seriously check out that band because they are real life human angels. We got to the 60 Cheese Boy House and hung out with all the fun boys there. When we played everyone was mad amped and mad drunk. We played in the basement and the set ended with most of the dudes there being mostly naked. Dan from HeavyHeavyLowLow and Brennan from the band Downstaaiirs live at the Cheese Boy house and were all acting real weird. Like a good Portland weird. Glad to call those boys homies. Dan offered us and the rest of the crowd a free foosball table about 30 times. We should’ve ended the night by smashing a free foosball table, but we’re dumb. Jesus Miranda played a really insane set, almost cried. Donkey Lips played one song because they were too drunk. We watched some trap music videos in the living room. Dan kicked all the art of his wall while twerking. I kissed Nate and Alex from Sloths a bunch. We carried our sweaty booze filled bodies to Vancouver to sleep at our friend Brett’s house.

10/11 Seattle, WA
Day 18: Left Vancouver and headed back to Portland for lunch at Sizzle Pie with my cousin. Love that lady. We headed out to Seattle. We picked up the guy Jon who booked the show and we went to the house to set up the show. I had a pretty shitty night because none of our friends were able to come out to the gig. Lame. Then there was an acoustic guy who played for 45 min then left right after his set. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, and really wasn’t, but everyone had to play a shorter set which is fuckinggg lame. We had a good time talking to the Fearless Leader boys and Roudy from Postmadonna. Dustin kissed a cute 33 yr old. We headed back to the city and ate some veggie enchiladas with our new best buds Jon and Joelle. They were the most accommodating sweet people in the world. We played Cards Against Humanity and I necked like 6 beers. We talked about perpetuating gender stereotypes and racism and stuff of that nature. Real life convos that you gotta have. I headed outside to sleep in the van.

10/12 Bellingham, WA
Day 19: I woke up alone in the van at like 9 o clock and felt like walking around. I had a real strong inclination to head to the water, so I attempted to get as close as I could. I finally made it to a little lake beach park with a dock. As I took some pictures of the water I saw a canoe of boys approaching. I sat down and kind of ignored them. As they got closer I noticed that it was one of my best buds Ivan of These Colors fame with fellow ex-Las Vegan Dugan. They had an extra spot in their canoe so I hopped in! What a fucking dream of a life! We floated through the lake and chatted it up and eventually got back to their car. We went to the grocery store and got snacks then went to their friend’s house to watch the Seahawks game. After drinking a bunch with those guys (Ivan threw up after shotgunning with me making him and Cory from part 1 eskimo bros. The tour boys swung by and picked me up. We then took off to Bellingham, smiling.

10/13 Bellingham, WA
Day 20: Sat porchside with Zach and Maggie and talked about life and Tim and Eric. Macario, Nick, Cody and Dustin left to get burritos so Maggie, Zach, Tyler and I seized the day and drove to the mountains. We hiked down a state park trail that took us to the beach. It was verdant and lovely. We stood atop some rocks as the ocean water lapped the shore. We hopped along the rocky coast and made our way around, it was truly blissful. Slowly realizing life is not the worst thing ever when you can be around some golden autumn trees with some golden autumn babes. Las Vegas should get some of that shit.