Bradford Shaw Official Website

Myrtle Beach, SC

The first show in Myrtle Beach, SC was really great. I got to hang out and talk with one of the other opening artists, Pete Schmidt that has a very similar sound to John Mayer. He actually was found on mp3.com by his current manager. I enjoyed his show quite a bit and if you like John Mayer, I recommend checking him out. I also got to meet and talk very briefly with some of the members of Jason Mraz's band. They were headed out that same night to New York for an appearance on the Today Show. I'm hoping to get to hang out with them more as the tour continues. I do recommend their stuff also for chilled listening music.
Some of the greatest stories include talking with Wendell the local "runner" for the bands. (i.e. He gets all the crap the musicians demand to have before they play). We asked this amazing character what were some of the most outrageous requests he got from bands and he claimed that Marilyn Manson requested on his list "Vanilla flavored anal cream". The reply to that was "I don't know where, and I don't want to know where to get it. Nor do I know anybody who knows where to get it, and I don't want to know anybody who knows where to get it!" I guess George Clinton also asked for Frog Juice one time (Apparently some kind of toad has a chemical it produces that has similar effects to LSD - That request didn't get fulfilled either...) I will continue to work on the website and start uploading photos from the tour for everyone to look at. Keep checking for updates.

Memphis, TN

The House of Blues tour with Michelle Penn has been amazingly fun so far. I'm currently on a plane to Memphis, TN to play the Beale Street Music Festival. This festival contains over 75 outstanding artists including Sheryl Crow, ZZ Top, the B-52's, John Mayer, and many, many more. Michelle knows a few of the musicians in Sheryl Crow's band so we will be fortunate enough to possibly meet her and hang out after the show. I'll try to get pics if that actually happens.

It is now after the show and it was an outstanding festival. I ended up seeing a ton of artists that I had never seen before, but were outstanding. A short list of the artists I had never seen included Willie Nelson, The Gap Band, and many others. The size of the crowd was really amazing. It was miles along the shore of the Mississippi River and there were non stop people as far as the eye could see. We spent the night before the show in a private party tent watching the stage that would have Sheryl Crow performing later that night and though we didn't get to meet her, it was an awesome show that included some pretty sweet stories to go with it. (You'll have to ask me about some of those little tales off the record). ;-) One of the funny stories is that Justin Timberlake's parents were actually hanging out in the private tent party we were at. I wouldn't have believed it, but his mom really did look like her. I got a picture of her too. :-)
       We took the stage on Sunday at 2:00 PM for a 70 minute set which went fairly well. It was definitely the largest stage I have ever played on. Our dressing room was right next to Default's. I didn't see them either, but I did run into a tech guy called "Rebel". He has a guitar pick collection from over 1500 artists and my pick is now officially one of his collection. He was yet another character that I've met on the road. I got a picture of this guy that will be up on the photos page really soon too.
       After the show, I checked out a bunch of the other bands playing. I was bummed to find out that Evanescence, a band I'm really in to lately, had canceled, but found out they were replaced with Cowboy Mouth which is an outstanding band and a great show. We watched their show from the side of the stage as they pumped the crowd up and got them jumping around in the drizzling rain that had commenced. I caught Fred the lead singer for a picture after the show too. If you haven't seen these guys (and girls) live, you have got to check them out. Its a show you won't forget.
       Ok, that's it for Memphis, but stay tuned for more coming up from Orlando and New Orleans, more commonly pronounced "Nawlins".

Orlando, FL

Orlando was yet another good time. It was a little more of a relaxing stay since we were there for a couple of days with no show, (which wasn't all bad considering that the last two days had been pretty crazy). The show went well and Michelle was landing some hysterical jokes with the audience. She really has this awesome ability to just kind of chill with the audience. It makes the whole show seem more personal to me. She kicked ass needless to say. After the show I met up with my Uncle Pat, Aunt Peggy, my cousin Paxton, his wife, and her friend and had dinner. Was great seeing some of the fam. Nothing really too exciting happened that night, except for meeting some of Chantal Kreviaszuk's band and crew. They are all very cool. I'm hoping to get to know them all better as the tour goes on.
We spent the next day chilling. We watched X-men 2 (kicked butt) and headed to a sports bar to catch the Pistons rip Philly apart. YEAH PISTONS!!! What was that power outage all about in the first quarter though?!? I've never seen anything like that before. Oh well, all that matters is that the Pistons rock, Tayshaun Prince rocks, and the sixers are going down. OK, there wasn't much more about this part of the trip, but keep checking. Maybe I'll remember something I forgot! :-)

New Orleans, LA

Ok, I'm on the plane out of New Orleans right now and I've got to say that the two night stay there was probably the best part of the trip so far. If you have never been down to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, you've got to check it out because it is a blast. We stayed at the Chateau Dupre right down the street from the House of Blues and just a quick walk to Bourbon Street, so after a quick bite to eat, I headed out on my own to check out the site of this incredibly beautiful and historic city (the rest of the band was beat from the flight). I kind of just meandered down Bourbon Street checking out a couple of the stores and listening to the awesome jazz, blues and funk that came out of nearly every other building. I finally settled on a bar with a college like crowd and decided to catch a beer, but to my fortunate surprise it was happy hour and I got three for one. This, I found is what the magic of New Orleans is all about. They get you drunk as early as possible and then all the inhibitions go flying out the window. I decided it would be better to head home and try to sleep it off until later that night.
       We went out later to grab some more traditional New Orleans food and met up with Chantal Kreviaszuk, one of the other opening artists for Jason Mraz. She has kind of like a Paula Cole/Vanessa Carlton sound. I got her new CD and its pretty awesome, I would recommend picking it up if you like any of the aforementioned artists (only $6.99 at Best Buy!). Anyways, we talked with her and the band for a while and just hung out at the Acme Oyster House. The band members have been really cool to talk with and are extraordinarily great people. We practiced a little after dinner and I decided to head out to Bourbon again on my own just to catch the feel of New Orleans at night. I ran into Jason Mraz and Dennis (their merch guy) and talked with them for a while before heading on down to a piano dueling bar. It was hysterical stuff and incredibly fun. I just kind of walked around for a bit and then headed home to try to get some rest for the next day.
       The show was crazy and a little uncomfortable having three bands set up on one much too small stage, but there must have been something in the air because the crowd was really great and we played our best set to date. I headed down to check out Chantal and talked with a lot of great Louisanans. In particular I met two sisters, Lacy and Bailey, who were very cool and took us out on the town after the shows. I will try to put pics that we got with them up on the site too once they're all set. I took these two and a couple of their friends back stage and through no intention of my own, started a miny party in our dressing room. Next thing you know, Jason and his entire band are hanging with us too. What can I say, you know? I love throwing parties! :-) Anyways, it was cool because we haven't had a real good chance to hang out with their band since they are so busy and it was nice to get the chance then.
       Later we headed out to Pat O'Brien's for some Hurricanes and some more dueling piano music. Not much happened after that, but I do want to say thanks to all the folks I met out there for being so cool and making my first trip to New Orleans so memorable. Thanks Bailey and Lacy for taking us under your wings. Wesley thanks for the smokes and good luck with your music project (I'll drop you a line). Wade, good luck to you too. When you get some of your songs finished up, drop me a line and let me know, I'd like to hear it. Thanks to Sarah, Monique, and everyone else for being so cool. Later peops.

Phoenix, AZ

Hello Hello. I'm sitting in the airport waiting on a huge delay to go to Chicago, so I thought I'd do a little round up of the Phoenix gig. This show was a little strange because it was a corporate show for Volkswagon. After playing pop to a bunch of high schoolers at the House of Blues, we played for a huge group of corporate gurus. The wild thing was that we were by far the smallest name there. They had for cocktail entertainment, the unbelievable Keb Mo. This man is a blues phenomenon. I had never seen him before, but he had amazing skills on the steel guitar and was really an outstanding musician. Danny, our drummer, is a top of the line drummer and he referred to Keb Mo as what he hoped to one day achieve as a musician. Seriously recommend this artist to anyone whether you like blues or not. He was just amazing. I met him briefly after the show and got some pictures of his show, but some jerk stole our camera from backstage while we were playing, so alas, I have no pics any more :-( I will have some off of my disposable and I'm trying to get a hold of the people from New Orleans to see if they took any pictures, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyways, the other artist that played was the Brian Setzer Orchestra. It was wild to see this massive stage with a huge orchestra and Brian Setzer playing to a bunch of people eating dinner. Actually, a lot of the people just walked out after they finished eating because it was too loud!
The one really great thing about this gig was the place we were staying at (we played in the hotel). It was a top of the line resort with everything you could want; full work out facilities, a golf course, an oustanding pool and a lot more. Unfortunately, we didn't really get to enjoy any of it because we were exhausted and flew out the next morning early. Oh well. I guess it was all cool to look at. (how dumb is that?) Ok, there really isn't much more to say about this gig and I'm exhausted, so I'll just tie it up right there. If I think of anything else, I'll put it in here. Peace out.

Chicago, IL

Well, it has been much too long since I last updated the roadnotes so here I go...Chicago was the first sold out show that we've been on with Jason and the crowd really showed. It was by far the biggest of the HOB venues. I don't know what the actual number was, but I would have to guess that it is around 2500+ that were there. I unfortunately did not have one of my best shows, probably because of an extremely short sound check and some last minute changes in vocals parts (due to the addition of the amazingly talented background singer Renee -can't think of her last name right now, sorry). Anyways, it was still received very well and it was once again a blast. A good friend of mine from college, Mr. Jerome "Sparky" Roberts was kind enough to go out of his way to come to the show and it was really great seeing him. We affectionately referred to our friend as "Sparky Moe" when he was helping us tote around our gear back in the Kirkwood days. It is wonderful to see him doing so well with his work and his personal life. I also ran into Melissa Hasty, another old Kirkwood friend that night (Kirkwood reunion night I guess). She, however did not know that I would be playing that night so it was a cool surprise for the both of us.
One of the cooler things about this show was the hanging out afterwords. At each House of Blues venue, there is something called the "foundation room". This is where all the high rollers go. Often times there are corporate people there, lots of friends of the bands, VIPs, etc. I didn't really see anyone famous there (except for Jason), but I did meet his manager Bill Silva. He is actually very big in the music business and manages several very enormous acts. That was a really great person just to talk to for a brief second even since he is about as big as managers come. I was hanging out with my cousin Todd at the time who works for Volkswagon (one of the corporate sponsors for HOB) and just chilling with all the peops after the show. Sparky took off to go finish some work and I ended up hitting the sack kind of early at the House of Blues hotel (a way overpriced but decently cool hotel) to get rest for the flight to Vegas the next day.
One more note about this show was that Jason put on his best shows to date. He really talked to the crowd a lot, at times he was almost like a comedian with a hysterical routine. Their show has changed tremendously along the way. I really admire that because they don't have any time to practice. I asked Micah, their keyboardist, how they do such different sets, and he said they just talk about it on the bus and try to throw it in the night of. They definitely are very good musicians, particularly for their age. I look forward to see where their success takes them.

Las Vegas, NV

Hola everyone. Ah yes, viva Las Vegas people. What a strange town. It really is astounding to watch the thousands of people absolutely party like rock stars. Hmmm, now where did this four day trip begin. Ah yes, we arrived in Vegas late enough to spend a couple hours checking in to the excalibur hotel (I still don't know what the heck took so long). This hotel is like a castle from the fairyland world. In fact all of the hotels kind of resemble some crazy them. There was the luxor, which is like an egyptian theme, New York-New York, which is an all American deal, and the MGM Grand, which is like...I guess it really doesn't look like anything in particular except maybe a stack of cash. Anyways, we cruised over to the New York, New York Casino to grab a bite to eat. Served by a wonderful German woman (accent and all), we all ate quietly due to our being exhausted. I think it was half jet lag and half the hassle of flying. Its unbelievable how a flight can really take it out of you. Anyways, as dissapointed as some of my bigger gambling buddies may be, I did not hardly gamble at all while in the town. The rest of the crew however, took advantage of the slot machines after dinner. Actually, Brendan didn't do half bad, but you know how it goes; up for an hour, out in a minute. I don't really recall too much from that night. I think I just passed out from exhaustion while the others cruised the casinos.
       I woke up the next day refreshed, but quickly found myself pissed off when I got a call from the Phoenix resort where our camera was stolen. The talk I had with the lost and found dude was not as pleasant as I had hoped and I found myself all huffy and puffy, so I decided to hit the gym to work off a little steam. I was kind of ticked about this too because the cost was $20 just to work out, but I figured I needed to get some exercise, so I went for it. That seems to kind of be the way Vegas is. They try to keep you away from anything that may be good and wholesome by charging obscene rates for it. Most paths there definitely lead to trouble. As it turned out though, the gym wasn't just a gym. It was a whole spa complete with saunas, bath robes, sandals, jacuzzis, massages, and any toiletries you could possibly need. They also had fruit and granola and all types of fruit drinks available to you all day long. So it was very cool. I ended up spending a lot of time there working out and then relaxing. It turned out to be completely worth it and I was really glad I did it. Brendan and I grabbed dinner that night and once again I wimped out and didn't end up doing all that much which was fine by me because I was still adjusting to the time change.
       The night of the show was as always very cool, this time in particular because we were playing with a different opener this time. His name is Frankie Perez and he has toured with OAR among others. I had never heard of him before, but he put on one heck of a power packed show. His performance reminded me of a few different artists including Elvis, Bruce Springstein and AC DC. He was by far one of the nicest people I've met on the tour. He went out of his way to come listen to our sound check and talk to me. I almost ended up hanging out with him more, but his sister got in a fight with some other girl in the audience so he wasn't in the same mood as before :-(
       Our show was really tight this time after some practice in the hotel room and the stage mix was outstanding which really helped. It wasn't sold out, but the crowd was very receptive and quite loud. It seemed like they were really there to listen which is always nice from the artist's perspective. I got to talk with Micah from Jason's band a little more also which was nice since there hadn't been too many opportunities before. They put on a great show again of course and we hit the town for some IN N OUT Burgers. If you haven't had them, you need to. Only on the West Coast though. OK, that's it. If I think of anthing else, I'll put it down. Cheers from the land of Elvis imitators and naked dancers. woo hoo!!

Anaheim, CA

I am currently sitting outside a coffee shop (starbucks to be exact) soaking in the sun and just recapping mentally on the last two shows. It has been an amazing ride and I thought I'd share what's on my mind and what exactly happened...

       We arrived at LAX on Friday the 17th pretty exhausted once again. There was some debate on where I would be staying for the next few days so for the next couple of hours, I ended up driving around in a rental car my "brother in law" Glen hooked me up with. The first hotel that I was supposed to stay at was the Beverly Reeves in Beverly hills. So naturally, I'm thinking that this is going to be a really nice place, however when I got there I immediately was like, wait is this run down apartment building it? The hotel manager suggested I look at the room before I paid and it turned out to be a good idea. There was no phone line due to the phone being ripped out of the wall. I decided to try and find another place and Michelle came to the rescue setting me up at a Ramada Inn in West Hollywood. This was definitely an interesting place too because of the high percentage of gay men and women that live in the area. Just the other day, I was told that I'm "absolutely beautiful" by a guy with this deep voice. I didn't really know what to say, so I just said "thanks" and kept on moving. It wasn't bad or anything though. It turned out to be only two blocks from Sunset strip. So the next day, I met up with my friend Glen and headed out to grab some dinner at the Red Rock bar. We called a couple of friends and found out that a high school friend that is currently working as People Magazine's Photo Editor, Lindsay Tyler, was in town for a while. She was staying at her uncle's place in Malibu and invited us out for some cocktails. Now I have seen some nice places in Cali, but this place took the cake. It was overlooking the pacific ocean off of a cliff and was next door to Chalize Theron's home. It was truly amazing. I also have gotten to hook up with Greg Sharrow and James McGovern, some other high school friends that are currently running a battle of the bands contest and having some very good success with it. Its actually much more in depth than that, but if you have music you want people to hear, particularly in the LA music scene, then check out their website at www.canyouhearme.org. I will be submitting my demo to them very shortly as well. Anyways, all of us were hanging out in Malibu and decided to head on out to the Malibu Inn and at first I was thinking, "this really isn't a place I want to be hanging at", until I saw Adam Hollerbach (another high school friend) across the bar. It turns out that Mike Uznis, a guy I used to sail with in GP, was getting married across the street, so of course the most random turn of events occurs and there is a Grosse Pointe reunion in the middle of Malibu, CA. I take it at as a great encouragement at this point, showing me there is no reason to believe I will be alone out here. In all honesty, I have met so many great people and I have felt very welcomed by those I'm touring with as well as those who are just some friends I can hang with out here. I also met Ryan, a guy from a band named Vertices, who was very cool and passed a demo along to me. It feels like incubus/radiohead to me and it sounded very cool. Check them out if you get the chance.
       Anyways, the night ended up being extraordinarily fun and a little wild near the end. Here is a pic of all the GP guys taking a shot courtesy of Adam.

       The next day was a recooperation day for me, but I did manage to meet up with Frank Winegar, a dear friend and band mate from Kirkwood. We had a much too long delayed reunion, the kind that reminds you how much you really missed the other guy. It was a wonderful meeting and it seems that we will be working together again in the near future. I am looking forward to it.
       The next day was the show day and after picking Danny Cox, the drummer, up from the airport, we headed over to the Hyatt in Disney Land territory. The same kind of things enused as always. Load in, sound check, etc. However, this time, I knew that I only had one day left on tour with all the people I met, so I started saying my goodbyes and getting pictures with all the people I have met. In particular, I was interested in talking with Chantal Kreviaszuk, the other opening band, because I hadn't had the chance up to this point. Seeing as she is married to Raine Maida, the lead singer for Our Lady Peace, I thought it was a necesity as well (not to mention I really enjoy her music). So I got her to autograph some CD's for my family and said my thank you's/good bye's to her and got ready for our show. The crowd in Anaheim was truly awesome. It was a packed house by the time we took the stage which is somewhat abnormal being the first opener. They were incredibly receptive though. I went to hand out a couple of guitar picks and the crowd almost mobbed me reaching like crazy for them. There are definitely some cool perks to being on stage. We played our show with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence and went back stage to celebrate. I met up with a couple of friends I had thrown on the list after our show, including my boss for this summer. It was cool seeing some friends I haven't seen in years now. I'm looking forward to hanging out with them in the future months.
       I jumped out in the crowd to watch most of the show and just enjoyed the atmosphere of the wild (mostly female) crowd that now has taken a liking to throwing underwear and bra's at Jason during his performance. Its pretty funny really, but Jason does have a way of playing things off really well. They changed up the show completely once again and really took some risks in the form of the show that I was impressed with. In fact all of the first three songs were very slow. He also added a horn section for these last two shows which was a surprise to me. After partying perhaps a little too hard, we headed out to Denny's for a late night bite then hit the sack. Off to Sunset for the final show!!!

Los Angeles, CA

When I woke up a little damaged from the night before in Anaheim, I decided I better push myself to wake up for that night's show so I went for a quick work out. We packed our stuff and headed out for some tacos before hitting the new hotel. Everything from then on was just a blur of traveling, checking in, and getting ready for load in. I knew the whole time, however, that the show that night would be very special just simply because of it being our last show. We got to sound check and found that it was once again a very rushed sound check. We had some unfortunate dealings with the monitor guy at the HOB. He wouldn't give his name at the time for some reason, but I think somebody said it was "Richard" or "Dick". Anyways, we made it through sound check and headed outside, for the first time, to our dressing room. It turned out to be the House of Blues Tour Bus which seemed like a cool thing until I got inside and realized it was a little dirty in many meanings of the word. We had beer prepared that was hotter than the first cup of coffee in the morning from just roasting in the Tour Bus. So I opened the fridge to cool them down to find a nice raunchy smell in there. Being the explorer I am, I looked in one of the left over styrofoam dinner boxes and to my extremely unfortunate surprise, I found something from the 7th level of hell. DIRTY!!!! It was sick, but I toughed it out and filled the fridge with the hot beer for later that night.
       We hit the stage to a smaller than expected crowd mainly because I guess they weren't letting more people in once we started playing. It was actually surprising how unorganized and poor the security was at this particular HOB. It turned out to be kind of cool later on though when I was sneaking people back stage ;-) Anyways, we played a highly energetic set and though it was the slightest bit sloppy, it was a huge success and we all were having an amazing time because it is just hard to have a bad last show. We finished up our last show to a really great round of applause and screams and headed back for the festivities. I tried to meet up with some of my friends that I put on the list, but some of them didn't make it in time, so I ended up only finding Frank (Kwood drummer), which was cool because we kind of ended up being wingmen. After getting my picture with a couple people backstage, Frank and I made our way up to the front and met some very cool girls (Heather, Suzanne, and Jenni with an i!). We hung out with them for most of the show, but consistently found our way back and forth to the tour bus to grab some beers. On one of our trips back I saw that Paparazzi (sp?) was hanging out by the back stage entrance taking a crazy amount of photos of someone. I walked by them and realized I was standing next to 8 Mile's Co-Star Brittany Murphy. Now, I had always thought when I got close to a star actress for the first time, it would be blatantly obvious how she was not as hot in real life as she is on the screen, but boy was I wrong! We kind of brushed shoulders because of the narrowness of the hallway and I looked over and shyly said "hi". And as she looked into my eyes and said "hello" back, I realized I had just about fell in love. She really was beautiful and had an unbelievably gorgeous smile. Of course I kind of jumped to get the door for her, but she let me go ahead of her which I thought was nice too considering she was the lady and the star! Anyways, I didn't say anything else because I just wasn't sure of what to say. I hope someday I run into her again and maybe I'll work up the confidence to actually say more than "hi" to her. :-)
       After that, Frank and I cruised backstage to hang with Michelle and Chantal's bands for a while. We talked to Jason, the drummer for Chantal's band for a couple of minutes and learned that his own band has recently been signed to Maverick Records and is having their first album produced by Stone Temple Pilots guitarist. I thought that was very cool because my music more closely relates to that than a lot of what the other musicians were used to playing. I hope they are very successful and I will put a link to their homepage once I get the extras page working. This was all very good to hear for Frank and I since we will be tackling the LA music scene very soon.
       We watched the show a little bit more after that and spent some time back stage meeting other people who worked at the HOB which ended up coming in handy later since I need to sneak in a bunch of people back stage. After the show ended, we took over Chantal's Green Room and used the HOB connections to get a few of the friends we had met in the crowd up to our room. I wandered around trying to get last minute good byes in to the bands and getting a few CDs signed by Jason for my family. While I was doing it, I noticed that Dan Akroyd was standing 5 feet away from me greeting people as they came into the foundation room. I decided I would wait to say something since he was talking to five very attractive women. I cruised back to the room to hang out and as it turned out, Michelle ran into him also and asked him to come back to our room. He came to all of our surprise and hung out with us for a little while. This is my assessment of Dan. He is definitely a nice guy; he expressed his concern that we were treated right and his interest in music in general. We talked a little about his new blues album that is coming out (its like a cover sort of thing) and he was on his way. I don't have any complaints. He seemed fairly genuine for being as famous as he is and though I'm sure he was excited to get back to his five lovely ladies, he didn't seem to push too hard to be on his way. I hope I get to see him again.

       Frank and I finished off the night by heading down to Jason's room to see if we could get a meeting with him for our friend Sally. I fortunately remembered the code for the door and we busted into a rather large room party. Apparently, Kevin Spacey was hanging out there just before we arrived, but had left 5 minutes prior. Even so, Sally got to meet Jason, I grabbed a couple of posters from the tour, and we headed on our way for the night after saying our goodbyes to the many people we met. Frank and I shared some last words regarding our exciting and unwritten future in Los Angeles and music and I headed back to the hotel room to hang with the band. We went out for some late night food at some fancy, famous Sunset hotel and cruised home for the end of the night around 4:00 AM. Overall, this show's rating on the fun level was A+.

New Orleans, LA (the hidden band notes)

These notes are a product of what was to really go on Michelle's road notes for New Orleans, but somewhere along the way got vetoed for a more pg-13 version...

Wake up call for our flight to New Orleans was a happy 6 AM this morning. Michelle was confused and cranky (as usual), this time due to the fact that she spent the night sharing a room with her parents in Orlando. She loves her parents and all, but the last time she shared a hotel room with them, she was 5 years old. JP, our tour manager didn’t book enough rooms for the band to sleep comfortably, so Michelle sacrificed to save a buck or two. They were great though and dropped us off at the airport in their mini van (we saved another $30! J). Chantal Kreviaszuk later described seeing parents at our age as a necessary horror. We agree.

Upon our arrival in New Orleans we cruised in style in a limo because it was the same price as a taxi van. It was hard to believe, but the air in New Orleans is more humid and stagnant than we’ve ever experienced before. Our entire power bar supply was destroyed L. To make matters worse, JP fucked up again and took us to the wrong hotel. We looked like complete assholes exiting the limo, unloading completely, (trying) to check in, and then getting back in and reloading everything. (So much for our dollar saving ways). In JP’s defense, both hotels had similar names, (but not that similar).

After a long check in experience, we grabbed some gumbo and everybody went their separate ways. Later that night, we went to dinner at the Acme Oyster House and ran into Chantal and her band. Nice guys J. Brendan has a crush on Chantal. He wouldn’t stop his persistent flirting with her and bragging about her touching his shoulder 4 times while talking to us at dinner. Brad was slightly disturbed that Chantal didn’t touch his shoulder at all. After a quick walk on Bourbon Street, we decided to go back to the hotel and crash.

The rooms were great, until about an hour into sleep when we realized the elevator that was next door to us needed to be serviced. It made an ungodly noise every time it went up or down. The walls shook and the picture frames rattled. Michelle (pissy missy) phoned the front desk and made a room change at 4 AM.

After some much better sleep, the band grouped for lunch. Brad wandered over to the lobster tank, noting that they were kind of cute. It reminded him of the Simpson’s episode where Homer buys a lobster to eat, but then falls in love with him and makes him his pet named “pinchy”. The whole band bonded over this recollection of the Pinchy episode and decided to go in search of a band mascot. On the way to an early sound check, Michelle stopped at the local voodoo store and picked up some cigarettes and a little plastic lobster named “Pinchy”. We all love him dearly.

The sound check was fast and furious complete with broken rental amps. Michelle bitched like the pissy missy she is, but she endeavored to persevere with Pinchy at her side. The show kicked ass. Michelle told the crowd that she went to the voodoo store and had a spell cast on the band’s CDs. If you bought one, you’d have great prosperity and if not, the band could not be held responsible for your miserable life.

After the show, Brendan went in search of party favors to help make the back stage atmosphere happy (and found some J). By the middle of Jason’s set, little Brad had surrounded himself with a group of young hotties. We brought them up to the Green Room after the show and started a miny party. Jason and his band joined the party and eventually we hit the town. The young hotties accompanied us on our trip to Bourbon street where we settled at a bar with some dueling piano players. This place was wild. They had two ladies that looked like my high school choir teacher playing piano and this guy that tapped the bottom of the tip tray with his fingers to the rhythm (sort of). He was super creepy because he was wearing these dark sunglasses and had these metal caps on his fingers. Regardless, the music sounded better and better with each Hurricane we drank. We hung out for a good while and said our good byes to Brad’s fan club and headed back to the hotel for a 4 hour nap before our early morning flight out to Phoenix.

Note: We played the next day with Brian Setzer and Keb Mo in Phoenix and unfortunately had our digital road camera stolen from backstage. All of our photos are now in the hands of some lousy mofo. Pinchy was unhurt and swears it was someone from catering. We’re trying to get in touch with some of the people we hung out with from New Orleans to get copies of their pictures. And if anyone who reads this was at the show and has pics, please send them to us (mpbrocks@aol.com)!

We have 24 hours to regroup before heading out for our next House of Blues show in Chicago.

Adelanto, CA

Its 1:30 in the morning and I just got home from the first show of opening up for the Go Go's and despite some initial feelings of resignation about the city of Adelanto and the venue there, it was an awesome show. We played at a AAA Baseball park in the high desert of Southern California and it was sold out with about 5000 people there. I started off the day by battling traffic with temps ranging into the 107 degree mark. My car was getting kind of mad that I had the AC running so I turned it off and beared the heat in the traffic jam. It sucked, but fortunately we had an air conditioned RV waiting for us. Michelle Penn, the star of the show, and the rest of the band had arrived before me, so when I got there I found out we were going to be sharing the room with another opening artist. Now on most of the shows I've played with Michelle at, we are the first opener and the second is some national act that is really great, but this time Amanda Duross was the opener before us. I didn't really know what to expect from her, but man is she talented! She is an extremely attractive 19 year old that plays guitar and sings much like Tracy Chapman and bearing resemblances to Alicia Keys and Nora Jones. Her voice is astounding and quite possibly even more beautiful than her (which is hard to believe!) After seeing her show, I thought to myself what a marvel it is to see so much talent through all these shows, independent or with a label.
Amanda played a short solo acoustic set and we hit the stage at 7:45. Being the first show with this particular line up, I was a little nervous about how we would perform, but that turned out great as well. There is a lot of stage presence in this group and I'm excited to see how we will click as the tour progresses. We finished up and watched as Belinda Carlisle and the Go Go's did a meet and greet backstage. Some of the most amazing things I found out at this show is that there are some serious die hard Go Go's fans and they are willing to pay. Tickets for the show were $50 a seat and people were dying to spend more at the merchandise booth. All the power to them though because they were a pretty cool crowd. The Go Go's put on what I would call a surprisingly good show; thoroughly entertaining and relatively tight musically. We watched side stage as Belinda sneaked back behind the drums to get a drag of a cigarette from a roadie then ran out to start the next song. It was pretty funny. We watched until they jumped in their vanosine and took off, then we headed up to sell CD's (quite successfully I might add). After the work was done, we raided the Go Go's RV and grabbed some of the goodies they left behind for the road and toasted with a bottle of leftover wine and some of Belinda Carlisle's French cigarettes to a great first show and many more to come. I think this is going to be a lot of fun so stay tuned for updates as the tour progresses...

San Diego, CA

Rock & Roll people. The whole band is driving up to the San Fransisco Bay area right now so it is once again time to update the Road Notes. After the Adelanto show I became much more excited about the rest of the tour. San Diego in particular was a big one to look forward to because I had been told the venue was really cool - and it was. It was right on the water surrounded by a hotel with Parrots and all. The venue held about 1300 people which once again was sold out to a really outstanding crowd. Thanks to a friend that drove down to the show with me, I actually was early getting to the venue for the first time in my life, so we checked out the area. It turns out that I had actually been there before when the America's Cup was there in 1994. For those of you who don't know, the famous relative in my family is the world class sailor (my cousin) Dawn Riley. I was stunned that I recognized so much and Coronado Bay was still an unbelievable view.
Once every one else showed up, we got ready for the show as usual, but this time actually saw the Go Go's wandering around. Jane, the guitarist actually watched part of our set from side stage which was nice (thanks Jane!) and fortunately donated her room to us later that night. The band really started to click this night as we warmed up quickly and by the end were in full rock effect. It is nice to know after many rushed practices that everything is falling into place. It paid off too with tons of people lining up to buy CD's and get them signed. Its definitely a nice touch to the whole Rock Star thing to sign a bunch of CD's after the shows. Its also great to see so many people supporting Michelle and her music. After our show Erika and I busted out to watch the Go Go's, but like the rest of the crowd got pushed around by the bouncers who are way too excited about their job. It was alright though as we had a great time just enjoying the amazing weather, the great crowd, the free food and drink, and the great company. The highlite of the Go Go's show was when they invited up a couple of fans from the audience to dance on stage with them and one rather burley woman who looked like Chris Farley reincarnated as a woman started freaking Belinda Carlisle from behind. It was also amusing to see a very flamboyant fellow banging the tambourine like a mad man with no rhythm. HAHAHAHA! Ah yes, that one will go down in the memory books for sure. It became a late night pizza night later on as we drank Belinda's left over French wine and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. The Go Go's donated all their rooms to us all so we had plenty of room to sleep. Special thanks to our new, extremely talented photographer and roadie Erika Holmes for the pics and for keeping me company on the ride down and back. Oh and thanks to the Go Go's for the rooms... Later peops. Keep checking for updates.

Phoenix, AZ

Well Phoenix, as nice a city as it is...sucked. After getting up at 6 AM to fly out of LAX and arriving in Phoenix 5 hours later, we got the call: Ms. Belinda Carlisle wasn't feeling well and the show was cancelled. So there we were in 115 degree weather and what better to do than go hit up Olivia Newton John to see if we could open for her? It was a no go, but worth the try (probably would've been cooler opening up for her anyways). She's kind of been on the same circuit as we are right now so we've been talking about her a lot. It was kind of like that when we were opening up for Jason Mraz too with 50 cent right at our heels. Alright I'm babbling now, but that's okay since there's nothing to tell about the show. I did get to meet up with some friends from college though which was cool. Thanks to Larry and Coltlee for taking me out and keeping me out of the 95 degree nights (ouch it was hot!) Alright, I'm not going to bore you all with details. Thumbs down on this show or...um...no show I guess. boooooooo...

Saratoga, CA

You won't believe this one. This show was at a place called "Mountain View Winery" and it was very accurate to its title. It was literally on top of a very tall peak that overlooked hundreds of miles of city and mountains; a totally secluded mountain winery with a most spectacular view. The winding road up had us bewildered as it continued for miles. We couldn't believe that there was going to be 1700 people all going up this road to watch us and the Go Go's later that night. Once we saw the actual venue, it became even more believable as it literally was on a cliff with a magnificent view behind the crowd. The buildings were all vintage looking probably dating around 100 years old. I took a walk around since we were there a little early and had a young deer bound out in front of me. Apparently he was getting a taste of the grapes and had ticked off the vineyard attendees quite a bit. Hey can you blame the little guy? He just wanted a little piece of the wealth... So to this point, we've played a AAA Baseball park in the middle of the high desert, a hotel right on the water, and a winery on top of a mountain. Hmm...wonder what's next - a show in the rainforest on top of a waterfall??? Hey, I'm definitely not complaining though. It has been the best part of the tour.
After an excellent organically grown dinner, we busted out for our sound check and though the venue didn't have the best sound to date, it was still cool with the mountains in the background. We did a little meet and greet for some Volkswagen execs and their kids which was kind of cool because the kids are always cute. We hit the stage after that to a half full ampitheatre. The set was a little rusty after having a few days off, but by the end we were rocking. The new line up is very energetic and I'm finding myself really letting loose a little more with each show. I hope it continues in this direction. People gave us a standing ovation and we excited promptly to go sell merch. I saw my cousin Dana Riley and her friend Cris there which was great since I haven't seen her in almost a year. We grabbed some wine and beer and watched from the box seats while the Go Go's performed.
As the night progressed, JB the bassist and Greg the drummer met up with some cute girls and invited me over to join the party. They were great girls and we enjoyed dancing to "We Got The Beat" as the Go Go's concluded their show. Thanks to all of them for hanging out with us (Jamie, Summer, Kristen, Nicole and friends). Despite JB's greates efforts, they were bound for home and we ended up packing up and heading out to our San Francisco headquarters. Tomorrow, off to Sacramento!!

Sacramento, CA

We packed up this morning after a great nights rest at Michelle's friends place (thanks Michelle's friends!), said goodbye to their dog Farley, and took off for Sacramento. We said goodbye to the beautiful sights of San Francisco and got nailed by weekend traffic on our way out. It ended up being such a big deal that a two hour trip became a four hour trip and we barely made our show time. Thankfully, we weren't the only ones that were stuck in traffic as the Go Go's battled their way through the same parking lot. We once again endeavored to persevere though as JP, our tour manager ran stop lights and drove through the entrance going the wrong way just to get us there on time (now that's service!). This show was actually the Sacramento State Fair and it was full of rides, elephant ears, and lots of characters. One cute old lady insisted that JB, our bassist, should sign her Go Go's tape. He had to explain that the Go Go's were all girls and he wasn't in the band. Oh well, everyone loves the fair. We took the stage to a pretty packed crowd of about 4000 less than 20 minutes after we arrived. It was cool because they had a huge screen right behind us and a couple back near the lawn that showed us as we played. So every now and then I'd look back and see myself hugely plastered on the screen. The crowd was actually a little tough at this one, though they received us well. It was general seating so no one really wanted to get up and move around for fear of losing their seats.
After we finished, I took a walk around to check out all the things at the fair. Nothing special really. Just a bunch of rides that make you throw up and a bunch of food that will do the same. I saw one booth that actually sold deep fried candy bars. Now if someone has actually eaten one of these things, email me and let me know.

*(Little update here: Someone emailed me and actually has tried them and they are supposedly really good...so I stand corrected. I am now on a mission to try one myself!)

Anyways, after debating about getting an elephant ear, I decided to decline and went to the trailor to grab my 40 of Natural light and have myself a nice after show drink. Its not really a normal thing for me to be drinking out of 40's, but tonight being at the fair and all, it just kind of felt right. And it was good...it brought back some very vivid memories of college. :-)
After all the shows were over and we were packed up, we headed out to the hotel. I haven't really mentioned it thus far, but we are on a very low budget for this tour so we basically scrap the leftover hotel rooms from the Go Go's once they leave. So we ended up waiting until 12:45 to get our three rooms. I gave my friend Rebecca Padilla (pronounced puh-dee-yuh) a call to see what was up, walked out on to the balcony and closed the sliding door to get a little privacy. Little did I know that it automatically locks and very shortly afterwords, the rest of the group headed down to the bar without letting me know. So as I finished up talking with Rebecca, I turned around to go in the hotel room and found myself unpleasantly locked out on the balcony. I started banging, but quickly realized that I was not getting in any time soon. So I sucked it up and jumped off the balcony to go find the group which had found their way down to a ghetto thumping bar downstairs. I grabbed a key from Greg the drummer and headed back to find out the stupid key had been demagnetized by his credit cards. Back to the front desk...I was getting really ticked off at this point, but looking back at it, it is really quite comical. I had to explain to the front desk that I was not the one that booked the room and that I was on tour with the Go Go's, but I didn't have my wallet because it was locked in the room which I had locked myself out of. The looks on their faces were a little disbelieving until I pulled out my laminated backstage pass. (NEVER underestimate the power of a back stage pass - I swear it would get you into the white house if you use it the right way). I was escorted the quarter mile back to my room after much convincing and finally let into my room at about 2:30. Not the most fun night, but I thought it was a worthy story for all of your entertainment. We are off to Modesto tomorrow, which should prove to be another interesting experience. Rock & roll!!!

Modesto, CA

Alright, I must give very large props to the crowd in Modesto. It never ceases to amaze me how some of the smaller cities have the most supportive and rowdy crowds. Being an opening band, the crowds have always been into us and are very supportive, but they are still really there to see the headliner. In this case though, the crowd was cheering after every song like they were rooting for an encore. It was a cool venue too because it was inside and you couldn't see how deep it was, but you knew there were people way back. It also had very cool architecture being a relatively old State Theatre. The crowd got more into it with each song and though it was the smallest venue and by far the smallest crowd (about 400), they were the lowdest and just egged us on for more of a show. By the end we were all sweating profusely and jumping around like crazy. It felt like the best show we put on despite once again not really having a sound check.
My friend and drummer, Frank Winegar and his friend Ryan showed up to enjoy the show so we ended up hanging out during the Go Go's set and after. It was cool because after a great show, we hit Modesto's strip. It ended up not being that bad either. As we walked down the street, people were still noticing me and congratulating me on the show. It came in handy as we ended up avoiding hefty covers because we "were in the band." :-) Its one of the perks that comes with the job... Anyways, it was great seeing Frank again and his friend Ryan is a riot. He talks to anyone, no matter what the situation. Case in point, he wanted Taco Bell, but the drive through was the only thing open, so he walked up to a car of women to have them get it for him. The only problem is that once he asked the women to do it, he realized they were definitely not female, but more of a combination of the two. It didn't detour him though as he hopped right in the car to get his food even as the Latina he-she started attempting to lick his neck. (He's an extremely brave soul). He got his food and we busted out of there as fast as we could to get back to the hotel for some sleep.
A little side note - before the show, we decided we wanted to get some stuff to have signed by the GO GO's since they didn't have any merchandise at the shows, so we headed out to Salty's Used Records and found just some awesome stuff that did end up getting signed the next night. Also this is a an interesting little factoid for all those who wonder what kind of pay the Go Go's get for these shows. They basically go on a $50,000 guarantee as in that's what they get no matter how many people show up. If for some reason the venue doesn't sell enough tickets, then that venue takes a big hit. That is how the touring industry works my friends. So for the Modesto show, they were selling the best seats for upwards of $100. YIKES!!! Anyways, I thought I'd let y'all in on that secret, but you didn't hear it from me. Alright, last show is tomorrow in Tahoe, Nevada at Caesar's Casino. Should prove to be a fun one, though I'm not sure anything will measure up to this evening's awesome audience. Thanks Modesto!

Stateline, NV

Well the last show came and went and it was good. We played at Caesar's Casino at Lake Tahoe, NV. It was the first time I played at a casino, but it was kind of cool because the stage was huge. Unfortunately, it was a very small turnout particularly because the show time listed was an hour after we actually went on. We did however have an extremely supportive crowd as the Go Go's have found themselves with a cult following that continues from show to show. So many that most of them had started singing along with the words to Michelle's songs. One of the other good things about this show was the dressing room. Casinos definitely do that right. After many RV's and rent-a-trailers, we finally were set up with a huge, nicely furnished room with built in bar. We found ourselves exhausted on the couch before the show watching Elvis Presley movies on AMC on the huge TV that was also provided. It was nice also because there was a table to lay out all our Go Go's merchandise we had bought the day before for them to sign. Apparently they really don't sign very much at all, but since we were so intent and actually opened up for them for 7 shows, they agreed to do so. It didn't hurt that it was Belinda's birthday either; she seemed to be in a much better mood than normal and even signed one of the albums "with love, Belinda". I found out later that the tour manger was stunned by it since she doesn't even normally sign at all. We got our pictures with them and for the first time during the entire tour I can say I actually talked to the band we're opening for. I guess that's just how it goes sometimes. They are afterall kind of rock icons being one of the only all girl rock bands (who sold 22 million albums).
After the show the entire band grabbed a bite and went down to the pit to watch the last show with the Go Go's. They brought out a birthday cake for Belinda during the encore and seemed like they really were having a great time that particular night. We went out to sell and sign CD's right after and actually met up with some cool girls, one of which pretended that she was German for some unknown reason. We had a few drinks with them and packed up to go to our rooms. Reminiscing over how great the trip had been, we closed the night down to a couple of beers in Michelle's room and toasted to another great tour. Don't know what's next for me now, but I can assure you a lot will be happening in the coming weeks. Thanks everyone for everything and keep checking for more updates.

-Brad

LA Music Awards

After nearly 8 months of showcases, three nomination parties and a fan voting party, the night finally arrived. The LA Music Awards actually came pretty quickly all things considered. It looked glamorous and wonderful and in some ways it was, while others not so much.

The day began rather hectic and stressed as I had some last minute cancellations on passes for the events. “Big Al” Bowman, founder of the LA Music Awards had comped me 16 tickets to have my band, friends, family and fans there. I had taken care of getting them to most of the people who had asked to go and just a few had last minute commitments come up.

For those of you who don’t know him, “Big Al” has been putting on the LA Music Awards for 14 years now. My first encounter with the man gave me a glimpse into what these events can be about. I had found out about the event through a coworker whose stepfather was one of the booking agents. I gave my CD to my friend and he in turn passed it along to his stepfather but as it turned out, the demo CD never reached Big Al’s hands.

When it came the week before my showcase back in March 2003, a pipe burst in the venue I was to play at, so they had to move the show last minute; that’s when I finally heard from Big Al. He was a smooth talking man with an emphasis on the talking; noting such memorable experiences as being the limo driver for Motley Crue as well as going on and on about some of the unanimous choice recipients (people deemed especially worthy of awards without actually going up against any other nominees – Jack Black was one of these). After listening to him, I realized he was not taking me seriously and I needed to get my CD in this man’s hands before my showcase or I was sure not to get a nomination. So my persistence kicked in. I asked him where he lived and dropped by to say hello. The visit was unique as he has this little tiny dog with a weight problem and pictures of him with all types of odd celebrities and a few of him in uniform most likely from the Vietnam war I would guess. I half expected to see money signs in his eyes when I met him based on our previous talk, but he turned out to be pretty human and somewhat endearing in his continual chattering. I spent more time listening to him talk about the good old days and the days to come until he finally popped my demo CD into his player. That was all I needed. He stopped, listened for a couple seconds and said, “you’re on the right track with this!” and then continued talking about war stories from the limo of Motley Crue. I took off shortly thereafter and a week later, just after my showcase, had a nomination as Singer/Songwriter of the year.

A few months later, the nomination party took place. Following in suit with the showcase, it was another event where the artists, their friends, family and fans had to pay more money. It started to become apparent to me after this event and the “fan voting party” that much of this was a money making device. It was all fun in the end because we got to spend time with other artists in the area and with our friends and fans.

The evening of the event was probably most spectacular from the outside. There were spotlights beaming around the venue, limos, a long line full of extravagantly dressed people and even a red carpet runway for all the guests. Big Al was dressed in style in a glittered jacket complete with camera crew entourage following him around as well as taping all the entering people. I was lucky enough to have made reservations in the Blue Palms Lounge next door that allowed me to skip the lines and sit down for a quick bite.

When we got in, it was a flurry of frenzied people (definitely including me). We had fought an hour and a half of traffic to just barely make our dinner reservations and give me about three minutes to breathe before I did a short acoustic set in the lounge. This was the best part; just playing. I hear it all the time in interviews with bands and musicians and they all say the same thing. Everyone loves playing, but the in between stuff sucks. It is just the truth. I played a short set while a good friend of mine, Brad Etheridge handed out promotional CD’s. I was received very well and extremely thankful for my friends and family to be there to cheer me on.

After a quick bite, we went in to hear the announcement for Singer/Songwriter of the year. It was an interesting barrage of techno music and chit chat while the awards were being announced. Fortunately though, our category was the first of the night for the non-unanimous choice awards, so as the moment drew near, people crowded in and began to listen closely. I was up against two very cool guys; Michael Tiernan and Mike Sullivan and as they played each of our sound bytes our faces appeared upon a large screen up front. I was astounded by the cheers that surmounted as they played a short clip from “Absence”. They then announced the winner as Michael Tiernan; we shook hands and he headed up to give his acceptance speech. It was in my opinion one of the best points in the whole night with so many people paying attention and really into the ceremony. I don’t think I will ever forget what it felt like though with my friends and family screaming their hearts out for me to the point where some could hardly talk after it was over. For a moment, I was undoubtedly a rock star; it was a culmination of hopes, dreams, regrets and losses in one brief moment. I will never forget it because it was amazing and I thank God for that.

As the night wore on, people’s interest waned and the chit chat rose again. Jack Black apparently was there, but got bored and left before his name was announced which was followed by a 10 minute melt down by Big Al on the stage. I spent the remainder of the evening hanging out with my friends on the roof of the venue until we hit the road.

And that was it. Nothing spectacular, but a great experience all the way. I don’t know if I’ll try to do it again next year or not, but the memory of this will always stay with me. Thanks Big Al, thanks LA Music Awards, and most of all thanks to my friends and family who made each of these events what they were.