Petaluma:

We had the night off so Josh and I went downtown and saw a Pink Floyd cover band AND a black Sabbath cover band play a dive bar called Gales.  The bartender was hammered. The bar back was cute.  The bands were lame but luckily josh and I can make the best of those kinds of situations…of course at the expense of our credit cards.  Fuck it. Spend it all.

 

 

Sacramento:

We hit gnarly traffic coming into Sacramento but luckily our buddy Kirt who lived down the street from the venue had some beers waiting for us.  The gig was solid and our old friends Alex and Chris from Groundskeeper threw down some pretty mind bending crapola that definitely kept everyone no their toes.  Those guys still got it after all these years.  Noltown made a joke about his beard being beneficial during oral sex and our Chico State Party buddy and music industry comrade Jono played with his band The Alpha Children to cap off a solid night at Luigi’s Slice.  We eventually made it over to a bar called Streets Of London where most of the clientele could kill a man with their bare hands.  Our old buddy Noah Clark showed up fresh out of the gym to have a drink, riff with Noltown about something hilarious and talk shit about all of my personal favorite west coast DIY rock and roll legends.  Nothing was sacred.  Nolan was eventually booted from Noah’s adventure for the night and so he high tailed it about 15 blocks at 2 in the morning to a party where a bunch of Chico people were cutting lose for the first time together since we all lived in Chico back in 07.  The neighbors may or may not have appreciated this.  Josh and I had a different adventure.  I can’t recall a lot of it but I remember not wanting to move very much the next day.  (See this Blogs Profile Pic)

 

The Bay:

Chris taught us how to use the bart and we traveled underneath the bay to San Francisco to enjoy some disc Golf and the legendary golden state park.  Alex was busting and I caught him in the act of doing some yoga down in the Bart station.  take a look.

The Secret Stolen_Yoga from Cameron Ford on Vimeo.

 

Lots of fun in there and I would highly suggest a long walk with a friend or a lover or both.  Or just a solo outing where you can take in it’s natural beauty and forget about it.  One thing we forgot was beer.  Don’t forget to bring beer.
Nolan at Golden State Park:

The Secret Stolen_Respectable Disc Golf Putt_Nolan Ford from Cameron Ford on Vimeo.

We played in Oakland that night with our buddies Robin and Eric from Silian Rail.  The night started off a little weird and slow but eventually people filed in and we all agreed it was one of the better crowds even though it was a little small.  Mainly because the people who were there were for no other reason than to watch live music which can really give a touring band a good lift when most of the time you are playing bars where no one really cares or hipster clubs or cafes where people only listen to certain bands to have something to talk about over a latte and could give a shit about you because you aren’t on a label and don’t look like My Chemical Romance.

So yeah, great show.  We pounded a bunch of 2-11’s back at the house, watched a few episodes of arrested development and fell asleep hard.  We had the next day off so we headed back over to the disc golf course and played a round.  My tweaked out arm was acting up so I sat this round out and did a little filming of Chris and Noltown.

We met up with Noah again in the park and listened to him, Dave Smallen and Aaron Davidson serenade us and a couple of their girlfriends (Annuh and Kaehri) with songs about being an exception, something about having the greatest time ever, and a new dave song about landing a sweet new girlfriend.  We were exhausted after the disc golf, the jam session, and eating Mexican food in the mission district with our BRL buddies so we headed back to Berkeley to have some keep it real beers at a pub down the street called Jupiter where we got tore back on “quasar” which is apparently 8.5 percent alcohol content.  None of us blew chunks on the corner of Allston and Shattuck. Swear to god. 
Watch out for that walk home.  It's a doozy.

The Secret Stolen_Berkeley 2AM from Cameron Ford on Vimeo.

 

Santa Cruz:

We got into Santa Cruz with enough time to head down the street from the crepe place and drink margaritas and make nachos with our friends Jared Sierra and Rachel.  The show sold out because Judgement Day was on the bill so we were way pumped to have gotten on the bill with them and SC favorites Mountain Animal Hospital.  The show sold out.  The place fed us.  We ran into some old friends from Chico and got to catch up on the back patio and eventually ended up chatting with Judgement Day about trying to play some shows together in the fall. 

 

The next day Nolan disappeared into some local Santa Cruz activities.  Alex went downtown and played guitar, read, and did yoga.  Billy and his girl Brenna went to the beach and got way sunburned and I hung out with my friend Steven Hall trying to not be such a noob with our website. 

Turns out we had the same sound guy at the blue lagoon as the night before at crepe place.  Cool dude named Keith who just looks like if you gave him a skateboard he could bust a 360 flip.  We had a little more room at this show to cut loose so some shit got unplugged, some shit broke, and some speaker cabinets were climbed but we got a great response from a rock friendly audience.  Our old buds in the luxury sweets killed it at the end of the night and we realized this was our four year anniversary show.  It made it extra special that our good friend Andy showed up at the end when I was feeling good enough to tackle him in the middle of Pacific ave.  The bar closed so we grabbed a few patrons from the show and partied way late at Jared’s house.  Some elliot smith went down.  Some Denver.  Ya know. No big woop.

The next day I surprised Billy with a little improv "youtube" band post that turned out a little funny.  Not THAT funny tho.  you decide.

The Secret Stolen_A Quick and Not Awkward Hello From A Touring Band from Cameron Ford on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Today the rest of the guys stayed in santa cruz to hang at the boardwalk.  Im not the biggest roller coaster riding cotton candy eaten guy so I snagged a greyhound to Santa Barbara to hang with my boys Cody Robert Ferris and Eric Cecil Clendenning in Isla Vista where I used to call home for a year in 2004/2005.

As you can see, I wrote all this from my seat towards the back.

Cam from TSS on a greyhound to Santa Barbara from Cameron Ford on Vimeo.

That's probably the most boring video evar!  but whatever.

Quick story:

I actually missed the bus but caught a ride to Salinas to catch up with it with a dude named Zen and a dude named Versu.  No shit.  Those where their names.  Zen has a degree in molecular celluar and developmental biology from UCSC and Versu was a dude heading to LA because he studies Film Economics at UCSC over the summer.  Cool smart student type people who I am always down to talk a little shit with.  

Today i woke up in Isla Vista after partying with my buds Eric and Cody.  This little college hood is always a pleasure to stop into because the people never stop partying. Ever.