///sunday. spent the day relaxing hard and catching up on some internet bizzzzz. thanks to our buddy Josh and his Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bob for the hospitality and cozy place to hid out at for the day and night!!

We had Friday, March 14th off, which was shaping up to be our first night off so far on tour after 9 straight shows. We had several invites to venture down to Austin, TX to go to some SXSW parties on this day, but with no guarantees of an opportunity to play, we couldn’t justify the 8 hour drive since we’d be headed back to Arkansas the next day anyhow. So we tooled around Fayetteville all day. Did some laundry at The Dinosaur House and went out to lunch with Justin before packing up and heading downtown to a coffeeshop to spend the rest of our afternoon catching up on some internet work and hanging outside in the beautiful spring day. After hitting up a nearby pizza joint for some dinner, we made our way toward a movie theater to drop Lisa off to go watch a movie. Somehow we got confused on times and missed the start time on her movie but found Dickson St. — the main college strip near the University of Arkansas that’s lined with bars and clubs — on our way. Cam got all fired up to find us a gig for the night and jumped out and went on the hunt. After close to an hour of asking around, he finally found a place called Toothpicks that was up for letting us setup and play until atleast 10pm when they would most likely be closing since UofA had just gone on spring break.

We scoped it out and despite doubting that the empty pub would gain any customers in the next couple of hours since it was dead during dinnertime and definitely slightly hidden on the strip, we decided it would be fun to setup and play regardless, to at the very least practice some tunes we hadn’t really been playing much.

We busted a quick load-in and started setting up as the waitress/manager Alyssa and the cook Steve stood by watching and chatting with us. Around 8:30, though, as we were about half way setup, this party of about 10 stumbled in all rowdy and ready for dinner after being at the happy hour of a place up the street and watching the UofA basketball game that afternoon. Oh my, they were some giddy and toasted middle-aged folks that were rowdy as all getout from the start. They were pretty vocally excited about the fact that there was a band setting up to entertain them for their dinner and the continuation of their drinking excursion. It was quickly pretty hilarious as they were begging for us to start. They all had Electric Kamikaze shots then ordered their dinner.

We started around 9pm and were surprisingly greeted with a bunch of enthusiasm by these crazy dinner eaters of apparently the wealthier and older sort. Granted, we were consciously playing stuff of ours that we thought might go over a little better with them (and they were significantly lubed up), but still, we didn’t expect such a warm reception. Drunkenness could’ve certainly led to violence and some intense heckling if we offended them in any way — so we were psyched it was going the other way. They got their dinner about midway through our set, and soon after we decided to play our sexy dance tune Pump It, Fill It just for shits and giggles. About 2 min into it the entire table had emptied and had broken out into an all out dance party right up in front of us. At one point, one of the ladies, who had been adding some pretty rad harmony vocals throughout the evening, started bustin some funky funky rhythm on Cam’s washboard. It was unbelievable. What a random happening. We played about 4 more songs after that as the dance party continued to rage, and these crazy people worked off their dinner. It was 10:20. Time to close. Time for us to be done and time for our random little crowd to leave. It was a wild convergence of epicness. An experience that none of us will easily forget.

We packed up and drove out into the night to find a place to sleep. We were greeted with some magnificent lightning — spidering all across the night sky. Really wild stuff. And then a downpour for about an hour. Same storm system that had sent a tornado through downtown Atlanta, GA that night.

Still no days off — 10 shows in a row — with two shows over the weekend that would extend that streak to 12. Our St. Patrick‘s Day show on Monday got cancelled though, so that‘s looking like it will probably end the streak and be our first day off, but who knows, as tonight had proven — anything can happen.

We slept in the van for the first time this night. Our streak of 9 days without doing so ended, we were ok with it. Nice to keep to ourselves for a night.

Reporting from orbit for all of us Finn Rigginses
–gilbert

Spent the day hanging out with our friends’ (Gary & Chiristina’s) cat Mr. Hoovis at their house in Salt Lake City, sun shining through their living room windows as it was a beautiful day in ‘ol Utah. Deceptive, though, as it’s still pretty chilly outside. Gary & Christina had to work all day, but Hoovis is good company. He’s an interesting cat with an interesting story. A couple years ago, Gary & Christina were in the Dominican Republic serving in the Peace Corps and helping a village build a water system. At the time, they owned Mr. Hoovis’s father of a similar name — which escapes me at the moment. They owned the cat mainly to help ward off rodents and giant spiders in and around the shack where they lived for two years while serving in the DR. One day they came back from working with the villagers on their water system to find out that one of their neighbors had made a meal of their cat — Mr. Hoovis’s father had been devoured by their neighbor. Rightfully so, Gary & Christina were pretty ticked off and upset at the loss of their feline friend and protector. The villager whom they had gotten their cat from kindly offered up when of their cat’s offspring — Mr. Hoovis.

Upon completing their Peace Corps mission, Gary & Christina moved back to the States and brought Mr. Hoovis with them. We all quickly noticed that Hoovis wasn’t a normal house cat. He was not fat and happy, he was a lean mean fighting machine. Used to battling rats and tarantulas on a daily basis. He had gnarly claws and was super high strung and aggressive. A feline ninja if you will. Ready to pounce at all times. A hunter. A street fighter. Since moving to SLC, Hoovis has apparently beat up all the other cats in their neighborhood at least once — to some of their neighbors’ chagrin. Interesting how even pets can reflect cultural differences, eh? Mr. Hoovis has mellowed out considerably though… slowly becoming more and more Americanized. Still brawling every once and awhile with neighbor cats or bringing home a mouse or two a week, but doing a lot more basking in the sun in the comfort of a living room these days as he did with us most of today.

We had a short 45min drive up to Ogden for the show last night. We left with enough time to track down this little local diner called Sill’s Café in Kaysville, UT that we had stumbled upon at the end of our last East Coast tour while desperately seeking somewhere local and unique amidst the muck of chain restaurants and strip malls. Sill’s is amazing. Seeking local places like these never let you down. Great food. Great service. Low prices. And a unique overall experience. Cam and I both had Dale’s Breakfast: 1 egg, 2 strips of bacon, SOS on hash browns and a scone (more like an elephant ear than what most people would refer to as a scone. Similar to Merritt’s Café’s scones to any familiar with that historic Boise diner). Anyhow, epic dinner. Dale’s Breakfast cast us $5. Epic. Breakfast all day is the best!

Show last night was held in the dining hall of the Weber State University Student Union Building in Ogden, UT. It was a benefit concert to raise money to help stop the genocide in Darfur and other places around the world. It was hosted by a WSU student group called Weber State STAND! Great kids. Doing great things on campus, and doing their part in this global struggle. Both in raising awareness and funds for the cause. And throwing fun events like this one. We loved it. Very unique setting and a fun crowd. And we got to play with our buddies the Darlin’ Broads again. Really sweet and unique duo from Huntsville, UT featuring two brothers — Jackson and Jonah. They play proggy punk folk. Super tight. And super fun. Made some new friends in Ogden band The House Cats, as they got the evening rolling with their politically charged psychedelic rock. The Blood Blisters closed the night out.

Thanks to Cameron, Dave, Skye and all the other Weber State STAND! Folks for having us and for being such an awesome force on the WSU campus. If you’re anywhere near Ogden, their holding a Fashion Show with live music and other festivities in the Grand Ballroom C in the WSU SUB on March 20th to raise even more funds for Save Darfur and other causes. Check it out. Sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

We’re driving through Wyoming right now on our way to our show in Greeley, CO tonight. Very excited for this one, which is another benefit concert. Gonna be a fun one. Day has been sunny and clear once again. But near Rawlins, WY we once again ran into blowing snow making the road a little sketchy for awhile. Without fail! That area has got to be the worst in the country. Always gnarly and super windy every single time we drive through there.

Below is a picture to prove that Lisa really does drive every once and awhile. In fact, she got the gnarly section today.

Reporting via satellite in transit to Colorado for all of us Finn Rigginses.

::: gilbert

we launched our big Spring 2008 U.S. Tour yesterday. took our time getting out of our snowy fortress at The Helibase, making sure that we had everything in line for the next 9 weeks. we’ve gotten used to leaving, but the notion that we weren’t coming back for 2 months was a litle weird to digest. we’re all really excited to be back on the road though, and curious what sort of adventures we’ll find along the way. and curious how much, if any, of that snow around ye ‘ol Ghost Ghost will be outside The Helibase when we return.

rolled into Salt Lake City around 7pm. made our way to Curry in a Hurry for some tasty Indian food to go and then over to our friends’ place to eat and drop off some stuff. tasty tasty indian food.

we played at Burt’s Tiki Lounge. good place. they treat us well. it was a relatively quiet night with midterms going on and being a Wed. but we enjoyed our company. Eric Openshaw Band opened the show, then our friends The Gorgeous Hussies played. i think they played mostly new material. it was cool. lots of tricky changes. but they also know when to simplify and just be musical. nice balance. they dedicated a song about ‘home’ to us. had me thinking about the nature of what we consider ‘home’. in all honesty, being on the road has felt more like home to me these days than anywhere that i have my own bed. sure, i miss walking around in my underwear and sleeping in my own bed, but i can’t deny that travelling and playing music fulfills me in a similar way that the notion of ‘home’ does. it’s like my country house. my feather bed. my fishing hole. my local grocery store. my family. my friends. my job that i love. my favorite tv show. my dog. my own backyard. maybe even a trampoline or a swimming pool. it’s odd. but being on tour really does feel like ‘home’ these days. and being at where we pay rent always feels a little weird. not bad. just not like ‘home’. so it’s good to be ‘home’. really excited about the next several months.

we played after the Hussies. lisa and cam are both still dealing with colds that are making it hard for them to sing, so we adjusted our set accordingly. it was fun. lisa broke a string for the first time in a long while, but played the rest of her set on her old guitar. worked out great. good start to tour despite a few difficulties (vox, broken strings)… didn’t really phase us. we just had fun with it.

local heroes the Purr Bats played after us. 6 piece post-punk / new wavey stuff. really sweet. they all wore black crowns and big red P’s on their chests. it was awesome. had us all shakin our asses a little bit. great guys too. look forward to hooking up with them again. it was a good night. thankful to have had good bands playing with us.

now enjoying the sunny weather here in SLC. we play a benefit concert at Weber State University in Ogden tonight. should be fun.

got a kick out of the marquee last night:

reporting for all of us Rigginses.
luvvvv
gilbert

Finn Riggins is a band.
these are the cliff notes to the story being written.
they will be updated as adventures occur.