Tour Blog by Ned Cooke
Denver - San Francisco
We are now half way through our tour with Tokyo Police Club, and we’ve driven all the way from New York, playing shows along the way in Michigan, Indianapolis, Omaha, and Denver. It has to be said that the initial excitement of driving coast to coast has worn off a little, but it’s still great to arrive every day in a new city and play a show. The audiences have all been really into it, which more than makes up for all the long drives.
After a slightly uninspiring drive across Nebraska, we arrived in Denver and pulled up to the Larimer Lounge. The girl behind the bar cooked us a delicious veg lasagne, a sight for sore eyes after too many roadside diner meals. The show was great, one of the best of the tour so far, but we didn’t have time to stick around. San Francisco beckoned, and with less than two days to make the drive, we had to leave as soon as we stepped off stage.
So we packed out and pushed on to the west coast. We drove overnight almost directly north into Wyoming, and then across the Rockies from there. Unfortunately we missed most of the scenery overnight, and Dave narrowly missed a deer which had wandered out onto the road, but we were treated to a beautiful sunrise a few hundred miles out from Salt Lake City. It was at this time that I earned the nick-name ‘Snappy’, because of my ultra-amateur photography obsession. You’ll get to see a few of my shots along with this. Just before we crossed over from Wyoming to Utah, Alex made what was possibly the purchase of the trip so far. We stopped at a gas station, and in a trance-like state Alex came out wearing “The Hat of Sanity.” I’m not sure he even remembers buying it, but we’re all glad he did. It’s a white trucker’s cap with an over-sized skull zone, emblazoned in gold font which gloriously exclaims ‘Wyoming.’ Then the best bit, the rodeo cowboy holding his hat aloft in victory, encapsulating the triumph of man over beast which is Wyoming. Wait I’ll snap a shot of it now…
Soon afterwards, Tim took the nickname Sparks, because of his famed imaginary fireworks displays, and Utah is apparently the place for discount bulk firework purchases. His career was to end tragically a few days later in L.A. when he got a combination of gasoline and superglue on his fingers. We ran out onto the titular Salt Lake on a stop over for what was by far the most scenic urination I’ve ever experienced. I then slept, and awoke for lunch at the Township of Battle Mountain, Nevada. The amount of gambling in this state is unbelievable, there are even slot machines in some of the gas stations. Every casino and restaurant mentions either silver or gold in its name. Fittingly then, we stopped at a casino-slash-family diner where we had some pretty strange sandwiches. Dave nearly hit a pure bred Chow-Chow on the way into town too, which was unexpected.
I’ll skip forward now to our arrival in San Francisco, easily the most beautiful city we’ve visited yet in the States. We were lucky enough to be staying with a friend in Sausalito, a few minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge, and overlooking San Francisco bay. We arrived around 10pm, and pretty much collapsed from exhaustion.
The next day was one of the first full days we’ve had to explore, and we couldn’t have picked a better city for it. To begin with, I doubled my wildlife sightings, with a small buck in the back yard (apparently they get all sorts of creatures wandering through, coyotes, a family of deer, and they can’t let the cats out because they’ll get eaten by raccoons) and then a seal bobbing the bay between the bridge and Alcatraz. The day was of to good start. We then visited the Exploratorium, I think it’s a kid’s museum, but the building was the main attraction for us. It was built for the World’s Fair as a temporary structure, a huge Greco-Roman dome with columnades all around. Then we saw Turdy Turtle paddling along in the pond by the dome, and our day was solidified as the best yet on tour. And that was before a visit to the world’s most crooked street; a trip to Chinatown for what may have been the best Barbeque Pork Wonton Noodle Soup we’ve ever had (it’s a Dappled Cities staple, so we’ve had a lot of them); then Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park, which for any Aussies reading this, is pretty much like a gross trip to Nimbin; then an incredible vegan feast, and a great show at the Independent. Yes, definitely the best day of the tour so far. Thanks San Francisco! Now on to L.A.
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