EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

We left late … I needed to shave, we needed food, and I stopped in Des Moines to get a replacement jacket for the one I lost in San Francisco. We were supposed to get there around 7pm, but I was more like 8:30.

I’m not sure why we “played” this show. The promoters managed to “work us in” but it was at 8:30 when the show opens at 9pm! This was not apparent to me until after we had played and some friends came .. they missed us since we played before the show even opened. By play I mean, I did not play the robotcowboy stuff, we did the Laromlab music and I danced with the monitor. We did this for a total of 15 minutes and Susie and Laura missed it. Damn.

Oh and we played at a great space, the AV-Aerie (kinda-) with some bands we didn’t really stick around for: Adam Griffith, Bird Names, and These Are Powers. Lots of hipsters around and I wanted food+sleep. (Still sick)

We met up with Pat who had helped us book shows before, including my old band 7inchwave‘s 2 tours. Pizza was eaten at a place called Village Pizza and the guy who works there, known as “Bacci”, was spouting about politics: “I don’t care who wins, Obama or his momma”.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

We got into Ames around 2pm after counting 45 cars in the ditches on I-35 from the Minnesota border to Ames. Karl (ex-7inchwave) and his brother Damek opened their house to us and we had a chance to relax and fix Brandon’s computer before the show. I used the power of Ubuntu GNU/Linux to fix and read his screwed up drive and recover pictures and other data. He then performed a reinstall using the recovery partition on his Thinkpad … no cds needed, go IBM.

Our show we combined with a show at the Ames Progressive, a new community place in campus town, so I picked up my friend Nic, who set up the show for us, to check it out. We grabbed some food at a local Indian restaurant. It was cold, about what I remember from when I lived there, and I was still sick but feeling well enough to play.

We played with Nate Zantow and Joe Terry. Nate Zantow et al did some acoustic frat rock with a spastic bongo player, I wasn’t paying too much attention (talking with old friends), but Brandon wasn’t sure if the bongo guy and the guitar guys were playing the same song. They had one song about the perils of finding a lost disc-golf disc entitled “Where’d My Disc Go?”. Joe Terry, bassist of The Poison Control Center, drove up from Des Moines on a cold snowy night to woo us with his acoustic guitar stylings. We all love Joe, he is awesome.

Our sets went well. We played on a home stereo system, which worked out fine and lent to a more “acoustic” electronic performance. I was sick but played everything well I thought and people were appreciative. Brandon’s set went great and there was some dancing going on. We sold some cds and all the remaining shirts I had made in Davis, CA.

The van almost got towed … in the spot next to where it had gotten towed almost 4 years before when I was in college in Ames. Brandon went outside and caught the tow truck guy lowering his tow gate. Luckily nothing was hooked up to the van but he wouldn’t move the truck, so Brandon had to drive up on a snow mound to back around the tow truck. We did not need to be towed!

It was a good show and we got some donation+cd money. I got to see a host of old friends including Karl, Damek, Nic, Quinn, Laura, Joe, Wally, Sami, etc. We slept at Karlypoos.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

Since we didn’t make it to Bismarck the previous day, that added 2 hours to our drive. Although I didn’t feel so well, I drove until it got dark when I couldn’t focus on the road and my head was killing me.

We made it into town around 8pm and met up with my friend Grant (ex-7inchwave) and his friends. I was feeling too sick to play. Then … Brandon’s laptop crashed. So, basically we had to cancel the show and miss out on some money. The people at The 400 Bar, the venue, was pissed but we had no choice.

We stayed at Grant’s house and it was really cold in Minnesota (-15 F!).

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

We woke up later then expected, so we knew we had little chance to make it on time from Missoula to Bismarck. I was sick now too … a bad sore throat, stuffed head, and a fever. We drove allllll day across Montana. It’s a huge state really, about 1/5 of the country in length. We drove throuhg Butte, Billings, etc … cities I never would have thought I would see.

We finally got to North Dakota after dark when the road froze up and traffic slowed to 30mph as we passed cars stuck in the ditches on both sides. We stopped to get gas at a town called Beach and learned that the state patrol was closing the roads, so I decided to get a motel room and try to sleep the sick away. We both got a shower but I had a hard time sleeping and had some weird fever dreams that made me feelliterally crazy. I was glad when the night was over.

Needless to say, the drive we had planned to make was impossible to carry out. We didn’t even make it to Bismarck and had to cancel the show at Youthwerks.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

Ok, so everyone we talked to warned us about the mountain passes being block by snow etc, etc. I bought tire chains on the way up the mountains out of Seattle but it ended up being perfecly clear and above zero … about 33 F at the coldest, so there wasn’t even any ice. We were lucky with good weather because the snow was 10+ feet high on the side of the road.

The venue, The Badlander, has a large bar with tv’s and a good sound system. There is even a casino in another room. Missoula is a college town and The Badlander is on a downtown strip featuring a number of bars and hangouts. We met up with my brother Greg and his wife Paula who came from Washington, north of Spokane.

We played with some djs, Claude Balzak and Steve-O, and a vj, Naj. I was having some weird issues with the usb connection before the show … I think the plug is going bad again. My set went fine on the whole, althouhg MartiaPlain had feedback issues so I skipped it. The place filled up, so by the time I started playing there were a ton of people and they were all into it. Brandon’s set had everyone dancing and some girls were grabbing me. One kissed us both after the set, but she ran away before either of us could talk to her.

We sold some cd’s and negotiated to get a % of the bar, which got us some gas money. One dude wanted a cd from Brandon but said “I’m a more physical person, I don’t make it a habit to buy cds” .. so he wanted one for free, which he did not get.

We stayed with the promoter and co-owner of The Badlander, Chris, at his house next to Jumbo Mountain.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

The Dog Park is this crazy mini apartment complex right in the middle of downtown Seattle in a sketchy neighborhood called Belltown (shady at night). We arrived early and I had some time to jam with the guitar on the pa.

We played with Orcateers and Square Wail. Orcateers had a stack of amplifiers and a full desktop pc. He sang to his machine and manipulated Ableton Live with his back to the crowd. Square Wail bumped with a live gameboy and vocoder.

The robotcowboy and Laromlab sets rocked hard and people were into it. I think I had a little too much bass for the PA. The camera in the monitor helmet started working again and I could see alright when the lights were on. Brandon ran into a dj set after the Laromlab set but the rock kids were too tired. I got compliments from some skinheads and there were some bicycle cops confronting people in the alley.

We stayed with Chris and grabbed some late night breakfast at The Hurricane.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

I ate a bunch of bagels, like 3 or 4, in Portland. We drove to Olympia early and got there around 7, hung out in the car and I caught up on some notes.

The venue, Le Voyeur, is one of those hip dirty cafe/diners that has a large beer list, lots of show fliers posted, and graffiti on the walls. It also has a self-described “unique idea” where the bands “handle everything”, which for us meant a cold, dim back room and a PA we had to wrangle with since only one speaker was working and the mixing board looked as though it had been smashed with a cinder block (seriously). Since we “handle everything” no one takes any door money and, since we both perform at the same time, we can’t really do it the whole time … so no money for us. Also included is the fact that they didn’t bother to turn down or off the cd playing in the front room while we were playing which just gos to show that Le Voyeur is another one of those places that has shows, but dosen’t care who plays or what happens. For shame.

An a good note, we played with MC Firedrill, whose music I had acquired from his SuperButton label website about 6 months ago. He brought some peeps and we had a good time in the back room despite the annoying bantering from the front. Brandon played some of his old Commodore-based music for a bit while I setup and I jammed on my guitar for a few mins before my regular set. The Laromlab set was rocking and people were dancing with me. Strangely, the camera in the helmet worked perfectly the entire show and I could see a bit … enough to grab Firedrill’s hat off of his head in mid dance. MC Firedrill finished out the night with his boombastic gameboy madness .. check out his stuff it’s great.

We had fun, but no money. I sat down and made some cd’s consisting live recordings from the tour of my set. Some girl wanted one, but she didn’t come back from the ATM. Damn. We stayed at Firedrill’s house and missed out on the Olympia hip-hop riot.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

I was sunny in Seattle when we woke up … much better!

Originally, we were supposed to play in Portland on the 12th, but Nike showed up and dropped some money on the venue for a DJ battle, so we got bumped up a day to the 13th.

Holocene, the venue, has a nondescript exterior but a warm, minimally designed white interior. It’s in some sort of old factory/store front neighborhood. It has a good sound system, drink ticket policy (whiskey and cokes for me!), and projector setup. Check out the flier by Audio Dregs’ E*Rock
The order breaks down like this:

1. 8 Bit Generation documentary screening – a 2000 documentary on some gameboy musicians
2. E*Rock (the show promoter/booker) laid down a dj set featuring classic NES game themes and had an NES hooked up to a projector which I played
3. robotcowboy
4. Laromlab
5. B*Retta electro dj set
6. E*Rock reprise and I played more NES

I had everything setup to use the projector system with my laptop, but when I went to play the system kept freezing for some reason and would not connect to the wireless upon reboot. I fiddled with it for 10 mins while Brandon played some emergency music, then I gave up and played the set sans projector backdrop.

The helmet camera, which I though was broken, was miraculously alive. It would come on and off and I could see a little bit if I shook my head.

This was a good show, we made some money and sold most of the t shirts I made in Davis. Brandon sold Laromlab cd’s as well.

We stayed at E*Rock’s house and drank some more beer before bedtime.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

Another day off. I had lost my jacket in San Francisco so I went to look for another one and wound up with an army surplus one that I now don’t like because it makes me look homeless (I think all army surplus does so). We wandered around a trendy part of town called Fremont and I got a haircut. The weather was grey and depressing. I worked a bit on the monitor helmet and tried to fix the camera again, but it didn’t seem to work.

EDIT: Disclaimer, Laromlab’s music is all stolen. Read here.

We were supposed to play a show here at Cozmic Pizza … buuuut they guy who booked it kept sending pointed messages like “I don’t think it’s going to be very good”, etc and sounded like he didn’t want to do it. Brandon called the place to check in on it and he was told flatly that “the booking guy lives in Maine and to send him an email” then she hung up. So basically, it seemed as though no one much cared whether we played or not so we decided not to.

Instead, we visited Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Mounument, drove into Seattle and left the van at my friend KrisTina’s house. We road a bus into downtown and grabbed some dinner, then returned and got showers.