10/18/99

We recently played a show at this club called The Boston in Las Vegas with a pretty cool Vegas band called Left Standing. We were supposed to be playing with L7 as well but they cancelled the day before (lazy bitches).

Regardless, we played and rocked and had a great time. Vegas has a surprisingly cool music scene. Upon first impressions, the people and the vibe and the club all reminded me somewhat of Omaha. We were well accepted by Vegas' music community and were asked to play the club again that very night.

The drive there was painfully long. Normally, it is supposed to be a 5 hour drive at most and for us (who missed our turn-off to I-15) it took 8 hours. We almost ran out of gas and had to turn back in the middle of the desert. So desolate it's evil. Towns (if you could call them that) we drove through looked like former nuclear test sites and there was nothing but dirt forever.

A note to all travelers: never, ever take Highway 95 north from Blythe, CA into Vegas. It's simply not wise.

So, we played a good show and had fun with the vegas peeps and then returned to our hotel for some late night pizza. Come about 2:30am, I'm walking down the hotel hallway and suddenly the earth and walls and everything begin shaking violently and I realize that we are having a major earthquake. It was actually pretty fun and kind of felt like trying to walk on a waterbed.

We found out on the news that it was a 7.0 about 3 hours west of Vegas. It wasn't the first earthquake I have been in since arriving to LA, but it was the first one that I actually saw huge structures, including our own hotel, wobbling back and forth like a card house on a windy day. Pretty cool, really, considering no one was hurt.

Next day I got up early and decided to kill some time before taking off back to LA. How does one kill time in Vegas? Gambling, of course. I put five bucks into the video blackjack machine and four hours later walked out with $295. Not bad for a days work. James and Bob eventually had to physically pull me away from that money making machine and we were on our way back to Smell-A.

talk soon,

grubb / GTO