Flagstaff Brewing Company

Flagstaff, AZ June 28, 2008

The following morning, we needed to return our 1-day rental and get a van to drive the 500 miles to Flagstaff. Of course, getting to bed at 7am makes it hard to get that done by 9am, but we powered it out as best we could. Our man at the van rental thought we weren't going to be there until 1pm, so that didn't help matters, considering we had to transfer all our gear from our trailer. Getting the new rental van was quite a blessing driving thru the Mojave Desert, since our broken-down Suburban's AC is out-of-commision. That doesn't bode well when travelling thru 115-degree heat!

Once we got on the road tho, we stayed in contact with everyone involved with the show in Flag to make sure the show would still go off. Luckily, a local DJ was able to open the night to give us time to set-up our gear and soundcheck. It all went quite smoothly, and we were able to start our show on-time after taking advantage of Arizona's high speed limit, haha! Thanks also to the crew at the patio for powering thru the set-up process! The actual patio is a great place to play compared with the indoor show we had done at the Flag Brew in the winter... let's just say, there's more... space.

By: Tripp Bains

Cre8tivity

Venice Beach, CA June 27, 2008

We left San Diego en route to our show with Cre8tivity in Venice Beach. After going about 50 miles, the fuel pump on our battle-worn Suburban decided it's time had come. The scrambling then ensued! There was no way the pump could be replaced, and we had to get 6 people and our gear up to LA in 3 hours. Everyone on their phones calling every local Orange County rental establishment finally got the job done, and we rolled into Venice Beach with a little time to grab some local pizza and sandos after parking on Electric Avenue (i kid you not).

A friend who used to live in Venice had told me that Cre8tivity had been blowing up... Souleye and Dylan did a show with them a few months back, which helped pave the way for this BLVD show. The venue was beautiful -- hardwood floors, ornate wood trim... and a huge outdoor area featuring massive projections of the psychedelic variety coupled with fire dancers galore! While sound checking, a comment was made "It's going to be HOT in here" and that prediction definitely came true. Thank god for industrial-sized fans, because from the moment we started our set, the sweat was pouring down my face. I can only assume similar things were happening to other people's faces!

By: Tripp Bains

Harmony Festival

Santa Rosa, CA June 6-8, 2008

Techno Tribal, hosted at Harmony Festival by Mystic Beat Lounge, was something I'd heard about from friends who had attended in years' past. It sounded so over the top, that when BLVD was booked to play, I was so excited, and even a little humbled. That being said, we were ready to bring it big time!

The day of the show, we arrived, and after being welcomed by the awesome staff, we went to the Grace Pavilion to load in our gear. Upon entering the building, the scope of the event was immediately apparent. The decorations and and size of the room were impressive to say the least. We set up, soundchecked, and spent the next few hours seeing the rest of the festival.

When we took the stage, Damian Marley (headliner for the night) was still on outdoors, so we had maybe 200 people watching. Over the course of the set, that number grew to over 4000. I got incredibly high just looking at the constantly growing masses in the pavilion, and was probably visibly freaking out on stage as the set neared a close. It was an awesome crowd, and spending time with the other artists backstage was also a great time. Thanks to Mystic Beat Lounge for putting together such a great event... I'm sure it will be a hit for years to come!

By: Tripp Bains

Lightning In a Bottle

Santa Barbara, CA May 23-26, 2008

Driving up the windy hill from Santa Barbara, we arrived in the late afternoon Friday to Lightning in a Bottle. After rounding the bend the first thing we noticed was how many more people had started packing into the camping areas compared to the previous year's festivities.

Then we saw it: the beautiful Bamboo Stage... an incredible structure made with gigantic bamboo poles and strips, all organically weaved together to amass into the main stage for the weekend. After checking in with the festival, we learned that that it had rained... ALOT. Therefore, all the set times had to be truncated and we'd only be playing half the time we had expected. While this was unexpected, it was also quite fortuitous, because we had just come from Los Angeles where we had finished mastering our newest album "Music For People" -- our fourth release, but our first featuring our man on the mic, Souleye. It was the perfect opportunity to play the new tracks.

After watching West Indian Girl put on a great set, our performance was basically a short and sweet BLVD show, featuring the new album from start to finish. It was a great start to the weekend for us, and the Friday night time slot allowed us to relax for the rest of the weekend and see lots of other artists throw down with our performance already under our belt. The Do Lab brought it big time, and it's clearly this festival is blowing up in a big way!

By: Tripp Bains

710 Club

San Diego, CA June 26, 2008

We arrived in San Diego under beautiful skies on Thursday and loaded our gear into the new 710 Club, which used to be Blind Melon's. One of the great things about this venue is it's proximity to the beach, which was literally around the corner! So after loading in the gear we had a chance to take in the sunset.

We also had the pleasure of meeting Vokab Company - 2 local MC's with original rhymes, who warmed up the packed house. They merged with Frame of Mind on this particular night, a 5 piece band with drums, guitar, bass, keys/trombone, and flute/sax. The crowd was diggin it, and BLVD kept things rocking until the venue had to close down.

It was a pleasure to see so many people come out to support live music, when they have multiple options nearby with no cover in Pacific Beach. Our friend Tim also did some dope projections for the show, who we originally collaborated with at the Joshua Tree Music Fest back in May.

By: Tripp Bains