On Tour – MyRareGuitars.com

Black Lips Tour Dates 2011 & SXSW Mosh Pit

Mike Robinson — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:59:26 +0000

Cole from the Black Lips with his Airline Town & Country guitar

Black Lips are out on tour this month (link to tour dates) and I hooked up with them yesterday in Toronto during their sound check. Cole is using an AIRLINE Twin Tone as well as a ’59 Town & Country. Go check them out in your city! If you’ve ever wondered what it is like up front during one of their shows, check out this clip from SXSW:

Black Lips Tour Dates 2011:

03-16-18 Austin, TX – SXSW
04-06 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
04-07 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
04-08 Washington, DC – Black Cat
04-09 Philadelphia, PA – The Trocadero
04-12 New York, NY – Webster Hall
04-13 Pawtucket, RI – The Met
04-14 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
04-15 Montreal, Quebec – Le National
04-16 Toronto, Ontario – Phoenix Concert Theater
04-17 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
04-19 Columbus, OH – Outland Live
04-20 Newport, KY – Southgate House
04-21 St. Louis, MO – The Firebird
04-22 Chicago, IL – Logan Square Auditorium
04-23 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
04-25 Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
04-26 Kansas City, MO – The Beaumont Club
04-27 Dallas, TX – The Loft
04-28 Austin, TX – Emo’s
04-29 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s
04-30 Baton Rouge, LA – Spanish Moon
05-06 Barcelona, Spain – Bikini
05-07 Santiago de Compostela, Spain – Sala Capitol
05-08 Madrid, Spain – Sala Heineken
05-09 Montpelier, France – Rockstore
05-11 Strasbourg, France – La Laterie
05-12 Hamburg, Germany – Grunspan
05-13 Berlin, Germany – Festsaal Kreuzberg
05-14 Munich, Germany – Garage Fest
05-16 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Trouw Amsterdam
05-17 Paris, France – 104
05-18 Brussels, Belgium – Les Nuits Botanique
05-19 London, England – The Garage
05-20 Liverpool, England – Sound City Festival
05-21 Cheshire, England – Friends of Mine Festival
05-22 Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
05-24 Glasgow, Scotland – Stereo
05-25 Dublin, Ireland – The Button Factory
05-26 Cork, Ireland – Cypress Avenue
05-27 Galway, Ireland – Roisin Dubh
05-31 Zurich, Switzerland – Exil
06-01 Vevey, Switzerland – Rocking Chair
06-02 Vienna, Austria – Flex
06-09 San Diego, CA – The Casbah
06-10 Santa Barbara, CA – Velvet Jones
06-11-12 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
06-14 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
06-15 Vancouver, British Columbia – Commodore Ballroom
06-16 Seattle, WA – Neumos
06-17 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory Concert House
06-18 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
06-19 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater
06-21 Tucson, AZ – Plush
06-22 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room
06-23 Costa Mesa, CA – The Detroit Bar
06-24 Los Angeles, CA – The Music Box
06-25 Pomona, CA – The Glass House

Black Lips Tour Dates 2011 & SXSW Mosh Pit from MyRareGuitars.com

On The Road With The Urinals (Sept. 2009)

Rob Roberge — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:00:03 +0000

It wasn’t even a tour…just a few dates in the Midwest over a long weekend. But it sounded like fun. Even a short time on the road is usually a good time, and we’d be playing with our buds from Chicago, the fabulous Mannequin Men, for all three dates. And it proved to be the great time it promised to be. If you want a cure for the blues, hot the road with the Mannequin Men for a few days. They remind me while I love rock and roll—seeing them on a good night reminds me of when I got to see the Replacements on a good one. A band that’s at once tight and loose, with great songs and killer hooks. What’s not to love?

The Urinals: Kev, John & Rob (2008)

Plus, we’d second on the bills to Midwestern legends Killdozer, which sounded fun.

And a few days on the road with John and Kevin (the founding/original members of the Urinals) is always great. So, off we went.

I realized on this trip they don’t pay you for playing shows—they pay you for getting on planes and driving though seemingly endless fields of corn with billboards for Cheese and Fireworks. The shows are a blast—but you earn your money eating crappy road food and praying you’ll never see another stalk of corn.

So, it was up early Thursday and off to LAX. I’d brought my Tele (a new one as I can’t replace my ’69 of something happened to it on the road) and my Eastwood Airline Tuxedo, some pedals and cable. We’d be using a backline on the shows—i.e., other people’s amps and drums—so I just brought a good overdrive pedal, not knowing what kind of tubes I’d be pushing (none, it turns out).

We got to Chicago, got stuck in truly dreadful traffic and found the hotel. A 30 minute nap was followed by more hideous traffic—complete with tolls! In Chicago, not only is driving a slice of hell, but you pay cash for the privilege of sitting sucking diesel fumes and doing less than one mile an hour.

We finally get to the club and, despite being late, we get a sound check. My guitar sounds pretty terrible, as I’m using a new pedal and a borrowed amp (a Roland Jazz Chorus this night). My Tele’s too brittle and bright. I decide to use the dirt pedal I know better at the show.

Using borrowed amps is one of the things you get used to on the road. Normally, at home, I use, for various gigs: a little Lafayette duel EL84 (for small gigs with the other band), a late 50’s Magnatone 260 (modified for more gain and volume), or a Mack Skyraider (for louder Urinal gigs). In the studio, I’m spoiled with a bunch of lower wattage vintage Valcos and such. So, I’m kinda spoiled amp-wise.

But, out of town, you come to realize that most of the crowd couldn’t give a rat’s ass about your tone. They’re out for a fun night with good songs played well. They don’t really, hard as it is for a guitar geek to admit, know the difference between a Tweed Deluxe and a Line 6. And, while you might more readily play better with an amp you love, part of being a pro is not letting that kind of thinking affect your playing. That positive mindset is hard to keep when you end up playing, as I did once, through a 70’s Peavey PA head that a club thought was just fine for guitar.

So, the Chicago show goes well, the Abbey is a great place with great sound, and the show goes off without a hitch—I don’t even break a string. Kev, from the MM, joins us for a spirited “I’m a Bug.”

A hot woman thanks John for playing “Strip Club” (Kevin and I look at each other like, “we were there too” but she’s only talking to John. Some other woman at the merch table tells John he has the “Sexiest voice in rock and roll.” She’s cute, too. I get a bunch of geeky guitar guys asking about my guitars and my elbow. No fair.

Day two consists of much driving though Illinois and Wisconsin. We stop for photos under an enormous metal cow and a giant “CHEESE” sign. At every road stop are billboards for cheese and fireworks. On seemingly every mile of travel is…corn…corn…more corn. It’s a good thing that John and Kevin (the other Urinals) are two of the funniest, easiest tempered guys in the world.

Much kidding John about the Sexiest Voice in Rock and Roll.

Before the show, we hit what’s purported to be a great St. Vincent DePaul (recommended by the guys in Killdozer, who know the town well). Men from Killdozer don’t lie—this is a great vintage shop. I get some cool vintage plaid pants and some odd bean that I wear onstage that night. Michael, the bass player from Killdozer, tells me about a Goodwill in town that is organized by color. All the green clothes, men’s or women’s, in one section, all the orange in another and so on.

Night two, in Madison, at the High Noon Saloon, is a blast. The owner, Kathy (Cathy?) is super cool, the green room is comfortable and clean, and each band has a huge cooler of beer and water. Stylin’

Show goes pretty well. Pop a string on my Tele on the fourth or fifth song. The Tuxedo sounds fatter, anyway. The amp the 2nd night is a Silverface Twin Reverb….a fine amp, but not one you can get into distortion without peeling the faces of the first twenty feet of the audience. So, once again, most of my distortion comes from a pedal.

I go out to have a smoke after our set in Madison, still wearing the beanie from St. Vincent DePaul and some guy says, “Nice hat, faggot.”

Later, at merch table, a guy says, “You sounded pretty good for a hippy.” (Kev from Mannequin Men offers to punch him for me. It’s good to have passionate friends, but I tell him not to punch the guy. “Say the world, and I’ll go Miagi on his ass.”).

I wonder what I did to Madison to get this treatment from strangers. Also, why hippie? I don’t mind being called a faggot, but hippie is another matter. Hippies are annoying. I have no hair. The guys in the band start calling me “the faggot hippy”.

Later, a woman wants the band’s autographs, but the last CD doesn’t have me on it, so I don’t want to sign. But it’s too hard to explain, so I had to sign Rod Barker’s name on a CD for a drunk woman who wanted autographs on WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT.

The guys start calling me “Faggot, hippy Rod Barker” (Seemingly endless hours on the road leads to sophomoric humor).

At the merch table, a woman comes on to John. I get called more names. A woman says, “I NEVER thought I’d like a band called the Urinals.”

Next day’s drive to St. Paul. More corn. Eventually, blissfully, replaced with lakes and rivers.

Before the last night, we have dinner with the Mannequin Men and some of their cool pals. That puts our group at nine or ten for dinner. We try to go for Ethiopian food, but the place is packed, so we settle for pizza—a road staple we were hoping to mix up a bit, but no such luck. We make plans to do a cover single with the MM, where we cover one of theirs and they cover one of ours on a 45 (remember them? They’re back!). There’s talk of past tours and future tours and the general good-feeling of hanging with pals on the road.

The last night, at the Turf Club, I’d planned on using Ethan’s (from MM) Twin again, but the guys in Killdozer blew one of its speakers the night before. So I end up with the sound guy’s Fender Deville, which he tells me is a “great amp”. I’m not so sure that’s true, but it’s his and I don’t say anything, and it sounds fine…it gets loud and has a good clean channel (which sort of defeats the whole idea behind a tube amp, but whatever), so I can crank the clean and get, once again, dirt from the floor.

We have, maybe, our best show in St. Paul. Much fun. Miles and Kevin from MM join us on “I’m a Bug”. We close with a very fast version of 13th Floor Elevator’s/Roky Erickson’s “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”

We hang out at the club. It’s 1AM. Killdozer is playing a pretty great, over the top cover of “I Am, I Said.” We have a flight back to California in 5 hours and I’m wondering if I should nap or stay up all night. A woman hits on John after announcing, “I’m not a stalker, but I needed to see you!” Clearly, a stalker. To add insult to injury, her boyfriend stands there while she just about pins John to the pool table. Interesting. No one hits on me. More questions about the eBow and my guitars (well, my guitars are kind of cool). Ah, well. Rock and Roll.

On The Road With The Urinals (Sept. 2009) from MyRareGuitars.com

The New Cars in Detroit, MI (September 2007)

Mike Robinson — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:00:35 +0000

Continuing the busy summer concert schedule here, this time with a road trip to Detroit, MI. The New Cars played their last summer concert here on Sunday night where Elliot Easton was our gracious host. Here are some pictures:

Elliot Easton of the New Cars

Mike Robinson, Troy Robinson & Todd Rundgren

The New Cars in Detroit, MI (September 2007) from MyRareGuitars.com

John Fogerty Band in Toronto (July 2007)

Mike Robinson — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:00:18 +0000

We’ve had a busy summer concert schedule here in Toronto. One of the highlights for Peter McCracken and I was meeting John Fogerty. He is on tour right now across Europe and North America, dropping in for a visit to Toronto 2 weeks ago. Here are some pictures:

Mike Robinson & John Fogerty & Peter McCracken

John Fogerty Band in Toronto (July 2007)

John Fogerty Band in Toronto (July 2007) from MyRareGuitars.com

Bands On Tour with Eastwood Guitars

Mike Robinson — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 13:00:00 +0000

The Gathering (from Holland)

Holland’s The Gathering are in the studio working on their new album this month and sporting a rack full of new Eastwood Guitars. Also, fellow Torontonians Stars, Broken Social Scene and Metric are wrapping up their tours this month featuring their new Eastwood Airline Guitars, as is Maximo Park with Eastwood Airline and Ichiban guitars. Get out there and support live music!

Bands On Tour with Eastwood Guitars from MyRareGuitars.com

Toronto Band Metric On Tour This Month

Mike Robinson — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 13:00:21 +0000

Fellow Torontonians Metric are on the move this month. The tour kicked off with back to back SOLD OUT shows in Toronto this past week. It was a treat to see Jimmy and Josh ripping up the stage with their new Eastwood AIRLINE guitars.

Metric is on tour now!

Tour Dates:

09/28/05 Toronto ON The Phoenix Concert Theatre (all ages – retail info soldout)
09/29/05 Toronto ON The Phoenix Concert Theatre (all ages – retail info soldout)
09/30/05 Ottawa ON Capitol Music Theatre (all ages – retail info)
10/1/05 Montreal ON Club Soda (all ages – soldout)
10/2/05 Boston MA Paradise Rock Club
10/3/05 Providence RI Century Lounge
10/5/05 New York NY Bowery Ballroom
10/6/05 Brooklyn NY Southpaw
10/7/05 Philadelphia PA First Unitarian Church
10/8/05 Washington DC 9:30 Club
10/10/05 Carrboro NC Cat’s Cradle
10/11/05 Atlanta GA The Loft
10/12/05 Birmingham AL Zydeco
10/13/05 Nashville TN Exit/In
10/14/05 Cincinnati OH Top Cats
10/15/05 Cleveland Heights OHGrog Shop
10/17/05 Detroit MI Magic Stick
10/18/05 Chicago IL Empty Bottle
10/19/05 St. Louis MO Creepy Crawl
10/20/05 Lawrence KS The Bottleneck
10/21/05 Omaha NE Sokol Underground
10/22/05 Minneapolis MN Ascot Room @ The Quest
10/23/05 Winnipeg MB Ramada Conference Centre (all ages – retail info)
10/24/05 Saskatoon SK Louis Pub / Univ of Saskatchewan (all ages – retail info)
10/25/05 Edmonton Starlite (all ages – retail info)
10/26/05 Calgary AB MacEwan Hall / Univ of Calgary (all ages – retail info)
10/27/05 Edmonton AB Starlite (all ages – retail info soldout)
10/28/05 Edmonton AB Starlite (18+ soldout)
10/30/05 Vancouver BC The Commodore (afternoon show – all ages – retail info)
10/30/05 Vancouver BC The Commodore (evening – 19+ – retail info)
11/1/05 Seattle WA Crocodile Cafe
11/2/05 Portland OR Doug Fir Lounge
11/3/05 San Francisco CA Slims
11/4/05 Los Angeles CA El Rey Theatre
11/5/05 San Diego CA The Casbah
11/7/05 Tempe AZ Big Fish Pub
11/8/05 Tucson AZ Plush
11/10/05 Austin TX The Parish
11/11/05 Dallas TX Gypsy Tea Room
11/12/05 Houston TX Meridian
11/15/05 Fort Lauderdale FL Culture Room
11/16/05 Tampa FL The Orpheum
11/17/05 Orlando FL The Social
11/18/05 Miami FL Club Revolver
11/25/05 FRANCE Nantes Olympic
11/26/05 FRANCE Angouleme La Nef
11/28/05 FRANCE Paris Trabendo
11/29/05 FRANCE Rennes La Cite
11/30/05 FRANCE Strasbourg Laiterie
12/1/05 FRANCE Evreux Abordage
12/3/05 FRANCE Winterthour Gaswerk

Metric CD

Toronto Band Metric On Tour This Month from MyRareGuitars.com

Earache My Eastwood: Meeting Tommy Chong

Guest Post — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 13:00:38 +0000

After his 9 month bid in the clink for selling bongs, Tommy Chong was released from prison and began his comedy tour. When I heard that he would be performing in my home town (London, Ontario) on Jan 28th, 2005, I was like “No way man! I can not miss out on the chance to see Tommy Chong do stand up at Yuk Yuk’s!” Luckily I was able to get tickets for this event; for he was scheduled to do 4 shows in 2 days and all were sold out.

Tommy Chong holding my Eastwood Phantom Guitar

Now Tommy Chong had other hits besides the ones with a bong, a joint. He was also in a band called Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. While performing in a small club in Vancouver, Diana Ross discovered the band’s unique talent and brought them to the attention of Berry Gordy – who signed them to Motown. (Another fun fact: Jimi Hendrix, working as an R&B sideman, joined the group in December-1962 until he met up with Little Richard and left.)

Tommy Chong on stage at Yuk Yuk's in London, Ontario (Jan. 2005)

The group’s debut “Does Your Mama Know About Me” written in ’68 by Tommy Chong and Tom Baird, provided them with a surprise top-40 hit that managed to stay on the charts for ten weeks! Only later in ’69 for Chong to disband and team up with Cheech . A far cry from the stuff we all know Chong for playing; Beaners, Earache My Eye, and Up In Smoke – which he performed at his show.

Me with Tommy Chong

His passion for playing the guitar is what brought my Eastwood Phantom along with me. After the show, I had a chance to meet him. At a lose for words, I remember muttering to him: “Tommy Chong,I love you man!”

We both laughed. Then I asked him if he could sign my guitar with an inspirational message. As I took my guitar out if it’s box, I can hear the ooh’s & ahh’s, and the comments of it being a wicked guitar from the crowd & Tommy! His face lit up, to be given such a thing to autograph. It was the highlight of my life!

Tommy Chong signing my Eastwood Phantom Guitar

So I packed my Eastwood back in its box without looking at the graph and waited until I got home. I wanted it to be a surprise. Now the thing is – when you get something autographed, you are supposed to hide it in a vault and never touch it, or look at it again (so they say). However, it’s not that easy when it’s an Eastwood, and my only guitar. That’s like telling a kid he can’t have candy!

In result, the autograph is smudged and not getting any better, – so time to get a new one -and quick! I must salvage what is left as I leave you with some wise words left to me by Chong on my guitar:

Tommy Chong's autograph on my Eastwood Phantom Guitar

Post by: Ziggy Majewski

Earache My Eastwood: Meeting Tommy Chong from MyRareGuitars.com