Life is good. Last night, (2/25) we had a good overall show in Palatka, Florida. A quaint town in the middle of nowhere, but they had a stage, they had some Shinobi fans.. and thats really all you need. We rocked with Mat Musto.. The Traveling Mat Musto Band.. Mat Musto and Them.. OK well they haven’t figured exactly who they are, but they have Mat Musto strumming lead acoustic guitar and singing his own written words with a very recently put to together rock band behind him. We also shared the stage with the crazy ass ninjas from Krondor Krew and HD Ninjas; they can be seen next at upcoming FL music festival Nerdapalooza.
Life is good. We get up early to head to Hotlanta, Georgia, I have scheduled quite a few press opportunities for the Ninjas. At least three different publications/journalists were coming to Apache Cafe to see us/ talk with us before or after show. Therefore, I felt it necessary to arrive in ATL early, check into hotel, get some downtime before getting ambushed at the venue.
Life is good. Crack the dutch, break it down, roll it up, that’s whats up. The Ninjas are ready for action. A lot of action…
After some joking, and turkey sandwich making, its nap time until we get to GA. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a SUV pulls up to us honking his horn like a mad man, pointing to the trailer. This is never a good look. Looking into the rear view mirror, Terminator and myself both see the same thing; smoke coming from both trailer tires. This is never a good look. I curse. The rest of the band starts to wake up. We pull over.
The man who stopped us, who happened to be an ex-cop, knew exactly what our problem was after a quick examination of the smoking trailer. If I knew anything about cars more than key + ignition = go, I probably could have figured this out too. It turned out the grease caps that hold the ball bearings in place so the wheels can rotate with the axle, both fell off, as well as the ball bearings themselves. Because of this, the amount of friction and heat coming from each hub starting melting the axles and started smoking. If that guy had not pulled us over so quickly, we could have driven for who knows how much longer, melted the axle causing the tires to fall off the trailer… and I honestly don’t even want to think might have happened in this situation. This guy was only our 1st guardian angle of the day.
Within three minutes off getting pulled over, figuring out the problem, dousing each axle with water in a steamy attempt to cool off the fiery metal.. a pick up truck pulls over. It happened to be Brian and Heather, a madly in love, ( they both have matching “Together 4 Ever” tattoos on their arms), hillbillies who knew everything about fixing trucks. What are the chances that within three minutes of stopping with a broken beyond repair trailer, ( or at least that what we thought), these people would pull over, and come to our rescue? 100% apparently. They assured us they could fix this in a few hours.. so we had no choice but to accept their help. They left to collect the necessary parts..
Long story short.
Crack the dutch, break it down, roll it up, that’s whats up. The Ninjas are ready for action. Or rather ready to sit on the side of the road in the blistering heat from noon-7pm as Brian and Heather drive over 100 miles around bum-fuck Fla. to scoop up the car pieces we needed. However, deep down, I felt this was a blessing in disguise. We got some much needed chill out time, with no option to hustle, since all of our MacBooks were completely dead. Score! We got a little tan/ vitamin D bath, laying highway side on our blankets, I even took my first nap of the tour clocking in a cool 12 mins of bliss. Our current lifestyle prevents us from much chill time as well as much sun light through of the day, so this was def a good thing. There was lingering doubt in the air if we were going to make this show still, it was getting late. Should we rent a Uhaul and drive there for gig, routing back by here to grab the trailer tomorrow? Whats the cut off time that we make this call? Maybe just go straight to city where our next gig is? Decisions, decisions. And when it comes down to it, these are my calls, I’m the designated shot-caller. A little pressure, some stress, but everything’s good in moderation. Lets do it.
It took longer than we thought but we finally left our highway stoop, and full speed ahead Atlanta bound, with a makeshift grease hub that was wedged in place with some tin foil by Brian. Greeatt. We were were going on at 11:15, and according to our GPS would get to Apaches at 11:03. Greeaatt. This was cutting it waay to close for comfort for me.
The rest of the evening are really two separate stories. There is the story of the tired, un-showered, drained from sitting in the sun all day, coasting on solely fast food, ( we NEVER eat fast food) band who has to get to the venue, figure out parking, link with the sound man, load in all of our shit, (we have a shit ton of shit), while the local rappers of The Lunch Break are thumping their hip/hop tunes to the club, and its pretty packed.
The other story, is that those people who packed this venue see; its the story of a band showing up “late” and minutes before showtime, some came to see them, other had no clue who Shinobi Ninja were. They went right on stage, did an altered set, cutting one of their more down-tempo songs from the set, “Black Dreams”, to keep the energy high and the band pumped. Good call. The Ninjas get bombarded after the show with fans, friends, and those journalists. We do two video interviews, take some pics, and do a live performance of “LOL”, 1/3 brand spanking new songs.
Whether you were on of the ten people who witnessed the first story, or a majority who saw the latter, it was a crazy day. The stars where aligned and we were destined to make our gig at Apache’s Cafe in Atlanta. I realized there ARE still some good people in this world, who are not afraid to help others in need. I have a little more faith in the human race than I did yesterday, they are now at notch 1.
