The Mighty Fine – 1st ROAD BLOG from their “Slaters Revenge Tour 2012”

The Mighty Fine is on their “Slaters Revenge Tour” with The Shell Corporation. While on tour they will be writing periodic blogs for us. The first one can be read after the break.

Hello world,

My name is Brook Munro Thompson of San Luis Obispo, CA’s The Mighty Fine.   We recently set out on our 2012 Summer Tour, otherwise known as the Slater’s Revenge Tour.  For those of you not familiar with Slater, he is our bassist Mikey’s alter ego.  Once you’ve met Slater, your life almost immediately becomes sunnier, more optimistic, and much more worth living.  Not to mention his remarkable resemblance to Mario Lopez, the actor who took on the role of AC Slater in the true “American Classic”, Saved By The Bell.

Anyway, this week celebrates our second tour with our dear friends The Shell Corporation.   One of our favorite bands, and the band that we’re sharing a split 7″ with this Fall.

Day 1: San Luis Obispo, CA (7/17)

The day of the first show of tour always has me stressing.  Making sure all is well at work before I leave, hoping we didn’t forget to pack our undies, and just the general anxiety I seem to develop right before departure.   Maybe even more so this time around because the first show was at SLO Brew in our hometown of San Luis Obispo.  It’s one of our favorite venues in town, and we typically work really hard in promoting for the show.

The night was filled with reunions of old friends as well as the making of new ones.  Our friends Circle Like Wolves opened the show up.  They’re a great hardcore band Santa Maria, CA.   Their jams remind me of a marriage between American Nightmare and Youth of Today.   Random Orbits from Seattle, WA played next.  This was our first time meeting this guys, but we are very familiar with them and their music.  They really shred.  If you aren’t aware, their van was broken into last month night before they started their full US tour.  It’s completely terrible what happened.  Thousands of dollars and much of their equipment was stolen.  Seems to be happening more and more to touring bands.  But like true badasses, they journeyed on anyway. To see those dudes make it out and jam offered much inspiration, overcoming roadblocks perpetrated by scumbags.

Why I Hate followed.  I’m a huge New Tomorrow fan (Wood is singer of both bands) so it super rad to finally see WIH.  They played a lot of brand new songs that caught my attention.   The Shell Corporation played right before us.  Their set celebrated songs from their full length, new EP, and even one of the upcoming 7″ songs.   As per usual, they teased the crowd with their epically shitty chorus version of our song “To Indiana”.

For us, the tour kick off show was extra special because we premiered a brand new music video for the aforementioned song “To Indiana” off our newest full length “In Revival”.   After the video, we took stage and jammed a 50 minute set.   We played all ours/fans faves, some new songs for the first time, and even got Jan up from Shell Corp to sing the Descendent’s “Hope”.  Only real bummer of the night was when I dislocated my knee half way through the set.  I blame my poor skateboarding skills as a teenager for this night’s demise.  But all in all, a smashing way to get tour started.

Day 2: Sacramento, CA (7/18)

Up and at ’em.  After a successful night of debauchery at my Chateau, we and Shell Corp sluggishly got our stinky butts into the vans and headed to our capital.  Other than the ever so boring drive through the Central Valley, we landed in Sactown with no issues.  Sean Hills of Bastards of Young is the MAN!  He puts on rad shows in the area, and did a great job making us feel welcome on our first visit.  After we loaded into the Press Club (and me hobbling like a fool), we grilled up some chicken dogs on our camping grills, washed it down with wine.  Our new friends Cold Heart Re-press were super rad.  They kicked out solid jams!  We played next, jamming a similar but condensed version of the previous nights set list.  After us was good ol’ Shell Corp.  They’ve play the Press Club a few times before, and had a rad following that evening. Sac’s Union Hearts ended the night with a fine recipe of punk rock.

I can never say enough good things about promoters/bands/venues who are so welcoming towards the bands that come in.  Hope I can always show my appreciation.  Not every venue is like this.   It only takes one shitty venue/promoter experience to realize it.

After a great night, we pushed on to Martinez, CA where Sean from Why I Hate put us up for the night.  All’s well.

Day 3: San Francisco, CA (7/19)

I’m pretty sure Sean was thrown off the next morning when he came outside to see us cooking eggs/pancakes and brewing coffee on his sidewalk.  Apparently he lives in a neighborhood where lawyers invade the streets during the day.  So I think he was happy to have us piss off these nerds.

After changing our chonies, we hung out at the AMP Magazine office.  For those of you who’ve had the pleasure of visiting, it’s really a mecca of punk rock posters and records.  I made friends with the office cat Mr. Furley.  As soon as I picked him up, he immediately hated me.  But so it goes.

We hung out by Thee Parkside for a few hours leading up to the show in SF.  Stopped by Pirates Press where we visited our good friend Ben Murray (of Heartsounds fame).  The lobby walls are covered in vinyl records and endless bookshelves of records.  Super duper cool!

Grabbed a pint and chowda at the Connecticut Yankee down the street.  It’s a classic ‘Merican baseball pub.  Overpriced beers though.

Finally, we play Thee Parkside.  As first timers, we were welcomed right away.  We met up with both the Shell Corporation and Why I Hate for a solid Thursday night of punk rock.  A lot of good friends came out to the show and shared a great evening together.  Berkley’s Hooray for Everything opened the show, followed by us, Shell Corp and Why I Hate.  I’m pretty sure it’s usually the 3rd show of tour when we really get locked in. Our cover of “Hope” was the best yet.   And since I didn’t have to drive, I took advantage of tasty beer and wine.   3 shows into tour, and we’re having the greatest time.