by Allan Schleich, Snake Island!
Those 30 days sure came and went fast.
Snake Island! consists of four guys with four totally different personalities, tastes and backgrounds who joined together to create something new and greater than themselves. Cram those four guys into a tightly packed van, send them up and down the West Coast for a month and wait for the fireworks. Of the 30 days we were out, we traveled over 10,000 miles and performed 27 times, occasionally even doubling up and performing twice a night at different venues.
It was a blast. On the way to the Pacific Coast, being able to cross the Rockies, the desert wastes of Nevada, the Sierras, and the Red Woods lead to us seeing some of the most beautiful natural geography and scenery imaginable. The western U.S. is definitely a far cry from the flat cornfields of the Midwest. We got to meet tons of cool people and only a couple shady ones. In fact, we stumbled across a ton of Nebraskans; most notably, we met up with musicians Jenna Morrison (Conduits) and Orion Walsh in Sacramento.
Every city we entered had a unique vibe. Seattle and Portland fit my vision of cities filled with dread-locked protesters, activists and beggars. San Francisco was a very cool metropolis that was once home to a hippie counter-culture and is currently home to yuppies (not the band) and upper-crust types; Haight-Ashbury is just making a buck off its tie-dyed past. San Diego was a beautiful beach town. Denver was a cultural hub with a mountainous backdrop. Los Angeles consisted of many sub-cities each with their own feel, but unlike what most Midwesterners think, the streets are not paved with gold and we did not see one celebrity. We didn't make it into Phoenix proper but we enjoyed Tempe and found a lively supportive scene there. Our show in Tucson was great and we got a solid newspaper write-up for it, but there wasn't much time to take in that city. Las Vegas was best described to me by a Biker Mamma in between sets at our show this way: “Vegas is filled with fake tits and REAL ASSHOLES!” I couldn't have said it better (though don't get me wrong, we met some rad folks there too). Sacramento is the one that felt most like home, it was filled with friendly, sincere people and when we told people we were from Omaha, they didn't respond with “Isn't that next to Tulsa?” like the rest of the places we visited. One common thing I found with Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California was the amount of young people with glaucoma. It must be a plague out there.
In all these places the response to our performances was huge. Much like our last tour of the Midwest and South, we had people shouting “Fuck yeah, Omaha!” and “Fuck yeah, Nebraska” almost as much as they were shouting “Snake Island!” It was a good feeling. I hope down the road to bring a few select Nebraska bands along with us on future tours and expose to these other scenes what our state has to offer besides what’s already been established with Saddle Creek. Though we had to deal with many long overnight drives, a couple gigs with no-show bands, plenty of stress induced fights and arguments, our van blowing an injector and shooting flames out of the exhaust as we traveled down the highway and the extra miles burning away any funds we raised from performances and merch sales… it was a hugely positive experience for everyone.
Since we've been back, we've already written a new song which we debuted at our tour return show on Saturday, Aug. 31 with Ladyfinger and Powerslop at Brother’s Lounge. The light show we assembled and used through the entire tour was also in full effect. Don’t forget to pick up our new album, Evil Music, on CD and vinyl that we released in association with Make Believe Recordings.
At this point, we’re not fully certain what the future will bring for us, though plenty of weekend treks to neighboring cities are in the works and we’ll see at what pace the new material starts coming together. We are definitely happy to be back home and getting our lives back together after such an extraordinary trip.
Anyway, we love you Nebraska, talk again soon?