Road Report: Dead Confederate Traverse Through Arizona and Colorado

Posted on Sep 23rd 2010 6:15PM by Dead Confederate

Dead Confederate have just released their new album, 'Sugar,' and recently wrapped their run with Futurebirds. The Georgia natives are now on a co-headlining tour with Alberta Cross, and will be checking in along the way with a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road, complete with personal photos and commentary.

In their third entry, frontman Hardy Morris talks about how they got their air conditioner fixed for a band rate, learned cover songs on the fly and even got some fresh ink. Read more about Dead Confederate's Arizona and Colorado adventures after the jump.

TUCSON, AZ
The morning after our San Diego show, we got up early to do a radio spot for X1FM. That went well (Walkers painting shows that it was a success in every aspect). While we were there our tour manager (Sleeps in Motion) and our light guy (Flash) took our van to see about getting our A/C fixed. The report was not good. A couple thousand dollars....that we don't have. So while we were discussing our options at the radio station, a god-send named Chaos overheard us and said he could help. He told us his neighbor worked on cars and could probably fix us up cheap. We followed Chaos (in his El Camino) to his neighborhood and these guys were taking our van apart almost before I had the engine turned off... They got us fixed for WAY LESS than the other guys and Chaos was nice enough to let us hang-out at his place while we waited. We bought him some beer for his troubles of course. (Note: Chaos also has a sweet white 1988 Cadillac) We had to haul ass to make it to Tucson, but we pulled in town just in time to essentially go straight onstage to play. A couple of us sat in on the Alberta Cross set and made a mess of their song 'Rise from the Shadows.'

PHOENIX, AZ
The Rhythm Room. A strange island oasis set in the middle of a barren Arizona parking lot. Great for long-boarding however... Sam from Alberta Cross somehow talked me into singing and playing 'Only Shallow' by MBV. I was fine with it as it is a song I have long liked, but I had to learn it on the spot. Then he tells me he wants to OPEN their set with it!? We got through it and I guess it was fine. I played an acoustic guitar on it which made no sense, but whatever...maybe we'll try it again another night. Its certainly a hard song to do justice. Definitely ready to get back up to Colorado and into a little cooler temps.

TELLURIDE, CO
So the drive from Arizona to Telluride is absolutely beautiful! We stopped off for a quick glimpse of the Grand Canyon and had a Mexican feast with the Alberta guys. Got into Telluride early the next day (pretty little town) and figured out where we were playing this festival after-party. Apparently, we are playing it with a band which contains the girl from Across the Universe, that Beatles movie. Apparent also is the fact that we do not share fans. We drove people out of there faster than if the place had been on fire. But the room was quickly replaced with late-nighters that did want some volume in their ears. During the set, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Power outages, pedals going out, the bass amp cutting in and out...but no one allowed all the crap to damper the show. There were still calls of "break some shit!" to which we obliged by closing our set with 'Diamond Sea' by Sonic Youth and destroying the stage. It was most satisfying considering all the problemos.

DENVER, CO
Denver has long been one of our favorite cities to play and the Larimer Lounge one of our favorite venues. This show we are glad to have Houses back on the bill. It was good to see them in their hometown and they were nice enough to put us up for the night. And a long night it was. Terry (Alberta's bass player) got a late night tattoo and we wound up at a bar that some of the Houses guys work at. Juan and I camped it in the van as the weather was cool, but other folks stayed with Johnny and Andy from Houses! When someone wakes up with a tattoo, it's always a good night. Glad it wasn't me...

BOULDER, CO
The Fox Theater in Boulder is a fantastic venue, but about ten times bigger than where we need to play! The crowd was small but mighty on this Sunday night show. Sadly, it was our last show with Houses...They are a great band and good people too. I'm trying to talk them into making their way to Georgia soon. Today we are off to St. Louis for a show and an in-store at Vintage Vinyl...love that store.

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