After getting to a very dangerous point of burn out at work, I finally took a couple extra days off and drove down to Santa Fe with a few friends to go see X with The Detroit Cobras. Holy shit, did I ever need that break. I feel so recharged now, although I'm a little panicky about only having 7 actual workdays at the day job left this month since I head to Florida on the 19th so I can be there for my kiddo's birthday on the 21st! And even better, she'll be coming back with me on the 24th to stay here until the 3rd of July! Color me stoked! 

As for the show, it was easily one of the best I've ever seen and everything about the whole trip was fantastic. The usual place I head to for fun in New Mexico is Albuquerque and the drive from here to there is boring and ugly. The drive we took to get to Santa Fe, on the other hand, is absolutely gorgeous. It's all smaller roads and runs through some of the prettiest areas I've seen in this part of the country and it just keeps changing and getting more and more interesting until you end up in Santa Fe, which is a pretty cool place, itself. The venue for the show, The Santa Fe Brewing Company, was also great. It's on the outskirts of town in an industrial section and is a big brewery/restaurant with the stage area outside. There were only the two bands playing and since they started at 7:30 the sunset was right behind them as The Detroit Cobras played. They were fucking phenomenal and I think I fell in love with their new bass player, she's fucking beautiful and rocks that bass. The only complaint I have about their set is that it could have gone on for days and I still would have wanted more. They played almost every song that was at the top of my list for them and were so obviously enjoying the hell out of themselves that it was impossible for anyone there to not enjoy it. Between their set and X's, I ended up pulling total fanboy shit and bought a really fantastic screen printed poster they had for sale and got two of them to sign it and talked to them. I normally don't understand the appeal of the whole autograph thing at all as it's never really been a part of my life growing up in the world of Punk Rock and such, but with this band I just couldn't help it. Rachel, the singer for The Cobras, was really fucking cool. She talked to me and had seen me out there singing along and told me how much she enjoyed seeing that shit. The only other signature I got was from my new love, that glorious bass player. She was funny and a sweetheart, and actually came over and asked if she could sign my poster before I even had a chance to open my mouth. Shortly after that, X took the stage. Somehow, I've never gotten to see them even though I've loved them since I discovered their records in the eighties, so this was a pretty momentous occasion for me. I don't think I could have picked a better set list for them, they honestly played every single song I would have hoped to hear and stayed mostly with the early stuff that has always been my favorite. Exene now looks like a tiny little Eastern European Grandma, but she still belts out her own amazing brand of singing. John Doe sounds better than ever. Billy Zoom was kinda creepin' me out with the perma-grin thing, but he got more animated as the night wore on and was fun to watch, not to mention being a guitar genius. DJ Bonebrake looks like he's still in his 20's and beat the hell out of his kit. Another nice thing about the show was the fact that it was definitely an older crowd, as opposed to most of the shows I see in Albuquerque where it's seems the scene is mostly made up of high school and college kids. Nothing wrong with the younger kids being into it, I was one of them once, but I enjoy shows a lot more when I know there'll be a lot less drama and such. Plus, it's always awesome to see the hot Punk Rock girls in their thirties and forties and Santa Fe seems to have it's share of them.

The drive back the next day was great too, my traveling companions were all pretty hung over so we stopped off at this tiny little bar in Espanola that we had seen on the way down. It was a really cool little place that was out in the middle of nowhere. I think there were only 6 or 7 seats at the bar and about 2 or 3 tables. We stayed there for an hour or so and then hit the road again. A bit later we went to the Echo Amphitheater which is a naturally formed amphitheater in the rock along the way. We wandered around that for an hour or two and got eaten alive by bugs. I guess that might be payback for the fact that two of the people in our group ate some giant ants on a dare while we were there. I still owe Rob a pint for eating one live. 

Yesterday I went to work at the tattoo shop and had tons to do, which was nice since we were really slow for a couple weeks. It's also good since I get paid by the amount I do and not the time I'm there and I really need a little extra cash for my trip later this month. I also talked a bit more about the next tattoo I'm getting and that artist is starting on the artwork for it. It's gonna be amazing. I have two fairly new outlines that will be worked on more once my visit with the kiddo comes to an end and hopefully the artist who did my big Frankenstein leg piece will be ready to continue that piece down my leg soon after. This will be the summer of leg tattoos for me. My most recent piece that was started is down my entire right shin from just under the knee to the base of the ankle. I'll take a picture of the outline as soon as I can find my camera, it's awesome.

Anyway, I'm super stoked right now, the show was great, tattoo happenings are great, Santa Fe was cool, and most importantly, I'll be seeing my little princess in a very short while! I highly recommend catching this tour for anybody still in it's path, or seeing both bands in any way possible after it ends. 



Edited to add that my friend mentioned in that last journal is doing MUCH better. He has gotten back to us a bit and is going through a LOT of therapy and such, but is definitely on the road to recovery. Thanks to all of you who posted your well-wishes on that journal.