Our LA stop on the Fool's Gold tour went down at the Roxy on Sunset, which got everyone talking about Guns N Roses. Specifically Slash, and how awesome his book is gonna be when it comes out. Reading is fundamental! Still, while Saul Hudson has a fine collection of snakes and firearms, cheated death on numerous occasions, and guitar solo-ed his ass off, he never led a couple hundred sweaty kids to the rave cave only to blast their eardrums out on the other end.
We started the night off at Turntable Lab LA, debuting the LA-only "Lakers" version of our tour shirt (while I personally wouldn't rock it, I gotta admit it's a dope colorway) and playing a Sparks-fueled instore with our local pals Them Jeans and Dan-O. Kid Cudi was in town for the show, so he rocked a song or two at the store alongside Mehdi and myself.
Back at the Roxy, Kid Sis couldn't find her jewelry so she had to improvise with the backstage passes.
PB Wolf stopped by for a surprise DVD-J set, dropping all manner of middle-school dance heatrocks.
Kid Sis murderized it as per the usual, then it was time for the A-Trak / Medhi spectacular to pop off. Their sets have been generating total and utter pandemonium each night, but the LA show was different - as if the crowd's collective amp knob was not just turned up to 11, but cracked off completely.
Still, the show must go on! The stage invaders got back on the floor and we rocked out until closing time.
I don't know how old lil man is over here, but he was in the front row for EVERYTHING (his finest moment might have been screaming along to DJ Assault's "Ass N Titties")
DJ Mehdi's wife Fabianne—who you ought to know as the amazing illustrator Fafi—came out with us for the US shows, and brought crazy energy and a great sense of humor to the whole trip. Unfortunately, I still haven't picked up any French besides "salut", "ca va?" and "voulez vous le Heineken"
I told you the crowd was batshit insane, right?
Some kind soul even brought us these giant cutouts (which we instantly decided would follow us along on the rest of the tour and get photographed in random places like Amelie's garden gnome).
We chilled with the Men In Black Trak/Mehdi at the airport and even got them on the plane (the lil dudes had to sit up front by the coffee cart because they wouldn't fit in the overhead) but after taking this final snappy snap in SF, they were never seen from again.
At the time of the San Francisco show at Mezzanine, we all kind of felt that it wasn't quite as live as the three previous parties. Still real great by normal standards - especially having special guests like Kid Cudi and Trackademicks (who brought out his whole Honor Roll crew) killing shit early in the night - just not the sweat-dripping-from-the-walls chaos that was LA, Vancouver, and NYC. Yet the SF stop made for some of the best pictures of the tour, and if you look at the crowd in the videos, they were having one hell of a time. Shows what we know!
Kid Cudi performing in SF
Trackademicks performing "Topsidin"
Trackademicks & Josie Stingray performing "Grocery Bill"
Kid Sister performing "Control"
A-Trak at the Mezzanine
Kavinsky at the Mezzanine
The voyage continues with two final shows in Chicago and Toronto, stay tooned...
—NICK CATCHDUBS