It’s kai again with an update on our adventures in Portland. An incredible amount of stuff has happened so it’s time to get chopping.

Rolling into Portland we pulled up to the illustrious “Thrift Lodge”, a bankrupted Travel Lodge with its “TL” logo plastered all over the three-story dive motel. We decided to sleep for a few hours before heading to the convention center.

Basically the rest of the day was spent at the conference, setting up, getting our booth looking sexy, and networking. We met up with our new agent and representation Travis from Layman Lyric. He is an exceedingly large and obsessively kind man: large in the sense that he’s 6’4 and bulked to the teefs; kind in the sense that he loves humans and lavishes all with generosity from his towering dexterity. The whole purpose of us getting to Portland was for this sole reason: Attend the “Marketplaces” within the conference and refresh the relationships we’ve made with students in hopes that they bring us to their campuses.

That night we were reunited with our friends at Carroll College, MSU Northern, St. Martins, Utah Valley University, Boise State, and many, many others. We seriously doubted that A: folks from last year would come back to a second NACA, B: anyone would remember us, but we were wrong. It was a night of hugs and shouting and laughter and reconnecting with the little communities we had been making across the land.

Since most of our friends had not been to Portland before, we decided to play host and invite our friends to some Voodoo Doughnut (the equivalent to Southern Cali’s In-N-Out Burger in terms of iconic mass). The weather was horrid, thus a walk to the non-seating spot was out of the question. The boys and I were happy to play courier to our good friends and we nabbed two dozen of the heavenly sugar dripping disasters and met up with the others at the Double Tree Lobby. Laughter and happiness ensued until late in the night.

http://www.voodoodoughnut.com/

::Saturday::

The Thrift Lodge was restful indeed. It is not an expensive motel, but you get more than you pay for. We had a late morning lounging around waiting for our day to start. Our first Marketplace was in the afternoon, and we hyped our top-secret show to the max.

Off to the airport to finally become a band again: we reunited with a Jon in high spirits; then off to the venue. Now, the venue was tricky because we had a 6pm showtime, in the middle of dinner hour. The owner has no will to make a rock venue, rather a restaurant with bands in there at night to keep ppl around to drink more after… we kind of didn’t fit in with this plan. During our sound check, the staff asked us to turn down, and again during our set. We were thrilled to see many of the students we had invited came out to see us play, but, the show ended up being quite dismal.

Having a rock band play acoustic is one thing, but asking that rock band, holding unfamiliar instruments and amps to turn down (again) is just depressing. Plus, the venue was so crowded that some of our friends from OIT had to be turned away anyway! All this to say, the show was not very productive. All of the people who went to it were our friends and were already interested in booking us anyway. And, here’s the kicker… wait for it…

NACA found out about our clandestine performance and Travis caught the heat for it. We don’t know how they found out, but it was probably accidental, NOT malicious, that is, whoever told NACA was probably not intent on hurting us. Consequences? We would have been asked to leave the conference based on our infraction if we hadn’t been planning on leaving anyway. Travis more or less got a strike against him, but had a perfect record before this. Travis seemed cool with how it all went and the net conclusion was basically zero (disregarding the possibility that we may have difficulty in getting a showcase next year).

I guess the lesson here is that we really underestimated ourselves. I do not regret our decision to play the show, because with what we knew then, it was the right decision. But, we made the error because we were insecure, arrogant, and, uh, stupid. The stupidity and arrogance, well… the insecurity I can comment on. We actually did the Double Tree late night hang out again on our second night with a much bigger crowd, the folks unanimously commented on this: We were the only band doing that kind of thing. That is, out of all of the performers out there that they had been networking with, we were connecting with students the most… by far.

My long-winded lesson being: Basic concepts in valuing relationships higher than all has ended up trumping the effects of the show 100 fold. If we carefully considered this before booking the show, maybe we wouldn’t have done it… maybe we would have. I guess the lesson I learned is to not underestimate the power of a personal contact.

Hello Centrevol Fans. There is a lot for me to catch you up on in terms of Centrevol news so let me bring you straight up to speed. We are well into the fall now, and we just marked the one year anniversary of my (kais) first show with the band. Greater than the first show, the event that really got the ball rolling for us was “NACA West 2008”, a conference connecting us to College Students booking shows for their schools all across the west. Right now I’m sitting in the van oh once again with Pete and Nate after roughly 14 hours of driving. We’re outside of Portland on a mist covered freeway with burgeoning green pastures on either side; on our journey to book our next tour.

But, before I get to that, some news about us as since the summer. We have been writing at a pretty grueling pace and have about 4 or 5 new songs, which is very exciting. Our sound is really maturing from Beggars and Thieves, get ready for some interesting tunes. We’ve also decided to collaborate with Eric Palmquist as Producer of the next album. Eric’s a good friend of ours and a member of the Pseudo Rebels. We’re excited to have him on our team.

We also moved rehearsal spaces as many of you have heard. Our former host Francis had an encounter with his neighbor, (and, the clincher, is moving out of Long Beach anyway) so we found ourselves homeless for about 4 days. After only skipping one rehearsal God full on provided a place: International City Studios, the only lock-out space in the Long Beach area (that means we keep our gear there and don’t have to share the space with any other bands). The owner of the place is a believer, he gave us a discount, and we received the generous, generous support of friends to close the gap of our rent to within a few dollars of what we were paying at Francis’ place. Praise God; the best benefit is that the place is AIR CONDITIONED! (The only minus is that our neighbor is a metal band called “Infant Death” [not actual name] that is extremely heavy and loud. We feel like sissies working out our pop tunes while these guys are screaming and sacrificing children).

Ok, on to the current journey at hand. Pete and Nate pulled up in Ye Old Love Van around 7:30pm at my place, Wednesday, Nov. 4. Google says the drive up to Portland is 17 hours. You do the math. It’s 9:30 AM Thursday now, Nate did the first shift; I pulled the heroic 12:30-4:30AM shift (with great thanks to NPR podcasts); and Pete’s on the wheel now. We’re looking at roughly an hour until we get to our hotel. Jon flies in on Friday as we have a gig that day.

Now I have to say with extreme candidness that I have my share of apprehension regarding this event along with the band mates (although  I was one of the band mates who really pushed to do this). Here’s the big kicker that’s irking us… Bands are not allowed to “showcase” two years in a row. That is, at these conferences, I’d say 85% of the frame of references of these college kids is what’s directly in front of them: the bands that are performing at the conference.

Instead, we have a top secret show outside of the conference at a local venue. It’s top secret because it’s against NACA policy to gig outside of the conference: it pulls students away from their scheduled events. The show is relatively nearby, but, the forecast is pouring thunderstorms. My point is, the odds are stacked against us, we kind of need God to sprinkle some of that miracle dust on us. We need our past connections to really exploit themselves, and we need that gig Friday night to really come through, oh yeah, and we are playing an acoustic set [which we hate doing and are not very good at]) so, God help us, we need that miracle dust.

I spent the evening last night texting all of the contacts that I have who may be coming and I already have several contacts planning on coming to the show. We need prayer for good weather and tenacious kids. I was a doubting Thomas last year and we got 35+ bookings! I am looking forward to God blowing me away with his graciousness this year.

The land of Ports approaches, thanks for all of your support.

We are excited to announce the newest arrival of Centrevol gear: both T-Shirts and Pins.  Check em’ out and order them at our Merch Store.

Centrovol "Faces" T-Shirt

Centrevol Buttons

Our medley of “Daytripper” and “Hey Jude” at DiPiazza’s in Long Beach, 9.30.09

Check out our new music video for the song, “Fifth Avenue Dream!”

Hey (it’s Pete here). After our whirlwind trip of fun and craziness in Montana we hardly thought that our final stop in Logan, UT would compare. Our expectations would soon be exceeded. After a long trip down the interstate we exited on to a secondary road – riding for 25 miles through farms and fields. I must confess, with each mile that we passed deeper into rural Utah, our hearts sank with our hopes that this show would be nothing more than an empty room, a sound engineer, and us trying to play with some gusto. Finally we pulled into Logan, whose claim to fame is being site for the state university. Logan had the quaint personality of a Norman Rockwell painting, complete with carefully arranged storefront window displays and well-kept public parks. Despite the university’s presence, the streets were all but abandoned – a symptom I attributed to the Labor Day holiday weekend that was upon us. Following the directions order at us by the British lady on the GPS, we pulled off the town’s main street onto a small side street, arriving at our destination, Why Sound. Inside we met Tim, a welcoming co-owner of the place, which served as both a live venue on the first floor and a complete recording studio upstairs. WS was a cool place but hardly easy to find – with only a small sign on the door and some show posters on the exterior that would notify passers-by (on the occasion someone wandered down this street) that live music regularly occurs within. In fact, when we went down the street to a local café that Tim recommended – some of the locals and employees there didn’t know where/what Why Sound was. Oh boy. In our usual fashion, we purchased a coffee or food and set-up shop with our laptops and digital paraphernalia capitalizing on the café’s free wireless access. I went for a walk around the town in search of a cigar – a task that proved to be more arduous that expected. Most of the shops were closed, and none of those that were open carried an tobacco, liquor or….sharp objects. God bless the Mormons. In defeat I walked back to the club empty-handed. It wasn’t until I reached the club that I noticed the small shop across the street, Earthly Awakenings. I had seen the shop earlier but had chocked it up as a hippy shop that only sold dream-catchers, organic perfumes and oils and art made of items collected on the forest floor. I was very wrong. In addition to the expected items, the shop contained mostly tobacco products, and supplied me with a much-wanted cigar. God bless the hippies.

We loaded in for the show, met the other co-owner Robert, and the other two local bands, Austin and 1LumSum. The order of the show was determined – and we played second after Austin played an acoustic set. For one reason or another all of the people we had expected to come out for us, did not. Fortunately both the other two groups had done a great job promoting the show and by the time we hit the stage the room was full of energetic listeners that we didn’t know at all. From there it was all a beautiful blur of notes, sweat and singing. By the end of our set the entire room was fully engaged and won-over. 1LumpSum was very complimentary and gracious – and finished out the night with a fun rocking set. A bunch of people picked up a copy of our CD, almost everyone signed the email list and everyone left with a pin or sticker bearing the band name. It was another great lesson for the band – proving that you can’t just a town by its farm fields. As if the night wasn’t good enough – when we were about to leave the parking lot, Nate came back to the van with Austin in toe, and a pair of cymbals under arm that Austin had sold him at a bargain price! Wow. I don’t have to tell you that as we headed sound to Salt Lake City and later to Long Beach, we had a resounding feeling of peace, victory and success for the past ten days of shows on the road through the Northwest. Thanks again to everyone who supported us and made us feel at home many miles from home.