Utah Tour 1.10.04 ­ 1.19.04
This week we went on our first out of state tour. Destination: Utah. How did we select Utah? It¹s more like, Utah selected us. Back in November we went to a conference in Portland where we got hooked up with a bunch of colleges to book shows. The Utah trip marked the first fruition of that conference. We left L.A. for eight days and played at four colleges and two clubs.

To summarize, it was a blast. But it was so much more than just a blast. It was an experience of learning (did you know Utah is the beehive state?), band bonding and cultural growth. Here is a day-by-day breakdown of wha¹ happened.

Saturday, Day 1: Viva Las Vegas
We packed an enormous, glimmering white van full of all our gear, luggage and snacks, assisted by the lovely and amazing Veronica Brooks, Ori Potter and Zenith and Jerry Gebhardt. Then we hit the road. First stop: Vegas (it¹s on the way to Utah). It was here that the band bonding began. Mona and Chaska initiated Mai into the wonderful world of blackjack, and the no frills stylings of the Casino Royale. The hours, the dollars and the hot toddy¹s flew by, while Becky slept back at the Excalibur hotel room. Don¹t worry, a very insignificant amount of money was placed on the line, and Mai actually walked away (at 4 a.m.) with a few extra bills deep in her pocket. The night was also marked by a brief rendezvous with the decreasingly elusive Dave Benson.

Sunday, Day 2: Leaving Las Vegas
The following morning we grubbed heavily (to fatten up for the upcoming cold weather) at the Excalibur buffet and played a few more rounds of blackjack, this time with Becky at the table too. Mona won a stuffed animal shark at a basketball arcade game, which became our mascot for the trip. We named it "sharky," or "lady killer."

Our first stop in Utah was Cedar City, a small town in Southern Utah. We arrived in the evening, greeted by the friendly and hospitable Southern Utah University folks at the Best Western where we stayed.

Monday, Day 3: Hoagies
This was a full day of band activity. In the morning (ouch) we played an acoustic "teaser" set in a common area of the SUU campus. It was the first week back to school, so a lot of students were around. This was the first of the next four days of shows where free food was offered to students, in conjunction with our "free" performance. Today - hoagies. After the teaser we made an appearance on the school¹s radio station. Our first raining jane radio interview! It was really fun.

At night we played a concert in SUU¹s ballroom. About 200 people came, and there were supposed to be free nachos but someone forgot the cheese. It was a pretty good show although the ambiance was a little sterile. The SUU kids clapped like mad during "Invisible Spoon," boogied down to "Birthday Malaise" and "Are You That Somebody," and slow-danced to "Turn Your Lights Down Low."

Day 4: Taco Tuesdays
This day was a killer. Our next performance was at 11 a.m. in Salt Lake City, a 2.5 hour drive, at best, from Cedar City. Because of reports of snow and fog, we decided to leave at 5 a.m. in order to leave enough time to get to Salt Lake, set up our equipment, sound check, etc. We actually made it out of the hotel as we planned, and to our surprise and joy, the student government at SUU dropped off muffins and fruit at the hotel front desk for us since they knew nothing would be open at our departure time.

On the drive up we encountered long pockets of thick, eerie fog, slowing us down quite a bit. It was like "driving through a cottonball," according to Mona Tavakoli, drummer. Then during a stretch of foglessness, we discovered the town of Mona, Utah. What a ray of light in our time of darkness! We totally stopped to take a picture of the road sign. By this point, the landscape was colored entirely in white with snow.

When we got to Salt Lake City Community College (SLCC), South Campus, we discovered that tacos and hot chocolate were being served along with our performance. "Taco Tuesdays with Raining Jane," as the posters advertised. We¹ll take it. We played a two-hour set as students circulated through the common area, some stopping to watch. All of our student government hosts were awesome, making every step of the journey fun and comfortable. It was really great to get to know everyone.

That night we caught up on our sleep in the Marriot hotel of the inversion-layer-afflicted Salt Lake City. Here¹s where raining jane got a meterology lesson. Weather conditions created an inversion layer, which was keeping cold air, fog and pollution trapped over the city. When we drove to Park City, at a higher elevation, we escaped the inversion layer and skies were clear. We could see the giant cloud of murk hovering down below. The inversion layer was creating abnormally low temperatures. It got down to the teens, which was a rough one for us Cali girls.

Wednesday, Day 5: Donuts and Apple Cider
On Wednesday we played another double set at SLCC¹s Redwood campus. Here we met one of the best live sound engineers we¹ve ever had. His name is Hyrum and he¹s in a band called "Mona." You can check them out at www.monaband.com. This was also a really nice setup in terms of stage location. We did the best on merch sales at this show. After this show we met two welders, Jefferson and Damian, you¹ll hear more about them in the journal entry for tomorrow.

That night Mona composed two songs on the guitar, "Bedsores," and "Evolving."

Thursday, Day 6: More donuts.
SLCC, Jordan. Soundman Hyrum returns for a second performance. At Jordan, we picked up a few more fans, the audience was sparse but we felt the most relaxed. Jefferson and Damian, who first saw us at Redwood, showed up for the show bearing gifts. These two generous and skilled craftsmen spent the previous night welding us a metal sign of our name, as well as four metal roses. Amazing!

It was today that we realized we were reacting to the everpresent snow like a non-Los Angelino seeing a celebrity for the first time.Wow! Look at the snow, it¹s so pretty!

Later that day we drove up to gorgeous Park City, where we had a really nice dinner with Dave at Robert Redford¹s restaurant "Zoom." Park City was getting ready for the Sundance Film Festival, which was kicking off that night. We didn¹t end up having time for any films or parties, but it was really fun just being around all the festivities. We¹ll be back for sure. We went back to Park City the next day to hang out some more. It was sooo cold!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday Days 7-9: Naked Paper Moonshine
With all the college shows over, we now had two club shows left. Finally we got to play in the much more familiar environment of a "nightclub." Friday¹s show started off horribly with one of the worst and most lengthy soundchecks we¹ve ever had to do. On the upside, the nicely-sized stage contained a dancing pole, cage and riser for the drum kit. During "Are You That Somebody," Chaska leaped onto the house speakers and improvised an impressive pole-dance, all the while singing into her microphone. With the mood appropriately set from that moment on, we let loose (which can be done in Utah believe it or not), and danced the night away after we finished playing. A highlight here was when a girl bought our panties and put them on over her jeans, leaving them that way all night long. She asked us to sign them too, which of course we did.

On Saturday, we did some stuff in SLC, including a trip to the local massage school. There, we got hour-long massages for $25. By this time our bodies were beat from playing every day, loading and unloading our cars etc. Every night we took our instruments out of our van and into the hotel to prevent damage from the cold. We¹re really buff now.

We ended our tour that night with an intimate performance at Club Naked. This show felt really good, with a lot of new fans coming back to see us, and with our new friends from SLCC enjoying the show instead of making sure there¹s enough donuts and cider for everyone. As our show ended, the club transformed into a throbbing dance club, and we left for the hotel.

Sunday morning, we left Salt Lake early and drove straight back to L.A. We were sad about having no time for more sightseeing, with so many beautiful national parks around. We took one short detour ­ a fifteen minute drive into part of Zion. It was so awesome!! We decided we will return there to shoot the video for "Let It Go."