From Mid March thru May 30th The Shotgun Wedding went on a 31 date U.S. tour supporting and backing Bay Area Hip-Hop heavyweights Zion I & The Grouch. Also on the tour was BLU (for the West Coast Dates) and One Be Lo (East Coast and LA/SD/SLO). For me and the guys in our band, this opportunity was something we’d been hoping would come up for over a decade. The opportunity to play for such an open minded and appreciative audience every night in really nice venues all over the country was the bomb and we thank Zion and The Grouch for having us be a part of it.

For me and the Shotgun guys, this tour was somewhat last minute. We were finishing up our album and getting ready to record the Jazz Mafia Symphony #2 which we’d all been working on heavily since Fall of 2010. In addition to all that we had a Cab Calloway Tribute coming up that we had to get a set of music ready for. We couldn’t really turn down the offer for a 30 date US tour with Zion I & The Grouch, so we did a lot of shuffling things around and somehow figured it all out in about 3 weeks. Also, since we were an “add-on” we didn’t have hotel rooms, had to supply our own transportation and all that fun stuff. Rugged road warriors! Out of the 30 shows we slept on floors all but about 4 nights. My back surprisingly felt fine. I’m not complaining.

Fresno – First time The SWQ had played Frez. It was a crazy gig. People spilled beers on Pat’s electronic drum sampler and Shotgun blew one of the main speakers in our set so it sounded like a jack hammer for the 2nd half of our set, not good. The people who came out the show kept talking about how awesome it was that there was actually no violence at the show… I guess Frez has a lot of problems with that, which is sad but I’m glad we could help bring hip-hop’s reputation up out of the gutter a bit! Looks like Shotgun will be heading back there in June. peep this vid a fan posted of our 50 song in 4 minutes breakbeat medley HERE.

Fresno!

Petaluma – Super special for me to be able to go back to the FIRST club I ever played at, The Phoenix Theater. I basically grew up there, seeing shows most weekends starting in my first year of High School. It was one of the only all ages spots around and I got to see hundreds of bands there. Anyway, it was fun to come back and play there after so long. The theater is still run by the same really heroic dude, Tom Gaffey – Tom is literally like a father to thousands of kinds and bands who grew up there and it was great to see him again. Here’s some video of me skateboarding around the Phoenix at soundcheck.

C. Holiday in the house with us at The Phoenix

Sacramento – Tropicana Nightclub, located in a strip mall in Sac, actually looks like a real club inside and is kinda huge. The weird thing about the inside is there is a wall that runs right down the middle separating the all ages audience from the 21 and over. So the band is looking at both sides but the sides can’t see each other. The highlight of the show for me was when the opener had a contest to see which side could make more noise…classic. Also thanks to Summer for introducing us to Mongolian BBQ. Food Success. Peep some live video of this show and some freestyles HERE.

the wall that separated the people who drink from those who can't drink but don't seem to care that muc

Summer and Joe rockin the Mongolian foodz

Arcata – Humbrew.  Unfortunately when SWQ played about 3/4 of the club was in the other room, not sure why this happened, it was weird. We had fun though and it was awesome to see our pal Rex Garland! This audience was one of the more wild ones of the tour and it was really hot, sticky and sweaty in there and dark. I think this is the day our windows stopped working in the van. Also we learned how to make a sandwich from Joe Cohen! See it HERE

Eugene, OR – Macdonald Theater. Beautiful venue, almost too big. By this point Shotgun is realizing we don’t kill it as well in the giant 1500 person theaters as well as we do in the smaller more intimate spots and start reworking the set to try to step up our game. I also start to realize how incredible Amplive’s beats sound on some of these huge soundsystems…UNREAL. After the show the whole crew (SWQ/Zion I/Grouch/Blu)  went to a Gyro place that was open late. It was fun to all kick it for the first time like that. This was the night that Dublin started jumping up with Zion I/Grouch and joining them in the Freestyle section at the end of the song “DJ/DJ”. In Missoula, all of SWQ started joining them on this section of the show and became one of my favorite parts of the night, cause we’d put different breakbeats in for them to rap over, depending on what they’d suggest for that particular show. To see video go HERE.

Eugene, OR - I escaped to the audience to take a pic mid se

The Shotgun Wedding TRIO in Portland

Portland, OR – Branx. Before the tour was booked I had a show for SF Jazz Spring Season booked with my String Quartet. It was a very important show for me and also impossible for me to cancel, so we agreed I’d fly home for it and miss two shows on the tour. So, after the Eugene show, I went to the airport at 3am, caught a 6am flight, made it to SF for an 11am rehearsal with the strings, went home wrote more music, 5pm rehearsal soundcheck at the venue, 8 pm show. Exhausted but it was AMAZING! Crystal Monee, Martin Luther and Infinite all came through and did surprise guest spots too. I heard that the SWQ show that night went well! They dropped in bass parts from our album, played songs that pat cold trigger bass parts for, just made it happen, and killed it!

I ran back to SF for Adam Theis & The Jazz Mafia Strings; Premiere of Suite for Trombone & Strings

Seattle, WA – Nectar’s. I was super bummed to miss this show. I heard it was one of the best Shotgun shows of the tour! We were watching youtube tour footage and a video came on that was really good of Shotgun rockin it – and then I realized it was from this show that I wasn’t at…haha, I’m disposable!

Missoula, MT – Palace Lounge. We were very lucky to be hosted by the King of the Green Smoothie, Sergei Boutenko (buy his iphone app about how to eat leafy greens picked int he wild!) He brought us amazing green smoothies to soundcheck and totally hooked us up. Me and Pat are kinda hooked now on those yummy things. The show at the palace was out of hand. This is where stuff really started to come together for Shotgun and for the Zion I/Grouch set I felt like. Also my looper started to break.  Crap. Anyway, it was awesome to be joined back up with the tour and to have that SF JAzz show behind me cuz I was kinda stressed about all of the traveling and logistics involved in pulling that all off.

low ceilings in Missoula; DON'T HIT YOUR HEAD!

Amp can PLAY the keys. Messin around on Joe's keyboard in Montana

Park City, UT- Star Bar – The super long drives were starting to kick our collective Shotgun ass. We had 3 legal drivers in the van so those 10 hour drives get kinda sketchy.  So far, every drive on the tour included bad weather – Snow, rain, icy roads, high winds, take your pick and if you’re lucky you get 2 or 3 of those at once! Park City was a trip, never been there, little ritzy ski town, ladies with lots of fur and stuff. The show was ok, one of the smaller venues we played on the west coast. It was torture seeing all those mountains covered with snow and not getting to ride down them on a board.

Park City - messed up pic but I like it

UT rocks (kinda)

Aspen, CO -Belly Up. Drove all night from Park City, got to Aspen 10am and sat in the van for 4 hours cuz we didn’t have a floor to crash on. No biggie, our van is kinda comfy. Belly Up was one of the nicest clubs we played on the whole tour. A group called The High Tops (Or Hi-Tops?) opened – They were really cool characters and had a good vibe. Stage had LED screen wall all across the back. Nice. Here’s a video of part of the tune “Healing of the Nation” from a unique camera angle.

Here’s a clip that will make you smile form Grouch and a guest appearance by his daughter at soundcheck.CLICK HERE.

We didn’t have a place to stay here either so we decided to do what we had been told would be a 4 hour drive to Denver, where we did have a place to stay. Fail.

Belly Up in Aspen - Zumbi & The Grouch workin' em.

Amplive and Pdub with the trippy LED wall behind them

Dublin needed a table for his MPC so...

Ft Collins CO – Aggie Theater. We hit gnarly weather driving from Aspen to Denver area where our spot to stay with our friends Rachel and Mark was. I didn’t realize that on the drive we’d drive over one of the highest mountain passes on the North American continent. in addition, a crazy storm hit – I was surprised that nobody warned us but it was our bad for not checking the weather I guess. So the 4 hour drive ended up taking 7, had to put on chains, it got really hairy but we made it and had an awesome nap with Rachel’s Pitbull. The show was cracking, The Aggie theater was BIG and the crowd was wild. Amp’s beats were bumping so hard that bird shit was falling out of the rafters and landing all over the stage…kinda cool but not cool at the same time. We ate Mongolian BBQ for the 2nd time on the tour here, it wasn’t as good as Sacramento.

Lookout for falling Birdshit!

Boulder, CO – Fox Theater. Even bigger, better sound. Awesome place and crowd. Kirby Dominant showed up, what a surprise! Good freestyle too man! I really dug the little downtown area where the theater was, reminded me of Berkeley and it was also the first day of good weather we had so far in the tour! Whoo hoo! after the show the horns paraded out front and had some fun jams with Dublin until a very drunk man kinda attacked/fell on me and Joe, that ended it. We were also able to stay 2 nights in a row at Rachel and Mark’s, awesome. Moving everyday kinda blows and Pit Bulls rock.

Rachel and Mark's dog wanted to go on tour with us

Denver, CO – City Hall (club) BEST WEATHER of the whole tour. 75 degrees and sunny, went to the river walk and put feet in the river. Amazing recharge. The venue was a trip. Biggest venue of the tour I think, huge mega complex of many clubs all connected to this huge 3 story indoor/outdoor courtyard the size of a football field. Peeps were worried that the show was not gonna do well cuz of a few other competing shows in the area that night (Chali 2na was one of the competing shows but he was so cool, he came to OUR show before his, which was later and jumped up with us KILLING a freestyle verse). Abstract Rude was on the gig, nice! But he didn’t freestyle with us which I was disappointed about. The turnout ended up being awesome and it was one of the more cracking shows so far. Sound system had some problems though but Zion I/Grouch handled it like true pros and just did their best as always. Amplive was worried that the place was going to shake to the ground form his humongous beats. A big shout to Shaina’s homie Amanda for letting us crash at her loft for 2 nights. once again, it was amazing to have a place to call “home” for more than 6 hours like usual.

"City Hall" in Denver...what happened to the Subz?

Best day of weather on the whole tour: Riverwalk in Denver

This was the end of the first leg of the tour so the next day, I tried to go snowboarding at Breckenridge. Fail. The beautiful 75 degree summer weather instantly turned to a freak snowstorm/blizzard. For the second time that week the 12,000 foot Vail Pass kicked my butt, we were forced to turn around and didn’t get to ride.I also accidentally forgot to give my friend’s snowboard I borrowed back to him and drove back to CA with it. Major Fail!

Pat and I drove the SWQ van home from Denver to CA while Dub and Joe drove Zion I’s van back, long story, its boring too. Almost crashed a few times in Wyoming – turns out they turn their freeways into Ice Rinks in the spiring and have people drive on them in 60 mile per hour winds. I’m glad me and Pat survived, we had to stop and get a hotel for the 2nd time on the tour so far but it was worth it even though it was one of the grossest spots I’ve ever been at. Made the 18 hour drive home without a scratch.

the horrible weather returns! Roads are closed, No snowboarding for us!

We were home for about a week. In that week we put together our Cab Calloway tribute which was performed on Thursday April 14th at Amnesia. The new set of Cab Calloway remix music went of WAY better than we’d imagined. Also Shock G/Humpty Hump from Digital Underground came through and did a surprise set with us along with Cab Calloway’s Grandson, RAY LUV! You can read more about this crazy night at www.jazzmafia.com and checkout video  HERE and HERE

Digital Underground's Shock G performing "Same Song" with Shotgun in SF

The SWQ's Joe Cohen w/ Special guests Ara Anderson and Crystal Monee Hall

Shock G gave me these custom Humpty Hump glasses after the show. Awesomez.

Madison, WI – Majestic Theater. Immediately after the Calloway show we went to the airport and caught a plane to Madison, WI for the next show. This was also a Fail, we got turned back from Wisconsin cuz of weather, had to take buses from MN to WI.  Both bands came as close to missing the show as possible but it all worked out. We were all so tired and haggard that I don’t think any of us remember much about that show but it was cool i think. It was also the first night I heard One Belo. He was replacing Blu on the East Coast Leg. Thanks to our homegirl Jocelyn for the nice warm place to stay!

Peoria, IL – Can’t remember the name of the bar. Had a fun show, but the place was more like a sports bar in the country than a club. At the end of the night there was some weird stuff that went down with a bartender making a racist joke on a microphone that was in really bad taste. Our manager Ben and the promoter Steve O almost fought the dude and it got ugly.  I’m sure this wasn’t a very good representation of what Peoria is really about, it was unfortunate for sure. Thanks to Steve O for putting us up at his awesome place! Another awesome dog too! ya!

Also, starting in Peoria Amplive was gone for 4 shows in a row. I had the lucky job of being the playback DJ. I still wanted to cover all the bass and horn parts I’d been doing but now had to start each of 24 songs in the Zion I set at the right time, end them, fade them, segue them etc…I got better at it each night but I made some really good mistakes which The Grouch and Zumbi handled without breaking a sweat…Wait, that reminds me -I’ve never performed with ANYONE who sweats as much as Zumbi! The dude is very athletic on stage and he ends up ringing the sweat out of his shirt by halfway through the shows. Once again, no rehearsals, very little preparation. Kinda crazy but it worked. Here’s a little video of Zumbi impersonating The Grouch at a soundcheck.

me learning how to run part of Amplive's rig.

we won't be playing at this bar anyore

Zumbi skating while mic checkin

Chicago, IL – Abbey Theater. Legendary Freestyler JUICE showed up and murdered it. Was hoping he’d jump up in the Zion I set with Dublin but he’d left by then. That would’ve been a great battle. Next time.

Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop. Probably the best show of the tour for Shotgun. Something about the people there, we don’t know what it was but our music just really resonated without them…what? I mean it resonated WITH them! We sold out of CDs, talked to dozens of fans until we had to leave late at night. Cleveland is HIGH on our list of places we wanna return to – awesome folks there. After Cleveland we drove all night and got to Rochester where we stayed with The Bagale Family! It was super great to see them and get some some home cookin’, drum lessons form Pops Bagale and good sleep!

kickin it on the porch with Pops Bagale in Rochester

Syracuse, NY – Can’t remember name – It happened. Not very well promoted tho. One Belo slept backstage most of the night -checkout his finger pointing while sleeping! You da man!

One Be Lo is pointing at you

Burlington, VT – Higher Ground. yes, we played a place called Higher Ground on 4/20. Whatever. Huge place, sold out show, definitely a smoking show haha. We stuck around for a late night Bass Nectar afterparty to check out this live Dubstep band called EOTO. Hard to describe but if you’re a fan of live looping, live electro and crushing beats you gotta peep these guys. They have archives of most of their live shows up for free download. Also thanks to Ben Werlin for putting us up in his nice place in Burlington! So far every place we’ve stayed had a cute dog I think. Success. ya can’t have dogs in hotels hahaha

Ben Werlin's awesome dawg.

Boston, MA – Middle East. Also one of the best audience receptions for SWQ of the entire tour. I guess college kids like us cuz this show and the Cleveland show were 18 and over and not all ages I think. The Zion I show was also on fire in Boston, we were joined by Moe Pope! Went to a little afterparty then drove all night to NYC. We were also joined by surprise freestyle from Mr. Lif. Nice.

Dublin A Capella at Middle East in Boston

Dublin loves Boston

Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory. A lot of times it seems like the “Big City” stops on these tours aren’t quite as hyped as the other more remote shows. Something about the audiences in LA, SF, NYC, maybe it’s cuz they see so much good music all the time? Not sure why but many artists have commented about it. Anyway, this show was good, audience was enthusiastic for sure and the club was beautiful and sounded slammin. Roy Ayers came through soundcheck to discuss our show in NYC with him in July and ended up jumping up and jamming with us on some tunes at check. He was gonna stay for the show and play with us but he got too tired to stay around till midnight. He’s 70, he gets a free pass on that one. We stayed with my ex housemate and longtime Jazz Mafia art director Rachel Hornaday at her sweet place in Brooklyn. Rachel is doing really well out there! Awesome to see her.

Roy Ayers and Joe Cohen chattin it up after our jam.

chilin in Bushwick w/ Rachel Hornaday

Baltimore, MD – The Quarter. The thinnest turnout of the whole tour but the crowd was MIGHTY! Everyone put on a spirited show as if it was sold out – very professional once again. Baltimore looked just like The Wire until we went to an area by Johns Hopkins called Hamden where we stayed with our friend Sophia. Beautiful!!! Looked like Piedmont in Berkeley Hills. We went out for Easter Brunch and celebrated the 2nd day of the tour that there was no Rain…until a Tornado came at about 4pm, even rained out the Baseball game!

amazing Easter weather in Baltimore (until the tornado came)

the slideshow for the song "Used to be a Vegan" made me laugh every time

Our Philly show got cancelled so Shotgun went with the Grouch to the Atmosphere show at a really cool spot in Philly, the Electric Factory. Awesome. None of us in SWQ had seen Atmosphere perform live. It was a good thing to see since they’re the most successful crew in indy hip-hop right now. They had a really slammin stage/light set up and the sound was really good. Thanks to The Grouch for getting us all in and taking us backstage to meet Slug and the crew. It was good vibes all around!

Atmosphere

The next morning I got up early to take Zion I to the Airport and decided since I was up I might as well peep Philly. Had an amazing 3 hour walking excursion. love it there. Also it didn’t rain that day!!!!! it was perfect.

MEGA parks in old town Philly.

architecture in Philly

While Zion i flew to Arizona to play a show, we drove our rental van and theirs back to Chicago, another long boring story! it sucked to not do that 15 hour drive – gnarly weather once again but we made it happen, made our flight and got back to the sunny West Coast! Ya!

Los Angeles, CA – El Rey. Can’t describe how happy we were to all be back in CA! our homie/artist Natalie had driven our van “Old Blue” down from the Bay so we were cruising in style once again! The LA show was big, sold out, cracking and felt really good. Aceyalone was on the bill. Stoked. I’d only seen him with other projects (Haiku and Freestyle Fellowship) before – He absolutely crushed it on his set at The El Rey. I was blown away. Thanks to my super longtime homie doncha know me Linda Sharp for bringing us Sushi at soundcheck! That was a great welcome back to the Left Coast!

Dub and Natalie our awesome artist, skater, tour manager homie from the RC

San Diego, CA – House of Blues. Aceyalone was on this show as well, we got to kick it with him more this time which was the highlight of my night. He’s a true hip-hop hero to Shotgun. House of Blues was one of the nicest venues of the tour – super legit, crazy lights and sound etc…We scored free hotel rooms that night. SUCCESS! There was a fun skatespot in the parking lot that I hit the next morning. Check it out HERE

4 members of the Quintet. Wait...

ACEYALONE posin w/ me and Pat

OPENERS in the Healing of the Nation Tour

Shotgun warming it up at HOB San Diego

San Luis Obispo, CA – SLO BREW. THE CRAZIEST audience of the entire tour (sorry Boston!). From the second SWQ hit the stage til the last note of Zion I/Grouch it was 105 degrees and bananas. A very cute girl slithered her way onto stage during the first song of the Zion I set and snuck up under Joe’s keyboard while he was playing and proceeded to grind on him for the whole song. Joe handled it like a champ, and just went with it! It was for sure one of the best moments of the tour.

Santa Clara, CA – Avalon Nightlclub, It was a great feeling to be back in the Bay. This club is located in a strip mall, much like the Sacramento spot we played – Looks suspect from the outside but inside is legit. Z Man was also on this show. Love that guy. Avalon had the nicest backstage of the whole tour. Looks like a Pimp hangout with leather couches everywhere, a bar and all sorts of fun. Oh, also for some reason starting in SD they started adding a bottle of Patron tequila to our backstage bounty. Hmmmm, it was like my prayers had been answered! Anyway, the show was packed, some kinda larger tattoo dude kept jumping onstage and doing some weird shake type dance. We were also joined by some really interesting turf/contortionist dancers – peep it HERE For some footage of Shotgun playing “Keep Smiling” peep it HERE

Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort. The biggest stage in the World. Nuff said. We did Brass, Bows & Beats here last year and had a great time but this show was about twice the size, about 1500 people. The Jacka and Mista Fab were on the bill – Kinda felt like security was gonna snap at any minute, lots of kids smoking and people jumping onstage but at least the energy was crackin! The GSR hospitality was the best of the tour. Tons of our homies from Truckee came through. The ridiculously huge stage was kinda strange but I took advantage of it by skating around during our set even more than usual. Zumbi and Grouch did a great job during their set of running all over the front of the stage vibing with the kids – they must’ve been exhausted!

Grand Sierra in Reno - Officially the biggest indoor stage in the WOLRD.

Most of us stayed up late gambling, eating and taking advantage of our hundreds of dollars in food vouchers they give you when you play there. We each had our own rooms too. Success!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped make the Healing of the Nation tour such a success. Most of the shows were packed, many were sold out, all were fun and full of positive energy. Shotgun looks forward to heading back out on the road soon; we’ll be in NYC on June 30th as well as July 2nd, check jazzmafia.com for info.

Thanks for reading,

Adam and The Shotgun Wedding Quintet

(from top left):

Can we trade these buds for 6 coronas?

Late night diner in Baltimore. creepy.

DOn’t do it Joe and Dub!

Beautiful frozen lake in UT

A Mic Pipe made for The Grouch

Astronomical Luggage fees

Mad Max painting in Missoula

The only 24 hour hotel hot tub I’ve ever found, In Idaho Falls

March 3, 6:23 PM

Rick Marianetti

Photos/courtesy Dawn Heumann