Metal Sludge — It’s the summer of 1994 and we have decided along with our new record label and up coming tour, we will also need videos to promote the new Tuff record.

In-between processing and shipping both CD and Cassette orders for the “Fist First” release, we were all pretty much multi-tasking like crazy.

Remember, this was all pre computer too.

At least the computers or cell-phones that would later become common devices that almost everyone has.

Not forgetting, also before anyone had any type of GPS in their car or truck as well.

This was mid 1990’s and pretty much all of this was detailed, records kept and more, with a pen and paper.

Oh…  and there were no websites, no PayPal, no social media, and people paid for their orders by mail using a check or money-order.

Speaking of social media, in mid-June something happened that took the world by storm.

The O.J. Simpson car-chase on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles California was big news.

This was covered by CNN and every Southern California T.V. station (News outlet) during the early evening of June 17^th 1994.

I recall watching this happen as we all sat around the T.V. in awe.

And not only were we watching on T.V., but hundreds if not thousands of people were lining up on top of over-passes as Simpson and his driver (Al Cowlings) made their way North on the 405 freeway.

Imagine had these people had smart phones, and social media accounts?

If so, there would have been that much more coverage aside from a few News helicopters filming from the sky above.

It has been historically noted that nearly 100 million people watched across the country as this viral event unfolded.

As many know Simpson’s ex-wife Nichole Brown-Simpson and a male friend (Ron Goldman) were bludgeoned to death just 5 days earlier outside of her West Los Angeles apartment.

Simpson was obviously a suspect from the start given their tumultuous history and he was now in the cross-heirs of law enforcement.

But like a lot of celebrities, Simpson felt he was special and likely thought he was going to get away with what many considered him to be guilty of…  a double-murder.

Sadly, he did get away with it… or at least found not-guilty a few years later.

Technically speaking, he was found not-guilty in criminal court, but found responsible for their deaths in a civil trial.

The craziest thing about living in Los Angeles is that this is the hub or one of the biggest draws for entertainment in general.

So, when something happens here at this level, it seems odd, as it’s essentially happening in our backyard or at times in an area that is close to home or very familiar.

The house where Simpson lived and the apartment where Nichole and Ron were murdered at are both roughly 20 miles from where we lived in Reseda.

The chase ended at his home with Simpson eventually surrendering to authorities after some time.

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FOR THE FANS

In June of 1994 an event was put together called Fan Forum by Michelle Siddiqi and the late Jennifer Monroe of American Noize.

This event was kind of like a mini NAMM or Foundations Forum, but was more geared towards the fans who supported the bands, as opposed to the music or equipment companies that signed or endorsed them.

This was the 2nd version of Fan Forum and it was held at a Hotel across the street from the Bob Hope Burbank Airport for the weekend.

The event was well attended by fans from all over the world, and members of various bands also were on hand to make for a great event.

Some of the bands attending included; Slaughter, Warrant, Danger Danger, Hardline, Jailhouse, Black N’ Blue, WildSide and of course Tuff among others.

The weekend included a live concert and of course meet and greets along with fan interaction with the groups.

Also, there were no meet and greet fees, it was all part of the event.

There were also a few question and answer panels, where the bands and related industry types took questions directly from the fans.

Doug Thaler who once partnered with the mighty Doc McGhee was on hand along with then Metal Edge editor Gerri Miller.

Tuff were thrilled to be part of Fan Forum as it was perfect timing for our brand new “Fist First” release and up n’ coming U.S. tour.

Below are some various snap-shots from that weekend along with some coverage that was featured in Metal Edge magazine after the fact.

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GUNS N’ WHO?


During their “Use Your Illusion” tour Guns N’ Roses released several high-end movie like videos that took the average MTV video to a near movie-like level, and the budget to make these clips sky-rocketed.

They even released a home video (VHS) called “Makin’ F#@%ing Videos.”

This home video included the actual MTV style clips and behind the scenes, as to how they made these mini movies.

Well, RLS Records was ready to finance the same for Tuff and our new release “Fist First.”

From the start we decided to make 3 different videos.

One each for “In Dogs We Trust”, “Tied to the Bells” and a clip for “Better off Dead.”

All had different themes or settings and little by little we put it together.

None of us had any experience with filming anything beyond a disposable camera or using a Radio Shack style hand-held camcorder.

However one of our fans from Detroit who became a friend was Mr. Video Guy and then-some.

Shawn Card came to see us in late 1991 and handed me a VHS tape as I got on our bus.

Once home from tour I watched the tape and included was this goofy parody of our MTV video for “I Hate Kissing You Goodbye” with edits of Shawn as the singer.

He was wearing a blond wig, head-band and doing his best Stevie Rachelle impersonation.

It was pretty ridiculous but creative as well, so I called him up and told him I loved his take on our video.

A few months later he came to Los Angeles, we hung out and started editing and working on some Tuff home video stuff with his camera and small editing board.

Now its 3 full years later and Shawn was part of our click.

He had been on tour with us for the last few years filming our every move and archiving endless hours of Tuff on the road, backstage and at home acting like Jackasses.

For what it’s worth, we were doing Jackass, years before Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and Bam Margera were but either way, we were always having fun for sure and Shawn was filming a lot of it.

By this point we had worked on a few things putting together this and that, but now we were going to tackle a project that needed to be better than what we had done previously.

We started throwing around ideas, as to what we wanted to do with each video and that included a storyboard, finding locations, and eventually buying the supplies we needed to make these videos.

When I say we, this was mainly myself and Shawn who were sculpting the ideas.

Keith was busy helping run RLS, and the others, were not so much a part of most of this creative process unless we found something that fit their skill-set.

Jimi is a great example, and while he was our drummer for less than a year at this point, I soon realized that he had some qualities above and beyond playing drums.

In short…  Jimi was a bit of a handy-man and had legit carpenter skills galore.

So Shawn and I would spit-ball our ideas non-stop and started honing in on what we were going to do.

First up was “In Dogs We Trust” which would be the most basic of the 3 videos.

At this time we were rehearsing in North Hollywood and had our own lockout room with our drums and amplifiers.

We decided to shoot in here, and do basic performances of the band jamming the song.

This room was about 12’ by 16’ with a high ceiling and it was full of all of our gear and road-cases too.

We also decided to shoot this in black and white, stack up amps around the drums which were set in 1 corner of the room.

It was very tight, and we had to move most of the road-cases and some other related gear into the warehouse hallways.

We shot this in 1 day on June 12th 1994, but it was a long day.

Like, showing up at 10:00am and preparing the room for few hours, setting up lighting, and more.

There were so many little details to consider.

Such as, what we would use for playback that would be loud enough to hear over pounding drums.

Of course the amps were off, but you can’t turn off drums or cymbals.

So Jimi had to deaden his drums with pillows, or cardboard on top of the drum heads and tape on the cymbals.

It was still noisy, but this reduced a lot of the sound so we could hear Shawn giving us direction while we were performing and he was filming.

Basically this was a full day and we shot from the morning til late into the evening.

Of course, this did not include sitting and editing the raw footage for the final clip.

Shawn was the physical editor, but I sat over his shoulder on some of this and we together decided what should go where, and how the clip should look.

The next video was “Better off Dead” and we had a theme if you will for this one, other than the solo, which would be a performance of the guitar solo by Jorge.

We put together this grave kind of scene, a cross scene, a fire scene, and overall it was dark and kind of eerie.

The solo from “Better Off Dead” (2:45 mark) featuring Jorge was shot on top of this hill near Hollywood, where the very famous Hollywood Cross is located.

The Wikipedia for the Hollywood Cross says it was built in 1923, a full 99 years ago.

Wiki writes: The Hollywood Cross (also known as the Hollywood Pilgrimage Memorial Monument) is a 32-foot high, steel cross and historic-cultural monument (#617) in Hollywood, California. Located just above the Ford Amphitheatre and overlooking the Cahuenga Pass, Hollywood Freeway and Hollywood Bowl.

If you stand near the Hollywood Bowl entrance, and look towards the North East, above the 101 Freeway, it’s clearly visible.

We actually parked down by the Hollywood Bowl, and hiked up the side of that mountain carrying a boom-box for play back, and Jorge carrying a guitar.

That hike was no joke… I recall it being a lot higher, and harder to get to then we imagined.

We did shots up there, and then did secondary filming with Shawn standing down near Highland, and Jorge and I up on the hill.

We had no cell-phones of course, and not even walkie-talkies’ so to signal to Shawn we’re ready, I would wave a big white towel, and he would do the same to communicate to the each other, “We’re ready to shoot.”

I would then play the solo playback, via cassette on the boom-box, and Shawn would just film from below.

Crazy to think how we put these clips together, with little to no budget.

And when I say little, I mean in the hundreds of dollars.

My guess is to finance and shoot all 3 videos, we probably spent a grand or two, but not much more.

Most of that money was spent on supplies like; paint, lumber, ropes, tarps, extension cords, and of course some of the film (tapes).

For the cross scene, we basically bought some lumber, built a cross, placed it on the roof of our house, and hung Jimi on it.

Well, Jimi “The Carpenter” built the very cross we would hang him on. Lol.

For the grave scene, we put a plastic tarp down, covered it with dirt, and put an old T.V. set with duct-tape on the screen behind it, almost like a tombstone.

The fire was simple, we filled the fire-pit in our backyard with some wood, and the guitar Jorge used for the solo and lit it all on fire at night.

Then the band, dressed in our torn, muddy and dead-guy looking clothes, walked in circles around the fire, almost like a tribal burial celebration.

What does or did all this mean?

I have no idea, lol… but it fit the theme of the song, “Better off Dead.”

Remember, this was early-mid 1990s, and the dark side of music, with Grunge, Nu-Metal, etc.. was dominating the landscape of music, so dressing up in leather and studs was all behind us.

The “Tied To The Bells” video was a mix of craziness and insanity for sure.

As most fans know the “Religious Fix” album had a fair amount of religious like references, songs about a slutty Nun (“Tied To The Bells”), the track “Electric Church” and “Better Off Dead” had its related underlying religious tones as well.

In the “Tied To The Bells” clip there are scenes where there are some cement blocks, almost like grave-stones with the words ‘sin’, ‘religion’, “tied’ and various other lyrics.

Also, there are a few quick scenes where you see the word ‘esahc’ and ‘redliw’ as well.

These were subliminal you can say, as they are spelled backwards, and properly written read as ‘chase’ and ‘wilder’, both of the band’s former members.

What did this mean?

Again, who knows… we were just trying to be creative I guess.

For Jimi’s part in the clip, we had him hitting stuff but opted to not use drums.

Instead, on the snare beat he would hit a hammer onto a flat surface, or swing a sledgehammer into a jar filled with water.

The effects when slowed down, or with effects proved to look cool and it worked well.

So for a cymbal, we took an old metal garbage can lid, hung it off the end of a the pool cleaner and set it on fire of course.

Jimi was in the pool, and was hitting the cymbal (garbage can lid) with all his might, and we did several takes of this.

Good thing Jimi is a fast thinker, as during a few shots we over poured the gasoline and it spilled all over the surface of the pool, which then caught on fire.

Watch at the 1:10 minute mark of “Tied To The Bells” and you will see the surface of the pool catch on fire.

This happened a few times, with Jimi in the pool at the same time… lucky for him, he reacted quickly and simply dove under water to avoid being burned.

Was this crazy?

Absolutely and I don’t recommend it all, but hey… we were young, dumb and having fun for sure.

We also made use of random effects, like using a fan to blow Jorge and Jimi’s hair while they would play along to their various video parts.

In the end, each clip took on a life of itself and while at times it was tedious doing these mini-movies, looking back there were many good times had by all of us doing it.

For more behind the scenes of how these were actually made, check out the TUFF “Religious Fix” – DVD titled “The Videos” also the TUFF “Decade of Distant Memories 85-95” DVD as well.

These show in great detail what we did when making these videos for the “Fist First” release, which morphed into “Religious Fix” the following year (1995).

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“Fist First” U.S. Tour 1994


WHERE’S JORGE?

We’re about 2 weeks into the tour and played a Saturday night in Milwaukee at “T.A. Verns”, which is kind of like a home-coming gig for me of sorts being from Wisconsin.

The gig went as planned, and all was well…

Everyone retired to their Motel 6 rooms right across the street from “Verns” as the locals called it.

That club was located on Highway 100 near Silver Spring Road, which was a popular area for cars to cruise at night, and there were various clubs and a bunch of Motels and restaurants.

We all wake up Sunday morning September 4^th and guys are grabbing breakfast at Denny’s (in the same parking lot) and checking out of their rooms and putting luggage in the Ryder truck.

Tonight’s gig is at “Pierre’s” in Ft. Wayne Indiana.

This gig was a last minute addition to our schedule, and we got added as the opener for Uriah Heep.

I actually was trying to get a gig here for a while, but the club didn’t have any open nights, however after being beyond persistent, the woman booker (owner) opted to do us a favor and added us to this Sunday night show.

According to my itinerary, we got a $250.00 guarantee, plus food.

I mean, this sounds like nothing right?

But, I had a theory at this point when touring and that was to somehow sustain some income, to help pay for the daily costs and expenses of being on the road.

A quick Google search says $250.00 from 1994 in 2022 has a value of $499.79.

Still not a lot, but gas money is gas money!

I mean, we were renting a Ryder truck by the week, but in short, it was costing me (us) money every day, along with the gas to drive it from city to city.

Also, we needed a place to stay, like Motels, and give the guys a daily per-diem and feed people.

My thought was, “Hey, we gotta pay for the gas, the rental, rooms and more…so why not make some money, rather than no money.”

And, I knew that regardless of how much our guarantee was, we’d also have the chance to sell our merchandise, CDs and T-shirts.

We would often play a low dollar show like this, but then bring in another $300-400 or more off merchandise sales.

So, let’s say we did $350.00 in merchandise, now put that with the $250.00 and now we made $600.00 for the day.

Again, in 2022, you can basically double that, so it was like making $1,200.00 for the day.

As I said, “Some money is better than no money.”

Had I said “No, screw that measly 250…” and never even showed up, then we don’t make the merchandise sales either.

And at the end of each day, I (we) still have to pay the Ryder rental, fill it with gas, get (3 minimum) motel rooms for the band and crew and feed everyone.

So, it’s Sunday around 10:00am and everyone but Jorge is at the Ryder truck ready to drive the 253 miles to Ft. Wayne which is about 4 ½ hour drive.

Add in a stop for gas or to piss, and we’re looking at the better part of 5 hours easily.

Not too mention, the random lunch grabbed at a truck stop diner or one of several dozen options along the way in the form of fast food.

Something else happens on this drive as well… we lose an hour as we’re going from the Central Standard Time zone into Eastern Standard Time, so while it’s 10:00am in Milwaukee, it’s already 11.00am in Indiana.

So, like I said, everyone is at the truck, but Jorge.

Nobody knows where Jorge is, and he never came back to the room last night after the gig.

I start asking the band and crew if anyone knows where he is, or who he left the club with last night.

I get blank stares from pretty much everyone.

So I decided we needed to call the locals, which started with my old buddy Jackie Suicide who had since moved back to Wisconsin from California.

Jackie thinks he knows who Jorge left with, and he starts making calls to find him and the girl who Jorge was hanging with at the club.

30 minutes goes by, then an hour, then another and it’s now close to 12:00 noon in Wisconsin.

After a few hours of searching high and low, I was starting to get desperate.

It was getting late, as we were not headlining tonight, but rather the opening band.

And remember, Tuff was added last minute as a favor and if we flake, this club booker is going to be furious with me.Either way

After-all, I pretty much begged her for this show to help fill my calendar.

At some point we decide to drive to Jackie’s upstairs apartment on 31^st Street.

We arrive and Jackie and a few friends are watching the Packers vs: Vikings game, which was taking place 115 miles away, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

It’s now getting close to 1:00pm in Milwaukee and I am stressing hard.

We’re all sitting there watching the game and we hear a knock on the door.

I then hear someone say: “its Jorge….”

We all jump up and Jorge comes walking in with that typical victim look on his face.

I’ve seen this look on his face before.

“Chubby, this F#@king bitch didn’t set the alarm…” blah, blah, blah…

Chubby was 1 of my nicknames that Jorge had been calling me for years.

I was far from chubby, but also I was never built like the singer from Kix either.

Either way, I was beyond livid and wanted to choke the F#@king life out of him right there, but I didn’t.

We had no time to argue, or F#@k around.

We high-fived Jackie and all of us piled into the Ryder truck.

We had already fueled up at the gas station next to our Motel earlier that morning so off we go.

Now we are looking at the Rand McNally road map, figuring miles, the time and the loss of an hour due to crossing into Eastern Standard Time Zone.

We were literally on the cusp of losing this gig, but hit the 894 to the 94 south heading towards the Illinois border.

We knew we were super late and concocted a bullsh!t story that we got a flat, so decided to hit a truck-stop at some point and phone the promoter.

She answered, and I told her we were running late, due to our truck breaking down.

But, then I assured her, the tire was fixed and we were already in Indiana headed due East on Interstate 30. 

Our set time was 8:15pm, to 9:00pm and we were still in Wisconsin, (CST) at roughly 1:00pm with a near 5-6 hour drive ahead of us.

Was I pissed at Jorge?

Damn right I was… but after a few hours, and upon pulling into “Pierre’s” parking lot, it was all behind us and we had a job to do.

This is the life of being in a band, on the road, traveling with a half-dozen or more people and having to overcome the many obstacles that lay ahead of us day-to-day.

The crew and band collectively, hustled like never before and unloaded our entire truck, set up the stage and merchandise display in record time.

I forget the exact number of minutes, but it was well under 30, something like 20 minutes.

And I mean, the stage was ready to go…

We as the band, threw on our stage wear and hit it like any other night.

I forgot most of that night, but do recall sitting in the dressing room with the guys from Uriah Heep after the show.

They could not have been nicer, and showed us respect even though we were kids compared to them.

A quick search tells me that at that time, lead guitarist Mick Box was 47 years old, singer Bernard Shaw would have been 38, Lee Kerslake on drums was 47, Phil Lanzon was on keys at 44 and bassist Trevor Bolder was also 44.

All are still alive, except for Bolder and Kerslake who passed away in 2013 and 2020.

These men respected us boys like men and I still recall how pleasant they were to us.

I am sure they probably thought like any older guy thinks when he sees the 20-somethings giving their all to rock out, put on their show and still dreaming of making it big.

Of course we were already on the back-end of those dreams, but all in our mid to late 20’s, these guys for the most part had 20 years on us.

I am not sure if the same woman still owns or books “Pierre’s” but thank you to her, for helping out a band on the road.

I also have mad respect to the guys from Uriah Heep, who likely forgot us the minute that night ended, but they treated us fairly and respected as equals.

What started out as a sh!tty day, ended on a high note and it felt good to put another notch in the belt.

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IT’S A LONG WEIRD & WINDING ROAD


We did roughly 40 dates on the Tuff “Fist First” U.S. Tour and I can’t comment on all of them, but will make a few notes here about some of the places we played and experiences we had, from my point of view.

So we are booked to play at a Sushi Bar on August 26^th in Oklahoma City Oklahoma.

Huh?

Right, that’s what I was thinking.

After spending about a week playing all over the Lone Star State we drive north into Oklahoma and pull into the parking lot looking for our stomping grounds for the night.

The sign says Samurai Sake House and we realize, yup, it appears to be a Sushi bar.

The place was super-duper tiny and upon walking in I was sure the guy was going to say, ”Oh, the stage is in the back” and walk us through some set of doors to a more concert-like hall.

But, that never happened.

As we looked around I saw the Tuff posters on the wall along with some other random 80’s band promo from bands like Bang Tango and Rhino Bucket, and knew for sure, this is the place.

Now I meet the club manager and he shows me, the stage area where we are to set up our gear.

I kid you not… it was literally a corner stage, that was a little bigger than a drum riser about 10 inches off the floor.

We loaded in, Jimi set up the smallest kit possible and Jorge and Jamie had their cabinets on the floor to the left and right of the stage (drum riser).

By this point in our career absolutely nothing was shocking and none of us were fazed by the fact that we were setting our gear up behind a row of chairs that faced the actual Sushi bar itself.

The guys running this place were super nice, and treated us great.

At some point the main guy invited us for our dinner, and seated all of us around one of their Hibachi grills.

Over the next hour plus, they made us killer food and he told us endless stories about who ate there.

I recall him proudly saying with his Japanese accent: “A few months ago, right here, I feed Motrey Crew.”

He then pointed out where everyone sat, “Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars and John Corabi!”

The guy was beyond stoked, and he shared a bunch of fun stories and asked us about Tuff.

Lining up my stories, that I recall, I always try to dig in and corroborate as much as I can.

A quick search confirms that Motley Crue played in Oklahoma in late June 1994.

Also I found this tidbit, which some of you may recall as well.

Courtesy of Crucial Crue website: “June 26^th 1994 – On tour in Tulsa, Oklahoma, local authorities try to arrest Nikki for inciting a riot after he tells fans to rip down the cyclone fence erected between them and the Crüe on stage, four songs into the band’s set. No charges are pressed.”

We had a great night, at this tiny little Sushi Bar / Saki House and even though there were probably less than 100 people there. It’s now nearly 30 years later, and I have nothing but great memories of Samurai Saki House.

Fun Fact: In 2022, the Samari Saki House is still open.

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BIG FOOT MIGHT LIVE HERE


Where the heck is Eckerman Michigan?

In the middle of nowhere is where it is.

However, when on the road, you never know who you might run into.

Eckerman is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or as locals call it the U.P..

It’s also about 40 miles Southwest of Sioux Saint Marie, which is a mere 3.7 miles from the Canadian border.

This is a world away from the Motor City, which is in lower Michigan and a full 5 hours or roughly 340 miles South from the U.P..

So upon booking this I was informed that former Madame X members Chris Doliber and Maxine Petrucci (Vixen) were running this club.

We played “Tumble Inn” in Eckerman on a Thursday night, September 8^th and the following night we made that 5+ hour drive south to Detroit to play the “I-Rock.”

I do recall Eckerman being in the middle of nowhere and a small town but according to an online search, let me say, I am shocked… the population today is 277.

I recall next to nothing about this gig other than Chris was an ABSOLUTE sweetheart.

I had never to my recollection met any of Madame X previously, other than hanging out with Sebastian Bach a handful of times during their heyday on Atlantic Records.

But yes, Chris was great and the sound system was killing it.

Being a band guy for plenty of years, Chris knew what to do, even on a small level, to make the club-level bands feel at home while going city to city and scraping to get by.

Over this tour we played a bunch of clubs for the 2^nd, 3^rd or 5^th time.

Heck, some of these clubs it may have been our 10^th or 12^th time.

Including “The Mason Jar” in Phoenix which was a home of sorts for the band and I lost count how many times we played “The Jar” as locals called it.

Rob Halford of Judas Priest once stood side-stage at “The Mason Jar” and watched our show.

Afterwards I went up to him and introduced myself, and he was very polite and pleasant.

He also gave me a compliment and said with his British accent: “You have a bit of power there.”

I was thrilled to hear this from the Meal God himself and no he didn’t hit on me for those wondering.

Rob was nothing but a gentleman to me, and I’ve been a fan forever.

But that was in the late 80’s, so let’s get back to 1994 and the “Fist First” tour…

Other clubs we played as a re-peat were; “The Backroom” in Austin, “T.A. Verns” in Milwaukee, “The Lone Star” in Kansas City, “The Mirage” in Minneapolis, “The Al Rosa Villa” in Columbus, “Studio 1” in Newark and “The Thirsty Whale” in Chicago.

But like all tours, there were plenty of new places too.

Like “Cruiser’s” night-club in North Webster Indiana.

I liked this place from the moment I walked in the door.

No, it wasn’t big, the stage was weird, and the ceiling was low.

Oh, and the P.A. sucked balls too.

But, it was a Strip Club and Rock Club all in one.

It was actually “Cruise’s Night Club” and “The Penthouse” all under one roof.

That’s right… before, after and even during our set, there were half-naked girls stripping on these little side-stages.

And, their promo they made for the show had me laughing my ass off too.

In a nutshell their advertisement pretty much Sludge’d us.

Their slogan read: ‘Featuring the Worst Bands and the Ugliest Dancers in the Midwest!’

I was instantly a fan of this place.

Also, in the advertisement they ran for our show, they unloaded on us like no other club ever did.

Under our photo it read: “Only the 3^rd Most Requested Video on MTV. Previously the Largest Unsigned Band in the World. Someone Took Pity on Them and Signed Them!

The owner was cool as F#@k and treated us great.

And then, one of the so-called Ugly dancers pulled up as we were loading in.

Hello Heaven!

That’s right, and her name was Heaven.

This sexy girl was the furthest thing from Ugly, but rather, stunning and drop dead gorgeous.

I immediately made my way over to her, and she and I became fast friends.

I want to say there may have been a boy-friend or ex-boy-friend somehow in the mix, but that didn’t stop me.

Heaven and Rachelle from Hell, well… let’s just say it all worked out.

Thanks to modern technology, many years later, thanks to Facebook, Heaven and I reconnected.

Hi Heaven, hope all is well in your world.

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THE REAL ROAD WORK ON THE D-LIST


Over the years it’s amazing to see how various bands, locally, regionally and otherwise tour.

It’s also interesting to see how various individuals hold up when the going gets tough.

Not just the band members, but the roadies too.

The biggest lie is, “They have it better than us”, which in some ways proves true.

But in other ways, as I used previously, ‘The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” and this holds true in rock n’ roll as well.

Keith and I once totaled the number of miles we drove on a tour, and averaged out the daily drive.

It was 275 miles per day, for like 2 months.

To put this into perspective, I am going to note a few relatable examples.

Los Angeles to Las Vegas is 270 miles, or about a 4 ½ hour drive. Add a stop or two… and it’s more like 5-6 hours easy if you hit traffic.

Dallas Texas to Tulsa Oklahoma is just shy of 260 miles.

Atlanta to Nashville is roughly 250 miles apart and the same applies for the drive from Baltimore to Pittsburgh.

My point is this…

On the Tuff “Fist First” tour, we left on August 18^th and returned home in mid October.

Door to door, it looks like we were gone for 58 days and played 36 shows from coast to coast.

That is 8 weeks and 2 days, and we played 5 shows per week on average.

Over the tour, there are 4 shows in a row, 5 in row, a day or two off, and then 4 or 5 more in a row.

Even on an off day, many times this is a day to bridge a bigger gap between shows.

Example, after finishing up 11 shows on the East Coast, we played in Newark New Jersey on Sunday September 25^th, and our next show was on Wednesday September 28^th in Green Bay Wisconsin.

That drive is 985 miles, or roughly 15 hours and change.

We then had another run of shows in the Midwest, and had 2 off days, to make that drive.

Of course the word “off” implies not working, but driving 500 miles in a day, well… that’s work for sure.

On a drive like this, we would have slept in New Jersey on the Sunday night, then on that Monday morning, ate breakfast, filled the gas tank and started West on the 80 Freeway.

The map says Cleveland is about the halfway mark at 453 miles, so we would have likely drove just over the Ohio border and looked for a Motel 6 chain or similar on the outskirts of town.

It was always cheaper to get rooms in nowheresville, as opposed to closer to the bigger cities.

Then that night, we would have gone to eat, maybe something a little fancier, like an Outback Steakhouse.

Some might laugh at that, but when you have 8-10 guys on the road, there is a lot of fast food, rock club pizza or burgers, so yeah; Outback Steakhouse was up a few notches.

Then on Tuesday, we repeat what happened on Monday. Wake up, eat breakfast, fill the tank and start driving the remaining 500 miles to Green Bay.

We would have pulled into Green Bay in the evening, checked into the local cheap motel chain and called it a night.

Now when we wake up on Wednesday, we’re already in Green Bay and can relax most of the day until we have to head to the club for load-in around 3:30-4:00pm.

Now… going back to the 58 days, 36 shows, and the daily drive of 275 miles on average.Imagine this…

You and your family have gone on vacation, right?

Maybe with a girlfriend, or wife, perhaps kids, 2 or 3, and maybe you bring your Mother in-law as well.

Let’s think there are 5 or 6 in your traveling party.

If you have went camping, to Disney, to an airport or a summer resort for a week, then you know the stress that comes with rounding up an entire family for a vacation or trip like this.

Imagine if it was 7 or 8 people, or 10+, instead of 5 or 6. Essentially double your party.

Now multiply that 1 week vacation, by 8.

That’s right, not a week, or even a month, but 2 months, straight on the road.

Not 1 or 2 Motel rooms for 5 or 6 nights, but 3-4 or 5 rooms, for 58 nights.

But, it’s NOT all in the same city… nope, it’s a different city, almost every day.

And get this, not only a different city, but often, a different state and changing weather.

Families go to Disneyworld in Florida for a week, and stay in the same rooms or hotel the whole trip.

Remember the dreaded airport check-ins with your kids or Grandma with her walker?

Imagine pulling into an airport with 7 or 8 people, or a dozen.

Adding in all of that luggage, personal bags and back-packs.

Now let’s add 2-3 guitars, a couple of basses, a cymbal case, a snare drum and a few huge bags or boxes of random merchandise and products for sale at the shows.

Flashback: I recall flying to the U.K. in 1991, and it was just the band (4) and our road manager. But with guitars, basses, etc… we had over 20 pieces of luggage and bags to carry.

Do that math!

5 people, can only carry 2 at a time, right, maybe 3… well, moving 5 people from the van at the curb with 20+ bags to check-in was a nightmare alone and we weren’t even through security yet.

What we did, was had 3 of us move the bags, while 1 of us started checking us in, and the other person stood guard over bags on either end.

Now let’s go back to 1994 and talk about that 275 miles per day.

Imagine this… on Thursday August 18^th, you load a Ryder truck with your buddies, and after it’s full, you drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Then upon arriving, you unload that truck, set up, play a show, and post show, tear it all down, put it back in the truck and head to a random Motel to sleep for the night.

The next morning, on August 19^th, you drive that same truck back to Los Angeles, unload it into a club, set up, play a show, then tear it down, load the truck again and go to a random Motel to sleep.

On the morning of August 20^th, you then drive back to Las Vegas, that same 275 miles, which takes about 5-6 hours, and upon arrival, you unload that gear, set up, perform, tear down, and reload the truck again, then to the motel to go to sleep.

Can you guess what you have to do on the next morning, of August 21^st and every morning there-after, until the middle of October?

Talk about Ground Hog’s day!

Now putting those other city to city travel times, depending on where you live, one might make more sense for you.

Dallas Texas to Tulsa Oklahoma  or Atlanta to Nashville, or Baltimore to Pittsburgh.

Imagine making one of those drives, every single day, for 2 months straight.

People complain about traffic or driving to work in rush-hour.

“OMG, it took me 45 minutes to get home today!” and so it goes, we’ve seen this endlessly online.

In short, our drive to work every day was 275 miles or about 6 hours.

Of course some days it was only 90 miles, but then again, some days it was 500 miles and it took 12 hours.

And this is just 1 tour leg of a tour, not the entire year.

Now for the kicker…

We were not in a tour bus, or a motor-home or flying between cities either.

Of course there were tours in 1988, 89, 90 or 91 when we were in a tour bus.

However, it’s 1994 and for the last several years, all of our tours were done in Vans or Ryder Trucks.

After you get in the van, as Henry Rollins once said, it will help separate the men from the boys.

There are no guarantees in life, and there are none in rock n’ roll either.

It’s not guaranteed it will be all roses and unicorns and happy faces.

Respect to all who have done the real work and to the rest… you have no idea.

———————————————-

NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP!


For several of these tours I came up with an idea after we toured with Cherry St. in 1993.

They had some beat-up truck, and in the back, they had this make-shift bunk bed for a few of the guys to sleep on.

I thought it was genius, but, their version was half-assed at best.

So as we prepared for the “Fist First” tour I asked Jimi if he could build some bunk-beds for a Ryder truck.

Jimi as I noted earlier is a carpenter by trade and had serious skills with tools in general.

Traveling from city to city is hard enough as it is, but sorting the vehicle or vehicles is also part of that problem.

We had done a mini-van for the band and an equipment truck for the crew many times.

But that entails 2 separate vehicles, two different rental agreements, twice the gas, twice the tolls and double the parking spaces.

At some point Ryder was renting these 16’ trucks with the double cab for extra passengers behind the front passenger and driver.

In short, this vehicle could seat a minimum of 4 people, and 5 if someone jumped in the middle.

By this time we usually had our touring party of 7 people…  plus my dog Orphan.

There were four band members, two road-crew and my cousin Keith acted as tour manager and merchandiser.

As for rooms, we usually did 3 motel rooms, Jamie and I, Jorge and Jimi, and then the crew would get 1 room as well.

On these Ryder trucks, they had that door behind the front cab that slid open, to make entry into the back (box) of the truck.

Also, they had what they call the mother’s attic, the space above the cab that was only accessible from inside the back of the truck.

My idea was, build 2 sets of triple level bunk-beds, 1 for either side, and these would sleep 6 people if needed.

Then I would take that mother’s attic, space over the cab of the truck.

I talked to Jimi about this, and we made a plan.

We called Ryder Truck in Northridge and asked if we could come down and measure the inside of their trucks, as we were going to rent one and needed to know exact width, depth and height inside the box.

They agreed, and Jimi grabbed a tape measure, a pen and paper.

I told Jimi, we needed to make sure we could fit these bunks, which needed to be built sturdy enough to stand on their own, and we would then load them in first, almost like 2 large wooden boxes, on the left and right hand side of the truck bed (box).

These bunks had to be big enough for us to fit, length and height and also once they were pushed into place, the gear would all pack in behind these bunks.

The inside of the truck was just over 6’ feet high (tall) and the width was about 8’ wide and the depth was about 16’, not including the over-hang which was a little bigger than a queen-size mattress.

Following me?

That’s right, the first thing that went into the truck, was a queen-sized bed mattress, along with my pillows and comforter.

This was my bedroom, and there was enough space on the end, to store some boxes of CDs, T-shirts and random duffel bags.

WARNING to younger bands on tour… do not try this or do this. It can be very dangerous as well. And yes, as an older man, looking back 30 years ago, I realize the danger of touring like this, and for me, I was in the most danger. Had we ever had an accident, and the truck flipped over, we could have very easily been trapped inside the back of that truck. Adding, if there was a fire, it would have been game over.

Now the 2 sets of bunks, would be built to be 6’ long, about 30” wide, and the lowest bunk was just off the floor by about 6-8”, as the base of these were built with 4”x4”s.

The middle bunk was about 2 ½ feet above the bottom, and the top was the same above the middle.

Then the person on the top bunk, had about 2 feet above him before the ceiling of the truck.

Once home with the actual measurements of the inside of a Ryder twin-cab truck, Jimi and I used our home car-port as the dummy model.

Basically we chalked out lines on the floor, for the exact depth (length) and width of the inside of that back box of the Ryder truck.

Jimi being the master-carpenter,  he also noted everything down to the ¼ inch, including the overhead light (dome) that hung down 2 inches from the middle center of the box.

To replicate the height of the inside of the cab, we simply measured up on the wall, and made a chalk line on the wall inside the car-port the same.

Now as we stood in the middle of our empty carport, we were surrounded by chalk lines noting width, depth and height that we had to work with.

We immediately chalked off 2 long rectangular squares which would note the space where the 2 bunk-beds would be placed.

These were 6’ in length, 30” in width and about 6’ feet tall.

There was about 18-24” in width, between the 2 sets of bunks, essentially a space like a walk-way that also was perfect to set the coolers in-between.

Now behind those chalk marks for the bunk-beds we had an amount of space that was now going to be where we would put the gear.

Most of which was actually stored, at the house and in the car port when not in a lock-out rehearsal space.

We could now freely wheel road-cases onto the car-port floor, and act as if we were standing inside the back of a Ryder truck.

We knew exactly how much of an area we had to work with, so one by one, we put this Ampeg cabinet here this road case there and Jorge’s Marshall 4/12 cabinets here or there.

Give or take an hour, and we had a perfect stack of amps and cases, with some space left over on top for luggage, suit cases and so on.

And like anyone who ever spent any amount of time on the road, with a band or loading a truck, once you have the pack sorted, it ALWAYS has to go back in the exact same way.

It’s like a Rubik’s cube.

There is really only one way that it fits together perfectly, and you have to follow that same pattern each time, or, you will suddenly be sitting there with 1 case that does not fit.

With those measurements, Jimi sat at the kitchen table one night and drew out specs for bunk-beds, and asked me: “How do these look?”

Me: “Perfect”, go buy the wood.

Jimi then went to a Home Depot, walked around, priced all the materials and came back to the house.

I don’t recall the number, but guessing it was in the $300-$400 range, and I gave him the money.

At some point Jimi got out his tools and tape measure and spent a few days in that same car-port building our 2 triple bunk-beds.

After they were fully built, each bunk bed was set in place, over the chalk lines.

Then we grabbed the road cases and amps and set them behind those bunks, and inside the remaining chalk lines.

All of it fit like a glove and when the tour is ready, and we go rent that truck, it will be a piece of cake load to put them into place, like that Rubik’s Cube puzzle.

For the record, when that day came, it was smooth as silk, and a perfect fit!

The bunks, road cases and all amps were loaded in with 15-20 minutes, and it was a clean look too.

Now whoever was going on tour, of course band first, each guy picked his bunk.

“I got the bottom left” said Jorge, and then Jamie, Jimi and Keith claimed their bunks too.

Each guy then was responsible, to sort a lawn-chair mattress, pillows and blankets for his bunk.

Now the guys started decorating as well, as this was their space to make it like home.

Some guys put a little mirror, a few of us added a cup holder for soda or water, and of course pictures of naked women.

Ready, set, tour!

————————————————————-

IT’S HOT IN HERE & FREEZING TOO


While on these tours, with these well crafted bunk-beds, let me explain some more about this process.

So, what happens in the middle of summer, when it’s 95 out and humid as F#@k?

Or, in the dead of winter, and it’s below freezing… won’t we freeze to death in this truck?

This is rectified with a simple $20.00 collapsible Dryer hose from Home Depot.

We would take a 10-15’ foot collapsible Dryer hose, and duct-tape it to the AC / Heating vent on the middle of the Ryder truck dash, and then with a coat hanger hang it just inside the doorway into the box of the truck.

Now turn on the AC or heat, crank it up, and the hot or cold air is pumped straight back into the back of the truck.

At any point while driving, 2 people can comfortably sit in the front and 2 in the extended-cab behind the driver and passenger. 

Then, the other 3 people would be in their bunks napping, listening to their walkman or looking at porn magazines.

On over-night drives, we always made sure the driver had a co-pilot or 2 and the rest of us would go into the back and sleep.

What if we got pulled over by the Police for speeding or other?

Glad you asked…

Of course riding across the country with bunk-beds in the back of a Ryder truck is absolutely against the law and very dangerous too.

But if the law doesn’t know, then who cares.

At least that is what we thought in 1994.

Again, as noted above… DO NOT DO THIS... I implore younger bands or touring bands, to never do this, as it’s extremely dangerous.

We were pulled over a few times, and in the event that this happened, there was a 2-3 part protocol that was followed.

The driver or front passenger immediately alerts everyone else, “Hey, we’ve got a State Patrol behind us and he just turned on his lights, we’re getting pulled over.”

One of the front or cabin passengers immediately would rip the Dryer hose off the dash, and shove it into the back, and immediately slide that door shut.

So, we’d have the driver, passenger in front, and then 1 or2 guys sitting in those jumper-seats directly behind the driver and co-pilot.

Now that would leave 3 or 4 guys in the back.

Of course we were all laying still as a board, not talking, radios off, and we’d have to wait it out.

On one of the times we were pulled over, the Cop asked the driver to get out, and open the back of the truck.

This was especially risky and scary, however, we had already thought about this in advance too.

The gear was stacked up very high (almost to the ceiling) and packed in like sardines, top to bottom, left to right.

And on top of those last rows of cases and amps, were suit-cases, duffel-bags and back-packs filling in every nook and cranny.

The answers to the Cops were all honest ones.

“We’re in a band… on tour”, “We’re from Los Angeles…” blah, blah, blah.

And in opening the back, the Cop could see sideways stacked amps and road-cases painted with TUFF and LOS ANGELES in big white stenciled letters all over the sides.

“Okay… just slow down… it’s 55 through here…” as the Cop stands behind the truck and a few of us lay silent just feet away from him.

We were issued a few tickets over the years, and the band would always cover these costs and pay them regardless of who was driving.

In truth, I would think it’s safe to say that I myself drove most of the time.

Secondly would have been Jimi around this time period, and depending on who was working as a tech, in order as to who was most or least reliable behind the wheel.

We would try to limit those drivers with less experience and in the end, I liked to drive, and didn’t mind it at all.

As for the safety of this… well, there is no two-ways around that, this is definitely risky, especially if there was an accident.

Luckily for us, that never happened or it’s almost for sure, I would have been the first to die being trapped on the top of that ceiling storage area.

————————————————————-

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, GETS WRITTEN ABOUT IN THE TUFF DIARIES

Sin City is only a few (3-4) hours away from Los Angeles and being from Southern California you’d think that Tuff would have played here much more often, but that was not the case.

Sure we did play Las Vegas over the years, but I’d bet we played Salt Lake City, Oakland, San Francisco and Phoenix way more often, and those places in reality, are further from Los Angeles.

But, over the years, we did hit this desert hot spot on occasion and it was always fun.

Except for that time I let the roadie move the truck and he hit the club owners car!

Ugh…

Yup, you read that right.

So it’s a few weeks after the “Fist First” U.S. Tour ended, and we were already back home, but had a few more dates on the calendar, that were all closer to home like Fullerton (Orange County), Vegas, Fresno and Sacramento.

This last weekend was a 3 day run that started in Las Vegas playing “The Shark Club.”

At some point it’s early, like sound-check and 20 things are happening at once.

I forget who, but 1 of the road-crew tells me, “We have to move the truck” and against my better judgment, I acquiesced and handed him the keys.

No less than 5 minutes later I hear he backed our rental truck into someone’s car in the parking lot.

Turns out, it wasn’t someone’s car but the guy who owned the club, and it was his Cadillac too.

FML!

Everyone is freaking out and I run outside.

There it is, our Ryder truck, backed up against this Cadillac with the back-end all scraped up.

Not exactly the way we wanted to start the 3-day weekend off but such is life.

Of course I am now thinking, “Tonight we’re NOT getting paid… “ and 500 things are running through my head, including “Neither is that roadie getting paid!”

Of course the damage to his Cadillac was more than our $750.00 pay-day for the night, but this is just another day in the life of…

Our 2+ month run of shows was almost over, this was show #38 of 40 for this run… we only had 2 more shows after Vegas and now we’ve thrown yet another monkey wrench into the mix. Ugh.

What’s that old saying: “Two steps forward, one steps back!”

So you wanna be a rock star huh?

Thanks for reading… Stevie


————————————————-

MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR.

People have said to me for years, “You should write a book, I’ll buy it.”

That’s not likely going to happen… not anytime soon at least. But if you are down with my blogs, my band or my various projects – I say thank you.

I have self-released roughly 50 projects on CD. Cassette, VHS, DVD and Vinyl since 1994. All on my own. Without any label support. None.

I have also kept Metal Sludge alive, afloat and online since 1998. For Free. You cannot imagine the workload a website of this magnitude can be.

No Kickstarters, no Go-Fund Me, and no Pay Me now and I’ll make a CD in a year and send it to you later. 
I am also self-managed, self-booked (most of the time) and 100% self reliant. A 1-man gang. 

If you want to support in anyway, buy a CD or Vinyl record from me, or a T-shirt. Or send me something direct via Pay Pal. 

I am not begging. I am not sick and no hospital bill. Nope, just continuing my service to the fans that support my Rock N’ Roll. 

My direct Pay Pal email is Sludgeceo@gmail.com – send a dollar, send ten or send fifty. Send whatever you like, or nothing at all. 

I also accept Venmo using my real name @Steven-Hanseter

Many independent websites have Donate buttons, Metal Sludge has NOW added one, Top Right of this page.

No pressure, but hey, it’s an option if you care to do so. 

Thank you for all your loyal support of my projects.

There is more to come, more blogs and more music too. I have something in the can now it just hasn’t been packaged just yet. 

Thank you again and all of your support is greatly appreciated. 

Stevie Rachelle

———————————————–

TUFF Diaries #1 – #21 are all linked below!

Entry #1  How I Made My Way To California, 31 Years Ago Today  (June 2018) 
Entry #2  My First Meeting With Tuff, “Is That All Your Real Hair?”   (June 2018)
Entry #3  Tuff audition, Jim Gillette screams, a near fist fight & our debut show  (July 2018)
Entry #4  The Metal Years, Famous People, Cocaine, Kiss & Sex with a Miss Gazzarri’s Dancer  (July 2018)
Entry #5  Guns N’ Roses, Del James, 1988, Sound City, Strippers, Crabs & You’re Fired!  (July 2018)
Entry #6  Summer on Sunset, Vinnie’s Invasion, Tracii’s Glue Gun, Vain & Sex by a Dumpster (August 2018)
Entry #7  MTV’s NYE Big Bash, Riki & Taime’s Cathouse & My Girlfriend was a Poster at Spencer’s (August 2018)
Entry #8  Jon Bon Jovi, Sebastian Bach, Rick Rubin, Howie Hubberman, BulletBoys & Gazzarri’s (Sept. 2018)
Entry #9  Summer Tour ’89, Andy McCoy, Def Leftovers, Max the Model, Z-Rock, Tommi Gunn & Lit (Oct. 2018)
Entry #10 G’bye 1989, Jessica Hahn, Skid Row, Martha Quinn, Young Gunns, Flyer War & Cock-Rings (Nov. 2018)
Entry #11 Hello 1990, Texas, Britny Fox Tour, Strippers, Hells Angels and Atlantic Records signs Tuff (March 2019)
Entry #12 Ready to Record, Howard Benson, FM Station, Jani Lane, Court hearing & my 1st Playmate  (June 2019)
Entry #13 Recording Atlantic debut, Bret Michaels, Kane Roberts & Sex is fine, but no sleepovers (Aug. 2019)
Entry #14 New York City, Mixing our Record, Publishing Deal, Video Shoot , Cherry St. & Tigertailz (March 2020)
Entry #15 MTV, The Nelsons, Jason Newsted, U.S. Summer Tour, London & our Stolen Ryder Truck (May 2020)
Entry #16 Lita Ford, Jason Flom, 75+ Shows, Cocaine, a Lawsuit, Sweet F.A. & the Freeway Fight (July 2020)
Entry #17 Hello 1992, Gene Simmons, More Money, Mike Starr, a New Bassist & Jason Flom II(March 2021)
Entry #18WildSide, Dee Snider, Tour Drama, Baywatch, New Label Search and Living in Reseda (Aug. 2021)
Entry #19 Michael Resigns, River Phoenix, Thirsty Whale, He’s Got a Gun, Stolen Van & Danny Quits (Jan. 2022)
Entry #20 1994, Northridge Earthquake, Kurt Cobain, RLS Records, releasing “Fist First” (May 2022)
Entry #21 “Fist First” Tour, Making F#@king Videos, Building Bunk Beds & O.J. Simpson (Dec. 2022)
Entry #22  1994  TBA
Entry #23  1995  TBA
Entry #24  1995  TBA
Entry #25  1995  TBA

TUFF “Fist First” U.S. Tour Summer 1994 August 18, 1994, Phoenix, AZ. “The Mason Jar” August 19, 1994, Albuquerque, NM.”El Rey Theater” August 20, 1994, Clovis, TX. “Kelly’s” August 21, 1994, Lubbock, TX. “Depot” August 24, 1994, Austin, TX. “The Backroom” August 25, 1994, Houston, TX. ”Millennium” August 26, 1994, Oklahoma City, OK. “Samurai Sake House” September 1, 1994, Tulsa, OK. “Windjammer” September 2, 1994, Kansas City, MO. “The Lone Star” September 3, 1994, Milwaukee, WI. “T.A. Verns” September 4, 1994, Ft. Wayne, IN. “Pierre’s” September 7, 1994, Minneapolis, MN. “The Mirage” September 8, 1994, Eckerman, MI. “Tumble Inn” September 9, 1994, Detroit, MI. “I-Rock” September 10, 1994, Cleveland, OH. “Rum Runners” September 11, 1994, Toledo, OH. “Roxanne’s” September 14, 1994, North Webster, IN. “Cruisers” September 15, 1994, North Royalton, OH. “Red Eye Rocker” September 16, 1994, Columbus, OH. “Al Rosa Villa” September 17, 1994, Greensboro, NC. “Cat House” September 18, 1994, Huntington, WV. “Palladium” September 22, 1994, Tioga, PA. “Fred’s Woodshed” September 23, 1994, Pittsburgh, PA.”Backstage” September 24, 1994, Huntington, NY. “The Roxy” September 25, 1994, Newark, NJ. “Studio 1” September 28, 1994, Green Bay, WI. “Studio East” September 30, 1994, Chicago, IL. “Thirsty Whale”  *2 shows October 1, 1994, Chicago, IL. “Thirsty Whale”  *2 shows October 2, 1994, Champaign, IL. “The Silver Bullet” October 6, 1994, Geneva, OH. “The Cove” October 7, 1994, North Webster, IN. “Cruisers” October 8, 1994, North Royalton, OH. “Red Eye Rocker” October 10, 1994, Cleveland, OH. “Cleveland Café” October 12, 1994, Albuquerque, NM. “El Rey Theater” October 21, 1994, Fullerton, CA. “Club 369” October 26, 1994, Las Vegas, NV. “Shark Club” October 28, 1994, Fresno, CA. “Cadillac Club” October 29, 1994, Sacramento, CA. “Boardwalk”