Reader Info
Advertising, subscriptions, staff, privacy policy, contact info, freelancers' guidelines, etc.




Crickets
A Blog by Reader music writers | RSS | Archive | Search

by Miles Raymer on February 14th 2007 - 8:57 p.m.

Digg! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us | E-mail E-mail to a friend

I've seen bands touring in some pretty unique vehicles. I booked a show once for a band that toured in a converted ambulance, and This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb probably put a couple hundred thousand miles on a rickety-assed old camper-bus conversion with its own kitchenette. But I've never seen anyone pushing a ride as extremely tricked-out as this: a 2005 Ford F-550 Crew Cab Powerstroke converted into a portable stage, complete with amps, a 20,000 watt PA, a lighting rig, and (yes!) a fog machine. Although it's advertised as, "the real deal for instant rock fame," I hadn't heard of Picket Line -- the California emo band that put 12,634 miles on this beast -- until a friend (whose unsuspecting brother found it while browsing eBay for a bass amp) pointed me to this auction, so I'd probably put that down to some overly enthusiastic salesmanship. But given that it only takes 15 seconds to get the stage into rock mode -- you can see it in action towards the end of this video -- there's a lot of potential for musical hilarity. I mean, are you really going to let those picketing construction workers on the corner -- or that family reunion in the park, or the "Nuke All the Arabs" protesters downtown -- go through life without being ambushed by an extremely loud, fast, and obnoxious recreation of the Butthole Surfers' PCPEP? Don't you think they deserve it? The bidding for making their most unwished-for experience come to life starts at $100,000.

Images:


 
Comments
(please read our policy)
Josh H.
February 14th - 11:17 p.m.
Any emo kid with a decent trust fund could pull this off. For my money, nothing beats Peter and the Wolf, Jana Hunter and Castanets touring the East Coast last year via boat. Docking at cities and rocking out in the ports. That is how vikings used to get down. Vikings, dude.
whetstone
February 15th - 1:04 p.m.
Actually, this seems like the least emo thing in the world. Maybe it's screamo? Or aggro? Probably just kitsch, but the good kind.
htapes
February 15th - 6:09 p.m.
OH man.....I NEEEEED this...
can you imagine Rhys Chatham or Oren Ambarchi or some other like-minded artist blasting drone across the countryside in this thing...

DANG!
Wilcox
February 16th - noon
Was the band in the converted ambulance the Murder City Devils? They did their first couple tours in one that was used in Cannonball Run.



The Crickets blogroll
Recently updated blogs are in bold text.

©1996-2009 Creative Loafing Media All Rights Reserved.   We welcome your comments and suggestions.