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Altamont, No Age and The Goat Tour Journal

Posted on March 17, 2009

Tuesday, March 10

Day one of the Altamont SXSW Skate Rock Tour kicked off in Phoenix, Arizona. We started the day at Glendale Skatepark before heading over to Cowtown for a team signing with the AZ locs. After the signing, we headed to the Wedge and lit the hubba then rushed to see The Goat and No Age play a cool little DIY punk art space called Modified Arts.

Wednesday, March 11

The next day, we hit up a double set and ended our time in PHX with a midnight trip to the legendary Wave. Thanks to Trent, Tim, Cowtown, Modified Arts and the rest of the AZ heads for the hospitality.

Thursday, March 12

On day three of the tour, it was snowing in Flagstaff when we got to the motel. Luckily for us, No Age and The Goat heated the spot up at Tacos Locos, the taco shop / punk venue that hosted our Flagstaff show.

Friday, March 13

We headed out of snowy Flagstaff early the next morning and hit up the Two Guns pool, which looks a lot easier to skate in the photos than it actually is. This pool is about eight feet deep with four feet of vert...no joke. However, the surreal scenery of this ghost town more than made up for the lack of transition in the pool. We even got to do some amateur spelunking in the nearby abandoned caves. Thanks to Bobby for hooking things up in Flag.

Saturday, March 14

Today, the Altamont convoy trucked around Albuquerque. We kicked off our stay in Alb with a team signing at the Beach Zone for Albuquerque's next generation of amazing skaters. Later that night, No Age and The Goat shredded in an old converted church venue. We were stoked to see J. Lay, Angel, Matt Bennett and some of the Toy Machine homies come out for the show at 1Kind Studio. The TM boys were passing through on their way to Tampa Pro.

Sunday, March 15

Sunday was entirely spent skating Albuquerque spots, of which there are many. Thanks to the Beach Zone, 1Kind, Daniel Lutheran and the rest of the Alb posse for hooking things up. Thanks to everyone who came out for the show and the signing.

Monday, March 16

Our next destination after Albuquerque was Lubbock, Texas, birthplace of Buddy Holly. No Age and The Goat played a ripping show with The Mae Shi at Bash's 2. The next day, we serenaded some locals over breakfast and skated a sweet ditch. Thanks to the Lubbock homies for taking us to their spots.

Thursday, March 19

On Thursday, we cruised into No Comply skate shop in Austin, Texas, where the Altamont team signed autographs before The Goat played a live set on the roof of the shop a la The Beatles, U2, etc. Thanks to Elias, everyone at No Comply and all of the Austin locals for showing up.

Friday, March 20

Our second day in Austin was spent at the massive South by Southwest music festival, which is one of the biggest such events in the United States, with well over 1,000 performers playing dozens of venues around Austin over a four-day period. No Age and The Goat both played ripping sets at Club 1808.

Saturday, March 21

Our final stop of the tour was in San Antonio, Texas for a signing at Goodtimes skate shop. Over 200 kids showed up to meet the Altamont team. We spent the rest of the day hitting up some of the city's spots before heading back to the hotel to rest up for our two-day drive back home to sunny, sweet L.A. Thank you to all of the shops and locals for treating us so well, and to everyone who showed up to the signings and gigs.

View more coverage of this tour at Epicly Later'd, Shake Junt and The Skateboard Mag.

All photos in this article enlarge.