Driving an old ice cream truck out to the desert can be a dodgy prospect. To alleviate the danger of overheating under the blistering desert sun, one must leave early in the morning. So, although I didn’t need to be in Pioneertown for the fourth annual Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven Campout until late afternoon, I ended up getting into town by nine in the morning.
Since I had ample time to use up before anything was to be done, I started the day by getting breakfast at Crossroads Cafe, a staple of the Ice Cream Crew anytime we’re in the Joshua Tree area. I brought in some ice cream and despite the early hour, the owner gave away a bunch to the neighboring businesses.
After a few more errands (I was able to check into my motel, but the room hadn’t been cleaned yet, so I had to wait a few hours to go in) I finally made my way up to Pioneertown. With still plenty of time to kill, I mostly relaxed. A few of the campers and townsfolk were out and about already and so I got them some ice cream.
The action started at 6:45 with Quasi. (Bands played Thursday night, but I couldn’t make it out until Friday) Unfortunately, due to traffic, Crash couldn’t make it out in time to shoot them. Quasi was probably my most anticipated act of the weekend, since I had never seen them live. Since Built to Spill would be playing Perfect From Now On and CVB was to to play Key Lime Pie I was really hoping Quasi would play Featuring Birds or Field Studies but, alas, that was not the case. They did put on a pretty great show though and got the fest off to a great start.
Crash showed up at the end of Quasi’s set and I had noticed earlier that the Pioneer Bowl looked to be open, which had never happened any other time I’d been in town, so we made a calculated decision to go bowl a game and then try and catch CVB’s set. It was a little like walking into a Twilight Zone episode, I half expected the place to disappear when we left. With all the hubbub going on over at Pappy & Harriet’s, there was only one family in the place. I ordered a beer and we wandered around a bit. The place was full of vintage (although apparently non-operational) pinball games and an old baseball game. After getting our shoes, we headed over to play a game. The first thing I noticed was the balls and lanes covered in dust. Somehow this lent to the authenticity of the lanes. Apparently, they’re the longest running wooden lanes in the USA. Once I destroyed Crash on the lanes, we headed back over to check out Camper.
Luckily, we didn’t end up missing much of CVB. I got there just in time to hear “When I Win the Lottery” and thought it was such a weird moment watching a bunch of people in a high desert biker bar singing along to lyrics like “I never called myself a hero for killing a known Communist.” Betwen this time and last year, Camper Van Beethoven has become one of my favorite live bands.
The headliner for the night was Built to Spill, which seemed odd to me since it was a Cracker/CVB fest. This held up as it seemed there was about a hundred fewer people for BTS as there were for CVB. It was a rare delight to get to see BTS with just a few hundred people in an outdoor setting.
Tired after a long day, we headed back to the motel after the show, not sticking around for the late night festivities of the night, which I’m sure were a blast.
I got the good fortune of being able to sleep in a bit on Saturday, since I didn’t have to get there too early and had to wait for Danielle to roll into town to give me a ride up the hill. By the time I got out to get breakfast Crossroads was on to serving lunch, so I headed across the street to Country Kitchen which proved to be surprisingly delightful.
The day really began with the signing party. I was able to pull Bessie up by the back porch of Pappy’s and got ice cream out to a bunch of people waiting in line to get their gear signed. Citay didn’t start until 7pm on the outside stage, so we got some dinner inside beforehand. We headed back out to the truck and got to handing out ice cream and actually ended up missing both Citay and Brant Bjork and the Bros.
Determined to check out Cracker, I loaded up a cooler full of ice cream and headed in to spread joy and watch the band. Almost everybody there was freaking out. I thought how great it must feel for a band to have such a devoted following. They put on a very energetic set (guitarist Johnny Hickman seemed like he was making love to his guitar on stage – in a borderline creepy way) and naturally thrilled the crowd. Again, afterwards I was pretty worn out, so I took off back to the motel while Crash stuck around to get some shots of the after show “porchstock.”
Maybe next year, I’ll have a little more energy to make it through the whole night.
Thanks to Velena and David for having us out again, Blue Bunny for donating the ice cream (which Pioneer Bowl also served), and of course Pappy & Harriet’s and the good people of Pioneertown.
