Show notes
Craig Behrhorst joins me on this update from the Handsome Dick Manitoba Tour I’m lazy so I let AI do the show notes: An introduction from Oakland sets the stage for a lively discussion about the latest tour. The host shares that this is the earliest podcast recording to date, reflecting on the busy schedule of six or seven shows. A recap of the first show at the Stork Club in Oakland reveals a mix of excitement and nerves, especially with multiple events happening that night. The audience’s positive reception eases the tension, although the host admits to a brief meltdown at the start. The first night of the tour is deemed a success. Chapters:00:00:04 – Introduction from San Francisco00:00:58 – Tour Announcement00:02:04 – Arrival Story00:03:30 – Performance Anxiety00:04:11 – Audience Reception00:06:06 – Personal Struggles00:08:35 – Tour Reflection00:09:32 – Invitation to Fans00:10:19 – Closing Remarks ?Donate on Venmo @Michael-Butler-11 Ralph Miller – $97 Cheap Trick Beer and Cocktails Let’s hope its not for crying in your beerJohn Morgan – $50Kirk Crawford – $50Dan Gerawan. -$50Gregg Brofer – $20Richard Fusey $12Todd Cunningham – $10Steven Cohen – $5Danny Borden – $5Bruce McMillan – $3 (Venmo donation id is @Michael-Butler-11) PATREON DONORS Joe Pawlak – $16.66Kirk Crawford – $12.77Patrick Shanahan – $10Brian Springer – $8?Jon Scott – $8Michael Street – $7.50Dave Slusher – $5.55Robert Harvey – $5Chiaki Hinohara – $5 MedakiMetal on InstagramMike Dixon – $10Jamie Jefford – $5Erik Klein – $5Paul Smith – $5Justin Lefkowitz – $5Steve Trice – $5James Shapiro – $5Martin Clawley – $5Nadi Itani – $5Eric Stowell – $4Mike Hellyer – 4 poundsAdrian Boschan – $2Amelia Bowen – $2RnR Pleeb – $1.423Legs4wheels – $1Arne Stach – $1 Paypal Donors Richard Strom – $20Dave Franco – $20Steven Laperriere – $20William Bealle – $10Jason Shepherd $10Bradley Lisko – $10Ralph Miller – $10Jeff and Cheri Thieleke – $10School of Podcasting – $10Christopher Del Grande – $5Jayce Lesniewski – $5Benjamin Mueller – $5John Ofenloch – $5Vinent Crimi – $5Jon Tennis – $Jon Tennis – $5Gregg Long – $5Rachel Rosenberg – $5Adam Croft – $2Deborah Dreyfus – $2Kai Matsuda – $2Brian Grattidge – $2William Moffett-$2Lasse Satvedthagen – $2Chad Kiffmeyer – $2Dave Alexander – $2 Hdmwest-1 00:00:05From San Francisco, California, this is the Rock and Roll Geek Show. This is the story of my rock and roll butler. Welcome to the Rock and Roll Geek Show. 00:00:22My name is Michael Butler. Thanks a lot for joining me. I really appreciate it. 00:00:25Today is Sunday, October 4th, 2026 and it is the earliest time I’ve ever done a podcast. I think it’s 11.35 in the morning. 00:00:38Too early to drink beer so I’m drinking a fine water. I’m here with Craig, guitar player from Manitoba and the Butler’s House. What are you drinking, Craig? 00:00:47I’m having coffee. There you go. We’re hardcore. 00:00:50I’ll wait to drink beer after sundown. I drank a little too much last night. It was the first show of our big Manitoba tour. 00:00:59We’re doing like six or seven shows, something like that. Mmm. Oh, that’s good water. 00:01:07First one was last night in Oakland, California at a place called the Stork Club. We got there. We went to load in yesterday. It’s in a really good part of Oakland and there was this guy walking down the street 00:01:24yelling at the air, cursing, wanting to fight anybody that got in his way. We had the guitars in the back. I had Undisclosed Raquel in the car. 00:01:36This guy was running back and forth, wanting to fight anybody. We’re the … Let’s just say we were a little bit out of place. 00:01:45We didn’t fit in with the rest of the crowd. There was another big dude saying, come on, come on, let’s go, let’s go around the corner and fight. The guy’s going, I’ll beat your ass, motherfucker, I’ll kill you, but he wouldn’t follow the guy around the corner. We’re waiting for the smoke to clear before we go get our gear out of the car and walk 00:02:03into the club. We made it in alive. Fairly normal behavior for that area, except it was a little bit elevated because it was crazy from the heat. 00:02:16It’s abnormally … It’s unseasonably hot here in Oakland. Yesterday was a high of 93, and it gets 93 in Oakland, everybody just like, oh my God. 00:02:25They’re going crazy. I think that had something to do with it. These two guys, man, one guy was short, but just stocky, built like a brick, man. He had his shirt off, he was pacing back and forth like a panther, and then this other 00:02:42guy came around the corner. He was huge, man. You would have killed that dude. 00:02:46Oh, I don’t know, dude. You never know. I know. 00:02:48The guy could have been holding a gun or something. It would have been a good fight, man, but they were all barking no bite, though. I did not want to … Those are the kind of guys you don’t want to be in their line of 00:02:59sight because you’re the next target. I was walking down Market Street one time, or not Market Street, Van Ness in San Francisco several years ago, and there was a guy yelling at the air, waving a fucking knife, and he was like five feet away from me. You get in someone like that view, and they swing that knife, and it’s over, friend. 00:03:19We didn’t want to do that, so we waited until the smoke … We waited until he got down the street cursing at the air, then we got our shit, crossed the street. We played at this place called the Stork Club. 00:03:30I was a little nervous because there was a lot of shows happening yesterday. There was a big punk show at Mabuhay Gardens with American Heartbreak’s original drummer Eric Lannan. His band was called Touch Me Hooker and a bunch of other bands. 00:03:43Danny Elfman was doing his punk rock show at the Masonic, which I heard is really good. A lot of people went up to the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, too. That and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was happening, which is a big free concert in Golden Gate Park. I was worried that nobody was going to be there, and we had a lot of people that were planning on coming, and then we started getting, oh, I’m sorry, I’m not going to make it, and 00:04:07this and that. So, I’m getting a little bit nervous, and … Good turnout. 00:04:13Turned out to be a good turnout. The Bondstones, our friends at Bondstones played with us, and this other band called … Fuzz Attack. Fuzz Attack, which had a guy I knew named Thor from Flex Bronco, who we’ve all played 00:04:26gigs with before, Flex Bronco, staples of the scene out here. Good lineup. Yeah, all three bands were great. 00:04:36Manitoba, I’ve got to tell you, man, I have never seen … He was in dictator’s form. The last tour we did, the guy could barely walk. I thought the guy was never going to be able to play again, but he came loaded for bear 00:04:53this time. He had been eating, and he seems to be doing pretty good. Yeah, man, he put in the work, too. 00:04:58He learned the lyrics to Deluise. We were finally able to play that one, and we got all the way through that. He wanted to open up with a Tom Waits song, kind of do the version that was in his head of a Tom Waits song. 00:05:13We rocked it up, and we opened up with that. The song’s called Going Out West. Worked out pretty well. 00:05:19What do you think? I thought it was good. I think it’s a good opener. 00:05:21I was a little bit worried. We rehearsed it, and I was enjoying the way it was coming out when we were rehearsing it. I think it went over pretty good. It’s good because it has a slow build, and it kind of tells people in the audience, hey, 00:05:34the band’s coming on. Come out from the other room, and get in here and watch the band. It was a good turnout. 00:05:39The place was, I’m not going to say packed, but it was full. There’s three rooms in that place, and every room had a lot of people in it, but they all came in to watch Manitoba. They were very enthusiastic. 00:05:51We saw a lot of Dictator shirts, a lot of girls, which is a good thing. My friend Cheryl was there. Raquel was, undisclosed, Raquel was doing merch, and according to her reports, merch sales were good. 00:06:04It was a good turnout, and everybody got along so far. I had a little bit of a meltdown at the beginning. Me and Craig, during sound check, had a little bit of a, you know, the nerves get going, and you start being a little bit of an asshole, and I was probably, you know, whatever. 00:06:19I was nervous about the crowd and other things like that, but I’m working on it, friends. I’m working on it. I’m trying to work out the issue. 00:06:29Yeah, here we are. Still here. He didn’t throw me out of his house. 00:06:32Raquel and I are staying with Craig until tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’re driving to Oceanside, which is just outside of San Diego, I think. The second show is on Tuesday, so we’re going to get the van and rent the van and drive to Oceanside. 00:06:49We’ll be at the Haught Inn in Oceanside, if anybody’s in Oceanside. Come say hi. We’ll have a beer in the hotel room, friends. 00:06:55Going back to last night, though, it was very much an Oakland crowd. People knew the music, you know, people were into the music, and it got pretty rowdy at the end, man. I mean, when we wanted to kick out the jams and California Sun, people were thrashing about. 00:07:11Yeah, it was great. It was very Oakland in that sense. Everybody was positive. 00:07:17Everybody was having a good time. Even the girls were thrashing around in the front, singing along to all the songs. It was a good time. 00:07:26All the hits were played. Not all of them, but a lot of the hits were played, and like Craig said, some new ones. Manitoba certainly expressed his love for the Oakland Raiders last night. 00:07:37Fuck LA! They ate the LA Raiders, and fuck Las Vegas! He kept the story short, but towards the end of the set, he started getting a little bit cocky with the stories and going a little long. He was trying to tell long jokes, and some of them didn’t go over, so maybe he’ll realize 00:07:55that and keep the story short. I’m not going to bug him about it, because that creates tension, so we’re going to let him roll. All in all, I think Manitoba did a great job, and I was really happy with his performance. 00:08:06You could tell he was happy. After the show, he always comes to the merch booth, and he signs shit. It was a long line, and the line stayed pretty long for a good 30-45 minutes after we finished. 00:08:20Ralph Miller, a friend of the show, was there last night. Todd Cunningham, a friend of the show and a friend of mine, was there. We had some beers next door at a place called Beer Land. My friend Mick Punk, who I’ve known for a long time, he’s friends with Arturo Vega, 00:08:35he was there. So it was a good time, a good first night of the tour. Was that Ralph Miller’s first Manitoba show? Yes, he missed it last time, and he didn’t know what to expect because of all the updates 00:08:48that I’ve been doing on all the tours. Some of them, I’ve been honest, so he didn’t know what to expect, but he was pleasantly surprised, he said. My nickname for you, Ralph, is Concert Goer. 00:08:59That son of a bitch goes to every show. He went to Padbenatar, next night he goes to Leonard Skinner, next night he goes to see Manitoba. I don’t know where he’s going tonight, but I’m sure he’s going somewhere. 00:09:12Concert Goer. He’s a rock fan. You’ve got to love Ralph Miller. 00:09:15Good to see you, Ralph. And thank you for the donation, for the airfare donation, Ralph, I really appreciate it. It was great to see Todd Cunningham, he made the trip by himself. 00:09:24If you were there, thank you for coming. If you want to come to Oceanside, hit me up, friend, if you’re down there in the San Diego area, I’ll put you on the list. And Wednesday’s Hollywood. At a place called Gold Diggers, and Danny Borden, shitty dude, friend of the show, said 00:09:43that there’s street walkers that come into that place. Street hookers hang out in that bar. You know what we call them? 00:09:50Gold Diggers. There you go. There you go, I didn’t even put two and two together. 00:09:54We’ll see, I’ll give you a street hooker, maybe we’ll get a street hooker onto the show. See if I can get one of those interviews. I’m sure Raquel will love that. 00:10:03All right, friends, that’s a little update from the first day. Maybe I’ll do one tomorrow, we’ll see, but we’re going to be driving, so I don’t know if I will or not. I’ll get Manitoba on as well. 00:10:15We’ll see where it takes us, friends. Thank you for listening, I really appreciate it. We’re going to close out with a Tom Waits song, the one we opened with. We’re going to do a Tom Waits version because we never recorded it, so you’ll get an idea 00:10:28of the song and you’ll have to come out to see how we do it. It’s pretty, pretty good, I think. It’s rockin’. 00:10:35Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Thank you for listening, friends, rockandrollgeek.com. 00:10:40Thanks Craig for coming on, I appreciate it. Thanks for letting us crash here, too. My pleasure, Bubba. 00:10:44He’s been very hospitable. Pam, his wife. How many stars are you going to give this Airbnb? 00:10:50It’s five. It’s a super host. Super host. And his wife, Pam, made a great cassoulet, and cassoulet is one of my favorite dishes, and I pretty much single-handedly ate the whole thing, so thanks, Pam, for making the great cassoulet, and thanks, Raquel, for tagging along and being the wonderful person that 00:11:12you are. All right, friends. Thanks for listening. 00:11:14rockandrollgeek.com is where you can find the show. Handsome Dick Manitoba for the tour dates. 00:11:20Find us on the Instagram, rockandrollgeek, don’t ask. Craig is… What’s your Instagram, Craig? 00:11:26My name, Craig Bearhorse. Craig Bearhorse. B-E-H-R-S… 00:11:30No. Come on, now. B-E-H-R-H-O-R-S-T. 00:11:38Gold star. There you go, friends. And Raquel… 00:11:43I’m not going to say her Instagram name. You know her, friends. All right. 00:11:48I’ll talk to you soon. Here is Tom Waits going out west. Stay frosty. 00:11:55Where is this? I’ve got to find it here. Here we go. 00:12:58I ain’t no extra man, I’m a leader man Let my parole officer be proud of me 00:13:10I ain’t no extra man, I’m a leader man Let my parole officer be proud of me 00:14:07I ain’t no extra man, I’m a leader man Let my parole officer be proud of me 00:14:23I ain’t no extra man, I’m a leader man Let my parole officer be proud of me 00:14:42I ain’t no extra man, I’m a leader man Let my parole officer be proud of me I ain’t no extra man, I’m a leader man Let my parole officer be proud of meThe post Handsome Dick Manitoba 2026 California Tour Kickoff first appeared on The Rock and Roll Geek Show.
Full show notes at the publisher 
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
