The Blue Mule XONE

For almost 4 years, XONE had the same rehearsal room at The Blue Mule in San Pedro, Ca. Even though it was a rehearsal studio, the Mule was our home away from home. It was more like a clubhouse than somewhere we merely rehearsed twice a week. Some of our best material was written there and when we play those tunes, the memories come back.

I (Will) was one of the first customers the Mule had, so I saw it's entire lifetime. The Mule was our clubhouse. It may have not been the poshest resort in the world, but XONE had the run of the place. Danny Melendrez, the proprietor, treated us like family, and he only ever charged us $20 a week for what amounted to over 10 hours of rehearsal a week. Our friend Don started running the place for Danny in Fall 2003, and we spent many nights up in Don's Tiki Room upstairs, honing our lyrics and song structure. Songs like "Beautiful One Day", Young Man's Destiny", and "The Mastermind" were all written in the Tiki Room. For XONE, a great clubhouse evolves into great inspiration. The Mule afforded us that and more. We remember hanging out with Chuck and Don and watching tapes of "MXC" and having a lot of fun. That place really took away all my stress from raising kids and school. It made life easier. I personally really miss hanging out on the roof in the summers watching the world go by while we took a break from playing. I tell you, we were the richest men in the world!!

Well, the Blue Mule closed in September 2006, and we really miss it in a lot of ways. The camaraderie of bands there can hardly be replaced. We were lucky to move into a new place with our friends E Backwards E and keep that little bit of Mule history alive. We now play at KOOS Rehearsal in San Pedro. It's a nice place with secure parking, 24 hour-7day access, and our friend Jessie is on the staff there. We're glad we landed at KOOS. We wouldn't trade it for anything now, in some strange way, we still miss the Mule...