 Following these initial recordings, Blame Game played small tours and local shows between 2001–2002.Between this time the band began to draw a larger influence from avant-garde performers and bands, such as Captain Beefheart and U.S.Maple, as well as from free jazz performers like Peter Brotzman, Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, shifting the band's sound from hardcore punk, to a more wiry, spastic and “improv” oriented sound.