Ken Stringfellow dot calm

TOUR UPDATES --HOUSTON OFF, MEMPHIS ON

With all the tragic, insane stuff happening in our country, it’s not surprising that a tour that crosses it twice would encounter all kinds of craziness along the way. In light of the situation in the south, as you already know our show in New Orleans that was to have been Sept. 18th was cancelled. We have now rebooked a show for that same date at the Hi Tone in Memphis. Also, our show in Houston on the 16th of September is also cancelled, due to the situation there. Evidently the club has shut itself down until further notice. We won’t be playing anywhere else that night. So…we get to spend an extra night in Austin at Matt’s dad’s! We are still working on shows for Oct. 16th-18th but with all the Hurricane craziness there have been more urgent fires to put out. Note: our show in Baton Rouge on the 17th of Sept. is still on. Can only imagine it will be an intense night.

SAN FRANCISCO, 9/7

Well, we couldn’t have enjoyed the drive any more. Stopping for Hawaiian BBQ somewhere in Oregon, looking at the green mountains around Grant’s Pass…I even had time to watch ‘the Magnificent Seven’ on DVD. Our van is a sweet ride, and Joe Norcio is doing a manly job of driving the rig. I got in a brief snooze. We got into SF a little past midnight. Easy. I stayed in Darius’ sister’s guest house, has a superb breakfast in the morning…bought an Ipod at the Apple store…bought the Vice magazine ‘Fashion Do’s and Don’ts’…heaven. Had a massage from the only MT that gets it done right, Tanya (simply put, she’s the only person strong enough to work out my Posie-inflicted kinks and knots). We got to the club on time. We soundchecked. All seemed well.

And, it was. While I can’t say it was the wildest show of our career (Bumbershoot, just a few days prior, was up there), I can say we played really well. For some reason, audiences at Slim’s always seem a little scared. I don’t know what’s up with that.

Scott Miller danced onstage, Chris Xefos was heckled. No complaints, I merely hope the audience enjoyed it too! I couldn’t tell, but it’s often hard to tell. I know, at many of my favorite shows, if you saw me you might not be able to tell how into it I was. If I am into it, I’m trying to concentrate on every minute, take it all in, and to do that…I pretty much stand stock still. Maybe bounce my head a bit. When I’m on the other side, it’s pretty hard to detect the difference between enraptured and bored. Weird huh? I should know from my own experience but I find it impossible. So, if you want to write and let me know how you liked the Slim’s show, do tell!

HOLLYWOOD, 9/8

Of this show I have no doubt—it was a rocker. Epic set list, LOUD front of house sound, awesome crowd, and lots of friends in the crowd. Can’t do better than that. No complaints! So good I was still tired the next day, and thus fell asleep face down in the driveway of the Roosevelt Hotel.

SAN DIEGO 9/9

Still a little worn out from the Knitting Factory show, I sort of woke up when we were already playing a couple of songs at Lou’s records in Encinitas. We set up and soundchecked and what not at the Casbah. I went and took a nap. Woke up at 11, spent 5 minutes miming to the camera for a White Flag video, and rushed down to the club. Tried to make tequila substitute for a good night’s sleep. It doesn’t, in fact, work. Was so tired when we got to Adam G’s place (thanks buddy!) that I fell asleep, fully clothed and with my jacket on, on the bathroom floor. Pretty comfortable, actually.

TEMPE 9/10

Got our of town and immediately marveled at the landscape that San Diego provides just half an hour out of town. Like mars turning inside out on itself…absurdly shaped hills breaded with giant flat stones, all twisting and breaking like a glacial seizure. Then the desert flattens out, but only after a magnificent descent into the Ocotillo, if I recall the name correctly, Valley. After a while the hot pavement got the best of one of the tires on the trailer. A big chunk of tread came off. Amazingly, the tire held its integrity and we were able to drive, slowly, to El Centro CA and find a U-Haul place. They directed us to a repair shop, out in the hot dusty wind, where we got patched up, played with their puppies and signed a few autographs. It all happened as quickly as possible, but it still set us back enough that we had to cancel our instore at Stinkweeds rec.

Saturday was a big game day in Tempe, with the LSU football game moved to Tempe. Like any big university town on game day, everyone was wearing the same colors and putting lots of Bud on ice. We made it town just in time to visit the Blaze or whatever the university station is called…the supervisor to the students in the broadcasting dept. there is one Leah Collins nee Miller, who has been playing the Posies on college radio since 1988 and has been at many a Posies show around the US over the years. Her students were lots of fun, our interviewer was conducting her first interview with us as the guinea pigs which I thought was very sweet. Played a couple of songs and put a lot of surreal humor out over the airwaves…

At the Last Exit we had fun times, I still think Bumbershoot and Hollywood would be hard to beat from our point of view, but I have to admit there were some awesome diehard fans there—from the bass player of the opening band to a 22-year-old comedienne/documentarian (meaning she eats documents?). Peabody, i.e., the only guy in the building with a rush shirt on, evidently joined us onstage in 1993 to play bass on Flavor of the Month—I didn’t remember the occasion, but I had a lot on my mind evidently back then…hmmm. Anyway, we got him up again and he nailed it. Being that he had a Rush shirt on, when Matt showed him our Rush-influenced merch, he pissed himself!

I had some new underwear on, I had to get those out in public. All of a sudden everybody had to go, which was fine as I was tired and we had a really nice hotel to stay in…with a pool, which I did swim in that night. That feels the best, after a sweaty show, to hop in a pool. Benicassim was great for that. Hard to put a pool on the rider tho’.

Love
KS
Tempe AZ