DETROIT 10/4
We bade farewell to Canada but not without listening to plenty of Rush (guess what’s on the stereo now, as we drive out of Minnesota, which is essentially a fat capitalist lost limb of Canada). Said hello to the US, with a friendly stop at the US border patrol at the Ambassador Bridge. They didn’t find any reason not to let us enter (or to let us enter in shackles) so we proceeded via a hilarious series of curb jumps, U Turns etc. to the Magic Stick, which is part of a huge complex of venues, restaurants, and a bowling alley (used to be two)—basically a mall from 1915. Jon & I had do an instore about 500 miles away in Ferndale, which we did, and luckily, got a ride back to the club from some fans from Kalamazoo…saw Leslie, former Seattle muso, i.e. Juned and other bands…she’s always been a favorite, friendly face to see. Sellin’ real estate in Michigan, she is! Still punk in my book.
Jon’s in-laws were at the gig, and patiently waited for us to conclude, load out, wolf down some cheese chili dog’s at Lafayette afterwards (they had one each) and lead us up to their hood, near Port Huron, where they got us hotel rooms—birthday present for Jon. Thanks folks!
COLUMBUS 10/5
Teat jerker of the tour…a lovely young couple were engaged onstage prior to our set…the young man, a local musician, got onstage and read a little speech, citing the fact that among many others, his gal having a copy of FOTB in her collection was a sign that compatibility was a high probability…of course we made ‘em get up and slow dance during ‘Beautiful One’ later, and had a few shots in their honor…heheh. That morning I had done a phoner with CD101, a commercial station there, at like 8…oof. Hope it brought a person or two down…other funny stuff: me sitting on a chair on the sidewalk catching wifi out in front of the club, and all the homeless dudes and perhaps a few ne’er do wells that passed by. One really sweet guy named Larry, the throat cancer guy. I bet a lot of Columbus folks know him. I gave him a few bucks. Think he kept an eye on me…there was the guy yelling death threats to his rival about a foot from me…Then there was the hotel, with a guy checking us in, cool fella, looked like a cross between Hunter S Thompson and Jimmy Buffet…mirrored shades, at 2.30 a.m. Coke nails. You never know with those kinda guys, they could just as easily be a moonlighting cop.
CLEVELAND 10/6
Love those short drives. Love those venerable rock clubs. Love those homemade-tasting cheeseburgers at Tommy’s. Love friendly and generous promoters. Love crowds that ROCK. Love leaping like a deer for two hours, guitar in hand. Love guitars hung from the ceiling, by the neck, squealing feedback. Jon smashed his Epiphone guitar to bits…where did that come from? Didn’t see it coming. Well. Matt, Darius and I drank a bottle of Sailor Jerry’s rum between 7 and 9 the next morning. You gotta kinda build up to Chicago.
CHICAGO 10/7
Just pulling up to this city makes me feel higher in spirits. We actually got to town early, could park in the loading zone without fear of a ticket, had a slice around the corner. I was back to normal and feeling ready for a big night of fun, which is always gonna happen in Chicago. No disappointments here. I would like to point out that our instore at Reckless Rec. was the most feedback-laden instore in the history of acoustic instores…love it. I saw tons of friends, all my favorites. Dodged being in a White Flag video by that much (I think I’ve been in 4 different video sessions for the damn thing on this tour). I would have been happy to do it, in fact, 3 of us crashed at Stacey G’s loft, who was to be doing the filming, and quite a few of our friends came over, it could have been a great setting, but somehow it didn’t happen. My very lovely friend Rachel made a little collage/painting for Aden, which was very kind…yeah, I was up pretty late, but, heck, it was loads of fun and I knew we had a long drive to MSP the next day.
Ah, yes, the show—well, it was fantastic. I felt totally relaxed and natural up there, and it seemed that everything fell into place—no bad notes, lots of lucky accidents, I felt effortless and a great Chicago crowd never hurts.
MINNEAPOLIS 10/8
Also another ‘can’t go wrong’ kind of town. Another killer show, however, I am starting to get so banged up, I have bruises on my hips that look like life size iron-on eggplants. And my legs look like Elvis’ jungle room upholstery. Also something curious is happening—my hair is starting to bug the shit out of me. It keeps tickling my nose and making me feel like I am having a histamine reaction for the entire set. Plus I did get a tiny allergy reaction to the cats at Dmitri and Geralyn’s place (tho I do adore them, their place and their cats, I just got a tiny but sneezy the next morning) so in Milwaukee it was ten times worse, I even had some snot shoot out of my nose when I was rocking out, it blobbed out onto my upper and lip. I mean, ew. Anyway, Jon & I taped a nice session for Radio K that should run this week…I got to play their beautiful (if tuned slightly weepy) Steinway for a version of ‘That Don’t Fly’. Had dinner with the Slocums (thanks guys) at an establishment called Grandma’s…I was thinkin’ Pre-Chew Charlie’s but damn if they didn’t have a fine T-Bone.
Our show at the 400 Bar was another good one…our roll seems to be following us for this 25 show run. Nothing like a common cause to unify a group.
Super weird phenom: we pulled up to a gas station on the way outta Chicago, I called Dom (I don’t like to be on the phone in the van, plus I can’t usually hear well anyway) and took a pee at the same time. A full on pee. And went back to the van, and lay back down on my bench, and finished my call. We pulled out and I immediately had to pee again. Badly! What the??
MILWAUKEE 10/9
We were driving along to Milwaukee when we stopped somewhere near Lacrosse to fuel up, and I went in to pee (hey, you gotta use the stops efficiently). I spied fried chicken available at the checkout and it looked pretty good…so, I got a piece and the woman at the checkout said, in the loudest voice imaginable—“THAT PIN--I CAN’T BE FUCKED!! I WANT THAT!!” I said it was the original that I had had made and I was hoping to have more made—she insisted we drive back that way again soon and bring her one. The woman at the Kinko’s in Chicago said the same thing…guess I gotta start selling them at shows.
Truly insane instore at Atomic Records…fine little store…we played the first ever acoustic guitar versions of “That Don’t Fly” and “All In A Day’s Work”. Someone wanted to hear a John Lennon song. It would have been his 65th birthday that day. Just a year older than my dad. It’s odd to think of that guy being gone so long. He seems like a really distant memory. Dead at 40. In an odd way, thinking about John Lennon made me glad my dad is around and could be around for many more years…oh-oh, I can tell, the morbidity of the autumn months is creeping in…time to reassess the losses, realign the instruments, and reassess the direction…prob. I won’t change that much but it’s good to have a look and winterize a bit. Half the time I can think, oh my god, I’m doing everything wrong, I’m lost and I’ll never get back to the right way…and then I calm down and get all French—pretend to puff on a Gauloises, look off in the distance and say “it cannot, in fact, matter.”
Show tonight: rippin’. How weird to put carpet in a rock venue. But, it worked out. I really enjoyed this show, except for the freaking hair tickling my nose. Dammit! This was one of those funny nights where I was trying to play with all the expertise a lengthy tour such as hours should provide me…but, I kinda kept hitting funny notes. It doesn’t matter. We’re so loud, it all sounds good.
Note: When I have been referring to listening to Rush in the van, I mean the loveable, mystical, mullet-headed band from Canada; not the despicable, pill-popping, blowhard simpleton bullhorning conservative views while espousing a lifestyle not unlike a guy that used to be in Molly Hatchet, but without the comparable intellectual gifts.
Love
KS
Madison WI
