HOW CAN I JOIN THE SEPARATISTS?
PHILADELPHIA 9/27
Somehow we only drove like 50 miles in 2 hours or some such thing. We stayed at some Super 8 or similar hotel in Maryland, driving out of DC after the gig (and after some pretty heavy duty slices oof) for what seemed like enough time to get to Newfoundland, but we still had 80 miles to go when we got up in the morning. Hmm. Philly always feels nice don’t it? In MD we ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel. I was already feeling weird about a restaurant that has ’cracker’ in the title, much like the now-shamed-out-of-existence Sambo’s. And I just don’t think the fare is worth much. Man, I was missing southern cooking already.
This was the night of the Clash of the Alternatitans—Posies were supported by Earlimart, Oranger AND Deathray Davies…what a mess! Worked out fine tho. I got to dine with friends at my fave spot in Philly, Cuba Libre; I got to see Earlimart, who I have been near missing for a couple of years now; the tiny stage meant we ditched the keyboard, so I didn’t have to worry about bonking it over. Very punky set. The Pylant Krew took us into their abode in NJ, we had a couple o’ drinks, the McGlynns, and Triumph the ICD, and I managed to fall asleep about 1.5 minutes after arriving. Needed it!
HOBOKEN 9/28
After a few wrong turns, we finally got to WFMU to tape performances of 4 songs, Jon & I on acoustics, Matt playing thru a small amp and Darius shaking that tamb. Worked our way up to Hoboken, got settled in and had dunch, that meal that I have that isn’t breakfast and sort of needs to get in there by 6. New shoes really hurting me…8 LONG blocks to walk to instore…not good. Cabbed back, yes. Maxwell’s is great—the sound is always awesome, the crowds crowd it up pretty fast, and there are always friends in the house…Suzanne S. who designs and operates lights for REM (and has worked for Nirvana, Sonic Youth etc in the past) lives in the hood and came by….Tequila Tom, who’s just an awesome guy; he and his friends are all music fans and fun dudes to have a few (hey, who’s counting?) drinks with; your Pylants and McGlynns (remember that Ian McGlynn is a fine muso who played piano with me at my Maxwell’s show last year). I remember folks hoopin and hollerin but that’s about it, as far as the show goes…I know it was good tho’ I just can’t say for sure what really happened!
NEW YORK CITY 9/29
Wow. What a visit…somehow, it’s always great here tho. NYC pretty much proves it’s the greatest place in the world every time I play here. I know you can do wrong here, but damned if it just doesn’t seem to happen. I got to my friend Tina’s place (see below—I’m writing these entries backwards from the most recent show towards wherever I left off last week) at about 3am. After the Maxwell’s show, and pretty much collapsed right away. Did I sleep in til noon? No, I got up, inexplicably, as I was totally shattered, at 9.15. What the?? So, I took my time…listened to music and wrote emails and read. I eventually went out and had 2 awesome slices…that’s a real breakfast. It’s sort of like an omelet…in shape…doubled…er…anyhow, I found myself with nothing to do that day, and it rained for a bit, so I stayed in, took a nap, watched a movie, walked around the neighborhood. I knew it was a good idea to rest up as the evening was going to be busy, the night late, and the show was going to demand a lot. Right on all counts! We had the best instore of the tour so far, at my friends’ great shop NYCD (81st /Amsterdam)—cupcakes and beer in honor of…dadadadda—Jon’s 36th birthday—anyway, we quickly had to split, for a quick dinner with the Rykodisc folks (thanks, everybody!), which we had to split from quickly, as it was showtime. Turns oot we had a great crowd, which we spared no human cost in whipping like racing dogs into a frothy furor…in fact, we brought in BIG NAME TALENT in the form of Lewis, French horn blower for the Polyphonic Spree (among others) for an authentic augmentation on ‘Last Crawl’ and ‘Jungle’…Ok, I will say, we basically killed this one. We cannon’d these bastids and gripped NY like a bunny in our talons of sonic scree. Check! Bowery Ballroom folks are absolutely gracious.
NORTHAMPTON 9/30
I hadn’t been to this town since the Posies played here in 1994. Lovely little spot. Just about everywhere we’ve been this week is looking its best as Indian summer is in full effect. New York was breathtaking this morning as we all met up from our various accommodations (thank you big time to my friend Tina who lent me her apt. while she was out of town and DHL’d me the keys!!!) at the band hotel. Jon paid for hot dogs from a cart which were an excellent breakfast…despite (because of?) the revelry of the night before, I felt fantastic. We pulled into town and pulled right up to the record store we were to appear at later…went down the street for a coffee and then rocked up the instore, with a great little crowd. Our former booking agent, Bob Lawton, came by and invited us to visit his cinema for free—so, after the instore was done, I ran down to the club and wolfed down our free dinner, and we all zipped over to watch ‘A History of Violence’ which I can’t recommend enough…superb performances from Viggo M. and Ed Harris...
Anyway, Jon & I did an interview with WEQX (Albany NY area) for the ‘Download’ program, inside our van, and then ran back to the club and basically had to go on, and get off quick—the late start (we were the second concert event there that day) and early curfew (1am as opposed to the more typical 2) meant we basically played about 45 minutes. We were good, but it wasn’t enough to get watmed up! After the show, we pulled our van up to the curb and sold merch out of our trailer. Punk! Thanks to the Friels, who took us in for the umpteenth time, and fed us Fr. Toast and bacon in the morning!
CAMBRIDGE 10/1
I can say without a doubt it was the rowdiest show of the tour…we had an emotional farewell performance for Deathray Davies’ last show with us. We joined them for some jamming/wrasslin’ onstage during their set…and they did appear onstage during our favorite number for denouement, ‘You’re the Beautiful One’…which these days typically brings our raucous encore to a gentle conclusion…but honestly, we were on FIRE for this show, and I was given an unwanted rum & coke by an audience member who had to leave early, so I sorta misjudged what the proper intake pre-show should be. It basically fuelled a bit of menace in my onstage presence…amps were tipped, I was strung up and tangled in my chords, finishing ‘Dream All Day’ holding the mic and standing on the drum riser. It was a show of fury…the folks at the Middle East were great, and we apologize for taking so long to get out of there afterwards! Thanks Dick and Kevin.
MONTREAL 10/2
You can give ‘em all the shit you want. Canada rules. I remember in the 1990s thinking Canada (esp. Vancouver, where we used to play all the time) was a bit threadbare…lots of old musty carpet and guys with stubble and missing teeth sleeping on your van. What to mention you couldn’t even stop to tie your shoes without interrupting a john being serviced in some stairwell. Anyway, whatever changes that the world and North America in specific have gone thru in the last 10 years…guess who’s benefited? There’s a reason Vancouver looks more like Hong Kong than it does San Francsico. It looks like the future.
I digress. Perhaps that’s ALL I do.
Montreal could easily be one of my favorite cities in the world…so much is being created there…music, art…f**king VICE mag….we felt good as soon as we pulled into town. The drive from Arlington MA, where our Boston-area hotel was, to Montreal was only one jaw-dropping vista after another. My first travel in/thru New Hampshire, in fact. I had picked up a NY Times on my way out of Boston and didn’t even crack it open. I just watched the mountains, huge rock faces, cattail-lined ponds, and thick blankets of coniferous green…God’s own air freshener. Crossed into Canada without event, and drove thru equally beautiful scenery in Quebec. Got to the club right at load in time, and hauled our stuff up 2 flights of stairs to La Sala Rossa, a lovely ballroom above a Spanish Restaurant. After soundcheck and commie sandwiches, we had a last minute call from a fan, Omar, who is a DJ at a college radio station. He tracked us down via various internet sources and brought us in for a session and interview—which he was very glad to do, as, very unfortunately, his father was in hospital and thus Omar wasn’t going to be able to see our show. We hope things are OK for him & his family.
Dr. Dog, a freaky mix of the Band, the O’Jays, Pavement and Camper Van Beethoven, were one of the bands playing with us…totally weird and totally cool. From Philly. Mojo described them as a mix of country and soul, but that is not even close to accurate. Kinda have to see it to believe it. Best band t-shirts I have seen in a LONG time. Just 3 big dots in a triangle pointing down…and then you realize the sleeves are like ears and you’re looking at a dog’s face…and they were selling them for 5 bucks!! Canadian!!
Our show was somewhat short, we were going on after midnight on a Sunday, and we could just tell that after who knows how many days of Pop Montreal people were starting to get wobbly at the knees. So we blasted a tight hour and ten and off we went…my friends Pat and Maude were there, both great people, who took care of me when I was in town last year with REM. We went to see THE BEST LIVE BAND YOU WILL EVER SEE, the Zoobombs from Japan. Holy fuck. Apeshit drummer, soul tinged garage gospel freakjams…basically take live footage from Elvis’ 70s band doing the jam out on ‘Suspicious Minds’ where the bass player is tearing that up…spread that guy’s vibe amongst 4 skinny Tokyo kids, dip it in glorious fuzz and let ‘er rip. Holy James Burton, batman! After that we were almost spent and it was closing time, but we persevered, fuelling up at Main’s, a source of deli style smoked meat and chopped liver and yummy stuff. Went back to Pat & Maud’s (on whose couch I crashed last time—all when I had the best hotel room of the entire REM tour at Le St. James!) and listened to records and watched live footage of the Jam, and what not. Matt and I headed back to our hotel in time to clean up and…oof…load our equipment out from the club (yes, down those stairs again) at 10.30 in the morning…naturally, I got in the van and slept all the way to TO. Thanks to Pat and Maude for hospitality, le deuxieme fois!
TORONTO 10/3
….and woke up when we pulled up to the club feeling just fine. Hopped out of the van and had an ice coffee. Read Tim Perlich’s bizarre preview for our show in Now! Mag. and wondered what the fuck he was paying for crack. This guy tracked us down thru my website, set up an interview with us, and talked to Jon for about 45 minutes while we were on the road somewhere in the south about a week and a half ago. He was knowledgeable about the Posies, appeared to be a fan, anyway. Sometimes they do the worst things tho, as they think about it too much. So, check out his piece, and tell me, does he sound like a fan? I think not. I think it’s all supposed to be tongue in cheek, but it just comes off as him basically putting us down for everything we do and have done. It’s supposed to be ironic? But this is like one of those jokes you write to your girl/boyfriend in an email that totally backfires and has you arguing for a week trying to prove you didn’t mean it that way. Tim, did you really not want people to come see us? Did you think that your piece was an enticement for anyone to come to the show?
OK, over it. Lee’s Palace is a superb sounding stage, and, if it could get any better, we had Lou Barlow supporting us that night. I love crossing paths with great artists and putting our shows together—it certainly doesn’t happen enough. Lou and his lovely family arrived for soundcheck, as did a flight case I ordered from a company in Ontario, as did Darius’ 2nd cousin Michelle, who guided us to her local Indian place, Gandhi’s. Tiny little joint, just a counter and 3 tables, most people taking away. We noted that the floor of the kitchen was spotless. Good sign. Roti and curries, everything cooked to order, spectacular flavor and perfect spiciness (I suggest to order medium). And we weren’t even too full to play, we were just right. Got back to set up the merch and listen to Lou play. He does it right. Touching, funny, cool sonic textures…the crowd wouldn’t let him leave and I didn’t want him to either.
Funny thing happened. We had seen such inspiring performances in the 16 hours leading up to our show, that we actually played maybe the best set we’ve done since Bumbershoot. In addition to a very warmly received set and first encore, Jon & I came back and played 5-6 songs with just the two of us standing in the crowd…and to our great pleasure, during ‘Coming Right Along’ ‘s outro, Matt and Darius appeared on the stage (which itself was nearly 6 feet high) and entered as if we did it that way every night…we jammed it out for a bit…and who could resist going on from there, everything felt so right. So, we played 3-4 more songs, including a devastating ‘Burn & Shine’…me plugged straight into my amp turned up to 10. Easily 2 hours plus of music…Lou was there thru most of the acoustic bit, which was a great compliment seeing as his family was on tour with him. And the biggest shocker of the night—after the show was done and folks were leaving, we were introduced to a beaming Don, singer of the Zoobombs! We hugged him about 500 times, we were ecstatic about him being there so we could tell him how much his band’s set inspired us.
And we had a good night’s sleep.
Love
KS
In the van, southern Ontario
