ONE OF THOSE
When I flew to the France a couple of weeks ago, with 3 huge suitcases and two guitars, plus two carry ons, and found out that due to Air Canada's scheduling shift my flight was leaving an hour and 15 minutes earlier than I had planned for, meaning I got to the airport with only 45 minutes to spare, had too many bags and one overweight--the fact I was so late worked to my advantage--Air Canada didn't charge me for the excess baggage, and I was rushed thru the first class security to get me to the plane, which I made. My bags arrived perfectly fine on the other side, save for the strap peg on my bass which broke off (no big deal, I was intending to replace it with proper strap locks anyway). My bags had followed my effortlessly from Seattle to Toronto to Paris. In Toronto it's not 100% clear that you don't have to claim and recheck your bags if you are a transfer passenger, so I was worried I might have misunderstood the directions of the customs officers; as it turns out, I did not and everything was fine.
When I got to CDG *three* hours plus before my flight to Atlanta, a direct flight on Air France, I was thinking I had all the time in the world to enjoy a lunch, read a paper, have a coffee, etc. I went firstly to check in with one suitcase, not too heavy, one bass guitar, and one carry on. I should have taken the weather upon my departure as a sign. There was what I can only call a Texas-style rain storm that flared up just about when the shuttle arrived (and the shuttle arrived 10 minutes early--which is never good, I'm never ready if someone arrives early). Wind was blowing, and certainly an inch or two of rain fell in about half an hour--it really looked like a monsoon. And then it was done. A few stalled cars on the highway and some spots where there were four inches or so of water, but I got to CDG at about 12.40--more than 3 hours early for the flight. I proceeded to check-in, and was told, unbelieveably, that the flight was oversold I had been moved to standby...I was incredulous. They said it was based on who checked in first--I was checkingin 3 hours before the flight, I mean, there was no line, so...who were these early birds? Well, they were people who were transferring from other flights. There had been some dealys that caused people to miss their connections in Paris so they were on this flight too. It was a bit tense, but I managed to keep my temper. Eventually, a Delta flight was found that should have left already but was delayed and they got me a seat on it. Of course, I didn't get my luggage til today. Luckily Dewitt, REM's guitar tech, was working for Big Star and lent me the exact same bass I would have brought, courtesy of Mike Mills (merci b.c.). I went around town yesterday and got a few things to get me thru the day--toilettries, a phone charger, and what turned out to be a better headset than the one I that was in my suitcase. I consoled myself with some excellent ribs at Fat Matt's rib shack, and grabbed a NY times knowing I wouldn't read it til my flight tonight. On with the show.
ATLANTA 5/22
As the afternoon cooled it was time to go down to the festival, Dewitt picked me up at the hotel and dropped me at the backstage entrance, and I met up with a few friends, got them in and we went backstage to the Southern Comfort Music Festival in Centennial Olympic Park. A free show sponsored by the beverage co., makers of many a morning-after-prom-night hangover. My hat's off to the folks who put this on, it was run well, the staff and security were friendly, and the audience was incredibly happy to have two days of free music. When I arrived the sun was blazing still, De la Soul were onstage delivering/representing and I was wearing perscription shades (contacts in the luggage and no optometrists had my perscription type in stock--it's a bit unusual, so this was a long shot at best anyway. I had played a few Posies shows last year in these shades after the champagne incident, so I was OK with it. And Big Star's show isn't so physical as the Posies that I might realize my biggest fear, why I don't like ot wear glasses onstage, which is that they might fall off and be lost and leave me virtually blind onstage. I really have terrible vision w/o lenses.
DLS was done, the various Big Star members assembled and we started to get our shit together onstage. Our backline is really simple, so, no big deal. The monitor guy had read the wrong tech rider and thought we had requested no tom mics on the drum kit, but that was rectified. After my travel ordeal, I was wrung out enough to be kind of over the hump of anxiety and stress and thus I was completely relaxed when we played--and it was a great show, one of the best B* gigs in a long time. Alex was happy onstage, we all played great, and the crowd was really into it. I met the drummer of the Flaming Lips afterwards, who turns out to be a Posies fan, of the new album inclusive, and both he & Steven really dug the show. And then we were treated to one of the best shows I've seen in a long, long time. I've seen the Lips in various incarnations--the 4 piece rock band in the 90s, the drummerless version around the year 2000, and the development of this current lineup. Moe's in Seattle in prob. 97, the Showbox aorund 2000, Benicassim 2001, T in the Park 2003, and the Beck tour's hilariously confrontational New York date a few years ago. Maybe a couple of other times. And this was by far the best show I've seen them do. And that's saying something. That drummer is amazing, you know the visuals by now...and...Bohmemian Rhapsody...I kid you not.
Fantastic night.
Also: the new Snow Patrol album, 'Eyes Open' features a couple of songs I play keyboards on. Great rec., check it.
Love
KS
Atlanta GA
