Tour Diary # 2 (repost from Facebook April 11, 2010)

So I was half way through writing this eloquently composed journal entry about our touring exploits when my computer malfunctioned and deleted the whole thing. I'm never able to just immediately start over and rewrite the whole thing so I had to give it 12 hours or so before trying again... A few things I've learned so far on tour:

*When buying a toothbrush, do not pick the cheapest one they have at Walgreens. A sufficient amount of toothpaste does not fit on the bristles. Consider yourself worth the extra few bucks and buy at least the $6 toothbrush as opposed to the $2 one.

*When packing the van, put the musical equipment on one side of the trunk and the bedding and everything else on the other side instead of everything on top of each other so you don't have to unpack everything to unpack anything.

*Always always make sure the box of cheerios you've brought along with you in the car is completely closed before you start driving!

Ah what pearls of wisdom you pick up from just 96 hours or so on the road. I've probably only spent about 14 or so of those hours sleeping so needless to say, I'm a little bit jumbled but hopefully my brain can work in a linear enough fashion to give you a feel of what we've been up to the past few days....

Portland was amazing! I could totally see myself living there someday. We spent most of Thursday afternoon exploring the Hawthorne Blvd area which reminded me of Pacific Ave in Santa Cruz or Telegraph Ave in Berkeley only somehow seemed even more hippie-ish if that's even possible. Our gig that night was at a gelato shop called LeGong, supposedly for the large gong that hung on the wall accompanied by a mallet and the instruction to please strike it, cozy enough to barely fit the twelve people or so who showed up to watch. The show was set up by my old friend Brian who I had been in the winning Stairway to Stardom band with back in 2001 when I was 13. He mentioned beforehand that he had a gift for me which turned out to be a backpack guitar that had been signed by all the members of our Stairway band, Soul Pop Symphony. Very cool gift. The show itself was fun and a good way to start things off. Ricky and I are by no means hipsters so playing to a crowd full of them can often be intimidating but I think even they appreciated a set full of music that they didn't have to "get" but could just enjoy.

After the show we drove two hours south to Eugene for a radio interview in the morning. The radio host did more than just host us on the radio but actually hosted us at his house for the night or what was left of it by the time we arrived. The room we stayed in was covered wall to wall with CD's that were almost weirdly in tune with my tastes and it was all Caitlin and Ricky could do to convince me to spend the night sleeping rather than uploading music onto my iTunes. The interview itself was lots of fun. I haven't done a whole lot of stuff on the radio but I've always been told I have a face for it...;0)

We drove up to Portland after that to regroup ourselves and get a few more hours of sleep in at Ricky's uncle's house and then it was off to McKenna...where ever that was! I didn't have too high hopes for this gig as nobody we had mentioned it to so far on the trip had even heard of the city. We drove for what seemed like hours in the woods and after passing one too many "Bear Crossing" signs, I was about ready to turn back. Luckily we found the venue soon and it ended up being great. The owner had actually filled the place with people anxiously awaiting our arrival. Besides the keyboard stand all but collapsing in the middle of the set, the show was awesome and went over great with the audience. One guy in the front requested a Bob Dylan song and when I asked which one he'd like to hear, he replied, "Ring of Fire!" Hmmm....

We explored the Ballard area of Seattle the next day which was filled with coffee and curiosity shops. We spent some time in a guitar shop and it's very hard to get a 12-string out of my hands once it gets there. I was exhausted by this point so by the time we reached the gig in Tacoma that night, I was pretty beat. The show still went well especially on account of our five-year old "groupies" who danced at the front of the stage for Ricky's entire set.

So that's the tour so far in a nutshell. Of course a video is worth a million words. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6kocXj2gYQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j64vcRu4Wnw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXeOnfjcs1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ETBOiZHvu8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7-QqCzib9U

1 comment