8/6/03

Out Of The Pan And Into The Lap Of Luxury

I woke up this morning and chilled out in my own room, for those of you that live at home that is not a big deal, but for those of us who know of home as a faint memory, mornings alone can be a blessed thing, I enjoyed a long shower and some more high speed internet, and got a phone call around noon to meet down at the venue, I met the Stage Manager Lopez, who is cooler than pressure treated fence slats and nickel plated faucets (he also works at Home Depot when he is home, to keep himself busy), and then Mary the Road Manager, who is incredibly nice, especially when she informed me that all of the guitars and basses, pedalboards won't be making it to the show due to some problems with some flights, imagine that, so we headed down to Dave's Guitars and we managed a really good deal for everything, so if you are ever in the neighborhood of Lacrosse Wis. check it out. We got back and sound checked, what a beautiful thing it is to have monitor engineers that don't also barback, I tuned up everything and chilled out. The show was sort of funny, the opening acts were sponsored by Disney which of course part of the Evil Empire, so everyone danced around to a dat tape wearing matching outfits occasionally shouting OOOHHH or AAAAHHH to try to incite the crowd of 16 year old girl's Moms into a buying frenzy. When Kelly came out I heard a sound that i didn't know existed, the sound of 10,000 people screaming, most of them young girls, some of them the mothers or fathers (the money) of said young girls.

All of the members of the band are incredible players, all 8 of them, they all wear shirts with their first name and what instrument they play in big white letters on the front, really handy for someone like me who has trouble remembering my own name let alone a group of people that I just met, so keeping in mind that everyone has a shirt with their name/position on, a very "bright" young lady (about 24, not old enough to have a daughter, not smart enough to breathe without the instruction of the Disney Breathersize video) comes up to Jimmy who's name is plastered 4 inches tall in white letters on his chest right above the word guitar, and asks. "Are you in the band?" Jimmy looking down at his shirt, "uh, yeah". "What's your name?" she asks. "Jimmy" he says. "What do you play?" "Are you serious?" he asks in return, pointing at his shirt, "Yes" she says. And with that said, I new that things were going to be different.

After the show everything moved swiftly and easily into the trailer, the same size trailer we used with Ian, I find it odd that a tour with this big of a budget uses the same size trailer as us, or i guess I should have found it odd that we used a trailer that big when we were playing dives all around the south. Currently I am sitting in my bunk on the bus, typing happily away as Matt the bus driver aims us in the direction of Indianapolis, this is a beautiful thing, no driving for me, no lugging of the gear, showers after the show, catered food, all the damn cokes and waters i wish to drink, a bunk in which to sleep, a bathroom that you don't have to stop for, right now the little things mean so much.

C.D.