
July 1 - Santa Monica Pier and Luna Park, Los Angeles
Cold ocean air brushed it's winds up against our skin, sneaking up
under our arms as we clasped our hands around our chests and shivered. The
pier stretched out into the eerie off-shore of Santa Monica and I wondered
how July ever consented to such a cold first day.
Heather, Kenny's wife, hovered nervously around the dock's entrance.
She's out here in LA with us to celebrate Kenny and her (much delayed) honeymoon (they got married 4 years ago). She's terrified of the water and she
paced back and forth near the parking lot gate wearing a beige hood and blue
jeans, until Kenny slipped her a little sumn' sumn' allowing her to move
slowly, like a fawn, toward the stage. The stage rose like a comedian
against the water line and fit in, UN-delicately with the Santa Monica Pier
amusement park which danced across from it with lights.
Despite the cold, there was a 3000 person turnout when got on stage.
People staring up at us from their beach towels and blankets. They looked
up through folds of sweat shirt and terry cloth. I asked the stage producer
to let me know when we were at our 1/2 way mark. I was surprised to see her
flag my attention down just two songs into our opening slot set. "Half way,"
she mimed. We were supposed to have a 35 minute set but the public
announcements ran over time and our set had been cut to 27 minutes. We
managed to get five songs in.
Even though the pier was packed, I could pick out all of my friends
faces. My brother and his girlfriend, Bridge, stood out the clearest and I
focused on their smiles. It was a GREAT time.
We didn't have but a second to break down and run screaming through
the neon boulevards toward Hollywood to the 2nd show.
Madonna was having her private rap party for her latest movie in the
upper 1/2 of the club we were playing and so as we stood outside of Luna Park
setting up and waiting in the parking lot, to go into play, we got to watch
girls wearing tall and glitter and men wearing their polished buffed meat
suits, strut in to see Madonna.
In comparison to playing the Santa Monica Pier to 3000 faces, Luna
Park was like my living room. It was late and slow, so we took requests and
laughed a lot, disclaiming: "We've never done this song before...."
Outside at 12:30, Madonna invited us in. Someone had puked on Moby
and we had to load her up carefully so as to avoid getting the "accident" on
us. I was too tired to party and so I left the boys to whoop it up on
Madonna's tab.
LaLa land blurred its light garden and I was beat. The electricity
takes it out of me, makes me feel like those Lost Angeleans have their fun on
my energy account. I'm glad to be headed up the coast.
July 2 - The Coach House, Santa Barbara
The Coach House reminded me of the Galaxy in Santa Anna the last time
we trundled through Cali. It's a very large space decored out with tables
and candles and decks and dips and tears and pits and the feeling that the
past could wait to until tomorrow. Time was an episode. It seemed to live
in different rooms yet stay contained within the building and so I traipsed
in and out and through the hours made available to us by Coach House walls.
The dressing room was 3am drowning in dark brown walls, dressed in futons and
tables that apparently wouldn't sell at last year's yard sale. I did my
vocal exercises there and dressed, bouncing my image off of the slanted
mirror propped up between the table and the wall. Dinner took place in a
room ensconced by afternoon. Swordfish for everyone but me (unless it's
line-caught I won't eat the endangered species). I ate rice and veggies and
threw in my googley false teeth in-between bites just to freak everyone out.
Brian and I went rollerblading out in the sunniness of the last bit of day
light Santa Barbara wore. Of course this was at 7:30pm seeing as though the
beach blade was exempt from the strange time limitations of 'The Coach
House.' As we skated by, people exhaled the end of their beach day as they
shook out their towels and picked up their babies from under brightly
flavored umbrellas. Sea gulls surfed facing the wind and pelicans swooped
for dinner. Chris jokingly said he'd put pelicans on our rider and that's
why they were out here. The kitchen, through which it was necessary to cross
to get up to the dressing room, was stuck at 6am and a very competent
chefstress prepared and prepared and prepared and smoked and jigged out to
the radio which seemed to only play 'Free Bird' over and over although it may
have also played 'Sweet Home Alabama' once too. The bathroom not only
consumed 1am, it also lurked near third world border lines. The lighting
reeked pale green over the toilet and there was only cool water available,
which trickled and kicked from a shower head in an unlit white plastic
closet. A kitchen cloth hung damp from a towel rack to dry with.
The concert could have been going on all day. It could have started
after our sound check, for all we knew. We were too confused by the way time
threw herself so recklessly, like a tantrum, into the building to be very
aware that there was, in fact a FREE SHOW happening, and that we were meant
to star in it. But by the time we got on stage, the audience was so burnt
out, the show may as well been going all day!
I stood above the crowd tucking them into places I thought they'd
feel more comfortable. Children sat diligently upright and parents slouched
crossarmed, apparently daring me to keep their children awake. On stage, it
was 12 midnight and I wondered how long it had been that way. There had
already been 2 other acts proceeding us and I wondered whether their sets
seemed so long as ours did. I raced forward through our sets but at the end
of the night it seemed I'd gotten nowhere. It was still midnight, I was
still on stage, children still sat, parents still folded their arms and I
felt beaten up, as thought I'd been up there jousting with time, and lost.
The night outside cooled me and sleep was made lightly in the neck
pillows and coverlets on the van ride to the hotel, some 20 miles away from
beautiful Santa Barbara. We arrived just around the rounded edge of morning
4:00 am (real time) and leapt with acceptance, relief and forgiveness into
the haphazard timelessness of our dreams.
July 6 - Day Off #3, San Francisco
The coolness of autumn hung off the corners of our breaths. Morning
(as we refer to 12 noon) came and brushed sun over my slumber. It washed on
my face as I lay on the floor, my bed, in Mrs. Judy Delucchi's beige carpeted
office on the second rising. The Delucchi's (Chris's parents) have been kind
enough to put us up for our 3 days off in the Bay area. It's astounding to
me...... The Delucchi's are actually a "family." Judy and Bob are married
and their kids are beautiful and stable people who seem to be able to take
responsibility for their lives. Most importantly they all really like each
other. It was so cool to be surrounded by them over the holiday weekend.
Judy made me feel more at home than I feel in my own home and Bob is the
hugest character. He spent most of the time out by the pool BBQ-ing and
telling shot gun jokes. No sooner had one punch line flew than the next joke
was out at the starting gate.
I splashed water on my face, de-wrinkled my back, and went for a
little jog. When I got back the boys were up. Chris D. was chopping fresh
fruit, Kenny was cooking up some french toast, Heather was packing upstairs
and Brian was cleaning leaves out of the pool and talking, head bent to
shoulder, on his cell phone. Poor Brian, every leaf that he hoisted with the
big blue strainer blew directly back into the water.
Chris D. said over breakfast, that we'd been given an invitation to
visit the historic San Franciscan Anchor Steam Brewery this day. We would
have liked to wait til evening to take our private tour but Tom (our host
who'd been at the show in Sonoma) said they were ready for us "now" and so we
filed into Moby and down the town to the Anchor Brewery.
When we got there, the entrance smelled like hot cereal and the
carpet looked like grapenuts. There was already a tour in process but Tom
and Dan pulled us around by the way side and gave us the "Gooch De Larente"
tour.... Extra Cool.
Our first stop was downstairs where the Lavern and Shirley bottling
went down. A bunch of men in white coats were in charge of seeing that all
went smoothly. When we got down stairs Chris (who'd also been at our show)
caught some beers as they slid by on their way to be labeled, and handed them
to us before they'd even been capped: "This is as fresh as they come boys."
He said.
And thus we started the Willie Wonka tour for adults. We Ummpa
Lummpa-ed along to Dan's comical shpeil on the history and the making of
Anchor beer. The tour was Great! There were T-shirts, hats, pins, cards,
CD's, comedy, and beer. Way too much beer for the afternoon in fact and thus
we stumbled out looking for our way to dinner.
July 7 - Cafe Tomo, Arcada, CA
Through the Red Wood Forest we drove stopping along the way for a
picnic lunch where the benches and tables had labels which warned us "DO NOT
FEED THE BEARS," as though we needed to be told. If we'd seen a bear, giving
it a little turkey club would be the last thing on my mind. We sat in the
grass and made each other sandwiches from cold cuts we'd bought at the last
crunchy co-op we'd run across where we actually witnessed for the first time
ever, the infamous "dumpster dive." We were in the parking lot sitting
inside Moby, doors swung wide open, hot in the breakfast rising sun. Kenny
had just finished the last of what he wanted of his egg salad sandwich and
had gone out side to throw it over the ledge of a deep green dumpster. Not
soon after did a large band of crunchy hippies drive up in a brown Mystery
Machine. Like 30 dread heads rolled out dude wearing a lot of ... you know
man, hemp products and well.... one of them gives his friend a leg up and
over the ledge he goes and what do ya know, he comes out with the remainder
of Kenny's egg salad sandwich and like all thirty of them run back to the
mystery wagon and close the door. It was so crazy man and while we couldn't
see them any more, we could imagine them all divvying up Kenneth's tinny
scrappy doo sandwich between the 30 of them.
OK so the show. Well, it was so so so great. Lincoln, our promoter
called us on the road before we got there and asked us if we wanted him to
book some hot spring tubs for us after we finished with sound check. That's
just an example of the generosity which poured out in to our cups from Cafe
Tomo. They fed us sushi dinners and drinks on the house and put us all up in
this grand hotel on the square with claw foot bath tubs and dark wood
furniture and gave us fruit bowls and put their hearts out on their sleeves.
We felt so welcome.
After we all showered up and watched some of the Lynard Sknyard VH-1
Special we went over to check out the opening act. Cafe Tomo is a really
cool venue. It's just off this huge square in the center of Arcada which is
sort of on a hill and so everything sort of falls away gently from the center
square. Inside Tomo feels clear, like water. The cafe, come to think of it,
feels sort of like a swimming pool full of your friends. The floors are
lightly silky wood for dancing and the stage is waist high and faces east.
The woman who opened for us was an acoustic act who enjoyed teaching the
audience the chorus to her songs in hopes that the audience would sing along.
She sang about butterflies and gypsies and saving the trees. I felt very at
home with the whole night. People were dying to dance and they swirled and
twirled doing the dances we refer to as: "the chicken" detectable by flailing
bent arms moving in and then away from one's sides, and the "box," come on,
you know it...you've done it too....It's the dance where you make little
boxes in the air with your hands and then you push them away in back of you.
If you ever went to a Dead Show you know what we're talking about.
We had a great time. People just kept on fueling our music with
their dancing and loving and smiles and the end of the night came too soon.
We can't wait to get back there. Good people, good food, a good time had by
all, and to all a Good Night.
July 8 - The Ashland Creek Bar and Grill, Ashland Oregon
Everyone told us we'd love Ashland: "Oh it's such a quaint town,"
"The people are so nice and down to earth," "It's so pretty," "It's so
humble," "It's just as sweet as pie,...and the Shakespeare festival is going
on there." But Ashland was spoiled for us by the club we were supposed to
play and so while we were able to acknowledge that Ashland was indeed
beautiful and sweet and full of thespians, we never really got to enjoy it.
We arrived after swaying up the coast line from Northern California.
It took us 5 hours to get there on time and when we did, we were all severely
sea sick. There was a nice wooden bridge over a creek which emptied into the
venue. When we got into the bar it was empty except for some folks having a
bite out on the patio and a bartender whom Chris asked:
"Is the sound man here yet?"
"No sound man tonight, Peter, the owner didn't feel like hiring one."
"Is the owner here?"
"Uh nope."
"Do you know when he's coming back? If there's not going to be a
sound man then someone's got to show me what equipment you got."
"Uh nope." He apparently didn't know too much of anything. So we
decided to investigate the stage situation ourselves.
When we went to the stage it was empty...no mics no cables no
monitors and only a tinny little board and a couple straight mic stands not
meant for guitar player/singers. I felt sick to my stomach and then I turned
'round and caught sight of one of our posters. Under my picture they'd
promoted me as "The daughter of James Taylor and Carly Simon." Which we'd
asked them not to do. The reasons we don't like to be promoted that way are
numerous: #1 Because it turns us more into a circus act than a band. #2
We're trying to create a career of our own and to be promoted in reference to
my parent's careers contradicts what we're trying to accomplish #3 It gives
drunk people full liberty to come up and ask/tell me inappropriate things
like "Dude I think I slept with your mom in the 60's." "I'm your father's
illegitimate child." "I'm an old friend of your parents, I met them once at
a Yankee's game and so I need to get their address." "Who is 'You're so Vain
about?" "I might be wrong but I don't think you mother was wearing a bra on
that on that Anticipation cover. Am I right?" You get the idea. Don't get
me wrong, I love my parents tremendously and I love their music. But no one,
an I mean NO ONE, wants to talk about their parents all night! And we ask
venues very nicely and contractually not to bill us in relation to them. So
when we walk in the door and see the posters that we've sent them with my
parents names selling our show, what we see is a big "Fuck You." And so the
billing, the long curvy drive and the fact that apparently no one at the
venue gave a shit that we'd come to play their joint made us feel like
anything but playing a show.
Still slightly woozy from the car adventure, we stumbled and bumble
back across the bridge toward Moby. It was a beautiful sunny day and we sat
down out side at the corner cafe for a group meeting and a little distance
from the situation at hand. We had two options: #1 To leave. To just pack
up the van close the doors and drive off. Or #2 To suck it up and play. We
felt like leaving we were so upset. But we also realized that to leave would
be to take out our anger on the crowd who were planning on coming out to see
us and it's not their fault that the people who own the bar are idiots. I
mean, we came to play, and so after much discussion and ventilation, we
decided to ignore the stupidity that we'd encountered thus far, and do the
gig.
We loaded in and set up what equipment was available to us and sound
checked. We watched some of the Tour De France on ESPN which blared and
continued to play, tauntingly through out our set over above the bar. I was
not much in the spirit of music. I felt raped by the night, my lungs too
skinny to breath. The audience was small but attentive and helped us pull it
together enough to have a decent set. People danced and seemed to enjoy
themselves. And the knowledge that we'd never have to play The Ashland Creek
Bar and Grill again brought enough of a smile to our faces that the grimaces
were partially masked.
After the show, we very politely thanked them for having us and
loaded out. The night tasted like sugar. It was so wet and maple-ly that
the wind struggled to make it's way through the viscous sticky sweet air that
had made it's trees stiff and cotton candy like.
Sometimes before I get on stage I have to remind myself to rise above
it all, all the noise I mean, that I make inside my own head, so that I can
hear the cleanness of the music. I remind myself I have to be stronger than
the fears I'd have consume me and break me and make me able to have to give
up......again...and again..... and again......and then, from there, from the
quiet, from the strength of my silence, I can start the song.
July 9 - The White Eagle, Portland OR
Wendys, that's where we are, just across from the hotel in the
parking lot, waiting for Brian and Soucy to get breakfast...here in the sun
and the middle of 1:00.... and here they come to bring that fast food smell
to our van. That stench wraps it's way into the car's upholstery and lasts for
miles and miles and miles. Ketchup and beef and bread and plastic
wrapper....mmmmmmmm.
Critters Buggin' is playing in honor of our trip up to Seattle, an
air drummer's delight. We're missing the woman's soccer final on TV but
we're getting it on the radio. I'm so glad that woman's sports are finally
getting the coverage they deserve. Those girls out there on the field,
they're my heroes.
We slept well last night, much better than the night before at "The
Goodnight Inn," where the lights buzzed, the TV floated like they do in the
hospitals, the sink dribbled, the key chain was an iron ball, and people
fought the way they're suppose to in places like this, stereotypically next
door and through the walls. The bed I slept in was so huge and
uncomfortable that I went to sleep with my head pointed east and woke up
facing west. I think I swam there.
We got up early (10:00) and Chris and I decided to go for a little
joggity jog. But when we got out onto the road I developed one of those
cramps that makes breathing hurt. Chris went on ahead of me and I decided to
speed walk down the country road we'd veered off onto from the highway,
regardless of how silly I looked doing it. It was a beautiful day and I
cruised in my tinny, one step in front of the other, strut passing first the
trailer parks where the entrance gates said: "55 years and over ONLY," and
then further down the road I speed walked past a cashmire goat farm.
On my way back I felt that unsettling sensation of someone else's
company and turned around to see a kid who must have been fourteen or
fifteen, wearing a white baseball cap backwards and kicking at a stone across
the street. When I looked back he looked up and I waved. I felt a rush of
fear and then I heard footsteps running up behind me. I clenched my eyes
shut and preyed he didn't mean me harm. He slowed down as he caught up to
me.
"Uh...what's you're name? My uh friends want to know." He studdered.
"Sally," I said suprised
"My name's Rex," he said and turning around he ran off. I thought
of how sad that it was that I'd had to be scared of that sweet young guy.
When I got back to the motel I took a bath because, even
though there was a showerhead, there was no shower to be had. And then
Kenny and I watched "Lost in Space," the episode with Athena where Dr.
Smith has the showdown with the green viking.
The drive was long but not windy and so I slept mostly. Portland was
hot. We were told it had just begun to be summer this past Monday and that
it had come just in time "People were starting to get sick of the cold," some
one told me and I all I could envision was a town full of people shaking
their fists at the sky and complaining to the weather. I really like it up
here on the north of the west. That we had a good show doesn't hurt.
Again the White Eagle filled in nicely and we got that cool
familiar community vibe. People squatted on benches and sat crosslegged
on the floor staring and straining the music out of the wrapper; namely us,
the lights, the stage and our instraments. I felt, at moments, that we
existed outside of ourselves, in memories, on the very outside layer, on the
surface of skin where children get their faces painted, look down and see,
for the first time without a mirror, the tip of their nose, the bulge of
their cheek, and a few bottom lashes. I felt little.
Thank you Portland....Again
July 10 - The Tractor Tavern, Seattle WA
It took us longer than we'd expected to get to Seattle and my nerves
were slightly tangled and caught up in the not so favorite memories of our
last Seattle gig at "The Sit and Spin." The game
room/bar/restaurant/psychedelic retro venue/laundromat, where our turn out had
been next to nil and the fun factor, despite the gaming room, walls plastered
in board games, was low to say the least. Every one had warned me that
Seattle was a tough place to play and that was a "10-4," confirmed and
stamped after our first gig up there in March. "Give it some time," people
in the S.a.S. insisted, after that show, "It'll take a while but word of
mouth will spread and you'll get a crowd out here." I asked how long,
approximately, "a while" was, but they just laughed.
When we got into town it was sunny to everyone's surprise and delight
and we parked up on University hill and walked around. Everyone was out and
obviously wearing shorts and tanks for the first time all year. You could
tell because everyone either had horrible burns in progress or were so
bleach-white they were reflecting the sun. It was pretty frightening
actually, Seattle looked like it was populated by vampires. Every one with
their pierces, and their black black clothes against their white white
irridescent, see through skin. It was freaky.
We ate lunch at Chang's Mongolian Grille all you can eat restaurant.
They cook the food right in front of you on a big hot circular table and you
get free ice cream with your meal regularly but each time we've been there
they tell us that their ice cream machine is broke. I stopped into a side
store on the way back to the van and bought some pens for the boys with women
whose ink bathing suits drain them naked when you tilt them upside down and I
got some chocolate for myself.
The Tractor Tavern is a largish venue with a room for the stage and
dance floor and an adjoining room with a bar. The barmaid barely lifted her
head as we filed in to check out the room, but she yelled loudly to announce
to the sound man that we'd arrived.
We were the first of three bands and therefore, the only band to get
a sound check. The other two bands were already from Seattle: "Johnny
Astro," a lounge band that Brian took to fondly referring to as "The batman
band," and another band called "Juke." We got to hang out and talk shop with
them which is one of our favorite things to do. We got from them the lowdown on the Seattle music scene. From what I could tell, the Seattle "live"
music scene is in a state of distress. Too many bands, too many venues being
converted into DJ's and electronica disco-terias, and too many people getting
jaded about going out to see live music. Seattle also seems pretty
xenophobic to me. I hardly recognized any of the names on the rosters for
the other local clubs. The guys from Juke said that it used to be that every
club had 3 band nights every night of the week and that now it was rare to
find a venue doing 3 bands anywhere any time. I guess these folks up here
are just burnt out but I felt like I was in a foreign country.
We got on stage at 10 and played in the light of the dark in the
hollow, blackness, to the Seattleite's faces who we could not see but held us
up with their hands...clapping....clapping "Keep Going Keep Going
Keeeeeppppppp Goooooingggg on!" And so we did. And so we do. And so we are.
July 12 - Zephyr Club - Salt Lake City, UT
If you're a Mormon and you live in Salt Lake City, you can't wear
make-up, you can't drink caffeine, you can't drink liquor (unless you belong
to a certain drinking club) and you can't make a left hand turn. Not
anywhere in SLC is there a place you can take a left. Maybe their philosophy
is that if you're not going left, then you must ONLY be going THE RIGHT WAY.
We arrived exhausted from our long journey from Seattle and circled some
blocks, passing near The Zephyr, but without a left, we couldn't quite get
there. "Big Ben, Parliament," we'd all say laughingly as we took the next
right and watched the venue grow smaller and smaller.
When we finally got there we were delightfully surprised with both the
size and the sound of the place. Everyone there was really nice to work with
and all of the sudden it didn't matter that we had to take the left hand tour
of the Mormon City. We had some time to kill before the show and the boys
went to eat while I went back to the room to shower and exercise my voice.
The streets were empty on that Monday night as I walked back to the club,
and I felt as though I had been miniaturized and was walking through a
combination of my childhood's "Barbie Dream House" and a Dali painting. The
sky was pink and golden like the stickers on a Sit N' Spin, the perfectly
undefined white buildings stretched up beyond the sky, as though at their
tops Dali had turned them into trees, people in front of me were people,
people in back of me were monsters. The emptiness struck me as haunted and I
imagined myself, tiny, standing on a single white pearl earring (that some
rich camelback rider had lost forever while on vacation), in the middle of
the desert, alone.
The Zephyr brought me back to reality. I felt like I had entered a hug.
The lights were soothing, the coffee I'd had back at the hotel had given me
the lift that I needed and I could taste the joy of confetti and tinsel that
I sometimes get from the right amount of caffeine.
A great band was opening up for us, and a good crowd had showed up to see
us. Upstairs in our dressing room, a couple of old sandy dogs sat,
uninvited, doing lines of coke and drinking our beers. When we asked them to
leave they said "yeah, in a while." So we had to call in the Big Dogs.
The show was great. People danced and had a really good time, as did we.
People were so giving and generous. It was arguably the best show of the
tour and we were grateful for that. Really Grateful!!!!!!
7/24 - The Howlin' Wolf, Aspen, CO.
It's been raining here every day, just for 70 to 100 minutes or so,
but the sky opens up so so wide, and because I'm from back east, I'm always
sure it will never stop. But it does and by evening, as predictable as
night, Colorado is ready for her sunset.
The Howlin' Wolf has changed locations. She used to live in a tiny
Victorian cottage just off main street Aspen, and now she lives underground.
Her den is made of brick and it's light like oranges and spacious despite
its being beneath the street.
Aspen is a good vibe, compared to Vail, which always seems sort of
like a fast food drive-thru to me. When we arrived in town we saw kids
playing with balloons in the fountains across from the Wheeler Opera House
and fit people striding briskly on their way from the gym; pre rain, we
strode briskly too. We had lunch with our new new new friend Tom, who I had
never met before (friend of a friend) but he bought the whole band lunch....
Which makes him almost our favorite person. During lunch, they sky came down
and people in their aspen white scrambled from tables outside, wine glasses
still in hand, as the ocean from the sky came down. People laughed
embarrassedly at themselves as they pulled their slightly transparent
clothing away from their bodies and took new seats inside. And there was
born a Great Gatsby setting. A new life for our lunch.
It spittled for a while after we left the restaurant but not
terribly. Not "run for your life" rain. Not even "duck your head and keep
on moving" rain and for some reason we strolled even though we were late for
sound check. I forgot to bring strings so I ran to a music store and ran
into Mitchell Long, while I was there. Mitchell is a fabulous jazz musician,
also in town from Boulder for a gig. He said to come over to his restaurant
show between 7-11. He's Brian and Chris's guru and when I told them he was
coming to our show after his, they both got delightfully nervous.
Paul at the Howlin' Wolf, invited us to all stay at his pad at Woody Creek. It's this fantastic cabin in the outside of Aspen. It's right next to a creek (thus the name: "Woody Creek") and though the TV didn't work
(thank God) we all curled up in the living room in blankets and couches and
watched the only video available to us: "Jerry Maguire."
After a much needed hour veg, we dressed and went into town to catch
some of Mitchell's Brazilian gig. He was playing under a huge, bright blue,
pink, and orange, Mexican painting with a little PA set up behind him.
People were there to eat. We were there to watch and admire. We were
seated on the patio under a white umbrella heater which "Shhh-ed" and kept us
delicately from the night. Mitchell was marvelous. During the concert a
waiter, dressed up in a French accent, came to our table. "Can I help you?"
he asked to which I responded "I would love some tea." which he wrote it down
as though he might hold it against me in the court of law. "Oh some hot
chocolate please," Requested Rebecca. "No," said the waiter, and we all looked
at him surprised at his out of place reprimanding tone. When he brought me
my tea and Delucchi his coffee and Brian his water, he said: "I will have to
ask you, if you want another drink, to go to the bar next time. I will bring
you these for this time but don't ask me again," and I wondered why he'd
asked if he could "help" us in the first place. "Just the check then." I
said. It was the first time I didn't leave a tip in my life. The incident
really upset Delucchi. "It's the kind of thing I HATE," he said as we
strolled up to get CD's out of Moby, "that _______, ___ ____!!!! That's so
_____ up. What a ______, ___." He said and he remarked angrily about the
incident for the rest of the night.
The show was fun but loud due to the bricks lining the walls, like a
pizza kiln. People mostly sat during the first set and danced through the
second set while I stood tall above them, my head nearly touching the ceiling
in my 4 1/2" shoes, covered in the red light. Chris got the blue light,
Kenny took the green light (after I complained that the green one made me
look like Kermit the frog) and Brian got no light at all. Mitchell did
indeed come and play with us and we had a famous time just hanging out late
night with the Howlin' Wolf.
Of course, after our 15 minute drive to Woody Creek, I realized that I'd left my camera, my purse, my make-up bag and the merch/mailing list outside of the venue on a table in the middle of the night and Chris had to
drive me back at 4 am to get them. I was just so jazzed that it was all
still there.
We got back at quarter past, and passed out, in the little rooms
next to the Woody Creek river.
7/17 Chataqua House, Boulder CO
It's so nice to be home again. It's such a luxury to be able to play a
show and then drive home, to your own bed, to your own plants, and your own
books and your own burrow with all of your own clothes in it, and to be able
to take a bath without wondering who was in it last, and to listen to some
music without head phones because you know no one else will hear.
Ah beautiful Chataqua underneath the flat irons. Those frontrange
mountains that we live up against, all purple and brave. It rained yesterday
the way it does in the summers here, an hour here - an hour there - but it hardly
stops the sun from coming down at us. It merely cools us and breezes us and
reminds us that there is an up in our three dimensional world. The clouds
dug across the sky at us like boats, singular and heavy. And they release
steadily, drawing water lines across the earth.
We played early. The venue was small and intimate. A community house
built in the pre-teen years of the 20th-century, dwarfed by her sister theater
"The Chataqua Arena" maybe ten years her senior and beautifully built. I
imagined, as Rey the promoter, took me on a mini tour, that this is what it
must have looked like inside the Trojan Horse.
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