dissinformation

day in the life

2009-08-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday aug 25
After a great night out at Anaheim stadium and disappointing nightcap at turcs of sunset beach, I awake in good humor with the soothing sounds of the pacific ocean rumbling in my ears. Getting down to the business at hand of washing clothes and making phone calls to birds crew in chitown for a recap of the euro tour, I eventually jump in the rent a wreck en route to Hollywood for my first day of 15 with Scottish sensations, franz Ferdinand.
It is a rather lackluster drive up through the flat lands of the south bay inland area and up the 110 under the watchful eyes of a plethora of police helicopters. I make it to my hotel in a reasonable time to check in, drop the car off, and set about my business of the day, a very leisurely paced day, I may add. I run into a couple of the boys for a quick hello and manage to wolf down some fish tacos to keep a clean sheet of Mexican food every day whilst in sunny so cal. I finally enjoy my first solid internet connection since venturing westward and steam roll through some unanswered mails, the guts,glamour, and glory of a tour manager in todays world.
5pm bus call for our trip to the fabulous forum, the house that dreams were made of for the glory days of west, wilt, worthy, magic, kareem, kobe and shaq. Nice to see everyone again for the winding ride southbound through the Crenshaw , culver city and Baldwin hills. We park up, are met by Julie, the bands assistant and work our way into the bowels of the forum(and I must say, bowels would be a fairly apt assessment). Tonight is the fellas last night with green day, and I am sure they are a bit apprehensive as to what the last nights spoof may be. I have seen plenty of strange things on the last night of a tour over the years, tonight should be no different.
My first franz show on this record, is a quick one, support style, replete with a mock cannon, toilet paper guns, and a celtic marching band. Afterwards the green day boys come along to the dressing room for a fine champagne toast of cristal- p diddys personal beverage. Now we are really feeling like we are in l.a., sequestered in what I had been led to believe was jack nicholsons personal party space, replete with an old school electric cooker for those hot kniving evenings of yore. Catering definitely mustve been the special hellhole assigned to the boston Celtics to return the favor for the wee shitbox reserved for road teams at the old garden.
After the rapid fire show, mr kapranos, Julie and I leg it over to the wiltern for 35 minutes of the dead weather which lalo was gracious enough to bump us in the back door. Brilliant rock show and real happy to catch with all sorts of peeps hanging out aftershow, way too numerous to mention in the confines of this space. Suffice to say, a good night was had by all, as we said good night and those departed for pool parties, room parties, after parties and god knows what else. Me , I retired horizontally speaking to the missus and watching law and order reruns. Not bad for the first day of tour.

the king and i

2008-08-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

so lazy this past while, the shins was far too busy to sit around hotel rooms in my boxer shorts drinking berocca and hoping for the best. besides, there was work to do. here is the next generation and his dad, age 1

all points taken!

2008-08-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

apparently a radiohead concert happened at liberty state park over the weekend and a festival broke out

2008-04-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

high coup

2007-03-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

march 5 dallas the palladium
1st day of tour blues
to a packed out texas house
lee harveys later
march 6 houston verizon wireless theatre
Houston hangover
And some phone threat psycho blues
Early to bed, nice
March 7 austin backyard
Willie nelsons place
And the best catering yet
Brilliant vibes outside
March 8 off Nashville
Jacks barbecue, mmm
And tournament time on tv
Fast asleep by 10
March 9 ryman auditorium SOLD OUT
The birth of bluegrass
And awestruck in this hallowed hall
After show rockabilly
March 10 winston salem millennium center SOLD OUT
Bizarre haunt downtown
And frisky sold out punters
Harpers is bizarre
March 11 dc off
More tournament time
And stoneys bar and grill drinks
No buy backs in dc
March 12 dc constitution hall SOLD OUT
HOME OF THE DAR
With a former fugazi
In attendance,, sure
March 13 philly electric factory sold out
Shit hits the fan for
Tomorrow, murphys law time
Dressing room cheesesteaks
Mar 14 theatre at msg SOLD OUT
The day of all days
In the bigtime of msg
Daddys aftershow
March 15 boston Orpheum SOLD OUT
Freezing rain again
Just like last tour, malloy bros
Kick out the late night
March 16 montreal metropoplis SOLD OUT
Best show of the cycle
And the loudest crowd thus far
Foufones electrique
March 17 toronto koolhaus SOLD OUT
Sausage party day
Or st patricks day, car bombs
And the pogues late night

usa redux

2007-03-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Its haiku time again
Sunday feb 11 st louis mo, the pageant theatre, SOLD OUT
We find our thrills at
Blueberry hill restaurant
Fried food and bloodys
Monday march 12 lawrence Kansas liberty hall SOLD out
A night in the snow
At the gaslight, pear shaped shots
We get so lawrenced
March 13 lawrence Kansas liberty hall sold out
More snow and massage
Therapy with barbecue
Now that’s a hangover
March 14 denver kbco boulder performance
Flat tire in the ice
Storm and not a key fete, either
With kline and weaver
March 15 denver fillmore sold out
A big new mex posse
Rolls their way northbound on I
25, good times
march 16 salt lake city in the venue SOLD OUT
blown to Cheyenne and
back and not the way one likes
pity poor slc
march 17 boise Egyptian theatre sold out
amazing day in
boise, a classy joint to
be sure, that’s classy
march 18 seattle paramount theatre sold out
almost home, and it
feels as such, stans labyrinth
nails the show from high
march 19 vansterdam commodore ballroom sold out
easy in country
and a bar mans mess again
free fluevogs today
march 20 seattle paramount sold
easy street instore
and the upright piano
too late aftershow
march 21 pdx crystal ballroom sold out
voodoo doughnuts and
jakes crawfish for oyster shots
union jacks afters

my kind of town, chicago is

2007-02-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

Feb 10 milwaukee eagles ballroom
Tis a mild 15 degrees out whence we roll into the parking lot of the eagles ballroom. I head out to check into the dayrooms, as I have heard that the showers here are scary. The last time I remember being in this building, we had to hotfoot it out of there. Different times indeed. So basically it is a day spent next to a radiator in a production office, enjoying some pretty darn good bbq. The ballroom upstairs is a beautiful round, sort of like the Hollywood palladium. And man there are an awful lot of people showing up tonight, 2840 to be exact. I think that is the sum total of audiences in Milwaukee in my entire career. It is immense.
The guys spend the day in the opium denlike backstage area watching reality tv, these things are like viruses, very virulent viruses at that. We get to groove on viva voce as they play a rocking set to the very partisan crowd. Our guys hit the stage and the place goes nuts throughout the set. It is not as brilliant as last nite in mpls, but the kinks are definitely being ironed out. By the time we hit ‘new slang’, the place is awash with cel phones and good times. This generations lighters, I guess. Afterwards we have the requisite snack session backstage, replete with red wine and a bunch of ej/s family members and some of the voce mates from chitown. We take it pretty handy out in the parking lot, as tomorrow is the windy city.
Feb 11 chicago congress theatre sold out
We get in early, breakfast at el cid, the best breakfast burrito I have had not made by my lovely missus. It is so good I cannot help but share with hernadez out on the bus. Everyone is hooked and they are off to el cid. We get inside early, introducing ourselves to the house of blues crew, and prepare ourselves for the very easy day.
I lock myself into the production office and work towards the next three tours, we have a drum tech today which is quite helpful for mr zivich and crew, things go real smooth until the IEM/s take a shite sometime during soundcheck, fortunately the kids from the grammy institute miss out on that one.
I manage a walk outside but the windchill is excruciating, as much as I may want to head out for dinner, the fish tacos for lunch sufficed, they were stellar.
So it is 630pm and al;l systems are go, the entire Johnson family seems to have arrived as well as some other familial sorts. God I love Chicago, I am beginning to think that there is no finer city in the united states. It has it all and brains to boot. The best looking crowd I have seen in sometime, I can say that much. And we get all sorts of surprise visitors, including the lemos family, nice to hang out with them, to be sure.
Vv hit the stage to a sparsely populated but enthusiastic house, and by the time they are off, there are an awful lot of Midwesterners out there tonight, and it becomes very apparent which side their bread is buttered on, as the roar(to put it mildly) reaches a tumultuous crescendo, the one time my cel phone fails to record. It is very impressive, and they lads proceed to play the show of the tour. I manage to catch most of the show throughout various spots of the room, a beautiful old vaudeville theater near logan square. By day cold and spooky, by night all warm and fuzzy, I guess that/s the way it/s going to be. Aftershow, everyone is delighted as we have our first big post show hang with guests. We go en masses with april, the house monitor engineer, to the green eye bar under the el tracks at western. Good times and tamales ensue. Sometime later, and well scoobied, we call it a night and head for st louis.

world domination enterprises

2007-02-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

Wednesday feb 7 2007, Minneapolis Minnesota
I arrive in the am on northwest into Minneapolis, and man are we in the greater, whiter north. All I can say is that new york is like Barbados at the moment in comparison to this scheisse. But hey, it/s winter in Minnesota!
In the cab, to the hotel, in the room , and all that jazz, I set about to having the most productive day in yonks even in battling a prehistoric internet connection and a microwave that predates Jeffrey dahmers cannibalism. As it stands, egveryone is in the air and potentially on time. So much so, that I have to turn down t wolves tix in a battle of the cellar dwellers v golden state.
Everyone arrives in good spirits despite battling 24 hour tropical nasties at home. We are finally get on the submarine, 11 men on a bus, coming to your town soon. The mood is anticipatory, as james says, ‘lets sell the fucking album’. After some brief formalities, most of the mob head off in the sky way to look for a beer and burger joint. I go and actually run two miles and have a swim before being bounced from the Jacuzzi by drunken denizens of a former soviet republic that would not go amiss on folsom street in September. I am out of there quicker than a boris yeltsin drink order at the g-8 summit, and back to the shack for duke v north Carolina, a nail biter, before settling into some law and order, my sleeping pill of choice. Ready for the first day of world domination.

Thursday feb 8 1st avenue, Minneapolis, mn SOLD OUT
So here it is, day 1, finalmente, and we are all down for breakfast, a free breakfast in our very bizarre yet charming downtown hotel. And I have to say, to a man, everyone is eating oatmeal, which makes me think, that since this is zivich/s bday, that oatmeal may come in handy later in the day.
So it is back to the shack, I managed to crawl a mile or so on the treadmill, fire off a few more emails, rally the troops on the bus and take marty and james to a radio station in the boon docks who was severely lost from block one, prompting me to offer to drive. After much rigamarole, we make it there with police escort(you got me runnin’), the lads knock it out in 5, we get an intern escort back. And man, everything has arrived but a lone Gibson el capitan bass. Conrad is our host once again, and it is familiar faces all over. We have to face our first soundcheck party today, and it aint easy considering half our shite is broken due to the cold, and when I say cold, I should preface the whole days doings by adding , 20 below. You get the picture.
So the boys fight through it, the cold, the anticipation, and the eagerness. The general consensus amongst all of us is, lets do this thing. And do it we did.
The vibe in the room is electric, and the club has done their gosh darnedest to usher them in from the bitter cold. Everyone is ready, as one punter gleefully shouts, ‘we/ve waitied two 2 fucking years for this’ during the intro to sleeping lessons. Zivich and I are on scrim duty, and man, we nailed it. What ensues is 90 minutes of indie bliss, everyone knows all of the words and the biggest knuckleheads in the room are reduced to joyous shouts. And I fail to mention the fact that viva voce came out and completely nailed the people to the floor, the family robinson left em gobsmacked. What a bill!
Afterwards, the customary post prandial patrons, its as if the guys just won game 1 in a best of 7, a well earned victory against a formidable , fickle opponent. As the boys come off the stage, a very unassuming Youngman subtly states, ‘the entire state of Minnesota is proud to have you start your tour here, thanks’. Pretty groovy.
And the night does not finish there, as it is zivich/s bday and we are off to o/donovans for car bombs, van Morrison, autograph sigining, car bombs, makers mark, roadie escorts, u2, car bombs, autograph seekers, friendly cocktail waitresses, more u2, and finally we have to get the flip out of there and crawl into our respective bunks and hammer down to Milwaukee for round 2 of this heavyweight title match. Displaced at number 2 from some chancer from American Idol, what the f*7k is wrong with

no mas mierda

2006-10-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well we are in an industrial estate outside of Bordeaux where the Renault service vans parked up offer le soixante neuf and les letters francaises with dubious looking Nubian transistors at the wheel. At least there is some respite outside of the dank, damp, smoky stinky club. But hey, we are in Bordeaux, what do you want?(internet, towels, toilet paper, no smoking,-simple shite!)
Shit nearly 3 weeks behind again, thus it is haiku time
We see laetitia
From stereolab came down
So bored of Bordeaux
Tuesday oct 3 lyon ninkasi kao SOLD OUT
Sam and I go to
The foxy French doctor, yikes
Chest infection time
Wednesday oct 4 zurich rote fabrik SOLD OUT
Looking for needle
Park but only find the pirate
Circus on the lake
Thursday oct 5 paris elysee montmarte sold out
Manic panic on
The load in belies the best show
Of the tour, brilliant
Friday oct 6 paris off
Laundry, the kids, crepes
Rainstorm, the duncans, red wine
Beauty in montmartre
Saturday oct 7 luxembourg den atelier
Pate sandwiches
And a great local crew makes
The mussels worthwhile
Sunday oct 8 brussels botanique SOLD OUT
I get to see the
Sprouts in the morning with mom
And croque monsiuers, yumm
Monday oct 9 leeds off
Waterstones, virgin
Megastore little miss sun
Shine and pie and ale
Tuesday oct 10 leeds cockpit SOLD OUT
Humanzi, naked
Hipsters break the code of the
Road, and im smoking
Wed oct 11 glasgow abc
Red wine and steak pie
With young doctor o connot
And nice and sleazy
Thursday oct 12 manchester academy 2 SOLD OUT
Rotten showers and
The beast is late with the pre
Fab sarnies, thanks john
Friday oct 13 london forum SOLD OUT
A defining time
Of the tour, like the wiltern
Better to not blink
Saturday oct 14 cardiff barfly SOLD OUT
Zane lowes gonzo tour
In the welsh capital, more
Pie and ale with d
Sunday oct 15 dublin meeting house square SOLD OUT
Last show of the tour
Psychobillyfreakouts for
Sure, no surrender

internot

2006-10-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

Wednesday sept 20 frankfurt mousonturm SOLD OUT
Great venue near the zoo, and yet another glorious chamber of commerce day here in Deutschland. I hide out in the production office and nurse my pneumonia upstairs. There is so much smoking going on I feel like puking. Jamie liddell and snacks show up to do some drinking and recording in the back lounge. It seems that there was likely more drinking than recording. The show is packed, sold out in fact, and the crowd loves it. There are definitely people diddling each other in the crowd, and a crazy fuck actually pulls out his schwanze during shake yr dix and windwills the back of the head of his boost. Crazy krauts. Afterwards there is a wee party in the parking lot, I crawl into my bed to try and finish this dull Michael Jordan book, which still fails to say that he went to play baseball as a suspension for gambling. Just say it for crying out loud.
Thursday sept 21 munich backstage
It seems everything is gonna get my goat today. The trailer, the venue, the pneumonia, the Indian food, the passport photos, the speaker phone, the skype, the Japanese visa info which I am processing but not going, the getting the sack info third hand, and god forbid it is poor richies 2 year anniversary and we are being difficult. Nothing at the venue works, though the promoter tries his best to make us happy. Maybe partying will help.
Friday sept 22 milano club rainbow
So we get in a bit later than due to swiss mountains and Italian border guards. Oh well. We make it and are greeted by carlo, who looks after blonde redhead and immediately are taken for some espressos. Real nice. Back to the venue for the load and the shower(handicapped styley) and of course no internet. I get the passport info taken care of thanks to teo from the record label. The day is glorious, we spend the afternoon on the side of the street before heading off to dinner for some steak and pasta. A family affair, which is vaguely reminiscent why families are crazy. Back to the venue, the show is hopping, a great rambunctious crowd, a bunch of friends of sams join the party on the bus aftershow and we try to roll our rock to rome for an early get in. the key word there is try.
Saturday sept 23 roma circolo degli artisti SOLD OUT
So it takes forever(and a day) to get to rome, and we promptly get lost and it looks like the trailer is broken again.yay! the driver has decided to quit smoking which turns into a real treat for all of us.( as fionna says, ‘why do they always crack’) we finally get parked, the boss blows off all her press, the girls head off to sight see, and I hunker down in the production office to solve some problems thus negating any form of turismo in italy.
Pietro and his colleague romina take care of business for us and ensure us of a great disco load out. The show is very punk rock, loads of shit does not seem to work, but the energy is there. The crowd loves it, we eat an amazing dinner with more types of fish than a godddamn aquarium, the load out is very disco, there are more foxy signoras outside than an amateur beauty contest, and I soon realize that is don enzo/s 50th bday and what would/ve been my 11th anniversary. Time flies. I call the bronsons and there is still no kid, but they are close. We are now officially on the road to god knows where, sans the boss.
Sunday sept 24 sur la route
We stop in nice and eat moules frites and pate de canard with the crew. Of course, it being a day off the weather is shit.n hey now and mark the lampie jump in the med Afterwards we have an ipod party on the bus and everyone gets heroically drunk. Not a drop wasted, me thinks.
Monday sept 25 sur la route
We awake in bilbao with no sign of the double driver. Everything is closed. I tuck into my lionel shriver book to read the horror of parenthood. Not hungover, but dumb and stricken with what feels like walking pneumonia. Keeping it green, me thinks. We bounce our way through spain, finally stopping for showers and tapas in Salamanca.
I get to watch the bus, everyone else sight sees. It looks amazing this big plaza.
Tuesday sept 26 lisbon paradise garage SOLD OUT
So peaches has been in Portugal for 24 hours and has a case of separation anxiety from the band. They are all summonsed to the hotel and whisked off to lunch for octopus and what not. Our day room has evaporated along with the hospitality and everything else. At least we are getting hijacked wifi in the street. Because the dressing room is located next to an open sewer, smells real good. I go back to the bus, to watch the alternator being fixed on the side of the road and deal with more Japanese shit. Later , mark, the driver , and I go for bacalao and steaks around the corner and watch man u beat benefica. Thank god we do not have English plates. Later the crowd goes bananas for the show, we hang out in the sewer for 10 minutes and drive to Madrid.
Wednesday sept 27 madrid arena
So I have been here before. A real gross backstage and the strange subterranean parking under the plaza oriente. The day is spent juggling, sweating, rearranging, trying to find internet, wet nursing, contemplating air Iberia flights, eating crappy fried food that is quite expensive for new york standards, and then doing a show. Afterwards we pack and drive to Barcelona.
Thursday sept 28 barcelona apolo
So the rapture are at razzmatazz tonight which does not bode well for ticket sales. We get stuck in an intersection right near the club and have to get bailed out by the police. This driver had best start smoking as the chinks in the armor are turning into chasms. We finally get out of it(gps should be a guide, not a bible!) and move into the club. The local rep gets the boss into the dayroom asap, and the rest of the girls are off sight seeing for the day. We actually get internet and decent showers today, so everyone takes advantage of the situation. I even manage to get my rags cleaned. Later fionna, jd and I go for bocadillos and rose(and carajillos, mmmm) at the bar downstairs of the apolo. Show time and the corwd is well up for it, some homely lesbians who apparently were fist fucking each other at a le tigre show took their tops off in the front row. Not nice, to be sure. I nearly pass out from all the coughing, and send people off to the party for the hour before departure. Hey now even manages to nearly score some bimbozo in the street. He is like the new bounty. The similarities between this and the swans tour of 97 are looming larger. Whose arse are we gonna kick in London?
Friday sept 29 marseille marsatac w/ rapture and mogwai
So we miss brekkie after a detour through Barcelona and get everyone situated and loaded in. we get the boss to the day room on the old port and I do my best to avoid looking at the all female backstage staff. Good lord! After hours of trying the internet and confirming my gig with the shins for next month, I take the advice of one of les milfes francaises and take the walk around the harbor. What an amazing city. I also thought that I would die a horrible death in a Marseille hotel room. Must/ve been all the genet in college. Then again, perhaps it is never too late. That ferry next to the bus en route to tangiers is also looking enticing. But noooo. We eat the fish and the duck salad and drink the wine and eat the veal and watch the mogwai and check the email and watch the rapture and drink the wine and change it over and play the show and catch the stage divers and load the gear and drink the wine and get in the bus for the 12 hour drive.
saturday sept 30 off poitiers
busitis, I finish lionel shriver and segue into joyce carol oates, rape: a love story. Real happy reading here. We make it to the hotel in poitiers. Everyone is hating the hotel. I take a shower, feed the ducks and head out with mark and droadie for a quik burger. All the boys head out to do laundry. I retire with some red wine to watch a tim burton docko, then another docko directed by wim wenders about skip james. Droadie and I drink a bottle of vin rouge and watch jsbx, nick cave, and Cassandra Wilson do their versions of skip james songs. Pretty cool in that, I know loads of people who must/ve been involved. The droadie split to party with the girls downstairs and I sleep the sleep of drunken angels. Or ones with pneumonia , at least.
Sunday oct 1 poitiers le confort moderne
An old squat on the outside of town, the kind of place that only exists in Europe. Restaurant, record shop, gallery, good people. Today I can taste lake Michigan, but I still have nearly 3 weeks to go. The internet is internot, though we are able to tell that vince young made his first nfl start for Tennessee. How long for leinhardt? The day progresses as per usual-meaning interview, line check, soundcheck,lunch, dinner, internot. Same shit, different color. I skype the usa looking for inspiration in a set of head phones. Like I said.
The club is perfectly laid out. It is a blue print for the perfect rock club in a way. The crowd, though, has to qualify as the quietest crowd of the tour. For a moment I think that we are in japan. Finally the boss comments on it at the first song of the encore, and they make an effort. When the girls are walking off after the encore, they really give it up, but until then, crikey, you/d have thought that we were at a wake between songs. I nearly fall asleep at one point. After show, the girls make a dance party in the club with the staff, sounds like a bit of fun. I retire to my bunk to the book and lots of dreams about rats in new york city apartments.

kinkos anyone?

2006-09-20T11:06:00.001-07:00

Sunday September 17 koln stollwerk
Shit loads of advance tix in this old chocolate factory on the rhein. Tomorrow is a day off(hahahahahaha) and we are in hotels for both nights. Yippee. The show takes off in a schick center quit smoking advert. I am going to get emphysema by the time I get out of Europe. Someone bites peaches toe early in the set, and she stops the show to belt her one, or so. The band carries on without missing a note. Tis a nice gig in koln, first time I have enjoyed myself at this venue to be sure, but then again tis the first time it is all working correctly. Mr opper is in town to hang with his missus, so that’s a good vibe. We have a brief after party in the catering and head back to the hotel for the day off. I am sick as fuck and drink a bottle of red and watch an adult movie to put me to sleep. Bill hicks would/ve been proud of the quality.
Monday sept 18 koln off
So it is a morning of rain, the deutsche bank, copy shops(open up a speedy printer inside the dom and make a fortune) and the deutsche post and , super cuts where I get shorn by a lovely little german lass and tip the unthinkable, and then back to the shack for some vomiting and then the lentil soup which comes back up the same way and I am really fucked and hyperventilating, yet somehow manage to pay off the bus company invoice, watch a german futbol match, pay 11 euros for a spike lee movie, but switch to the bill hicks dream show(no wahwah petal or hbma/s, just pure unadulterated filth) still I fall asleep. Is this shit tax deductible? I hyperventilate and vomit through my migraine all night long.
Tuesday sept 19 schorndorf manufaktur
A cool community center next to the railway tracks not far from Stuttgart. What I see of the drive is gorgeous, real bucolic germany. We are greeted with the typical hospitality of these types of places. Welcoming and attitude free, tomorrow is a dance company and yesterday was the dizzy Gillespie cover band. Rock clubs should take note. You do not cure cancer, yu only attempt to put on rock shows, and most of you cannot do it properly.
Yes so anyhoo, back to the shack. I am convinced that I am going to keel over if I have to breathe in 1 more cigarette second hand. For a country that is so green, these fuckers sure can smoke.
We watch the white stripes on you tube from their simpsons thing, then do the show. I confiscate a video camera in the first song, it seems that the guy is diddling his gf during the set, though not on film. I wheeze my way through their 90 minutes, and clamber in my bunk/coffin, awaking some hours later in Frankfurt.

shows 50 and 51

2006-09-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

Thursday sept 14 stockholm debaser medis
A loooong drive from oslo to Stockholm and we are straight into the bowels of a new club. Kristoffer, who did lights with the caesars, is the house light guy, and go figure, adam, the Viking guitar tech also stops by. Droadie and I get to have a few laughs with those guys before getting back to the task at hand. We are all sequestered into the corner of some production office, with frederik who used to tm the hives taking care of us. Great venue and a chamber of commerce type of day, though I see none of it. (this is a growing concern, I am locked into everywhere at all times. Kinda sucks). Show goes off brilliantly, get to hang with a couple of the luger guys, they all disappear to some after party or another , and then the rest of us get completely scoobied on the bus with all of the red wine, before the trailer breaks down 10 minutes outside of Stockholm. We awake in a garage, déjà vu all over again.
Friday sept 15 off busitis scandihouliga
Broken trailer, killing the kids at a suburban Stockholm pool, kicked out of a high school girls soccer practice in my pj/s, back on the bus to this horrendous Michael Jordan biography, lots of cheese with that, blue velvet on the veejit machine, more napping, the bus to and bridge to denmark, hot chip at the vega(hey ian, great to see ya man)-they were pretty cool, accusations of who did what to whom and how come what fore and why, which prompts me to send some investigatory emails. We hotfoot it to the ferry with the double driver , only 1 person wakes up and freaks out, and we are in germany.
Saturday sept 16 rotterdam now and wow
In a huge factory on the maashaven, this place is enormous, cavernous and the rest. We are an hour late but marijke and her crew take care of business in a big way. It is like the old silo squat in Amsterdam down here, but with state of the art production. The goes on beautifully, peach gets to hook up with css and some other friends, and I gets tosay hey to the liars and paul drake, their tm. Finally get around town looking for some photo ops. Later the girls play a killer 1 hour show, do some impromptu press, have a harbor party and we drive to koln.

to the north

2006-09-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday sept 12 copenhagen vega SOLD OUT
We get in early, no one has blown up any buildings in new york city to celebrate five years, so it is all good on my end. The club is great, sort of like an old Danish dance hall that you imagine that the raveonettes parents met one another at. We bury ourselves in the bowels of the building, enjoying some pretty delicious sandwiches, and catching up on paper work. The film dead man walking springs to mind for some reason. I watch the whole show from the level of samanthas feet. Pretty weird. It is super hot and smoky inside, this shit is killing a few of us. The girls play a rocking show despite the lackadaisical crowd and the knee injury. Afterwards we hang out with manoj from the raveonettes and have a few beers as droadie and I both know him. He has moved back to denmark full time and started a new band. Nice to see him…….
Wednesday sept 13 oslo john dee SOLD OUT
So we get stopped at the Norwegian border, which gives me a bit of a fright, as we are running a bit late and if they open that bloody trailer, well who fucking knows. We roll into oslo and there is great catering, no internet, a stone fox of a promoter rep which hey know notices immediately, and clouds for the first time since Poland. I hide out in production most of the day trying to get into some southern European advance to no avail. Mostly waiting for soundcheck to be over so I can meet mr and mrs Malibu(nee Jacobsen) for dinner, which will only be the biff. Great food, great company, great wine, great restaurant. I cannot believe that it is only my 3rd time to oslo and each time I have to drive 500 miles for the next show. What a beautiful city in so many ways. The show goes off brilliantly, much to the delight of the oslo sisterhood, and I am off to bar robinet with the jacobsens and ms rostad and a dwk and the aussie for some overpriced drafts. Fuck it. It is great to see biff as ever. A mensch, and one of the nicest people in rock and roll. Probably why he got out. We have 1 scopp on the bus and get the fuck out of dodge

the best wurst

2006-09-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

it/s not my imagination

2006-09-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

So for the longest time, we are hanging in berlin, doing the p/berg thang, doing the advance Europe(ie talk to germans,brits and scandihouligans and pray for the best everywhere else. Everyone starts reappearing around sept 5 and they get straight into rehearsals, ready for the big berlin show.
Sept 7 berlin postbahnhof SOLD OUT
Day 1 and hometown show jitters. We do all of the requisite cross loads and get out to the extreme east to crack the cases again and start from scratch. It is our first day with richie, our german promoter rep, and my hopes are that all is good, as we are in germany for quite a few days. Ingo from the loft is there, we remember each other from some yyy shows. So I feel like we are in good hands.
The gaste liste is out of control, but I do manage to say a quick hey to jochem from neubaten, and I see the boy from brazil, an old friend from nyc. The show is typical hometown show, too many people with too many expectations. I lock down in the production office, which is where I will be for the following 6 weeks. I miss the opener, as they will be with us for the next while and hang out front for a bit, looking for anything distracting.
The girls take the stage to a tumultuous roar, and proceed to knock it out of the park. You could tell that the locals must/ve dug it, as they were throwing everything imaginable on stage(except themselves, of course). 1 down , 28 to go. They roll their rock upstairs for a bit, before heading over to rio en masse for dj conny/s after party. I hit for 6, anticipating the polish border at 8 am, which we pass with flying colors.
Sept 8 warsaw off
It takes 13 hours or something to get there, we eat toasted cheese and read our books all the way. As squid said, ‘what is this, a fucking library’. It is everyones first trip to Poland, but peach and sam, so we are all excited, especially the Rochester boys, who would have some polish blood. By the time we get to Warsaw, I am wrecked, though. I manage to finish ‘fast food nation’ eat some, and pass out waiting for the lo speed internet.
Sept 9 warsaw wyscigi race track
A festival show on the outskirts of Warsaw at an old communist era horse track. Very cool, me thinks. The weather is glorious, a chamber of commerce type of day, and we are inside in case it rains, in the concourse underneath the grandstand. We spend the bulk of the day going in and out of catering which is top shelf to be sure. The peach has all sorts of interviews on hand which she knocks out with help from our local ‘pilot’. I even run into a kid that ran the counter for years at kasias polish diner on n8th st in bburg. That was a nice surprise. The show runs late, but who cares as there is an hour changeover. It is 60 minutes tonight, basically the set sans encore. It is a very strong show, the crowd is very enthusiastic, but hit the road in time to kick off with daft punk. I spend the evening trying to get myself paid, which is an adventure in itself. But I take my hat off to piotr,monika, marek, and marija, as it was their first year doing the festival. It can only get better, and it was good to start with. Unfortunately , we did not run into the mercury rev guys, as their plane from Helsinki was delayed.
Sept 10 berlin off
Another 13 hour drive, and we park the bus in pberg near peaches house, and myself and the Australian get the hell out of dodge. We go for wine and pizza on oranienburgerstrasse, move on to Schwarz-sauer on kastanienallee for irish coffees and more red wine and mates of the Australians, then on to a social club for still more red wine in a pay as you go scheme a la sonnys in red hook, before hitting the bus call, where people are missing and then some rum and cokes and everything goes pear shaped as it does often at 3am.
Sept 11 hamburg ubel and gefaerlich
We awake outside a concrete bunker near the feldstrasse u bahn. The club is located upstairs, in what was once an old bunker that withstood repeated demolition attempts.
The lunch spread is top shelf, a real carribean vibe, as I think the chef is from Colombia. Nice to see richie again, and we all pile around a big table to mac off for the day. The peach has tons of interviews with german tv, so we keep out of the way. I am loving the club, it is kinda dirty and punk rock, but also very civilized and wine barrish, with amazing views of hamburg. I sit out the support band once again, and by the time it is our turn for stage, the place is teeming, a smoky mass of sweaty people. And they are frisky. I think hey now spots his bit in the front row on the first song and he will not be way laid. I do the decent thing and give him a couple of aftershows. Conny has his whole berlin posse and a few hamburgers, the show is rocking and the crowd is loud, the are well able for it. The shit hits the fan later in the set as our in ear systems shits the bed, and she trips and flails into the drum riser. It looks very painful. She gets through the rest of the set, we put some ice on it and call it a night. The Berliners and hamburgers have their party, hey now gets his bit, and we roll our rock towards Copenhagen.

warsaw and berlin

2006-09-11T05:10:00.000-07:00

reading leeds weekend

2006-09-06T04:09:00.000-07:00

if a picture is worth 1000 words, here are 3000 words

steve irwin r.i.p.

2006-09-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

it was with great regret that i received the news about the great steve irwin buying the farm from a sting ray tail. all i could say , crikey, and roll my rock to the berlin zoo , to watch lesser talents tippy toe around tasmanian tree frogs, nile crocs, diamondback rattlesnakes, laughing hyaenas, baby eating dingos, burmese pythons, the dreaded australian brownsnake(though i think that the plumber unearthed a german whitesnake while caulking away over her in the 10178), and none of these lesser central european reptophiliacs could utter the word SCHEISSE with as much aplomb as you could with a simple, CRIKEY!
so steve, the drive from byron to bris vegas will never be the same, when we are pulled over at the HUMBLE PIE COMPANY for a steak and mash pie with mushy peas, the remnants of a bunderberg rum and coke washing it all down after a night of too much vb and kangaroo carpaccio, we will pour 1 out for our homey, steve irwin, national treasure. i guess someone else will have to catch the gator in san pedro, probably that cousteau eejit.

2006-09-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

just stuff

2006-09-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

high coup

2006-09-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

At this portion of the tour, I am so completely behind that I will do haikus(on the theme of 5-7-5) as some things are best left unsaid, others are not of anyones business, some are of only the utmost personal interest, and most things are simply mundane.

Thursday july 27 atlanta variety arts playhouse sold out
Stoner production
And eagles bring the party
Like sand to the beach
Friday july 28 house of blues new Orleans sold out
Thanks sonny ace and
Jessica for the brilliant
Night in new Orleans
Saturday july 29 emos Austin sold out
Hotter than hades
And wildest show of the tour
Trail of dead backstage
Sunday july 30 deming , nm off
Sonic burgers and
Bloody marys while we watch
The national tards
Monday july 31 las vegas house of blues
6am bus call
and the lizard queens reign tops
drunk in double down
Tuesday aug 1 san diego house of blues SOLD OUT
Sicker than a dog
Rolling around like a damn cat
Vomit on me babe
Wednesday aug 2 pomona glasshouse SOLD OUT
Inland empire
Brings back masturbatory
Memories of home
Thursday aug 3 day off l.a.
Goddamn hotel staff
Russell crowe had a vision
Phone throwers are king
Friday aug 4 l.a. wiltern theatre
Best of the best house
A highlight film to recall
When shit hits the fan
Saturday aug 5 fillmore san fran sold out
Great venue great crowd
Oc/s in the tenderloin
No old friends in sight
Sunday aug 6 fillmore sf
Late arriving fans
Go mental for the peach, man
Nice to see frisco
Monday aug 7 portland roseland
No thrasher presents
But in house shite, what a waste
Union jacks aftershow
Tuesday aug 8 portland off
Evil ennui takes hold now
And I cannot shake it away
Typical off day
Wednesday aug 9 showbox seattle SOLD OUT
Oysters at Brooklyn
With mack and aftershow with
The eagles, oy vey
Thursday aug 10 vancouver commodore SOLD OUT
5 minute border
don/t blame Canada today
clusterfuck backstage
Friday aug 11 off kamloops
Bus broke down in the
Bloody mountains Canada
Getting blamed today
Saturday aug 12 calgary macewan hall
A tour buster
Of a lame show gets us down
Morale very low
Sunday aug 13 edmonton star lite sold out
Epic performance
A tour saver to be sure
Bus party send off
Monday aug 14 butte mt off
Bus company crap
Amateur hour again
My days are numbered
Tuesday aug 15 slc urban lounge

so far behind

2006-08-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

Monday july 24 recher theatre towson md SOLD OUT
Hotter than the proverbial witches, ahem, in September. Our guy buddy takes care of us like we were the rolling stones and the girls play a dynamite show to a sold out crowd. Jd rocks the afterparty and we make our own party on the bus. A real nice day for me, sequestered in a production office. The eagles have one of their finest shows to date and as a result are exuberant.
Tuesday july 25 norfolk , va off
I meet the deuce and his lovely lady for a mediocre meal in a chop house downtown, catch up on the shop talk and head back to my hotel for some serious chillin.
Wednesday july 26 norva Norfolk , va
A really groovy old theatre in downtown Norfolk, clearly several step ahead of Detroit or Jefferson parish on the gentrification scale. It is our least attended show to date, which is a real shame, as it is one of the best looking ones. Locked inside all day attending to the details at hand, I am digging the club, but it has some weird bayou Mafiosi feeling to it. But I can say one thing, a lot of BIG CITY establishments could stand to learn a few things. Anyhoo, it is a great show until some douche bag tries to rock the shocker and someone else grabs the battery pack. The girls chase the show with champagne and strawberries in the Jacuzzi, minus the egg drop soup, and we hammer down to Atlanta.

runnin scared

2006-07-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

July 19 metropolis montreal
Nice to be in the French speaking zone and the weather is gorgeous and of course the day is long and mighty of the inside of the club. Last time I was here, a certain soundman had a psychobilly freak out and ruined everyones day. Today , though , will be different. Things are shaping up to be real smooth, and it is nice that the ladies all have a few friends here. The show has sold well, and brian the promoter is in flying form. They have laid out a gorgeous spread of a French breakfast, which only solidifies the sweetness of the day. And building on the momentum of last nights show, the eagles tee it up and the ladies whack it out of the park. The crowd is wild again tonight, and get even crazier when the eagles come out to be the hankie code dancers. That red bandana in big hands pocket must be scaring the bejasus out of the punters who may be thinking that rocking the shocker with this cat might lead to a fissurectomy. After settlement, I have a drink with the de costas, and head back to the hotel.
July 20 montreal off
Stay out of my room stay out of the papers stay out of jail. Paper work and pho with droadie and the de costas and then some crappie rose. The moules frites earlier in the day were rocking. Finally we board the bus and go to boston.
July 21 boston Avalon
Just the two of us tonight, neal and his young assistant have laid out a gorgeous spread for us and we are looking forward to a nice day in the fenway. Kates and his assistant Brenda o keefe are in attendance, as are the malloy brothers, and even ms auf der maur is in the house. The show is rocking, though it is the first and only time I notice a little drop off after the eagles set. It is a disco load out tonight on Lansdowne street. Not a fan of this, but the locals do a great job of sorting us out. Afterwards there is a bbq party from blue ribbon bbq in Newton, and we move the Guinness drinking to the bus. Tomorrow is a hometown gig for a few of us and we are excited to get home.
July 22 nyc irving plaza
Since we downsized from roseland, the show is sold out. But before all this I get the kids in a hotel early, park the bus, get a ride home, see the ro/c and junior, and boy is it nice to be home for a minute, and before I know it , I am back to iriving with a production meeting with jeff Webster and his crew and like I said, it is real nice to be home. It is a zoo tonight, and maybe ms nisker and I are not hitting it off today , but hey it is nyc , it is a mad house and everyone is stressed out. Her sis is in the house and the j bird has flown in l.a., not to mention some of the blisters in the upstairs lounge. The show is good as usual, I had made it out with the missus and dr lerner and the bitches of bushwick. Tis a great night all round, and I real treat to be home, if only for the day.
July 23 philadelphia TLA
We get parked up nice and proper and Malcolm and his guys get us looked after real well.
Dr hankenstein will be in attendance tonight, as will the zach. It is a well attended show, and the first night with dad boy and the elephantmen. I don/t rate them much, I just want to eat a cheese steak and hang out with the hankster. But alas, we are here to work, and I am filming the show. I say my adieus and get us back to the shack. Easy drive to towson tomorrow.

oh canada

2006-07-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

July 16 granada theatre, Lawrence, ks w/ eodm and ssion
Well to flog a dead horse it is hotter than a kangaroos arse in alice springs in april. The temperature on mass ave reads 108 degrees at high noon and I have showered and sweat through my clothes twice. We are shuffling through the streets of this college town like sonambulists in a clonapin haze. Not nice. Christ no wonder why gunslingers met at high noon in tombstone, the possibility to get out of the effin heat- a bullet in the head can/t be any worse than 2 nights in the bush.
Nonetheless, as I digress, we are here to do a show and the Granada is stifling. The eagles bus loses its AC along the way, poor bastids, it is the smelliest sauna outside of Istanbul on theat van hool. As ever, Lawrence kicks ass, with nearly 800 people rocking the shocker through the night. I manage to watch all bands side stage, quaff some bartenders vodka special and hammer down through the corn fields…….
July 17 chicago the vic with eodm
A weather advisory for the windy city means that I am going to be dropping ,my kids off at the indoor pool. I love Chicago, I love the vic. 2 great parts about my job are they aforementioned. Zach and the jam crew always make you feel welcome there on Sheffield and today is no different. It is a real cruisy day as it is only the two bands and the whole shebang is done and dusted by 10pm. I don/t manage to see my personal glossary of chitown all stars, instead hunkering down in the bunker in the basement. The j wards and finkelmans and franz/s and tillmans and whatnots will have to wait til next time. It is so fast and furious that when the winds kick up and blow the roof off the building across the road(not unlike the peaches of death metal experience across the road, we are half way to Ontario.
July 18 toronto kool haus w/ world provider
I cannot sleep and when I finally do, it is to keep the kids from their continuous training for the iron man competition. WTF? We get to the ambassador bridge as the sun is rising over the Detroit river. How many goddamn times have I seen the sunrise over the Detroit river in the last decade? To wit, at least 6 times in the last year. And don/t ya know we get some sort of hans brix character that sends us in the wrong direction AT SHIFT CHANGE. The cannucks are well on for our arrival as they are aware of the fact that ms peach is an Ontarian. But hey, the maplesters make us actually go back on the bridge and return thropugh and everyone off the bus so they can go on the bus and cherche la gange. All is cool, though, all they want is an autograph, so I am back in the sack sans tim Horton, and we are homeward bound for the peach.
We load it into kool haus early, and assume a nice leisurely pace for the day. Stuck in the production office with a hob guy whom I had yet to meet but loved by the end of the day. We have a blast trading quips across the hall, and the peach has the whole family in attendance tonight, and a huge transgendered dance troupe that kkick out the jams.
The eagles are deadly tonight, squid has got their sound down, and though they are a tough act to follow, peaches and herms deliver the goods. It is an ambisexual Canadian love fest out there tonight and a show not soon forgotten by those 1400 odd folks in attendance. The ladies hit up the after party, I rock the beck and the Guinness on the bus and wake up in montreal.

see ya next thursday

2006-07-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

Monday july 3 verizon wireless amphitheater Noblesville , in
Last show for a few days and it is hotter than hades out here. I can/t wait, early am flight to l.a. and then mi Corazon. But we go through the motions of the day-lunch, email, a flurry of phone calls to some promoter in Chicago who is or is not sending a limo for peaches and sam to some july 4th dj event.
That remains to be seen the drama of the day, the limo, or lack thereof. Abduls crackhead car service from wicker park, leaves late from Chicago on a holiday, does not discount for the lost hour, gets himself lost in transition, and arrives 1 minute before bus call. We say our goodbyes, jd and I , and check ourselves into the airport hotel for the am departures to lala land.
July 4 la off
Sun sand surf suds and bbq. Sunset beach style, sans sausages.
July 5 the trailer breaks an axle in godknowswhere,ok. The kids are alright but I have slight pangs of guilt out there in l.a.la land. Squid and todd the driver are on it, and the ro/c and I are inland bound for mi madres casa, where the temperature is sole meltingly numb. And we bbq! Pretty goddamn good, but bbq. Crikey that/s like bringing a date to the whore house. Wtf!
July 6 off
We bid adieu to mi madre, the bus is also moving, sam and peach have made it safely from Chicago, and mi Corazon and I are moving to manhattan beach for the week.
Manhattan beach, in a word, is paradise. Like Australia or something. Real nice. We treat ourselves to a boozy dinner, and pass out to the sounds of the pacific hitting the beach.
July 7 verizon wireless amphitheatre Irvine California
Feels like the second to last day of school, and I spose it is. The missus and I go for a power walk all the way to Hermosa beach and back, and even jog some of it. I feel like I am going to die, but I make it all the same. Then it is down to Irvine toute seule, as mi Corazon has wisely opted for the beach. I wish I could do the same. Note to self, in the future, stay in a shitty hotel so you cannot wait to get out.
To continue the theme of the summer, it is effing hot. And all the dick wagging blisters are out. Ron Jeremy even announces the show. Pretty funny. I manage to hang with jim spizz and brett from the greek, tony b also in the house. It is a day devoted mainly to a bs guest list drama, then pass drama, then aftershow histrionics. In a nutshell, a normal l.a. show.
July 8 shoreline amphitheatre mountain view California
It is the last day of school! We made it and boy are the NIN crowd a good bunch of peeps. They have really looked after us, and yes it is still fucking scorching. The soft serve is rendered even softer. I do my best saying my goodbyes and thanks a millions. It has been kinda fun, in hindsight. I was a little scared going in, but it was all good. The girls delivered the goods, and our crew were consummate professionals. But alas it is still work and there is still guest list drama, and poor security during the set and a kooky load in and out. Bill graham presents under whatever banner, well it stinks.
We try a little after party but tomorrow is a busy day. Setting up rehearsals, etc. instead it is the bus, ol reliable the bus.
July 9-13
Mates studios, Burbank airport, tour supply, fucking kinkos, the 405 to the 101 to the 134, poquito mas, in and out burger, the kettle diner, the hanks family, the all star game, the beach, the drama, the manic panic. The tour starts…………
July 14 day off Richfield utah
Hotter than(yr word here). Some locals tell mark and I to go home. But hell they have everything ya need here. Indoor pool, wifi, health food stores, kmart, heat, the pirates of Caribbean, the corporation, the post office, my bunk. 1 stop stopping, me thinks.
July 15 gothic theatre w/ eagles of death metal
It is 102 at 10am, another day in paradise. We get accosted by the sub nazi, and then move the bus over to the lot and get rid of todd for the day to the hotel. Load in is a piece of cake, and the day is spent chasing up our nonexistent merch order. It is sposed to be one big love fest for the next 4 weeks, and it appears that the love will be emanating from the eagles dressing room. I spend the day hiding in the production office, advancing shows, printing scheisse, listening in, checking up, passing out money, ssettling, hanging with the raconteurs(my new favorite band, natch) watching the eagles kick ass, chasing peaches around the venue, bsing, drinking some bourbon, and breathing out my ass hole, wondering how I am going to do much more of this………….but hey, at least the cribs called, and that warmed the cockles of my heart.

the rust belt blues

2006-07-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

Friday june 29 burgettstown, pa (insert sponsor) AMPHITHEATRE
Hot and muggy and in the sticks, we are in pennsyltucky, friends. But alas, it is a nice place, the peeps are very friendly, and all the NIN crew are knocking golf balls in a lake next to the busses. We watch some glorious world cup action, namely italy beating the Ukraine, and go about our day. Peaches keeps rocking the early crowd and even the west Virginians get into it tonight. I am still running into the crowd, which will not likely change. We do our bit and it is back to the bus for some ddraft Guinness and bbq, at which point I am summonsed to catering to hang out with nick z and his missus. Tres bizarre, but life is too short innit. I have a great time with the two of them, and even manage to watch the show until I am booted from the luxury box. Backstage we rifle through Bauhaus wine stock, catch the lobster tank activity, say our farewells and hit the high road towards chitown.
Saturday june 30 tinley park , il (insert todays sponsor) AMPHITHEATER
We get in the a.m. and it is all about the humidity and the world cup. Nice, almost home, and I can feel it. Great venue in the sticks outside Chicago, all spirits are heightened, me thinks.
I watch a little bit of the brazil match, then it is off to collect a journalist from Scotland who is painfully lost, not unlike englands world cup chances. Poor, peach is ensconced in euro phoners au gogo. Sounds painful. The show is another crowd pleaser,, I am completely shagged out from the night before and actually fall asleep , or try to, at 10pm. Waking up in Milwaukee to the sight of lake Michigan.
Sunday july 1 marcus amphitheater, Milwaukee , wi
So here we are at summer fest, mark the lampy and I head off to catering and are frightened away. Hey now and I head out to say hey to the odb, who is here with ray davies. Nice day on the lake to eat a culver butter burger! Everyone is out on bikes and what not, and joan jett is in the house to catch peaches set. Afterwards, the girls head out to see joans set, I chill on thye bus with my butter burger, and at one point , we laod and go towards Indianapolis for our last show before a couple of days off.

france the spain away

2006-06-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday june 22 portland , me DAY OFF
Well it is catch up time in the parking lot of the Fairfield inn. Accounting, blogging, advancing, and watching the rain. It is raining outside, our first non sun shiny day. But it is productive. The shopaholics go for the shop. The bike is taken for the ride. The roadies (both droadie and broadie) are back from the sheningans of the night before. Topless donuts! What a concept. I do my bit and later walk across the street to Hadley(?) field to go see the AA Portland sea dogs play the connecticutt defenders. It is a great game, and possibly the most fun I have had at a baseball game in years. Sea dogs win it 5-4, the fireworks go off, I get bit by a few mozzies, spill the beer a few times as I am directly behind home plate, and go pass out to law and order, a road dogs free valium.
Friday june 23 tweeter center Mansfield mass
Talk about mozzies, we are in a swamp today. I am bit by the biggest thing that I have ever seen, looks like a bloody pterodactyl. Crikey, this fucker is actually red, and he has lots of friends.
Back to the safety of catering and some baked haddock or Caesar salad or tortellini or what not. A quick hey to tea party tim, as we are doing a show with him in beantown forthwith. It is too hot outside to do anything, so we are hiding inside as often as possible. Sweating through the layers of black filth.
The ladies soundcheck and do their jane fonda workout and peach even knocks out an interview with the boston globe. The show is a blinder and seems to be coming together rather nicely. She takes off for the cheap seats, and everyone is laughing at the workout that I am getting running for the lawn each day. But hey, I need it, so keep running girl.
She runs towards the malloys, and damn if chris does not look like ernest hemingway, without the shotgun wound, I may add. Afters we all have a laugh and then hit the high road towards the Canada. I offload a bit of personal swag on the malloys and we break for the border.
Saturday june 24 molson amphitheatre Toronto, on
A glorious day on lake Ontario! We get through Canadian customs and immigration without anyone but yrs truly waddling off the bus. I am amazed. We actually beat the nails entourage to the venue, get parked up, eat some fabulous catering, watch the jerries dispatch the svens, try to help the peach enjoy her hometown show, and get the heck out of the dressing room as it is hotter than vikram yoga in there. B
By showtime the sun is shining right on stage and though we are on the lake it is heisse scheisse out there. She heads for the hills again, with me in tow, and a whole flock of security. Hell the groupies in front have briefed security by the time I get out there.
Afterwards there appears to be a ‘tea party’ everywhere in the room/on the bus, so I get on the bike, head down the lakefront in search of bratwurst in honor of the german victory, and tofu dogs for my fair palated friends and get the flock back ‘fore it is too dark and I get run over by a drunk canuck.
Back to the venue, and it is bbq time, what with the cooler outside and the tofu pups and all, we play a blineder with the bbq pineapple and soy ice cream. Ms booth joins us, and it is a strictly crew affair , as the band have gone off on a gay pride excursion somewhere, but make it back in time for the sausage party. We all get a bit scoobied, roll the bus at 4am en route to the motor city, or a suburb thereof.
Sunday june 25 clarkston Michigan, dte amphitheatre
So we are here early, parked up, and breakfasted and on the bikes through the lush venue grounds. I try to watch a bit of the England Ecuador, I do see becks bend it through the goalposts, and then witness the abhorrent brawl that is Portugal/Netherlands. Brutal, like a hockey game. A few friends show up(the hardy girls, the baise, mvb and friend) and we have a nice time out on the patio, daddio. Pretty funny, digging the Detroit accent, giving out the drinks, chasing the peach up to the cheap seats, and suffering through a bit of the boring botox infused after party. ‘oh look, it/s twiggy eating steak and shake’. Weird, and the perpendicular breastaurants are even weirder. I have yet to catch any of the Bauhaus, besides a song or two, and manage to steal 2 songs per night of NIN. NIN are pretty stunning live, I can say that for them. Bauhaus, well that is an entirely different story.
We head southeast for the night, further into the rust belt.
Monday june 26 akron ohio off
Well it is the crab shack, the bunk, steak and shake, laundry, dicks, barnes and noble, tgi Fridays, flair,world cup futbol, office space, black hawk down, accounting, starbucks, guitar center, feeding the ducks, and many other variations of the day off in a super 8 next to I77.
Tuesday june 27 blossom music center, Cuyahoga falls ohio
After a misspent night in the crabshack, the ladies implore me to move on, I get a refund and we do, over to the venue, in the middle of the woods outside Cleveland. Nice place, very rustic, and it looks like we are going to get so much rain, that I am looking for my other half.
The ladies get their paul frank bikes today, and the crew assemble them for the ladies and they are now a biker gang. It/s a pretty funny combo. I have to get them on the video sometime, the dead end kids..
I sit outside with the tour accountant and wax baseball, nails are still soundchecking a joy division song with mr Murphy which has put the kibosh on our soundcheck for the duration of the tour. But hey! That’s what these digital desks are for. The show is a cracker, as it is pouring it down outside during peaches set. She does a bit of stage diving tonight, whilst I try to video the thing, making me real nervous, but I best get used to it, me thinks.
The aftershow is again a non event, more of a party in bauhaus’ cubicle. I help myself to some of their wine, go out to the bus, watch school of rock, and cheech and chongs still smoking and wake up in Columbus.
Wednesday june 28 germain amphitheater Columbus, ohio
Hot and humid, chicky. Myself and the driver walk over to the hotel where I buy everyone rooms for the next two days. It is time for a trial separation. The venue is real nice, we are looked after quite well as per usual. I am simply dreaming about my okey hotel room and the lock down and all that advancing I can do. Yes! We do the gig, it is a bit sloppy, but the crowd is into it. The girls then cut and run, lucky thangs. A thunder storm breaks out during the grampires set, we all get soaked, I help myself to more of bauhaus’ wine and hit the steak and shake on the way to the hotel. Falling asleep to the nba draft, the ladies seem to be enjoying the hot tub with the bottle of champagne. A real bonafide day off.
Thursday june 28 columbus ohio OFF
Steak and shake, el alcapulco, advancing, feeding the ducks, the gym, the mall, the pool, the hot tub, corn flakes, baseball, law and order, black hawk down, email, dirty clothes cleaned, Seinfeld, bed. A real road dogs day off.

2 world wars, 1 wor4ld cup

2006-06-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

he/s covered in marmalade

2006-06-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

dissinformationFriday june 16 homldel, nj PNC arts centre
So it is the first day of our 3 week run with NIN and Bauhaus, and it is hot in the city this morgen. Mr gibbs is our designated driver to Secaucus and the crew pick up. We get all the ladies on the various stops and it is out to Secaucus and the cross load to the bus of the voluminous amounts of the luggage. Everyone is on form as we traverse the garden state parkway southbound towards the jersey shore.
We get there smoothly, and our submarine for the summer is super sweet. 2001 prevost with lots of space. Our arrival is timely and we are inside to begin the introductions and pick up our credentials. All the NIN peeps are colls as, and there are definitely familiar faces amongst the lot. Hell, aaron from the icarus line is the lead guitar player, and some of the same crew as the beasties. Nice.
It is a shed tour, so we are outside and onstage at 7pm. It is still bright and hot, and mark, our lampie, has his work cut out this tour, basically getting ready for the next tour. It is only our second show with the full band(peaches/radio sloan/jd Samson/radio sloan) so it is still a work in progress, but peaches rises to the occasion keeping the security guards and myself on the ropes with all of that gallivantin in the crowd. I settle up, we roll through the swamp up to the bus, watch a bit of Bauhaus, and set up the chairs outside for a bit of al fresco drinking. There is a real nice vibe around, and we hit up the after party and then the after bbq at the NIN crew bus. It is a blast, a great first night.
Saturday june 17 wantagh,, ny jones beach amphitheatre
Right on the water in long island, mi Corazon comes out on the train and we hit the beach, but alas it is cool and cloudy, but good enough for a nap and a nice walk on the shore. Still getting to learn the ropes and the egos on my bus. Everyone seems to enjoy the outside atmosphere, even though we are in a parking lot. It being nyc, a lot of friends make the trek. Lk and his wife Debbie drop in, as does my man max and his missus. The girls hit the stage just as the sun comes out, and the crowd seems into it, and peaches is into the crowd, quite literally. I am running into the crowd after the little canuck. Good to know that I will be earning my bacon. I miss Bauhaus for various reasons, and catch about half of the NIN set which is fantastic. So big! Mi Corazon and I go back stage and enjoy what little hospitality we get as the ladies have hit the bus and Maloney does some family action. After the after show I bid adieu to mi Corazon and the janager who are going back to the Brooklyn with max and missus, and I am back on the bus to crawl into my bunk. Some hours later I awake in a target parking lot in Saratoga, ny.
Sunday june 18 saratoga springs, ny SPAC
The venue is located in the Saratoga springs state park and it is a muggy swamp today out there. Not pleasant outside to be sure and the load is confusing at best. But hey we perservere and enjoy the delicious catering and chill wherever we can. It is the worst smelling sauna I have ever been in. it is fathers day and we all do our paternal thing.
J mercel from the rev and his missus are in attendance as is hoppers missus, jen, and a few of her mates. Nice to see some familiar faces in these out of the way places. They get a little after show on in the dressing room. And we head off to our crab shack across from the evil empire. Squid and bs head to Kingston with the kingstonians. I hit for 6 in the humid hell.
Monday june 19 saratoga springs, ny OFF
Fierce heat and thunder storms, I buy a bike in target and go for a cruise. Everyone else doffs the evil empire and the mall and gets their shopping on. I take it real handy, do some shopping, and have a beer with hopper and jen when they get the lads home, falling asleep in the crab shack.
Tuesday june 20 hartford, ct dodge music center
Still hot and still outside, we are next to the railway tracks. We tuck straight into the catering for the kielbasa. A big shed outside with very little ticket sales. We spend the day doing the internet outside, which is real nice to work and still enjoy the fresh air. It is jeordie from NIN/s birthday bash tonight.
The peach gives me a big work out running up to the lawn and back, and then it is time for the load and the settlement and the dallas/Miami game. Game 6, and what a game 6 it is . hey now and I get scoobied watch the heat take it. Dallas uber alles is being shouted in catering, but as the heat take it, the feeling is unanimous. Fuck kobe! Great for shaq to win one without the rapist. And if it is one and done, so be it. The heat took it, and as the laker fan that I am, good for riles and good for shaq. And Dwayne wade, forget bout it. He is money. We take the party outside, where carlos , bauhaus’ tm, is kicking some serious ass on the bbq. Ribs, rib eye, scallops. All good, man. Droadie is doing his best kelso impersonation and I do some chilling with some of the NIN crew, all sorts of good peeps.
Wednesday june 21 portland , me Cumberland county civic center
We are in maine, and it is my ex wifes bday today. Kind of ironic, being in maine and all.
I take my hangover down to the harbor for some steak and eggs and do my best to be outside all day. Luckily I have errands to run and Portland is well suited for that. As it is for the weather outside. Million dollar day, this.
It is an arena show, a make up for some previous show that NIN had cancelled. So it should be cool with the light show and all. I am a little concerned about the peach taking off through the crowd, as it is very dark. Luckily after doing the barricade trick, she has decided against that move for the same reason. I do all sorts and the girls go their own way for awhile. I watch a bit of NIN, which is very powerful in such an intimate setting. But too hot and smoky for me. I check us into the crab shack of the day, and hit for 6 inside the hotel. Real nice to escape the bus.

killin time

2006-04-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

like clint eastwoods gun

2006-04-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

Sunday april 23 winnipeg burton cummings theatre
So aside from putting tractor diesel in the van and driving in circles to get to the ‘peg, it is an easy ride in. we make it to the venue in time for some catering and an interview with a young lass who has already lined up the after party. We like that in the street team. The cribs have a rough one, at which point I retire to the hotel to try and wash the diesel out of my clothes. Franz Ferdinand play a scorcher of show, alex and nick keep jumping in the crowd to the delight of the Manitobans. It is a boisterous bunch, and definitely a franz friendly show. I arrive in our dressing room in time to see that it has been trashed completely. I advise the little piglets to do some cleaning(I am still waiting for the bill). And hot foot it in the snow, smelling of diesel, over to the kings head. I join our hostess and a few of her mates and soon the whole death cab crew, a few cribs, ben from death cab and of course all of the franz boys save the expectant father. Mr lajeunesse from seattle is our host for the week and the party is on. Thankfully we only drive 500 miles tomorrow. The franz boys blow their bus call once again. Thus the bus arrives to collect them. I debate attaching our van to the back, but opt for the streets.
Monday april 24 the road to Saskatoon
Uneventful 500 mile drive through some beautifully flooded countryside. I nearly hit a duck that is playing chicken by attempting suicide by econoline. Quacker ass quacker.
We stop for some patty melts and poutine somewhere and back in the van and onwards to Saskatoon. No water slide, no pool. But dvd/s. shippo, ross and I go to tony romas for ribs and pints. The end is near.
Tuesday april 25 edmonton shaw conference centre
Another blasé drive through the outback, I am one tired individual, to be sure. Not much to report other than the security guard threatens ry, which naturally makes him unhappy, and the boys do not even hit it out of the infield. I am still bummed as I got lost on the way in. I watch death cab bring the house down, for about 6 songs. Are they a top band or what? I am won over, that’s for sure. I miss all of franz and the after party in the sky to indulge myself in a flea pit hotel and the latest merch numbers.
Wednesday april 26 calgary stampede corral
Easy drive and a great country breakfast at a place called grumpys on the way in. the lads are in good shape, full of laughs from the night before. We are playing in a rodeo hall or something like that. It is big and booming and there appears to be very few people there(though they too buy the merch in mad numbers). We pretty much play and go, try to capitalize on the daylight on the grueling 600 mile drive through the Canadian rockies. After 3 hours of getting nowhere really, we pull off in golden , british Columbia for 8 hours of a hotel room. Secretary is on the box, which is the last movie I need to see on the lonesome road. I fall asleep wishing that I was james spader.
Thursday april 27 the road to vansterdam
A gorgeous drive through british Columbia. Shippo gets some time in behind the wheel and we pass places called dead mans flat and kicking horse creek. Wc fields would be in nirvana. I am beat, manage to watch some hoops at the hotel whilst being poisoned by room service. At which point I head over to the end of tour party in a nice spacious pub with lots of red wine, not enough soakage, some hockey, a lot of good company, and an after party that I never quite make. I manage to stub and or break my toe kicking something to the curb, hang out in a very bizarre strip club called cecils(the eternal question of how to tip coin) for one molson Canadian and get the flock out. Judging by the state of everyone else that I see in the lobby, it was not necessarily a quiet night out.

why a title?

2006-04-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

Monday april 17 toronto ricoh centre
A day of internet and accounting and across the road samosas, and maybe even a bit of gossip from another tour which I find a bit of told ya so. I hammer onwards with the work, the psycho sleeps and drools his way through another bender. God only knows what tonight brings as it is a show day. We assemble at the agreed upon hour and cut across town through the u.b.o./s and wakie wakie/s. Toronto is surely a beautiful city, and the ricoh is back to the scene of the crime of last years franz Ferdinand hockey debacle. Gig is sold out, catering is great, crowd is a bit unresponsive for the crib dogs. I get on with the job of saying hey to ms rosenbaum, and the prime minister and Kelly, of course. I beg off early with all the gear, back to the hotel, and the phoenix suns beating the shite out of someone. Like yankee games in japan, all suns games are broadcast in Canada, it seems. The guys have a ‘mad un’ for a change.
Tuesday april 18 detroit state theatre
An easy drive from t town and a breeze of a border crossing. Must be the whole brothers jarman thing. ‘which one is gary?’, ain/t you? Fuck if I know, like.
Anyhoo, tgo the motor city, as it were and the state theatre, conveniently across from Comerica park, though the tigers ain/t in town.
A languid day, to be sure. Do some emails, make some calls, line up the aftershow(thanks greg!). the catering is brilliant, catfish, if I remember correctly, with some mac and cheese topped with a provocative sauce of I cannae remember beyond yesterdays taco john shit sandwich, but, suffice to say that the catering was brillo, and I am not one to miss many meals, matey. So yes, back to the rock and that is the reason why we are here. I watch the show with mr baise and ms hardy (of murder city devils fame) and their respective s.o./s. good stuff. And yes ben Blackwell is in the house with his missus, invited by no less than 3 people. So it is still on with the rock, and less of the name dropping, and the cribs park it in the cheap seats quite nicely ce soir. I pack it up with the psycho and move it back to the hotel, where we quickly grab a cab and take it up barside at the stick. They are determined not to get me drunk(no makers, no jameson, the Guinness is scheisse), so instead they drop the bitters in the bushmills(sorry, babe, it is indeed proddy shite!) and I simply concentrate on conversing with the hardy girls and mr dan Hadley, ‘lights’, to his friends. And it is a proper death crib for Ferdinand show tonight. They are all rolling perfect games with out a Haynes in sight. The baise is bringing the noise nicely, and I sneak out, ghost move style, back to the shack. Gots to drive to chitown for the early one manana.
Wednesday april 19 chicago aragon
Nothing good to say, except that I see no one. The finkleman tries to get me out, I want to kill the veejits(nothing new there), everyone blows van call so I blow a gasket, and we hit the road for Rockford with nary a hello to the windy city, ceptin the gorgeous ride in on lakeshore drive. The veejits ruin the show, extenuating circumstances ruin my day.
Thursday april 20 minneapolis Northrop auditorium
With the onset of daylight savings, we are no longer playing in the dark. I line up the after drinks at the Sullivan brothers bar on cedar. That is my major accomplishment, that and speaking with mi Corazon in the emerald isle. It is a thin crowd who are seated. We lock and load. It is the psychos last night. God only knows what kind of mess he is going to make. We head immediately to the bar for the brown liquor and whatever practical joke they are going to play, which turns out to be nought. They all get drunk, I shoot the breeze with the Sullivan brothers, it is another death crib for Ferdinand kinda night. Mr gibbard even has dad in tow, and I am sorry to say that I do not meet dad. Tis a pity really, as I am sure he is both very proud of his son , and a good guy to boot. I leave with all the cribs, the shippo and the psycho chase the night until it is taxi time. Goodbye cribs hello dresdens.
Friday april 21 madison Orpheum sans franz
Whattya know, we stop for diesel in camp fucknose, and the nozzle explodes diesel all over me, I smell like an amateur anarchists living room. Covered in the shite, I nearly puke my way to Madison. We get to the states capitol, and check into our very nice digs across from the capitol itself, eat a Cornish pasty, get a fake jiffy lube. They don/t have a diesel filter. I tell em that they can use my jeans(or as the jarmans would say, ‘so is it safe to say that you are wearing diesel jeans dell boy?’). a whole lot of running around, but things get done, and we now have adam on our side as our sound engineer(he of the blood brothers and mudhoney fame). Shippo and I lock and load, dump the van, watch a clint eastwood movie, hit up the paradise on main for bratwurst and a highlife or three and yes, the drunkest guy in the joint has bought a sandwich for the biggest girl in the place and it just warms the cockles of my heart, reminding me of those halcyon days of the sweetwater and baby jakes and the stupider than Jupiter late nights. I pop my head in the martini bar next door, and there is our entire touring entourage having a bratwurst free sausage party of their own. Everyone gets heroically drunk and goes their separate ways.
Thanks Madison, yr a true lady. Did I forget to mention that both the cribs and death cab brought the house down? Real cool night out.
Saturday april 22 fargo nd
So it is a travel day and I have done the ups thing to get our shit out west, and no it is time to get ourselves out west. We hammer down, stopping for a taco johns(case of beer, quesadilla, case of water) and find ourselves in a bug splattered submarine in fargo north dakota on a Saturday night. I leave the lads in the lurch and find the maddest strip club with the most botox I have seen outside of vegas. I knock back a few grain belts, watch the clippers game, do not go to the rail(too many fatter fucks in backwards baseball caps smells like a broken jaw). I beat the street and take some photos of the neon on broadway. Not a bad night off.

maybe partying will help

2006-04-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday april 8 camden new jersey tweeter center
Something like a 10 hour drive up the 95 through the rain and the traffic and the bad drivers and the grilled cheese sandwiches or eggs Florentine or some such family restaurant dross. We make it anyhoo, to Camden, not to be confused with the self same yards in Baltimore or the market in engerland. Camden, like crackden, murder city, etc.
But alas, we are safe inside, in the bunker, with the fury just in from japan with the stones and showing off all thiose pix, I hook him up with the 8th day guys, and they are all atitter with the goss and what not about pm5/dvx/pg13nc17/blablabla.
The old school philly crew are running the show here so we are inb good hands for the before during and after party. Crib dogs play a great set rife with technical problems to which gaz reacts by launching a pint across the stage which will cost us a mythical soundcheck or two. The guys get a bit bent out of shape about it, but I try to assuage them by the fact that they were unlikely to get one anyhoo. They continue on that dead horse for hours, til we finally make it to our crab shack on 22nd street. Everyone scatters, a bit fucked off, myself and Hughes(aka psycho dave) and I jump in the fury/s Saturn and scoot over to the north star bar to catch the mighty wolf mother in action and are soon joined by ross and shippo, franz Ferdinand and the philly rock establishment. The bartender is making my mark just right so that I am comfortably scoobied. I help the ferdinands get to their bus call, and we take leave, saying goodbye to the fury and hello bedbugs. I believe that the psycho has attempted another wallet losing after party in the dorm room of the minds eye.
Sunday april 9 ithaca cornell university
So it is the usual drooling farting sleeping trek up through the poconos. Me, I drive.
We stop off in a little mom and pop diner for the soup and grilled cheese trick. Then continue on upstate, new york. I am very antsy. I can be home tonight, but no. we will stay in some form of crab shack in Ithaca. I got my jiffy lube, find the venue. Do the interviews, count the merch, blow off the soundcheck, play the show, pack the truck, eat at the diner, watch the baseball, dream the dream. The guys go out and get lacrossed with franz and death cab and crawl back as late as humanly possible. The psycho keeps me up all night trying to find his lost cel phone. Maybe partying will help.
Monday april 10 off nyc
Wake up get out of bed and drag the van across the road. Ross finds the psychos phone in the gutter, having been left out in the street all night. I debate keeping it, bit know that he will be borrowing mine all today to find his. It is not worth it. Thus we hammer down to nyc and the crab shack on the corner. Special ed, recently released from ricers, checks us in and it is all fucked up and someone should be fired over this. Butt fuck it! We go to Brooklyn, crawling through midtown traffic, and drop the guitars off at main drag for a fixing but old karl. I leave the boys off at joes busy corner, push some paper, go to ups, drink 40 pints of Guinness with the doctor and max. the lads get quasi/d at the knitting factory.
Tuesday april 11 washington dc constitution hall
It is beautiful down the mall, so I take a walk to take in the cherry blossoms and run into kris chen along the way. Now at xl, I guess I will be dealing with him on the peaches. Outside is the key, we flew down here in no time. I look at all the fatter than me americanos and wonder where it all went wrong, then I espy the white house and get my answer. Back inside for some catering and a quick hello to all the 930 staff, ed in particular. Back for the no soundcheck gig in the hall run by the d.a.r. and the guys have a rough one but fight through it. We load and leave and they groove their way back to nyc. Gaz and I go to the burg, daddys bar to be precise, and it is a veritable schmooze fest of bands and crew, art brut,rogers sisters, celebration, tv on the radio, cribs, etc. I make my mark and bounce. It is time to go to boston soon enough. The others hit up 9th avenue and can find nothing or no one. Apparently the rift between the crew is growing,one has offered to have the other kneecapped. Real nice.
Wednesday april 12 boston mass agannis arena
Straight up the merritt with the drooling snoring and farting. I drive, me. We make it in record time with james sandom in tow. Nice to have james back. A real straight shooter is this geez. Up to beantown and no mulberry, no malloy bros. A surgical strike. The crowd is thin, the kates is nervous(this is his hometown and they better show up) and the cribs , barefoot, hit one of those Johnny damon homeruns from the 2004 world series. The shock is felt in the cheap seats. Backs against the wall, they hit the grand slam in the upper deck.
Take that to the major labels.
We lock and load, I sleep the whole way down the merritt behind the wheel with some smooth jazz. The psycho stays behind in boston, and we make it in 3hrs50mins. I am certainly cream crackered.
Thursday april 13 hammerstein ballroom nyc
A soundcheck, followed by the show of the tour. If last night was in the upper deck, this one was out of the park. Fucking spot on. The guys hang about the show, I hit up marys bar(not that one) on 46th for some oysters and anchor steam, have a good rant with mr ward and mulhollan, soon joined by mr hennessy, we drink our way over to jimmys corner bar where some bald Puerto Ricans rub jimbo the wrong way and he won/t let it go. I put the kibosh on the whole evening,, join them for 30 seconds at Siberia and get the fuck out of dodge. Heading down town to the after party at lo fi or c lo or something. The drinks are still flowing, all cribs, crew and ferdinands are still about, and myself and angela c and dan Hadley from queens and death cab fame roll the rock to motor city where I meet up with tam ui from the olden days. Francesca hosts the event with aplomb, there is major league inebriation involved. I do not remember leaving, but boy did I feel the wake up. Obviously partying does help.
Friday april 14 hammerstein ballroom
A very ugly morning involving Laundromats, solpadeine, ginger ale, shouting matches, nausea(no although I may look preggers, I am not). I make it to the Hammerstein in time for some eejit to ram my car whilst run from undercover officers and straight into the midtown south precinct. I help smashton unload her truck as some of my gear is going with it to Detroit. She calls it military punishment. I am screwed, still scoobied, me thinks , and nothing is working. I go fill out a police report, say hey to ms lowe and mr sclavunos. Try to catch up, answer more q/s about the nononose. Bring my guys off stage, say hey to Emily from the Dresden dolls and good byes to the goodguys kates and sandom and roll our rock to Kingston where we hit up arties and slapper magees and see the wee hours. The boys have nailed another gem in nyc, the psycho has committed another tour faux pas. Nothing new there.
Saturday april 15 cepsum montreal
A very long drive up I87 and no one to help do it as they are still drunk and hungover. The border is excruciatingly painful and time consuming. I start to get testy, but think better of it. We get lost on the way to the venue, franz pa actually yells at me, to which I vocally count to ten. Don/t want to get kicked off the tour at this juncture. We are in a hockey rink tonight that is capacity when the cribs take the stage. They hit this one in the parking lot. I am very impressed, and I hope that they are very pleased. We again load and leave back to the hotel. I am beat, manage to do a couple of days accounting, and pass out. They guys have gone on to the green room on st Laurent nord with all sorts of franz and death cabbies. Psycho does not show up until it is almost time to go to Toronto.
Sunday april 16 toronto off
Happy easter and jillys appears to be closed. Fuck it. The driver takes forever, the drooling snoring and farting makes me think that I am in some form of akc kennel for demented dogs. I continue to hammer down towards Ontario. I am meeting the future prime minister of Australia and his wife for the Indian food, and the Guinness too. They take me to the danforth and the gerrard street Indian bazaar for some curry. I am completely spent. And not much fun, but it is good to see the newlyweds.The crib dogs actually take the night off. Go figure.

there were rumors........

2006-04-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Thursday april 6 tabercrackle Atlanta, ga
Last show sans franz, and a wee bit hungover in the morgen. I hit up the restaurant next to the hotel for a fantastic lunch of mussels and Caesar salad,then back to the highland for the paper work thing. Unfortunately we have a show today replete with the prehistoric hospitality or lack thereof. What can you say to these local yokels. For my money , if you have to say it, there is no point. Suffice to say that with the exception of the crib dogs kicking some serious ass, I see very little of the joint. I eat a buffalo steak at ted/s Montana steak house with a glass of j lohr central coast cab. Today will be a day of self indulgence. I drop everyone back to the hotel, push more paper , and then go off to meet the twins at the Clermont. I can see that they are seriously shaken by the creepiness of the Clermont. I jump right in, and ry gets in the spirit. Pretty soon they are all at it, what with the pbr, the move on dot org, the clackety clack, and the draft Guinness. In spite of it all, we close the place. Mustn/t let the side down, like.
Friday april 8 duke university Cameron stadium
A murderous drive from Atlanta. I am too cream crackered for this scheisse, but slog on. We stop for a hardees somewheres in south cackalackie and hammer down. Check into the crab shack du jour, and scoot over to the alcohol frei coach k burg. Spring has sprung in durham, nc. That and the topic of the lacrosse gang rape extravaganza. Nice work with lots of evidence to boot. I am a little concerned that the brothers jarman might slip with some form of indiscretion, but hey, throw caution to the wind. No soundcheck again as it is back to a three band bill. We have to bring our own booze in, and the place sounds like shit, but hey, there is a chair in our dressing room that Christian laetner probably tossed some salad on. Blue devil basketball, and enough chilfs around for har mar to clog the plumbing in the Cameron stadium. Very talented, indeed.
The cribs get it going about 30 seconds after doors and fight through the beerbonged apathy of the early crowd. In the end, they win em over. I miss half the set dealing with Canadian importation scheisse, but am impressed with the crowd reaction in the end. We set a load out record and get the flock out before we are lacrossed. Everyone is in bed by 11pm.

see you next tuesday

2006-04-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wed march 29 austin the backyard
Easily one of the nicest venues I have yet to visit in this country. The back stage area is dotted with little bungalows for our hospitality suites. The catgering is the best of the tour thus far. Very gourmet Mexican, and the weather seems to be holding up. Willie nelson was playing here a couple of weeks back, but I believe the Hughes and I were driving to California that day.
There are easily 5000 people for the cribs at 7pm. The guys are once again, unfazed. Fearless seems to be the norm with the brothers jarman. And they continue to knock it out of the park. I cannot remember who is next, franz, I believe, and they are tight and consistent as ever to the roar of the crowd. We stay for about 20 minutes of death cab who have really taken their whole operation to another level. A major league rock and roll band. Very impressive stuff from the boys from Bellingham. We bang it out back to the crab shack, and the after party in the sky, which comes courtesy of the beauty bar and Jason from trail of the dead. All of our submariners and the franz boys not to mention some of the trail of the dead guys, the bush twins, and various ausitn hipsters. At 2am , I smell a rat of sorts, or at least a solpadeine type morning, and I drag the brothers jarman back to the crab shack, trouble free.
Thursday march 30 verizon wireless amphitheatre, Houston
The drive is nice and easy southeast. We stop for some bbq, or as ross would say, has anyone noticed that the only thing that we have eaten on this tour is taco bell and bbq. I opt for the bbq chicken and it is rockin. The rest of the drive is a breeze, and we check in to our best western near the venue, and it is super sweet. Nice beds, dsl, clean, Jacuzzi and pool, and a plethora of displaced crackers courtesy of hurricane Katrina(or maybe that is the universal excuse for general ineptitude in this part of the country). Anyhoo, over to the venue for more tour type of stuff, we are working out here, don/t ya know.
For the cribs, it proves to be the stinker of the tour. There appears to be no one there at 730pm.. the guys are well happy, and I have the video coverage to prove it. Myself, shippo , and the Hughes do the right thing and get out of dodge as soon as we load the guitars. Law and order, paper work, a Jacuzzi with some extras from a Houston cops episode(v. scary) and a sound nights sleep. The brothers jarman, on the other hand are on some form of razzle dazzle with the two headliners. Nothing new there.
Friday march 31 nokia theatre grand prairie texas
Some ass hole nearly runs me off the road, which potentially spoils my life for the foreseeable future(life is short, death is long). Funnily enough, there is no cel coverage at the nokia theatre, but hey, it is Friday and I need to talk to no one. Try to clean the van out, as these cribs are slobs, but then again, what rockers aren/t. still there is some scary scheisse back there in the van. What ev/s. rachel howard is here tonight with robin from rubber glove(a club in denton, fool). It is also our last night with franz for a week. I guess that they have some recording up their sleeves. The hardest working cats in show business, eh. The guys play a killer show, again to a crowd like Houston. The proof is in the merch pudding. Since we left vegas, the numbers have plummeted. Perhaps the jack ass ass jackin president has bankrupted his own homestate. I leave the band in the capable hands of ms. Howard and ms. Phillips(they take the lads on a whirlwind tour of north texas and the grassy knoll) and head back to the crab shack, which appears to be hosting the north texas plains cracker convention(maybe, that is why we are staying here) . myself , shippo, and the Hughes pick up some whataburger and some hi lifes and do the law and order thing. The Hughes has sussed some after party in the sky with the vitamin water peeps, and I brace myself for the drive to Tulsa.
Saturday april 1(really) cains ballroom, Tulsa ok
1st day sans franz, the drive is easy peasy, we get a lube job from a nice Christian family in ok city, see wayne coyne nowhere, and motor on to our hotel in downtown Tulsa. A heated rooftop pool and the weather to enjoy it. We cruise over to the venue in time for a languorous soundcheck, I stash the bottle of jim beam, and am shown the evidence of the sex pistols performance there nearly 20 years ago(sids fist through the dry wall, mounted in the office. This place is awesome. It smells of history, the home of bob wills and his texas playboys. The line is down the block at 5pm. You can feel a good show coming.
And that is precisely what goes down, the cribs nail the show of the tour for my money. It must be the addition of the european lager to the rider. The crew takes all of the gear back to the hotel, and I enjoy ucla trouncing lsu in the final four. I walk back to the venue and just beat the violent electrical storm that seems to be shadowing us since we left Austin 2 weeks ago. It is mad, but I settle the show, grab an umbrella, and scoot over to lola/s, a little tapas bar down the road. I am soon joined by the Hughes and shippo and two broads from girls gone wild or outback steakhouse or somewhere other than Tulsa. The muzak stinks up the place, so we bounce around the corner to caz/s bar, where nearly the entire tour party is assembled en masse, which is great to do some bonding and hi hey hello how are yas. Many makers and sodas, and too many modest mouse songs later, ross and I beg off and disappear back to the crowne with the pm from cains. A good night had by all, you can/t beat the tertiaries.
Sunday april 2 off Lawrence Kansas
A beautiful drive northeast off the interstate on a blustery Sunday. We stop somewhere in Kansas with the Mennonites for a big hearty country breakfast. Real nice. It is opening day for mlb. Very exciting. Chisox v the tribe. That is my agenda for the evening. We get to the ssummerhill, and I go for a swim in their underground pool and wash the rags. This is no crab shack, here. Thanks be to jaysus. Everyone scatters like a proper day off, I go to the jayhawker and get poisoned, shippo and the Hughes carry the torch for all cribs personnel by closing the gaslight.
Monday april 3 omaha sokol underground sans franz
So it is the comfort inn after an easy drive up I29. we get to the venue and it all comes flooding back to me. The miserable experience of my previous trip there with y cubed. I avoid much of the whole thing, staying outside as long as humanly possible. The band plays a great show, which seems redundant, as I have only seen one ‘bad one’ on the tour.
I go back with the gear and watch ucla get trounced by florida in the ncaa finals. The fucking gators play basketball. Go figure. No joy in l.a. this year, until reggie matt and lendale all get drafted in the top ten, and farmar superstar goes to the nba. Back to the venue to taxi death cab(oxymoron?) around the side, and give ross a lift back to the hotel.
Everyone else gets their drink on, and whatever transpires involving midget throwing and beer bonging and god knows what else carries on until day light. The atmosphere is tense, the jarmans bury the knife and ill will and hangdog expressions abound.
Tuesday april 4 st louis pageant theatre sans franz
We make it in record time from Omaha, eat some crappy food, play a killer show, sign some cd/s, pack the van, watch two songs of death cab, and slowboat it to the southeast, stopping in Kentucky lakes, ky, successfully putting the ky in Kentucky. The poisonous air of the morning appears to be cleared.
Wednesday april 5 atlanta the tabernacle sans franz
This drive blows. It takes us 60 minutes to get through Murfreesboro, tn(that is 3 miles) I catch up on some gossip, whilst everyone sleeps off the drive. The cherry blossoms are in bloom in the smoky mountains and I have relocated to southeastern tn in my mind. As dtuy and hunger calls. We pull into the bbq corral in ringgold, ga for some top shelf bbq(put some south in your mouth, hmmm). I opt for the pork free option of cornmeal crusted catfish and turnip greens and it is cheap and stellar. 100 miles more and we are in hotlanta. The venue is old and beautiful and apparently home to the house of blues during the 96 olympics. There are quite a few folks in attendance for the criblets, who play a killer show once again. The set is so solid. Read my lips, this is the band to watch in 2007. hell , they are the band to watch in ’06, but who is counting. We pack up and head over to the highland, dropping the guitars into the rooms. The guys go back to get their swirl on, I opt for dinner downstairs(halibut, tomato soup, garnacha, irish coffee, yum!) then the requisite trip to the Clermont lounge. Draft Guinness, strip bar karaoke, some Williamsburg hipsters, blondy, a very hospitable bartender, and some very strange goings on. I try to get the cribs down, to no avail. The are whirlyballing with death cab(in bump[er cars, no less). I sleep a solid six hours. The Hughes is MIA.

we are the hooligans

2006-04-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Monday march 28
Centennial hall tuscon az
The drive from vegas is amazing. We take in the hoover dam, and southwards down u.s . 95, through the high desert. I doubt that the lads have seen scenery like this. We stop for a hearty country breakfast in wikieup, az, in some weird Navajo shop/peacock farm, but, hey, the ham and eggs are rocking. Eventually we touch down at the university of tuscon, which of course, is alcohol free. This policy is decidedly not cribs friendly. But I see that they are flexible and do quite well with a bottle of vodka. I think they play a bit sloppily, but it is a seated reserved venue. Who can tell who is into what, at this stage. We stay for a bit of franz and death cab, but head back to our hotel and ultimately 80/s night at club congress. Well, when we get to the crab shack, and I refuse to sign some affidavit absolving the hotel of any theft, the wee gang banger and his heroine addict of a co worker give me visions of big Russell crowe on the late nite tip at the mercer hotel. I am playing relatively cool, but I am thinking about that house telephone flying across the room and putting this cat on his ear. ‘yo you don’t haveta stay here, we got no time for this’. I love ghetto slang at 150usd per night. Beware of the riverpark inn. It might be good enough for the white sox, but it aint welcoming to y/all road dawgs. They conveniently lose our reservations, we reload the van, drive to the congress hotel, check ourselves in and head straight into the makers and sodas(with bitters, of course, the redd foxx). The brits warm up in their rooms, and the weegies and what not arrive en masse for the after party in the sky. The Hughes seems to manage to find yet more people to continue the party with. It all goes down in room 231 or something like that. I beg off early, dreading the 925 mile drive in the morning.
Tuesday march 29
On the road to bob knows where
A bit of congress café for heart stopping breakfast, Chicago music for one stop shopping, and I10 east for the ultimate hammer down. We drive through everything, and there is so much road kill, I am sure that it is actually raining cats and dogs. We drive through rain of biblical proportions, I nearly hit a dead coyote and a couple of hundred deer. Finally we find an oasis in ozona, that super 8 rocks. The pool looks like a set from boogie nights, and at 45usd per night, we will take it. Only 200 miles back to Austin.

show me the monkey

2006-04-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

angelina zooma zooma

2006-04-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Monday march 20
As har mar says, we are raw dogging it. At 6 am , I am faced with the dilemma of cutting through Joshua tree national park and the Tehachapi/s and adding another 100 miles to the journey, or sitting in traffic from san bernadino to Bakersfield via the los angeles morning commute. A no brainer there, but no coyotes this time. Stop for a cup of joe in jt proper and hammer down through the Mojave and onwards. A beautiful state , California. Miles and miles of I 5 and the scenic 152, and yet another thunder storm. We stop by the independent, pick up our swag, and hit up the hotel. We beat the band, but by doing so, I am beat. No energy for no body. I make a few half hearted attempts to meet some peeps, but I am bushed. The band arrives after two flights from Austin, and I hook em up with HEY NOW for a scenic view of the city courtesy of a yellow cab. An early day manana, and 600 miles.
Tuesday march 22
Everyone is on board and we are rolling at 1015am north bound to pdx. I think these cribs be digging the sites of Shasta and the siskiyous. We make the requisite stops for grub, and the Ashland wild oats for the vitamins and throat coat and the rest. Sweet drive, beautiful day. We roll into the Jupiter hotel at half past 9, and leg it straight to the doug fir for some grub and fat tire. The zenk arrives with divilment in mind, mel mac is a bit subdued. Gaz legs it to his lady/s joint, along with brother ry. The Hughes splits off with a friend of his leaving junior and shippo in the zenk and i/s able hands. Union jacks it is dog, for the night no less. Hey, it ain/t pdx without a a trip to the peelers.
Wednesday march 23
Portland memorial coliseum SOLD OUT
The whole tour is, so lets not be redundant. We say our hellos, get the lube job, count the merch, scatter and get ready for 6 weeks of 6 boys in a van playing 30 minutes. There is an easy 3000 people there for the lads, and they are won over quite quickly. Hard not to see why, these kids rock. A real live rock band with pop sensibilities. Sound like a cliché? Read on. Unfortunately the glamour of the situation is short lived, we catch a few stolen moments from franz and death cab, pack our shite and drive a tough 250 to grants pass. A nice little motel on the side of the road and 5 hours of scattered slumber. But hey, no snow.
Thursday march 24
Sacramento memorial hall
A beautiful run back through the siskiyous and a stop for souvenirs in weed, ca. We are in arnie land tonight. The venue is a gorgeous Spanish style town hall, and the line at 330pm is impressive. I check us into the crab shack across the road, quite excited to be out of the van. It is day 2 so there is yet to be a s/check for my cribs, but the vibe is good. Real relaxed and California. No sign of the governator or his anorexic botox addict wife. Hell ,even scott Peterson is in prison this week. The guys go up not long after doors and man are they growing one me. The young crowd is well into it, this my space scheisse really works. I thought that was a brothel for wireless set, but apparently it is a music search thang as well. Who know? I get paid and hang outside with one of the big cheese from goldenvoice shooting the breeze on j street. For me there is no franz or death cab tonight, I go back to the crab shack, peel off the plasticene sheets, and drool my way to Friday. Good ol Hughes rolls his rock in the wee hours. This guy is rolling.
Friday march 25 reno Hilton pavilion
Man what a humbling 2 hour trip through the donner pass. The last time I went through here with death cabs tm, I think that there was 2 feet of snow and we were trying (successfully) to figure out how to put on chains. Not today boyo(though there is much consternation later when the l.a. bound tour party get turned away from the pass due to no chains). We are playing in the ballroom of the reno Hilton, I am sure several thousand white trash debutantes of tied the temporary knot in this joint. Fuck it. Mr duston gives us 3 of death cabs rooms in the hotel, a sweet gesture that I will take full advantage of with the wi fi and the view of the north desert and the high thread count sheets and of course the not have to drive after show.
The cribs are rolling along and starting to gain speed. They kick it again tonight, and yes, they are my new favorite band. The capacity crowd is giving up lots of love tonight, and we do record merch numbers again. I am delighted. A real live rock and roll band, on a real live rock and roll tour. We get packed up, I drive gaz over to the hotel, and leave the rest of the musketeers to their own devices, which tonight is bar bands, black jack(not to be confused with ass jack), roulette, jack daniels, and god knows what else. I law and order my way to sleep. Contented.
Saturday march 26
Hiway 95 through the old mining country, dry lakes, area 51, Indian reservations, dust storms, tuna melts and ultimately we arrive in vegas. Back to the crab shack across from the hard rock on paradise. I am doubling down tonight with the odg, whom I have not seen properly since a drunken game of hoops outside the mermaid in the crescent city several years ago at a pan sonic/trans am gig. The odg looks great, fatherhood suits him, as does the desert clime of lost vegas. We chew the fat about the days gone by and who did what to whom and where when and why. Nice to reminisce. He has to shoot through, the cribs and crew have gone off to the strip, so I set off in search of another dive bar or the tender trap or anything that will pull the truck off of my chest. I manage to get completely scoobied and head back to the double d at 2 am in search of something like fun. A few more shiners and makers mark or is it miller high life and the clash and ramones and specials and please god no more LOCAL bands.. I beg off to the crab shack, and the Hughes is still not in.
Sunday march 27 las vegas house of blues
No smashton tonight so I am merchie onassis, total bummer for me. I am stuck on the floor of the Mandalay bay casino selling no merch. The cribs are rocking, something along the lines of ry greeting the crowd in his wakefield drawl to the tune of ‘hello las vegas, i/m elvis fucking presley’. The crowd is well up for it, they are suitably warmed up for death cab to knock it out of the park. Of course, I miss the whole fucking thing, barely making the van back to the crab shack(only bit 16 times this time). The guys hit up the hard rock, I beg off thinking about the 500 miles of b roads tomorrow a.m. viva las vegas

sxsw

2006-03-30T16:27:00.000-08:00

crib dogs

2006-03-30T16:26:00.000-08:00

Tuesday mar 14-Saturday march 17. sxsw festival
What can I say, but I hammered down from nyc to Austin to pick up the criblets in a heart stopping 32 hours(I stopped for 4 hours to sleep in penciltucky,tn). I make it to the state capitol at 645pm, drop my bags change my shoes wash my face and hit a cab with Wichita mark to go see the strokes/eagles of death metal/sean na na at stubbs. Quelle soiree! No need to name drop the famous peeps and blisters in attendance, but suffice to say it was worth the drive. Har mar and pals kicked it to open, the eagles drove the ball down the right wing, and the fab five drove it into the net. Stellar gig. Aftershow hang backstage at stubbs and crawl back to the Vaclav hovel hotel.
Wednesday march 15
Raging full on, airport runs, registration, reregistration, changing hotels, sweating profusely, chillin with Gaffney, more airport, dengue fever, thor and shearwater, the ponys, meet the band, meet the manager, drink the shiner, check out all of the clubs, beauty bar patio with bevilacqua, and trail of the dead at emos. And lest we forget the fresh kills at head hunters. My favorite band of the festival. I hung out with more people in 30 minutes than I had in the previous 3 months. Crazy.
Thursday march 16
Mtv acoustic in waterloo park with metric and gogol bordello, more music store runs, filter party at cedar street and hanging with the photofit guys and amy h from t town, load out, load in over to the beauty bar where the mob scene begins with that crap band the lashes, wolfmother packing the house, cribs knockin em dead, peaches dropping the bomb karaoke style with five strippers, and googol bordello bringing the house down at emos. I/ve got the emos pass and god bless graham for that. Too much has happened in this 24 hour span and Austin is a veritable who/s who of my speed dial both foreign and domestic, but time is of the essence and I am a little behind here. The drives, the sleep apnea, the bracket busters and this fucking president are killing me.
Friday march 17
It is st patricks day and we are loading in to stubbs for the spin magazine party where we get a bit shafted by the pissing contest going on but fuck it. These cribs are hardcore in a get in the van kinda way. We drive an sst van, and these brothers have a jam econo vibe. But where is my translator. I am convinced that is shippo/s(stage mgr/tech) primary gig is to translate, but hey! Free dickies gear, bbq, we watch 20 minutes of the NO TEAM!(what drivel, huggy bear without an agenda). The queens of noize and Eugene from googol bordello are the tweeners. They rock it. We do another mtv thing in west Austin, drive mr warby into town, catch 5 minutes of art brut, another 5 of the 22/s, and 5 more of the zutons before loading into exodus and run into my rev crew guys on 6th. S/check it, try to get into peaches at aoki/s party, come back for our own gig, the guys get wined and dined, Hughes and I opt for the best wurst, or was it room service. Huh? What? I cannae remember details. Quelle vie. To make a short tale brief, the cribs rock the exodus club in spite of the goon squad security. We load it out , dead tired and hit for 6 back at the shack. Drunken yahoos abound.
Saturday march 18
I hot foot it out to j toubins party at the peacock with the fresh kills and kid congo. The lovely dp is in the house, as are all of the fresh kills and mr Hughes. J toubins pop, chuck, has smoked some brisket and it is the bees knees. After several bloody marys it is back to the hotel and more socializing and shiner bock and load in to the club deville where goofy mcdoofus will be our stage manager for the event, it is clear that nothing will be correct so I decide that it will be best for all if I go to emos to see the datsuns, priestess and the river boat gamblers with the Dilworth family and laura rogers. C gibbs is in the house as merchie onassis. A veritable family affair. I go back to de ville to deal with the ineptitude and theft , both of which are bountiful. I can stomach no more , the dog and pony show is enough to make the most innate amateur sick, but this shower of good for naughts is rivaled only by that wolf pack on Pennsylvania avenue. Enough already, gimme some street meat and send me to California.
Sunday march 19
We take james to the airport and seriously hammer down, stopping at a sonic burger in Sonora, tx and a denny in deming , nm to try to botulize ourselves opting for the hotel buyout in lieu of some crab shack by the side of the road. Flat out fucked, I believe the mudhoney once shrieked.

california,uber alles

2005-12-31T16:41:00.000-08:00

more evidence

2005-12-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

the holy land

2005-12-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Dec 4 athens off
The guys all h9it the after party in the sky, and then the acropolis. I manage some room service and a bit of paperwork. Greece has beat me, I have no energy for any of it. I hide in my room-away from five minutes, away from dodgy parking, away from slack promoters, away from the cradle of civilization, away from the numbers, from the souvlaki, and hairy backs,. I can tell you8, that the reason why the heart disease rate in greece is so low has nothing to do with diet. They simply could care less. The icing on the cake is at 9pm when our ride takes us(10people) to the airport it is a 50 passenger bus.
We get to the airport and wait forever to check in, wait 5 minutes for our sarnies, wait two hours for our lost luggage, and fall asleep in a beautiful hotel in tel aviv.
Dec 5 tel aviv hangar 11
Up and at it early with all sorts of press and not a real chance to see tel aviv. The venue is amazing, an old hangar down by the docks. Everything is above board and every woman is gorgeous, some of them even have guns. It is pretty fantastic. They serve up the best marble rye with the sarnies, and boureks and a beautiful fruit bowl. Top shelf catering to be sure. Merav is looking after us in a big way, the polar opposite of the neighbors to the north. Shuki, the promoter, takes us to his favorite fish restaurant in tel aviv. I can see why, the food is stupendous, the wine is spectacular, and the waitstaff is from the pages of a fashion magazine. Kind of distracting really.
We load up on all the fish that we can eat and head back to the gig, I give the local opener a miss, kind of like bad bjork singing in Hebrew. But hey! The rev soon take the stage and really deliver the goods. 90 plus minutes of their lush sounds, the audience is transfixed, even when they are joined by the keith morris of tel aviv. A rockin show, and a quick load, cos it is all rental gear. We are in mikes place in no time drinking overpriced liquor for a wee while until begging off for a bit of rest before the morn.
Dec 6 tel aviv/Jerusalem/London
9am photo op with the manageress of the hotel, then a hungover van ride through the holy land to Jerusalem. I am not nearly a skilled enough wordsmith to describe whaqt we hafve witnessed today, nor am I a religious sonofabitch, but wow! Even the lads who have been here before are impressed. I can truly understand what the hubbub is. And the falafels, muy sabrosa. After a whirlwind tour of mt olive, garden of gethsemene, church of all nations, the wailing wall, and the church of the holy sepulcher leaving through the jaffa gate, we are airport bound. Vip checked in and at our gate and on the plane and off to engerland. After what seems like days(I watch the wedding crashers twice), we arrive in the big smoke, whisk away in cabs to our hotel, and commence drinking all of the lagavulin in the joint, and suddenly there is an afterparty in the sky.
Dec 7 london
Off day, errands, accounting, English breakfast, the record and tape exchange, the tube,the hotel.
Myself, mercel, the kid, and big al the tshirt guy go off to eat at the bush bar and grill(kiwi pinot and roast turkey, yummm) before heading over to the Richmond bar to watch man u get eliminated from european futbol, then back to the shack for a drinkie poo with beth ortons tm, and everyone can/t keep their eyes off of joss stone who is standing at the bar, and I am thinking, ‘hmm, gary glitter is going to get himself hanged for this. The meatbox arrives with his own bottle of jack and I can take no more. Guinness and turkey(instead of the box wine) and no one/s gi joes to play with.

the evidence

2005-12-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

magical mystery tour

2005-12-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

Nov 27 barcelona razzmatazz w/ dirty 3 and decemberists
It is major catch up in the production office as we are heading to eastern Europe and Greece and are unclear about the proverbial connectivity issues. So I hunker down along with patch(d3/s tm), matt(decemberists) and squid and ogro as we get ready to chart new territories. It is the sinnamon girls home turf, and aside from a minor snafu at load in we are incredibly well looked after, as we have been throughout all of spain. There are good vibes abounding as the dressing room area is the most communal thus far, and it usually takes that long to acclimate oneself to all the new faces. The decemberists hit the stage 15 minutes past doors and play to a very loving and responsive audience. A couple of them even get a makers mark break in the middle of the set. Now that is my kind of band, and they invite me for a bourbon and soda(sans bitters). The dirty 3 continue the great music, and jim, their drummer, looks as if he is going to rip my head off for taking his picture, but hey LINK WRAY, warren made me do it. They are absolutely brilliant. But it is all rev for me in the end, another 100 minutes of beautiful noise. The crowd is completely in awe, they have been floored. Thus we move to the bottom floor, for the unofficial afterparty, the official one begins and ends before we have left the stage. All the bands invade each others dressing rooms, exchanging email addresses, and drinking one anothers booze. At 3 am, we begin the long march to croatia with an awful lot of talk about wintersports with crianza being the fuel of choice.
Nov 28 sur la route
A lot of beautiful countryside and an 8 hour stop in Trieste for an amazing dinner at LA TECIA wine bar(www.paginegialle.it/latecia). Ogro and Molina even eat horse. The novelli is divine, the tiramisu sublime, and despite the fear of avian flu, those of us that eat the chicken are well rewarded. A few grappas later, we settle up and the house gives us another round of grappa. Real nice. Hopper and a few of the lads go for some late drinks, hey now and ogro, climb the hill above town. Me , I hunker down in my bunk and start memorizing carnet registration procedures in 5 different languages.
Nov 29 zagreb club aquarius
So we make it through the first borders sans incident and drop our double driver len off at the ljubjiana airport before continuing towards Zagreb. We relatively coast through, and kormel, our propmoter escorts us to the gig which is located in the middle of a park and sports complex, in a TENT, on the lake. It is freezing. There is no connectivity, so I am off to the day room where the most hardcore hotel porn that I have ever seen is broadcast in room, 24-7. even I flinched during one scene.. back to the club, back to the task at hand. They are expecting 500 people on the cold rainy, foggy night. The guys go out with the promoters for a major meat fest. By the time they get back, we have sold all of our merch and the place is jammed. The rev get up, and deliver a scintillating performance. During opus 40 the crowd is louder than the band. It is electrifying. It reminds me of the yeahyeahyeahs gig in mexico city last year. Totally rocking, and at almost 2 hours, a real crowd pleaser. Everyone stays afterwards for the discotheque. I retire to the bus to process paper work for the border crossing in the morning.
Nov 30 belgrade dom omladine
So the double border crossing is smooth, the Serbian border guard gets one look at grasshopper with a beer in his hand and says, ‘ah, not terrorist or Mafioso. musician, go back to bed. Real cool. And we are met by dragan, the promoter and escorted to our secure powered parking at the central bus station. The same place where myself and schlosstein rolled in on a bus in 1988 or something and caught the bus to Greece.
The venue is miles away and it takes a double cross loade, but the local crew is totally keen and on the ball. The venue is like a large community center, with bookstore, cinema, café. It is so reminiscent of Budapest or east berlin of the 80/s. grasshopper and Anthony get held hostage at the hotel. ‘if you don/t provide passport soon, we will find you a room. A colder, darker and smaller room. I get there and it is a real mob scene, if ya know what I mean. I then go around the corner to change Croatian money with a guy who has four mobile phones and about 30k on him. Not to mention the track suit and gold chains. Dragan has taken the guys to the tesla museum. I am just digging the air. Really acity on the rise, or so it feels. A real spirit in the air. They take us out for the biggest meat fest of all time. Jamur, has fallen in lurve with the hospitality gal and the show takes off, and it is a repeat performance from the night before. An absolute blinder, the crowd is larger than the night before and louder as a result. I catch the whole show from sidestage. It is stupendous. Dragan and his crew(too numerous to mention, and all equally as important in their endeavours) are in bliss. They take the guys to zlotko(the production mgr)/s bar, the voodoo bar, where they get into some local brandies and can/t spend a dinar. To use the local vernacular of my roots, fucking awesome!
Dec 1 in transit to thessaloniki
We hit the Macedonian border and the woman on the serb side does not know what a ATA carnet. No worries, it is processed and we move to the Macedonian side. Very bleak, stray dogs wandering listlessly, broken down cars in the middle of the room. Long waits in the trcuk line. They process me with nothing more than a cut copy cd as a gesture. The country side oafter the border is amazing. Like the kern river valley of California, or Tehachapi area. It is so sparsely populated and beautiful. The rev have played here before and said it was an incredible experience. We make it into greecve without incident and soon we are in thessaloniki and at our hotel on the old port. We hit the rooms, and spruce up, and soon we are whisked off to dinner at mylos for some delicious greek food and wine with maria, our guide, and yiannis from the club. Some of the boys head out for the night to see some punk bands, I retire to my hotel early for juventus and fiorentina on the box.
Dec 2 thessaloniki club mylos
We play with a great local band called the broken seals who have a little gallon drunk thing going. Then nikki sudden from the swell maps joins the stage. We eat great octopus and more brilliant wine. The rev play a killer show, and I refuse to discuss the rest as it is minor minutiae in the grandf scheme of things. The crowd is happy, the band is happy and the club is happy. That is what counts, right. Afterwards the guys hit the bars, our bus is blocked in by an illegally parked vehicle. We feed Croatian meat to greek strays, and drink Spanish red on the road to Athens.
Dec 3 athens Gagarin
Cool club, in an old porno theater. Great crowd, good food, killer show, bad local band, all night partying for the band and the local reps. Me and squid took the high road with the flying Israeli gear and hit the hotel as early as possible

rink lay

2005-11-27T09:59:00.000-08:00

Thursdsay nov 24 bilbao cake anzokia w/dirty three and decemberists
So it is an 8am load in bad weather in the basque country. No one has managed to sleep despite not moving. We call the hotel our production facility, and I do the usual tour managerly duties round town. It is sort of slow going but everyone is happy to be in spain, and the smell of something sweet, sticky and black is very reminiscent of days of yore. Presales are apparently slow, but we are assured that they always are in bilbao. I hunker down to work in anticipation of the upcoming trip to the Balkans. We meet merce and Cynthia who will be our hostesses for the following 4 days. Hey now is in heaven, to be sure.
We get caught up in a fruitless search for turkey on thanksgiving, and I beg off to go back to the club for a perrito caliente and patatas fritas. As usual, catch ten minutes of the decemberists who had their bus break down and are looking a bit frazzled. They are definitely much different than I had expected. The dirty 3 are up next, and it is safe to say that these cats are bona fide bonkers. Situated on the cd shelf between the dirtbombs and the d4, I had never seen them live before, despite dp being in charge of them for some time. They are brilliant. The rev take the stage next, and it is safe to say that the crowd is so stoned that they are mesmerized, confused, and quite flummoxed by what is happening.
It looks great, like the kind of theatre that Lincoln was shot in or something, with a thick layer of hash smoke permeating the air. The 500 or so punters totally give it up, but we have to do the disco load in the rain and roll immediately to Madrid. Funnily enough, a large group of teenage girls drunk on too much something or other find a skip full of bricks and proceed to throw bricks at any car remotely resembling a posh one.
All of us find our bunks and kip it to Madrid.
Nov 25 madrid aqualung w/dirty 3 and the decemberists
We awake in a strip mall in Madrid and tuck right into a fantastic Spanish breakfast. Our drivers are psyched, bacon and eggs and fresh coffee. I settle into the production office for an afternoon of dial up and a night of debauchery , no doubt. We get the ball rolling very early with the decemberists who play to a relatively light crowd, but a strong reaction. More people are present for the dirty 3 and they get a big hurrah, ‘link wray,link wray,link wray’. Warren is insane. My kind of guy, as is jim and patch their tm/foh. Mercury rev take the stage with a thousand crazy Spaniards givng it their all and they proceed to play the best show I have seen them play. It is fucking exhilarating, and I am one proud poppa today, and the rioja certainly helps.. the mood in the dressing room is great after ther show and we call a late bus call to Valencia. Everyone packed off in various cars to the Costello bar in c aballero de gracia. Fuck if I know but hey now and I find it and tuck right into the ‘yim beams’ and modern alt rock soundtrack. Things begin to get a bit hazy for some and bus call approaches with carlos and hopper and I escorting a member of the extended rev family back to his hotel for the early flight back to London town. Poor bugger. We barely make the bus call due to serious cab shortages and no dearth of late night drinkers. Another good night in Madrid.
Nov 26 valencia republica w/ dirty 3 and the decemberists
It is opening night in this big barn of a club outside of Valencia so we are stuck in the burbs with no internet and whatever else it is that modern musos get up to on thanksgiving weekend, sans Trojan football and turkey sandwiches. But fuck it, we have crianza and the best paella of all time, and no I do not see gene hackman this time, but all is good rocking the eagles of death metal in the dressing room. It is quiet early on for the decemberists who seem like they have a great show all the same, and the crowd begins piling in for the dirty three, and it is more ‘link wray’ which I am unsure if the Spaniards can quite suss out. They dig the three and then give the rev a lot of love for the next 90minutes. A great show once more, and a very enthusiastic crowd. Afterwards we get patch and merce and all revs involved in some product placement type of drinking(for relaxing times make it san Miguel times), we enjoy some tremendous late night kebabs and I crawl in my bunk for the short trip to Barcelona wondering if ronaldinho will make it or not and whether those shriveled hot dogs got stashed in someone elses bunk.

2005-11-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

jamon, jamon

2005-11-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

Tuesday nov 22 lisbon centro cultural de belen
So after numerous police checkpoints and about 2000klicks, we make it to rainy, gray, Portugal. Nearly lost we make it to the gig, do our late load, retire to a dressing room in the bowels of the building and spend the day basically going, ‘huh?’ I am paid nearly immediately, benefica are playing in town thus not a big crowd is expected I am told. So I use the time to catch up on some accounting and data processing and shaving which is quite a novelty. It is only the rev tonight and the guys spend their day checking as it is cold and miserable outside and there is no internet so what else is there to do? We manage to rustle up some bacalao in the canteen of the arts center and bobs yr uncle. The guys play 2 hours to a very satisfied audience, hang about backstage with management, pack the bus and drive right back to spain.
Wednesday nov 23 bilbao/off
We miraculously make it back to bilbao and I miss my radio 4 interview(the station, not the band) and it is straight into the low speed internet(at 15yoyo/s a rip off). Do all the emails, catch up on some correspondence and basically destroy the minibar for lunch as I am locked into to the ‘net. I get out for a walk late at night, and the guys have an early one after some decent grub in old bilbao. I opt for the room service option and some European futbol, before retiring to zorba the greek and then bed. Not exactly the thanksgiving eve one is used to.

2005-11-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

day in day out

2005-11-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Sunday nov 20 gent de vooruit
So we get the bus worked on in the early hours and everyone miraculously makes the call. Belgium is freezing this morning and we get the bus parked up lickity split right outside for the day which most of the guys sleep off. Bart and his crew at vooruit have us sorted right out with the hospitality, including tons of Belgian chocolate and delcious deli trays. A right relaxing day with a very professional local crew, the venue reminds me of the inside of st Andrews in Detroit if they gave a shit. That is where the comparisons stop. I/m stuck into the production office getting mac tutorials from whomever is handy. Real nice. Hell we even make telephone calls to the s.o./s on the computer. Very strange,indeed. After a brilliant lamb dinner, the guys play the best show that I have ever seen them play, 90 minutes of blessed out Belgians. A real love fest in the frosty November night. Afterwards we pass on our many thinks and the guys go round the corner to the local beer bar, but alas tis a Sunday and quite frozen to boot, so we move the party on the bus and begin the 1300 mile trek to Portugal.
Monday nov 21 sur la route/san Sebastian
Across france we sleep off the previous nights seisun before getting pulled over by the French police for some odd reason(they like to check the ‘tacho’, hell, who doesn/t), and it is onwards and upwards to san Sebastian, a bit of paradise by the sea. I am straining to remember the name of the restasurant in Anthony bourdain’s book, but it does not come, nor any internet access to chowhound it. But we find a brilliant little tapas joint right at the entrance to a very beautiful old church. Oysters, jamon iberico, tempranillo, verdejo and out the door to some beer bar outside where we enjoy the crisp Spanish night. We manage to bring together everybody but squid and wind up in some place called the old Dutchman which is not what I imagined for the basque country, but the clams and duck confit where pretty damn delicious all the same and that/s where the evening falls apart. Monday night in san Sebastian, god help us. We cannot organize a piss up in the proverbial brewery. We wind up in some ropey bar on the seaside that is either the gayest straight bar ever or vice versa. And boy were they mean. Hopper had to ask the waitress if she was a witch as she was sporting the biggest pentagram of all time outside a trenchcoat mafia reunion tour. I have been abused by an awful lot of barstaff over the years but these two took the torta. Rightfully fucked off, we retired to the bus ensemble and paqssed out for the 14 hour drive to Lisbon. Great town, but the maratimo bar is mierda.

shake, europa

2005-11-20T10:15:00.000-08:00

Thursday nov 17 brussels/off
We do the overnite from jfk, everyone scattered across the half empty flight to London. I manage to finish two new Yorkers, watch an incredibly bad movie(why did they need to remake bad news bears?), drink some Chilean red, and sleep an hour. They wonder why no one is eating the chicken on the overnite flight, hint, avian flu is the number one topic of conversation in the usa. Go figure.
A couple of hours to kill and I spend most of my time wondering why the fat fuck at my local cel phone place had not activated my international calling plan. But hey, I am wireless in heathrow airport thanks to tmobile. Wireless. Christ, the 21st century. Well it is a trial and tribulation trying to get the cel phone activated, that and the fact that travelex will not take amex to activate the uk phone. Thus I drop my last 150 sterling on the phone and get the plane to belgique where after a bit of rigamarole with the immigration, we are ushered to our van and chauffered into the place rogier and our very spiffy digs.
It is cold as, and I manage to get online at a very high price and find out that our bus driver is sinead o/ Connors driver , so it is over to the cirque royale to say hey to fionna, meet our driver, eat a croque monsieur and drink a pint of leffe, and back to the shack in the subarctic temps to get our back drop from v2, and try to hook up with my sister inlaw. No avail as she is out in the burbs,, meet amelie from v2, and deal with the bus cock ups in the uk which keeps my phone ringing for the next few hours. Sleepless, I decline dinner with the guys and work on some production issues. Those resolved, squid and I go over to cirque royale to catch a bit of sinead/ sly and Robbie. I am instantly stoned by the amount of weed in the air, look out for fionna, say hey to amy Davidson the tm, manage to quaff a pint, catch one song of sinead, and hit the streets looking for my brother in laws pub in les sablons(the black sheep,an irish pub in Brussels). There I enjoy a few Belgian ales with jean marie and claude, and after three drinks and 36 hours of no sleep, I am comfortably scoobied and jean marie gives me a lift back to the shack where I am accosted by a pie eyed red faced American muck savage who shouts, ‘ron jeremy’ in my general direction, and I wonder, ‘how does this guy know about my numerous connections to the hedgehog’. He offers to buy me loads of drinks thinking that my insider knowledge of international pornstars is going to give him a leg up on getting his leg over on some air hostess. I beg off, he tried the same trick with Anthony, yelling ‘jimmy page’, he didn/t bite either.
Friday nov 18 tongeren /de velinx
So we manage to get the bus and we are all 1 big happy family of 10 men for the next 3 weeks. Meet the driver and the double driver and set out on the short journey to tongeren, the oldest city in Belgium, which holds some sort of irony as the boys basically live in the oldest city in new york, or something like that. And it is easy peasy, a nice little community center in a small town in Belgium, the kind of place that does not exist in the usa. Locally funded arts centers with real equipment and an interest in the artist. For me, it is as easy of a day 1 that I could ever ask for(thanks Danielle, and everyone else over there). The guys keep coming in and giving me 30 second mac tutorials, hey now and I check on the nba scores, I tunes are rocking from 5 computers and everything goes smoothly. We are served a very delicious and simple buffet at the café next door and its all good. Potato croquettes, man.
The crowd filters in, giving the local openers a good response, and the rev knocks em out with their 110 minute set. A very happy house,I too am psyched. It is the first time I have seen the guys since byron bay and the first real headline show I have seen with real production. It is fucking great.
Afterwards, hopper, Anthony,the kid, ogro, jd, amelie from v2 and her mate sophie, and I head into the town of tongeren to enjoy the local scenery. Ogro and I get a lift from Danielle as the others had left earlier, and what do we find but the burgundy room of Belgium. People are rocking out, singing along to all sorts of music, drinking 2 euro pints, dancing, and just general shenanigans. It was pretty spectacular, alright. Anthony was teaching people how to dance merengue, hopper was showing the rest of us how to drink, pure insanity and a potentially blown bus call.
Somehow we all make it back, catch the last 20 minutes of chopper, and sleep the 3 hours to den haag.
Saturday nov 20 den haag theatre an spui
The crossing borders festival should be nicknamed the crossing fingers festival, cos ya keep yr fingers crossed hoping something happens, hoping someone has a sense of humor, hoping that yr rider will arrive, but hey, it is an arts festival not donnington.
I meet macy and maria taylor in the lobby of the mercure hotel, and miles from the akron family, who is my neighbor., I tell em to give a shout out to old uncle mike g, and go back to the club for meat and cheese on bread and whatever else it is that is going on.
I miss most of which is what I want to see because it is all playing at the same time. Nice.
I can go no further, they tried. The guys played 65 minutes to a good response, salif keitas maracas player lost his chapeau blanc and had an aneurysm(it was in his dressing room), van der graaf generator brought the house down, the guys got loaded at the after party in the sky, I went to bed to the Sunday times magazine.

new york hospitality

2005-10-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

Wednesday oct 19 montreal la sala rosa
Needless to say the morning is a rough one for all Australians and ½ the nyc contingent. I bagel and coffee up and we hit the dvp and head north then east. Illegally advancing shows along the way(no comment thus far, just read on, i/ll probly get sued/shot/banned/deported/blacklisted as of this moment). I make very good time through the turning color countryside of eastern Ontario. We hit a hortons along the way and fill er up full serve and hammer down to montreal. Good directions get us right there in precious time for the 2 flight load. No loaders and no grip on the stairs, I sense a lawsuit. Soundcheck is a non event, ceptin the lurvely ms rosenbaum brings us the best bagels from real bagel around the corner. Fresh and delicious 24-7. and the schemer. Forget about it. Across the road for some bad food and hipster attitude, but it is a refreshing change from the dust and paint and cleaning fluids from la sala….. (yr adj here). But the irish coffee rocks for taking the edge off the cold, and gee whiz I do not look forward to the drive after show to Plattsburgh and points south. And its local band hell, and remember that yr not so humble narrator equates local bands with trips to the hygienist, roommate situations, sobriety check points, republican governments, ad nauseum. And we have been completely invaded by locals. Crikey. And the local openers are the two worst bands of all time, but the cutters rip it up to the sparse crowd, we pass through the border magically considering the big bust that happened earlier that day, I nearly hit a couple of deer who are standing in the fast lane, before stopping off at the Plattsburgh days inn.
Oct 20 drive day
Awake to get a jiffy lube(on the car ya perverts) and leadfoot it down to nyc to do the fearless music program, and aint it great to be in nyc in the fall. The program is a success , we fight our way downtown and to Brooklyn through rush hour traffic, head over to lobo on court for some tex mex and good times, drive the lads back to b longs, and pass out on the couch during Seinfeld.
Oct 21 nyc bowery w/ mahi mahi and rapture SOLD OUT
A great dinner with mod phil, b long, the wax and the lads (and crazy dave) and of course mi esposa at la mela on mulberry. Family style Italian. Brilliant. Last day of the tour, and as the cliché goes, don/t say nothing unless it/s nice, so I will say this. Nice to see a lot of friendly faces at the bowery, nice to watch the cutters knock em dead, nice to see the 500 plus dancing away, nice to see mel mac, nice to be done, nice to be out in the fresh air, nice to have a makers bitters and soda at barramundi, nice hanging out with the mayor and the rummy, nice to see the lipez, nice to see lil kym and spouse, nice to see franz and tvotr and a whole lot of other bandy types, nice to be home. The rest, is just details.

leadfoot express

2005-10-20T00:56:00.000-07:00

Monday oct 11 los angeles, the echo
We head over to current tv to do some on air hosting for al gore/s new network. What a cool scene. Davis, who used to book jimmy kimmel, is in charge so I know that the lads are in good hands. I go blow my pds at arons reckids next door on various los lobos discs readying meself for the x country drive tomorrow. After several hours of television, the cutters disappear with the veejit to find some place kind of seedy. Er, hate to break it to ya sweet heart, but you have been in the belly of the beast for that scheisse for a few days now. Live and learn, eh? We leg it to the east side, echo parque for our own show at the echo. Good to see liz from spaceland and she sorts us right out. I eat some tacos whilst the wax and the boys go off for thai. I wait for my posse to roll in- and roll they do. Hangin with yozell and his gal Jamie, and old skool spunkin Duncan sporting pix of his sprog. Who/d a thunk. The guys stuff the joint and play a rippin set to the likes of junior senior, har mar in the house, and a good bit of the franz Ferdinand band and crew who have a bus call right there on sunset en route to vegas. A brilliant gig. Everyone scatters to various bars and i/m off to the power house with tony bev,dirty preston, lucky Jeremy, har mar, et al. even the Australians show up for some shenanigans and after several makers marks some gobshite who has no business with the bar tells me to finish my drink and fuck off, at which point I offer to carve him up like a Christmas ham. After after parties abound at the standard and the beach and what not, but I do the right thing and fuck off back to the shack.
Oct 11 las vegas the joint
I think that I am still scoobied as we traverse the Mojave desert en route to sin city. Easy load and back to the pool where whitford and I soak up some rays and chlorine whilst everyone else sleeps it off. Readying themselves for another big night. me personally, i/m thinking about my pillow. But no, the miller is in vegas, as well as dg, exiled from the big easy. We suffer through some prison style catering replete with bologna sarnie in the hard rock cafeteria,and then dig the cutters bringing the early house down. I miss tvotr and franz to hit the hay, but the miller talks me into 1(there is no such thing, dammit!) at the double down which takes little twisting of any limbs. Am bummed that I miss sir Elton john, but hey, I have seen him walk down Melrose BITD. i/ll leave the sin city to the next generation.
Oct 12 sur la route
31 insect bites, sunrise over the hoover dam, sunset over the new mexico prairie 1000 miles of driving with the wax heading in the right direction with the ipod shuffle.
Oct 13 still driving
31 festering insect bites, sunrise over ok city and tea with tim mcveigh,sunset over east st louis and was it not ironic that my piece of shite nokia tried to find a pot of piss to drown itself in causing me to panic as a tour manager sans telephone is like a new Orleans peeler without a brutality jacket. It just don/t add up. The wax does a big drive today as the antihistamines have hit me for 6, and the chestnut sized welts erupted all over my shoulder makes one think of the young bukowskis boils lanced in his knit wool sweater in ham on rye. Sick.
Miraculously, we are 300 miles to upper darby.
Oct 14 upper darby pa tower theatre w/franz and sons and daughters
The wax and I make it for lunch as planned and I am cream crackered to say the least. Heavy rains and I am excited to see dorian driving the sons and daughters. A wee gee love in ensues. So the cutters are ages late in noahs ark(or b long/s ride ) through the torrential rain of biblical proportions and pretty much have to get on stage and play to the doors opening and a smattering of folks spread throughout the cavernous old theatre. The response is decent though i/d say the show was a bit lackluster.even so, we wind up with a banner merch night, the boys get scoobied, I watch a wee bit of sons and daughters and dig the l.a. ’85 style and sultry gyrations of adele on the mike, say a quick hey to jon Hampton, a full on disco load out in the pouring rain(pneumonia anyone), say hey to the scheid on the sms as he is in town with the warlocks, see more of the hottest band on tour as we speak who opened up in the states at number bloody 8(think yogi, yaz, I think david beckham is number 8, kobe the rapist). That is huge, and the crowd reacts like they are numero uno. New or old, s/all the same, they are eating it up. Pretty hard to get back in the van for what should be an easy 200 mile drive to new haven. No such luck. We somehow get lost in downtown philly, snake our way back to the turnpike, stop for the full service gas at Sunoco(and the roy rogers veggie burgers!) wind our way around nyc, and can/t I smell the clean sheets and fresh lilies in my apartment(and the rest-ed.), and begin the video games on acid approach to driving on I 95. amazing, drunk ‘tards in foreign cars are trying to pass on the right in the emergency lane, a car is flipped over in the fast lane with a lone statey munching on Duncan donuts at the scene, tail gaters, suburban drug addicts recently returned from their latest five borough score. Every form of bereft driving detritus imaginable. Not what ya need after 40 hours of smooth sailing through the heartland. An Effingham nightmare. And of course the piece de resistance is yet to come, at exit 35 the traffic has completely halted as we crawl past one of the worst accidents not involving a semi that I have ever seen, replete with a body lying in the middle of the highway, the cutters first stiff. God bless America! Finally we make it to our destination, shattered and 6 hours later. I can summon no sleep til it is daylight.
What next?
Sat oct 15 boston the Orpheum
Well we only pass 5 accidents on the way to bean town, each and everyone as frightening as the next. But hey we make it, and the gig is sold out kid. I know it/ll be good, boston loves to rock. Sons and daughters are really late again, so no soup for us, I get tickled pink for backing the beast into a spot tighter than a nun, the cutters play a ripping show and the crowd lets em know it, sons and daughters are rock solid in the middle, and the weegees are simply on fire. They literally bring the Orpheum down. It is impossible to leave and we are headed back to new haven for the night. I finally drag everyone away after saying a quick hey to mark cates and we begin our journey south, but not before a spot of drama right on Tremont street. A crowd of kids in bubble jackets are having a big verbal right on the edge of the common til one of the dipshits does what dipshits do the world over whence they are done talking shite, they open fire. Right in the heart of boston at 1030pm Saturday night. Fuckin eejits, fortunately their command of a handgun is about as proficient as their command of the English language and they hit absolutely nothing to speak of. the aussies first American gun experience. Sign that lil thug up and send em to Baghdad and watch em shit their pants when someone pulls a gun on them. Absolutely disgraceful.
The drive to new haven passes without incident, with me boring the cutters with my multitudes of gun experiences around the world over the years, hitting the crack shack with ample time to kill 12 harpoons amd dig some law and order, this geezers idea of an aftershow.
Sun oct 16 off
Smooth sailing in beautiful weather into the big apple. I drop all the kids off at their respective abodes and hit for 6 chez moi, on lock down with my beautiful wife for the duration of the day.
Mon oct 17 nyc msg
Up early and at the computer, no rest for the wicked. I pick up the kids for the stealth load in sans union, and pack em off to their nme photo shoot and go out for some pressies for the franz crew.the theatre at msg is a great venue, a combination of game show studio and nasa control room. We get thrown to the wolves early, the pav dog is in the house as is the thin white duke. Our dressing room is overrun with Australians and friends thereof, nice for the boys to see some friends, me thinks. Apparently Mitchell bends the ear of herr bowie for a while, and of course everyone is terribly excited(check dave sitek/Karen o and the duke himself on www.lastnightsparty.com). I spend most of tv on the radios set trying to get paid and eat a little something. Watch most of franz/s set, and they are on fire playing everything at double speed and don/t the before it is time to drive to Syracuse as he halfway point to Toronto in the rain and fog and dead deerness of the dark new york night. Somewhere else there is an afterparty in the sky(or the tribeca grand at least) and as everyone sleeps it off, I just thank Christ that I am not in connecticutt.
Tuesday oct 18 toronto ricoh centre
So today is the last day with franz(and possibly the last date where people know how to do a show for awhile-ed.) and we get up and leadfoot it to the border. The sun ra arkestra is at the border whence we arrive so the process is a bit lengthy but we get the thumbs pretty quick thereafter and make our way to east Toronto. Check in to the crack shack and ditty bop our way to the ricoh where ms hersenhoren is doing her first arena show, which is great to see after years of climbing up the ladder in t – town. I am feeling a bit misty eyed about the end of the tour, primarily cos I did not get to sink a few scoops with glen, Darren, brett, cormac, Justin , Trevor, cerne, bernarr, the two rebeccas, andy d, et al.(not to mention the band, but bending elbows with such a consummate group of professionals is/was/will be an honor and a privilege). Onwards and upwards and the de costa family are in the house tonight, supporting their constituency, me thinks. The cutters have picked up some pressies for the ferdinands and after a brilliant set, followed by a rollicking 45 minutes from tv on the radio, the presentation is in order. A magnum of veuve and the rest, and I tell ya that there is not a dry eye in the house. This is what a package tour should be like-good clean fun. Yeah so, the ferdinands go out and show the 5700 people what it/s all about. I get stuck settling merch and steal a few moments here and there. Blistering, man.
Show over, I saw au revoir to the pm and his wife and am dying for a pint of frothy black Guinness for some quare reason. But to no avail. The guys head off to their dj gig after party, and I roll the van and gear up Jarvis to the crack shack of the night for some accounting and Catherine zeta jones feigning both Scottish and Australian, and none too well either, I may add, but the milf factor was very high, and all I could think of was the action man somewhere in Detroit on milf hunter dot com. Too right. The cutters on the other hand hit every last drop of after party imaginable from hotel to hotel, cab to cab, get their moneys worth out of our 18 hours in t town.

the west is the best?

2005-10-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Oct 4 vancouver Orpheum w/ ff and tvotr
Well it is a tough driver for me after the previous nights good times, but nothing a few breathmints and some ham and eggs can/t fix. We trundle northbound on I5 and it is likely yogi said, déjà vu all over again. The border is a breeze, unlike any crossing prior in how many years of doing this. Qui sait. Straight to the venue. I see death cabs tour busses parked up on Seymour and try to get dustons attention but to no avail. I go to the hotel to check us in and suss the parking after load in. the venue is beautiful, home of the Vancouver symphony. We enjoy the very delicious catering upstairs, soundcheck, and all that jazz before hitting the stage. The cutters enjoy a very warm response from the capacity crowd, with the teeny boppers up and jack palancin from the get go. A great show indeed. I miss all of tv on the radio in my quest for the perfect parking so as not to get robbed Vancouver(or Anaheim or Brooklyn) style. That done, its back to the venue to catch a bit of franz and say hey to teish reilly,, from way back in the day , who is good mates with franz/s l.d. and there she was with her fella and didn/t they look happy and well I said good bye cos it was past my bedtime and we had serious ground to cover.what little I saw of franz looked and sounded amazing. Tight as a pair of hiphuggers on a window dressed mannequin. The aussies did a bit of late night djing which brought out the scots and some of their folks.
Oct 5 sur la route
Judging by the state of the lads a good night was had by all. We spend about 2 hours going 25 miles and a quick entrance to the usa, stopping off at denny/s for various grand slams, then we hammer down I5. sound familiar? Well so it is, miles and miles burn away, even a coffee at the doug fir where we briefly pulled over to retrieve some lost luggage in pdx. Onwards downwards and further to the tune of bill hicks, can, the fall, googol bordello AND the rest we finally touched down at the phoenix hotel in san Francisco some 18 hours later.
Oct 6 san Francisco bill graham civic auditorium with ff and tvotr
A nice bahn mi from the Saigon sandwich shop and a jump in the pool, I pack the boys off with herr schoenwetter, mercury rev/s guitar tech, for an afternoon video shoot(which will turn into an ongoing video shoot and will there are certain things in the muziek business that you just do not want to hear(local opener, videographer, no buyout, no elevator, disco load out, know what i/m sayin). And I try to get some work done at the decidedly analog phoenix. My dream of 5 hours of sleep is kyboshed by the birdmen trying to escape from Alcatraz or something like that. And it is over to the cavernous venue to deal with bgp/s old school of…….(insert derogatory term here). The food is great, the cutters play a geat set, I load it out and we leg it over to popscene(see disco load out) for a midnite set to the white belt, cultivated facial hair, and specia accessory set. But it/s a good vibe early,lil nako is the dj and is playing the great hostess. The boys play well, the sound is scheisse, quell surpris! We disco load out and pass out at the phoenix to the smell of of a skunk being run over by a holden.
Oct 7 los angeles greek theatre
Early get out with the videographer and modular phil in tow. We hammer down in the heat of the central valley. We are making record time for a daylight drive on a Friday. I am getting excited to go back to hometown number 1 and have seemingly lined up the weekend accordingly.(hah! ). Check it in, over to the greek, dig the killer cater, cutters play to no one, but do so well. Hang out with the howe and ms singer and watch tv on the radio and watch most of franz set(which is fanfucking tastic and leg it out of there to get my drink on but no one will join me. Nice. all the east siders won/t go to Hollywood, so I go drink for us all. My friend jd is taking care of busniness out boardners which gets me fully loaded to which point things get a bit hazy and involve some type of uniformed authority,someone clled gentleman jack, me being locked out of my hotel room(don/t ask!), a very understanding night clerk named chamique, no sleep(til broojklyn, natch!) and a very angry old man.
Oct 8 los angeles greek theatre
I cruise around all day and get a lube job on Melrose and eat the best $3 bowl of tom yum(why is planet Thailand even still in business?) and a thai iced tea before cruising around los feliz with the hanks family. The band had gone to some after party in search of famous peeps to no avail. We slowly make it back to the greek up the back way(haha) and do our business which entails enjoying easily the best catering of a well catered tour. The boys are thrown early to the wolves again and it is the first time of the tour which I can honestly say is not too good(ya gotta have a band one to have a good one). I get to catch up with someone I worked with 20 years ago who is the roomie of franz/s stage manager, which is a very pleasant surprise. Then load out with the help of the local union, a quick hello to combat lenny and the hanks family and then actually settle down to watch all of tv on the radio AND franz Ferdinand from d sardy/s seat, as he was not even near the free meatballs. Tv and ff are fucking brillo, the b/w video on he screen and nick mccarthy/s suit hearkens back to the days of yore. They play a blinder. Everyone is looking for the afterparty and aoki has hooked it up nut I drive the hanks family back to their ride(after getting a good look at fran drescher who in turn looks good) and say our good byes before rolling out of the park, stopping for a family of coyotes which makes my day, hopefully they got themselves some of that greek theatre catering or at least some b listers’ Pomeranian. I hit the hotel after a lengthy delay due to traffic and fall asleep to l.a. confidential.
Oct 9 san diego o.a.t
I star buck it for breakfast, feeling very fluish and in need for an odwalla. I am pleased as punch that the idiots aka red sox of boston will not be playing anymore baseball, and we languidly roll down to sd. The rest of my cargo went off in search of the afterparty in the sky that went nowhere and we fight through a bit of downtown traffic before hammering down to san diego. We stop off at trestles for some ‘video’ footage. Jaysus, enough said, before rolling in to sd just in time for load in, catering, a soundcheck, some accounting, a killer cut copy show, a killer tv on the radio show, more ‘video’ footage involving franz Ferdinand and I load the van with all sorts of drunky pants and lead foot it back to lalaland to the tune of franz live on 94.9, which sounded amazing. Skeptical, cynical, curious or naysayer-GO SEE THIS BAND! They do it right.
So we make record time back to the city of angels, including a fuel stop in the city of commerce and a cargo drop off at union station where everyone goes to peaches and jd from le tigre/s party and I come back and pass out to a combination of yankee highlights, about Schmidt, and ian rankin. One more week til my own bed, baby

beer and clothing

2005-10-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

Oct 1 seattle paramount w/ff and tvotr
Day 1 with the new Yorkers and it is big ups all round. We get to load in and the paramount is a beautiful old theatre with some of the best staff I have come across in this country. Tremendously helpful, easy load, great cater and a maza like back stage. The cutters hit the stage bright and early and knock em dead(we sell 24 cd/s!). tv on the radio deliver the goods to follow, but it is all franz and the capacity crowd lets em know it. Christ I see people out on the dance floor who are o.a.p./s cutting the rug. The mack tells me it is the best bunch of non old school scheisse he has seen in yonks and I must concur. They slay em big time. So not to be outdone, it is up to us scrubs to deliver the after party which begins promptly at the comet tavern with much of the tour party from Glasgow and Melbourne in attendance though dw and ms decline the invite. s/alright, hoey/ll drink for Australia, and with tvotr splitting before starting, the wax and I will do so for nyc. Seattle, needless to say, is well represented. And so it’s the comet, then the shell station for tinnies, newmeyer and I earn our shekels tonight. Then its cabs and a dance party and lajeunesse and his chica take over the hosting duties with pretty girls make graves and al;l forms of hipster detritus. I hit the pavement at 3am with enough second hand smoke to keep Virginia slims in bidness.
Oct 2 seattle paramount same bill
A wee it thinner tonight but raucous all the same. I spend the day at Safeco watching the mariners get their hat handed to em. Attn m/s mgmt- mike Hargrove is a loser, you will continue to lose with him. But hey Safeco is brilliant, the mack and I nurse the heads and arctic temperatures with some mochas and banter and te poor sod had his car nicked for the third time last night. I begin to get paranoid about the condition of my ride. Anyhoo, we hike it up hill after the game back to the paramount and some catering, then the show and load out and back to the hotel and bed, but everyonbe is calling me to tell me about the chacha after party which I would have liked to hit but I was ensconced in acctg and hbo Sundays(is larry david really funny? I can/t tell, and I can/t understand why someone does not put the head in-ed). Like I said, everyone is at the chacha, including Carlucci of murder city devils fame,looking good off the road. I beg off, too much secretarial scheisse and some driving coming up. Besides, tomorrow is pdx.
Oct 3 pdx roseland theatre w/ff. tvotr
Well what was sposed to be an easy day turns to scheisse reall early. It is my 1 year anniversary of not smoking and every test is taken today to get me to celebrate by starting again.
The car does not start and takes three different attempts and 3 hours to start. The hire company is being far from helpful, but we make it to pdx where it refuses to start again and I somehow manage to get it to a ford dealership(landmark ford in Tigard Oregon, ask for dave koon!) to fix what everyone says is the catalytic converter. Well 4 hours later it is not, it is a rancid battery that nearly bursts and is fixed and I am back for load out and to the hotel. At which time it is duly noted that dungen is across the street at the doug fir, or 14 naked girls dancing to the blues explosion at union jacks with $4 pints of fat tire. Swedish indie rock loses out to a Portland tradition(every time!). properly scoobied, I am cigarette free for 1 year.

on the road pt 1

2005-10-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

On the road with cut copy

Monday sep 19
Sst is late for the drop off of the van. A beautiful day in nyc. I run over to Clinton hill to pick up the band and swag then ditty bop over to caffeinate and pick up the wax. Fully loaded, we lead foot it 600plus miles to western ohio.
Tuesday sep 20 chicago aragon ballroom with franz Ferdinand and pretty girls make graves
Easy drive in to the windy city and a quick check in at the city suites. A busy night in Chicago. Beck, seu jorge, paul weller, black rebel, yadayadayada. It is our first day of the tour proper and the aragon is looking pretty big for a 630pm show. A lot of familiar faces abound and it is definitely exciting to be in a big room that I so abuzz with activity. The cutters take the stage with nary a soundcheck and play to an easy 2000 people by the end of their set. A great start to a good tour. We load out, watch a bit of both bands who are brilliant, then I drop the boys off at the smart bar for their late night dj set which turns out quite boozy, me thinks.
Sep 21 minneapolis target center w/ff and pgmg
Early departure to har mar/s hood. Getting out of Chicago is a major pain in the arse. 10 miles in an hour seriously fucks with my program, but hey. We hammer down to a taco john somewhere in the wisconsin wilds and before ya know it, we hit the twin cities. All is good on day 2. our hotel is a block away and we are buried in the bowels of Kevin garnettville. Cutters hit the stage at 7pm and the rather light crowd get into hit real quick. Outside rain and wind of biblical proportions are hitting downtown Minneapolis. I am getting frantic text messages from b long about ‘tornadoes hitting downtown Minneapolis right now’, but all is good. The boys get the crowd well warmed up and I load and leave to swim some laps(it has come to this, I swim in a pool after the show instead of a bourbon bottle. Crikey!)
Sep 22 lawrence liberty hall w/ff and pgmg
500 odd miles and another 7am departure. Smooth sailing til we hit des moines and the first cracker barrel of the tour. The boys are scared, and you knw that it is aptly named as every cracker in there is the size of a bleeding big barrel of beer. More hammerin down, with the wax behind the wheel and we are in Lawrence. Into the hotel for more laps before the gig. We have a rough one at first. You can hear a pin drop when the guys hit the stage, it is ff/s stage manager and I making the applauding noises until the crowd gets warmed up with a good boogie. I miss the pretty girls as I am loading the van at that stage and dumping it off back at the shack. A quick dip and it is back to liberty hall for some drinks and franz Ferdinand. The Scotsmen are fantastic, tight as nick/s pants, me thinks. They completely rock the house. I take leave immediately thereafter to a bar nearby called the taproom, securing my stool to the tune of x/s los angeles and $3.50 makers and sodas. Night swimming, right. Next thing ya know, the entire tour entourage is in the bar. And drink is taken all over. I am huddled at the bar with glen, franz/s tm, whilst various degrees of scots, aussies, seattlites, and new Yorkers tear it up. I hear rumors of an afterparty til franz/s bus call replete with fireworks, warm beer, and cold sake. The mere thought of an after party makes me think of crif dawg and the licking sideburns. I beg off and pour myself to sleep.
Sep 23 st louis pageant theatre
The first day with a drive under 450 miles and of course all of us are cream crackered. I remember driving from Chicago to st louis one where it took 6 drivers. Well that option is not there and I hammer down through the deluge which fortunately washes the road kill from the windshield. We get to our murder motel , eat an angus burger and high tail it over to the venue. And what a venue. Absolutely fantastic. The owner has taken pictures with every headliner at least. A lot of familiar faces on the wall. The catering is brilliant, the crowd is sold out early on and really into the cutters. Pretty girls then rock the house whilst the aussies do a little sign and greet at the Euclid records table. We stay for half of franz which is awesome. On the way back to the hotel we get lost and find ourselves at the zoo. How ironic. We have had the guardian from the uk with us all day and a photog which has been great. We all retire early. St louis, who knew.
Sep 24 chicago subterranean
Well the drive to chitown is uneventful. We stop at a surly diner which offers ‘crappie dinners’, which of course is pronounced a bit differently but reads the same. The vegetarians are not having an easy time of it, but the blt is damn good. We hammer down back to the windy city, into the belly of the beast at the corner of Milwaukee and north. Subterranean is definitely not. It is up 3 flights of stairs. Brutal. s/ceck and all that lark and my kids head off to dinner with tom and carter from our booking agency. I stick close to the club with bruce and erik from the bottle for a couple of bourbons before the show and some damn fine middle eastern food from the market up the road. I am merchie bunker for the day, thus I am stuck with the local openers. Two of my least favorite words in the English language when strung together,’local opener’. Christ, it is almost as fearful as ‘military intelligence’ or ‘pro life’, and today proves to be no exception. Thus, I sonambulate through the first two, until the aussies hit the stage and completely bring down the house with the 270 people. Wicked. I let em hang about for a bit, then we hit the road towards lawrece ,ks on our flying spaceship tour. Somewhere on the ron dog raygun memorial highway(portions toll, of course, the old nazi is dead and we are still paying!)
Sep 25 off
Off being the operative term as we have a 500 mile drive ahead of us. Thus we hammer down and stop for a bit of nosh in davenport iowa. Several hours later we are back at the summerhill watching larry david, eating papa kenos and taing it real handy.
Sep 26 lawrence gas light
More swimming in a pool, a jiffy lube(this is a AUTOMOBILE SERVICE CENTER, for our foreign readers). The boys go off to do a kjhk interview, I hit the Vermont street bbq for some smoked chicken. We are off to play the gas light, jeff fortiers club on the Kansas river. A sweet little spot sequestered away in north Lawrence. The crowd is a bit light but appreciative all the same. Wind up meeting a bunch of guys that used to be in shiner and season to risk. Old school. We take it real handy as we have 571 miles to Denver at 7am.
Sep 27 denver fillmore w/ff and pgmg
A very long effin drive that is punctuated by a dust storm in downtown Denver. We hit the venue and some good catering(I ate the salmon) and it is to the wolves at 730pm. But the crowd is into it and we actually sell 17 cds. I completely miss the whole show as it is load and leave and a 7am to slc. The guys dj the afterparty and everyone shows up a la Lawrence and the lads are a real mess in the morning.
Sep 28 magna ut great saltair w/ff and pgmg
Well after 10 hours of I80 we get there. There are no more go karts, just the smell of the lake. The last time I was here with unsane and slayer people got stabbed. Lets hope for no encore. Well it is the same slc punks as the last time I was in the city with har mar. so I know that the catering is going to be a bit challenged. Fortunately I loaded up on my carbs at the buffet removing the mystery meal from the days equation.
The cutters hit the stage early on and bring the house down. There is a lot of love in the room, to be sure. The pretty girls continue the trend, getting a very warm reception. By the time franz hit the stage, the crowd is very excited, a whole lot of shakin goin on, and they completely rock the house. We hit the highway to get a head start on our 855 mile drive to seattle, stopping at the Outsider Inn, in the sleepy hamlet of snowville, utah. A murder motel incarnate.
Sep 29 off
We wake up to a fine breakfast at mollies diner before hit the road. A lot of ground to cover today, but a good tune up for next weeks drive to philly. Rockin all sorts of tunes and managing an espresso stop in baker city, or, where I pay $3.25 a gallon for diesel.
Explain this to me . is it war tax? Hurricane tax? We are occupying an oil producing country and the oil companies have posted record profits in the last two quarters and the price of gas is still going. And don/t try to justify it by saying that it is cheaper than the Europeans are paying. That/s horseshit, they get free health care and education. For our troubles we get war and lies and a slew of immoral gobshite crackers breaking the laws that they are supposed to be enforcing. Instead of casting votes, perhaps we should be casting stones.
Where was I , yes indeed west bound on the 84 to the 82 to the 90 and a very beautiful drive through wine country with a stupendous sunset followed by an over due monsoon to clean the roadkill from the windshield. 12 hours later we are at our hotel in sea, wa where they have completely effed up the reservation. I immediately jump into a cab and hit the bars with the mack and some of franz/s crew, getting well scoobied and drinking single malt unitl the wee hours. Nice.
Sep 30 seattle
A good head on me, we hit the 5 points for monstrous portions of comfort food to absorb some of that liquor. I catch up on some accounting and advancing the Canadian dates coming up. Then we are off to west seattle to do an instore at easy street records. I overindulge as usual , taking advantage of the healthy discount to get all sorts of bill hicks,Dylan,Mayfield,wainwright,springsteen,Costello,Jorge,arcade fire,kaito,ike reilly,antony and the jonsons, and that is just the used scheisse. What a shop. And what a crowd, 50 people show up and dance away. A resounding success. We load and leave, I drop the guys at the 5 points and the wax and I hit the late night talk show circuit, asleep by 1230.

har mar hot nights

2005-07-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

dissinformation

history made in st louis

2004-10-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

i have tried to post on more than one occasion a few thoughts on the red sox history making performance in the last fortnight. to be down to 3 outs in game 4 of the alcs against mariano rivera and effectively raise two fingers to the curse of the bambino and 86 years of yankee dominance, is saying something about the character of those self proclaimed idiots. pure baseball,errors and all. couple this with fact not only do they take the yankees to school in grand old father effin fashion, they beat on the cardinals even more so. pujols and edmonds a combine 1 for 30, or was it rolen. sure makes beltre or bonds look good as the mvp in my mind. if the cardinals didn/t look like deer in the headlights(much like 80% of the yankee roster in game 7 of the alcs), they certainly didn/t look like a contending championship caliber ball club. honestly, manny ramirez throwing anyone out at the plate. kudos to those bean town dominicanos and the other 22 guys on the sox, they played ball the way it is supposed to be played-guts, determination, pitching, timely hitting, team work, and a $135 million plus payroll-the baseball equivalent of detroit v l.a. the only solace i get out of the whole bronx debacle is imagining a brand spanking new cardinal uniform emblazoned with the names 'brown' or 'vazquez' emblazoned across the back. hell, make it a trifecta, there may just be a 'loaiza' in there, too, free of charge, courtesy of the city that never sleeps for keeping us juiced on bud for all these years.

the death of peel

2004-10-26T13:44:00.000-07:00

it was with a sense of sadness that i learned of the death of the great john peel. for many, the single greatest source of new muziek whilst growing up across the north atlantic. or in the case of this former septic ex pat, peel came on the radio about 18 minutes after i finished my short order cook shift at the dog and vomit or some such east london boite, if i concentrated , i was able to draw a bath and some smokeable matter in my dalston hovel and listen in on the first strains of pavement, bikini kill,mudhoney, et al crossing the atlantic for the first time(and of course the howls and scowls of a certain mark e smith perpetually permeating peels program)making me slightly home sick for american girls, Interstate 10, fish tacos, and real drinks. how ironic that 15 years later, the passing of peel leaves me wistful for bulgarian red, constant rain, the scala cinema, pg tips, broken windows, and free rent.
from a warm apartment in kings county with the sounds of peel sessions past blaring through too old speakers, in an age where downloadable mp3's and satellite radio have nearly made the maverick radio personalities of our past obsolete,peel managed to remain relevant and revered.