A glamorous life. 7/15/06Great first show of the second
leg of touring for Greenland last night at the "new" 9:30 club in Washington DC.
A splendid venue with great sound, staff, food and a dressing room
with...unbelievable!....no penises drawn on the walls! Why do musicians draw
huge penises on the walls of dressing rooms? Insecurity? Do they think this will
get them laid? Trust me morons, this is not something women want to see if you
are lucky enough to escort one back there. Visiting Moms and aunts don't want to
see it either. Of course here in the 9:30 dressing room there IS a highly
stylized and oddly sexual Grecian painting on the dome ceiling. Hmmm. There are
also clean bunks where a musician can afford him (or her) self the rare luxury
of a nap. This club gets a 10 on the 1 to 10 scale. A far cry from the original
9:30 of yesteryear which although legendary, was in actuality a hellish little
punk rock dive with a low, cramped stage with support beams that half hid the
performers from the crowd. Perhaps a blessing on some nights. There was a
storeroom/dressing room with overhead pipes that were a regular thoroughfare for
big rats looking to pilfer your rider (backstage food). I remember stomping my
boot at one such brazen rodent who looked up and hissed at me fearlessly before
sauntering off into a hole in the wall with a tortilla chip.
At the
moment I am sitting behind David as he drives through the upstate New York
downpour as we try to find our way around construction riddled road detours to
the gig near Albany NY. At around 2:30 AM in DC last night, after settling the
business, loading out the equipment, signing CDs and T-shirts we hauled ass to
our hotel to steal a precious few hours of sleep. Up at 7 am to grab a coffee
and hopefully some rider scraps we'd stuffed in our backpacks from the night
before we head out to the next adventure. I awake sleep addled and befuddled
after having snoozed in the back seat most of the 8 hour drive while David and
Wayne (our temporary tour manager from South Carolina) take turns at the wheel.
Load in was supposed to be at 3:30 and due to the weather and construction
delays it is now 6:20. Sometimes routing and variables just fuck up the best
laid plans. Yikes....we are at the venue. Time to snap out of it and move gear
in the rain! Yeeeha!!! Over and out..... Johnny and the grizzled veterans of the
road.
7/15/06 3 am. Frank sleeps peacefully in the next
bed...his traditional post show Sambuca numbing his weary soul to slumber. The
band played their asses off tonight. On a 1 to 10 it's a solid 9
show.
7/16/06 Hoorah....we got to sleep till 11!! We are
on a punctual course to Poughkeepsie until one of the trailer tires blows out on
the highway. Today being Sunday, it takes some phone scrambling but we find an
open RV outlet and buy a new wheel. They have no separate tires so we buy the
whole enchilada, rim and all. Once again we head toward a late load in. 2
opening bands tonight. Sound check? Probably not. Dicks on the dressing room
walls? Probably. I'll check in with you later my friends.
PS: Just got
another report from Pioneertown about the fire. All the historical buildings
still standing...including Pappy and Harriet's and the big barn up the road
where we recorded Kerosene Hat. David's cabin has very likely burned down. No
access to the road up to it yet but the satellite photos do not bode well.
