The first of the Austin shows went very well. I had the odd experience this time of looking down at the fans clustering at the front of the stage and recognizing faces. The bruise on Ziggy’s face was like a blackish purple swirl leading from the corner of one eye down toward his cheek. It […]
We were still getting by with no dedicated drum tech, with various guys on the crew just setting the stuff up. Colin had ended up doing most of it. The thing was you needed a guy to hit the drums while another guy adjusted the mics and stuff (and a third guy worked the sound […]
Oh my god, I love Austin. Okay, not as much as Boston, but the second we pulled up to the place, I felt better. There were about fifty fans waiting at the edge of the driveway to greet the bus when we pulled in, waving signs and cheering. Some of them had the “Candlelight” lighters […]
The crowd that night was just as aggressive as the night before. And something else new happened. We got booed. Not a resounding boo, you understand. We were still the headliner, but we were in Megaton’s hometown, and when they were getting off the stage after their set–which was a full hour-long set with one […]
Colin was waiting for me to finish my little chat, off in the wings. I asked him how his fingers were holding up. “A little sore, but okay,” he said, then blew on his fingertips. “You want your dog tags back?” “Thanks.” I took the laminates on a lanyard he held out to me. One […]
“Today we’re going to learn to play the blues,” I said. We were sitting on the edge of the stage, our legs dangling into the security pit. “I’m betting you kind of know this already, instinctively, but it’s one thing to hear it and recognize it, and another to play it.” Colin nodded. “Okay.”
The interview went on for a while, we signed all the things, shook hands with some more radio personnel, and then the car took us back to the venue. The place was the Sam Houston Coliseum and the limo driver, who said he used to work as a tour guide, told us the Beatles and […]
No one said much of anything on that bus ride. Then again everyone was asleep for most of it. Everyone except me, anyway. I kept thinking things might get stressful and so I really ought to get as much rest as I could, and that just led to me worrying about not sleeping, and, well, […]
I think maybe my nerves were contagious. None of us sat down after Megaton started playing. It wasn’t as if the second they came off the stage we had to leap out there ourselves. We had plenty of time. There was some stage re-setting to do, and it being the first show with the new […]
Ziggy’s hands were warm and dry, and gentle, as usual, as he applied the eyeliner to me. I looked up at the ceiling and didn’t say anything, and he didn’t say anything either. It felt like it took a long time and yet it was over with too quickly. I felt like I should do […]