Alpine Valley was nuts both nights in a row. These people brought the energy. It’s very very hard to hold back when 37,000 people are screaming at you. Which is to say we didn’t hold back and I was wrecked after both shows. After the second one my left thumb–that’s the hand that wasn’t in […]
“This is the biggest music venue in the United States,” Louis told me while I was waiting around for soundcheck. “Bigger than a football stadium?” I was sitting on the edge of the stage and he was walking around to keep his knee from stiffening up. The place was a shed: a covered stage with […]
“You doing okay?” He leaned in the doorway, his blond dreads hanging rakishly off his forehead, looking like the kind of beautiful tropical bird that will peck your fingers off if you stick them through its cage. “You’ve been a hermit since the incident.” The Incident of The Tequila, the Lime Knife, And The Curious […]
Things I wouldn’t have realized if I hadn’t toured the country: Ohio borders Kentucky. I think of Ohio as the Midwest and Kentucky as the South. So if you’d told me they were the same distance apart as Minnesota and South Carolina I would have believed you. Instead, check it out, they’re adjacent. In fact […]
Martin missed the bus to Detroit. This surprised no one, really, since he’d informed the crew he’d get himself there. It was only like a two or three hour drive and I think he convinced either Mary or Sue to just drive him. Once he did get to Detroit, he thanked me before soundcheck because […]
I pride myself on being honest. I feel like I worked hard to stop lying to myself and to undo the damage of people lying to me all the time, so if I lie to someone else I consider it really bad. So I’m very not proud of the lie I told in Cleveland. One […]
In the morning I went to the airport in a hired car that was not driven by Tony. I guess because Nomad was paying for it and not WTA? The flight was from Newark, which I tried to pretend was not in New Jersey. I made my way to the gate, my left thumb aching […]
I saw Court briefly that night when she came over to see if I needed my laundry done. No, I’m not kidding. (The only reason I didn’t is that Ziggy sent his out to be done and had a bunch of mine done at the same time.) Okay and maybe she wanted to hang out […]
I met Jonathan for a drink. At some dive in Hell’s Kitchen, which is a scary sounding name for a neighborhood but actually it was really not that bad. Not really all that different from a lot of other residential areas of Manhattan. Mine was non-alcoholic, his wasn’t. I, of course, told him about my […]
After the shows at Nassau Coliseum, everyone had two full days off. Most of the band and crew took those days off in Cleveland, where the final leg of the tour would start. I stayed in New York. The first day was a Monday and I slept until I couldn’t sleep any more, which was […]