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friday, may day, 1998 - houston, tx
from bob lee:
more pinball! I am totally addicted & very happy to find a good machine in the club. met many very cool folks tonight, stephanie (friend of mike's pal holli who we will see in atlanta) and her boyfriend buffalo, spent much of the evening rapping with them. also dom from the band rusted shut, who were nearly thrown off their gig at this club a few weeks ago for arriving "late" (dom says they sat around for an hour anyway, the soundguy told me they showed up 15 minutes before their start time, which is very usual at small pads in l.a., whatever.) and I ran into robert fernandez, who I'd known in l.a. maybe 9 years ago, had a band called mox nix which I never saw, though I became buds with three of the members through the aforementioned john hancock. they were the houston contingent of my circle of friends, lead singer/guitarist johnny duff was the drummer in fearless leader for a while during that band's golden era (1989-90), he was later replaced by mox nix's other guitarist bruce tousneau! (the current fearless drummer is me, unless they've kicked me out during this little gadabout. only time will tell... by the way there is a hair farmer band in houston also called fearless leader, but accept no substitutes! if it ain't in makeup and setting shit on fire it ain't us!) enjoyed playing tonight a lot. I also met two of the six or so people that saw claw hammer's disastrous attempt at headlining the abyss here in houston a year ago. spent the night at the lovely home of mike mc guire, right on the gulf of mexico. tried to walk out on the pier but, as it is only about two feet wide, no handrail, slippery from birdshit and I was stumblin' in the wind already, I didn't make it far. cheers to kirk (?) and stacy and mike & dom & the other partier whose name I missed.
from steve reed:
my journal still hasn't shown up! in case you don't know my european journal has been logged in the internet. I left it in l.a. before it could be finished, so my girlfriend katherine is sending to me on the road. I'm still waiting for it. hopefully it will show up soon, it keeps missing us. the show in houston was good, a lot of headroom in the system. after show we went to bay house in la porte to sleep with our friends mike mc guire and kyle and aaron. they have plenty of room for us and we always enjoy our stay with these good people. on to baton rouge.
from watt:
I wake up and think about those communication problems we had on stage last night. I start walking. what can I do here? it's so easy to yell at people but the real talent is to inspire them. I think about what can really work and instead of getting a scolding ready I think of a rallying type angle and approach the problem w/some positive stuff, like what can I do (watt) to make things better instead of pointing out all what seems wrong. I go over this for hours and when my team wakes and comes into the van, I flow some of my ideas. they're very receptive and the morale is great. I'm so glad I thought this over and not do some stupid fucking knee-jerk shit like I've done in the past. I think the guys are glad even though nothing's said about it. I know for damn sure I am.
workers day and we start the drive to houston. we have first chow at the 290 cafe, which is a trip cuz all the folks who eat there are belling big time. must be the piles and piles of onion rings and white gravy and shit like that, huh? we tease bob lee about this pad and it's a crack up when all of us order the most light fare. you know, blt's and shit like that. we pass by the road that leads down to la grange, the town in that zz top song. we stop by the highway and get some berries. they sure are good.
the gig is at a pad I never played before in houston called "instant karma." houston is kind of like l.a., all spread out and mean. this pad though has lots of nice folks working there. I spend almost the whole night talking w/them - before and after the gig. the boss there is named mitch and he plays bass. I like that. he's from boston and he's running a club here in texas, what a trip. he says it's better than that six months of cold he had to deal w/back there. amen. but what about texas humidity? damn. one hell for another, pert-near.
our gig is really good, the crowd is really w/us and I dig it. it's a trip how such a personal piece can relate to others. much thanks to joe baiza, bob lee and steve reed for making it a reality to do. I think they put a lot of their personality in their playing too. much respect to these cats.
old friends of the pelegasus cats, mike and kyle come and take us to the pad where we usually stay when we play houston. I like folks pads rather than the ho's if they got the space and facility. more personable, you know? this pad is on the gulf coast in la porte and it's a bad pad. big place w/a pier that goes out to the water. mike's made us beans and hamhocks and the shit is so good, damn! they only got jack daniels so I don't drink much whiskey. they got the vodka joe baiza likes so they all get going on that. the play the frogs 7" box set on the stereo then some coltrane. I konk happy.
saturday, may 2, 1998 - baton rouge, la
from bob lee:
I was looking forward to playing new orleans this trip, claw hammer made a record there in '96 & I had a blast, but this happened to be jazz fest weekend and we were denied a booking. so off to baton rouge. playing pinball by the front door I heard a lot of people asking, "so what's the band sound like" as they walked in. but we held our own with 'em, great crowd (biggest to date, like 350 people), a little talkative during quiet parts but it was after all saturday night at the hip college bar. excellent opening set by the rutabagas, a bass/ drum duo from new orleans, invite comparison to the early nomeansno, which was also only bass/ drums. I found out they played w/claw hammer in nyc last year, though I missed em while eating dinner. damn! well I saw em tonight and they were awesome.
from steve reed:
we haven't been here in a long time. todd came to the show, he's having us over for dinner tomorrow in mobile. he's a very nice person. the gig was packed and the band played great. opening were boyfriend/ girlfriend team the rutabagas. she bass, he drums, she sang lead, he sang 2 lead & backing vocals. they were very good. mr. wrong (rob from nomeansno) is still my favorite solo bass performance ever but these folks were real good. partied in the bar till 4:30 when we left for motel 6.
from watt:
east on the I-10 to louisiana. the humidity still is not that bad, we are blessed. this pad is called "the bayou" and it's been like six or seven years since I last played it. good to be back, the folks are very nice. after soundcheck this cat from pedro takes me to chow some cajun food. well, it's a college town so lots of the shit is fried and we can't even get mudbugs (crawfish) at a restaurant, only at a market. damn, I dig that shit - eating the tails and sucking out the brains. me and georgie have done it on all kinds of tours when we're down in this area. the menu at the sports/frat bar says crawfish salad but of course when it comes it's fucking deepfried little shits in lettuce. damn. we have a good talk about our town and what went down in the balkans though. he's slav and there's a trippy history in pedro regarding that. the only fucked think is I forgot his name! he's a relative of andy, a pedro guy I know though. can you believe that shit? my fucking alzheimers is blowing my memory right out the fucking window.
the opening band is called _rudabega_ and they're great. just bass and drums (not the techno genre but really bass and drums) w/an interesting approach to the whole trip. they're from new orleans. the drummer has a harmonica rig around his neck and the lady on bass sings the lead. they're married and play really well together. the sound mix is fucked though and a lot of shit gets lost. I dig them anyway and feel inspired to play.
the gig is sold out and there's a good feel. sure, some of the dicks in the back don't even know who I am and chatter louder than crickets at night but there's a great feel from the rest of the folks and the band plays really well. we deliver the piece and get many ecores. afterwards, the boss breaks out some good bourbon, some booker's and some baker's and I dig it. they keep pouring and pouring the shit down my throat. we stay and talk for hours. the man behind the bar, stan was on the job six months when I last played here. now he's bailing in six months after this gig. it's like bookends, huh? the lady who made me a voodoo doll (w/real aligator teeth, nutrino claws and human hair - it's for protection) when I played new orleans w/porno for pyros is there and says she's graduating the school here, l.s.u. (where shaq went). I find out the old owner, who's a big racist, now runs a black club. that's what they tell me. it's a trip where folks' lives lead. joe baiza leads me to the window at the mo-six cuz I can barely walk. I sign my name and count out the money somehow. he leans me to the side so I can puke w/out the clerk seeing. damn, take me sleep. thank you joe baiza.
sunday, may 3, 1998 - mobile, al
from bob lee:
todd, the dude who put on the show here invited us to his friend joe's home for dinner before the gig, ate a fantastic meal & chilled in the alabama rain, staring out at the flat green land. opener swaha (sp?) did rage atm & cypress hill covers, sung in a deep ian curtis-like voice, wow! our dinner host joe told us it was the best concert he'd seen since hendrix! many thanks for the warm welcome to joe, bobbi joe, elena & todd.
from steve reed:
on to mobile and the chow at todd & joe's. the dinner was excellent! broiled fish, baked potatoes, green veggies, dessert, almost like being in europe! the show was good, about 125 paid.
from watt:
todd, a dude I met last u.s. tour in november had good news for me last night in baton rouge. he lives in mobile and there's going to be a big chow for us tonight, waiting. we get to mobile and meet joe, an older hippy. he's cooked up a big 22 pound amberjack fish for us to chow on but first he brings out some shrimps. we try his habanero sauce on it, then we try ours. both are good! his is a carrot base, that cariban kind. the fish is both broiled and grilled along w/football sized baked potatoes. also, there's tons of broccoli. joe's wife, b.j. has cooked up some very down chow and we all wail it big time. what sweet folks. joe has lots of stories about how mobile runs. old money, old families - everything goes down on dauphin street. he says mobile is like a little version of new orleans. I dig hearing him talk about stuff, like when he went to the country to live (fayetteville, arkansas) in his younger hippy days. red necks made him bail and move back home to mobile. he tells me about the time he first had a mcdonald's hamburger and thought they weren't going to last a year or two w/a burger that tasted that shitty. he said there were at least five or six pads that had way better ones. we both had to laugh when talked about what ended up happening! he related it to the way a lot of the lame shit from cali like track homes, strip malls, plastic culture and stuff like that has/is getting imported all around the country (even mobile) and in fact, the world. we both laugh ourselves silly. he's a great guy w/some insight. b.j. lets me do laundry. these are great folks. thank you, todd.
we go to the pad, called "monsoons" and do soundcheck. the boss there is named john and he's very happening. he's glad to have us aboard. the sky gets real dark and I go down the road to a little park in front of the old catholic church. in the northeast sky begins one big electrical storm. I'm taken aback and just start staring. it's happening so far away, you can't hear the thunder but damn, what a light show! big shooters of lightening going across the pitch black night, sometimes curving almost all the way around, sometimes splitting into some kind of vein pattern, so damn trippy. my mouth's hanging open and I'm gawking. big light explosion behind the clouds and you only gotta wait seconds for the next scene. sometimes several bolts go flying at the same time. wow. damn. I watch for almost an hour. I walk down to the waterfront and it reminds me of home in pedro.
I get back to pad and the opening band is about to go on. they're called _swaha_ and they're very nice folks. the singer has kind of bowie voice ala "heroes" and the band does kind of funky-metal thing. they do a cover of "hits from the bong" by cypress hill and the bass player gives his bass to a friend while he helps the singer w/some rapping. he has kind of a beastie boy style. the whole thing has me busting a gut.
we take the stage after them and deliver the piece. we have success at it and I dig it much. some young cats keep asking me to do minutemen tunes - they know all the words from all the tunes on "double nickels on the dime" and that's a mindblow. we only do "one reporter's opinion" (combined w/the dos tune "forever") from that record and they're happy. they're such good cats. one of them gives me a ny yankee hat that has studs in two of the front air holes so they look like tiny horns. cracks me up. joe comes up and tells me about seeing jimi hendrix back you know when and says he digs the piece and hopes the kids know what they just heard and saw. he's such a nice man. I have a long talk w/the boss john about the state of things and w/both laugh ourselves silly. he says come back and you know I will. I drive the black gang to the mo-six and it's sleepy town real quick.
monday, may 4, 1998 - athens, ga
from bob lee:
ah, the east coast! athens is very cute, quintessential college town. I found some great records at low yo-yo stuff right next to the 40 watt club including the uk version of the 1st clash lp, alex chilton live in london 1980, my fave solo era of his, an early live hawkwind thing... shop till ya drop. tonight's opener was the amazing, legendary, fabulous fathers of electronic pop music the silver apples. for those unfamiliar, I cannot recommend them highly enough, their first two lps from 1968-69 are two of the most hypnotic & psychedelic records ever made, a drummer and a synth player, though because keyboard synths were not commercially available at the time he triggered his oscillators with telegraph keys for the hands and feet. mca has just reissued their sixties lps on one cd. I talked for a bit with simeon, the synth player (original drummer dan taylor has just been located, although he hasn't played drums in 25 years and won't be performing with the "new" apples. his replacement joe is doing a fab job!) told me they were offered a slot at woodstock & declined, as they were not into the hippie thing at all & preferred to play to a nyc crowd, which would lie on the ground and later claim to have levitated during the show. I can believe that easily! they were very good tonight and I bought their two new things ("beacon" and "decatur", recorded with last year's lineup, extra keyboardist & a different - and to my ear, inferior - drummer.) much better than the apples gig last year at l.a.'s spaceland. simeon also told me that dan taylor has boxes of old tapes which may be gone through & possibly released, I am holding my breath for that one. spent hours hanging out after the show with former l.a. native kimba talking about the old home town. what a night.
from steve reed:
haven't been to this club on years! doug rocket showed up & did a great job on my feet. I feel 100% better. thank you very much doug!! the employees here are very nice & the sound system has improved 100%, and the boss is very beautiful and nice. what more could you want? we had a great crowd for a monday night.
from watt:
driving through montgomery and atlanta on the way to athens we see no evidence of the storm I tripped on last night. weather moves fast in the south. we play the "40 watt" (great name for somone like me to play) where I've played before (even the old one) but it's been like three years. damn. I dig the folks working here and the whole feel. I have to do some spiels so I'm on the phone for a couple of hours. when I'm done we do soundcheck and then I konk in the van for a nap. I am damn tired. I wake up sweaty and it's like 11:30 at night. the opening band started in the late 60s and is called _silver apples_ and I watch them. they got the original cat on keyboards and strange sound devices plus a younger man on drums. they're really happening, I dig them. an old friend, tigger, who just recently quit his band of seven years, _5-8_ comes by and takes me to see his wife play bass in a band she's in down the street. she works her machine cool. after a few tunes I go back and see the rest of the apples. they're down. much respect to the older man who's named simeon and I tell him so when they're done.
our set is an emotional one w/me really putting it out cuz the cats in the crow are really giving it up for the piece. lots of good will all over. you can't know how grateful watt feels. this is personal stuff and the folks are open to it. much respect. my old friend doug rockett, who I've known through gigs for over ten years and have seen him from student to foot doctor is there and this makes me even happier. he's gotta get back to memphis so I ain't got much time to talk to him after the gig. I do have time to talk w/berrie and rud (the folks behind the curtain at the 40 watt) and we drink whiskey and spiel for hours about all kinds of shit. a cat from the old days named dewitt who's got breath strong enough to turn the windmill on an old dutch painting joins in, trying to say nascar (the big leauge of stock car racing) is bigger than soccer. I've just been back from europe and have to set him straight. maybe for a single event but not for world wide participation. we finally get off of that subject and wail on a bunch others, berrie being very insightful and serving up the sly angle. it's good hearing folks let you know what they think if it's genuine and interesting. it's an ear gift if it enlightens, believe me. a man's gotta know his limitations so we drive one block to the "classic inn" (this town has no mo-six) and konk.
tuesday, cinco de mayo, 1998 - atlanta, ga
from bob lee:
ran into mark & lindsey who have seen every claw hammer gig in atlanta, always great to see him. tonight was the first of eight gigs with jack drag, a trio from boston who I saw in nyc a year and a half ago & really enjoyed. their new material is still pretty slow & loud & dreamy, but a bit more driving than I remember them being. good guys too, although for the first three days I have trouble keeping their names (joe, john, jason) straight. triple-j threat. I have a little trouble playing tonight, sometimes things get slippery for no apparant reason. (I know I have been writing a lot about being buzzed but never before the gig. maybe a couple beers over several hours, and no weed no way.) but the shoe is very well-received. I meet holli, friend of stephanie from houston, talk with her for an hour or so after the show, and she follows us to the house we are staying at. the folks at this "house", actually a gigantic warehouse space with little loft apartments built into it, have a d. boon shrine! records, photos, lyric reprints, even a little sculpture of d.'s head on a pillar, in a glass case on the wall, which they display for us proudly. the folks at the house are great but don't believe in going to bed before 8 am so I am trying in vain to out-party them so I can sleep in peace, give up around 7. crash out on a huge trampoline, which seems like fun, but is actually less comfy than a carpeted floor,to the strains of gary numan & much animated conversation. an enjoyable eve but next time I'll crash in the van.
from steve reed:
waiting for my friend abram & my journal, kat sent it to his house. well abram showed up but no journal! the post office came by but nobody was there to receive it. we will pick it up tomorrow in alpharetta. show was great and tommy from the point is the best monitor man ever. he's bad! also larry is a good house tech. ernie is the boss and he's got the system sounding real good. I liked the opening band, jack drag (a&m records), easy to get along with. also management for red telephone called from l.a., they want me to mix the band for five shows, that's great! a little extra cash, they're opening for us the last week of the tour, so that will be very cool. they're on warner bros. we stayed in a squat just outside of downtown atlanta.
from watt:
short ride to atlanta from athens. we see how the little college town is changing w/strip malls and track housing, all imports from the cali over-culture. shit, it's a trip seeing how the mersh of the place where you come from gets imported to all the pads. the over-culture. still doesn't have a lot to do w/me and you though, huh?
getting to atlanta early, I do three spiels over the phone. then I go into the van to konk. the pad we're playing tonight is a cool one called "the point" and it's in the little five points part of atlanta. there's kind of haight street scene w/young folks dressed as punks and living like sidewalk hippies. same old same old, it's funny how that shit travels around. anyway, I'm sueno almost in the back of the van when I hear a couple of this 'muffins drinking next to the boat (van) talking about how they should steal it and change the license plates and shit like that. I let them go on 'till I can't take any more and then come out the back doors asking them "you're gonaa take this van, huh?" they're all freaked out by this nut man and start saying "man, we're just fantazing" and I go "you think I'm rich?" god damn. I'm so mad I just start pacing and then go sit on this wall near by and look at them. one of their associates who wasn't plotting w/them comes over to me to say they were just drunk and he yells at them to split. I'm just so angry. I hate yelling at them, they're just fucked up kids and I don't want to play any kind of a cop but god damn, if I lose my van (boat) I can't get to the next gig, shit. this fucking world.
a friend named gracie comes and talks to me for a while but I gotta konk or I'll play shity and she understands and bails. she's got one bro studying law and one studying bass. all three of them are great and I dig them. I konk hard for many hours straight a wake just as the opening band gets done. they're called _jack drag_ and they're gonna be w/us for the next seven gigs. cats from boston that play real neat stuff but for tonight watt was in sleepy town while they went on. I wipe the bleary eyes and get ready. holli and her pop larry, friends from here are at the gig and come up to me. I dig talking w/larry, he looks so much like pete townshend it's a trip. he's from mobile though and couldn't be more further from england. he was like joe from mobile in that he was in the hippie days and tripped around. it's a mind blow meeting parents that aren't like the parents I knew as a kid but they're kind of like me! I used to be so scared to meet these kind of cats but I'm getting more and more ok about it. when I was young, no one had hippies for parents, no one! but of course things would happen like this, huh? not everyone grows up in navy housing during the 60s, right? larry's great and I love hearing about his experiences and his insights into these days. it seems like he trips on watt too. we both laugh so hard. I have to bail and do the piece and it's a good one, again due to folks in the crowd. I try real hard for larry too. cats younger, cats older, watt w/his opera, on the deck w/joe baiza and bob lee, mr. reed at the critical point - what a geometry. after the gig, of course lots of spiel w/larry. getting late, this cat paul asks me to see this shrine him and his buds built for d. boon at their place called c-11. shit, why not konk there, I say? it's econo. holli comes too. it's in a space in an industrial park. I see the shrine and am touched. very sweet folks. I plop on the couch quick though and keep waking and konking as music blasts and blasts. not the most lively guest but this man watt is fucking beat. damn. I wonder if they partyed over me and parked the bong on my chest. no matter, much love to them for their respect to d. boon.
wednesday, may 6, 1998 - charlotte, nc
from bob lee:
I'm really enjoying jack drag, such a pleasure to actually have a good band to play with each night. tonight's was a small turnout but a fun gig, every time we bust into the guitar solo on "liberty calls" I keep thinking about the reeperbahn. sailors getting off the train at st. pauli station, seeing the crowds & the lights & motion and yelping off into the chaos (see my euro diary/hamburg for a memorable tale of woe about this sailor town. and whenever you see that label for "st. pauli girl" beer, remember that those beers in her hand are 350 marks apiece! that st. pauli girl is not so innocent as she looks. maybe fuel for fantasizing... I have said too much.)
from steve reed:
picked up my journal in alpharetta and headed out to charlotte. when we got to the post office my package wasn't there and I was pissed! almost in a rage. for what I've gone through to get this journal problem, I waited 30 minutes and it magically appeared! it was a miracle because we were getting ready to leave. remember folks, you got to have faith. believe in something & have a lot of faith! if I hadn't gotten that book I would have just died...
well we played the tremont music hall & the show was very good. dave & penny have set up the sound system really well. penny is the brains of the operation, very smart. mike has liked his monitors the last 2 nights, atlanta & charlotte. both monitor men were very good. maybe one day we can bring our own monitor man? please!!
from watt:
I wake up on that couch at c-11 and am kind cramped up. not bad but I like konking on the deck. bob lee slept on a trampoline - it's funny seeing him lay there. we thank paul and take him to work, it's near the club we played last night. I see one of the kids who were talking about stealing my boat (van). I feel sorry for him, sores all over his arms and shit. damn. we take holli to larry's in decatur and head for charlotte. holli gives me lots of good advice and has good words for heavy places I sometimes find myself in. good, good people.
this gig was just added a week ago cuz the pad in columbia, sc just shut down. the boss there is named penny and she's great. the pad's called the "tremont music hall." everyone working here is great. however, I accidently left a piss bottle in one of the offices and am now truly sorry. I wonder if they found it. I do 'puter work all the way up to when it's show time, damn. sometimes the time just flys, huh? the gig here has forty seven paid but fuck it, I play my heart out any how. it was a last minute add besides. I really like the gig and see it as a victory. I kind of closed my eyes the whole time which is kind of contrary to my goal of having the eye to eye communication w/the rest of my team. maybe I got scared tonight, I don't know. it's a trip about intensions sometimes. this gig was definitely a character builder though and I thank my men for their efforts. I thank the house cats too. my voyage through this playing the towns life has been made of many hills and valleys. I just have to be honest to my intentions and the piece. it's so important to me now. putting the piece in all these different situations is what's really real for me now. sometimes I gotta just hunker down and grab down deep. all these gigs are lesson and the good folks are gifts. the folks playing w/me too. all gifts. lucky watt.
thursday, may 7, 1998 - washington dc
from bob lee:
tonight is our only opening set, with sonic youth. I'm curious to see them as I really liked the show I saw last summer in which they played all instrumentals, I'd heard their new lp is similar but includes lyrics. as I was carrying my drums off the stage I heard someone yelling "bob! bob lee!", and was surprised to find my childhood friend dave carpenter! he had come to see sonics, had no idea watt was opening or that I was on the tour, happy conicidence. this was the first guy to play me many of my favorite things around age 13-16, the clash, meat puppets, velvet underground, in fact even the minutemen! (but he played me side 2 of "politics of time", technically the reactionaries, and I didn't like it. I first got into them in very late 1985 at a circle jerks gig where they announced d. boon had just died and played some songs, I went out & got "my first bells" that week.) it was great to see david & spend time catching up, I haven't seen him in 3 years or so. sonics were great, pretty relaxed & floaty. anyone going to see them, I suggest you bring a fatty & show up in time to find a comfy chair. the only familiar song was "death valley 69", if I coulda made only one request that woulda been it. great show, really nice folks, good place to play, youthful reminiscences... what more could you want outta life?
from steve reed:
930 club with sonic youth! arrived at the venue & didn't see terry pearson (sonic soundman). everybody else on their crew was there but no terry. after 13 years he decided to call it quits. wow, that's heavy. our friend deanne got the call for this gig and she's very good, in time she'll be great with the group. terry is doing sound with neck and david byrne so he's very busy. we did a well-received set, good response from their audience. the youth's set was different, mostly three guitars throughout the set. kim played bass on only two songs. I thought they were pretty good and the lights were great.
from watt:
after konking at the mo-six we pile in the van and head for dc. after we clear north carolina and head into virginia joe baiza wakes up from a sueno saying he kept dreaming the van was flying off the road. I say it's ok joe, that fucking interstate through greensburough and durham is one winding motherfucker. better than what it used to be though! we get into the capitol as rain starts coming down. damn. we're at the new "930 club," played the old one like fifteen times! it was right next to the ford theatre, where boothe shot lincoln. this one is further from out in town, I played once before right when it opened as a deckhand for team porno for pyros. it used to be a place where they broadcasted gospel singing and stuff like that. tonight we're there opening for the _sonic youth_.
so good to see my old friends. these cats have helped watt through many a painful way. they've also helped make watt a modern man. they're something else and I can't express enough about it. I love the dynamic I come into when I'm around them. so unpredictable what kind of flow is going to come down the way but it's always a liberator for my mind - even if it's just me relating a story to them! and now there's a fifth one, coco. I feel still an alien to her though. uncle mike, the nut case. steve shelley comes in and talks to joe baiza about making a record for his label, all right steve! all right joe baiza. I'm really happy for him. I want such good things to happen for joe baiza. he's paid his dues for such a long fucking time. lee comes in and talks about the diaries and morocco. thurst then comes and counterpoints everything to keep it real. all good, good cats. damn, I wish it was more than one gig!
the opening act is _wing tip sloat_ and they're real interesting. I dig it. we're next and we get forty-five minutes so I chop "...old man" and "...choke hold." I dig delivering it to this crowd. we weren't on the advertising and w/this beard, folks don't know who I am. like all the gigs, I say nothing and just wail into the piece. of course the onstage sound is all wrong at the begging (always w/these big shows) but we just laugh and transcend it. I really dig playing the opera for the sonics, a lot of this inspiration for me interpetating the dreamy stuff of the latter parts come from them. after we're done, thurst comes and gets me and takes me up to their room. they prepare for the gig by each dancing w/coco. it's great. good to see kim again. we're all laughing and coco's talking up a storm.
it's time for their set and I'm watching from thurston's side, drinking beam. they play just new tunes, all brave like the huskers used to do. I really dig it. thurston plays lead guitar in one song that's quite fucking great! kim plays mainly guitar, bass only for three songs. I guss that's where she's at now but let me tell you, I think she's one of the true originals on bass. always been very inspired by her, in fact all of them - thurston's a great bass cat too. I love the ideas too, the contexts. the only old song they play is at the very end, "death ride 69." I tell everyone thanks, gather the team and bail. such a good time tonight playing along side your compadres, damn.
it's raining like a fucking sieve.
read week 1 of the tour diary
read week 3 of the tour diary
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this page created 10 may 98
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