Jan '06
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Old Shit
1/29/06
Paris.... Really cool venue... I saw these three little bastards getting squished at the front of the barricade way off to the side where they couldn't see so I grabbed 'em and set 'em standing on a case in my guitar world... they freaked. It was pretty awesome. It was like I had the cast of The Goonies... or the Sandlot hangin' out with me on the side of the stage. Me and Sean had 'em do a guitar change with Dave and Chris. It was pretty good.
I think it was the best French show we've ever had... the French aren't exactly known for their love of the rock and roll... over here it's either crappy art rock or ravie disco shit. It was nice to see the crowd going off.
Drove to Brussels after the show where I sit now on the bus typing this post... contemplating whether I want to go in the venue.
Se ya.
1/28/06
I never really believed in marriage... even as a teenager with my first girlfriends I never even joked about getting married and living happily ever after. With no good role models for relationships... it just seemed like it was a farce. Temporary and trite, marriage seemed to be all about the declaration of commitment to family, friends, god, or the government. A declaration that at it's root should be immensely personal and private... a declaration of commitment to yourself first, then to your partner. As a young adult it was an institution it was nothing I wanted anything to do with. I knew to many of my friends parents that were divorced... or worse... staying together miserably out of some sense of honor to the institution of marriage or worse "for the kids". A loveless hateful marriage masked by angry whispers and fake smiles. Just get divorced already.
Well those were my thoughts 25 years ago and still are to some extent. It all changed when I was about 30... I fell in love with a girl much younger than I... 21 I think. After a few months of being love drunk I started thinking about marriage differently. I thought about the entire world... and about how every culture around the world has some kind of bonding ceremony... whether it be religious, legal, or just a celebration of love... suddenly I wanted to be a part of that declaration to the world that HEY... I LOVE THIS GIRL!!! I thought how awesome it would be to... every single year get married in a different culture. One year a Japanese wedding, the next year a Jewish one... the year after that maybe a Viking wedding. Dunno... all of a sudden it just seemed like it was all OK. I wanted in. She was the one... I had already made the inner commitment to myself that I wanted her to be my partner and the next thing was to shout it to the world.
She had a job running the college darkroom at RISD and I used to hang out with her there and kill time while students developed photos dreaming of photographic jobs they would surely never have. She and I would play cards and silly pen and paper games like Hangman. That was it! I had it! I knew how I was gonna propose to her... the next time we played that silly hangman game... "will you marry me" would be the guess. The next day we played and she guessed... she got it... she thought I was joking and kinda just dismissed it. Hehe... total let down. I explained that I was serious... she thought about it and eventually said yes.
Her family threw us an engagement party at her moms place in D.C....I wore a three piece suit and her a fancy dress...we got engagement presents... the whole nine. It was weird but I was blissed out knowing that this was actually gonna happen. She moved out west with me and lived with me in a big house with four other guys and tried to interface with my rock and roll lifestyle. Thinking back... probably not the best idea. I was trying my first attempt at sobriety... feeling jaded at 30... already lived quite a full life... already been through the ringer with drugs and alcohol. But she was a young girl... wanting to experience life and try new things. I think she saw it wasn't gonna work way before me.
As things deteriorated between us I got more and more desperate to hang on to her... I even broke two years of sobriety to take ecstasy and do a bunch of coke with her in Vegas. Not smart. I eventually gave in to the break up after I got my first touring job. It was as a guitar tech for Everclear. My first long tour away... she slept with a friend of mines brother. It sank in that she needed to go take a bite out of life and do all the things I already got out of my system... and do it in her own way.
Now I've certainly got worse relationship stories than that... and worse breakups. But I left something with her. I've been lucky enough to experience love a few times but never like that. I don't think I ever got over it. I think she's the only girl I ever totally gave it up to... no walls... no fronts... I was willing to make her the #1 in my life. To be honest I don't really know what the fuck it was... something about her or something about me or both. I've never felt that kind of passion or bliss or pain since. Change is inevitable... I thought you can either change with someone in the same direction... or change with someone in different directions... or the worst scenario... change apart in different directions. I think it was the third.
The reason I bring this all up is cuz she just told me that she's getting married and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Beneath my freakish shock... I genuinely have unconditional love her and want her to be happy... no matter who it's with. But whenever I think about it... it kills me. I haven't been with her for many years but it's still so close to my heart for some reason. I don't think I've ever had a love so fucking intense as with her... I'm just not sure it get's any better. Maybe it feels like for me that she was the best... and now everything else will be settling. No matter who I'm with.
Love, love, love... blah, blah, blah... y'all don't want to read that crap... you want to hear about Foo shit.
Munich... great show. This band still moves me sometimes... even though I see it every night... they're so fucking kick ass. Sean and I did an interview with some Euro guitar player magazine in the afternoon. The guy asked why Chris uses so many more effect pedals than Dave. I told him it was cuz Chris's penis was much smaller. His amusement was minimal. Sean and I have done the interview thing before and annoyed the interviewer just as much with our lack of "tech talk". Seriously people... gear doesn't matter that much. Anyway... during the show it got so fuckin' cold outside. Inside hot and sweaty. After the show when they opened up the giant loading dock doors... the fog that was created was amazing... it looked so cool. Sean said he could taste it in his mouth... I told him it was German sweat fog. He kept his mouth closed for the rest of load out.
After the show... we had a long fucking drive to Paris. The commercial driving laws over here are so strict. In the states... one driver can marathon 18 or 20 hours on a long drive and make some serious coin. It's called an overdrive. US drivers love it cuz they get rich on those. Over here Drivers have to stop every three or four hours for a certain period of time and are not allowed to drive anything over 8 or ten hours without a 6 hour break or something like that. They have little computers in the trucks that keep track of it all. Which means no speeding either... it all equals slow traveling. So if you want to get anywhere on a long drive you have to carry two drivers which kinda sucks cuz it's one more guy taking up space on an already smaller bus. I didn't sleep at all on that drive... started watching Lost on my computer and got totally hooked.
We arrived in Paris safely at the lovely Holiday Inn Republique for a day off. I went out to dinner with a Portland friend of mine that lives in Paris now and her boyfriend to Indian food in this teeny little alley that had like 50 other Indian food places in it. On the walk there I thought I was gonna die... sooooo cold... I didn't pack right for this Europe trip. With the breeze it was well below zero. It didn't stop the Parisian sex industry. Hookers were still out in reasonably skimpy clothes. Old, fat, gross hookers smoking away in doorways waiting for a John to warm their wallet for a short time. They were all so gross that I think they'll all die of exposure before they get any business.
I slept good last night.
Waiting for the show to start here in Paris... sitting in the dressing room annoying the band with my incessant typing and bad gas. Oh... tonight will rock... I'm sure.
1/25/06
Last night was Zurich and it was fun as fuck. Band played pretty sloppy but I gotta say... I love nights like that... Dave was so hopped up and excited during the show.... rocking out so hard that he was forgetting lyrics and flubbing parts. It's funny... as a musician , when you're performing, you can't really enjoy playing and listening as much cuz you've got to keep your head in the ballgame... the second that you start going... "man, this sounds great" or "fuck... this is fun"... you just missed a chorus. I kind of think that's what was going on last night. The fellas were actually listening to themselves and having a good time and not just performing. I don't like it when it's all slick and seamless anyway... I like it with mistakes and flubs... it makes it more human... more relatable.
Anyway it was great. Cold as fuck though. It was in an old ice arena... but outside there were a couple more rinks. Filled with kids either at hockey practice or figure skating. After sound check a few of us got some skates, sticks and pucks and went out and fucked around on the ice. LB, who is one of our lighting guys and Nathan... were really good. The rest of us... Not so much. It was sure fun though until my feet turned into blocks of wood. After the show was over The band and alot of other folks went back out on the ice. Filled with beer and Jager, I'm sure everyone was much more entertaining to watch. I couldn't be bothered though... I was so fucking tired after the show I went right to my bunk to stare at the back of my eyelids. Hoping that the boys suffered no career ending skating injuries.
My injuries were limited to a headache from listening to Sean sing Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean in the bus and getting that awful song stuck in my head all day... It's just one more reason to convince me that Sean is gay.
Woke up today in a snow covered parking lot in Munich today... walked out into the front lounge in my socks... big mistake. People had been coming in and out of the bus all morning tracking snow and ice in and the carpet and floor were quite wet. I think that's probably the worst... to wake up and step on a cold wet carpet first thing in the morning. ewwwww. Venue here is a weird big, old warehouse. Bigger than the last couple of places we've played so we're putting up a few more gimmicks for the show. We haven't had video or any moving trusses for the past two show due to space and weight constraints so we're setting 'em up today... however, I overheard Nathan bitching about how fucked video is cuz the video company didn't send all the proper parts to the system and as it stands... it's not functional. Somebody is gonna get yelled at today...
1/24/06
Milan behind us... show was great... Brian our sound guy had it sounding god like. Dave's white firebird sounded exceptional as well. The crowd was packed and rowdy... lots of hot Italian birds lurking about. The production side of things was a different story. Crappy scaffold stage... dumb ass stagehands that steal. Lots of stolen items yesterday. Gotta say though... it was so fucking nice to get back to work... I was all loved up and there was nothing that could ruin my day. Not even a bunch of thieving Italian stagehands. I re-organized my workbox, re-strung all the guitars, changed batteries in everything under the sun, dialed in some good new tones on the guitar rig, and hung out with Gus alot. Man I love that guy. Some people don't get that beneath that terse and gruff exterior is one of the smartest and sweetest guys on the planet. For those of you that don't know... Gus is our Tour Manager.
Sitting in my room in Zurich. To fucking cold to wandering around to much... I did wander around in the mall across the street with Sean for a while. So many hot Swiss chicks... yikes. Not that Sean or I were gonna get the time of day from any of them. People were looking at Sean with fear... Staring... like he was the abominable snowman that just wandered into Kitchen Kaboodle from the Swiss alps.
The drive here after sun rise this morning was beautiful. Through snow covered mountains we drove on a curvy road that followed a creek that was iced over in places.
Day off today... I'm gonna go to the hotel gym for a long time and sweat.
No photos... Suck it.
1/23/06
First show of tour today in Milan... I find myself strangely excited to get back to work. It's amazing what a little time off will do to an attitude. I've been here in Italy for two days now and I've done nothing but sleep... There's really nothing here except high fashion and big churches... two things I could care less about. Yeah... bring it on... all you "Your wasting your time in Europe... Europe is great" motherfuckers. On a hunt for a supermarket the first day I was here I did see some ripping skaters outside the train station next to a giant fake PSP. No, I'm not on acid.
Phillip Morris doesn't need the US to make money... they're getting rich killing people over here... everybody, I mean everybody smokes.
Yeah... weak rants... I know. I just don't have it in me cuz of all the great time off... I'm in too good a mood.
1/13/06
OK fuckers... don't send me angry letters about my lack of replies to your emails... first of all, I get hundreds of emails... I don't have time to answer them all. Secondly... The ones that I really wont answer are the ones asking me to get you in a show or to pass something along to a band I work for or the worst one of all "send me a pick or an autograph from Dave... Pleeeez!!". I am a pretty busy guy... I've got alot of balls up in the air (no bad puns Nelson). Once again... this site is a hobby for me... I don't get paid by anyone to do it... and I certainly don't get any help to do it. I thank you all for visiting and reading and sending me feedback but if I don't reply to you... it's only cuz I have a life outside the internet and I'm trying to make it full. Just busy that's all.
1/12/06
Yeah... I've been MIA... funny how the things that you do for fun.... some how end up feeling like work. Yes... that's a comment about my website. Which brings me to something else it could be a comment about.
My new years show was mediocre at best... yeah... that's me, captain mediocrity. Oh I'm such a drama queen sometimes... It was fun at times. But mostly a train wreck. Not like anyone knew that we were butchering my songs. We were the unknown band the crowd had to sit through to get to the band they came to see... Floater. I've seen it a thousand times with the bands I work for. Especially on the D. A no-name band comes out and struts their stuff with no good outcome... no product to sell... no press... no merch... no follow up gigs... not even fun. I did have fun berating my favorite band mate and guitar player Paul during our set. He dressed up in a goth dress he probably got from hot topic or something. The scary thing is that he actually looked kinda good as a chick... well... except for the facial hair. Hell, I dunno... I really tried to have a good attitude about the whole thing... I tried to adopt Mr. Grohl's attitude about being an opening act. I remember on the Chili Peppers tour he actually felt it was his personal responsibility to really warm up the crowd... it was his job. If he saw anyone sitting down or not getting in to it... he would run out and sit in their lap and drink their beer. At one point during our set... in an extended vamp... just a little jam to let our hot rod guitar player Paul show off a little bit... Paul was going to solo his way into the new years song "may all acquaintance be forgot" "Auld Lange Sine" I think it's called. But I guess he had a brain fart cuz what came out was the melody from the old Coke commercial and some from the Little drummer boy. He kept looking over at me with a confused look on his face... seriously... one of the funniest things I ever saw. Through the unrehearsed hodgepodge of prog rock we played... my band for once looked like they were trying to rock. Throwing shapes and running around like dorks but something occurred to me... that was just it... they were trying. You shouldn't have to try. We didn't get heckled though... I guess that's good... well until I pointed it out to the crowd at the end of the set. I pointed out that usually when there's a short silence in-between songs someone inevitably yells "YOU SUCK!!!". After I gave my permission to everyone... we of course got a few of those. I will not be playing out as a band anytime soon or at least until I put together another bunch of guys with more time to rehearse and infused with a little more rock. Until then I'll stick to fruity acoustic music... I'm much better at that. So are they.
The theatre was really nice except for the plumbing... every time someone flushed the toilet, the sink in our room filled up. Sometimes yellow, sometimes chunky... it was quite gross. We made 750 bucks... which is really really good for a local band... I would have given the money back if we could've hooked one or two ears. Made a fan... anything. Eh... playing part aside... all in all it was a good night. It was nice to play music with my friends.
On the third, I flew to LA to get the Foo gear together for a Corporate party in Vegas that the band was playing. The United line at the Portland Airport was longer than I've ever seen it. Almost all the way around the inside of the terminal. Apparently, their computer system was completely down. They couldn't even confirm if people actually had tickets on any flights. They were just taking peoples word for it. Handwriting boarding passes with no seat assignments. They boarded the flight just like Southworst Airlines... cattle call style.
Upon landing we headed to baggage claim where we waited for over an hour and a half for the bags from our flight to come out. United put every single flight down one carousel... something like 12 flights all at once. It would have been funny if I wasn't stuck in it. It was a baggage mosh pit. You couldn't move there were so many people. People pushing and shoving and fighting... it was insane. I thought there was gonna be a riot. Outside the traffic was gridlocked... nothing moving and everyone honking... utter chaos. By the time I got to my hotel it was 1am. A short two hour trip from Portland had taken me 8 hours.
The next day, my plate was filled with a truck pickup, a shopping trip to tour supply, a gear pickup at storage, a rental gear pickup and a long drive to Vegas. Well, I kinda knew this was gonna be a nightmare... Big truck in LA = Bad. I felt like a salmon... swimming upstream all fucking day. Just the futzing around in LA took all day... by the time I started to roll out of town to Vegas it was 6 pm. Normally the trip to Vegas would take about 5 hours... 4 if you drive like I do. However, the truck was governed at 65MPH and it was weighted down... Vegas is mostly uphill. The truck topped out at 35 MPH most of the way. I got to the Hotel at about 2am.
Show day in Vegas went reasonably smooth. The Party was for Motorola. We've done these kind of things before... usually once a year to pay for salaries and expenses in the off times. We've done Doc Martens, Play station, Best Buy, and some beer thing a long time ago. These things are usually weird and this show was no exception. It was at The House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. A nice place to play. We set up and sound checked... but when the doors opened and it was supposed to be party time I was surprised. Every other company party had been packed... but not this one. I figure if you're gonna spend the money on hiring and expensive band like the Foos... you'd want to get some mileage out of it. Not just invite the upper management...You'd Invite other companies that you do business with and vendors... anything PR related. But not this one. They closed down the entire balcony section so it was only half a club. Once the two or three hundred important people came in the place looked mildly populated at best. But was was weird was the demographic... it seemed half the crowd was 50 plus and in suits. Smiling uncomfortably as Dave screamed through the show opener "All my Life". There were some younger people there... some executive wives that were in their thirties, looking at the band lustingly like they were turning into cartoon roast turkeys and seemed like they were actually enjoying the music and a few younger execs that seemed to know some songs. There were two Plexiglas boxes on either side of the stage... one with a chick and one with a dude dancing inside. Such comedy. In the middle of the set when the Foos play the pop stuff like learn to fly and the dot com crowd was whipped into a toe tapping frenzy, Dave joked that the crowd had developed into a corporate mosh pit and to be careful. Some other jokes about Xeroxing butts and the drunken office party hook ups went down well. All in all it was a good showing and the clock was well punched.
A long drive back to LA filled my next day... it took so long to drive and drop everything back off that I missed my flight. That's the last time I volunteer for that duty.
My guitar player Paul have a weekly Tuesday gig at a club here in Portland called Imbibe... on Hawthorne and 21st. It's him on Pedal steel, an upright bass player, drums, and a guitar player. The format is open. Some country swing, a little jazz, some meters-esque funk, and even Hawaiian. These guys are soooooooo good. It's a really good vibe too. Candle lit cocktail table vibe. He invited me to come play a few songs last Tuesday. Just me and him. It was great. That's it... that what I want to do. It was so nice and low key. If I could play a couple of acoustic gigs every week I'd be so happy. Pipe dream. He invited me back next Tuesday in case any of you Portlanders would like to come heckle.
Last night I got a call to come tune guitars for Kris Kristofferson... Some friends of mine that work at the Aladdin mentioned my name and Kris remembered me from a gig he did with the Foos in LA for a Johnny Cash tribute a few months ago. It was an amazing show... what a great songwriter. He so damn endearing onstage... kind of uncomfortable... struggling his way through songs at times and just smiling about it.... "that's all I can remember of that one" he'd say... ending abruptly. The guy's a sweetheart to boot... soft spoken but confident. Touring with his family. For those of you that aren't privy to this guys cred. In addition to being an actor... he's written so many hit songs for so many people. Me and Bobby McGee, Help me make it through the night, and Loving her was Easier to name a few. He is part of the country equivalent to Rat Pack... only instead of Frank and Dean... it's Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings.
I bought a 60 inch high Definition TV and have been laying low... and plan to continue doing so. I'll continue to update occasionally on my little gigs and and of course upcoming Europe tour with the Foos.
Nelson... your coop has failed. I offer you only the court jester position. Maybe dungeon master if you like.
Everyone.... go right now to myspace.com and find the Soapbox band page and listen to the songs. Do it now or I'll take this godforsaken website down. I'm going to be re-recording this band in my studio in the coming weeks and apparently they'll making the rock world their bitch and fucking it's fanny hard.
Word up.