Portland and Vancouver (and Seattle)
let’s see. we are back with a bang. Portland was great, the audience was crazy and wild. how could anything be better? A special thanks to KINK Radio who helped to promote the show and has been so great in playing the new album. However right after the show Laila our keyboard player doubled over with pain and had to go to the hospital - she had an infection that had set in suddenly. She was given medication, and we all slept on the bus to Vancouver.
A couple of times in my sleep I thought we were at the border, but we were stalled in traffic because of a huge accident - a truck had turned over not far from where we were. That took a couple of hours to clear up. We went through the border with no problem. Finally we got to the venue, and Laila went back to the hospital as she was running a fever and was still in pain. She is still there as of today and I hope she will be rejoining us in a few days. She is basically ok, but has a condition that needs treatment.
When we got to the venue, most of the hospitality was missing. No hummous, no chicken, no cheese, no this, no that. The dressing room had two little chairs to sit on and no place to hang anything. So we went back to the bus and used that as our dressing room. The fans outside began to complain. “Turn that engine off! You’re gassing up the fans!” We needed the light, so we kept running it, but then the cops came and said we had to turn it off, that the club was filling up with exhaust. Yikes. Sorry! So we did, and went back into the venue. Mike brought out a box of food he had received for his birthday and and that helped fill in for the lack of food. I was nostalgic for Poland.
So I was a little crabby when we went on stage. But once we got there, suddenly... all bad moods were gone! What a great crowd! I could only keep saying, Thank you! Thank you! We were all adjusting to not having Laila, and having Thad, not Ben, but it was sounding really good, and we just kept driving it forward! I forgot to mention that poor Richard Julian was turned away at the border, so we had Robert Wilson filling in. Changes everywhere. But as Phil says, champions adjust! Originally a quote from Martina Navratilova. So it was a great, full-house show at Richard’s on Richards (but without Richard, ironically).
Today we waited 4 hours to get in at the border. A long boring wait. Tonight is Seattle. On the bus, rolling through pine filled countryside, and the sun and clouds making the most beautiful patterns against the sky.
The next day... Seattle turned out to be great! Somehow there was a 300 person walkup from what they told me the ticket sales were, so we had a nice full house again. I am feeling a little tired, and I think I got sort of goofy onstage. It was one of these venues where the stage is practically on the floor, and the audience is right in front of you, so you are staring people eye to eye, like being in the subway. It made me feel momentarily shy. Hi! Why don’t I sing this song right into your face? “Love is the only thing that matters...” Some guy asked for “the back story on Harbor Song” and began quoting the whole thing. Never heard a request for that before. On to San Francisco.
Btw, we are having other woes too, but for the sake of privacy, I won’t go into who else is ill, and what their symptoms are... That is part of the peril of being on the road, the various illnesses that float around. So if you pray, pray for our safety, if you happen to think of it.
Saturday, November 10, 2007