Driving through the water has been intense. The rain came suddenly out of the west, up and over the mountains, pouring rivers down upon West Virginia – and it’s decided it likes it here. Hanging around like it’s got all day and giving us the drubbing that perhaps dirty musicians who’ve just stayed in a West Virginian hostel would stereotypically deserve – but damn it, I TOOK A SHOWER ALREADY!!! As a matter of fact, the Purple Fiddle’s showerhead was one of the best ones I’ve ever had the joy of placing my naked body under! No frills, no buttons, no knobs, no hoses – just raw, indeed naked, no nonsense POWER! I don’t NEED this aquatic assault from the sky!
There were a couple of incidents where we could see the trucks ahead of us plowing through, and another small car coming from the other direction – and we could SEE that it was deep, but THAT car made it THAT far coming from the opposite direction – and we’ve made it THIS far coming from THIS direction – we’ve just got to meet in the middle!
No problem. And indeed, after a couple of water crossings worthy of the Oregon Trail the Saturn’s undercarriage was probably first muddier than it’d ever been and then later (with the cleaner waters we drove through outside Harpers Ferry) CLEANER than it’s been in years.
West Virginia was beautiful and dramatic. It’s all the stuff I Love about Pittsburgh minus the city. The sudden shafts of light, the low hanging clouds, sheets of slate thrusting out of the fields, miles of tectonically traumatized landscape jutting in different directions, being rained on by a storm that’s been sitting SOMEWHERE in the mountains, grumbling and getting it’s blood up. I’m not sure WHAT relationship this system had just gotten out of, but it wasn’t a good one.
Lightning, thunder – fortunately the high winds of the previous night seemed to have abated. Last night we were frequently wakened by the rippling rumble of sheet metal whipping back and forth like a bad special effect imitating the sound of the storm. We drove up into the clouds where visibility was minimal and drove down into the rains where visibility was worse. All in all I think we might count ourselves fortunate to have arrived at our gig as on time as we did!
Brady Neher opening for us aat the Train Station in Shepherdstown. Erik Perkins and his brother playing a song at the Destination Imagination benefit in Shepherdstown, WV. Bryn shooting no doubt Lovely shots at the Train Station in Shepherdstown, WV.
The Shepherdstown Train Station was as beautiful as I remembered. Unfortunately, though we and a small audience braved the flooding, the torrential rains and the tornado warnings – the nightmarish weather was enough to keep a good number of the people that we were expecting to see home and snug in their houses.
We were joined on stage by a couple of local artists and even the event organizer: Erik Perkins and his brother did a fun duet of “Eve of Destruction”. Sigh.
That should SO be a metal tune.
We spend the drive home listening to new metal on the radio as I read Wikipedia trivia to Heather. First the wonderful history of the Fig Newton and then the production process of records (since I’m wearing my Trax on Wax shirt in honour of Record Store Day I’ve been getting a LOT of questions about records…). We’re being educated all the way to Baltimore.
Driving through the water = madness. Splooshing through the waters in West Virginia.
