And we’re off! Have we EVER toured as a four-piece? Not in a long, long, long time. I guess I remember making it out to Saint Louis like this once? Is that possible? I could consult the Journal. I could consult Heather. At the moment it’s more fun to just strain my brain a bit. I know we HAVE actually been up to New England once with Sharif and Rowan – but back then Victoria Station didn’t exist yet – and I know we’ve been down to North Carolina and back, but mayhaps just for one or two gigs.
So no, even if we HAVE toured as a four-piece, it was pre-Kristen, so it’s all different now in any case.
We’re packed into two cars, both because we don’t have a single vehicle that’ll fit us, and also because it’ll add to our flexibility. We’re doing the bulk of the northerly drive tonight, reaching Glastonbury in Connecticut sometime after midnight. Tomorrow morning we’ll sort of re-configure, dropping the majority of our sound gear, all of Heather’s camping stuff (for Falcon Ridge Folk Festival), and even lots of our packed clothes to compress into just Kristen’s car. Using just her Elantra we hit Stoughton, Putnam, and Plainfield, CT before returning back to Glastonbury late Sunday night. For the next couple of days we’ll be hitting stuff centered there in one car or the other before packing both vehicles again to drive about as far west as we’re driving north tonight to Hammondsport, NY. We play a gig, crash in Bath, and then go our separate ways. Kristen and Rowan and I pack down to the Weaselmobile and Heather drives to Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. The KRrob package then delivers our music unto Hammondsport, drives to Ithaca, plays in Homer, NY at Bonesfest, runs south to Elmira all while Heather runs and hits numerous parts of Falcon Ridge… we probably head back on Sunday and Heather follows us home on Monday morning…
I Love it when a plan comes together!
I hope I’m visualizing everything correctly. Trying to tour with two cars is way more expensive, and the trickiness of changing configurations – well – it sort of reminds me of my dad balancing payloads, making everything fit in the Shuttle’s cargo bay while balancing weight and everyone’s needs. On the one hand we don’t have to worry about vibration tolerances very much but on the other hand in space no-one can hear you forget your damned lyrics. It’s a trade off.
The sun is setting somewhere behind heavy, low, pregnant clouds and I’ve been watching weather maps to see if we’re going to race ahead of the storm (so far so good) or get caught up in it and pace it all the way up (5+ hours driving in heavy thunderstorms? Nothing fun about that) – but for the moment it means golden edges to the heavy air, blackness and headlights behind us and brake lights and mists ahead of us.
