Back on the road again after an action-packed couple of days at home. We came home early because Kristen’s brakes were giving us ominous signs of impending failure, and with Kristen’s car seemingly having difficulty stopping, it was an additional pain in the ass to get home to find that MY car wouldn’t GO. In addition the air conditioner in the house was being angsty, the internet was out, all the audio recordings from the trip had glitched in some way, all-in-all NOT an auspicious homecoming. Kristen’s car got new brakes and stoppy bits courtesy of Kit down in Takoma Park, and my car found Life breathed back into her via Caesar (Hail Caesar!) in Owings Mills. The air conditioner is still manageable and maybe just wasn’t happy sitting still for three weeks, the internet continues to be a problem and both Verizon AND Comcast keep calling to offer fewer features at a higher price, so I’m not sure WHAT we’ll do about that.
Still. Nothing flooded. Yay!
We’re headed on a relatively tiny trip, out to Erie for the weekend for three quick shows with Chris and Joylene of the Honest Mistakes who’ve REALLY made a home for themselves in the local music scene. Tonight I’m running sound, and the advice of Darth Vader rings in my head – the deal’s getting worse all the time, I’m praying the deal doesn’t get altered any further. What WAS running sound for five bands of which we were the most complex, somehow this has bloomed into running sound for five bands of which we’re the LEAST complex, the most complicated of which has a horn section, full drumkit, multiple electric guitars, bass and theremin. I’m non-plussed but I think we’re officially impressed at the pack, as we are loaded for rather magnificent bear with three 1000 watt speakers, two mixers, all of our instruments, our clothes, the cellist, cameras and LIGHTS all ready to rock in Heather’s sedan. The difference that leaving anything suitcase-sized at home makes is quite literally huge.
I don’t know – either it’s going to be a fun night OR I’m going to spend the evening with the sound sweats, cursing everyone around me. I’ll attempt to go with the flow and attack the gig with grace.
We’re passing beneath the Alleghany mountains for what feels like the hundredth time this year, bathed in the undersea ambience of our subterranean route, penned in by trucks and hemmed in by cars, we’ve left plenty of time for Friday rush hour mishaps, and so far we’ve needed none of it.
We took a quick break in Breezewood, PA where there’s a Dunkin Donuts for the sating of my own darkest desires – and in front of me were two kids, one of which trying to stand as close to the other as possible and the other punching him for his trouble. I recognized this behaviour as fairly typical for brothers and quickly grew nostalgic. Their mom eventually showed up and attempted to get them to settle down. She looked at me and said “I bet YOU had a brother”… “Yeah, this is actually really taking me back.” “You know, you should probably call your mother.” “You know? You’re probably right.” So I called my mother and apologized if I had ever acted up in a truck stop and then we got back on the turnpike, headed hard for the west. Through the mountain, farmland rolls out ahead of us. I didn’t sleep last night. With the highway heavily-populated but rolling, MAYBE I’ll get a nap in…
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