Normally we do about four hours of driving between shows. Five is on the high side. But sometimes the schedule just lines up different and you’ve got to pile it on. And normally we try to get at least twelve hours betwixt getting off stage and having to leave someplace the next morning. But sometimes the schedule just lines up different and you’ve got to pare it down… and for that matter we normally try to keep it to one gig every 20 hours or so… but sometimes…. Well, you get the picture.
The kickoff for this tour has long been a glaring sore spot on the calendar where we knew that for about 40 hours we were simply going to HAVE to violate all of our “normally” parameters. Like I said, sometimes it just lines up different. Thursday morning Heather went off to work, Kristen and I got up to pack. By 3.30pm we’d gathered at Heather’s place in Owings Mills and loaded the Weaselmobile for bear – or at least for a month on the road with full PA and bedding et al – and then we hightailed it to Olney where our first gig of the weekend kicked off outdoors at 6.30pm. Storms were threatening, but it was still 90-something degrees, and despite a fan and some overhead cover and the inclusion of some fountains to jump through – despite even the fact that we eventually got cut off about a half-hour early, it was still a pretty grueling show. We DID have a lot of fun watching kids run through the fountains – there was one pair of little girls who’d run like bottled bees for five minutes and then sprint towards us… stop for about 30 seconds and stare… and then go back to running around in circles.
So – by 8pm we were loaded up again and rolled to Frederick, MD where we unloaded and set up at Firestone’s Culinary Tavern and played our first-Thursday gig. Adding Kristen spiced things up a bit and made the three-hour bar gig just fly by, but the combination of the earlier temperature, five hours of show, two set ups and two breakdowns… well, we were pretty exhausted. We crashed with our friend, singer/songwriter Josh Gray there in Frederick and snatched what sleep we could before Friday morning dawned clear and hot…
SO my alarm, most unwelcome, went off at 7.45am and by 9 we were on I-70 headed west. With a 7pm load-in 600+ miles away we theoretically had about 2+ hours of leeway – but when you’ve got THAT much distance to cover and 3-4 major metropolitan areas to sneak through you can’t play TOO many games with time and space. The Hyundai may seem bigger on the inside than it does from the outside, but it be no TARDIS.
The drive’s fortunately uneventful and we roll into Powerhouse Brewing by 6.30 or so. We settle in with ginger beer and cinnamon donuts (freshly brewed and freshly fried), set up and play another two hours for Powerhouse’s First Friday series. Again – the threat of weather – the storm that had been rolling just north of us all the way through Indiana finally paralleled us again during our set. Once it became clear that it wasn’t coming our way, just hugging the horizon, we got to lay in and REALLY enjoy the set – wind machines and pyrotechnics are nothing as stunning as a thunderstorm on the treeline and we had one HELL of a visual for our stage show. We did tie our guitar cases to the tent and Kristen and I sometimes stood on the legs of it to keep our stage from taking flight – but other than that…
Short drive to our friends’ house for the night and despite fatigue and road warrior worthy weariness we end up having to play with dogs and cats before we collapse. Tis the best way to unwind. I felt sort of bad cause our friend had UBERSTOCKED the “beer” fridge (“beer” also included tequila and wine and vodka and…) and all we wanted to do was scroffle his pugpin…
Yesterday was a LOT more chill. Getting up leisurely and making our way just about an hour down the road to Bloomington, IN. This really is a beautiful part of the country – truly AMERICAN with its cornfields and sizzling cicadas. We have lunch at a favourite Thai restaurant before heading over to our friend Caroline’s house where our house concert is. Jam ahead of time. Music before, during and AFTER the music… that’s not a typo… sort of like a PLOJ with an ilyConcert in the middle… her house is so beautiful, and her “old” house up on the hill more beautiful yet – that’s where we crashed for the night – my head is full of beautiful things…
Maybe that’s why I had such vicious nightmares. I had a LOT of trouble falling asleep – up till four listening to Heather and Kristen breathe – I must’ve slept at some point because I WOKE with a screaming ghost-pain in my abdomen where Heather had been slowly BREAKING my ribcage inward to make space for some sort of nest… she was also joining some sort of steel band but I’m not sure how these items were related.
They’re not as frequent as they used to be but I can feel a LOT of pain in my dreams and being tortured, skinned, deboned and broken, stabbed, shot and generally tortured – my mind can be pretty inspired in trying to replicate these feelings in my dreams but I usually don’t have dreams like that on the road.
Dawn, despite not getting any real rest, couldn’t have come soon ENOUGH. Pre-breakfast with new friends, real breakfast with old friends with their new kid. And now it’s almost noon and we’re on the road again. Under four hours to Belleville, IL where pause for a sweet moment before heading on to Saint Louis, MO. Looking forward to playing at Evangeline’s. Looking forward to CUSTARD. I may be Hella-tired – but I’m looking forward to the show!
