chrisg's Tour Diary

My dad calls at 8:30am to wish me a happy birthday. i went to bed at 3am. yes, happy birthday. jonathan works at a cafe with free wi-fi, which gets everyone a little too excited. i guess that's the san francisco in us. we don't have to be in Phoenix until 9, so most of the day is spent at the cafe, reading and writing emails, looking at the new collections, and getting my eyes to open. speaking of eyes open, adrienne's weird eye thing has now migrated to her other eye as well. she looks like she's taking belladonna.

i find the guitar shop to which i was directed last night, and purchase the last of my replacement pedals. i also make a quick stop at a couple of thrift stores, but i'm not too successful. upon the request of laurel, i am keeping my eyes out for some dream catcher earrings, but i'll probably have more success near the grand canyon tomorrow.

we arrive in phoenix, and after a little difficulty finding the club, we arrive. the emerald lounge is appropriately marked by a bright green door. it's one of those places where, since there are no windows (and since people can smoke indoors), you have no idea what's going on inside. and boy, can people smoke indoors. the air is thick.

i should mention at this point that touring foreign towns can be somewhat of a crap shoot. our primary measure of how good these clubs are is whether we see any bands we know (and like) on their calendar. but aside from that, it's kind of a stab in the dark, especially since we don't expect too many people to be showing up specifically to see us play. and the only thing we know about this show is that we're playing with a ska band.

that said, we bring all of our gear in and set up, and everything is proceeding just fine. we meet janessa, one of the singers in Spaz Kitty, who is terribly nice and basically tells us to play for as long as we like. there is no sound person, so we're responsible for the PA which is right next to the stage. But we can't find the microphone stands. I go ask the bartender for them, and find out that the club doesn't have any. Doh!! He's able to scrounge up a mic cord, but that's it. We ask janessa if they have cords and stands we can borrow. They have cords, but they don't use stands for their mics. hmm...

so how, fair reader, do we make lemonade out of these lemons? well, with some duct tape, we tie the microphone cords from the ceiling and dangle them in front of me and adrienne. we are fairly pleased with our ingenuity, when gilbert* from Spaz Kitty shows up with stands!!! ingenuity is great, but stands are better, so we take the cords down, set up the PA, and play our set. the audience is really great. they are clapping and hooting, which must be very difficult with both a drink and cigarette in hand. we sell CDs. a woman in town for the local renaissance faire asks us to sign her album.

and spaz kitty are great. they're all really talented, and have a blast on stage. they get some burly men in ,utilikilts to skank and, after more drinks, do a kickline. they even sing happy birthday to me, which was the nicest and most unexpected thing to happen to me all day.

we wheel into flagstaff at 3:30am. it's cold! in my typically american lack of geographical knowledge, i had no idea that arizona got so tall. we're at 7000 ft, and there are evergreen trees. it's our first night in a hotel, which i'm looking forward to. The ad in the AAA guide lets us know that martians are welcome. for a period of years, i told my mom that i was from mars, so this should work out perfectly. we don't have a show tomorrow, so there are loose plans to visit the grand canyon.

chris w needs sleep angels.

* being that we're in Phoenix, and gilbert is wearing a shirt with flames on it, this situation is rife with potential for rebirth metaphor. but i haven't had enough coffee to think it through. sorry.