chrisg's Tour Diary

I went on a nice little jog yesterday morning around the hotel, which was in the middle of an industrial area of town. South Salt Lake City. It reminded me a lot of South San Francisco, The Industrial City. I wonder if there's something to industry being south of a city. Like maybe windflow or something? I guess San Francisco didn't have much choice, though. In some fit of insanity, I agreed to run with a friend of mine in a half-marathon in Brooklyn while we're there. I don't really know how I'm going to wake up at 6am after a show the night before, but it sounded so random i couldn't resist. and if i didn't take on random things like this, what would i write about? it takes me awhile to get used to running at 7000 ft. i feel more out of breath than usual. or maybe i'm inhaling some tasty chemicals from the nearby factories.

Got back to the hotel in time for some free continental breakfast action. Made my own waffle. That was fun. I am reminded of restaurants where they allow you to "make your own" food. you know, like hot pot restaurants and stuff. "a restaurant where YOU'RE the cook!" you know what that is, people? it's called your kitchen. i'm amazed that restaurants are able to get away with stuff like that. why pay for the labor and other things in the markup of a restaurant menu when you're just going to make it yourself? maybe i'm just bitter because the last time i was at one of those hot pot restaurants, i singed every hair on my arm. food doesn't taste so good when it smells like someone's getting a perm at your table.

On our way to denver saturday night, we stopped for dinner in fort collins. it had a nice downtown area. lots of people walking about, including several kids in format gowns and tuxedos. i fantasized that it was some weird twilight zone town where everyone was black tie year-round, but i'm guessing it was prom night. got (more) mexican food. it is a very good thing that none of us ever seems to get tired of mexican food, because we eat it all the time. on a carnitas high, i buy some fake "bobby joe" teeth from one of the gumball machines in front of the grocery store. we get to dan's brother's house around 10. i introduce myself to his brother and wife with my new fake teeth in. callie has made us some tasty nachos and guacamole and cake. it's great to have some homemade food after so many restaurants. after an episode of iron chef (where they brought cooking into the 21st century using red snapper), i can no longer keep my eyes open and retire.

I wake up at a reasonable hour on Sunday and go on a much longer jog. It's rather windy outside, but i get a nice self-guided tour of louisville, colorado. lots of ranch-style homes, a fishing pond, some railroad tracks, and an old town area near the railroad tracks. in one of the developments i went past/through, they had one of those courses with signposts along the way telling you to do a particular exercise. i can't remember the name of them right now. i opt out of the prescribed regimen and go my own way.

it is very hard to pull this group off of our computers. it's also very hard to imagine touring without the luxury of a cell phone and the occasional wireless network. we finally get going to boulder, where we have lunch with matt and callie and their kids, wyatt and adeline. it's a bit unfortunate that we've gotten off to such a late start, because only about 1.5 hours later we're supposed to meet up with someone in denver for an interview. at a taqueria, of course. i didn't see too much of boulder, but it seemed like a pretty nice place.

we meet katrina from sponic zine at illegal pete's, and opt for a liquid meal given that we're stuffed and that it's happy hour. it's fun chatting with katrina, but i come away from the interview feeling like i spent a lot of time babbling and not so much time actually talking about the band. we get to the larimer lounge way too early, especially since there's no sound check and we're not on until 11. so we go for a walk. it turns out that larimer lounge is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. the streets were all pretty desolate, the only signs of life were at the soup kitchens we passed. one of them had a neon cross outside that said 'jesus saves'. from far away, adrienne mistook it for a bar, which is kind of funny.

the show gets off to a really late start. i'm preoccupied for awhile by Kill bill (vol 1), which is playing on the tv behind the bar. but as 10 o'clock passes and there's still no music, i get a little anxious. this probably also has something to do with the fact that there aren't many people in the bar, and i'm worried that there will be even less the later we go on. the last band of the night, clemente, are also from out of town, so by the time we go on it's pretty much matt, callie, katrina and her fiance in the audience. but the bartender and doorman like us and buy some cds and tshirts. it's a good thing to be in the favor of bartenders and doormen.