On our way up to Oregon we had to stop and walk through the redwoods...
They're pretty big... ever seen one?
We stopped at one of several national forests we saw and hiked about a mile
or so into the woods (on a trail, of course) and found several of these giant
buggers...
One of the big issues out here is lumber companies and their "harvesting" of
some of these huge beauties... there was even a lumber yard at the exit for
this park... and while we were walking through these woods with wild ferns
and moss growing over the trees I had a question...
How can you look at these trees that have been growing forever and say "Oh
yeah... GOTTA cut THAT down"?
I realize that 'the paper I wipe my... nose... with comes from SOMEWHERE' and
all the other "anti-tree-hugging" arguments I've heard over the years but we
don't need to be cutting these forests down. Besides, the lumber companies
call it "harvesting"... but doesn't harvesting somewhat imply gathering in a
crop that was sown by the farmer?
Do The Math:
Last I checked, no human being has lived longer than around one-hundered nine
years of age, and they didn't work for the lumber industry (that I know
of)... but them trees is a whole lot older, I reckon...
So these trees aren't ours to cut down.
On the other hand, people have to make a living and seemingly no one is safe
because Rob likes Pop Tarts...
While we were on the redwood trail we engaged ourselves in Banana Slug
spotting... you can't see them until you've seen your first one, then you
realize these things are EVERYWHERE and that you've probably been stepping in
them like spit on a New York sidewalk...
I'm sorry... What's the deal with Rob and Pop Tarts you ask? Well... He likes
his Pop Tarts...
On the radio yesterday we heard that the giant of breakfast cereal Kellogg's
is closing one of it's Battle Creek, MI. plants, meaning five hundred people
will be out of a job... I think it's low of any corporation to carve out the
little guys to keep the people at the top seeing a prosperous year, and I
think our Drummer Rob is responsible... experts report that they believe "the
decline in cereal sales is directly linked to toaster-oriented breakfast
products gaining in popularity..."
Rob, the heartless bastard, bought a box of Pop Tarts this morning and was
offering them around the van but none of us accepted...
Now... where was I?
So we were on our way to Oregon for a couple of shows... the plan was to get
to the hotel just outside of Eugene, drop off our stuff, drive up to Portland
and do the show, and come back south to do the two shows at The Wild Duck in
Eugene, and then move on up north to Seattle...
Touring doesn't always make perfect sense, does it? But that's the way the
venues were available so that's what we'd do.
The Crystal Ballroom is another venue on this tour with a long colorful
history involving the Grateful Dead. It was opened in late January of 1914
and was originally named Cotillion Hall... oddly, this was a time of
anti-dancing hysteria in Portland, where the mambo or anything with a wiggle
to it might get you thrown in the hoo-skow... it's a huge, high-ceilinged
ballroom on the third floor of the building and it has a floating dance
floor...
The way this thing works is pretty cool... there's a layer of maple floor
boards, under that there are a series of rockers like on a rocking chair. On
each end of the rockers there are ball bearings which the floor sits on...
essentially what this does is make the floor have a very fluid up and down
movement when you walk or bounce on it and reportedly it can be adjusted with
a ratchet to suit various dance styles... the guy who built it built three
more in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York... but the Crystal Ballroom is the
only one remaining today...
On the left wall of the place as you're facing the stage there are HUGE
windows which they draw curtains over during the show (which is helpful to my
job) and they run a divider down the center of the room creating a moat
between the drinking and non-drinking crowds which was much more
aesthetically pleasing than cloistering the drinkers into the balcony or the
cyclone fence disturbance of the last all-ages show in Ft. Collins...it also allowed me to
freely walk the width of the room and check the PA...
Speaking of the PA and the Grateful Dead -
The Crystal Ballroom held (amongst other things) Soul and R&B shows from '59
to '65 with the likes of James Brown, The Coasters, Etta James, B.B. King,
Wilson Pickett, Ike & Tina Turner Revue and a slew of others, then from 1967
to 1968 - a scant eighteen months - it began it's short run as "the Fillmore
of the Northwest"... bands such as Big Brother & The Holding Company, Buffalo
Springfield, Steve Miller, the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of
Invention, B.B. King (who's probably scheduled to play there THIS year) and
my personal-favorite names: The Electric Prunes and Strawberry Alarm Clock...
all sailed through The Crystal, spiking kool aid and ringing ears of the
rain-soaked flower children of the Northwest... right after that period ended
the doors were shut and remained that way until the current owners re-opened
it in 1997.
The PA in the place was great... the console was completely clean and
immaculately kept, the outboard effects, etc. were quiet and the main
speakers were sold off from the Dead's touring PA after Jerry died...
I liked mixing in the Crystal. I liked it a WHOLE LOT...
Sound check was "Bertha" and it went pretty well... the room was a bit boomy
but nothing a whole mess o' folks wouldn't cure. We retired to the band room,
which was very comfortable and overseen by a great girl named Nan... Nan made
sure we had everything we wanted from the minute we got in there, making sure
the juice was fresh, ice was cold, towels were, well, there... and getting
everyone's meal orders correct (which at fourteen people can get tough)...
this was treatment on a par with the Fillmore I gotta say...
We were quite relaxed when showtime finally rolled around, and the band gave
over seven-hundred Portland freaks a night of dancing on a floating floor...
The night's show, 9/23/82 from Vetrans Memorial Coliseum in Hew Haven CT.
kicked off with "Alabama Getaway" and it ripped the Crystal wide open... I
also liked "Rooster" that night and "Althea"... during which I walked all
over the room and even down-front via the afformentioned "moat"...
The second set was the killer of the night... five songs before "Drumz" and
five songs after... the "Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance" was expected for
awhile by the crew and they finally got it in spades... "Throwin' Stones" was
a nice early version (but not nearly as nice as the one in Eugene the next
night), "The Wheel" made yet ANOTHER appearence... and I colored outside the
lines and used delays on Mike's vocals during "The Other One"...
The filler that night was "Pocky Way"... AGAIN... but it was rowdy and fun
and the crowd got a little Brent-sound to send them home...
The Crystal Ballroom was another true highlight of the tour for me and I
think for the whole band... it was definitely a great show and hopefully the
good people of Portland will have us back...
... by the way, I wonder what the floor setting is for the Hippie Noodle
Dance... seems like it was set just about right...
COMING SOON: Smoke Machines & Fire Alarms, Old Friends, and Two Nights At The
Wild Duck... Tune in next time!