"Chank-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow
-CHUCKA-CHOW CHOWWWWWWowwowwwwww..."
"Chank-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow-chucka-chow
-CHUCKA-CHOW CHOWWWWWWowwowwwwww..."
Ah... good ol' Heart... what a great guitar band... when you hear "Barracuda"
you just gotta turn up the radio... and you know how sometimes when you hear
a tune it triggers memories?
Hazdra had just had one of those memory-triggers.
It was Mike Hazdra, Mike Maraat and me in the Haz-Mobile this trip... and
it's a pretty good change from the Touring Vessel, where it's open-season on
sound engineers most of the time... I get ripped on more than a stuck roll of
toilet paper some days...
It's the start of our tour and we're headed to Charlottesville VA. for a
second appearance at Trax! (their exclamation point, not mine... although I
personally like the place just fine and would tend to agree with their use of
punctuation)...
The tour is going to take us to some beautiful parts of the East Coast,
especially during the "Leaf Changing Season"... an event held in high
standing by a lot of people with free time on their hands, I guess... all the
hotels are booked with "Watchers"...
yipes.
But to be fair, it is really getting quite colorful and we're diggin' it. I
definitely feel blessed in my job...
... the only problem is the fourteen or so hours it takes to get to the first
stop of the tour this time out... travel is good, but that many hours in a
van is gonna get to ANYBODY after awhile, folks... because after just a few
hours, you're functionally out of things to talk about and that's when the
dark corners of your mind start to open up and you dredge up old memories...
Here, sit on my shoulder for a minute and I'll give you a sample... for
example, Hazdra's memory brought on by hearing Heart on the radio:
"... this was back when I drank, so after the concert I drove everyone
home... I still had half the gallon of-"
"GALLON?" I sputtered.
"Yeah... (long pause) ... so I had this gallon of wine I had begun the night
with, so I started drinking again... drinkin' and just driving... I woke up
in Iowa in the parking lot of a church with "Colorado Or Bust" written all
over my car in grease pencil..."
... or this one, which still made me laugh hours later:
"... that was in the days when I was in a heavy metal band..."
"METAL BAND?"
"Yeah... (long pause) ...I played a Fender Rhodes (an electric piano)..."
"What was the name of this band, man?"
"Well... we had about three different names... we were called 'Arson' for
awhile... but then we did this gig in Willowbrook (a suburb of Chicago) and
the next day the place burned down... so we figured we'd better change our
name after that..."
The things you learn about your bandmates can be profound, funny, or sad at
any given turn... and like a Dead show you never know WHAT'S lurking around
the bend in a DSO vehicular conversation.
So... yeah...
Fourteen... Fifteen Hours.
... ugh... you start out in a good frame of mind, but by the end of it you're
all about a stone's throw from becoming serial killers no matter HOW witty
the reparté...
When we finally made it to Charlottesville, we was tore-up TIRED... that's
when we got lost approximately a half-mile from the hotel and had to ask a
cop for directions...
He was sitting in the lot of a closed gas station reading a paper and
probably waiting for some poor fool to blow through this sleeping college
town, unaware of the lowered speed limit here in the business district... he
was an older African-American guy with the sort of salt-and-pepper Larry Fine
hairdo and mustache...
Mike pulled up across from him, rolled down the window, and simply asked
"Excuse me... do you know where (whatever) Street is?"
He looked at Mike and I over the top of his glasses...
"Yes."
We sat there staring at each other for awhile...
What... had this guy seen too many Blake Edwards films? You know... 'The Pink
Panther'? Peter Sellers stops a guy on the street and asks "Do you know the
way to the Concord Hotel?"... the guy answers "Yes" and keeps walking?
OK Barney Fife... you got your goof in...
"Could you tell us how to get there?" Mike elaborated.
In retrospect I guess I can understand this guy looking us over a bit... two
long-hairs, lookin' pretty raggedy... a bit red in the eye... but at the time
I was a bit pissed followed by an after-thought tinge of paranoia... what can
I say? Old habits die hard...
He looked down at his paper as if, should he have to move it, like some sort
of periodical Risk board all the words would jumble and he wouldn't be able
to remember how many ballgame score armies were in Brazil...
With a heavy sigh he put the paper aside and proceeded to give us two sets of
directions, "one being a little more direct"...
... directions we managed to mess up with the first TURN, my theory being
that we combined the two sets...
The cop chased after us and told us with a 'You're Sorry Asses' look to "just
follow him to the hotel"...
So we got a police escort to the hotel and... again I can't make this stuff
up... at 50mph in a 25mph zone, y'all... it was TOO funny... Hazdra and I
joked about the guy getting us there and saying "There's your hotel, and
here's your ticket for 25 over... Have A Good Evening!"
At least we were HERE... greeted by a note from Scott...
"Dear Boys - Due to the hotel being overbooked we are all at the (different
from THIS one) hotel... there are two rooms for you, here's the number where
the rest of us are... blah blah blah..."
Who cared at that point... it was not quite half after 4am and we just wanted
some sleep...
The next afternoon we left for the gig, having slept all day...
... we got lost on the way to the venue as well. Coincidence? Nope. This was
riding with Hazdra behind the wheel...
Trax is a great sounding venue, and last time we were here the place treated
us wonderfully... I'd like to report that they're now two for two in this
department!
After a fairly painless sound check I ate my dinner (now quite cold) that
Beau had been good enough to set aside for me and we sat for a quick radio
interview which was being taped for future broadcast along with tapes of the
show... Scott had a good time pushing me to be a wise-ass and we gave this
poor guy Dean fifteen minutes of mostly tongue-in-cheek answers to his
questions...
... I believe I capped the interview with asking Dean's non-present co-host
if "...Dean wears frilly little outfits like (he had on) tonight while on the
air?"
Yeah... witty, ain't I?
There was a great crowd assembled when the band went on, and 7/7/87 from the
Civic Center in Roanoke, VA. had been requested by someone in the audience
via our website so away we go...
"Walkin' Blues" was smokin' with solos all around, "Brother Esau" felt slow
and swampy unlike the last one I recall which was more up-tempo, "Push Comes
To Shove" is one of my more favorite Jerry-Fluff songs... sort of a guilty
pleasure and nice also because it doesn't get played much, and a really hot
"Birdsong" which got quite out there before settling back on the stage...
As for the second set, "Looks Like Rain" and "Morning Dew" stopped me cold in
my tracks, two songs where I let go and became strictly a fan for a few
minutes again... "Gimme Some Lovin'" was fun, with Hazdra and Scott chasing
each other lyrically around the stage... overall, an excellent kick-off to the
tour I'd say...
"Hey Pocky Way" was the Filler for the night with a nice long jam before it
was time to go... everybody out...
Thanks BIG TIME to Dave and Sky for making our night all the easier!!!
That's about it for now... sorry there isn't more to amuse here, but it's 3am
and we have another good five hour haul to Philly tomorrow...
... hope there's something good on the radio...