I woke up to footsteps over my head... which was weird because we were on the
second floor of a two floor hotel...
There was someone on the roof.
So what ELSE is new?
If it isn't roofers it's the maid... we never get to sleep in. The only real
difference is that we've never gotten our rooms comped for an invasive
maid... the heavy feet and power tools got us a free night... so if anyone
asks, there IS justice in the world.
We packed up our crap and hit the road for Asheville and Be Here Now, a club
we played our last tour of the South, and I remember that gig as one of my
favorite shows on that tour... you don't forget a club that treats you well,
and even though the monitor system lacks a little "Umf!" the room DEFINITELY
brings out the good in our boys (and lady)...
I was looking forward to the gig for sure, but we had to get there first, and
as they say, "Gettin' There's Half The Fun"... especially with this crew...
We stopped for lunch at a pancake house just outside Gatlinburg TN. after
getting some gas for the Haz-Mobile...
Now, follow me here if you dare...
Fireworks are legal in Tennessee, OK? Well, they sell them all over the
place... and I noticed something...
All the gas stations had fireworks stores attached to them.
Not, like... NEXT to them, or on the same STRIP of buildings... but ALL in
ONE.
And I'm not talking just smoke bombs or firecrackers... there was, like...
Dessert Storm surplus in this place, people!!! These BIG-ASS things... huge
garbage cans with FUSES...
... most of it, we were informed by a dull-eyed youth, "on sale - two fer
one"...
WHO IN GOD'S NAME HAS ROOM FOR ONE FUSE-LADEN GARBAGE CAN, LET ALONE TWO?!?!?
And at fifty bucks a pop, that's one expensive exploding dust bin...
So in a world where kids walk through metal detectors to go to GRADE SCHOOL,
in a world where Timmy McVeigh & Co. can tell the ATF just how MUCH bullshit
they are to him with a rented truck loaded with fertilizer, in a world where
"Three's Company" is STILL IN SYNDICATION...
Why would you sell these CANNONS right next to gas pumps...
CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN???
And while we were at the pancake house and even the gas/light artillary
station, we noticed not without some nervousness the cavalier nature with
which a lit cigarette butt is treated... in this environment...
John was the one who made the two-point conversion on the matter, too... I
just thought "What an amazingly stupid situation"... John was the one that
pointed out that "It would be nothing to light one or two of them beauties by
a pump and you're outa there... folks would never even see a license plate..."
Really folks... he's QUITE sane.
But if John could come up with it... I mean, there are folks out there who
are a LOT more twisted is my point...
Good Lord.
We got to the venue without incident and without any explosives but in one
piece... so that, as they say, is good... we got set up, did a quick sound
check, and everyone went their separate ways for a few.
The show tonight was wonderful in every sense... after I got the mix settled
in it was up to the band, and they came through in a BIG way...
The show opened with "Morning Dew"... a slow dirge that wound up to a nice
froth... there was an abso-LUTELY welcome "They Love Each Other", very fast
and bouncy... a nice change from the slower 80's and 90's versions we do (and
happy anniversary to the couple who was hoping to hear it)... a "Black
Throated Wind" in there... and the "Playin" to finish out the first set was
long and spacey at points... the kind of thing that makes you forget it's
still only first set, y'know?
The second set opened with "Bertha" and was followed up with what I would
consider to be the definitive "Promised Land"... without doubt my favorite
rendition in two years of doing this... I took a walk around the room during
"Row Jimmy" to sort of see what was going on, and then it was "Here Comes
Sunshine"...
I've heard them MURDER this song, folks.
But Not Tonight.
PERFECT. The harmonies were solid, the jams were lysergically SOAKED...
unreal. And this is coming from me, the ultimate jaded fan. The band really
shines when they play in this period... the jams are so DIFFERENT for 80's
and 90's that I forget how fun it can be to get back to the basics and leave
all the digital smoke and mirrors aside for a night... I can't use certain
effects or types of reverb when working within this time period and neither
can the band, so I think very different creative muscles get utilized and to
my mind, I think the band allows those muscles to go unused for far too long
periods of time...
Shame on us!
The aural dose just kept hitting the room harder and harder... the "Weather
Report Suite" was beautiful and MUCH more together than the previous night in
Knoxville, and the "Eyes->Sugar Magnolia" put a nice long paisley-looking
tail on the show. After a quick huddle, the band came out and took a request,
playing "Ripple" for the filler before I hit Louis Armstrong on the CD
player...
"... and I say to myself, what a wonderful world..."
Maybe my mom was wrong about the world after all. Or at least parts of it.
PS - HEY MOM... I stayed up ALL NIGHT writing this... NOW I'll go to bed.
See you back here soon, y'all!!!