Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Globehopper Cafe, Richmond, VA

Thursday, March 4, 2010
Gillie's, Blacksburg, VA

Friday, March 5, 2010
Backstage Bar, Pittsburgh, PA

Sunday, March 7, 2010
Barking Spider, Cleveland, OH

Monday, March 8, 2010
Elbo Room, Chicago, IL

The trip from Cleveland to Chicago started out on the wrong foot. After I loaded my 50-pound suitcase into the luggage hold of my Megabus, I began stowing my guitar when the driver said, "You know your guitar's not safe back here, right?" I was a bit flummoxed by this - I've taken the Megabus literally dozens of times now on the East Coast, and never was worried - but I told him I'd keep an eye on it whenever we stopped. He then proceeded to tell me that passengers are only allowed one piece of luggage, but that he'd let it slide this time. Hmm. I have a lot of Megabus travel in my future - it's so far above Greyhound in terms of reliability, cleanliness and convenience (power outlets! and flaky wireless...) - including two rides yet this tour, so I hope his opinion is an anomaly.

Once on the bus, though, the six-hour voyage was fine, though the smell of fries on board after a pit stop at a Hardee's was deeply nauseating. In spite of that, I got a lot accomplished in relative comfort, thanking my lucky stars the entire time that I wasn't the one driving. It's not that driving itself bothers me - give me good music and a straight road, and I'm happy as a clam - but the fact that I can't do anything but drive for hours and hours really began to bother me last tour. I always feel a bit behind on booking and keeping on top of logistics anyway, not to mention practicing and writing, and when there's a long drive followed by a gig the entire day can go by without any progress. This felt like bonus time.

I arrived at Union Station on time, and was met immediately by my friends in their Jeep. My peeps are really making this tour so much easier than I thought it might be, I've been met at the station at every stop so far. Bunch of sweethearts. After we dropped off my things, a plan was hatched to find pizza (it seemed to be what I was craving - perhaps too obvious in Chicago, I know) and after three failed tries due to the unfortunate closed-on-Monday thing, found a great joint. Gorgonzola, red onions and toasted walnuts do not a traditional pie make, I suppose, but it was deeply pleasing. Then we headed downtown, to wander a bit by the chilly lakeside, take goofy pictures at the Bean (a sort of huge stainless-steel kidney with an impossibly smooth and reflective surface), and enjoy the freshest ice cream I've ever seen at a place called I Cream. Freshest, meaning actually made to order on the spot, with liquid freakin' nitrogen pouring into a bowl of cream, coffee and chocolate chips, creating a spilling cloud of evil vapor that would make any mad scientist proud, and a perfect pint of frozen delight in the process.

That served as dinner, and soon it was off to the Elbo Room. It's a club with a good rep in town, and though I wasn't playing on the main stage, the staff was extremely professional and helpful and I was soon set up in a cozy corner just by the bar. I had to fill three hours on my own (with breaks of course, thank goodness), so I wrote out a list of my current working repertoire, to know my options. Nice to see that I have close to 60 tunes, including covers, that I can whip out, though I needed to quickly remind myself of a few chords as I wrote down the titles.

It was a small crowd to start out, and it largely stayed that way throughout the evening, as people wandered in and out, peered at me (or not) over their pints, then headed on downstairs to the main room or out into the Chicago night. (I even managed to distract people from the Guns n' Roses live video (!), which was silently playing on a large screen directly opposite me for a good hour). Folks were nice enough to applaud after each tune, which is more important than some might think. Ending a tune to silence makes me feel absolutely useless, unless I'm playing intentionally as background music in a restaurant or such. But here, there was a fair amount of attention paid to me, and very nice comments, especially afterwards from the bar staff. Having employees say nice things always feels like a real victory, as they have absolutely no obligation to do so. By the end, even though it was the smallest audience of this tour, it was the most encouraging and supportive gig so far on my trip.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Ronny's, Chicago, IL

During the summer, I'd booked a set at Ronny's in Chicago, a town I've never played in before. I had to cancel just days before the gig due to some family matters, so I wanted to come back and make up the date. However, none of the bands I'd hooked up with for the summer gig were available this time, so I had to go searching on Myspace (remember that?) to find some other compatible folks. I began sending out messages two months ago, but was stymied time and time again by folks being on vacation, moving, broken up, recording, in hibernation, or some other state which prevented them from appearing with me on March 9.

Finally, though, after reams of messages sent and responded to with great apology, I found a willing partner, then another. I quickly discovered that they were good friends, and were able to suggest another mutual friend to complete the bill, not two weeks ago. Not enough time to really put out the word, but since they all knew each other, I figured that at least we could all hang out and make some good noise together.

At 5 p.m., I was doing some work and leisurely contemplating a nap, then a stroll around downtown to find some food...hmm, maybe sushi...when my phone buzzed. It was Camacho, of Aliente (and a myriad of other projects), asking if I wanted to stop by his rehearsal space to hang out before going to load in at six. Six? That seemed ridiculously early for a 9 pm show, but I checked my email from the promoter and, sure enough, we were to load in at 6. A bit panicked, I set up my gear for a quick check (always a good idea when using 25-year-old and much-loved analog equipment), then threw everything in a couple of bags and hit the El.

Ronny's is a low-slung, utterly nondescript building on a nondescript block, and inside isn't much more interesting, just some mismatched chairs, cans of Old Milwaukee for $2 and Tecate for double that (it's "imported" - I suppose that's technically true, but *come on*). I peeked inside to find Ronny himself glowering at the door - a position he hardly left all night - and slipped inside, to be told that the soundperson wouldn't arrive until 8:30, and that only the first act would get a soundcheck. I dumped my stuff in the playing area, which was agreeable enough with a largish stage and a hefty PA, and I was loaded in. Two hours to kill, when every minute on tour feels already spoken for. Sigh.

After some surprisingly acceptable Mexican-American food (have to distinguish that from actual Mexican cuisine...) down the street, I set up my gear and chatted up the members of Sunglasses, Battleships and Alniente, my cohorts for the evening. As with other parts of the country, it seems that there is a thriving scene of house shows, though there is similarly a pattern of shutdowns by the cops. At least here, rents are cheap enough (shockingly cheap, really) that there are always new spaces available.

Sunglasses set up their gear - a couple of battered keyboards, a few echo pedals, and a full PA of their own in addition to the house rig (!) - then stocked themselves well with beer before beginning their set. A few stabs at the keyboards from each member, then a few twists of knobs, and a scintillating wash of cascading tones filled the room. Barely a minute had elapsed, but they stepped back from their gear, popped open a few cans of Milwaukee, and simply listened along with those of us on the floor, as the massive sound ever-so-slowly subsided, with different elements coming into focus as the echoes overlapped and faded into each other. Somehow, it was fascinating to watch them thoughtfully drink, bob their heads a bit, even sing to themselves as they waited with us. Some twelve minutes later, the last notes had died out, and that was their set. But we all cheered and applauded, and someone half-jokingly called for an encore, so they plugged back in and repeated the MO, this time with a more dissonant cluster of tones and some percussive elements that sounded like gunfire. Once again they sat back and relaxed once the pieces of sound were erected, listening to the slow fade, only this time a bit more abbreviated (perhaps because they'd drunk all their brews).

I went next, and decided to do a solid block of sound, rather than individual pieces. It was a fun set, definitely leaning towards the dissonant and noisy, with a lot of exploration of the feedback oscillation between my two decks. Some very nice comments afterward, and I sold or traded my whole stock of CD's I'd brought along.

Next up was Alniente, a duo of Camacho and another guitarist. Camacho had two lap steels set up with cassette recorders blasting into their pickups, plus a low-tuned Ovation acoustic, and his partner with a more conventional rig of Fender guitar and big Vox amp. Starting with a din of voices from the cassette players, they launched into their instruments with a frenzy, with powerhouse acoustic strumming providing a pulse to some raw feedback. Cathartic and beautiful, they were spent after perhaps 15 glorious minutes.

Last for the night was Battleships, another duo. All the lights were turned off, the only illumination coming from a houselamp on the stage. One of the members had a massive antique Zenith shortwave radio fed into a Moog filter, the other had an assortment of pedals strewn about as his only sound source. They were incredibly loud, a real pile of overtones, with occasional bursts of singing and heaven knows what else from the shortwave. They both played on the floor, and were arresting to watch as they flipped switches with great drama, swayed into the maelstrom, and even genuinely banged their heads. A great finish.

A super satisfying night. I'm so glad to have this to balance out the acoustic playing, sometimes it feels so good to be lost in visceral, shocking sound.

Sunday, March 14, 2010
Centre St. Ambroise, Montreal, QE

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Le Cagibi (Mardi Spaghetti series), Montreal, QE