really does happen (andrew)
At 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis last night, we were setting up onstage in front of the crowd (we had missed soundcheck AGAIN due to another epic drive and ANOTHER car malfunction). I spoke for a moment with two pretty girls in the front row. They were students of UMN (University of Minnesota?), so I told them I had attended U of M (University of Michigan). “How’d you get involved in all of this?” one of them asked. “After school, I moved to New York and started participating in the music scene,” I said. “So that really does happen,” she replied, sounding awestruck.
The audience gave us our first encore of US tour. We played Longview by Green Day without having ever practiced it. It was good and frantic. I used to play that song posing in front of my bedroom mirror in 1994. Full circle.
Things are strikingly different without our tour manager Ben and our driver/stage manager Seb. When the show finishes, I don’t even leave stage. Don’t talk to anyone. Panting for breath, Darwin runs over to the merch stand to sell t-shirts and sign CDs, and I begin unplugging the web of footpedals and amplifiers and laptops and tucking them away into various cases and pouches. It’s real work.
diner time with lesley and samantha from friends
The Friends/Deez entourage piled into our pal Colleen’s house for an eleven person slumber party. The floor was a tetris formation of human bodies. We went to sleep at 2:30am and had to rise, zombielike, at 6:45 in order to be in time for Daytrotter. It’s that kind of tour.