On The Shoulders Of Giants

  Greetings,

Today I have been resting up after an epic Labor Day weekend  tour with one of my bands, Buffalo Jones.  We toured over Memorial Day weekend with Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and we had such a great time that we decided to do it again over the last four days.  This time, however, we didn't have the luxury of opening for a band that draws a crowd of at least 300 people at each show.  We were on our own this weekend, and none of us knew how it was going to turn out. 

We started with a show here in Spokane on Thursday night that was disappointing to say the least.  We had done a show-swap with a band from Missoula, MT called Airstream Safari.  The idea behind a show-swap is that two bands from different cities set up shows in each band's respective city, with the hopes of each band drawing a decent crowd in each place - therefore allowing the out of town band to gain maximum exposure in the new city.  Unfortunately for Airstream Safari, Spokane is a bit of a black hole when it comes to local music.  We have such a hard time drawing a crowd here, and it just doesn't make sense.  To be fair, Spokane has a huge event during Labor Day weekend, called "Pig Out In The Park," that starts on the Wednesday before Labor Day.  The event draws tens of thousands of people and features nationally touring bands and all kinds of other entertainment.  Most of the people who were downtown on Thursday night were down at Riverfront Park, enjoying the "Pig Out" festivities.  Those who weren't there were a few blocks away from our show watching Hank Williams III play at The Knitting Factory.  We had maybe eight people in the bar that night, and it was embarrassing and disappointing to say the least.  To top things off for me, my pedalboard was acting up on me.  I played our full set without any effects pedals and was so distracted by it that I missed notes all night long. 

The next day we set out for Missoula and arrived at the venue, Sean Kelley's, at around 9:00pm.  Missoula is a college town and there was a very good crowd coming in and out of the bar all night.  This made the embarrassment we felt over our abysmal crowd in Spokane even worse, but we shrugged that off and played a great set of rock and roll.  My pedalboard was fixed (it was a bad cable) and I had a great time playing.  When our set was over, we headed for a house that was occupied by two members of Airstream Safari.  The plan was to pitch a tent and camp in the yard.  We did so, and while Glenn, our bass player, and his wife slept in the car, Pat, our manager, rolled his sleeping bag out and went right to sleep in the tent.  Lennon, our drummer, and his girlfriend were driving in a separate vehicle and decided to drive a couple of hours down the road to camp at a campsite.  Jason, our frontman, and I were up for more festivities, though, and the boys from Airstream Safari were more than happy to oblige.  We partied with them until about 4:30am before we both finally crashed in the tent.  We woke up about an hour later because we had to be on the road by 6:00am in order to make it to Boise, ID in time for a radio appearance that we had set up.

The drive to Boise was grueling.  I caught a couple of hours' sleep in the ridiculously cramped back seat of the Mazda 5 we were traveling in, but it was not much help.  We passed the time by listening to mix CDs that Glenn had made up for us and playing "Cards Against Humanity."  Around 2:30pm we rolled into Boise and checked into our hotel.  The radio station was right across the street, and we wandered over to it after we'd each had a few minutes laying on the beds in the hotel room.  We were interviewed and played some songs for Radio Boise and then we decided to go and have some lunch.  We found a pub a few blocks from the radio station and went for some beers and food.  The waitress was very nice, and very pretty, and the boys in the band thought it would be a good idea to invite her to the show in an effort to help me fulfill the rockstar debauchery destiny.  They're very good wingmen.  When we had finished eating, we walked down to a record store that the DJ at Radio Boise told us about.  I found a couple of records to buy and went back to the hotel.  We all made our way to the venue, Tom Grainey's, which, apparently, is a very happening place in downtown Boise.  We were the only band booked that night and therefore were tasked to play for over three hours.  We played nearly every song we knew.  The crowd was large and enthusiastic.  We poured every ounce of energy we had into that show, and right before our last song, the waitress from lunch showed up.  I did my best to hook up with her, but I struck out.  All I can say is at least I went down swinging.  When our show was over, we discovered that the streets of Boise were an ant's nest of college kids.  It was utterly insane!  The city was so alive.  It was unlike anything we ever experience in Spokane.  We were all exhausted by this point, so we decided to head back to the hotel and get as much sleep as we could.

I slept for about four hours before I got up to have breakfast.  We took our time getting out of the hotel and on the road.  By the time we were out on the highway, it was nearly 1:00pm.  We got to Salt Lake City at around 5:30pm and had dinner at the Red Iguana, a famous Mexican restaurant there.  We had only minutes to get from the restaurant to the venue for load in, and we ended up being a little late.  We loaded in and went back to the hotel for a few minutes to try and freshen up.  When we returned, our fears about the tour were realized.  The other bands we were booked with for the evening had both had shows earlier in the weekend, so their draw was minimal at best.  There were maybe 20 people in the venue the entire night.  Even so, we decided to give it all we had and, in the words of our manager, Pat, we "put on a clinic for those other bands."  It was the last ounce of energy we had, and we set it ablaze.  It should be mentioned here that this was Sunday night in Salt Lake City.  This probably accounted for at least some of the low turnout we had.  When we finished loading out, Lennon, Jason, Pat, and I decided that we needed to unwind a bit more.  We went to a gas station to buy beer, but discovered that we had arrived three minutes after alcohol sales were cut off in Utah.  Disappointed, but not defeated, we headed a few blocks down the road to a Denny's and had some food and coffee.  If you've never been to a Denny's at 2:00am, you miss out on the incredible counterculture that haunts these restaurants in the dark hours.  I used to hang out at Denny's all the time when I was in high school because I couldn't go to bars.  I was glad to see that even in Salt Lake City, that tradition hasn't died. 

The drive home from Salt Lake took about 12 hours, and was filled with sleep, music, and Cards Against Humanity.  I got home at about 9:00pm last night and have been trying to recuperate ever since. 

During this trip, I thought a lot about the pioneers that came before me.  I recalled a video clip of the members of The Doors in which a journalist asks each of them to state their name, date of birth, and occupation for the camera.  It's a famous piece of footage that is a part of every documentary about the band.  I look back on footage like that, and I read the autobiographies of Keith Richards and Eric Clapton and I think to myself, "Nobody taught these guys how to be rock stars.  They were all flying by the seat of their pants."  What I mean by this is that now, even in the small-time rock world that I inhabit, I have a blueprint of what a rock musician is supposed to be like.  We're supposed to dress cool, act cool, party until we drop, find young girls to corrupt, and put on an amazing show every time.  We're supposed to be open and unpredictable.  This is the mold that has been set up for us.  The rock gods of the 60's and 70's, however, they were the ones who made the mold.  They didn't have anybody to look up to and say "That's how you do it."  They just did what felt good, and some of them payed the ultimate price for it.

I don't really know what type of a judgement to put on this thought, but I do know that these guys are definitely my inspiration.  Not necessarily for the specific things like tight pants and long hair, but more for the carefree, up-for-anything attitude.  I want to have that in my everyday life.  These guys were living out the life that Thoreau described, and I want to do the same.  I have been thinking a lot lately about moving to Japan for a year, and it's thoughts like this that encourage that spirit in me.  I hope that this blog entry will maybe inspire some of you in some way to live deliberately.  Do the things you love.  I'm not a big time rock star, and I probably never will be, but I can say that in over fifteen years of playing in bands, I've played hundreds of shows in over 34 cities throughout seven states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada.  I love playing music, and I do it almost every chance I get.  I can't imagine giving it up.  I guess my point is, find what you love to do, and do it to the fullest extent you can.  It has made my life incredibly meaningful, and I'm sure it will do the same for you.

I am the Reverend Humpy and I have approved this message.