catch up
I'm way beyond recovering now. Too many cities to recount.
The days/cities/shows are blurring together. Today, I came over to video world, looked at the monitors and asked what was wrong with my camera. My monitor was the only one that was still black. Jody said nothing was wrong with the camera. In fact, it was still sitting beside the switcher, about four feet from where I was standing. Oops. I just knew I had already taken it out to the floor.
Nine shows left! Single digits!
Things I remember about the cities I've been in:
Albany, NY. Jody and I walked around a lot in Albany and talked about real estate. We ran into Lucas and Mark (his roommate and tour photographer) downtown. They're nice people. I think we could probably hang out if we weren't already in a work environment together. While Jody and I were walking, I noticed that we kept going downhill. Eventually, we decided to make a circle and head back for the arena. We took a HUGE set of concrete stairs to get back to the main street level. The neighborhoods around downtown Albany look just as you would expect. Three/four floor townhome style houses all in a row, all touching. The thing I didn't expect was this.
A huge tower, absolutely dwarfing the city underneath. The four towers surrounding it were all the same height as each other. And the little egg looking building to the right? The locals call it "The Egg". How 'bout that.
East Rutherford, New Jersey. I saw the Empire State Building for the first time in my life.
The arena was right across the river from New York City. The stagehands represented Jersey well, quick witted and pretty hard workers (if you could interrupt their conversation long enough to give direction). I even had a father/son combo working for me that day. I thought of Keeves several times while in Jersey. Remember that crazy drive through-the-night, Keeves? Now THAT was an experience. Philadelphia almost did me in on that trip.
The next day we had a day off in lovely Worcester, Massachusetts. Pronounced "woosta". Woosta was really, really boring. I tried to walk around the city, but I could find absolutely nothing to do. Plus, it was super cold. Why would I want to walk around a strange place with nothing to do... and freeze while doing so? I ended up eating at the restaurant connected to our hotel. It was called Uno Chicago or something like that. I would really rather forget the place altogether. The fish sandwich I had was undercooked. Just say no to slimy fish sandwiches. The waitresses were helpful, though, and pointed me to the nearest movie theater, which ended up being a twenty dollar cab ride away. They also told me about a little punk rock bar called Ralph's Diner. Unfortunately, there were no shows there for my one night in town. It looked like my kind of dive bar, too. Oh well. Maybe next time I'm in Worcester... no... wait... I don't really want there to be a next time. Since nothing was happening at Ralph's, I went to a movie. Twenty bucks there, twenty bucks back and a ten dollar movie ticket. Ugh. The movie I saw was Children of Men and it was excellent. Worth the fifty bucks, really. Sure beat a night in the hotel room. I finished off the night with some microwave ravioli and Cup O'Noodles from the convenience store across the street. Ah... the good life! I don't remember the show at all.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We played the Spectrum. Which is nicknamed "the Rectum". It totally deserved the nickname. A poorly designed arena that should've been torn down thirty years ago. One way in, one way out. The slowest load-in yet. I think I started on my screens around noon. I usually start around 9:30. So we had a couple crappy days in a row. Compound this with the fact that these were shows 1 and 2 of 5 in a row. We made it out alright, though.
I'm going to bed now. We're headed into Columbus, Ohio. I have plenty to tell you about the days I missed.
The days/cities/shows are blurring together. Today, I came over to video world, looked at the monitors and asked what was wrong with my camera. My monitor was the only one that was still black. Jody said nothing was wrong with the camera. In fact, it was still sitting beside the switcher, about four feet from where I was standing. Oops. I just knew I had already taken it out to the floor.
Nine shows left! Single digits!
Things I remember about the cities I've been in:
Albany, NY. Jody and I walked around a lot in Albany and talked about real estate. We ran into Lucas and Mark (his roommate and tour photographer) downtown. They're nice people. I think we could probably hang out if we weren't already in a work environment together. While Jody and I were walking, I noticed that we kept going downhill. Eventually, we decided to make a circle and head back for the arena. We took a HUGE set of concrete stairs to get back to the main street level. The neighborhoods around downtown Albany look just as you would expect. Three/four floor townhome style houses all in a row, all touching. The thing I didn't expect was this.
A huge tower, absolutely dwarfing the city underneath. The four towers surrounding it were all the same height as each other. And the little egg looking building to the right? The locals call it "The Egg". How 'bout that.
East Rutherford, New Jersey. I saw the Empire State Building for the first time in my life.
The arena was right across the river from New York City. The stagehands represented Jersey well, quick witted and pretty hard workers (if you could interrupt their conversation long enough to give direction). I even had a father/son combo working for me that day. I thought of Keeves several times while in Jersey. Remember that crazy drive through-the-night, Keeves? Now THAT was an experience. Philadelphia almost did me in on that trip.
The next day we had a day off in lovely Worcester, Massachusetts. Pronounced "woosta". Woosta was really, really boring. I tried to walk around the city, but I could find absolutely nothing to do. Plus, it was super cold. Why would I want to walk around a strange place with nothing to do... and freeze while doing so? I ended up eating at the restaurant connected to our hotel. It was called Uno Chicago or something like that. I would really rather forget the place altogether. The fish sandwich I had was undercooked. Just say no to slimy fish sandwiches. The waitresses were helpful, though, and pointed me to the nearest movie theater, which ended up being a twenty dollar cab ride away. They also told me about a little punk rock bar called Ralph's Diner. Unfortunately, there were no shows there for my one night in town. It looked like my kind of dive bar, too. Oh well. Maybe next time I'm in Worcester... no... wait... I don't really want there to be a next time. Since nothing was happening at Ralph's, I went to a movie. Twenty bucks there, twenty bucks back and a ten dollar movie ticket. Ugh. The movie I saw was Children of Men and it was excellent. Worth the fifty bucks, really. Sure beat a night in the hotel room. I finished off the night with some microwave ravioli and Cup O'Noodles from the convenience store across the street. Ah... the good life! I don't remember the show at all.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We played the Spectrum. Which is nicknamed "the Rectum". It totally deserved the nickname. A poorly designed arena that should've been torn down thirty years ago. One way in, one way out. The slowest load-in yet. I think I started on my screens around noon. I usually start around 9:30. So we had a couple crappy days in a row. Compound this with the fact that these were shows 1 and 2 of 5 in a row. We made it out alright, though.
I'm going to bed now. We're headed into Columbus, Ohio. I have plenty to tell you about the days I missed.
posted by Josh at 10:13 PM
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