We just started a two week tour. Starting in Boston, zig-zagging around New England, and finding ourselves as far west as Chicago and as far south as Nashville.. I'm currently sat on an unsettlingly wobbly bus on my way to pick up the tour-van from Lancaster PA. I'm pretty sure if we hit a bump larger than an acorn the bus would break.
Clayton (our violinist/fiddler) is sitting next to me reading an article about jet lag. I think he is getting a little excited for our brief excursion in to 'Central Time' next week.
Two nights ago we went back to Boston to Cafe 939's 'Red Room'.. it was the first night of our record release tour for 'The Matador & The Acrobat'. There was the usual last minute dash in to Daddy's Junky Music (& Unfriendly People), the 'should you really have a curry before the show?' argument, and Chris's impression of a Boston accent to the words 'Norm here's laying down all the hardwood floors'.. Yup, we were definitely in Boston. I love it. I have great memories of Boston, and plenty of times I don't remember what happened but I know it was a good time.
The doors opened and our friend Jonny Nicholson opened up the night with some beautiful tunes, including a tasty little number on an accordion. I found out his dad's a fellow Englishman from a place called Devon - I've been going to Devon since I was in nappies, so for the umpteenth time this week I thought 'small world'.. though for some reason that phrase isn't coming to mind on our current three hour excursion from NYC to Lancaster PA..
We hopped up on stage and cranked out a slightly rustier version of our set to a room of fantastic and familiar faces. I'm not sure if it's the 'all ages' or 'no booze' policy at Cafe 939, but the audience is always wonderfully receptive. What a treat for our first night of the tour! Then I think I have swine flu (though it's obviously a cold) so the show was followed by my hypochondriacal efforts to stuff myself with as much complimentary, backstage melon as possible. I just remembered Mitch Hedberg's joke about cantaloupe melon. Ha. Then it was down to a duo version of Nashville-based band, 'The Coal Men' to close the night. Really lovely stuff.
--- NYC to Lancaster bus ride - Clayton is asleep after a lunch consisting of 'Cheez-Its and Canada Dry'. Before he nodded off, he noted 'oh, there's no partially hydrogenated oils in Cheez-Its'. He's just got up and moved to two spare seats behind a man who appears to be writing a book about plumbing.---
Kyle, Tim and Chris ventured back to Boston that night. Clayton and I stayed in beantown in an effort to catch up on sleep. Such fools! We had to get up so early to make our bus to New York that it probably wasn't worth it. Yes, 'The Fung Wah': $15 from Chinatown Boston, to Chinatown New York. I heard they used to give you a complimentary soup as you boarded.. now they just give you a complimentary scowl. 2 hours in to the journey you get dropped off at McDonalds for lunch. It's a quick 10 minute inhalation of very-hydrogenated oils (Clayton would not be pleased), then it's back on the bus to eavesrop on someone else's cell-phone conversation in an undistinguishable language.
On our arrival in to New York we noticed a cement truck had crashed in to the Fung Wah ticket office. I slowly left the scene thinking about how many hours I had spent waiting for a bus there.
---NYC to Lancaster Bus update - nearly there. wow I'm bored. Just noticed I'd been sitting on a Cheez-It for the last hour.---
holly crow, that was a funny read! :)
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