Jul. 08, 2004 - 1:50
Got back to nyc in the magic white minivan last nite at 1am. It took us 16 hours to drive back from Charlotte, NC. I have mosquito bites, or maybe they are hives, all over my legs from the knees down and my face is breaking out a little.
It was so worth it.
things i loved:
-playing with the wigg report-
stephen has a deep calvin johnson voice and christine sings with him while standing up drumming on a snare and floor tom her ponytail swinging from side to side. ben plays a little horns with them. he's not a noodler--it's just enough melodicness in and around their songs which are reminiscent of beat happening and velvets and a sprinkling of prewar--like they were cousins.
-staying with the wigg report. they let us crash with them for like 4 and a half days. they deserve a medal! and we had great conversations and ate a lot and it felt like we knew them already and were good friends. i mean, i knew i liked their music before we met them, but it was a real treat that they were such fun people to hang out with too.
-ooh la latte. this is a cafe we played in and part of the venue is a vintage thrift shop! of course i bought a couple dresses and cat's eye pink sunglasses. and hula girl soap. and a tee shirt. the cafe/venue (it's a huge stage too) part is so chill you can hang out and read there all day if you want. they even have a knitting corner with lots of needles and little yarn things people started and you can just pick them up and have a go.
-Ben doing the ass dance at jo & joe's after talking about gummo's expression of anal glands. matt broke guitar strings and there was time to talk, you see. i wanted to find out if people in durham knew why cats need to have that procedure done.
the results were inconclusive though we were all distracted by ben's special dance.
- swimming in the eno river with matt, stephen, christine and henry their dog! henry is a gordon setter and he is beeyootiful. i love him. i lay on the floor and pet him and it was lovely. i want a puppy.
-stephen and christine's brother dan. he is a very down to earth fellow even when drunk wearing a red tutu who didn't mind 3 scots staying at his house and was a good sport even up to the point where one of the scots was shipped home to scotland due to creative differences!
we cooked out twice at dan's place. one time was a lot of veggie burgers with eggplant and another time
he made this shrimp with garlic and ginger and i don't even like shrimp and i ate about 10 of them.
-bickett art gallery in raleigh. this was a really fun show. we dragged stephen and christine with us even though they weren't playing and made them see more of us ha ha. it was a mighty cool space and we kind of freaked out w/ mad energy. matt was standing on the amp at the end of the set. i wore a red white and blue dress as it was 4th of july. i mean come on.
did i tell you i bought some mallets?
i use them on one of our new songs for WAVES of cymbalness.
-seeing all the cool houses in durham. ben and rachel (ben is in wigg report remember) have a massive house filled with rachel's paintings and they have a new baby and the biggest kitchen you've ever seen in your life and a garden and a huge basement and i have some space envy going on.
-going to charlotte and seeing brad and vanessa and their baby hatcher. babies everywhere! our gig at fat city was cancelled because the venue had apparently closed a month ago. oops. we went to get pizza at a place called magic mushroom. it was goooood. we had no mushrooms on our pizza however. and then to evening muse as there was an open mike going on.
it was a little kum-by-yah church camp with a cover song jam circle to get things started. they played american pie and made everyone sing. we were a little weirded out.
but then the open mike started and we were 2nd and played "song for weddings and funerals". not much of a response to the dan fogelberg lovers but i thought it was a nice challenge to play in such a different vibe than we're used to. i wanted desc to do a song, maybe their one about going to church to see what would happen. alan was wearing a pastel dress even. but alas
they opted out and instead headed onto charleston for the rest of their southern tour.
hugs all around and i punched kas in the arm like old times and pretended i was mad at him.
they say that i use the word "awesome" a lot. and that i say, "come on" a lot.
yes i think they're right.
COME ON!
-the huevos rancheros at elmo's diner in durham. to die fawr.
-oh yeah this diary is backwards. our philly show which was first on the tour was crazee.
we may have to go to traffic court for a faulty left turn.
made about 10 minutes into our journey leaving nyc. we didn't see the sign. i kept seeing that ace of base song.
cheese on bread represented in philly. they brought some of their friends who whooped and hollered and took pictures and the sound was really good at the fire.
especially for DESC who had some full on bite with their ethereal ambiance.
i am becoming rapidly impressed by side of fries, c.o.b.'s backing band. i heard cheese on bread was supposed to play with gravy train soon and that they got thrown off the bill. g. train doesn't know what they're missing!! they all fell down on the floor at the end of the show. heh.
in suits.
it is nice to be home again.
gummo looks good. i don't even know if he knew we were gone.
i have to do a lot of laundry and clean.
but first, get through workday.
