May. 05, 2005 - 8:42
okay
maybe i am not so good at the diary.
it's getting longer and longer between updates. as soon as i navigate my present work situation, I will be able to sneak in more entries.
yes, you heard me.
i'm working!
we got back from the tour monday nite, and i started work on wednesday. same sort of temp thing, in fact maybe a bit mellower than the last long term thing. it's down by the water and i can eat lunch in battery park. they're very nice.....it's only been 2 days though.
the tour the tour!
it was fun. more low-key than the last one. so nice to see friends in every town(hi jacqui and gary and wave pictures and rosie and michal and camilla and lisa and linus and michael from leeds and adey and emma and paul!).
i think pantsuit got a lot better as a band having so many shows in a row in front of different crowds and sound systems. we're more confident. we're tighter. we're more solid.
now that we've taken some of these songs to their fullest potential, i want to shake up our sound. i want to do different things. i need more tools - i play such generic guitar.
i'm not being hard on myself - i think it's true. I need to branch out i need to jam.
now that i have this basic skill of guitar & drums, i can really see where i am...and that i want to learn more. i'm not going to turn into fancy noodler or wanker don't worry!!
i LIKE simplicity in songs. i LIKE space in songs so you can get the song's essence.
I LIKE clarity.
i'm just very aware of where i am and where i could be.
that is all.
god how do you wrap up a tour? how do you talk about one show versus another show?
there were special things about all of them.
I was more of a nervous mess playing with psuit than schwervon, simply for the fact that i have experience touring with schwerve, and don't with psuit. i feel more vulnerable with a guitar.
cardiff was complete with a search for welsh cakes (hard to find on a sunday!) and a kickass rockin set by the wave pictures and a dance party afterwards. we danced wildly. michal came to this show and we had moves. except it was determined i am not good at lifts, or catching. sharky is better. i almost dropped him when he ran into my arms from 10 feet away.
thanks to I HAVE NO COLLAR for the use of their keyboard. it saved my life.
muah muah muah!
leeds and edinburgh i didn't really know what to expect.
we played at the packhorse, which is a great sounding room and my new fave venue in leeds. michal came! and ian (?) (forgive me!) who saw schwervon a couple years ago with jeff and who had brought his stuffed crow to the show - whose name i remember - MURCHISON! i learned at this show maybe not to play pantsuit after keep it cool. keep it cool became our fave ending song. i figured out the amp at this show too. see how much i was learning?
we also learned we sounded better a little louder than we had been playing. turn up that bass yo. matt's sets were becoming the stuff of legends by the 3rd show - he started writing poems every day of the tour about the tour and this nite he read one about scotch eggs.
hopefully he'll post them soon. the one about the fat cat in edinburgh is on the website now.
also psuit was playing 4-5 songs at the end of his sets and they were starting to gel more after a few shows.
edinburgh show was in a strange venue called the subway. sort of college frat party vibe to the space.....though the audience who attended was lovely and into the music and not that way at all. a band called peanut played with us and they must come to new york and their drummer caroline is my hero. fuck yeah.
our sound person this nite liked heavy metal. i think that explains why he wanted me to turn up as loud as i could. we sounded very rock. i mean probably the heaviest we've ever sounded. it was cool. not every nite, but for that show it worked.
matt's set - one of my favorites. francis played drums with him on mittens. fantastic. how do i know so many amazing drummers? i mean really!
i think his poem that nite was about coffee.
we stayed with alun and ed at their house. they made us eggs and beans on toast, my favorite after show snack.
mmmmmmm.
their cat was so cute and very plump....bigger than gummo in the old days!
nice to catch up with alun. pictures and teatime and he's a muir cat.
next day was aberdeen.
jacqui and gary!
they are the best welcoming committee you could ever hope to find and they fed us a lot and had comfortable beds for us and took us to the venue and they are a slice of heaven in scotland. i want to tell everyone about how interesting and fun they are and how you should visit them but i kind of don't want to share them cause then i will be jealous that you are spending time with them and i am not.
ha!
the show in aberdeen was so warm and friendly and we played splinter even cause it was such an awesome crowd and for some reason i cannot always play that song so it was cathartic to just do it.
am i emo?
maybe i am emo.
newcastle was with we start fires. they are a ROCK band. those girls made the hair on my head stand up with their fiery sound. it was cool to see becky again she is a sweet one. there were some boys in the audience singing along to matt's songs. i love that.
and jennie came! with her friend sarah and her dad too (i think?). she is such a dear to us and thanked us for playing and really i want to thank her for supporting us.
and if you read this jennie, you have to start a band.
i don't care if you play spoons you have to do it.
!
we stayed with paul reed, one of the best fellows in england.
beans on toast again yippee!
next morning we drove to london.
this was the show lisa set up with linus and les enfants and us and spinmaster plantpot.
LINUS played.
the very same linus i saw play 11 years ago as a student. the same linus that inspired me so much i had to go home and start a band. they were really good this nite - better than i remembered. and i loved the diversity of songs too - really gentle ones and then totally rocking ones. tammy's voice is still amazing. she reminds me of my friend dawn still. her smile and how she is so present on stage.
i almost passed out when we played our set cause i was so excited. during matt's set, some
wacky guy kept pacing and dancing and yelling things out to him. i think it got a little distracting but he carried on quite well.
next post.
brighton and end of tour
and some pics.
