Lousville, KY

Oo the road again. It's an easy run. Eight shows only. Day off in Louisville, KY. About to grab a bite with the band. Sometimes it hits me that I am playing with one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Colin is so freakin' talented!! My current fav songs are "Lifeline" and "My Brilliant Feat"

Vegas baby!!!

It's midnight as our bus pulls out of Redding, CA for the 710 mile ride to Vegas. We are all excited. It is our last long ride for this tour so we make the most of it. Dancing in the Capricorn lounge to classic Tina Turner, Jackson 5, Curtis Mayfield, Isleys etc. The front lounge is hosting card games of Pounce and hilarious episodes of "Extra" Coctails are flowing as well as late nite snacks from the local convenience stores. After a few hours, one by one, we disapear into our hallway bunks to be lulled us to sleep by the gentle vibrations of the bus cruising down the highway.

San Fran

Fantastic show at the Independent in San Francisco. The band was on fire and Colin sang his butt off (as usual) I had a wonderful dinner with my dear friend Timothy at Nopa, (near the club) then we came back and ROCKED the house. During the day I walked to the Ferry Building from the Hotel Triton which is right on the edge of Chinatown. I patronized the local artists and came home with some awesome gifts for my friends. Tomorrow we drive to Redding to play the Cascade Theater.

What a freakin' day!

Well, it started out like any other bus ride. Great show in Denver at the Soiled Dove. Awesome meal in the restaurant afterwards. 3am lobby call for the 600 mile bus ride to Park City, Utah. Then...
I was awakened by the bus stopping then hushed voices and the sounds of the door opening and closing a lot. I finally got up to see what was going on. It was well into the morning by then (around 9am) All week our bus was having problems and now could not go faster than a crawl. Smoke was billowing out the back and here we are ...in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere in Wyoming. So for the next five hours we limp along the shoulder at 10mph to the next town only to find that nothing is open on a Sunday, therefore, no one to fix our bus. No mind you, we have a show tonight in Park City so we have got to get there! After much searching, we finally are able to rent the last SUV and UHAUL van available with in a 20miles radius. We unload the bus of luggage and gear and high tail it to Park City. When we get there we discover that the whacked out promoter has canceled the gig even though we assured her during the day that we would be there. What a nut! There were so many fans lining up to see us too. Kinda sad really. Anyway, we had a good meal at a very nice restaurant in town and chalked it off to experience. The glamorous life of rock and roll!

Moving even farther west!

In Denver. I start my " OMG-I've gained-10-lbs-1-week-to-go-until-we-get-home" cleansing fast. (I'll let you know how that works out for me). The weather is nice. Probably hit the sidewalk for some much needed excercise. I got some good sleep on the bus last night. The back lounge was showing a cool Frank Zappa performance the a 3AM showing of Seinfield's "Comedian". The front lounge was playing Eddie Izzard Live and was hosting a Pounce card game. Once I went to my bunk and tried to fall asleep, for awhile, everytime the bus shook, I woke up thinking we were in an earthquake. A little weird.

Wisconsin State Fair

driving cross country

we are on out way from Indianapolis to Springfield, IL. We did our sixth show in a row last night and we are ready for a few days off. All of us are on our computers enjoying the WIFi on the bus. What did we all do before the internet!! The bus is losing water so we are stopping every 20 minutes to add liquids. Now we are at the funky wierd truck stop where only the most daring are orderng food from a rumored ill-tempered old man. I opted out.

A fan uploaded this lo-fi video from our show in Indianapolis at Radio Radio. "Down by the Sea" is such a classic. I used to listen to these songs over and over when I was younger. This area of town is a little depressed. We ate at a cool funky diner next door. The club was packed and we had another wonderful show. I don't know how he does it but Colin sings amazingly every night!

A day in the life of a rock band...or Chicago/24hrs

Woke up around 10:30am on the bus in the middle of a 660 miles drive from Harrisburg, PA to Chicago, IL . We have been stopping very regular by the side of the road while Ralph, our driver, tries to keep a weary fan belt from breaking entirely. Ou goal is to get to the White Sox game by 4pm for a sound check. we are to play a short acoustic set before the game. We are running late.

3:30pm-We arrive at the Hard Rock Hotel in the city only to turn around and jump in a van for US Cellular Field. We arrive in plenty of time and our escorts couldn't have been nicer. They had basball caps and official White Sox jerseys printed up with our names on them. We were escorted to a private club overlooking the field where we dined on a variety of salads and meats. We were offered any kind of beverages we wanted.

6:30pm We hit the field for an interesting redition of Colin's tunes. It was very stripped down (I played only the accordian). We wore ear monitors because of the delay of the sound coming off the bleachers. Of course halfway into the set the monitors stoped working and staying in time with each other was virtually impossible. No matter. the sudience dug it and we were done in no time at all.

7:15pm we were back up stairs enjoying the White Sox hospitality again. This time we enjoyed the usual baseball fare. hot dogs, french fries, beer and ice cream. The game was very exciting even though sadly the White Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers.

11:20pm Charlie Paxon, our drummer, and I run over to the House of Blues to try and catch my friends playing with Pat Benatar. Although we missed their set, I got to hang with drummer Chris Ralles and bassist Mick Mahon for a minute before there bus took off to Canada.

1:30am I sleep!!!!

5am- The alarm goes off!! I drag my butt out of bed and down to the lobby to go to WGN

7am- We are playing on the local morning talk show. we play "Lose To Win" and a few bumpers thenw e are done!

10am- I am taking a nap

12noon- I hit the streets for some shopping then back to the hotel where Cecilia and I enjoy a fantastic and relelatively healthy meal (compared to last night) baby lettuce salad, tuna sashimi, seaweed salad, oriental sauteed rice with avocado salad

10am We arrive at the Abbey and play a rousing show to a sold out crowd.

NYC

The swanky artsy The Riverton Hotel in NYC. We played an excellent show at the Canal room. I saw two of my buddies guitarist Carl Burnette and singer songwriter Jon Regen. I managed to avoid Pravda, the dangerous martini bar that slayed me last summer.

Stamford, CT. Alive at Five

Our bus met us at the airport after we left St Maarten. Crazy out door show. I like the opening. Good lead singer. Jules ?? something. I played with the other opener Lazlo Bane (They wrote the song "Superman" theme song for Scrubs) Anyway, Colin and the band kicked ass. Now the road tour begins!

Postcard from St Maarten

Well we kicked off the tour in Santo Domingo at the Hard Rock Cafe. Packed house great show! Next day went to St Maarten. Played a private party on the water. Got to visit Orient beach and swim in the beautiful blue water. Tomorrow the real tour starts on the east coast. Until then we enjoy Mai Tai, Rum Runners and delicious food. In fact I think the underlying theme of this tour will be eating. I predict we will all be gaining at least 10 lbs on this one.