Okay I’m still catching up after another hectic week. Here’s another big one in the meantime…
There was a weird little Herb tour in July 2007 - four shows in four cities in three days. Quick reminder: "Herb" was a Herb Alpert cover band which I had been in and out of over the previous 10 years, playing bass or keyboards depending on who couldn't make the gig.
On the first morning Jamison, Wes, Steve, John, and I hauled ass down to LA - hot hot drive in Jamison's van through the central valley and over the Grapevine. Our first gig was that night, and basically a rehearsal on stage at the Nova Express Cafe. We stayed at a youth hostel called Banana Bungalows just down the street. Also on the same block was Canter's Deli where we had dinner.
Scrote (the bandleader who lives in SoCal) met us at the venue. Danny also came by to visit and sang on a few songs for fun. Went to Canter's again afterward for late night matzoh brei before crawling into our bunks. Since there were six beds per room some poor young eastern European woman was stuck sharing the room with us and having to deal with us crashing in and making noise.
We were sweaty and stanky from the hot drive yesterday and the hot room all night, but were unable to take showers in the morning due to lack of time and towels. The woman sharing our room eventually gave up pretending to sleep through our morning chaos. She wasn't happy but not really blaming us. She only asked us two things in her broken English, "are you musician?" and later while writing a letter or journal entry she asked Steve, "how you spell 'bullshit?'"
Soon we came to realize we left the second trumpet book at the venue last night. Panic ensued and dozens of cell phone calls were made until the book was located. Kerry the club owner had it, but woke up late enough that we wouldn't get it in time for the afternoon show. So John, who would be playing second trumpet, had to wing it, which was totally fine. Meanwhile as others were dealing with the above chaos I went to Canter's for coffee and fruit cup - thus bringing my grand total of Canter's visits to three times in less than 24 hours.
We had Mitch subbing on first trumpet for both of today's shows - a nice guy from the area who Scrote worked with before. It was an outdoor public event, which meant lots of direct sun, which in turn meant lots of detuning instruments. But as the earth rotated I got more shade. We supplied two hours of happy music for the locals hanging out and perhaps even dancing right there in Pershing Square. My solos during the first set were horrible as I was having a major coffee-and-fruit-cup crash. During the break I found a BBQ truck and a large brisket sandwich got me back on track.
After that we got right in the van and headed south to San Diego for a 6pm load/7pm soundcheck. Normally this would be a two hour drive, so we had plenty of time, right? Long story short, it took about 5 hours due to stop/start traffic the whole way down. Not very fun at all, and we got even smellier and stinkier.
During the slow drive some car pulled up to our side and the driver yelled "you're back door is open!" Fuck! There was panic and a quick attempt to try to move off to the shoulder, fearing our equipment and clothes have been spilling out onto the highway but then the guy yelled again "I mean your side door!" Jeezus.. We knew the side door was open - we haven't been closing it all the way (while somehow keeping the lock engaged) to leave a crack open for much needed ventilation. Crisis averted.
Found the 4th and B club and rushed to load in. Scrote, who was driving separately, still hadn't arrived. He normally deals with the details but in his absence I took charge, engaging with the staff, getting all the food buyouts and security passes, organizing guests lists..
Luckily the headliners Björn Again were still soundchecking, and we'd be using most of their backline anyway. This particular branch of the highly acclaimed Abba tribute franchise was from Canada, which meant they were really nice people - very helpful and accommodating. Plus they also looked/sounded great portraying everybody's favorite Swedish band. Things were running late so I only had a few moments to figure out how to use the non-intuitive interface of the borrowed keyboard. I was only able to find a piano and organ sound - no marimba or usable strings - so I had to invent new parts on the fly. I enjoyed the challenge, actually. Only had enough time between soundcheck and downbeat to run backstage and guzzle two sodas which immediately streamed out of my sweat glands and soaked into my clothes.
It was only an hour slot which meant we stuck to the "hits" and the crowd of about 1,000 who were filing in for the main act seemed to really like what we were doing. Fun show, and that made up for a lot of the stress over the past two days. Since we were stuck adhering to the headliner's stage plot I was up at the front of the stage, which meant I got to ham it up a bit for the crowd. Got partially comped for dinner at the affiliated House of Blues and caught the end of the Björn set. They were rad and the crowd ate it up.
We had a long drive back to SF the next day, so we got some miles behind us by staying at a Motel 6 in Whittier. On Friday morning had breakfast at Denny's (the only food establishment near the Motel) and hit the road. We avoided most of the traffic by getting on 605 to the 210, meeting up with 5 halfway up the Grapevine. Making great time!
But then a front tire blew out right at the hottest, most barren point of the pass. Jamison expertly got us safely to the shoulder and stopped. We had a spare, but the tools to remove the bolts of the busted tire were inadequate. So we called AAA, who arrived about 20 minutes later with the right tools. Kind of embarrassing when the AAA guy found us five dudes waiting there, all unable to change a stupid tire. This little mishap and the ensuing quest for a new spare tire further up I-5 cost us about an hour or so.
So we were once again running late but nevertheless made up some time thanks to car pool lanes as we finally entered the greater Bay Area. The drop in temperature as we hit the fog was a major relief. Got to Bimbo's around 7:15pm, and once again the whole production was running late so we were fine.
The Björn Again gang headlined tonight as well, and had flown up from San Diego so they had an easier day than we had. Scrote didn't make it up for the gig as planned, but our old Casino Royale compadre Dan happened to be in town so he subbed on bass. And Chris subbed on first trumpet. During our short soundcheck we got those guys up to speed on the trickier tunes. It was only a 45 minute set so we were done before we knew it. Jamison did wonderfully as backup bandleader.
Headed home right after our set. And that was pretty much it! Four shows in four different cities in less than 72 hours. Unfortunately Jenya had already split for a gig of her own up in Willits with her band Long Thaw so we spent another night apart. Sigh.
Wow, Matt!! Epic account of a tour that I had largely forgotten about. Thanks for bringing that back to life.