This is the week of shows booked while
still effectively bed-ridden from surgery. And very very high on
morphine. So it hasn't really been surprising that each of them has
an asterisk, or a crucial detail I missed, or just sort of sucked.
Mesa was weird. Really weird. It turns into a ghost town after 5. Our
show was at 7. There were a ton of bronze statues all over the place
of people just hanging out and sitting on benches which combined with
the marked lack of people on the street gave the whole town the
impression that it had been struck by some sort of bronze Vesuvius
right before we got there. This was one of those (disconcertingly
large number on this tour) where the show fell through then un-fell
through at the last minute. Sam, the guy who runs the place, is a
really rad guy though and did everything to make it not bad. So it
was just weird. This is Pen Pen and a boy who was tragically turned
to bronze while doing his homework.
Sam's venue is part of this complex
with two other stages. What we didn't know was that The Ataris were
playing their first show in a long time in one of those other stages.
So in the most technical possible sense, we opened for the Ataris in
Mesa. Which also meant that basically anyone who would be interested
in punk influenced folk music was watching that other stage. But a
few folks came in, and they made up for it. First this girl walks in
wearing a Bomb The Music Industry shirt. “Oh cool,” Joshua said
mid-set. “Do you like Bomb the Music Industry?” “Sort of. I
used to be in Bomb The Music Industry, so I guess. Yeah.” Later
while I was playing, some random guy walks in and talks to Sam for a
little bit. Sam keeps trying to get my attention, but I'm not really
that good at paying attention to things. It turns out it was Kris Roe
from the Ataris. He stuck around for a song or two before heading off
to do something. Probably involving playing to thousands of people 30
feet away from me. Whatever. No big deal. This is Pen Pen and a cloud
that looks like my dad's mustache.
The next day we had to drive up to
Flagstaff, which really isn't that far from the Grand Canyon and none
of us had ever been. So that's what we did. We were slightly taken
aback at the $25 entrance fee (what no broke touring musician
discount? How rude.) but whatever. It's the Grand Frickin Canyon.
What else were we going to do? The Canyon is very much Grand. I went
off hiking trying to find a path that wasn't paved and covered in
tourists. I finally got to the end of the paved path by the time it
was time to turn around, which means I'll just have to come back next
time. This is Pen Pen contemplating his own insignificance in the
face of millions of years of geology.
We played at a place called the Green
Room, and it was cool for no reason other than because GZA had played
there earlier. Also they had an apartment above the bar. I think if
every venue had an apartment above for bands touring would go from
being a surreal occasionally wonderful and often stressful adventure
in vagrancy to the glamorous funtimes people seem to think it is. But
it's still better than being covered in tarantulas. This is Pen Pen
staring down a tarantula.
This is a song I wrote one time. You
should download it and share with your friends.
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