Tour Day #8: Allston Rock City

June 28, 2005.

After a 17-hour drive from VA to MA, we were all exhausted. I’d imagine that for my level of tiredness, Martin and James had fared worse given all the driving they’d done.

When I woke up on Martin’s couch, it was about 10am. I’d been asleep for 4.5 hours, and though I wasn’t thinking straight, felt it was best that I didn’t sleep another wink. Kerry emerged from her room shortly thereafter, and we hit the Starbucks in Central Square, Cambridge, MA. I had a gigantic coffeething, and she had a less-than-gigantic coffee thing. We picked up a Coke for Martin and returned to their apartment. Martin was still sacked out in his bed. Kerry and I chatted for an hour or so while we had our coffee, and then I declared war on their bathroom, too.

By the time I was done, say, 11:45am, Martin had emerged from his bedroom. Unluckily for him, he had to use the bathroom after my most recent offensive. Sorry, Martin!

I left shortly thereafter and returned to NH. I had a number of things to do, like laundry and picking the dog up from the kennel, before our gig that night in Allston, MA. This would be our last gig of the “tour”, a homecoming of sorts, and our last gig for awhile (recording in July, then a show or two). On the way home, it began to dawn on me how happy I was, but how I’d had no idea how I was going to function for the evening’s show. The lack of sleep had caught up with me, and I was extremely out of it.

I did all of my errands, and left my house again shortly after 5pm. I hit Boston by 6pm, calling Anne on the way, and called my parents while on the way to Martin’s apartment. I reached there by 6:45pm, and we all kind of sat there in Martin’s living room in a happy/quiet state. We watched some of the Iron Maiden DVD and also a few episodes of Aqua Teen Hungerforce.

We headed out to Allston at about 7pm. For the show, Loud Joe would be my guest, and Kerry’s father was also expected for the show. We were playing a bill with The Jumblies and a band from Montreal whose name I’ve forgotten. It was determined we’d be going on last, which also kind of sucked, since after a week of being on the road, I’d been hoping for an early night. Plus, the fun ‘n’ games were over since I’d have to be to work the next day.

The band went to dinner at Uno’s before the show, accompanied by Kerry’s beau, Ryan. I had vegetables for the first time in, I think, a week. When we were done, we headed back across the street to get our gear setup next to the stage.

The Jumblies got started first. I was sitting at the end of the bar with Loud Joe to stay as far away from the speakers as possible. My ears were fried, and the sound was for shit. You see, the sound guy determined which instruments sounded like shit and dropped them out of the mix. For all the instruments that didn’t sound like shit, he turned the knob on the volume control to 11. Thus? Things sounded awful loud, which is short for awful + loud.

The Jumblies had a good set, I felt. I really enjoyed their bassist and electric violinist in particular.

We had a very “blah” set, I must admit. I’d made some mistakes, and this sucked, because I’d had several good nights of playing before then. I couldn’t hear what was going on on-stage, and we had washes of feedback for the first 3-4 songs. It was pretty anti-climactic in all, which is what made this show so disappointing.

Still, I had a blast for 8 days with Plumerai. I can’t wait to do it again!