When In Montreal Pt. 2

Damn. Knew this would happen. Its all becoming a distant memory now. What's next? Fri, Ches-a-rena, Cheswick, PA, which is not quite Pittsburgh. A giant skating ring converted into a Ultimate Fighting Arena, and sometimes a place for shows. Lots of security folk that grew up on some hockey. Weird Shit.


Saturday Nite, South Street in Philly at TLA. Prolly my favorite show of the tour. Philly is a nice hybrid of ATL and NYC. Its got all the thangs I can dig about the big Atlantic cities without having the be ye olde apple. Which was where we headed next, w/o Of Montreal. You should try entering the Holland Tunnel on the Sunday before Memorial Day. Its about like a bebe shooting down the birth canal.

The Lower East side offered us a cold dose of reality. I can guestimate there were 20 -30 patrons at the Cake Shop who got to witness Jah Scorp ravage thru several back line amps during our first number in hopes of finding one that could make a slight impression of bass vibrations. Still, it was good to see a lot of old friends and to play w/ Jim Mchugh's new ensemble, Gay Africa, who are now known as Night Jazz. On drums was the cat from White Hills, Lee, who incidentally is a bad brotha on the skins. When Lee told me that Noot had taken James Brown and successfully crossbred him w/ Hawkwind, I nearly teared up.
Monday and back in the South. Charlottesville, TJ's stompin' grounds. Played a club of his namesake, The Jefferson. Had a cool underground tunnel to take you from front of house to the greenroom. You could hear everyone stomping the floor as you passed thru. Good show, good crowd. Shortest drive of the tour was to Richmond, so we went ahead and got ourselves there.

One of the real cool thangs about this tour and Of Montreal in general is that the shows are all ages, or at the least 14 and up. As this picture shows, the kids are allright. I remember what it was like to see shows when I was this age, and man it was a lot of fun. We definitely fed off that energy and I hope we can find a way to play more all ages shows now that we're back at home.

We stayed in this shithole hotel in Richmond for 2 nights cuz we got rooms for $35 a night. I don't really have a picture to do it justice. The National was rad, definitely the coolest green room on the East Coast if not the country. Cafeteria, hot tub, sauna, pool tables, and 10-12 giant plasmas. Sleepy called it 'Livin the Life.'

Last show on the tour was Chapel Hill and outta nowhere, this dude shows up. It was great timing, cuz by this point we had a lot of people coming down with a gnar gnar recycled air virus and the troops were weak. Dookie saved the day. Of course, after the last show you gotta drive home, no matter how far. Pulled up to The Living Room with the sunlight fully upon us. 8:15 AM I would estimate. Things haven't looked quite like this since.