the first night of the tour.

~or~

how to succeed in soaking your equipment in the rain without really trying

aside from a lot of rain and a couple dozen stops for gas, food and … er … relief, it was an easy drive to our first destination, lasalle’s in chico. our load-in time was 5pm. we arrived a little after 5:20. yeah, well. even though our van (whom we call maggie) is quite large this time around, we found an excellent parking spot. we set everything up, did our sound check, tore everything down and went to omarr’s girlfriend’s house.

naomi lives here in chico. she’s a total sweetheart, and takes excellent care of us every time we come up. there was homemade mexican bbq in abundance, some of my very favorite food. i, unfortunately, was unable to partake of such a glorious spread, because i have been dealing with a stomach-wrenching case of what is known as acid reflux disease. i haven’t been able to swallow much in the way of food for the past two weeks. i'm on a script, but it’s apparently taking its own sweet time to kick in. i had a salad in san francisco last weekend, and that was the last solid food i've been able to handle. with the exception of the wonderful soup that naomi made us, it’s all protein shakes and water here.

as a weight loss method, i recommend it highly. 12 pounds in two weeks. i may try dysentery next.

since omarr lived there for 6 years, chico is like a return home of sorts for him. the guy is KNOWN here. everyone's always stopping us on the street. okay … him.

the club was packed to the gills. everything sounded excellent on stage. a refreshing change, as i've grown very used to seldom hearing what i want to hear when i'm behind my rig. omarr did a stellar job, which is what i have come to expect from a performer of his caliber. dan (keys), brian (bass) and i are extremely blessed to be playing with this guy. he's always an inspiration to me. the rest of the guys aren’t slouches by any means, either. we have a total blast on stage together.

during our set, mr. crafty sound guy decided that strobe lights on the drummer would be an excellent idea. like, for three minutes. straight. now, this is not a terrible idea in theory. i say again - in THEORY. unfortunately, said lights were only 5 feet or so above my head. i had to close my eyes to keep from falling over. after the set, someone remarked on how cool it was that i could play the drums with my eyes closed. :-)

all in all, an excellent first day. working with these guys is always a rewarding experience. the rest of the band are at duffy’s, the most popular bar in town. except for brian, who’s out on naomi’s porch smoking some of the finest pipe tobacco i've ever smelled.

next up - sweet lou’s in cotati.