SALT LAKE. Feburary 13. 2005. Lo-Fi Cafe
Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:13 pm
SALT LAKE FEBRUARY 13, 2005 Lo Fi Cafe
Salt Lake is an interesting market. What potential... but Eisley has not tapped into it yet. The question is: will they. I say yes.
But now, we have to eat. Man, are we in home heaven. I just wish I could focus. Recovering from massive sleep depravation is harder than you think. Re-entry is tough on a guy. I'll finish this riviting report after food.
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SALT LAKE The Novelous Conclusion A Driving Epilogue
Other dates aren't so detailed. this is purely random. More drive-time allowed for wordier copy.This is for the inquisitive mind.
We're leaving Salt Lake - heading up and over the surrounding mountains through the thick mirk of winter. We're driving like 40 mph through scary, winding, wet roads. Salt from the road is being kicked up on our windshield and is getting gunked up with every frantic wiper pass; semi's are barreling past us - spraying sludge back up into the misty, floury-ous chill. Visibility isn't good; there are patches of black ice on the road and the side of the road is hidden under snow.... I'm not feeling good about this route at all. The only other option was to head SW back to Las Vegas. There are no SE routes toward Texas. We're half an hr out. Poor Kim is falling asleep. Time for Komokasi-Road Warrior to take the helm! (well, she's a Road Queen in her own rite). We've dropped from 32 degrees to 12 degrees in on hour. But enough about the weather.
Well, we were finally bit hard enough with sickness to have to cancel a show. We feel SO bad. Horrible actually. I just want you guys to know - this wasn't some whimsical, irresponsible decision... and Stacy is really sick. Not like - oh, she's running a mild fever and just doesn't want to do the show; No way. She performed at plenty of those kind on this very tour; I just don't want you to think it was like..."ahh, we're tired, let's just blow off Denver and go home. Actually, we still have to go thru Denver! (and that's painful) I just think of fans showing up at the venue after driving miles and miles - and seeing "Show Canceled" on the door. (stab in the heart)
By the time this post goes up, we'll be closer to Texas... unless the stupid host still has our forum down. Anyway, Stacy is all bundled up on row 3 - coughing with fever next to Christie, who's now throwing up. oh Lord, we're in trouble if this is the Flu, It's pretty bad.
Anyway, I tried to post the Salt Lake saga 3 times, but lost it to the demise of the forum's issues several nights ago. We had an amazing rest. But let's retrace our steps for the journal... for the sake of history:
After the Boise show, we cruised to a fine grocery store where we bought healthy party food...only i stayed and slept in the van. !/2 an hour later, they woke me up by knocking on the window. I couldn't figure out how to unlock the door. I was in a complete stupor. I fumbled around, knobbing and pawing at anything and everything... they kept looking at me like i was crazy..."open the door".... finally I found a way.
A big food party in the girls room led to a sleepy party of weary travelers. Weston crashed first, then me... that's the last thing i remember (around 3:30am). Alarm set, load out at 8am but the girls were out cold when I knocked on their door - the traditional, "we're heading down...". (no noise from inside) So, what - we were 1/2 an hr behind schedule. Later I would add another 1/2 hour by taking a wrong turn in the middle of nowhere - where I penned these words for the e-blast:
"Right now we're somewhere between Boise and Salt Lake. The Winter West tour has now been authenticated (so I say) because we're driving through a winter wonderland of snow...while in the West. Ok, so it's already on the ground... but it's beautiful. We can't tell where the mountains stop and the sky starts...whites, greys, ceruleans - 360 degrees. As I look backwards, I note that the band appears to be in total sleep heaven so - they're missing it. Speaking of sleep, what's that? - ever tried to sleep with 11 people in a van? Piece of cake but you can kiss off "personal space". Think: pile 0 puppies. Anyway... we're tired and a little beat up, Stacy's head cold has now turned into a wicked chest cold, but everyone has enjoyed the tour in spite of the hardships and we're looking forward to tomorrow's much-needed day off."
We landed at the "Lo-Fi Cafe" dead on target...straight up 4:00. How do I plan these things so perfectly? (jk) The Club manager was late, but his guy Adam was out standing in the cold so we invited him into our cozy van. !/2 an hour late, I wasn't feeling so good about this show. The entrance to this club was so obsucre... and down the side of a street where cars had no passage.Mke arrived, opened the doors and we loaded in. At 7:00, Eisley was still on stage trying to get a line-check... they never really got it. Problems with rebuilding the stage ( wired up) threw the frenchman/soundman. I was really feeling insecure. There were feedback issues and they couldn't figure out how to hook up Weston's ear pack for click and ipod. Few were in line outside and I worried it would be the worst night ever.
But then we found out that the opener - a local band- - had requested to play with Eisley and were fans. Hey! nice...someone knows of Eisley here! Turns out, the band is called "Mushman" and it's the Patrick from "Almost Famou's" band. ("White Oleander" and "Saved" also) He and an actor/friend and a girl drummer with blonde dreads and a bassist decided to make some music together. We talked to them early on - and they were serious Eisley fans. They were humble and all into sensitive, music. Even from stage, they were talking about how amazing Eisley was... And their music was REALLY cool; very folkish, two acoustic guitars - long musical interludes flanked by creative, minimal lyric; they were admittedly nervous - first show, a little shaky vocally, but I totally enjoyed it and really think they're on to something. The vocalist reminded me of Jeremy Enigk.They offered a fresh perspective to 60's folk rock - dipping into modern indie renditions like Iron and Wine. Young and wobbly like a fawn, but I suspect they might find a big forest to inhabit. Anyway, they were nice; we exchanged info and expressed mutual admiration.
Surprisingly, about 150 people showed up for a show with no evidence of promotion - though I can't be sure. Eisley fans were rampant. Stacy was very sick and could barely get thru a song without choking or losing her breath. She was weak and didn't sound like herself at all. Many of her songs had to be scrapped. Often, during the set, she'd stop singing and turn to Sherri to cover her part. The stage banter was interesting.... as Sherri constantly referred to Stacy as "the kid" and, "the snot nosed little kid"..... begging her to try to sing certain songs. It was entertaining; alluring. The crowd was very, very responsive. The set was tight and the sound was....well, great, except for that Frenchie Flange he kept dialing in. I told him twice to cut that out, but he kept inching it up as I'd walk away. And yikes, he must have blown the highs out of his ears earlier in his career. The mix was piercing in the upper db level... hot enough to fry the pork loin off a goat's butt. Other than that, the mix was sweet. A great show in spite of all of the hardships and problems. I had lots of good conversations with indie kids there who were huge fans.
I tell you, it's strange how diverse this crowd is.... I'm seeing more and more kids, more and more adults.... more and more punkers....more and more metal lovers, etc. We even had a family show up - friends of Thomas, very influential, CEO of a large corporation with high school age kids who, I think, really loved the band and said they would be telling everyone at their school about Eisley. crazy huh? They were so nice. Everyone is always so nice.
We loaded up, loaded out and headed to Thomas's house where we proceded to recover, chill, watch movies and eat food for 2.5 days. It was amazing.They took us out to eat, bought exotic juices, had a gourmet mexican restaurant cater food, bought us coffee... all kinds of things. What did we do to deserve such hospitality? Nothing. Thomas already helps me so much with everything else, as you guys know. Anyway.... everything was great - except Stacy got worse Tuesday night. But that's another story. The end
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