It’s three AM, we’ve just pulled into the Pasadena Royale Best Western, right outside of Los Angeles. We played a 30-minute opening spot for Steel Train at an all-ages club called Modified in Phoenix, AZ, and after we finished, hung out, and loaded up the car, we set out on I-10 West for Los Angeles.
I’m pretty sleepy.
But I was thinking of something. Surprise surprise. I was thinking maybe I have a split personality … not quite like Two-Face, from the Batman comics, where half of his face has been corroded by acid, and is therefore evil, and the other half is a reputable lawyer … not quite like that. Actually it’s not a split personality at all, I was just looking for inventive ways to talk about Batman and his varied foes.
Anyway, here’s what I mean. I loved being at home these past couple of weeks. After two years in Boston, and a ton of travel and a ton of hotel rooms and airports it was just nice and regular to be in Tucson again. I just got moved into a new place, with a new roommate, who is a good friend, and also our guitar tech, and also destined to be, if you ask me, a punk rock legend. Hes called 5ft2. It’s a good move to name your band after how tall you are.
Anyway, I was saying. We’ve been having a great time hanging out, watching movies, chit-chatting and the like, he’s turning me on to Malcolm X, and I’m getting him into Martin Luther King, Jr. Its a pretty sweet trade. Not that either of us are big academic authorities on either of these men … just fans.
So we’ve been hanging out, and it’s been good. And I know it’s been good for Ryan to be home too. So I was dragging my feet a bit on the packing and preparation for this little mini-tour. I don’t know, sometimes leaving home for long periods of time — that is, touring — isn’t as illustrious as maybe Jackson Browne or The Eagles or Willie Nelson have made it sound.
But once we loaded the guitars and T-shirt bag and Cds into the car, we said our goodbyes, and got an hour down the road, I found that it wasn’t at all hard for me to slip into a different frame of mind … the frame of mind that doesn’t get upset about spending hours in airports or spending numberless nights in nameless hotels. And that’s nice.
So in the words of Steel Train — who for the record, if you don’t know, and haven’t heard, can be imagined as being like the very best sweet and rootsy moments of the Grateful Dead mixed with the energy of the pop/punk generation — we did two shows with them — anyway, in the words of Steel Train:
Send your dad a note
you made it kid
you’re on the road!
It’s a good reminder, because when I think about little tiny things, which I do, like I said, a lot, I forget bigger pictures. I forget that I’ve dreamed of all this for a long long time. Thanks dad, and mom, for telling me it probably wasn’t going to be a good idea, but that you’d stand behind me anyway.
Ah, I get so dramatic. I love it. It’s a pretty good move to be dramatic when you’re a singer.
Give yourself an early Christmas present and pick up a copy of Steel Train’s Twilight Tales From the Prairie of the Sun, or even just download the sweet, sweet tune Better Love. I bet you’ll be humming it tomorrow.
Speaking of which … how will I ever get to tomorrow if I never go to bed tonight? Good night moon.