Things have really been going nuts since the last update. Chicago was an absolute blast, but was just a ridiculous amount of work. Our hotel concierge was a huge fan and gave us the "extreme hookup" with really killer rooms in exchange for him plus one at the Vic. Fortunately, our hotel was right around the corner and Brian and I scored some killer Thai food right next door before I left for the show. The Vic itself was a great theater, but almost sprawling by comparison to other rooms we’ve done.
Doug Benson is doing this last string of dates and he showed up, along with Patton who had to fly to LA to do some press for the Ratatoille DVD. I don’t know how Patton’s holding it all together. Has to be stressful. Anyway, I got Chunx to come and take press pix before the meet and greet and then packing everything up and settling. Susanne from Flower and Joan from Riot Act along with Patton and myself had a late night meeting at the diner across the street from our hotel and then I immediately crashed.
We left early for Ann Arbor so we could have fun milling about town. Zingermans was the biggest priority. If you’ve never been, it’s unquestionably the best deli I think I’ve ever been to. And yes, I’m including the ones in Manhattan, wise guy. Brian and Patton were immediately recognized and it led to us getting multiple samples delivered to our table. That never gets old. Afterwards, we went to a couple record stores, book stores and made a few calls, and then went to the Blind Pig.
As far as clubs on this tour, the Blind Pig is certainly got a legacy, but certainly doesn’t have a green room to which we’ve become accustomed. Patton had to sit on the floor and Brian was pretty pissed off about no couches to sit on. However, with that, the show itself was an enormous blast. Patton’s been working on a bit about hollywoodiscalling.com which I inspired. That’s pretty sweet.
Our trip to Amherst took seven hours and marked our turn from going to Cracker Barrel and instead going to Bob Evans. However, we had an absolutely shrill waitress who almost led Brian to killing her. He didn’t even finish his meal he was that pissed off.
The show at University at Buffalo was the inverse to Ann Arbor. A killer backstage, but absolutely zero interaction with the crowd. The show went off without a hitch, didn’t do a signing and immediately got back to our hotel.
This morning I spent wandering around Buffalo looking for ANY sort of record store or indie coffee shops, but came up empty handed. Had to make a quick dash to another hotel to get CD’s that were sent for Posehn. As it signaled the end of their part of the tour, Eugene and Maria shipped off to the airport. The last few shows will be me, Patton, Brian and Doug. We’re off to Cleveland.
Fun.
