The whole tour had been leading up to the New York show but, somewhere in the West Texas plains, or San Francisco fog, or scorching Midwest valleys, we lost the thread and now we had to put on a good face for the label at our Marquee show, a New Music Seminar showcase featuring Yo La Tengo, Das Damen, The Blake Babies and us, put together by Bob Lawton, who booked (or managed) all those bands.
We had arrived at our New Jersey hotel room late on Thursday night and headed into the city early to meet with our managers, Bob and Brenda. They let us know that the ‘Impossible Things’ single, like ‘Love Barge’ before it, had done little or nothing to help us penetrate alternative or commercial radio. There was talk of releasing ‘All The Way From Memphis’ as a single but none of us were thrilled at the idea. We made vague plans for the fall but I didn’t say anything about my plan to anyone.
The meeting broke up and Gary suggested that we go to lunch, just the two of us, which I thought was a nice gesture on his part to clear the air after all the tension of the last month. We went to a place in Tribeca called ‘Nosmo King’, a clever name that took us a few minutes to figure out. Gary, suspecting something, was feeling me out and I eventually admitted that I planned to leave the band after the tour. It was a very cathartic moment for me, saying it out loud, and to Gary who had been my friend and musical companion for the last 9 years.
In late 1985, he had invited me to join the practice sessions when he had finally convinced his friend, Bill to pick up the guitar again after years of painting. We’d been through a lot as pals and bandmates, and now the latter was coming to an end and we both got a little verklempt. We agreed to meet with the rest of the band when we got back to Boston and discuss how it would go down from a business standpoint, but for now, I was the lame-duck bassist and the weight was off my shoulders.
I went back to the office and filled Bob and Brenda in on the plan and they didn’t sound too surprised. Bob was looking for someone to help him book bands and he offered me a spot in his office, where I could learn the trade, and I was definitely curious. I told him I’d think about it but I was still leaning towards San Francisco.
We went to the Marquee for soundcheck and that’s when I realized to my horror, that I had left my green suit in the RV, which was parked in the NJ hotel parking lot. We had left it there because of the hassles of bringing an RV through the tunnel but now I was weighing the pros and cons of trying to retrieve it. However, the NYC rush hour traffic on a Friday soon crushed my plan to wear that smelly, ugly, ill-fitting suit at every show of the tour. It had become a bit of a talisman for me, and I was bummed that I wouldn’t have its’ superpowers on the biggest night of the tour.
The show was a pre-homecoming for us, with much of our rock family there to wish us well. All the folks from the label, including Dave Gottlieb, Josh Rosenthal, and our A&R guy, Michael Caplan were there, as well as friends Kelly, Mieke, Mary, Dave, and Phil and a dozen others. Lori Blumenthal was there with Michael Cudahy, who was in town recording a new LP for IRS, and Bob Lawton had decided that Lori and Michael would be the Co-Emcees for the night and they were working out material there in the dressing room. The Blake Babies played first, with Michael and Lori ‘warming up the crowd’ of mostly industry people from across the country. Yo La Tengo was next, and I think it was one of James McNew’s first shows with them. Or maybe it was their last with the prior guy? Frankly, I’ve lost track of their bass player history and even Jesse Jarnow’s book can’t help me here.
We were up next and Michael and Lori introduced us to the packed club and we played pretty much the same songlist we’d been doing for the last two weeks. We might have thrown in another ‘Slam’ song to keep the label happy, maybe not. I felt like it was an okay set, not our best, and I blame the missing green suit for that. Das Damen ended the show, hair everywhere, and we did the traditional late-night sidewalk hangout that seemed to really define all the New York shows we played. It’s really nice to be able to say that a lot of those people are still in my life today, many through FB, sure, but some are still ‘real-life’ friends and that feels good.
Standing on that sidewalk in the pre-dawn, I thought, maybe it *would* be fun to join this scene, work with Bob, and hang out on sidewalks after gigs year-round but it was too late to do any serious thinking after what had been a long, emotional day. We went back to our hotel in Jersey and I stopped in the RV to apologize to my suit.
Tomorrow: Hey! Mr. Lincoln why the long face?
Here’s a clip from Rich Hall’s ‘Onion World’ show on HBO that was taped in NYC in April of ’90 and aired during the Seminar.
Calculating Route... 