It’s a short drive to Seattle today so we have a leisurely breakfast at a diner near the hotel where Nic, our tour manager, joins us with the news that he’s leaving the tour, effective right after tonight’s show. Everyone is massively bummed out since Nic is a reliable source of joy on an otherwise discouraging tour. He always seems upbeat but nobody is surprised as our bad moods have stretched his reserve and he wants out. Calls are placed to New York and Bob and Brenda start looking for a replacement as we point the caravan north.
As was noted yesterday, we were surprised by a cross-country visit from our friend, Lori Blumenthal (and I’m still surprised 30 years later!), and it’s a real treat to have her along for the ride to Seattle to be able to catch up and, importantly, talk to someone outside the band. It is especially touching that Lori made the trip since she worked for months last year to get us signed to her label, IRS, only to be passed over for the bigger CBS bucks. I suppose it was her way of saying “no hard feelings” and letting us know she was still a fan. We all were probably thinking at that point that maybe we *should* have signed with them, or Bar None, or anybody but Epic.
We arrive in Seattle and relax at the hotel before doing an interview down at KCMU and then heading out to dinner at Ivar’s Seafood Restaurant. The meal is being paid for, but not attended by, the local promo team for Sony. That pretty well sums up how things were going with the label at this point but I’m sure we were glad not to have to deal with the industry types. We took Lori and our friend Scott, in from Bainbridge Island, out to dinner with the money instead.
The Backstage Club in Ballard was an incredible venue, with beautiful decor from another era when nightclubs were swanky places to go. There’s plush carpeting everywhere except for the big, wooden dance floor, banquettes, and red drapes Compared to the cinderblock nightmares we were used to, this was a palace. Opening the show were local heroes, The Young Fresh Fellows, a band I’d heard of but never heard play. They were an incredible live outfit, probably having the most fun on stage of any band I’d seen, and their set immediately put me in a good mood. I was transfixed by the drummer and his crazy cymbal, and the singer who reminded me of Ian Hunter. The place was packed and people were having a good time and it struck me what a mitzvah the YFF were doing for us: obviously, they could headline this place by themselves and didn’t need to open for some unknown pop band from Boston. Thanks, guys.
In between sets, Nic came backstage with Mark Pickerel from Screaming Trees to tell us that they had found a replacement tour manager for us and we were soon introduced to Rod Doak, who handled that job on the road with the Trees. We liked Rod right away and welcomed him aboard, grateful and amazed that there was actually someone who would go out to a club to see a band and be willing to spend the next month on the road with them, starting the next morning. I often wonder if he’d recently destroyed a house he was renting and needed to get out of town….
Amazingly, the energy in the room didn’t subside when we took the stage and I’m sure we were a little befuddled by the response. More accustomed to a bunch of guys in band t-shirts staring back at us, here, instead, was a crowd, including many women (!), who were actively dancing and cheering for us. It was a heartwarming reception, and definitely the most fun we had playing on the whole tour so far and I promised myself that, if I ever moved to the Northwest, I’d live in fun Seattle and not that boring Portland place.
After the set, my old roommate from Boston, Bryan, came up to say hi, accompanied by the cute girl who had spent the set dancing in front of me. He introduced me to her, his roommate, Stacey, and we all went to get a drink at the bar. When the crowd thinned out, Bryan pulled me aside and said I probably wouldn’t regret staying at their place tonight, since Stacey had just told him she was very attracted to me. I didn’t have a lot of experience with this kind of thing but I knew enough to take his hint. After all, that pack of condoms I had bought the night before was still burning a hole in my green suit pocket. I checked in with the band to find our departure time the next day and told them I’d meet them at the hotel, and then I headed off to Stacey’s house in West Seattle to indulge in one of the great frivolities of ‘the road.’ Tomorrow: Snoqualmie Pass or Bust!
Calculating Route... 