Day 5 of the Slam Tour. 6/3/90 An off day, the first one of the tour. Off days can be welcome, or necessary, but they can also be awkward or sometimes depressing. Some of my favorite days on tour have come on off-days, like the Wednesday after our show in Berlin where Bill and I wandered around on a very ‘Wings of Desire’-themed tour of the city, or a fantastic day exploring the free museums of DC, or a psilocybin-fueled Sunday walking tour of Lawrence, KS. On the flip side, having all that time can make you remember that you’re hundreds of miles from home, squeezed into a truck with a bunch of guys who may drive you crazy on the odd occasion. You don’t want too much time to think when you’re on tour.
I recently read the book, ‘Trouble Boys’, which is the story of the Replacements. Westerberg insisted that when the band was on tour, they not do any sightseeing. “We’re on tour, we’re not tourists” was his warning to the band. Well, I’m here to tell you that Paul’s a clown. Visiting the local sights was half the fun of being in a band and I often sacrificed sleep to enjoy it. I woke up at dawn in Vienna once to take a walk through that city, knowing it would be a long time before I got a chance like that again.
Anyway, today was a driving day, a long one for sure, but with no soundcheck to make we could at least enjoy it a little. As I mentioned, the van had been in an accident the day before and we knew it needed some attention with 8,000 miles of driving ahead of us. I remember us running into an absolute Biblical thunderstorm along the way, and it so happened that we had the Batman soundtrack by Danny Elfman playing on the stereo at the time, the music merging with the storm into one giant symphony; frightening and beautiful.
We arrived in New Orleans, checked into the hotel, and began scouring the phone book for an auto body shop nearby. We all wanted to be tourists in this mythical city (confession: most of my knowledge of the place coming solely from ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, and my roommates’ Meters records) but first, we had to get the van in shape. Tomorrow: Walking underwater and the legendary Tipitinas.
Calculating Route... 