Category Archives: Uncategorized

About 8 1/2 years before tonight’s show, I met Gary Waleik through an ad that I had placed in the Boston Phoenix classifieds. I was looking for musicians to form a band in the style of, if memory serves, Mission of Burma, Buzzcocks, Flipper, and The Monochrome Set. He answered the ad and showed upContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: July 28, 1990-The Last Waltz”

Slam Tour Diary: the Final Weekend July 27, 1990. Welcome back! After an almost two-week break, the band is back together for two last shows to wrap up the touring in support of Slam; tonight in Portland, Maine, and tomorrow night, My farewell show at the Channel in Boston. Once we landed at home, noContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: July 27, 1990-Down Maine”

30 years ago this week, Big Dipper set off on a six-week tour of the USA in support of their recently released major-label debut, Slam. We had high hopes that the record and this tour would take us to the mythical ‘next level’, but the album flopped and the tour was beset by myriad logistical,Continue reading “Slam Tour Preview: May 29, 1990”

Alright, is everyone packed and ready to relive the Slam tour that started 30 years ago today? We will do our best to remember a tour we probably worked hard to forget and present it in a more-or-less daily diary. If you have any memories of gigs on that tour that you’d like to share,Continue reading “Slam Tour Diary: Kick-off in Philly May 30, 1990”

Day Two of the Slam tour, 30th-anniversary edition. Were you at this show? 5/31/90 Richmond at Metro. I’m sure that things will improve as we move along but I’m trying to remember these first two gigs of the tour and I’m drawing a complete blank so let’s talk about something else and hope some fansContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: Richmond, VA on May 31, 1990”

Day Three of the 30th Anniversary of our Slam Tour Diary. 6/1/90 Chapel Hill, NC at Cat’s Cradle. We left Richmond after having breakfast with David from Camper at a cafe that his girlfriend worked in. I’m sure we picked his brain about life on a major label, a situation that may have had aContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: June 1, 1990 at Cat’s Cradle”

Welcome back! it’s Day Four of the Slam tour, and we are driving to Atlanta for a show at the Cotton Club, maybe the first time we’ve headlined in Hotlanta. We arrive in the RV, hoping to find the stage set up and ready for soundcheck but the club says they haven’t seen or heardContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: June 2, 1990 in Atlanta”

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 IContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: June 3, 1990 Off-day en route to New Orleans”

It’s June 4, 1990, here in Slam Tour diary land and we have arrived in New Orleans, a city that I’ve always wanted to visit. It’s our first show ever here, at the historic Tipitina’s club and we are all looking forward to sampling some of the great New Orleans food and playing in aContinue reading “Slam Tour Diary: June 4, 1990 in New Orleans”

6/5/90 Off/driving Day to Houston. No diary entry. For those of you who are recreating the tour in real-time: we took Highway 10 and stopped for gas outside of Lafayette. Tomorrow: Houston: not the *worst* city in Texas.