Calculating Route…

As you may have surmised, all of this diary to date has been written by me (Steve), but, much to the relief of everyone, especially me, we have a guest diarist today, Mr. Jeffrey Oliphant, drummer of the band. When it came time to recount our opening gig for the Sundays in Minneapolis, I wasContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 6, 1990-Minneapolis with the Sundays"

After yesterday's misadventure, we are exhausted and back on the road heading east to Chicago, very excited to be playing at Lounge Ax tonight. Chicago is another haven for us, a place to get well, and the Saturday night slot with the Sneetches promises a good crowd and the smiling face of Sue Miller greetingContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 7, 1990-Chicago"

The day after the Lounge Ax show, we all congregated at John Henderson's house, like we had when he was a student in Lawrence, to take part in a softball game and then a barbecue but Jim and I had a different plan. The White Sox were playing the Orioles in the last season atContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 8, 1990-Day off in Chicago"

Sad news, dear readers: We have entered the final week of the tour! I agree! It's just flown by! Today is Monday, and we're heading to Kalamazoo, MI, a filler gig if there ever was one. Jeff is excited as we pass through Gary, Indiana, as he loves the look of all the industrial plantsContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 9, 1990-Kalamazoo"

Another short drive over to Ann Arbor for a gig at Ricks’s American Cafe tonight and another show in a college town that's emptied out for the summer. The tour was booked by Frank Riley at High Road Touring (or more likely, by an intern assigned to handle the smaller bands) and they had theirContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 10, 1990-Ann Arbor"

I had no idea when we pulled into Columbus, Ohio that the gig would mark my solo debut on stage but it had been a long, strange tour and tonight was no different. Columbus always held a special place in our hearts ever since we had to cancel our first show there in 1987 whenContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 11, 1990- Columbus, OH"

We are somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania, on our last day off of the tour, pulled over at a rest stop so we can do some phone interviews in preparation for the final weekend of shows in NY, DC, and Baltimore. I beg off the interviews, still upset that the band wouldn't join meContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 12, 1990-Pennsylvania Peace of Mind"

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 YoContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 13, 1990-New York"

It was very painful for us to head south again when we were so close to home but, here we were, on Route 95 heading to DC for the final two shows of the tour. We had already done this drive during the first week, and learned an important lesson about traveling in an RV:Continue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 14, 1990-Washington, DC"

One of the goals that I set for this tour was to see as many MLB games as possible and so far I only had one notch on my souvenir mini-bat. The plans had been curtailed by a rigorous promotional schedule and the faulty fuel injection system in our RV, both conspiring to keep myContinue reading "Slam Tour Diary: July 15, 1990"