5 am came way to soon yesterday. Or was that the day before? Anyway, after a nice Sushi dinner outing in Austin I got home and packed for the road. Sleep usually comes easy for me, but I was restless and didn’t get much. As far as I’m concerned if you have to get up at 5 for a flight, it always comes way too soon. But we made it. And before I knew it we were on the ground in Baltimore, in the rental van and heading towards D.C. to check in to our hotel. After a surreal but fun check in and bag drop we had some lunch, and the first beer of the day (tastes like true love), then back in the van to head out to Virginia and our show. That’s when I started to feel like I was on prescription medication or something. I drove through Virginia in a dream. The 3 hours of sleep, flying, driving, lunch, etc. all mixing together like a delirious soup. I came out of my haze long enough to be social, I hope, with Scott from Shamrock Music in Purcellville, VA. He gave us a drum kit to use last night and we stopped by his shop to pick it up, sign a poster, give him a cd or two and our heartfelt thanks. Cool guy. Back in the van and down the road to the show. Are you getting tired? Writing this is making me tired again.
When we arrived at The Beautiful South it took another beer and a few minutes rest at the bar to gain the strength for loading in and setting up. After our nightly chores were done I snuck away for a 9 minute nap in the van. All the while, WW was doing his best to get to the show. He had to change his plans and leave Texas on a later flight from DFW and as I enjoyed my fitful, sweaty van nap he was rolling from the airport and unbeknownst to me, about to make a wrong turn. If you’ve ever made a wrong turn in the greater D.C. area you know what a disaster this can be. I actually saw 2 cars on the highway trying to reverse back to an exit they just missed! Stupid, scary, dangerous and crazy, but I get it.
As our scheduled downbeat time passed, the boys and I sat at the bar and tried to appear casual while wondering if we could pull of any songs without Big Daddy. But he arrived and we played. I brought a brand new bass on this trip and struggled to figure out how to play it all night. In Walt’s words, “We sounded like a band trying to sound like us.” But the crowd was really great and seemed to have a good time last night. I think I did too, but it was hard to tell through the fog. Then back in the van and to D.C. After parking our 12 passenger van in a tiny space in an alley, for the second time, we brought WW into the hotel. I can’t really explain this place to you though I’ll try in a later post, but it’s crazy cool. It’s hard to believe but we weren’t quite ready to shut it down yet so we explored the hotel and ended up playing pool until 5 a.m. Noticing that I’d been up for 24 hours was enough to send me to bed. So as brunch and a video shoot are calling, the fog is beginning to lift. The adventure has most definitely begun.
More later.
-El Guapo
