22.11 Cleveland Pier

This was the hardest show of the tour so far for me. The heat – 91F - was insufferable. With direct sunlight on my guitar (beginning at 18.30) the tuning drifted. The first string on the newly-strung red Fernandes snapped, the intonation on the gold Fernandes suspect. But tuning held together until the last 15 minutes, then the top Eventide began to fry and a gentle drifting Etherpan turned into a fizzing Psycho-Pan. Maybe it’s simply my limpness of the day that’s to blame.

But the good news: Stu Hamm joined Soundscapes, albeit from a modest off-stage position. With 20 minutes to go I looked up, saw Stu at the FOH soundboard, and beckoned him up. Apparently, he had just said to John Sinks that he'd love to get up and play with the Soundscapes. So he did. Superb. Afterwards, Stu modified the Satriani & Fripp sign on the shared dressing rooms, crossing out Satriani. The dressing rooms became Hamm & Fripp. I'm encouraging Stu to record a solo album.

Other news of the evening: the latest tour schedule, faxed me from England yesterday, was wrong. The latest minor concern of the tour is whether to change the flight home, or have a day off in Minneapolis.

Conversation with a young solo acoustic guitarist, friend of Noah (the singer) in the KWS band. What to do about records? Probably, release your own CD, sell it at gigs and by mail order. For example, Flexable was Steve’s most profitable record.