Hotel Acceptable, Somewhere In California.
Morning coffee: sitting on an outside table to avoid Maim! Assault! Spoil! on the coffee provider's Sonic Pollution Unit, I was attacked by witless conversation on the adjoining table. The presence of absence is dangerous. To avoid the helpless yammering I moved to the broadcast zone covered by the SPU & got showered with Hurt! Assail! Pummel! Who decides what is played, and at what amplitude, I wonder?
15.47 House Of Blues, San Diego.
This is a new HofB that opened 3 weeks ago…
Backstage, online after a while, Sid Smith has sent me this...
Having read through every single review of the G3 gig this much I now Know:
a) you are an old man
b) my sister could play better than you
c) you're not worthy to be on the same stage as . . .
d) you're rude
e) you ruined my night
f) you ruined my G3 poster with your stupid face!
g) you deserve to be bitch slapped
h) playing one note for five minutes isn't how to play guitar
i) you should be running around stage and rocking on like Joe and Steve
j) what gves with the whale sounds dude?
k) I thought you were the guitar tech
l) you should be sitting out front so people can see you
m) Joe and Steve should get someone who can actually play guitar next time
n) you might have been good once but that was years ago
o) you should do more King Crimson numbers
p) you don't do yourself any favours stuck in the corner of the stage
q) if you're too shy to be on stage then you should quit
r) you're a disgrace
s) a guitar shouldn't be made to sound like a keyboard!
t) your set at 40 minutes is soooo boring and toooo long
u) your set at 30 minutes is sooo boring and toooo long
v) your set at 20 minutes is sooo boring and toooo long
w) I missed your set but from what I've read that was probably a lucky break
x) hey you actually shred in the jam!
y) we can't hear you in the jam cos the mix is too low!
y) it's a real slap in the face that we pay this much money and can'tactually see you playing
z) you are the old dude who looks like Harold Bishop but can really shred it up.
21.14 Tonight was the hardest performance so far. Standing audience in a rock club? Performer failure? No idea. I had no sense of anything coming back from the audience until the last ten minutes, and this audience didn't do gentle.
Steven of PT suggested that the atonal pieces worked better. I agree: tonight, they did. Dynamics & taking-the-time-that-is-needed were not as possible tonight.
23.55 Airport Sheraton, San Diego.
A Dark View From A Room…
Touring Hell has begun.
RF: Is the room close?
Receptionist: Yes. A 5-minute walk.
The Sheraton wing that we are staying in is actually a 20-minute walk from the check-in desk, in the dark, down stairs & by the swimming pools, across parking lots; or half a mile straight along the road.
At 23.30 I was waiting, fully loaded with stuff on the kerbside, alongside John for Tim to return with the car from shopping in town, unbeknownst to him that we had been waiting 30 minutes for him. Tired, a short night & re-packing ahead, convenience is useful. This hotel is convenient for a drive to the airport in the early morning, and inconvenient for just about everything else.
