Roadie Blog: 2006-06-04

Show Day - Portland, OR

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Up early on the bus, can't take the heat. Walk around downtown Portland to get my bearing. The theater we're playing is only a few blocks from the hotel I had a day off at earlier in the year. Grab a Chai tea and head back for a shower before load-in.

Call Paige and find out Bobzilla is in town on a day off. Give him a call and he comes down in the afternoon to say hello to everyone and hang for soundcheck, then he's off to watch the Hurricanes game. He's back for the show and despite an early bus call tomorrow, he makes it through the whole set.

Load out and back on the no AC bus for our ride down to Medford, OR. Bus goes away today and we'll be flying the rest of the tour.

PS On the way out of town we spot an unusual spectacle, hundreds of people riding bikes naked through the streets. Hilarious. And for a good reason/cause, read about it here.

Show Day -Seattle

Friday, June 09, 2006

Up early for a Chai tea at Starbuck's. Walk to the gig around 10am, load-in, set-up, etc. Our friend Ted Kornblum from Ampeg stops by to hang out and see the show. Another sold out and loud crowd.

Aftershow go down to the bus, where the generator is broken, which means no AC for the ride to Portland. GREAT.

Day Off - Seattle

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Quick time at the border, and into Seattle by early am. Wake up on the bus around 7:30am and go for Starbuck's. Get my hotel room around 9am. Start walking around downtown Seattle about 11am, have some Pho at a great Vietnamese place for lunch. Walk around downtown for almost three hours before stopping to see 'The DaVinci Code'. Pretty good, as close as they could get to the book without the movie being 6 hours long. Unfortunately the character development leaves a little to be desired.

After the movie back to the hotel for about an hour then off to dinner with some of the crew. Jesper (our lighting director) knows a great sushi place, so we follow him to the Wasabi Bistro. It's packed and we wait half an hour for a table. Well worth it as the food is amazing. We have some Gyoza type dumplings that have a pumpkin tasting filling (later find out it is a type of squash, not pumpkin). Delicious. Then the sushi arrives and doesn't disappoint, the Albacore tuna is divine. We end up staying in the restaurant till almost 11pm. Everyone leaves stuffed and satisfied.

Show Day - Vancouver, BC

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

First show back after a month break. Sold out here in BC, as the band hasn't been here for 10 years or so. Beautiful Performing Arts Theater here. Wish I had a day off here, as it's a nice city. Back to the States tonight...