Brighton

Whoa - I guess I know when the last time we played Brighton was, since I've only posted once since then. What a slacker!!! It's obviously a bit drearier here now than it was in August, but it's still one of my fave British towns, where I actually remember where to find a good veggie full english breakfast and where the record stores are where you can still find Shadows LPs on vinyl for less than ten pounds (I was gonna make the squiggly L pound sign, but I don't think it's on this keyboard!).

This seems to still be a big Hen's night town. Last night backstage we were entertained by the sight of a group of carousing bachelorettes in the street outside singing this never-ending song about ridding on your big fat pony which involved a lot of pantomime galloping and shrieks of girlish delight. The looping melody is still stuck in my brain.

The other main backstage entertainment came courtesy of the New York Times crossword puzzle. Not to get too Rex Parker, but even though the all-proper-names across clues made for some clunky solving, on their own they were a pretty fun "who can guess it first" game. We were all stumped by Ilene Kristen too, Rex.

Stephen cut his finger backstage trying to cut open a pita (I mean pitta) bread 20 minutes before we went on, but still managed to shred. The cut opened up a bit during the show, though, so he had to take a couple of breaks to stop the bleeding. Not quite GWAR, but I think Andrew WK would be proud.



Off to the aforementioned full english!

Big Sur

I got some stuff from the peppermint store blog to listen to on the drive down to try and find something that would stump Steve, but it looks like I'm going to have to go deeper than Blossom Toes and Daughters of Albion. And the grub at the Ashland co-op is ALMOST worth the glacial pace of the checkout lines. But enough about the van ride. Ever since we player the 80/35 festival, I've had Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise" stuck in my head. This was when we played in between P.E. and Matisyahu. I was talking to John Moen a while ago, and he said that the Decemberists spent a whole summer in a seemingly never-ending festival rap sandwich, usually between Asher Roth and Ludachris, so I guess this was our turn. But anyway, the reason I bring this up is because none of the sound people we've worked with before could do this tour, so our friend Mark recommended this woman Dianne, who's on a brief break from doing front of house for the aforementioned Hassidic rapper. She also has some great stories about touring with Game Theory back in the day, and if you know me, you know that's right up my alley. Now if only I could get some dirt on Waxing Poetics or the Grapes of Wrath. And in keeping in that vein, we've dusted off "Dynamic Calories" for this mini-tour, even though Janet had never heard it before. Last night was Harlow's in Sacramento, and c.f. Dean Wareham's Black Postcards for more on that venue. Big Sur is providing me with the greatest al fresco blogging I could imagine. Maybe more later.