So, yeah, OK, over a month later and I guess I can still remember...
It all started with a trip up to Portland to see The Residents at the Wonder Ballroom. I had caught the very first show of the Talking Light tour over a year ago, but it was a show that had continued to evolve...new songs added, new stories told, and strangely enough, though most of the music came from a laptop, each show had a little more of this, a little less of that...I had downloaded a bunch of the tour and was happy to hear those variances keeping the whole thing fresh every night.
What was truly awesome was being so close to the stage, straight on from the center watching "Randy" do his thing, appreciating all the nuance of his performance, seeing his blazing, crazy eyes behind the old man mask, and he even screwed up a bit, which forced some improv that was unique to that one show. Powerful, deep, I wanted to know who in the audience was unawares of what was waiting for them, and how immersive and tripped out it all was. And of course there was one idiot in the crowd who either didn't catch the first song or didn't recognize it, because he kept shouting out for them to play it. And no one told him, we all just kept quiet and let him be an idiot. "Smelly Tongues" indeed. It was also interesting to see the audience jump the gun on a bit of dialog, telegraphing a funny payoff yet to happen and again infusing an alternate take into the proceedings...
That night after the show I stayed at a hotel near the airport, where I received my special status in the post below. I asked the clerk what I got for being so special. He was new and had to ask some disembodied voices in the back room, who I could hear shrug and say/ask, "a bottle of water?", followed by the realisation that they didn't have one to give. I then drove around for way too long looking for a late night chow stop, to find only one in my long quest. Meh.
The next morning it was up and away, five minutes to the airport (such a nice difference!) and off to California for the next big thing, VIP status at the Warfield in San Fran to see DEVO, my heroes since....yeah, long time.
VIP status meant the innermost seats of the balcony, which was more VIP for some than others. Being off to one side denied us a view of the video backdrop and the drummer hammering out those crazy DEVO beats. There was little communication about what else the VIP status entailed, but I had read about their Portland show including a meet and greet afterwards, but I was not sure the same would be true for us. So I stupidly did not bring my camera inside, nor did I bring anything special for them to sign. We had to ask someone after the show if there was anything more, and were only then told that we get to stick around and meet the band. So we did.
When the moment came I shook Mark's hand and had him sign my ticket, he noticed my Residents t-shirt and I told him it was from their latest tour. There's a connection between these bands, but it has seemed rather slack over the years. When it came time to snap a pic on Rob's cell phone, we failed. I'll regret that for a while. I then had a chat with Bob2 about the Residents, and he was surprised to hear that they had played Portland just one day after them, and he seemed genuinely interested and enthusiastic to know what they were up to, how was the show, etc. I thought that was cool. Then Gerry signed my ticket and it was done. 2 out of 4 signatures, no Bobs. Ah well, the regrets fade....
Of course we hit the Pinball Museum again, as evidenced in the previous post below, and then enjoyed a fantastic start of spring on the Golden Gate: beautiful day; 2 big ships cruising below us.... Leading to this fridge magnet:
Next up, Cinematic Titanic double-feature in San Fran, and you'd better believe I'm bringing something extra special for the Titans to sign, and a camera!
