Update #10. (Wednesday) We are currently blazing across North Dakota on yet another 10 hour drive, this time heading to Missoula, Montana. Yesterday was another long drive day. This tour has been pretty intense with a lot of hours in the van. We're all feeling it now. Four more shows to go and a lot more miles yet to drive. We woke up in a motel in Sioux Falls, SD and had a leisurely late check out, catching up on well needed rest. We played at a really neat little venue last night in Aberdeen, SD. This tour has been pretty intense with a lot of hours in the van. We're all feeling it now. We played last night at the Red Rooster Coffee House, a really neat little music venue in Aberdeen, SD. It's also a book store with a great kitchen--some of the best, healthiest food we've had on tour. The opening act was a US constitution quiz for any willing audience volunteers. Books, music, great healthy food and civilized political discussion all in this small shop in Aberdeen, SD. Go figure. There was just a small crowd gathered in this little place on a tuesday night. They were a bit on the reserved side, not like some of the more raucous crowds we've performed to on this tour. Oh yeah, they don't serve alcohol at the Red Rooster, that explains it. This was more of a listening audience. One fan at a time we keep reminding ourselves. We played really well and dynamically. Always play the room and this room couldn't take a lot of volume. Art did a great job of keeping the sound tucked in. I attempted Shenanigans, we sold merch and quickly packed up and drove into the night, arriving at our motel in Hettinger, ND four hours later. There was the most intense heat lightning bursting out orange-blue-white bolts of light over the plains last night. The storm seemed to last for hours, all the while we were listening to Johnny Cash. It was kinda spooky and apocalyptic. Nostradamus would have been weirded out. It's lonely and desolate out here in the Dakotas, but beautiful in it's own way. I miss home. I miss my family. Pushing forward towards Missoula, 565 miles left!
Update #11. Watching TV now at a motel in Bellingham, WA. Today is the last day of the tour. Tomorrow is a drive day home to Oakland/SF. It kinda feels like the last day of summer camp. Kinda sad, kinda happy. We've had an incredible experience, met so many great people and thoroughly enjoyed making music and spreading our left wing Bay Area musical agenda.
So...to get you up to speed. Wednesday was a long 10 hour drive to Missoula, MT. We kinda hit a low on the drive. Everyone was really pretty bummed out and tired and feeling really trapped inside the van. We had a stop in Billings for lunch. The proprietor made us feel like stars when she asked us to autograph the menus. We'll be right up there next to Carrot Top. Montana is a big state, really beautiful, but really big and Missoula is pretty far on the western side. That's a lot of Montana to travel through. Missoula has changed a lot since i was last there 20 years ago. It's much more downtown Palo Alto than it was in 1991. Much dumpier back then. We played at a really beautiful, big, killer music venue, The Top Hat. Great PA, lights, backstage, food, local beers....all the ingredients for a great show on a Wed night, except a big crowd. Our pal Don Zimmer at Floating Records in Mill Valley, called ahead to the Top Hat and pre paid for a bunch of food and booze. Don you are an angel. The staff apologized numerous times for the lack of people and promised to have us back on a weekend with some local/national acts and put Felsen in front of a crowd. The streets were pretty much empty that night. No one was out and about. One fan at a time. We spent the night at Stu's house (Art's old friend). Thank you Stu of the Stu Jackson School of Music. Thurs was a 6 hour drive to Leavenworth, WA. The drive was amazing. Art and I have been doing this Felsen touring thing for 2.5 years now and we both felt that was the most beautiful drive we've done. Leavenworth is a mountain town, fully decked out in faux Bavarian Alpine kitsch, but oddly endearing. Love it there. We played at the outdoor beer garden, Der Hinterhof. Small but really, fun, young and drunken audience. It felt really good after the bummer in Missoula. We needed that one. AND we really needed the late night of drinking and dancing post gig shenanigans that some of our new fans rewarded us with. I never go out dancing. Why? Totally fun. Thank you Leavenworth. We had a lot of band funk mid-tour malaise mind fuck that needed to be worked out. Friday was a three hour drive to Bellingham, WA for a show at Tubb's Whiskey Bar. It was kinda a divey, vibey college bar. Really good crowd. This was the first show all week where there were other bands on the bill. Nice to hear some other musicians doing their thing. There was a singer songwriter girl who started the show out. She brought pretty much her entire extended family and all of her girlfriends, etc.. The room was pretty much at capacity. And then as soon as she finished her set, they all left. Nice. No shout out to the other bands. Bad form kid. "Hey everyone please stick around to hear the other bands". Trust me Ashley, if you're ever on the road, you will learn this etiquette. Oh and she borrowed my amp and cable. Nice. Her hot mom held up the lyrics to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". You gotta learn those lyrics AND PLAY THE DIMINISHED CHORD. C'mon kid. Those chords and words are SACRED. They can't be improved upon--trust me on this one. She probably knows it via Jeff Buckley or maybe Rufus Wainright's beautiful version in the cartoon Shrek. We love Jeff Buckley, deeply. Dude personally changed my musical DNA. We were just listening to his Live at the Cabaret Metro and it was a deeply, personal moment for all of us traveling somewhere across the Dakotas. All of us loudmouths in the van just listened and were reminded why were out there, thousands of miles from our homes and families, jeopardizing our jobs, sacrificing much to help keep the art form alive, and possibly push it forward a little bit in our own way too. After her set, she promptly split, taking her posse with her, blowing off both the bands after her and then magically arriving back just when it was pay time at the end of the night. Bad form kid. You're gonna need those dudes in the other bands to sit politely through your set, when you're thousands of miles from home and your family and friends aren't there anymore. Oh well, I'm sure I did way worse when i was just getting going though. Felsen did our thing. We had to get all up in people's grills to work it out. I'm a button pusher, we had to work really hard to win them over. They were all new to us, no family and friends there to support us. It took some major shenanigans (and all those rehearsals at our late night hurt locker in West Oakland) to gather the crowd. I reminded them to come to the band. We had a herd of people right in front of us. People were pumped. I got on top of the pool table at one point (bad form kid). That was about as punk rock as Felsen gets. Total punk rock show in fact. There was no stage, We were on the floor with the crowd huddled around us, lots of fists pumping. There was a very high tattoo ratio in there. One drunk got so moved by the rock that he crashed into Dylans mic, knocked it over. Classic punk rock. They screamed for encore. We declined because it was time to get the other band on stage (good form kid). We stayed through their set, drank with the boss and booker (True Believers! Thank you gents). And had a great time dancing and getting into the other band. Their drummer broke one of his two drunk sticks, Art gave him a new set of sticks (good form kid). The booker declined his pay for the night to give to us--clearly he knows what it means to be a touring musician. Fun night. We got pulled over on the way back to the hotel. 34 in a 25 zone. I was behind the wheel. I immediately kicked back into very respectful Yes Sirs just like they taught me at Culver Military Academy when i was a kid. Turns out the cop (who was about 25) is a guitar player, owns a Les Paul and is currently redesigning his pedal board. We had a lot in common. He let us off with a warning. I think he just friended us on FB too. Thank god he didn't look in that van. Jesus we got lucky. Go figure. Onwards to Cottage Grove, OR
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