California is a big lovely state. I have a lot of Cal pride. One thing that's a joy about living in such a big state is that there's always something new to see and when you're in a touring band, you get plenty of opportunity, as we did this past weekend traveling for two shows in So Cal: Friday in Hollywood and Saturday in Long Beach. We took a different route down south this time. Departing from Art's house in Pacifica and heading down to meet up with I-5 near Los Banos. We were hungry and found a one man Taco Truck. I highly recommend him. Not quite the artist as that genius in SLC near Burt's Tiki Bar, but El Brother is real good. I think he was parked on highway 152 somewhere near Gilroy. Reason #147 for my love affair with California: abundant high quality Mexican food.
A little further down the road, we came across Casa de Fruta near Hollister. It's a giant fruit stand with perhaps the largest selection of dried fruit I've ever seen. Reason #423 for loving California: the produce. This is the type of intense nerdliness that is Felsen: while other bands are talking drugs and porn, we're get excited about dried fruit. Really excited. The people at Casa de Fruta knew they were onto something and have therefore expanded their roadside biz to include Casa de Burrito, Casa de Coffee, and Casa de Cho Cho for the kids. Kinda kitschy, but kinda charming. I didn't wanna leave. Ever. But Hollywood was calling. Specifically, The M Bar for Friday night's show. Back to the 1-5 for all the usual--cowschwitz and then over the grapevine and heading into all that lovely 101 traffic in LA. Hollywood on a Friday night. Big time. Big time headache. Reason # 496 I don't like LA: Valet parking everywhere. That turns it into a pay to play situation for me and that aint cool. Free parking is my blood sport and my divine birth right. We branched off for dinner upon arrival: Me and Dara for vegan food at Doomies and Art and Shane off in search of meat on a bun. Yummy vegan food kinda made up for my issues with the valet man. Still I had a chip on my shoulder. Note to self: don't walk out on stage at a gig in Hollywood and greet your audience of 13 with "Good evening Scientologists!" It's probably not funny to them. Friday's gig was kinda lack luster by Felsen standards. Not promoted at all by the other local band. They were good though.
We persevered thorough our set. attempted shenanigans including me sitting on the lap of one of the actors from 30 Rock. (Seriously that really happened.) It was probably the low point of his recent life. If you're gonna make omelettes, you're gonna break some eggs. And by broken eggs I mean, some unwilling, unsuspecting audience member who gets sat on while I'm playing the guitar. I did manage to corral about 10 people on stage for the final number. We haven't done that gimmick in a while. It's always fun and makes the band and audience feel connected. We sold the CDs, said a few nice words to the kindly people there and watched the band after us. They were good. Gear packed, we needed a late night waffle and found the IHOP in Hollywood, then headed to our lovely hostess's home in Santa Monica for some much needed sleep. Well...about 4.5 hours of sleep. We awoke to the joy-filled sounds of a 6 year old and a 3 year old. I didn't mind though as I can't sleep past 7 no matter how late I go to bed. The little girl loaned me her bedroom for the night. Very pink. Very quiet and I slept like a baby floating on a magical cloud. A pink fluffy cloud. Our hostess Kim was so nice to us and fed us a really wonderful breakfast. LA has great bagels. We lingered around her house, told war stories (she's a musician as well) and then headed out to the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City for a swim in the pool. Man that was Heavenly. Perfect weather. I hung out with my old friend and touring compadre from way back, Duff Ferguson and his daughter, sister and bro-in-law. Later we headed over to Long Beach and Dara and I found more vegan food (the hippy salad please) and then eventually arrived at the Prospector for the night's gig.
Saturday's gig more than made up for Friday's kinda lame experience. This one renewed my enthusiasm for Rock and Roll. Great crowd. Our Long Beach street team provided a strong contingent of friendlies and the newbies were open and willing to give us a shot. We threw down mightily in the true Felsen spirit. Great crowd interaction. They were mainly a rowdy bunch, but we were able to debut a new real quiet tune that's kind of a stark contrast to the rest of the high volume, high energy vibe we were channelling. The tune is called "Poor In A Wealthy City". Amongst other things, it's about my years living in Chicago and feeling so, so out of place with the great disparity of wealth on display in that city. Out of place is my native environment..it's what I do best. But hey, who doesn't feel out-of-place sometimes? It's starts with just me, strumming and singing. Shane, in his infinite vast wisdom, reminded me to play even quieter as I was starting the tune. The quieter I got, the more the room simmered down. You coulda heard a pin drop on a ball of cotton in the forest. Shivers. I love those moments. "Tonight I'm poor in a wealthy city/prosperity towers high above me/inhaling the exhaust wearing duct-taped shoes/ imagine Muddy Waters singing the blues." That felt really good to sing those lyrics. The rest of the set was more rocking. Tokyo Electric, Lorazepam, Better Thoughts, Don't Turn your back on Me Today and Gunfighting at Dawn with a Smoke on the Water teaser. A girl came up to me and said Felsen reminded her of Weird Al Yankovic. I'll accept that.
After us were our musical hosts and brothers from the road, State To State. I love these guys. Trust me, it feels really, really good when you're the out-of-town band to have a local band on your side, rooting for you, helping you out, loaning you gear, setting you up a gig, PROMOTING IT, and to hang out with too. On top of that, these guys are the real deal musically speaking. Los Angeleans, please, please patronize their shows. You will not be disappointed. They have a very cool Raidoheadesque vibe to their music and their singer, Shay is one of the very best singers I've heard. It makes me envious. It makes me want to practice more. Beautiful songs too.
We were all pretty tired post gig and had to make it a somewhat early night. So no late night post show shenanigans this time. I did however manage to trade a few CDs and a t shirt for a cool new used jacket. We drove to our host Todd's home in Echo Park. We climbed this immensely tall stair case to the front door. We were all laden down with gear and belongings. Each of us were completely winded, tired, and spontaneously started laughing at some point. That Staircase was no joke. We got up early, headed back down the stairs,
passed this car,
found a diner,
and got on the I-5 where I found yet another cool red neck hat at a truck stop along the way.
Meanwhile, we're gonna hibernate for a while. Hope to see you April 22nd at our next Bay Area Show. Should be a fun one.
