We drove to New Boston, IL. Just east of the Iowa border, on the Mississippi River. Very small town. Beautiful. Looking for our friend Mark’s house, we had to stop and ask directions a few times. Every time I asked someone where Clay Street was, they’d tell me “It’d be a easier if you just told me who you are looking for”. That’s my kind of small town! We did find the house, and Mark and his wife Kate made delicious soups and cookies for us. I had a nice bath, then went downstairs and played with the kids for a while. Quiet Bears came later, as they got lost coming from Davenport, but they showed up with a big posse. The show was really nice. Quiet Bears have added a guitar player (from Holy Smoke! See above / Davenport show) and he adds so much. He plays these deep, spacey, soulful, psychedelic blues licks just under Johnnie and Bambi’s acoustic guitar, keyboard, and harmonies. I loved this addition to the band. They also had a flute player on a few songs. It was a real delight to see them again so soon.

Quiet Bears

Tiger Saw played a good set. We had some sing-alongs, and people really liked that we played without mics. I even played an acoustic guitar, which I haven’t done at all on this tour. We stayed the night in an empty upstairs room, lit by a crazy psychedelic Jesus lamp.

"Sleep tight"

In the morning, we drove to Toledo, OH, where our friend Sharon had set up a last-minute early show at the coffee shop where she works. It turned out that there were only three people there, working on their laptops. The fellow closest to where we were setting up, asked us, “How long before you start doing, whatever it is that you are going to do?” I replied “about fifteen minutes”. He said “It’s not going to be really loud, is it?” I told him it wouldn’t. But he was such a grouch that I decided I didn’t want him to hear us play, so we opted to skip the show, and head to our already-planned later show in Bowling Green, just south of here.

We played a nice coffee shop called Cosmo’s. Unfortunately only three people were at this show, too. But we played, and it was nice. Chris’ set was great. His sets have gotten stronger and stronger each time, and I have enjoyed getting to hear him play on this trip.

We crashed at Sharon’s for the night, then drove to Ypsilanti, MI, where I’m going to spend a little time. Chris is headed back to Massachusetts via Pennsylvania.

Tiger Saw will be back in Boston around Thanksgiving. Thanks, everyone, for reading. And thanks to those of you who came out to the shows, sang along, hung out, etc. We’ll see you all again real soon. Thanks to the Phoenix for letting me write all this. We love you all.

Tigers Love You

I forgot to mention the other day that we heard Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ song on the radio. Now, I’m not a big Bon Jovi fan. The only thing of his I’ve ever owned was a cassingle of ‘Blaze of Glory’, when that Young Guns movie came out. But in all the touring I’ve done, I have come to believe that hearing that particular song, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’, is good luck. I tell my incredulous tour mates that Bon Jovi is the patron saint of touring musicians. It all comes down to the classic line: “I’ve seen a million faces, and I’ve rocked them all”. He says it like it’s true, and we can all only aspire to rock a million faces. I believe that I am in the low thousands right now…

San Francisco has amazing stencil grafitti

After the Arcata show, I drove to San Francisco with the Chris’s. We went to the pier and saw the sea lions, then we went to the Spy Store. I was excited to see it, but it wasn’t that good. We even drove down Lombardi Street in the fog. We stayed with Kelly from Lazarus and Red Leaf Black Bird. The next day, we met up with Angel and went to Dolores Park and laid out in the grass for a while. There was some sort of fetish parade that we were going to go to, but it cost $5.00, so we opted not to. I did see a man whose complete head and hands were wrapped in paper maché with only a mouth hole to breathe through. He was being lead around by a leash. Very strange.

The show was at Café Utah, and the Hotel Alexis played a good set, the most psychedelic of the tour. Lots of noisy bits. This is our last show with them. It has been a real pleasure to share these shows with them, and see Sid play again. I miss him. Tiger Saw played next, and we had Angel sing and play accordion with us. It sounded nice having her fill out the songs tonight. Nate Groth joined us on vibes for ‘Catalina’. And Trevor and Kelly from Lazarus sang with us towards the end of the set. It sounded really nice with all those big voices! Lazarus played last, and they were excellent. Kelly did the first half of the set on drums, then switched to guitar. Trevor is such a great singer and performer. They’re all such good friends, and I love seeing them.

Tiger Saw in SF with Angel

Hotel Alexis / Hotel Utah

Lazarus sings in circles

The next day , Gregg and Chris Barrett flew back to Boston, and the Hotel Alexis went their own way. Chris and I drove east to Blairsden, CA to visit our friends Sean and Bree. They have a great house out in the woods with chickens and a big dog. They took us on top of a mountain, and we cold see Gold Lake. A breathtaking view. Afterwards, we went back to their house, ate tacos, and watched TV. We saw the premiere of Heroes and the second episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Heroes was kinda light and silly, but the Japanese character was engaging. The preview for upcoming shows was more exciting than the show itself. I don’t love it, but will watch it again. Studio 60 was a little boring, but it was okay. I’m more excited to see the real SNL and Tina Fey’s show.

Gold Lake

We got up early, and drove to Salt Lake City. We had an in-store with the Grizzly Prospector at Slow Train Music. It’s a really good store, new to the neighborhood. The proprietors are super-friendly, and they put us up for the night.

The next day we drove to Denver. We rehearsed our choir of about ten. I wrote out all the sing-along parts on cards, and we went through each song. On a few songs, people played instruments, too. Piano, concertina, clarinet, guitar… For the show, we selected each card randomly and performed that song. Every song was a sing-along. The show was pretty sloppy, but I had a big smile on my face the whole time. It was really fun, having everyone crammed in a small room, singing along at the top of their lungs. It was so cool. Moons of Jupiter and Berries played again, too. Berries have added another member, and they were tons of fun. Becky handed out cookies during their set! And they gave everyone matching headbands and pouches. The kids in Denver are so much fun! After, we went over to Becky’s to drink Kool-Aid, and watch Project Runway! I have been really into this show this year. Most episodes I have to download several days later, but I got to watch this one the night it aired. Very exciting. They were supposed to whittle the final four down to the final three. But there was a twist, and they let all four proceed to the fashion week finals. I thought that was a cop-out! I’m routing for Jeffrey at this point, and he was almost eliminated, so I’m glad he stayed, but someone should have gone! I like Uli, too, but it seems like Michael and Laura are pretty much out. I’ll place my bet now on Jeffrey.

Berries

"Free Cookies! Follow this, Tiger Saw!!!"

He will be the Project Runway winner.

Thursday, we drove to the PS Collective in Omaha. There was an open mic poetry reading before our show. There were some really talented readers here in Omaha, and everyone was really supportive. I even decided to go up and read two poems, one which I wrote yesterday in the car. Someone gave me a high-five on my walk back to my chair. It’s turning out to be a fun night. Tiger Saw was the only band tonight, and we played to about half of the poets. We played a long set, and people seemed to enjoy it. We went back to stay with our friend Dylan for the night.

When in Rome... The poetry open mic

Dylan had to get up and go to work at 4am, but he said we could sleep in. Then, at 6:30, his roommate woke us up, and said we had to leave, as he was going to work. We were so tired, and really looking forward to sleeping in this morning. Like zombies, we hit the road again…