Sloan

PHILADELPHIA Friday, June 24th

I woke up really late again. Not quite 5:30pm but well after noon. The last time the band was here I feel like it was pretty dark. Things feel pretty light on this tour. Andrew was amazing on the tubs. We played “G Turns To D” and it was so fast and crazy/fun I couldn’t stop laughing.



We heard that OFF! and Dinosaur were playing across town the same night. We wanted to go but it was impossible to pull off but we were in touch with Steven McDonald from OFF! who suggested we come to meet him afterwards. It was walking distance so some of us went over. Steve introduced us to Dimitri Coats and Mario Rubalcaba from OFF! I had the pleasure of meeting Lou Barlow and went on to talk to him for quite a while. I knew a fair bit about him and he knew at least some about Sloan and we have a few mutual friends. He is very funny. Henry Rollins wasn’t there but he is also on that tour interviewing Dinosaur or some such thing.

The next night for them was D.C. so Henry Rollins, Keith Morris and Ian MacKaye would all be corral-able for the ultimate hardcore photo op. I would have skipped the Baltimore show if I could have photo bombed that picture. Oh God, here it is! Is that me in the doorway? Sadly, no.

PS I should add that I made sure everybody knew how to play “Nervous Breakdown” in case Steven McDonald dragged Keith Morris to our show. I’m not embarrassed.


BALTIMORE Saturday, June 25th

Part of Gregory’s research into how to have fun included a trip to a restaurant called Bo Brooks where they specialize in crabs and evidently long wait times between ordering and eating. They didn’t take reservations but we managed to get our table for 8 without a ridiculous wait.

I talked at length with an extremely drunk man who upon finding out we were a band was blown away that I didn’t know who Phil Lesh was. FYI, he was (is?) the bass player in the Grateful Dead. When he heard I was the bass player in our band he was even more blown away. “You are SHITTING me!”, he said over and over. At one point I guessed Mr. Lesh’s affiliation with The Dead but he repeated his disbelief mantra. Despite his disbelief, he still let me know that he was having fun talking to/at me and wanted to come sit with us. We avoided this and had a nice (expensive) dinner.

Maybe I should come out and admit I am usually a frugal person. I don’t like to think of myself as a cheapskate and I value generosity but I try to avoid blowing money when I can help it and I never really enjoy extravagant spending. Oftentimes my fellow travelers have an equal and opposite viewpoint so I find myself in the position of wanting to hang/bond with people that I love but I don’t drink booze and I never want steak or crabs for that matter but I also hate party poopers. What to do? PS It was a $20 cab ride each way x 2 cabs… but it was fun.