Home Again

April 13, 2011

When a tour starts it takes me a few weeks to get my sea legs. I never really have felt comfortable until the end of the third week. I don’t know why that is, but it is pretty consistent. When I look back on my touring life, the time away from home seems impossibly long. We used to look at a month of dates and shrug it off, it was nothing.

I don’t know if it is the time I have spent around home the last few years or the fact I wasn’t playing shows, but the last weeks of traveling have left me totally spent. No shrugging from me. I feel like my eye are drooping to my shoes. Not that the travels weren’t great, they were… I am just adjusting to a different phase of life I guess.

I started out towards New York for a friends wedding celebration on Southwest Airlines (as usual), made 3 stops (as usual), 8 hours later got on a train from Long Island to Manhattan and into snow… The weather was great when I left El Paso and miserable when I got to the East Coast. It had just been nice the week before, but I guess one last little bit of winter weather is ok.

Welcome to Southwest Airlines, the almost only airline I fly, open seating… I always rock the back row, always

Southwest Airlines, a ton of layovers… this is in Houston, they have a giant model of the Space Shuttle- I like that

The train from Long Island to Manhattan leaves now…

I had a few meetings on the city, but in between I caught up with some old friends, went to the New Museum downtown, and had a beer or two at McSorleys which has been open since 1854. There are two choices at McSorleys, you can order a light beer or a dark beer. I decided on dark and was brought 2 small mugs of some delicious mid day beer. The place is amazing and right near my favorite hat store in NY- perfect.

Manhattan

beer…

I ended going to see my old friends Queens of the Stone Age play a show while I was in NY as well. The next day I took a tour of the Brooklyn Brewery. It wasn’t much of a tour but a very interesting speech about the history of the company and then some tastings, all in the name of research for our bar!

Queens of the Stone Age at Terminal 5, blurry… sorry, I have a not so good camera

I headed down the coast a bit after the wedding dinner and leisurely arrived in Baltimore in time for dinner and show. My best friend Brooks Harlan has a punk rock, female fronted band called War on Women. His girlfriend Shawna is the singer and they were fantastic. Brooks and I both grew up playing in punk bands and it was so cool to see him in that style once again. Check them out on this live video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSXRdaipCk0

Streets of Baltimore, no more Wire jokes!

The next day I went a little further down into Virginia to see my Sparta band mate Keeley Davis, his wife Colleen, and their baby Ari (I never put photos of kids in my blogs, but trust me she is beautiful). We had dinner and caught up. I had not spent more than a few minutes with Keeley since the last show of the last Sparta tour which was years ago it seems. I was great to see him.

I drove to Norfolk in my rental car and headed back on Southwest for another set of flights home.

Hey it’s Southwest again!

After a few days of trying to catch up at home I was driving East towards Austin for a week of radio. Usually when I am on the radio it is for a few minutes to promote a show or a record. This time my buddy Toby at 101X in Austin needed fill in DJs while he was running for city council. The election rules forbid him from being on the air while he runs.

Driving out of West Texas, we got big skies out here

He asked if I would take a week and I was more than happy to. He has been playing my records since At the Drive-In, so I owe him for sure. It was fun as well. I know I tell a lot of stories of the years I have spent in rock and roll and my friends are tired of it, but here was a chance to put those stories to use.

my radio workspace… no natural light but lots of good jams…

The station format is a mix rock from Nirvana to brand new bands I didn’t know much about. I learned a ton and found a few bands I really like. I am sure I am late to the party on these kids, but Young the Giant is fantastic. I also got to play a track from El Pasoans The DA and the new City and Colour single as well.

a park, a piano, a skyline…

the river and the city

I finished up early one day and caught up with Chopper for a beer and we ended up going over to see Lady Gaga. We only stayed about 30 minutes, enough time to see the production and the fans. It was interesting. I traveled a lot with Chopper over the years and I miss him a ton, so just to walk around and eat at the food trucks and see a show was great. It reminded me of being on festival tours with him.

hey look I found Chopper!!!

the food carts on east 6th

Lady Gaga…

After my job was all done I spent some time with some friends who are having or just had babies… must be the age. Everyone around me is having kids. I was in 2nd grade when my dad was my age. That makes me feel like I am old.

I am back now and trying to catch up. It took leaving town for a few weeks to realize how deep my roots have gotten here in El Paso. It isn’t a bad thing but it took me by surprise a little bit.