10 Nov – Saenger Theatre (Pensacola, FL)
w/ Indigo Girls
First off… that storm that blew through the southeast, spawning tornadoes all over Alabama? We drove home in that. We didn’t know that it was happening. Well, I mean, we drove home in the middle of a monster storm that never seemed to stop, we just didn’t know that it was some massive storm front that we were following all night, and that there were tornadoes touching down all around us.
I don’t think I can really wrap up the whole experience of the tour well. But let me try to talk about the Pensacola show… it’s possible it wasn’t the best show of the tour, or our best performance. But it was probably the best response we got in what was a string of pretty strong responses. When we started (with “Hey, California”) people were still audibly talking through the show, but further into the set there wasn’t any of that. So either they finished what they had to say or we hooked them.
The Saenger Theatre is another movie palace like the Florida Theatre was. A beautiful old room that has recently been saved apparently from destruction. We got in and went through the usual load-in and setup process, by now it was a very quick thing we did without much thought, really. We finished the soundcheck and went down to eat. Amy, Andrea and Stacey were downstairs talking Daemon stuff, which I tried to overhear without much success. We ate and got ready. I met Russell Carter for the first time, who for some reason looked nothing like I imagined.
The show went well. Like I say, it wasn’t our best, but the differences between the shows as far as performance were really just nuances. It was a good show for us. I felt energetic once we started (I was close to falling asleep beforehand, we drove six hours to get to Pensacola) and I think I was good with the crowd and good moving around. We all seemed a bit more energetic overall, pushing the last bit of energy out for the last show. Since I hadn’t had any sort of chance to talk to Amy or Emily before the show I didn’t know for sure if they were going to come out to do the cover (“The Air That I Breathe,” by the way) again, until the cheers went up just before the chorus and I knew they must have just walked onto the stage. I tried to take everything in during the song, looking around at both of them and the crowd and trying to remember what it felt like to be there. The crowd was very responsive, especially to the little bit of Radiohead’s “Creep” that we do in the middle.
The song ended and it was out to hang out by the merch table, signing CDs and talking to people. When the Girls started their set I headed backstage. Andrea told me I should really go ahead and practice the melodica thing for “Closer to Fine,” even though I really didn’t think after the night before they’d want that again. But I stood in the hallway and tried to re-learn the part in the correct key. At one point during the set Emily left the stage and headed down by the dressing rooms and so I asked her if they wanted me to do the solo again and she smiled at me and said of course but added, “Are you going to do it in ‘A’ this time?” I liked the moment not just because, yes, they wanted me to, but also because there’s enough of a relationship there now where she’s able to pick on me.
I know that reads awfully weird but it was a very cool moment.
Anyway, I ran through it a million more times and went up on stage. Just before they began Emily sort of motioned that I could just come out before the part, but then Amy caught my eye and just called me out to sing along, too. I sang and nailed the solo, using up every lucky break I had left, I think. The place went up when I started (and that’s something, because they’re always really loud for that song, every single person in the room is singing, and it happens every show) and I can’t imagine that the first half of the solo could even be heard over the noise. But it was incredible. They both smiled at me after it was done before going into the last verse. I waved and left the stage after the song was done and Amy took the time to thank the band and mention us all by name. I went back to waiting to do “Kid Fears” which was in the encore for this show. They introduced me again and the crowd gave me a good cheer and I sang my bit. I know it sounds so clinical when I try to describe it. I loved doing it. Every single time. Pensacola was a little extra because I knew it would be the last time I’d do it and I watched the crowd and watched the Girls as I did, trying to squeeze every last bit of the experience out of it. They thanked me and the crowd cheered and I waved. They started “Galileo” and I headed back out front to the merch table one last time.
We sold as many CDs in Pensacola as we did on our other big night in Jacksonville. I never would have imagined we would do so well, before we left I had thought if I could sell 10 CDs a show I would be in really good shape. That was really underestimating things, it turns out. I signed a lot of CDs, which became a very zen thing after awhile. I tried to talk as much as possible with people as they were standing there, I hate for it to just be some sort of factory line. I find, though, that some people want to talk and others seem like they think they need to get in and out. It’s a weird thing to be on the other side of, for me. I thought I did well, though, for being someone who is so shy about talking to people. During the set Lee had mentioned the whole “kissing my red hair” thing from the Tampa show so several people came up and asked if they could. One day I will make Lee pay. Then again, I had two really cute girls who wanted a picture taken with me, and since I was already sitting at the time they ended up on my lap, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.
Look, I typed that last line and I’m still laughing at myself. It was just bewildering and so unbelievably flattering. I can’t even put it into words. I am really a pathologically shy person and I have dealt with the whole musician thing for a long time as if it were just sort of a character I play, a “me” that happens to be extroverted. But being surrounded by this sort of thing just pushed it into the bizarre, and while it was happening I just kept thinking how in the world did I end up here with these two girls on my lap?
I’ll never be able to explain. The entire experience of the tour is just one long experience like that. It’s hard to comprehend that it happened. The long, delirious drive back doesn’t help matters and, since I slept through most of Monday, as I write this I still feel as if the show just happened tonight, but at the same time it feels like it didn’t happen at all.
I’ll tell you one more thing for free… it’s not as if we were out palling around with Amy and Emily during the tour. Lee seemed to actually know them a little, and they’d chat from time to time, but overall we only saw them just before they soundchecked, and then when we’d go downstairs to eat. Sometimes we’d see them after the show for a bit, too. But they had other people around them as well and so I never tried to insinuate myself into that. I tried to grant them a certain amount of space, maybe that was a mistake in some ways but I also know they have more than their fair share of people who want to be “close” to them. So to me it seemed like the most respectful thing to do. But even so they were constantly kind to us. I had never even met Emily before and she was so friendly. They both seemed to genuinely love what we were doing and really wanted us to have our decent chance to win people over. Cynically a person can think that Amy has legitimate business reasons for getting us exposure, but it never felt that way at all and I would argue the point with anyone who tried to suggest it. I could go on and on and already have, really, but they just were amazingly kind and helpful the entire time and I could never begin to thank them enough for the entire experience. I feel the same way tonight as I did when I was 20 and sitting on a stoop in downtown Atlanta coming off my first acid trip (my apologies to my parents if they’re reading this), the world looked completely different to me and I still feel as if the experience colors my way of thinking.
I am notoriously unable to ‘surrender to the moment,’ I think it’s safe to say, but for the past eight days I was living in an alien world and everything that happened felt magical, and frankly I don’t care how unbelievably silly that sounds.
Well, okay, I care just enough to point out that I don’t.