in-between shows.

we are just waiting in the green room. in a metaphysical sense.

philip here. well this blog is now up and running. everyone in the band can post to it, lets see who is the most diligent. so far, obviously, its me, motherfuckers.

right now there are lots of shows on the horizon, but nothing at the moment. well we got one this thursday feb 23 in NYC at Sin-e but its a one-off. so we wait. a little. and we clean up the lawn and take care of dusting at home (the objects just GLOW back at you!), and try to have some home-cooked meals and catch our breaths a bit. lately, in my home, there's been a fair amount of 'curb your enthusiasm' watching. and chicken dinners. also, i re-read some d.h. lawrence, which held up ok as the last time i read it was in high school. and as usual i waste copious amounts of time on the internet, which i have decided is the most depressing place on earth to 'hang out'. but.. misery likes company. and, apparently, you can CONTROL things on the interent, unlike life itself.

the shot on the left is from the green room at mountain stage in charleston, west virginia, where on feb 5 we played with martha wainwright, chocolate genius, kevin gordon, and a bunch of other great folks. it will air on stations... NPR stations.... not sure when, dunno. it was a blast. kudos to henning, especially for driving us through the blue ridge (poconos? blue hills?) mountains in the middle of the night in a snowstorm without batting an eye or even seemingly getting a crick in his shoulders. i was kind of nervously dozing in the back of the van, startling awake repeatedly when i imagined that we were careening off the road and down one of the many millions of deep ravines that we couldn't even see but i knew they were there. the warm chatter of dave and henning talking, and then henning singing along to most of the beatles catalog on my ipod, made me feel sometimes like i was a little kid at home in my bed with my parents talking in the other room while abbey road played, or something like that. not that i think of dave and henning as my parents.... well, maybe a little.....which one is mom?

in the picture, dave is playing guitar. flora and i were practicing donovans' 'sunshine superman', which was the big finale song at the end, when everyone comes onstage and sings along to a big jam. the version we all ended up doing was a bit 'bluesier' than i might have done it meself, but all the musicians there were such cool hotshots that i could hardly be critical. plus, they had spiked clubs and steel-tipped toe boots. dennis layered in the psychedelic guitar washes as he is wont to do. and really, i guess it is kind of a bluesy progression anyway.

i guess i could write forever about all these exploits of the road, as thats what this blog is for, right? its a road diary. maybe some rants, maybe some politics, mostly not, though, mostly just music and all the film ideas we keep coming up with.

hey lets make a film about a band starting a tour diary on the internet!