St. Louis / Memphis

…in bed by one – what a luxury! Memphis and St. Louis were the two shows we were most worried about. They are cities where we don’t know anyone, really, and have no pre-existing fans or family. In the end, they were surprisingly similar and similarly affirming.

St. Louis went down at a room called CBGB. It’s a neighborhood dive bar in South Grand, an up-and-coming neighborhood that fifteen years ago was downright dangerous, and is now home to a lot of artists and assorted hipsters. We arrived, and the bar wasn’t even opened – and this was at 8pm! So we went down to the famous arch, the gateway to the west. The enormity of it was staggering. Then we loaded in…Matt from Bunnygrunt set up the show and brought in a PA. The neighborhood was dead, but he insisted that, owing to the nice night, that folks would be out. And after a few PBRs and some Thai food, there actually were.

The best part of touring, for me, is seeing the local bands – almost all of which are new to us. In St. Louis we were supported by the Shitty Friends, a very entertaining and provocative trio that blended folky pop with this a strange script that involved a cupcake business, a pony, a robot (who was given to the pony as a pet), and a sibling who is coming out of the closet. They were followed by a beguiling solo act known as Mustard Rob. It was our turn…it was probably the most basic set-up we’d had: a four-channel mixer, no mics on the amps, no monitors. We responded with a pretty intense set, more charged than Chicago, more angry, more tense. Stage was small too. People actually liked it, and we sold some merch and passed the hat. Made enough to get to Memphis.

We rolled into Memphis around 4, checked into our hotel, grabbed a bite, and went to Graceland. It still awes me that one man could mean so much to so many, strictly as an entertainer – albeit a revolutionary and extremely gifted one (prior to his lapse into explosive self-parody). The tour of Graceland ends at Elvis’s grave, and I’ll admit to being a little choked up. It’s very confusing.

Clint and Shannon in Graceland:



Memphis venue was another dive bar – a pirate-themed hovel called The Buccaneer Lounge. Check out the sign:



Forgetting it was St. Patricks’ Day, we went down to Rendezvous on Second, a stone’s throw from Beale. Some revelers spilled over, but it wasn’t too bad. The club was empty, but slowly filled. The opener was a great punk band from South Dakota (!) called the Redmen, which actually had two Native American members. Really nice guys. Very sweet. We thought we’d have to do an acoustic show, but they lent us their bass and drums and again we mined a more intense vein. “Annette” is still a little rough, but “Texas Toast” was great, and “Laser Show” was one of the better ones. Reaction was good, and we got some money – but sold no merch.

Local headliner Dave (I can’t remember his last name at the moment!) did an acoustic duo with a drummer playing just a plastic bucket, and drew from snarled blues and more John Hiatt-ish sorta singer-songwriter stuff. It was a weird paring, but he was eccentric enough and a very engaging personality. Nice man, too. His guitar playing took everything I don’t like about acoustic-electric guitars (the tinny sound, the buzzing, the feedback) and used it to an advantage, creating waves of feedback and using delay to turn the pinging sound into a percussive element. Very cool.

Now sleep.

Chicago, Part 2

…Chicago was an interesting one, for a number of reasons. I had heard that the club was in a bad neighborhood, but it wasn’t…the venue was actually right next to the Ukrainian newspaper, which was cool. After shuttling it to Jazz Record Mart and back, we settled in…

It was a little worrisome at first, when an anonymous-sounding rock band from Montreal played to a handful disinterested people. The room brightened considerably when Anthony, one of our very first fans from Boston, showed up. It turned out he had moved to Boston. So Shannon and I hung out with him while Clint and Rebecca reconnected with old friends. The spirits lightened even further when Clint’s parents showed up – they drove up from Indiana to take in a second show.

Anthony, Clint's parents, and us:



Once Very Truly Yours kicked off their set, the crowd swooped in, and the energy ratcheted up. I wouldn’t say it was packed, but there was a fairly good-sized, devoted audience there…following their wonderfully charming set, local go-go troupe the Revellettes did four choreographed dance numbers as we set up. Having never really been around go-go dancers before, it really got the room charged up. Shannon had six gin and tonics, and we tore into the opening number with a nice mix of abandon and assurance. As the gig continued, we played it fast and loose, with a bit of talking and humor. The audience was really wonderful, and by the end, the Revellettes were back up dancing with us to a bunch of the songs. A fan requested “Potential,” and Clint’s dad requested “Earth’s Circumference.” We never get requests, and we got two tonight…

Us in action:



The Revelettes dancing to us:



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Afterward, we were interviewed by Lil’ Ratso from the cable access show Chick-a-go-go…we’d never been interviewed by a puppet before. A perfect ending to a pretty amazing night…

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Pre-Show, Chicago

…sitting in the Darkroom now, a very vibey establishment in Chicago’s old Ukrainian neighborhood. Kinda nice just to be in one place for a while and not have to move. I may take a cab into town to go to the Jazz Record Mart, if there is time, but we’re waiting for the sound guy now, and we have to soundcheck before we can do anything. Very cool room – leather couches, booths, and banquets, exposed brick and nice woods. We’re playing with a fellow indie-pop band called Truly Yours, a go-go dance troupe called the Revellettes, and Black Diamond Bay, a group that spun off of the Canadian group the Dears (from what I can gather).

Indianapolis was another heart-warmer. Our bassist Clint is from there, and he had a huge turnout of friends, neighbors, and family, all of whom were incredibly supportive. We dined at a Cajun place that Clint really likes – 23 dollars for the whole band. Can’t beat it. The room was a bit cavernous, but the sound guy Al did a good job with our eccentric set-up, and the crowd – 99% of them somehow connected to Clint – loved it. “Annette” is starting to get less shaky. We didn’t play “How to Hurt,” which we will definitely do tonight.

Us at Yat's:



The band that followed us, Heavy Hometown, was really great, too. Killer lineup – a singing drummer, a singing guitarist, and a keyboardist played a Fender Rhodes for bass and a Roland Juno for squiggly synth sounds…

Spending time with Clint’s family was really inspiring, too. Indiana is beautiful, all overlapping plains and tree-lines marking property boundaries. A neighbor brought her daughter to meet us, since I guess we’re a real touring band and are rock stars in Indiana. The hometown paper, the Lebanon Reporter, also did a nice piece about us…

No soundcheck tonight…so I hopped into a cab and hit the great Jazz Record Mart on E. Illinois and stocked up on Eddie Condon CDs.

Baltimore

...day two on the road. Compared to the perilous navigational challenges of the big apple, this one was a snap. We sped outta Bordentown NJ around eleven, landing at my buddy Caleb Stine's doorstep in Baltimore's up-and-coming Remington neighborhood around 1:30 or so...only Clint had been in Baltimore before, and coming in via North Avenue was pretty startling -- block after block of abandoned buildings and pretty vivid urban blight. The old tenements were impressive in and of itself, testament to an early era of Baltimore, which Caleb explained was a classic blue-collar blend of port-town harbor work and manufacturing, long departed.

A quick, great lunch of organic fare (a turkey/bree/cherry-chutney sandwich for me) and then back to Caleb's townhouse, which he spectacularly renovated in a minimalist style, destroying the artifice (plaster, walls, ect.) and leaving a the bones: beautiful hardwood floors, beams, and exposed brick walls. We rehearsed our semi-acoustic set for a while, then Caleb, Shannon, and I combined ruminating conversation with occasional jams while Clint slept. That took us up to 7pm...



...we loaded into El Rancho Grande, met by proprietor Pete -- a very outgoing and friendly guy as intense as he is committed to providing artists with a great place to perform and display their craft. Soundcheck is a luxury we rarely get, and we enjoyed the very spartan set-up: one acoustic guitar plugged into the board, an electric guitar (no mic on the amp), and everything else acoustic, aside from vocals.

Openers Car Phone were adorable -- two girls (Shannon and Rebecca, no less!) playing '90s rock covers on ukulele and glockenspiel. They drew a big crowd of local art students, who stayed for us, which was nice. They also generated a nice energy which we were encouraged to capitalize on by starting quickly. We started so quickly that Clint was still out in the car getting his camera...he jumped in in the middle of the first song, "Happiest In History."

The set flew by, and the crowd was really into it, so it seemed. People bought merch and offered warm compliments. The highlight for me was my cousin Scott sitting in on trumpet for the last two songs, playing harmony parts I'd hastily scribbled out days before...maybe I'll post a recording soon.



Amazing to see Caleb again, and we talked about doing a Boston show together in May...stay tuned.

We ended up the night ninety minutes outside of Baltimore at Caitlin and Josh's Pennsylvania farm house. It's old. I'm not sure how old. I'm too tired to ask...

The Birthplace of Tarzan Boy?

All The Critics Love You In New York...

...you know, of all the challenges rolled up in this tour, playing in New York City is what I found most terrifying. The logistics, really -- the driving, the parking, etc. We've played in New York and done well there before.

We managed to get there in five hours or so from Boston, which isn't bad, considering we left at 4:30 or so. Not too much traffic. The GPS got us there with remarkable alacrity and accuracy. We were met there by our old friend Michael Murphy, who helped us unload and showed us an easy place to park. Can't complain about that -- always a good guy. Here's Clint and Michael on the Lower East Side at around 9:45 at night.



The club itself was packed when we got there, but by the time we loaded in, grabbed some dinner at the Japanese place we usually go to, the place was nearly empty. Our friends Anna and Jane were there, along with a handful of stragglers...pretty quiet. The sound was good, and we played okay, but it was hard when there was such a small crowd. We had to make our own energy, and that isn't always easy or possible. The club took pity on us, though, and gave us gas money, and we actually sold a fair amount of merch...

Here's a pic Anna took of us playing...



From there, we ploughed outta there and hit the turnpike to Baltimore. We wound up in at a Days Inn in Bordenton, NJ. Nice place.

The Gurdy and the Damage Done

...I've spent the past week or two endlessly tinkering with the hurdy gurdy. I further filed down some of the keys, I've worked on tuning it (sometimes having to use filler to make the pegs fit tighter), experimented with rosin on the wheel and cotton on the strings, etc. I still need to work on the bridge some more, as right now the strings sit in very deep grooves. I think I'm just going to cut the surface of the bridge almost flat, so I can pull the melody strings off and on the wheel more easily.

I thought I'd do a wrap-up post, to review what I've learned, what I like, and what I dislike about this kit and the process. Here goes.

What I've learned:
- The right tool makes the job easier. I had to fudge a few times -- like using a lino cutter to trim the top instead of a good router, or using a circular saw when a coping or table saw would have done better. I had to improvise a bit, which was good, but it taught me the limitations of substitute tools.
- Measure twice, cut once. I knew this already, but it never hurts to brush up on the fundamentals. I'm not great at making straight cuts with a jig saw. Speaking of:
- Jig saws are terrifying. I don't know why I fear them, but I do. A new blade, however, makes a big difference.
- Wood putty does not varnish well. I used some filler on a few spots, thinking it would take to varnish, but it doesn't. You can stain it, but not varnish. Oh well -- one more component of my instrument's folksy appearance.
- Go slow. This was one of the first kit projects where I actually took my time and sweated the small stuff, and I think it paid off.
- Hand sanding is almost always better than machine sanding.

What I like about the Musicmaker's Hurdy Gurdy Kit:
- It really did have everything you needed to build the instrument. I didn't have to run out and find peg soap, weird gage strings, or anything. It was all there and did not assume I lived next to a fiddle shop.
- The wood is quality, and looks great.
- The resultant instrument, in the hands of a not-so-master-craftsman, is still playable and functional.
- The staff there were fantastic. When I noticed I was missing a part, they had it in the mail within a day. Brilliant.
- The kit was accurately described on their website, and the difficulty rating was accurate. It said there would be "character building" moments, and dammit, there were!

What I didn't like about the Musicmaker's Hurdy Gurdy Kit:
- The directions were usually clear and concise, but occasionally they lapsed or suffered from bad layout. For instance, at one point they tell you to drill the tail block as shown, but don't give you any measurements. So I eyeballed it. Turns out the measurements were somewhere else in the manual...fortunately I eyeballed it well.
- I really wish I didn't have to cut the brass for the handle-crank myself. I think they could have machined that for me...it was neither pleasant nor fun to do it myself with a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade, and the outcome wasn't great.
- The pegbox lid was a bit big...by the end of the process, I was too tired to cut it down. Again -- folksy! Small annoyance, yes.
- The final piece didn't quite line up with the measurements specified in the manual, despite every effort on my part. The most noticeable outcome of this was that I had to cut huge grooves in the bridge (probably a quarter-inch if not more) to get the strings to hit the wheel. As mentioned, I'm gonna hack down the bridge a bit more soon.

Don't get me wrong, though. The positives far outweighed the negatives here.

The most challenging parts of the process for me were (and please note that these challenges are more reflective of my ability, and not the quality and clarity of the kit):
- Cutting the wheel-hole. My old jig saw blade was likely most of the problem, but it was tricky to cut a perfectly square/straight rectangle. Folksy!
- Getting the body of the instrument symmetrical. I built a rig and tried to slowly bend it into place, but in the end, the instrument stayed a few centimeters off of center. Not the end of the world, but a little frustrating.
- Cutting the excess wood off of the side of the soundboard. I really should have practiced on something before letting loose. There are some little gouges on the top from the router, but they aren't all that noticeable.
- "Machining" the block of brass into a handle crank. Brass is soft, but it is still terrifying to tear into with a jig saw, and as much as I sanded and buffed, I could never quite get it straight and even. I think one of the holes will eventually fail because I drilled it slightly off. So I look forward to doing this again...ha ha ha.
- Installing and truing the wheel. This was a bitch, only because I was working in a tight spot (the wheel hole), and the axle that the wheel is on is threaded all the way down, so the wheel would move around if I didn't secure it just right. I did have to pull the whole thing out once and just do it all over again. I also had to widen the provided bushings to allow the wheel to turn freely, which I would have thought to be unnecessary. Truing the wheel was hard, and I was ultimately unsuccessful. There is a little "wow" in the sound, but nothing too awful.
- Getting the first sounds out of the instrument. This was discouraging after all the work I did, but after experimenting with rosin and cotton, I got some good tone. My only complaint is that the instrument is a little quiet. I wish it projected more...I don't have any sound holes, but the manual said they weren't necessary for sound production. I'm not so sure now...
- Cutting the grooves in the melody bridge. I'm still working on that.

Exhaustive? Exhausting? Yes, a bit of both. But I do enjoy playing this thing, and my friends and wife find it very intriguing...how many folks have a hurdy gurdy sitting on their china hutch?