Tracy and I leave a day early so we can mix a small bit of vacation with our shows. I booked a motel in Solvang that is about 300 feet from where I’ll be playing next week. It’s a nice little sparsely decorated room and our car is 7 feet from the front door. This is good, I have all the guitars in the room but there’s still a few things in the car - like if someone is going to break in and steal mic stands, jesus…
Lost Chord Guitars is a super cool venue and a bit upscale from where I’m used to playing and this night there’s a flamenco guitarist with bass player and drummer and they run through a few instrumental originals and a bunch of classic rock instrumental covers. It’s a great room with great sound. I’m honestly a little intimidated for next week.
We hit some of the shops and get some bread and cheese to bring with us to Suzi’s in Berkeley. It’s a pleasant ride up the coast and we get to Suzi’s around 4 or so.
Tonight we’re playing at The Back Room in Berkeley, it’s a show that our friend Gretchen has put together with us and the room is perfect for us - a collection of couches arranged like theater seating, a nice stage and sound, grand piano on stage and Sam, the owner, soundman, janitor, piano player and all around nice guy is super welcoming. He’s playing the piano when we arrive and he’s good. Like really good.
We set up and run through a few songs and then Sam asks if we’d like him to join us on piano on a song or two and we throw out a few suggestions and play a touch of them and damn. He classes up the joint for sure.
It doesn’t take a lot of people to make this show feel real intimate and living room like. We know most of the people here and we have a great show with stories and songs, Sam joins us on “no expectations” and “you ain’t going nowhere” and it’s really like using a racecar to go get groceries. He soars on the piano and we’re all elevated. The first break is super jazzy and I inadvertently yell “Jazz it up!” and he does. Next break “play the blues!” and he does.
We get some singing-alonging going and wrap it up after a good long set. Folks are hanging out and I break out the toaster and start making toast for everyone there. It goes fast. We all hug each other goodbye and plan for our return in May.
Tracy makes friends with Suzi’s cat Boudicca and the cat is all over our bed at night. We’ve made loose plans to meet up with our friend Kaz in the City tomorrow at 1 but when 12:30 rolls around and we’re still in pajamas we know we’re not making that. Fortunately Kaz didn’t wake up early either. We leave for the City around 3:30. It’s that kind of day.
I’m excited to have a day in San Francisco as I haven’t spent any time in this city in a long, long time and we’re going to City Lights Bookstore and The Beat Museum Unbeknownst to us, today is also the Chinese New Year’s Parade in S.F. so traffic is a clusterduck and parking is impossible with streets closed down everywhere.
Sometimes in life you feel like you’re unaware that you’re in a parade and sometimes this is also your reality.
The Beat Museum is super cool, we have a long talk with the guy running it, look at the letter that Kerouac wrote to Marlon Brando telling him that the two of them should make the “on the road” movie together. Reading this letter makes it obvious why Brando didn’t respond. Tracy and I joke about how we’d really like to see that movie but holy crap would that have been disastrous.
Kaz meets us there and we walk around a bit, grab a slice and sit in Washington Park and catch up and then walk to City Lights where I buy some Ferlinghetti and postcards. Tracy finds the new David Byrne book “Bicycle Diaries” and we get it. Back at Suzi’s we eat pizza and drink wine. It’s a good day.
Now Sunday we’re at Thee Parkside which is a little divey punk type bar in the middle of the city with shockingly great sound, super sweet nice bartender, soundman, cook AND great food. We’re excited for this show because our friends are flying in from Germany and are performing with us.
Tour Diary devotees will remember I happened to bump into Niklas Herzog in Bremen last fall while having an “interesting” night on the town and it’s going to be great to see him. He is playing guitar with Alina Sebastian, who sings and plays bass, and Jonas Vallan on the drums. I’m helping them out with stuff so they wouldn’t have to bring anything with them. Niklas has an acoustic of mine, Alina has Tracy’s P-bass and amp and Jonas has a snare, cajon kick drum and some bits and bobs.
They have flown here from Frankfurt, Germany, landed at noon-ish and took an Uber to the gig to play at 4 pm. They are troopers. You can tell they’re excited to play but you can also tell they are zombies on their feet from way too many hours traveling.
The music they play is not punk rock at all but this commitment to playing this gig is 100% punk rock. Before they start I walk around the outside patio and tell folks “the band that’s about to play just flew in from Germany 2 hours ago, it’s their first time performing in the U.S., if you’re up for it, it’d be great if you could come in and give them a listen.” And all of the 8 tables I talk to are all super appreciative and at one time or another I see all of them come in to give a listen.
Alina, Niklas and Jonas sound fantastic together. Tight songs and great arrangements and they go over well. (If you want to look them up, YouTube Alina Sebastian and the song “I Cry”) I didn't even know that Niklas played guitar and Jonas' restraint and creativity on the tiny cajon kit is impressive and Alina just shines with great vocals and bass playing.
Tracy and I have two sets to do and we get up and we’re having fun and folks are digging it. We take a quick break and Tracy suggests Niklas join us on a few songs on drums and then we kick it into overdrive. I haven’t performed with Niklas since 2019 and Tracy has never performed with him and we totally rocked the shit out of a bunch of songs including an inspired “Truckin’ song” to end the show. Too much fun.
We’re all hanging out and chatting to folks and one guy comes up to me and he was sitting down front for the whole show and looked familiar. He tells me he’s seen us play before. “Hotel Utah?” I ask. “No, I saw you at the Monte Vista in Flagstaff, Arizona.” Holy shit. That was nearly 10 years and 1,000 miles away. He buys a record and we’re talking. He tells me he reads all the email blasts I send out and he really appreciates the footnotes and how upfront and honest I am about everything and the charity work we’ve been doing and I’m just blown away by how he reels off things over the past number of years.
We do this thing, this music thing and life and we often feel like our sphere of influence is just what we can see around us but I really do forget about the larger ripples that we’ve created and continue to…flow? This water metaphor has gotten away from me but you know what I mean. It’s fucking cool is what it is.
The show ends just before 7, the bar is closing, it’s 7:30 and for some reason it feels like it’s 2 am. We’re all on the street waiting for Alina, Niklas and Jonas’ Uber to take them back to Suzi’s with us and the bartender comes out and offers to make us all a cup of coffee or tea if we want.
Tracy and I do the handoff to our friend Suzi, who is putting them up for two days until they can get a rental car, and Tracy and I start driving home to Anaheim.
I have 3 days at home before I leave to go do it again.