It’s such an odd thing to be home for my day off this week, to be both on tour and, well, not on tour. My nervous system doesn’t know what to make of it: “Am I home now?” it asks me every couple of hours. “Should I reload on sleep, or push you to catch up on those chores? Am I unplugging from the alternating current of adrenaline and torpor that powers me through every tour, or are we just doing some laundry for a day?” “Laundry,” I say, tapping my toes. I have to keep the motion going, have to let my right foot know that, while it may rest today on a familiar kitchen floor, it’ll be back on the gas pedal tomorrow, pushing me and everyone else down towards southern California for our run’s final four shows.
If they’re anything like last week’s gigs, it’ll be some worthwhile lead-footing. While the weekend plays with Fruition in Seattle and Eugene were probably the week’s biggest and baddest spectacles (big thanks, btw, to Elephant Revival’s Bridget Law for coming by on Friday), Arcata, Bend and Portland all brought some big cards to the hand. Humboldt County emerged as an early frontrunner for my first annual best-humpday-crowd-of-the-year award, in recognition of both the quantity and undeniable quality of norCal souls that assembled there last Wednesday to bring their A game (along with some fine local produce, naturally). Eugene’s crowd was arguably the largest and most fired-up we’ve ever seen there for a headlining slot. (I’ll wager our recent co-bills there with Cornmeal & Greensky Bluegrass have raised the stoke factor a notch or two.) Good people, good music and a little bit o’ rain. Tough to complain about the northwest.
So on, on, on to Fullerton, to Santa Barbara, to San Diego. Load the Mac up with Game of Thrones episodes (they’ve swept through the van like a scourge) and lay in a couple more magazines. Put that right foot to the floor and hit the I-5 for all points south. My nervous system may take a few miles to catch up, but I’ll have it up to speed by the time we pass Los Banos.
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