I was very excited to play Sunday night's club gig at Union Hall in Brooklyn. The promoter, Lee Greenfeld, is an honest man, and it is always nice to play for honest bookers. The room is tiny, and holds about 100. It was a perfect night after dealing with fools in Philly.
We played for almost an hour and a half, and you could feel the energy of the band onstage cookin'. It was a gig that came with 8 hours of sleep the night before, so we were recharged and ready to kill.
A lot of longtime Sights' fans were out in support, and to see the group of 30-40 bodies dancing their butts off to our songs was a great feeling I will take with me forever.
Thanks to all who were there (Blair and Maureen Buscareno, Joe and Sandy from Euclid Records in St. Louis, Marc "the booker" Bauer).
The next day we trekked to Boston for another outdoor gig at some place owned by a bank. Before the gig I was chatting with Jack Black-- well he was telling me how he lost his virginity and what album was playing while he was doing the deed. I was listening while brushing my teeth. It wasn't awkward at all, and this is our relationship at this point. It doesn't feel right to talk about the album that was playing when Jack lost his V, only that I know I've never heard it in its entirety.
This was a bit of a weirder Tenacious D crowd-- it seemed like there were a lot of moms and dads with their pimply faced son sitting down in the pavilion. I did feel a bit exhausted from the previous night's marathon club gig, but the other dudes in the band were supporting me the entire way, and we had fun. A Detroit expat, Carleton Gholz, came to the gig and we chatted backstage for a long time about... well, Detroit!
After the gig we went to a bar in South End called Anchovies with our friends Sam and Chris and Skip was in top form that night. He held court while we listened to him deliver such classics as "Do you remember 1989?" and "Tomorrow I won't drink tonight." When I mentioned to a Boston native where we were hanging, he was like "That's the gay district" to which I replied "yup"!
And finally, at long last, The Mohegan Sun Arena. We have a saying in the van: "Mohegan Sun, Mohegan Sun." Basically, when we got the tour routing from the Tenacious D camp, we rattled off the great places we're to play: The Gorge in George, the Ryman, two nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom, Red Rocks, and the Mohegan Sun Arena.
And we laughed because we knew the Mohegan Sun Arena gig was going to be huge. So anytime one was to play it cool, you'd say "Mohegan Sun, dude, Mohegan Sun." Anything named "blank Arena" has got to be insane.
And it was. I don't often play gigs with two television screens flanking me, but that night we did. It was a great gig, and the staff there were cool as hell (Metal Mike on monitors-- great guy).
They filmed the show and later at home Shades and I watched the gig. I can't stand watching myself onscreen, but I did watch it, and it felt good. It felt good to be and see me.
After the Mohegan Sun gig, we piled into Jerry Sprinter for the 13 hour drive back to Detroit. (Big thanks to Skip for taking driving the first eight hours.) We dropped Dean off in the parking lot the Toledo Museum of Art and got back in just after noon on the 4th of July. It was a day that will live in my mind forever. They should remake D-Day July 4th for personal reasons.
All the best,
eddie
current tour morale: tired, despondent, and anxious to start the third leg
Photos by Shades
