Day One: Hartford, CT

As I said in the last entry, we left Wilmington at around 11AM - kind of a late start. Certainly it was a bizarre weather day. During our rehearsals we had an unexpected October heat wave which made for some uncomfortable extended odd-time signature playing. On the day of our departure it was suddenly rainy and 20 degrees colder. Even after all this touring I've done, I'm completely unprepared and I didn't bring any warm clothing. I've opted to borrow Svalgard's BB King's Blues Club hoodie which is three sizes too big (I like my clothes teeny and toasty). It makes me look like a festival attending wookie, or the unabomber. I am also refusing to shave, because everybody knows that this month is Octobeard. We got to the Webster an hour and half late, which called for a super speedy set-up and soundcheck. There were 3 opening bands that night, one of which was - this is their real name, I kid you not - Dude, Fuckin' Yeah. It truly is a small world, because a member of Dude, Fuckin' Yeah attended our Adrian Belew Trio show in Piermont, New York. He complemented us after the show, and proceeded to leave in a limousine. This baffled my sister and I, and at the time we secretly believed that the band name Dude, Fuckin' Yeah was a cover up. I assumed that he may have been a member of a much bigger band, perhaps a backup keyboardist for the Beyonce group or a percussionist for the Allman Brothers Band. But no, he really does play in a rockin' teenage combo known as (say it with me) Dude, Fuckin' Yeah.
After our quick soundcheck, we had a nice family dinner. It was only 6:30 and we weren't going on until 10:00. We collectively practiced until around 9:00, and then I received a phone call from my uncle. He was downstairs in the venue lobby with his friend. Coincidentally, the last time I saw my Uncle Dave was at BB King's Blues Club! We had a nice chat and he gave me two CD's for the road. Thanks Uncle Dave!
We went on at 10:15 or so and did a solid two-hour single set. I thought it was a good first show. A couple bum notes and missed drum fills here and there, but good overall. I didn't talk about this in my last entry, because I wanted to save a special space for him, but we have a percussionist for the bulk of this tour. His name is Joshua Oxford. He is brilliant. I'll talk more about him over the next couple of entries.