Started the day off going to work. I had originally called out as it was supposed to be an all day affair, but we weren't meeting up until 12:30 so I figured I'd make some money showing up for a bit. It was fitting. Started the day off digging a grave, and then setting up a funeral for another one. Then left. Got back, showered and changed and left for Matt's. Promptly stopped at Subway for a shifty and got to Andover. I had already packed my stuff up the night before. Loading the car is always a treat for me. I appreciate that Craig happens to have a suitable vehicle. I miss my van dearly, but never thought about station wagons. In most bands i find myself in, they allow me to take on the task of packing it tetris-style and do my own thing as they bring stuff to me. I guess they'd rather lift than deal with how the fuck to fit it all in. Which I love doing, it's an odd satisfaction for me. It's one of those instances I have to really problem solve and think in a situation you wouldn't think was too complicated. Emptying out and cleaning the trunk a bit, Craig found a 6 pack of Bud Light lime's and we found a majority of a 12 pack of Arnold Palmers. Which I utilized later. The spare tire area yielded quite a bit of room and you could actually fit a 6 pack of bottles standing up down there. I was smitten. (pleased, what a douchey word huh?) Mind you, all of this I was pretty drunk for, not totally gone, or as much as I would have liked, but it's always a feat when drunk, let alone sober. We left around 2 in the Craig-mobile and were on our way.
I had stopped to grab stuff in my car right before we left about three times so on our way backing out the driveway, I realized I only had my sunglasses on and not my regular spectacles. He asked if he should stop so I could grab them, but I said screw it, as we weren't staying the night and it'd be sunny most of the time we were there, which was a bad choice, but I was intoxicated at this point.
We stopped up in Salem, NH at the music workshop so Matt could get strings. He bought 12's and the lady suggested he was going to snap them pretty quickly unless he was tuning down. Craig and I stayed in the car, but I'm guessing he rolled his eyes on the inside and told her to sell him the fucking strings so he could be on his way without judgement. This isn't his first rodeo with 12's friends.
The ride was not as enjoyable as previous trips. I think because I was not as drunk as the last trip. I had eaten something so perhaps that had something to do with it. My pre-show clothes do not have pockets, so my wallet, keys, phone are in a purse, which was wet. Because it smelled literally like shit. My trunk had something in it and it apparently fermented in the warmer weather these past few weeks. About a week ago i raided it, washed all the clothes that smelled, but not the purse. I sprayed it down with household cleaner at Matt's moments before leaving, so it smelled OK, but most likely didn't get rid of the root cause, and made everything damp.
I also did not bring a charger so I knew my phone wouldn't be in my hands most of the night other than to check it. Fine by me as I had no one to talk to, and there was no service whatsoever for miles in Bath, NH. it was roughly a 2 hour drive give or take. Craig drives the speed limit and we were in uncharted territory. His Taurus wagon's display is broken so no clock, and only a CD player. Sandwiched in the back seat behind him, with a lot of missy-matchies and years of homeless crap under my feet it was not the most pleasant ride being there that long. Craig has an interesting take on his climate controls.
Now keep in mind reader, I write this solely out of documentation, not out of malice or disdain. Just as an archive only an observation of how I feel, felt at the time. I love these guys dearly. There are much worse problems in the world.
Craig's Climate Control: The temperature controls are either at 11 for heat, or -11 for cold. When it gets too hot or cold, he turns the whole thing off. Leaving you to freeze, or worse, suffocate until he turns it back on on a whim. Haha. There is no in between. Which I can somehow, twistedly appreciate because that is EXACTLY who Craig is. we've even talked about it regarding music and his personality. But I don't know if he knows it creeps into all aspects of his every day life. At first, the A/C wasn't even on, it was only the fan, I as all but dying in the backseat with the windows barely cracked, sandwiched and pinned between my bass drum case and the door with my feet up in the air, barreling up rt 93 being mid 80's out with only warm air blowing at us. The way back was worse, we were sore and tired and all the rest and it was mid-50's out as it had gotten quite cold, and he had the heat on full bore. I was suffering from congestion/allergies all day (cruel timing) and I needed air desperately, but it was HEAT HEAT HEAT for 20 minutes, then nothing at all...then HEAT HEAT HEAT, then nothing. HEAT HEAT HEAT, nothing. etc. I wanted to die. Never a dull moment.
We have a ritual that every toll we hit we fuck with the attendants. Fuck them, they deserve it as far as I'm concerned. From what I hear it's a cushy job and you need to know a guy who knows a guy etc etc to get in there. I mean, you collect money for shit sake... Anyway, our band theme song is Sugar Sugar and we have it blasting via CD on repeat while we pay them. The way up was ok, they were probably a bit disgusted or confused as we now have another ritual of putting up signs in the windows. Our second gig in May when I was VERY inebriated I found them, and began crawling all over the empty trunk area and backseat taping them to the windows so people on the highway would read them. Things like "WHY LIVE?" and "WHAT DO THE PLANTS MEAN?" and "I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE DEAD" and "I'VE NEVER LOVED ANYONE." and so on. Those were on my side of the car, and the toll, so he probably saw those. I can't recall anything too daring at that toll on the way there. We definitely turned some heads all the way up though, physically seeing people word out what is written is a treat.
Also in Craig's black hole of a back seat are orphaned CDs I mine out from the wreckage and as they are not labelled, I toss them up and it's quite a treat seeing what's on them. We laughed all the way up talking about all kinds of things. I was going to mention a few here, but I forget honestly! We arrived in Bath and there were handmade signs up the road to where we needed to go. The GPS on Craig's iPhone took us to a house with a long driveway, which he correctly stopped before asking if we should see, or keep going, I suggested we keep going and intuition on all parts won again as that was NOT the right place. We drove past, backed up, and arrived at a small farm. Small in comparison to most farms in the country I suppose. Big for me. There was quite a lot of property for sure. There were acres and acres for the parking alone. Someone had set up stakes and rope to coordinate parking areas and we pulled in. A very cool looking stage was there off in the distance along with tents, RVs, trailers etc selling all sorts of goodies.
We parked, got out as a band was playing, and walked to the entrance tent where the guys selling tickets etc were smoking pot and handing out wristlets. I call those show bracelets wristlets, fuck it. But in this instance, instead of checking ID's, or asking much, we merely mentioned who we were, and they handed us the wristlets to put on ourselves. Class act. We did so and walked over to the stage. We urinated in one of the many port-a-potty's and we were able to drive the car around to the back of the stage to load out to set up behind stage for whenever we went on.
We met with some characters there. one of which was a guy Brian Canty. What an enthusiastic character. Perhaps that isn't the right word. He greeted us almost immediately after seeing us; followed by the rest of the Lipstick Boys. Right off the bat I apologized to Tom, their drummer for never giving him back his now destroyed and dismantled hi-hat stand I borrowed about 3 years ago. He told me not to worry about it and I told him the short history of the stand's end. We spoke about cymbals, he told me whatever I needed I could borrow. What a nice guy Tom is. Not too familiar with them these last few years but I'm sure we'll be bumping into each other more in the near future.
We saw a few acts and found out our set time and we set up our gear backstage. During/prior to this we went back to the swag-wag (not sure what we're calling Craig's car yet) and I promptly mixed the rest of my Cruzan in a can of Arnie. I drank some to make room for the rum, it was the perfect mix. I never cease to amaze myself when it comes to intuitively mixing the perfect ratios for consumption. Then we busted into the bud light limes. I had 3. One for now, one for now, one for stage. Also water, but more beer.
We got into our battledress and amped ourselves up backstage. We took some pictures then loaded on. Walking around, we got stares, as we usually do. This was only my 4th time in it. Matt and Craig were well-versed in this already. After the first time it got easier for me. I knew and now know where my head needs to be in order to get to that place so I'm not so self conscious about it. Mostly alcohol fueled. It's funny as some people are appalled or confused, and others are taken aback, but have a "hell yea" attitude about it. Either way you can't let your guard down. You have to own it. if you don't or they find a crack or weakness, they will prey on you. I have an aggressive feeling when it comes to this. My caveman comes out when it comes to the defense of myself and friends who are getting picked on and I will promptly shove my fist through the stomach of anyone picking on us. This situation in particular, as too many nowadays are beaten up for their appearance. Cross dressers, folks in transition, or people who simply want to wear feminine clothing. So for me personally I take offense. Don't do that!
Our set went well. Video was taken, pictures, and quite a crowd. I did however blow my load too early. Adrenaline and of course the events leading up to the day may have contributed. It happens this way more than not. I got up at 5:45 to work, worked almost half a day, then got ready for a show, drove, prepped my brain for a show, in 80+ degree weather, then had to PLAY a show. perhaps it was because we were outside, i'm not sure, but I was exhausted before the climax of the set (for me) which is a song we play where I'm playing a beat on the hi-hat almost exclusively and it is very taxing. Depending how I feel during and after this song, determines how well I am for the rest of the set. i was quite exhausted before we even started it, so I knew I was in trouble. I think we played a bit faster, which is expected, but I could not pull off the fills I wanted to. I missed things. Both of my crash cymbals were trashed, cracked and beat to death where they made little sound. My right crash in particular, so I had to adjust so not to play it outright through most of the set other than for emphasis. These things are detrimental during a set as muscle memory comes into play when adrenaline is all that's getting you through. I like to put on a show. Yes, we ARE putting one on as a group, but personally, I like to not simply play for the song, but play to the crowd as much as possible. I am in the back mind you, I need to fight for my share of people's limited eyeball time during each song. I play as if I'm looking for all of it.
We nailed every part of our set aside from a recent song implementation where the transitions needed to be perfect, they were there, but not as polished as they will be in future. No major fuck ups though. No sticks lost, no strings broken, no parts botched. I was only disappointed I wasn't on my A-game. My head was, my body was not. I'm not the 18 year old I used to be. During the set, I re-pulled a muscle in my left shoulder/neck on stage. I had pulled it earlier in the week on Monday or Tuesday and it took me all week to heal it. So naturally I felt it hard somewhere in the set and I wanted to die the rest of the night. It's taken me all weekend to recover. It ain't like it used to be.
We loaded out and I lied on the thick farm grass for a moment. People came up to us telling us how amazing of a show we put on, still in battledress. We sat around cooling for a while, and watched the following acts. When the Lipstick boys played, it began to rain, we rushed off to load our gear back up before it got too wet. Rainbows galore. We noticed the Lipstick Boys taking some hints from Craig and Matt. Shirts with sharpie on them, Brian wearing a dress, much like Craig, complete with a dead ringer of a smiley face on his knee, the same as Craig on his bald head. He was flattered, I roll my eyes at that stuff. Be original. I mean shit, borrowing ideas is one thing, but straight up ripping off at the same gig no less, that is very much a "come on man." moment. Brian means well, but he is very much an untrained puppy dog that aged. He was very flattering with his words afterwards. He means well. He got a bit intoxicated as the night moved. Child cannot handle his liquor.
We scraped together some bucks for 3 quesadillas (I did not bring cash) and we ate them in Craig's car. They were delicious. I was famished at that point and out of booze. As we began, Matt had a stash of Geny's in his bag. Crafty bastard. It got dark and the bugs came out. We said our goodbyes and were on our way. Getting a bit lost through Bath, NH and then making our way onto the highway, in and out of consciousness myself, listening to the conversation going on in the front seat. we arrived at Matt's in what seemed like 10 hours and then loaded out some gear, and got into my car and passed the fuck out. Overall, a successful day's work.