Salem-Teikyo University
Salem, West Virginia.
(Were you at this show? Please introduce yourself!)
FIRST SHOW OF THE SEASON. I put aside all of Thursday as a travel day, so I took my sweet time packing the van. Remembered every little guitar cord & banana & tea and mic stand and everything. CD walkman. Big cup for ice tea. My shades, and even remembered the camera.
Had the most meditative drive out there. I left Woodstock at 1pm with some good CDs in the van, stopped for gas outside of Woodstock, and just drove straight for 4 hours, looking for a Taco Bell on the way.
No Taco Bells in central PA, so… no stop! I listened to a CD or two but for the most part was just enjoying the silence & the constant rumble of the road, flying down the highway.
At the southern PA border (four hours later) I finally found a Taco Bell and got my long-awaited Veggie Fajita and one bean burrito, then I hopped in the car and drove for another four uninterrupted hours. Didn't even stop to pee.
The cool thing about highways in Maryland: instead of blasting through mountains to make the road less hilly, they went & let the highways be hilly. It makes it much more scenic.
So on the way out I saw the most amazing sunset! A friend told me you could see it in New York, too. Technicolor clouds. I shot this with my left hand while driving 70mph with my right.
Got into Salem at 9:30pm. That’s exactly an eight hour drive – 440 miles – on one tank of gas! Figured out I’m still getting 24 miles per gallon. Not bad for van full of equipment with the a/c on. Had a quiet night in the hotel. I’ve got no TV at home, so it’s always fun to see cable in a hotel, and just slum out, playing guitar. Christine & Ray didn’t get in ‘til 3am.
THE SHOW: Professional Pests
(photo: JERRY! The guy that hired us.) Morning was Professional Pests. It’s hard
to leap around in a lycra costume first thing in the morning after only a few hours’
sleep. I was pretty annoying. The shadow is a blast when there are tons of people and I
can get that initial scare out of hundreds. But when there are only 100 people there and
they stay there for the whole 2-3 hours, it loses its charm pretty fast.
(Most heard lines: "Hello again Mister Shadow. Yes I’ve seen you already. Okay you can go away now. You’re not funny anymore.")
It was exhausting. My costume had holes. This 10-year old kid was fun but wouldn’t stop hopping on me for piggyback rides. We wrestled on the martial arts mat. I twisted my neck pretty bad. Hurt for a few days. Ah – that’s what I get paid for, right?
Passing out condoms. Stealing people’s trophies and name tags. Invading personal space. Crawling under tables. ‘Tis the life of a Pest. And then we were done.
Guess what?
My hotel was right across from…
Another Taco Bell!
So after the show I got a big jumbo giant lemonade and grabbed Christine to go hit the movies. (5 hours off ‘til setup time for the Hit Me show.) The only thing playing @ the Meadowbrook Mall was BLADE. We rolled our eyes, snuck in some drinks, and went to go see Blade.
Not bad! Good effects. Some of it was like "Mortal Kombat" or something.
But you know what? It was really quiet. The sound in the theater was low. You never notice how much the big sound affects you until you hear it quiet, and you feel like you’re in a big theater watching someone’s TV or something. Listening really hard to hear what they’re saying. Especially with a big techno movie like that they should pump it up.
But in hindsight – one of those movies you walk away from saying, "That wasn’t bad!" Then never think of again. (Unlike Private Ryan.)
THE SHOW: Hit Me
Drove by & couldn’t find it. Recognized students on the street that I had been terrorizing earlier in the day as the Pest. Asked for directions as if I knew them already. They were confused.
The town and school had organized this very cool "Welcome back" cookout for both students & locals. Good way to integrate the two. I imagine many small towns have a big college, but the two stay in different worlds. The students (especially at big universe-sized universities) never leave campus, and the locals never go in.
So here we were by the train tracks, outside on a wooden covered stage. All gathered ‘round at this barbecue. The PA system was distorted & overloaded, so the sound wasn’t great, but we made do.
Funny thing it took me this long to notice:
When you get up there and do song after song after song, it’s easy for the audience to tune out, turn off, get up & leave, etc… But when you start being a REAL PERSON and chatting, and stopping songs for the joggers that pass by, and just having a good time, then it’s like you’re all in it together.
Make it fun for them. Make it fun for yourself. Don’t be so "serious". That’s my advice to performers.
Guy requested "Do some Kiss!" So I played "Kiss" by Prince.
We had the future-King Of the Hill team to the right of the stage – off in their own little thing – probably watching Christine bounce from a good angle.
So the best part of this show was immediately AFTER the show – when everybody came up & introduced themselves. Funny young freckled girl who was thinking of being a model. (Yuk – terrible terrible life! I’ve met enough NYC models to know.) Her brother Derek. Their mom who was taking classes again after all these years & probably getting more out of it than any 18 year-old would. The gang of freshmen who are in the class of 2002.
CLASS OF 2002:
Here’s what’s funny about that concept.
For me and most of my friends, we’ve been out of college for a few years.
The year 2000 is our next big turning point.
Everything might change. Talk about New Year’s Resolutions!
But if you’re in the class of 2002, then you’ll go home for Christmas. Have a New Years’ party. Then 10 days later you’re back in English class again. No big deal.
Those of you in the class of 2002 reading this, let me know what it’s like. What are your thoughts on the year 2000? Is it a big deal anyway, even if you have to just head back to class again next week?
TO end this story: Christine & Ray had to drive back to NYC that night, while I stayed on. They drove ‘til 6am, and went to Atlantic City, gambled for a while, and got into New York at 9am or something. Sick, huh?
Move on to the next day to read about the trip over the mountains to Farmville.
THE BLEACHER GANG at Salem-Teikyo (includes the class of 2002)
THE GUYS (joined by Christine
Clarke) WITH THEIR OWN LITTLE THING
Cool girl who was thinking of being a model
(Don't waste your life on it, girl!)