sfu·ma·to tour journal

U$ $wing $tate Tour - Autumn 2004

White Overtone Dog
Tuesday, 5 October 2004

Washington DC - Charlottesville, Virginia

procrastinate until 45 minutes before my Greyhound bus leaves, sprint into the station soaked with sweat to hastily buy my Ameripass & find that my bus is late. arrive, find the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, oozing with atmosphere. have seance with pigeons / city birds on top of parking garage. play to very few, switching from incapacitated guitar in one room to Wurlitzer in the other. finally have woman bluntly tell me no more performance. and she the hot artist i had been curious about! smoke much, read a few poems, camp out in front of the closed Greyhound station from 2ish til 6:20 when by bus comes...

___day two___

Blue Rhythmic Monkey
Wednesday, 6 October 2004

Charlottesville VA - Huntington, West Virginia

bus ride through glorious Appalachian mountain landscapes, fall colours beginning to assert themselves. befriend an Austrian gentleman who takes me out for breakfast. after 14 hours of stale air, finally arrive in Huntington with my ramshackle, slipshod acoustic in hand & track down Marley's Dog House. redneck bar ambiance, fills up with rowdy drunk jock types who largely ignore me. end up inspiring & being flattered by a handful of people, am invited to play at (dang, i forget the name of the venue) next time. drink, flirt a bit, one kind woman lets me borrow her fold-out couch, and i sleep! i look forward to picking up my not-severely disadvantaged acoustic in Chicago...

___day three___

GAP! Yellow Resonant Human
Thursday, 7 October 2004

Huntington - Charleston WV

not many buses, so i crank away at booking the rest of the tour in the library, then trek all the way across town with a kind collector of aluminum cans to find a place to cash my check. no dice. find a shopping cart, though, which lightens my load blissfully. dumpster dive, find some candied apples, busk & panhandle a bit, & arrive in Charleston to find (or not to find) a J who is stranded in his house & can't fetch me. so the show is called off, and i loiter & hang in Charleston all through the night, warding off vindictive Bush-supporting grocers & encountering breathtaking socio-political poetry in another grocery store. then i'm bought dinner by a kind Chiji's employee!!! this tour is exhausting, and it's only day 3 of 21...

___day four___

Red Galactic Skywalker
Friday, 8 October 2004

Charleston - Mineral Wells WV

what a ball! awake from a nap on the Greyhound to the sight of a sizeable woman giving a brother a blow job across the aisle from me. go Greyhound! then the bus breaks down - a first for me as far as i can remember - but luckily it's up & running 10 minutes later. J & L & D & i jet around doing last minute errands for the show. my set goes really well - electric for a change with a local named Adam on the drums (my first time playing through a Marshall stack!). apparently the locals find me - "the French guy" - and my music weird. oh well - a bigger audience than the last several shows i've played put together! mostly teens & heavy bands. a fight breaks out outside with a knife pulled, and some drunk guy flings blood everywhere from his bleeding hand (after i leave). apparently this is the anniversary of Chicago being in flames, fitting that i played "chicago song." my hosts were _verr_ friendly & accomodating - i look forward to playing avec eux (http://www.projectactivemedia.tk) dans l'avenir...

___day five___

White Solar Wizard
Saturday, 9 October 2004

Marietta - Elyria, Ohio

still beautiful reds & oranges & yellows & browns & burgundys & coppers everywhere - i love Autumn. pulled into Elyria & hit The Spot. the show ended up being overbooked with six bands & my having a little smoke outside trimmed down my already short opening set. but the guitarist from Nightbreed was kind enough to lend me his electric & his amp. an ideal move because once again, it's young teens & heavy bands. sit behind my static layout of merchandise frustrated by the fact that the only attractive females to make eyes at are half my age... this one band starts bickering about how much $ they made from the door, even though B gave them a lot more than their share, and this after insulting the crowd over & over again while on stage. go figure. KERRY did a rally here today - good timing! slept in the club throught strange dreamscapes...

___day six___

Blue Planetary Eagle
Sunday, 10 October 2004

Elyria OH - Chicago, Illinois

rise & shine & on the Greyhound again. have a prolonged political argument with a fellow passenger which the woman behind me ends by simply saying "Bush is the Anti-Christ." arrive in Chicago, think how it's a shame that Lauren's left town, & head up to Rogers Park, home of the Heartland Cafe & Red Line Tap. beautiful clear day, busk in the subway, then head to the lakeshore to smoke the last of me stash to a beautiful sunset. Tim from Silkworm kindly dropped off my acoustic (wish i could have said hello) so finally a half-decent acoustic sound! forgot all about it being Sunday, so so much for my ritual... stayed for the other two sets (poppy for a change) & tried in vain to find a host/ess for the night, finally giving up for a few hours to repose on the floor of the Greyhound terminal... touring by one's self gets lonely.

___day seven___

Yellow Spectral Warrior
Monday, 11 October 2004

Chicago IL - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

still haven't heard from T about tonight's show, so i figure i'll head for the college town of Madison & stop by the library. _beautiful_ clear day again, glowing red sumac everywhere. get in exciting conversation with a middle-aged woman from Asheville. like minds... find out at the library that the show's on & hop on the bus back to Milwaukee. local bus through the city to the 8th Note Coffeeshop, pass breathtaking art museum framed perfectly at the end of the street, the lakeshore - Milwaukee's alright! Pier 57 - some young guns that were jailed at the RNC too - play their experimental digital noise, then The Breakdown play breakneck punk & let me borrow their virtuoso drummer, Jake, and their electric guitar. possibly the funnest set i've played yet on this tour. Signal Lost is next, playing the most vitriolic, seething, cathartic punk i've heard in a while, and the bassist's pretty too. Chris the drummer drums for J Church too - what do you know... we leave slightly into the last band's set, go out for a Chai, and T & his friends & his very friendly Mom give me the enticing lowdown on Milwaukee. discussions on veganism abound & we head back to their welcoming home to amazing Tuscan soup, squash, delicious rice pudding, and pancakes in the morning. Hallelujah!

___day eight___

GAP! Red Crystal Earth
Tuesday, 12 October 2004

Milwaukee WI - Minneapolis, Minnesota

find out that the show tonight is at a secret undisclosed location - Signal Lost's show, that is. no word from Alamo House peeps... T's Mom drives me back downtown, stopping by the art museum en route. back on the bus we glide through breathtaking Autumn colours & arrive in Minneapolis after nightfall (after a rest stop where i found an Aldi & bought beans, pumpkin, & granola!). meet a punk at the station & he & his friend kindly offer to drive me to the West Bank in the quest for the elusive shows. a guy lets me check my e-mail on his laptop & voila! B from Alamo House. he comes & picks me up, we part ways with my new friends a small gift of Salvia the richer, & head off to the illegal space where i & Signal Lost will be playing! yahoo! beautiful chaotic space - watch a few bands & am given 20 minutes to play. i step up, borrowing a guitar from a local band & their drummer for half a song before Signal Lost flips out & tells me i can play 2 songs tops. play "long tall sally" & "regnessap" stressed & under pressure. oh well. Signal Lost kicks arse again & the mosh pit is off the hook - at one point a bunch of people make a human pyramid in front of the stage - can't say i've ever seen that at a show before! thank you Minneapolis...

___day nine___

White Cosmic Mirror
Wednesday, 13 October 2004

Minneapolis MN - Des Moines, Iowa

wake up to wet & windy weather for a change - do a double-take when i look out the window to see the side of a house moving by (on the back of a truck it turns out). goodbye Alamo House & hello Greyhound (again). hear a man tell about being charged w/ shoplifting at a Wal-Mart & fined $150 for eating 3-4 grapes before reaching checkout. no kidding! befriend two fellow young men on da bus, play gin rummy with my tiny cards, and then share a blunt at Mason City airport - the only airport i've ever seen without a payphone. as i sit back for the rest of the ride, i wonder out loud why i don't ride the Greyhound stoned more often, then play a hushed song or two. in Des Moines it's cold - i haul my baggage to the local bus stop & hop on. the driver goes from harassing an innocent black passenger - very surreal, telling him to quiet down as we talk but ignoring me - to chit-chatting with me in French in a jovial mood. a motorist sends me in the wrong direction from the mall & i lug my load for an extra 15 minutes at least before finding Oberoi & Renu in Renu's apartment. great to see a good, close friend again & fantastic to eat Renu's sumptuous Indian food.

___day ten___

Blue Magnetic Storm
Thursday, 14 October 2004

Des Moines IA

a day of rest for a change! (or a night of rest last night more accurately) Renu leaves to go to work & Oberoi & i sit down at his laptop to work for a few hours too. we call Moberg Studio, the gallery exhibiting his work here, and they give the green light for a last-minute acoustic show tonight. i clothe myself in tie & dress shirt & the generous Devinder drives us over at 17:30. it's a beautiful, spacious gallery with much more empty space than audience, so my set practically ends up being a private performance for Oberoi and Renu. the acoustics are very good though, and this ends up being the highest quality, most satisfying acoustic concert (from my ears' point of view) yet. we return to Renu's and more impeccable Indian food & even a little guitar & vocal performance by the very talented Renu before calling it a night. Kerry passed through here today too!

___day eleven___

Yellow Lunar Sun
Friday, 15 October 2004

Des Moines IA - Kansas City, Missouri

wake up early & work a bit more for Oberoi before saying our goodbyes & hitting the road again. meet a very interesting college grad on the bus & end up envying her - en route to 3 months as a Park Ranger in Big Bend TX. maybe i'll try it one of these years. smoke a bit of Salvie at a rest stop but apparently less than the minimum dose. find the Stray Cat on arrival, go out to buy stamps & stumble over 2 opening art receptions with free beer. eat some Ramen & wwwork until it's stage time - the venue lets me borrow an electric & the Million Dollar Marxists offer up their drummer - a powerhouse. i thrash around & thrust every cell of my body into the performance moreso than i have at any other show yet, hair flailing, feedback ringing out - yes! drink, dance around to the MDMs afterwards & watch as one Yeti-like guy virtually marinates himself in beer & then climbs up on the speakers. appreciably smoke some Ganja, then experience the most unreal discussion of this tour yet with a devilish guy yelling & SUPER obnoxious; a rich, racist, classist, brainwashed beyond belief, crazy (but gorgeous) woman.

___day twelve___

Red Electric Dragon
Saturday, 16 October 2004

Kansas City MO - Iowa City, Iowa

hang out & wwwork until 6 in the morning when i realize that my bus is in an hour. wander out through the sleeping bodies & get some shut-eye on the Greyhound. walk down a picture-postcard, tree-lined lane full of bright yellow & orange trees to the Whoa! Boat, tonight's venue. meet Tim of Jerk Off Jack Off Frig Face (from Maine) & Abby of Claremont who is documenting punk houses. we lounge around & smoke & cook up eggs & biscuits (with my gravy, all the way from West Virginia) & i nap. the show starts with Bono The Rock Star, the house band, who remind me of early P.I.L. whom they've never heard. talent... i play a good, soulful set on a plug-in acoustic, lying down on my back for "spinning." finally sell the last psi e.p.! Yellow Vs perform blisteringly good hip-hop & JOJOFF plays foot-stomping, funny-bone-shaking country - i want to sign them both! a great night. the hour gets late & i trek on over to the Greyhound for my 3 a.m. bus, a wad of money in me pocket (thank you Lord)... go Nutty Nuggets!

___day thirteen___

White Self-Existing Wind
Sunday, 17 October 2004

Iowa City IA - Denver, Colorado

there's nothing like a day of which 18 consecutive hours are spent on the Greyhound. yee-haw... i sleep a lot, working off some of my accumulated exhaustion. we cross Iowa, we cross Nebraska, pass beautiful, rippling, golden cornfields & not much else. Earth tones & flat landscape as far as the eye can see. somewhere in Nebraska we take a rest stop under some of the most foreboding, curling, churning, knotted clouds i have ever seen, just as the pinkish-orangish glow of sunset fades. breathtaking. we arrive amidst the sprawl of city lights of Denver & i go hunting for an internet connection to check about the show tonight. apparently i'm little mr. misunderstood & nothing's on. i set up at the 16th st. mall & start playing in the open air for the occasional cluster of Sunday night strollers - get a few claps & hoots of encouragement, $1, and a bud. :) Uncle Burt fetches me after 20-30 minutes & takes me to his house where i catch up briefly with Linn & Sanna Linn, eyebrows lifted by the tour of their spectacular house. go Deerroses!!!

___day fourteen___

Blue Overtone Night
Monday, 18 October 2004

Denver CO - Albuquerque, New Mexico

Linn & i set out for the ol' Greyhound bus station while the night / early morning sky is still an inky, deep, dark blue. by the time the bus pulls out, however, the sun has come out & proceeds to illuminate the amazingly pictoresque landscapes which unravel through virtually the entire journey. The Rocky Mountains, strange volcano-shaped hills, cliffs, mountains, flaming bright yellowish-orange trees, ah... not for the first time i speculate as to how it's possible to come from Eastern U.S. to Western U.S., see the marvels of Nature out here, and go back East. i couldn't do it. savour a little spliff sitting up in a tree somewhere in New Mexico, enjoy the view, and am at peace. Ben & his German friend Esther fetch me on arrival & it's off to his girlfriend's to eat scrumptious SouthWestern food complete with pot banana bread & green pot butter. we drive over to the Blue Dragon & catch some odd Blake songs, some good folk, an enigmatic pop band, some saxophone, some strange noisemaking, some annoying 'hip' folk, and myself. (the Blake guy did a kick-arse socio-political critique, anthemic piece too - yeah!) i play 2 short sets on a plug-in acoustic, once again realize i have difficulty looking in the audience's eyes - don't know if it's shyness or what. good audience response & sell a few CDs, then sleepytime.

___day fifteen___

Yellow Rhythmic Seed
Tuesday, 19 October 2004

Albuquerque NM - Tucson, Arizona

i am pooped! so this must be total exhaustion. Ben drops me off & i begin the day's lonesome stretch through the SouthWest. it's wild around here - the landscape empty as far as the eye can see. just the great wide open. population density here must be a tenth of what it is out East, if that. barely any traffic either as we descend on El Paso before switching buses & heading West. security checks me & finds my Swiss Army knife - i can't have it in my carry-on, can't put it in my checked baggage now that they've found it, & have to pay $5 to 'ship' it by GPX beneath the bus. i'm not even kidding! there's a lovely Hispanic lady to make eyes at on the bus so i get over it, sleep... arrive in Tucson & meet J, we walk into every bar, grill, and cafe but no one wants my live music. so we spin over to her swank house, i have a smoke, and she drops me off downtown to busk. i spread out all my supplies (including ahole box of musicforamerica.org stuff) on the corner & play for a few hours, meet much gratitude & a couple of characters. one gives me a ride to the Greyhound & i'm off on the 3:25...

___day sixteen___

GAP! Red Resonant Serpent
Wednesday, 20 October 2004

Tucson AZ - Las Vegas, Nevada

get the luxurious back seat on the tour bus so i sleep as much as possible, have strange inchoate dreams. the view continues to sea-saw, to dip & rise & dip again. arrive in Vegas late afternoon, am told to consult the music listings in the free local paper which is nowhere to be found. finally am handed one by a guy in a pizza resto. manager tells me they need the seats so i plop myself down just outside on the sidewalk to finish my list of venues. suddenly the 5-0s arrive & handcuff (with metal!) & search me. they point out a 'No Trespassing' sign & confiscate me wee joint, letting me keep my Salvia after much negociation. what a pair of rude jocks. i walk away & look up to see a gorgeous rainbow, both a left arc & a right arc (forgot to mention we traversed a rainstorm coming through Nevada). hmm... smoke it while you have it, eh? seize the moment. 2 kind couples at a bar call me over & feed me Guinness & shrimp. i lug my baggage over to a bar called Dino's, apparently one of the few within walking distance of the Fremont canopy. pass countless porn newspaper dispensers, find it, & i can play when the Red Sox game is over. Vegas is a police state. look out.

___day seventeen___

White Galactic World-Bridger
Thursday, 21 October 2004

Las Vegas NV - Sacramento, California

forgot to mention i took a bus back to the Greyhound station because a cowboy regular at Dino's told me i might likely get my head cracked open & guitars stolen if i walked. take the bus at 2:00 am & sleep most of the way to L.A. contemplate calling peeps to swing by before my connection to Sacramento but lo & behold, it's leaving immediately. the more i travel around the U.$., the more i'm overwhelmed by the omnipresent ugliness of Western human civilization. pockets of Nature are beautiful, but virtually everything i see which has been manmade in our industrial age is ugly. i look forward to leaving the U.$. again... find the kindly staffed library on arrival in Sacramento, get email from byofl guy about moveon.org benefit at The Distillery. perfect! lug my bags over & the bartender seems optimistic that i can play. sit around til i find out about weekly poetry reading at Luna Cafe - walk over & catch a few local poets then an uproariously entertaining Berkeley writer woman. head to the gig & catch one good band, one less-so out of tune indie-pop, then it's me. just as i'm about to play my last song - with drums - sound guy rudely cuts me off. i storm off & hit things & do handstands around the block to vent. then The Knightmares play - one of the best bands i've seen in AGES! back to the Greyhound where a brother explodes, hits a security guard, & is arrested.

___day eighteen___

Blue Solar Hand
Friday, 22 October 2004

Sacramento CA - Eugene, Oregon

traverse glorious stretches of Nature unfloded in all of its splendour. mountain ringed, cool blue lakes with vibrant red & orange banks sloping diagonally into them, Mt. Shasta & many more mountains, several snow-capped & several clouded by fog. have a lively discussion with one co-passenger & then another. arrive in Eugene to a box of crushed (but very tasty!) cupcakes, apparently a Greyhound mishap. ask where The Downtown Lounge is, the guy laughs, and i see it's right behind me. convenient! go Greyhound! wander off to U. Oregon's campus for some wwwork, meet a kind young bloke who shares his kindbud, then run into 2 fellow Rainbow brothers, one of whom i hung out with at the RNC! smoke a bit more & off to the show. good opening duo, then i play a fun set with The Ginger Hustlers' drummer, followed by The Ginger Hustlers who are really impressive. one song almost gets me crying & it's an honour to open for them. they're very friendly too, and we drink and smoke, and it's back to the highway with me, $ in hand thanks to The Downtown Lounge... (stopped in a Democratic HQ & restocked my supplies in conservative Medford OR - black guy sees me affixing a KERRY sticker & wonders out loud why i'm promoting "that jerk.")

___day nineteen___

GAP! Yellow Planetary Star
Saturday, 23 October 2004

Eugene OR - Olympia, Washington

board the bus in the early hours, sleep, and pull into Olympia midday. finally i see the infamous indie rock mecca with my own eyes! find flyers for 2 shows tonight & knock on the door at K HQ nut no one is home. i stash my bags by the railroad tracks & trek far to the Eastside to the co-op where A apparently works but to no avail. hitchhike back downtown where Nicky of The Trackhouse says i can open the free dance party there. i try to rest a.m.a.p. in this cooh black house beside the tracks until people start trickling in & i play an acoustic set. then it's noise/laptop experimentation with effected guitar - verr good. a couple of other good bands play while the house packs with people. meet a woman (whistle WHISTLE!!!!!) whose brother runs a supercooh workshop in Kobenhavn then a French woman whom also knows Rob from Paris, and voila! there he is! then it's time for Nicky's show a.k.a. International Flirta w/ Dance Magic, which is simply _far too good_ & fun. my beloved & her fellow danseurs magiques strip down to their undies & bump & grind & gyrate while Nicky sings kick-ass feminist hits over pre-recorded beats. we shake our booties like i haven't done for many, many years,steamy & ecstatic. i complement my beloved on her dancing & she velcros on to me for perhaps the most tittilating dance in the history of humankind. wowza!!!!! i'm in love!!! go Olympia!

___day twenty___

Red Spectral Moon
Sunday, 24 October 2004

Olympia WA - Portland, Oregon

after a few hours of sleep in my sleeping bag on the couch on the porch, appreciatively inhaling the crisp, clean air (after all the hours i've spent breathing the dead, stale air on Greyhound buses), i'm woken to a drunk guy searching for his keys - the same guy i & 2 others escorted to a safe distance from the party hours earlier because The Trackhousers had had their fill of his aggression et al. oh well. wander over to a Starfucks & busk for a bit singing pure notes instead of words. go and sit by the lakeshore & bask in the sunshine & tranquility & beauty of all of the leaves changing colour. board the bus again in a brilliant mood, completely at peace & enraptured by Nature's glory ( Salvia might have helped :) ). fall asleep & wake up to the panorama of Portland spread out beneath me, hugging both sides of the river in the sunshine - i instantly love this city - it reminds me of my first imppression of Providence. i pass cooh galleries & arcades & boutiques & discover that Carbon Leaf is playing tonight @ The Diug Fir! call L & she finds me & we catch up after 6 years. we fins Scott & CL & get a green light to open for them before Steve A! Greg DULLI's band played gere last night, Helmet 2 nights ago. it's a swank place for the hipsters with logs dominating the decor. L runs off to get strings for me and almost misses my whole set :( which goes well with Scott drumming. Carbon Leaf puts on a powerhouse of a show, Scott & i catch up somewhat, and i'm off...

___day twenty-one___

White Crystal Dog
Monday, 25 October 2004

Portland OR - San Francisco, California

catch the 1:30 bus & i'm trapped in the rarified air for 17 hours. go team! sleep a.m.a.p., then start chatting in French with an inspiring young Quebecois who is crossing the expanse of the U$ from Canada to Mexico without giving a cent to the Amerikkkan economy/war machine. he's packed his own food & THOREAU would be proud. respect! we discuss every element of the world situation until we part ways in Sacramento. homing in on the Bay Area, the landscape becomes the unadorned, rolling brown hills of Northern California. i'm in high spirits as the Golden Gate Bridge & the S.F. skyline come into view - i love this city! cross the Bay Bridge triumphantly & i'm back on my old stiomping grounds. i lug my bags past striking hotel workers to a phenomenal veggie burrito at Cancun (6th & Market) fulfiliing a long-standing craving. call N but she's nopt home, meet a crazed bike messenger who is proud to be a Scab both for messengers & at the hotels, find a shopping cart to wheel my belongings around in & complete my homeless-guy-look. and head to CIIS to check email but all is closed. it starts raining & i propel my cart down to Potrero Hill to N & T's, it now being already 21:00 & no real shows going on tonight, so tonight will just be a social visit. we eat burritos (again! yay!) with homegrown tomatoes & discuss the elections & labour unions & expatriating & 9/11 et al until the early hours & then i get a few hours sleep in a super-comfy, makeshift BED!

___day twenty-two___

Blue Cosmic Monkey
Monday, 25 October 2004

San Francisco - San Diego - Los Angeles CA

i'm writing this a few weeks later so my memory is skewed. up & out, shopping cart my way from The Mission downtown to the bus terminal at 1st & Mission, & let the road uncurl beneath me. only arrive in San Diego with a few hours of a window before i need to be back on a bus by midnight. i wander out & meet someone who recommends playing on 5th (after endlessly poring over the Zs in the phone book to find E & K) so i set up & play a few songs. the law comes & explains that the sidewalk is not for me. so i relocate to a fountain-bearing park & play to the side of the sidewalk. sidesidewalk. get a good response for half an hour until i need to L.A. it. arrive & can't get a hold of either willing L.A. host, so i nap & chat witha fellow traveller until 9 in the morning. done!

(Lars RO, 2004)