Fall 2006 - Kait's Headin' For Another Joint Journal

As I stood at work on Friday afternoon, my boss asked me if I was ready and excited for our upcoming trips. I explained to him that I wasn’t ready (cause I never am) and that I didn’t feel like I was seeing Bob the next day. Usually our trips start with one or both of us driving some long distance or flying a couple days prior to the actual show. I always feel like I need this separation to get into the groove of things. So when I woke up on Saturday morning at the time I usually do to go to work it sure felt different. Carrying all that we packed ourselves and all the things we needed (and some things that we certainly didn’t) and headed north up the 101. The drive north is lovely, through the redwoods and next to the shore, over the mountains the though the woods. :) 7 hours later we arrived early enough in Portland to have a few hours to stop vibrating from the highway travel before we headed to the venue. It was our first show, which is always exciting. New album, new live songs…more than a person can stand sometimes. Our seats were ok, but we noticed a number of empty seats just before Bob began so we moved up. As it turned out, those people came for their seats and were truly apologetic for having to take them. In the row in front of us there were 2 more empties and the seating attendant encouraged us to take them if no one came. We moved up and no one came. What luck! I had said earlier in the car that Bob should bring back Tombstone Blues cause this band would do it well, and it he did! The crowd was good and hearing the Modern Times songs live for the first time was amazing. I thought often of Bob mentioning how his live performances were how the songs should really be heard and I can’t do anything but agree with that statement. We got hoisted up front for the encore and finally got a good view of what was going on up there. After the show we headed back down I-5...back just where we’d come from only hours before. On the day off in SF we went out to sushi with a good friend and hit the sack for the next day’s GA experience. We got to the venue and greeted our California/western US friends and settled in to discuss the previous show and hopes for the show ahead. We both got a hours nap in sitting in our chairs, had a good breakfast and waited. Everyone we knew at the front of the line got in and got a good spot. The show was good and gave me my first Lenny Bruce as well as some of my faves like Senor, Tangled and of course, the new songs! After the show, leaving the bathroom a young man ran up to us but in the confusion of the moment I couldn’t tell who the hell he was! He could see it in our faces and reminded us that we’d met him in Ukiah at a joint we’d stopped for dinner at just over a week before. He’d been playing a Bob song when we walked in so we gave him and his partner fan club stickers and told them to look for us at the show because they said they’d be there too! We all cooed about the new songs and the show in general and headed off to the bar. I had declared the theme of this tour to be “Just Do It”, but the night of the first show turned into just overdo it quickly and we were hurting the next day for sure. We hauled our pitiful butts to the venue much later than usual and wrapped ourselves in our sleeping bags and moaned until it was time to get in. The line of people at the rail ended up being the same as the night before, and Bob could surely tell. We placed a fan club sticker on the rail facing the stage and Bob mimicked the logo and pointed at all the regulars dancing and having the best time. Bob fueled the folks in the front with his antics and we gave it all back cheering, dancing and having an all around great time! After working for a day and a half we drove back down to the Bay area to go to the airport. We got up a our usual early hour and headed to the venue to wait for one of the few GA shows of the tour. The weather was spectacular in Long Beach and we mused that we wished there were more shows there so was could head to the beach and lounge for awhile. For a venue that apparently has concerts frequently, they didn’t have it very together. They had the entry tables setup for the seated portion of the venue by 7 AM, but didn’t have anyone who knew what was going on at the GA doors at all. Depending who you were asking, we didn’t need wrist bands or did, needed a pat down or didn’t… In the end it was agreed that we had to each proceed to a sporadically placed person with a wand, then go through a table search that sometimes involved a pat down and sometimes not, then head to a random table off to the side to get a wrist band and finally to a door and through a turnstile where a ticket taker was stationed. Amazing. They were really concerned about moshing, but based on the incompetence of the staff, I don’t think they could have figured out how to stop us anyway. This was my favorite show of the tour and bob laughed and danced his way though. He mimicked the sticker was had placed on the outside of the rail facing the stage cracking up at the antics of us regulars in the front. Denver was extra interesting thanks to the oxygen depravation all of us low-landers were suffering from up there! Just like Bob, we spent a lot of time eatting in Denver on the days off. In line we spent most of our time sitting in our chairs nodding off (also due to lack of oxygen) rather than talking to folks. We got in a good game of cards and did talk to a few of the folks we hadn’t seen this round yet and some that we had including Deb who had made the big drive from LA to Denver. Mostly though, we went back and forth between lamenting to each other about having to go home and looking forward to the show. Bob and the band really shook up the songs and gave us some really stunning performances to end our mini-tour. -Kait