Square bread
Backstage areas really vary. Last night’s venue Portland Alladin is a cosy little theater, with some history to it. The backstage is like a 40’s apartment, with actual dressing room facilities, unlike some of the venues I’ve been playing. The Agoura Canyon Club for example used to be a supermarket. I was shown to a little space that was partitioned off from Colin Hay’s by a wall that didn’t go right to the ceiling, so I could hear his band’s conversations, and they were forced to listen to my horrific vocal warmup excercises. It had no towels or hangers or fridge and certainly no food and drink. I went in search of a staff person responsible for the dressing rooms, and in the kitchens I found her, a dizzy blonde called Michelle. ‘Oh, is there a support band?’ she twittered. ‘What are you guys called?’
Now. I’m not a pissy artist type. I’m not the kind to scream at the top of my lungs ‘Get my agent on the phone! I want a full deli tray and three bottles of Shiraz in my dressing room in two minutes or I WALK!’ (although it would be fun as hell to do that one time, just for a goof.) Some venues we arrive mid afternoon for soundcheck and there’s a fabulous spread, fresh bread rolls and a tray of meats and cheeses and white wine chilling in a silver bucket. And often at the end of the night it’s barely been touched, because there’s only 1 guy in the band, I don’t invite a lot of folks backstage, and my crew seem reluctant to help themselves to my stuff. [Mental note: tell crew to chow down!]
That said, I’m often hungry after the show. I never have much of an appetite beforehand, so by 11pm or so I’m thirsty and ravenous. And end up swilling a Heineken and stuffing myself with salami and Swiss and M+M’s (not the blue ones, naturally.) Then I get to the hotel and pass out. Not very healthy. We try to book hotels with a gym so we can work it off in the morning, but the best intentions always seem to fizzle by the second or third week of a tour.
Ah, the joys of the deli tray. Square bread. Green olives, some with the little guys in, but some of them… Hello?
Through all of it, I never let it affect my performance. Oh and while we’re on the Tap references, here’s an email I got from sweet Kathleen this morning:
>>>>
Dear Mr.Tufnel,
I just found your driver’s license, your Visa card, your LTP/Thomas Dobly Amex card, and a pile of cash in a pair of sweats on the floor behind our bathroom door.
love,
Bobbi Fleckman
<<<<<
This is true. I realized the moment she dropped me off at SFO yesterday that I’d left that stuff in my sweats. I am rapidly devolving into brain-dead musician mode. But it didn’t matter as I have my Resident Alien card for photo ID, and I had ‘per diems’ due to me in cash in Portland.
Here are some more pics from last night’s show; thanks to John Lehmkuhl, a former Korg progammer and evidently ace photog.
Very cool blog as stuff as simple as what you eat can be very fascinating stuff indeed to us fans of yours! Amazing pictures that are making me even more excited for the Seattle gig! See you there! I’ll be in my Devo shirt and hope to be front row! WOO HOO!
Such a delight to be able to slip along with you on tour, as if we were a firewire cable tucked into your laptop bag. Thanks for sharing all the little backstage goodies we fans don’t get to see. Careful about leaving your stuff behind Thomas, we’d all hate to see you stranded somewhere. At least not where we didn’t have front row seats to all your performances!
Like autoxchica says, you must be very carefull. It would be dreadful if you couldn’t came to London because you mislaid your passport.
I also totally agree about food and drink issue. It is appaling how service goes downhill these days. (P.S. I would also like to point out that I’m having trouble with the pictures at the start of the blog again. )
Arhh Mate. I was a video tech in the 80′s & 90′s setting up the large screen displays on various stadium rock gigs around Europe. Food was ‘Eat to the beat’ or ‘Eat your hearts out’ (very good food) and all hotel rooms looked the same.
Touring is odd and it must be coming back to you what you’ve missed…….. or not!! Still it’s great hearing news from home and you know there’s a beginning and an end, so have a blast and don’t get too homesick. Life in a Suitcase eh! They say that travel broadens the mind. It does!
We can’t wait ’till you get to ‘Old Blighty’ and looking forward to hearing where this warm up is on the 23rd, please keep us posted.
All the best.
Great pictures, even if you do look a little bit like Paul Shaffer in the last one. Thank God you’re not as creepy as he is. Hurry back to Southern California, we miss you already.
Larry M. Scrivens
Hallo Out There….
I actually updated my Portland gig review, as blogs and live information flows, I realized, lapsidasicaly (sp?) that I left out the best spot of the night in my review…also, was there a second encore????
http://www.oregonlive.com/weblogs/isitart/
Just secured tickets for the London Warm Up. Fantastic.
Reading this makes me hungry, and also reminds me to get to the gym next week…er, on second thought, no hurry with that.
Thomas, be careful with those credit cards or you may end up in one of those Citibank Identity Theft commercials
http://daryld.com/citi-ads
Those photos rock! The show visuals look quite groovy. I hope those make it to the next tour.
Excellent photos!
Only makes me more excited about the Scala gig on June 23rd!!
I’m really looking forward to the show tonight in Seattle! Hope you’re able to enjoy some of the fine weather we’re having and you have some time to stroll Pioneer Square.
It was a fantastic show, and we rain-soaked Portlanders would love to have you back. That you decided to make the return to touring just now was awfully lucky from my standpoint — just in time for my partner to make our tickets a birthday present.
I’ve been hearing from everyone in the know that the Aladdin is absolutely the most pleasant local venue for concerts, and I hadn’t seen a show there until yours. Now I can see why it’s so well-regarded.
I loved your setup, the light and sound and video feeds — it was all brilliant, especially to see how you’ve updated your setup (couldn’t get enough of the live cam-feed from your head.) We liked the openers as well — in my opinion there is not *nearly* enough synthesizer music in the world.
Thomas, thank you so much for taking the time to write this blog. It’s really unique and interesting. I’ve never seen anything like it. Go figure!
By the way, I still work for Korg.
-John Lehmkuhl
More photos from the Portland show (34 total):
http://www.pbase.com/realkuhl/dolby
Good luck on the East Coast !!