Already Ready to Go Already

So here I am in the Portland Airport, all ready to be on tour already. I ended up leaving a day before I thought I would, so apologies to everybody in Portland to whom I neglected to say goodbye. I’ll be back in a week, so don’t stress. Thanks be to Travis for passing on the Drive By Truckers. I’m loving Decoration Day. If you haven’t heard it, you should.

Last night, after all the laundry was done and most of the bags were packed and the dog was fed and my gear was ready, bagged, tagged and lidded, Mark and Mike and I went to Gino’s, a swanky Italian restaurant in Sellwood, where our friend and housemate Elizabeth is a server. She hooked us up with a really good bottle of wine, which quickly became good friends with my inch thick steak. Our buddy Vance joined us for a little while, too. Vance has the coolest job of anyone I know. He’s an incredibly talented digital animator and visual artist. His first professional job involved working for big shit recording artists, like Prince, Bon Jovi, Usher and Puffy. Yeah. Wow. There’s nothing quite like the company of good friends. I’m really blessed by the good friends I’ve made. A more loyal, creative, hard drinking, hilarious group of people you’d rarely find.

On our way into Gino’s, I ran into my buddy Blake, who was out with work friends. It’s been really weird to tell people I’m going away. I feel like I should be as ecstatic as I was when I first got the e-mail titled “Tally Hall Tour Dates” (I yelped for joy and ran around my office in the warehouse shouting “Fucking sweet! Fucking awesome! I’m going on tour!”), but I’m also wary of seeming too excited only to have to come back with my tail between my legs. This is not to say that I don’t trust in my own capabilities on either a technical or interpersonal level. Rather, as I’ve learned in the past few months of working for a local sound company, weird shit sometimes crops up and throws a big ole c-wrench in your works. I’ve gotten pretty good at dealing with weird shit, but this tour thing will be a lot of new and interesting weird shit.

On the one hand I’m super excited about getting out on the road; this is, after all why I’ve been doing this whole sound thing, or at least that’s what I tell people; on the other hand, I’ve gotten a pretty comfortable routine in the last couple years: I’ve got a the most neighborhood bar and a great local coffee shop. I rent a fantastic apartment, inhabited by most of my favorite humans on the planet. I have a swanky job with a fancy sound company that’s only 10 blocks from my house. Shit, I even have a weekly trivia team. Still, the road holds the possibility lot of excitement. Leaving aside the monetary benefits that come along with touring, I enjoy seeing new country and it’s been a long time since I’ve traveled anywhere new. I am Jack’s intrepid trepidation.

My friend Si came by last night with good wishes, shorts and a little pre-tour care package. Si is* an experienced touring sound engineer. She’s been around the block a few times with a few bands (The Jesus Lizard, Godspeed You Black Emperor, The Geraldine Fibbers, The Black Keys, Tomahawk, Indigo Girls). She made me a custom folder with cutsheets for charting my channels in it. I’ll show you what cutsheets look like when I use them. She also gave me a couple of ground lift adapters (3 prong to 2 prong Edison) with her special baby-blue tape on ‘em. Sounds real geeky, I know, but it warms my heart.

My room is always cleaner just before I leave town than any other time. The rhythm of me cleaning the house is so associated with departure that the dog freaks out everytime the vacuum enters my bedroom and everytime a trash bag goes from my bedroom trashcan to the curb. He was mega-cute last night, all worried about me not being around, making cute noises, doing the cutest thing (scratching his nose with his forepaws). He makes this forced whistly/whiny sound you can only hear when you’re right next to his face.

Mark, Will and I went out for coffee with B-DOSC** this morning. It was really nice to have them see me off, felt like a real person for the first time in a while. I guess it’s not until you’re at the edge of something that you realize what both sides really mean.

In International Mustache Month news, I shaved my ‘stache last night and royally effed up my sideburns. The one side stretches to my jawline and the other ends—where it should—around my ear. I’ll fix it eventually.

Finally, I forgot my camera cable in Portland, I think, so it may be a little bit before I get pictures up.

*WATSNOTE: palindrome, sucka.
**B-DOSC= Billy, Dog of Sam Cole a.k.a. Billy, Destroyer of Some Cities