The Home to Road

“And now we’re on state number three for the day,” says Mike the TM as we cross from Ohio to Kentucky. The Tally Hall machine is grinding its way from Michigan to Tennessee in this, the beginning, of our new tour. Today’s drive will be between 10 and 14 hours, depending on traffic and bathroom breaks. I’m betting closer to the 14-hour mark. I feel a little bad, having detained the machine in Ann Arbor while I went to a walk-in clinic. The “throat thing” I’ve had for about two months turned out to be a bacterial infection, so I needed to get a prescription for antibiotics. Given the necessities of touring, I’ll probably not get it filled for a state or two, but what’s another couple days?

In Tennessee we’re going to pick up our tour-mates, De Novo Dahl and Low vs. Diamond. I know absolutely nothing about them, except that we’re going to become well acquainted with each other over the next few weeks. I’m going to try to be more welcoming than I was with the Republic Tigers, who turned out to be totally awesome.

Many apologies for my lack of posting between the beginning of April and now; the East Coast tour turned out to be really intense, not to mention seriously lacking in long drives, which are so perfect for blogmaking. Nevertheless, I do have memories and, since beginnings are a good time to think about the past, I’ll share what I’ve got. The last tour was really schizophrenic; we played everywhere from tiny student coffeehouses to 800 person rock clubs.

Particular treats during the last tour included seeing my parents in Northampton and then having them come to the show in New Haven. My folks hadn’t heard me mix since my very first club gig in Portland on the day before I graduated from college in 2005. I’d like to think that a lot has changed since then, but I know I’ve got a long way to go before I’m as good as I want to be. My dad said “that was cool, did I hear some feedback?” My mom said, “couldn’t you have turned it down for your mother.” I had, of course, mixed quieter than I normally do, but of course it’s never quiet enough for Mom.

Another exciting part of New Haven was getting to see Brett and Julia. Brett is a good friend from high school, and the drummer from my first rock band ever. He and his girlfriend Julia stayed with us in Portland while they were on a road trip of epic proportions. Brett is also a fantastic photographer, and was able to get some pretty great shots of the band. Check out their blog at blog.brettmickelson.com. Brett and Julia took me out to the best pizza I would end up having this tour (sorry, NYC). The spot, Modern Apizza, was on par with Ken’s Artisan or Apizza Scholls in Portland.

I had a homecoming of sorts in Northampton. The Iron Horse Music Hall is the first place I remember going to a popular music concert. When I was 9 or 10, my parents took me to see Mose Allison, a piano playing jazz singer songwriter. The highlight of that Mose show for me was not the actual performance but rather running into Mr. Allison outside of the bathroom just before the performance. Now, I’m not sure what he had ingested, but he left the most odorous stench my young nostrils had experienced. Not only was I a starstruck little piano player, I was an awestruck little farter. Mixing at the Iron Horse was a bit of a challenge, but the room sounded great and the PA, while looking a little funny, filled the space quite well. Adding to my enjoyment of the Iron Horse was the fact that the bartender knew how to pour a G clef into the head on a Guinness. Matt (I hope I’m remembering his name correctly) was a really helpful house guy and just a generally nice dude.

Note: We just passed a sign in Kentucky for “Big Bone Lick State Park.” I love touring.
In New Haven, we played at Toad’s Place, a fairly oversized room for us at 800 capacity. Toad’s crew were really nice—one of two groups of loaders we had this tour—and quite helpful. Their LD, whose name I’m embarrassed to have forgotten, built us a projector platform from scratch. Eric, the production manager/sound guy, was both nice and helpful, in spite of a late arrival.
In Boston (Allston, actually, but who’s counting?), we played at the Great Scott, where the house guy, Ben, was a friend of both Mike, our TM, and Will, my housemate. Ben was the best part of the Great Scott. Ross, Tally Hall’s drummer, sprained his ankle on a hole in the floor at the Great Scott, so that venue gets a big ole frowny-face in my book.

In Brooklyn, we played at the Southpaw, a dingy, typical rock club with a nice staff,. Stage mgr. Ken and sound guy Kevin were both quite helpful and accommodating. The PA sounded pretty good and they had enough toys to keep me busy and out of their hair. Unfortunately, the mix position was about as far away from the stage as it could be while remaining in the same building.

In New York City, we played at the fabled Bowery Ballroom. House guy Kenny, whom I’d been warned about by Si, was definitely the awesomest house guy I’ve ever met; he’s been around forever and knows that room like the back of his grizzled hand. “Yeah, those EQs are on the house, this one’s on the center, that one’s on the bottom clusters, but I usually just keep ‘em flat.” Wow. Not only is Kenny a great dude, the Bowery sounds great. Once a couple people get inside of it, the room cleans up a whole lot and the PA covers so well it’s not even funny. Joe’s guitar buzzed a whole lot, but the guys soldiered on.

In Philly, we played at the North Star Bar, and a special treat was awaiting me at the end of the night. Don, “director of operations” at the sound company, was on his way from Portland to NYC and stopped off for a few beers in Philly with me after our show. It was great to see someone from home. You should check out the band he’s working for right now, they’re called Smoosh. I’ve done monitors for them and they’re not only the politest little girls I’ve ever met, they’re also really good songwriters and very professional performers. Reed, the house guy for the Philly show, was really nice, in a stand-offish kind of way. He seemed to know more about his PA than anyone else we ran across.

Our time in DC included some pretty cool press stops. The first stop was at XM radio, where we were given a really complete tour of the facility. We learned from our tour guide that “you can put a sattelite in space for under $500 million!” We also got to see where the buck stops at XM. In a room reminiscent of Dr. Evil’s control room, sits one person in a futuristic chair, surrounded by video screens displaying all data about every XM station and rebroadcaster. On this person’s right is a trackball, and on his left is a phone. Anytime that phone rings the buck stopper has to be able to fix the problem. Amazing. What’s more amazing is the fact that everyone who goes into the XM offices walks by this person in his glass bubble. Must be a weird job to have, everyone always looking in on you. On the one hand, you have all the power, and on the other you’re like a caged monkey. Dance, monkey, dance.

Our other press stop was at NBC in DC. Our progress between XM and NBC was blocked by the confluence of two of the most powerful people in the world: the president and the pope. What should have been a 20 minute drive took over 2 hours. At NBC, the dudes jumped out, got their “acoustic set” gear and headed for the studio. We were so late at NBC that we ended up also being late for the show at DC9. Our show in DC was forgettable, the house guy was cranky and not the most flexible; the PA sounded fine, if a little beamy. The rest of the night, on the other hand, was amazing. We hung around the venue, DC9, until last call and then went off in search of food. Many places were closed, but when we finally found an open one, it was perfect; they served the largest slices of pizza I have ever seen. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the slices were 10” wide at the crust by 18” from crust to tip. Huge pizza. The pizza joint was run by a bunch of African dudes who were listening to Fela Kuti on a ghetto blaster.

The final show of the tour was in Canton, MI at a high school. The sound company, Signature Audio, did an admirable job of covering the room given the budgetary constraints, but the PA just didn’t quite have the oomph we needed. Of course, I’m not sure they could have put more power in that room, every time Ross hit the kick drum, the console lights dimmed. Eep. I did notice one thing, however: high school students LOVE Tally Hall. They cheered and cheered and cheered and stood and stomped and screamed. It was great to see an audience really get into the show like that. It was also a really fun end of tour show; the Republic Tigers, our support this tour, had gone to a dollar store and bought a whole bunch of hilarious blow up toys and hats and balls and stuff. They filled the stage with funny stuff and threw some at the audience. Dave, the Tigers’ sound guy, and I wore a pink flamingo hat while mixing. I still miss those guys; they were great.

And so, having looked back at the past tour, I think I’m ready for new things. The venues on this tour are larger and better equipped, in general, than the ones we saw last tour. It feels like we’re already in the swing of things. Here’s to traffic jams, fast food, truck stops, fun shows and happy humans.