west coast tour part 2.

well, we went the whole tour without posting anything. this seems to be the norm. it was partly due to the lack of reliable internet connections around the country, but more than that due to being so busy and lazy. or busy and tired.

internet access around america kind of feels like, we imagine, phone service was say, during the depression. big cities, you were pretty well covered. out in nowheresville, it was sketchy.

flora and i whizzed back across america in the silver streak, which is full of all our gear. middle america is a bleak and foreboding landscape, but no more so than texas. or Arizona or new mexico. or parts of California. its very very beautiful. the rest of the band flew home a few days ago.

i’ll start with the last show first, because its freshest in my memory.

SEATTLE

Tractor in Seattle was definitely when all the wheels were turning the best for both the bands: winterpills and for the as yet unnamed kris delmhorst experience. (kris and the band of delmhorsts, the delmhorst whisperers. leading a delmhorst to water.)

full house and the room sounded great think i lost my favorite t-shirt at the show: if anyone finds a black “Janus Films” t-shirt in seattle, please send it back to me. this pic is the empty stage after the last show. sadness and pain, mixed with joy.

before the show we snacked on a cheese plate and some fine wines at a wine bar right next door. seattle was left largely un-explored, but we loved the small taste of it we got, which was all in the Ballard district. i was happy to see my old college pal Lori Goldston, who does her own project with the Black Cat Orchestra and plays often with Mirah. also sweetly spotted was Max’s sister Lucinda.

as Kris’s ‘keyboardist’, i have to say i felt like this was the first night of the whole tour where the parts were coming together, i wasn’t overplaying, and my ghastly mistakes were kept to a minimum.

the last evening was bittersweetly topped off by all of us drinking a bottle of lovely small-batch brandy that Kris gave to us as a gift. though great with child, Kris took a sip. her doctor said it was ok.

PORTLAND

a double-header in a tiny sold-out venue, Mississippi Studios. very intimate and both shows wet over well. of course for us it was 4 shows, so by the end of the night we absolutely exhausted. promoter Jess Beyer left us with a nice bottle of spanish wine. the green room, which doubled a recording studio, has an impressive collection of paint-by-numbers artwork. this one was my favorite.

hmm, maybe i lost my t-shirt at this venue. please call.

EUGENE

WOW Hall is a big place. we did not fill it at all. but the crowd was very attentive and the sound was great, and the monitor engineer was very sweet and gave Flora a sprig of lavender.

this was our first sampling of the famous northwest beer phenom. it was very strong. i played our set rather tipsy from one beer.

Kris noted during the set that we seemed to have entered a certain technical malfunction vortex once getting into oregon. things were just not quite working right. cables were lost, little boxes did not function, strings were un-tunable. we adjusted. also, kris finally made a special announcement (see photo). bold girl.

SAN FRANCISCO

Cafe du Nord. packed and boisterous, this place has a great old-fashioned salon-type feel. saw many old friends. time in SF was way too short.
part 3 to come. we head south, backwards in time.

west coast tour, blog one. pre-tour.

the first part of this tour consisted of flora and philip driving across america with all the band’s gear. since no actual shows occurred or ion fact anything musical at all except listening to endless country and talk radio, ipod mixes, and the occasional cd,  reading books (night by elie weisel; the sheltering sky by paul bowles; vanity fair) its hard to determine if it should count. suffice to say the time was treated like something of an adventure/vacation for us both. flora had never done such a trip; i’ve done several of them with my family when i was kid as we were a bi-coastal family, but its been ages. i for one was eager to revisit with newer/wiser eyes the haunts of my youth, and flora was eager to see new sites that before had just been images in books.

since many sites we simply tore through, the ones we chose to stop at were given fairly basic tourist treatments by us, but believe me even that is a lot. new orleans made us to actually want to live there even though we did not visit the destroyed parts of the city (what exactly kind of tourism would that be, unless we were there to help in some way? we were haopy tio help with our meager tourist dolars)). anyway, hours spent walking around the french quarter with a warm humid breeze coming off the gulf and eating (in the space of 12 hours) jambalaya, crawfish pie, crab, file gumbo, beignet and muffaleta, was exactly the brief taste we wanted.

then, it was a hallucinatory and beautiful trek across the vast expanses of west texas, a sunset in new mexico that burned the sense, a genuine mexican meal in the tiny hamlet of lordsburg, and the next day the high pilgrimage of the trip to the grand canyon, where 18 hours were spent with our senses completely flooded with the quietude and vastness of  the place, our heads dizzy with the altitude, and later with the copious zinfandels we drank, sitting with our feet dangling over a 3 miles drop into the canyon. just watching the light change within the space of 10 minutes in the canyon feels like lifetimes of actual seeing. no one should eve live without visiting this place.

shortly we will post a video.

out on the weekend

we winterpills had two shows in new york this weekend. union hall in brooklyn and the living room on the lower east side of manhattan. we had massive car trouble which caused seemingly endless back-and-forth and decision-making, but the trouble, in my opinion, inspired us to play two great shows at two great venues. our friends were incredible, volunteering cars and places to stay and instruments, all of which we needed at some point. add to that the madness of hundreds of santas wandering drunkenly around the lower east side, shouting and filling up the bars, lounging tangled on fading couches, smashing car windshields…. still, good will and inspiration and laughter prevailed. thanks again to all who helped, who listened, who cheered… and happy holidays.

Time for times

Well, we’re heading into the holiday season. Good luck with that everybody.

mates of state.

We had a grand time opening for Mates of State last night, trio style. Hello to all the nice new people who signed our mailing list and introduced themselves after our set. MoS have recently started touring with a new configuration of Kori on piano instead of organ/synth and they’ve added a cellist, and bassist. The whole set was fantastic, but the last song sealed the deal for me… I forget the title, but it’s my favorite song of theirs and has the refrain “It’s all in your head.” Anyways, it was an impressive ending. The song grew and grew into that anthemed refrain. Kori is seven months pregnant and I wondered how it felt to sing and perform for her, but was too shy to ask. I also thought what a rock n’ roll baby they are going to have, surrounded by all those rhythms, instruments, and voices night after night.

Afterwards, we rushed over to a small living room with 12 friends and watched the first game of the World series. We couldn’t help but feel bad for the Rockies since they were trounced so badly and made to wear such unattractive sleeve-less uniforms.

We’re looking forward to next week’s little run of shows in Vienna, Charlottesville, NYC, and Boston. Please tell your friends and we hope to see you out there…

the grand

we had a nice time traveling up to the grand in ellsworth, maine this past weekend. i opened the show solo which was cool as well. rain on the way up, sun on the way down… wine and beer backstage, a film behind us on stage… dinner at mexican restaurant next to the theater, breakfast at belfast’s co-op… a hotel by a river and a fort, and traffic on the way home……

middle east, pleasant street, ellsworth

howdy… just logging in here to write that we had a fine time up at the middle east on october 1 (my amp didn’t break this time!), we had a strange time at the pleasant st theater on october 3 (thank you all for your patience and kind words), and that we’re looking forward to heading up to ellsworth maine this friday (5 ‘pills in a van and a big restored theater; should be good)… we’re also looking forward to the iron horse (10/24) and the mid-atlantic and nyc and boston and whatever comes after that…

bonfire of the vanities

last night we winterpills and our mates welcomed the autumn with a little bonfire at the boomerang ranch. it should be an exciting fall; we have numerous interesting shows in locations near and far. recently, we had a great time up in maine for our show at the space gallery with spouse, and then enjoyed being part of the music for a cure benefit where we met the excellent due kaiser cartel. next up is the middle east in boston, next monday, nov. 1.

fall and all

I felt the first bitter chill of fall in the air this evening. It seems like just moments ago that Flora knocked a plastic cup of icy sangria onto my ankles during a thunderstorm in July. Then she cut my hair while a crowd gathered. It was in a barn, and before long, the sisters came and scolded us for getting too close to the sun. And now there’s a chill.

four seasons in one day.

This past Saturday, around 2 PM I was lounging on a plastic Adirondack chair hosting a tag sale. I had made a solid $5.30, but at least the weather was beautiful and the bloody marys that Brian kept serving had that perfect balance of citrus and spice. Philip calls to say that we have just been invited to open for Crowded House that evening at the Calvin Theater! We would do a duo opener, replacing Neil Finn’s son who wasn’t feeling well. I’ve been a Crowded House fan for years. “Fall at Your Feet” and “Four Seasons in one Day” are songs that pop into my head frequently, leaving me no choice but to sing them passionately and at a very high volume.

Fast forward to 5:45 and we’re at the venue, noting two huge semis and a tour bus. We walk backstage and are greeted by the band’s tour manager who thanked us for coming out on such short notice and let us know when our sound check would begin. I immediately noticed how friendly everyone in their crew is and my nervousness fades. Philip and I concur that there is something overtly great about New Zealanders.

The lights on stage at the Calvin were literally the brightest and hottest I have ever experienced. I felt like every pore was exposed which was a hard thing to forget about in front of 1000+people. I don’t think I felt at ease until “Broken Arm” which was about 4 songs into our set, but after that I settled in and was able to enjoy the fact that I was singing in such a beautiful theater to a lovely and appreciative crowd. Afterwards, Neil Finn and Mark Hart made a point to say that they enjoyed our set with was pretty amazing. Most headliners don’t pay much attention to their openers so it meant a lot. Did you know that Mark Hart used to play with Supertramp?!

We watched most of the show and I was surprised at how many songs I recognized. I had forgotten that the radio station I listened to in high school played a lot of Crowded House. It was a great show- the stage design and change overs were exciting to watch and the sound was big and dynamic without being slick. Neil was in great voice and there was much singing along from the crowd. It was a wonderfully unexpected show to be a part of. Thanks to Brendan for thinking of us.