Finally..... New Tour Diary through July 4th

[Cour]

Fresno, Marysville, Concord, San Jose, Seattle, Spokane 07/04/2004

July 4, 2004
The Lost Week....

My how time flies....Fresno, Marysville, Concord, San Jose, Seattle, Spokane. I swear I meant to write the tour diaries, but it just never happened. California is my home state, so those shows were a little crazy, lots of friends and family, and even some time off at home. (Thank god!!!) But here I am, sitting in my hotel room in Portland, and I’ve got six shows to tell you about. Shame on me.

I’m going to give you the Cliff Notes version, as it’s late afternoon here, and I’ve got to go get ready for the Fourth of July festivities. I love fireworks and I’m very excited that we have a day off so that I get to see them...I apologize if I rush this, but I looove fireworks.

Fresno was good. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was going crazy because we were getting so close to home for me, it was like hours were passing like weeks. I’m never really homesick out here, but when you get close to home, and you can imagine your own bed, and your cats and your car and your friends...you start to get a little antsy. So I was happy to load out of Fresno and head to Marysville, just one step closer to home.

Marysville was a really great show. I was a little thrown off by the Marysville date, if you’ve never been there, it’s pretty much just out in the middle of nowhere, farms and fields and such, so it was surprising to see this huge amphitheater surrounded by dirt roads and cows. My mom drove out to Marysville, she had been in Sacramento that morning buying a kitten, which she brought to the show. He’s 8 weeks old, and he lived in Wardrobe for the day. He was very popular, everyone spent all their spare time in Wardrobe snuggling our new kitten.

Stevie dedicated Landslide to my mom, it was a very moving little thing she said, and it reminded me how amazing all the history of this band is, but even more amazing how much the history ties in to my life. Every time Stevie introduces Beautiful Child she says it was from an album they did in 1979 called Tusk. I was born right when Tusk was released. My mother was pregnant with me at the Tusk shows. It’s crazy. The landslide dedication was very sweet, it started to get me a little misty eyed...and if that wasn’t enough, Lindsey finished the job...

Lindsey made a dedication for Say Goodbye. He told everyone that the drive to the show reminded him of his father, who grew up on farms in that area. He was saying that even after 30 years, it’s amazing how there are still things to come to terms with, things to accept and let go of. He said he was going to cry. It seemed it was too late for that. He dedicated the song to his Dad. Our keyboard tech went and got me kleenex. The tears were a’ rollin.

Well, after the cry-fest that was Marysville, we packed up and headed to Concord Baby!! Only one hour away from my house. It was a painful day...I’ve never wanted a day to be over more quickly. My mom brought my car, it was parked next to the bus and it was just calling my name, ready to take me home.

All the members from Fritz came out for the Concord show, Stevie dedicated Landslide to them. After the show, I was so ready to get in her dressing room and load out so that I could go home, but instead, I watched what must have been a hundred people pile in to her dressing room (okay, I did a head count and it was more like 38, but still!!) All the guys from Fritz, Lindsey, Mick, Lindsey’s family, EVERYONE was in there, music blaring. Finally when, it looked like they were going to stay in there forever, I got the go ahead to just head in there and turn the music off (always the best way to end a party). We just slinked in and started taking everything down, and Stevie (who is well trained in being kicked out of her own dressing room) came to my rescue and yelled over everyone “okay, everybody’s gotta go, my girls need to come in and take everything down!” Thank you!! Within minutes the room was empty, Stevie got changed and was on her way, and so was I!! I threw my radio at our production manager and put the pedal to the metal...homebound.

On a side note, Lindsey’s Say Goodbye dedication was to his brother, for getting him into music way back when, and Stevie dedicated Beautiful Child to Vanessa Carleton, who was at the show. Stevie is a big fan of hers, and Lindsey just did some work on her album.

My day off at home was glorious. I slept in with my kitten, drank tea on my patio, did some laundry and stayed in my PJ’s most of the day. Drove my car, saw my friends and watched Tivo. Heaven. My mom dropped me off at the San Jose show the next morning, and it was almost like my day off at home never existed...

San Jose was CRAZY. I had 35 guests. Friends and family alike, it was crazy. It was great to see everyone, but it’s a little hard to balance work and 35 guests. I nearly lost my mind. Lindsey’s wife and kids were there and he dedicated Say Goodbye to his wife. I couldn’t wait till we got out of California so we could be done with the teary dedications! I just couldn’t take it anymore.

I said goodbye to my house and my family and we headed to Seattle after the San Jose show. It was a nice long drive and I got tons of sleep. We had a really nice day off, Seattle has great shopping, so I hit the streets with intent to spend. Show day was good, everybody sang happy birthday to Stevie’s dad at sound check, as his birthday was the following day off. It’s amazing how good happy birthday can sound when people who can really sing are singing it. It was lovely.

The show...Stevie swore she smelled chocolate cookies somewhere, lo and behold, someone in the front row appeared a few minutes later with a tub of cookies. Hysterical.

There was a little kid sitting right up front, on the subs with his ear pretty much touching the speaker. This is not okay...just for those of you who don’t know. If you bring a child to a show, they need to be wearing earplugs or headphones...and to sit them directly in front of the speaker is straight child abuse. Sorry, but that’s just not okay with me.

Anywho, a girl made it up on stage, but was removed quickly. Me thinks the poor thing had a few too many cocktails.

Spokane came and went without anything out of the ordinary, although I did really like the city, it was very cute. And now it’s time for me to go watch some fireworks. I love fireworks.

Sorry for being late, and I’m sorry if this bored you all to death. I’d hate to bore you this close to the end! I’ll make the last few good, I promise.

CB

[77Rumours77]

Finally! Glad to hear from her! She is so funny! I wonder if there is a pic of Stevie and the kitten, Wouldn't that rock!

[estranged4life]

Originally Posted by Cour

"There was a little kid sitting right up front, on the subs with his ear pretty much touching the speaker. This is not okay...just for those of you who don’t know. If you bring a child to a show, they need to be wearing earplugs or headphones...and to sit them directly in front of the speaker is straight child abuse. Sorry, but that’s just not okay with me."

I have seen this happen more often than not, But for once I actually saw 2 youngsters whose parents had enough common sense to place earplugs on their 2 elementary aged boys (This took place at the most recent concert I attended on July 2nd,) But then again when your Father's the one on stage playing I definitely understood why these 2 youngsters were wearing ear protection.