Yesterday we had a show at the Iron Horse in Northampton Massachusetts. Don't ask me why they chose to name their fair city something so confusing and hard to compute. Why not just make it two words and call it North Hampton? Or put two H's in the middle if you want to get all weird with it. I'd even be ok with putting a dash in the middle and pronouncing it as it looks with the ol' NORTH-AMPTON.Aside from its questionable choice in name, this city is somewhat of an enigma to me. As we drove in, I felt as if I recognized it as if from a pinch of the deja vu. But after a few moments of contemplation, I realized that I actually had been there before over a year ago to play a show with my band Rider. Actually, it was the first show I played with them, and we had stopped in the town briefly to buy drumsticks on our way to Mt. Holyoke college ten minutes away. I remembered the bagel place we stopped at for a snack, the world famous chocolate shop along the main drag, and I distinctly remember the dreadlocks, hemp backpacks, and facial hair that I saw on the street. Yes, this place is quite the base for the modern hippie. It is also a seeming hopspot of youthful lesbianism.
To me, Northampton comes off as a vision from the future in a way. It bears a likeness to my picture of a modern utopian society more than any other town I've recently been to: vegetarian friendly dining, polite drivers in hybrid vehicles, non-intrusive hip-hop playing in homemade bakerys; not a wal-mart to be seen within 50 miles. And every place has free wireless! Everyone is friendly to a scary degree, even the bums. A lady stopped Brian to ask for a lighter, and after lighting her cigarette she simply stood there for a good ten seconds as if to ask, "ok, so what are we going to talk about now?" Needless to say, everyone at the show proved downright hospitable. We enjoyed ourselves and our generous hour and twenty minute set, playing to grown-ups, a few babies, and more than a handful of Smith University students.
After the show we hung out for a bit, drinking some of the leftover scotch from Philly and jawing with the opening band and the leftover stragglers at the Iron Horse. Somehow, we in the Diamond found ourselves in a curious cloud-nine state of mind. The day had been easy, and I even got to do some driving for the first time so far on the tour. I love being behind the wheel, to be honest. I'm a lover of the road. The best thing I've done in my life so far was driving my car across the country from LA to NY about two years ago. I left at the end of August, and took only five days to make the trip. Seeing the USA from the perspective of an automobile gives you more a glimpse into that whole "purple mountain majesty" thing, which is something that excites me greatly about doing this whole shabang-bang on the road. I even took that opportunity to listen to Homer's Iliad in its entirety on cd. I think it took me a grand total of 35 hours, but I'm pretty sure it was worth it. I averaged about 8 or 9 hours in the car a day, and I completed the trip in only 5 days.
As much as I can glorify the process and phenomenon of bumming around the country in the van, I cannot deny the somewhat difficult task of playing 7 shows in 7 days, each at least two hours away from the one before. Then again, I can't really complain, can I? Tonight's show at Wellesley College will be our 8th show of the tour so far, and Friday's Buffalo show will be the 9th. I can say confidently that we have hit our stride by now, and we have begun to move and conduct our business in a very P R O manner. I believe we have about 26 shows left on the schedule, and will be travelling into the dirty, drity south next week. Also, If you have any suggestions for April Fool's Day antics, please let me know, because we're having a lot trouble thinking of a satisfactory prank. That's all for now. Please enjoy your weekend.
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