I left my heart in San Fransisco.

Our friday and saturday shows took place in the beautiful mid-section of sunny california, where we enjoyed nice weather, nice people, and a healthy dose of rocking. Since our sets were longer than the 45 minute jams of the hotel cafe in LA, these shows took on a different character. We got to be a little more patient with our transitions, our pacing, and everything in between.

The friday show happened at the montalvo arts center in Saratoga, CA, where we arrived after about a 5 hour trek from the southland. Nestled in the forest and accessed only by a winding and wandering road about 30 minutes from San Jose proper, Montalvo is a strange place with a vibe somehow reminiscent (sp?) of some kind of cult. As we drove up, we expected to see people dressed in all white with shaved heads and strange beads around their necks, but to our disappointment found only normal, lucid, and otherwise uncompromised humans. Another strange factoid about Montalvo is that I actually came here in 2002 while on tour with Linda Ronstadt, although my responsibilities on that tour were much different. Instead of being a musician on that tour, I was essentially the lowest rung on the crew ladder, working as an assistant to the monitor engineer. All i remember from that show was being lonely, homesick, and sick to death of hearing the song "blue bayou". yeeesh......

The first person we met at the venue was Ray, the stage manager. He had white hair and a soft face, and later on the evening showed off his pithy sense of humor by ridiculing Brian and my ridiculous stage outfits. If i were Ray, i probably would have made fun of us too. On this tour, as opposed to other past tours, the MBD rhythm section has the dubious honor of wearing suit pants, a white shirt, black suspenders, and massive, comical bowties. In all honesty, we look like valets. Valets, or a bad version of a James Bond 007 halloween getup. I will say, however, that we do certainly make it work. Or at least I keep telling myself that. Notwithstanding our stage fashion, MBD had a wonderful show at Montalvo. The stage was wide and deep, with perfect stage sound, and had an audience of extremely attentive (eerily so) and appreciative mostly 30-50 year olds. It's always feels a little bit odd to get loud and really let loose on a crowd of people in seats. You never really know how they're relating to a song until it's over, because the interaction is much different. At rock clubs, where audiences are standing, maybe dancing, maybe bobbing their heads, it's easier to get a sense of return people. The down side of that, though, is the inevitable chatty factor, which can sometimes get in the way of the gentler, softer, and generally more delicate songs.

After the show, Brian and I hung with Chris the monitor engineer and the sound dudes for a bit, talking shop and past shows at Montalvo. I love hearing the sound crew perspective on past shows, especially when the shows are by bands I dig. The medeski, martin, & wood show of 2005 was a highlight on Chris' list of memorable Montalvo performances; i'm sure it was trip-tacular. After our load-out, we got into the van and headed to our place of rest for the night. Little did I know what was in store for us.......

Instead of the usual hum-drum hotel thing, we got to stay with Heather, a lifelong friend of Shara's, and her new husband Gary. The house was a newly renovated and beautiful place, with high ceilings, a dream kitchen, and all the amenities. But the kicker of this whole stay was talking shop with Gary, who just happened to be a 17 year veteran DJ of the local San Jose country station. I'd never met a professional radio DJ before, and I have to say that Gary blew me away. From the first words I heard him say, it all made sense. I thought to myself, "OF COOOURSE he's a radio DJ!" he had that warm, booming, curiously familiar voice that would be out of place in any other occupation other than radio. We chatted long into the night, hearing stories of interviews with country greats like Trace Adkins, Garth Brooks, and countless others. This man was a downright spokesperson for country music, and it was wonderful to hear someone so steeped in the heart of mainstream radio speak so passionately about the art. I think the quote of the night from Gary was, "there's ride a horse to save a cowboy, and then there's ride a horse to save a cowboy...." I think it had something to do with the group "big & rich", but I can't remember quite why it made sense. Gary also had two beautiful big dogs, one a german shepherd and the other a golden lab, who were both a joy to be around/play fetch with.

After Shara, James, and the rest of the house retired, Brian and I stayed up watching a national geographic channel expose on the intellect of monkeys entitled, "Who's Ape-ing who?" It was classic. After that, we wrapped it up with a little bit of "Meerkat Manor" before hitting the haaaay.

The next morning Heather made a Jimmy Dean breakfast pizza which was pretty much the most incredible and audacious breakfast I've ever eaten. It's amazing how easy it is to kill 2 hours just chatting when one of the contributors to the conversation talks for a living. Gary really did have some great stories about his 30 + year tenure in radio, including a truly unique perspective on the events of 9/11. Seeing as he is the morning DJ for the station, Gary's job was to get information to his listening public, a difficult task considering the event.

After some hugs and many thank-yous, we left the house around 3pm and headed into San Fransisco. Just for the record, i LOVE San Fran. It's a city that never ceases to impress me with its beauty. After a rather loud soundcheck, James, Brian and Shara went to dinner with a friend, and I wandered around a bit. On my time-killing perambulation, I found myself in a very familiar place. It was a little park on top of a hill overlooking the city, with rows of stereotypically SF houses lining the streets on two sides. Suddenly it all made sense: I AM STANDING IN THE PARK FROM THE FULL HOUSE OPENING SEGMENT. You know the one. Sometimes this whole touring thing is just too good to be true. ps....what's up with that weird last shot of the grown-up middle daughter ? boobs much? i heard she had a meth problem. go figure.

After a taco, I headed back to the venue to catch some of the opening band. They were great. I can't remember their name, but they were really great. Our set ended at around midnight, and unfortunately for MBD we would have about an hour to sleep once we finished our responsibilities. We had to drop off the gear, drop off the van, settle, sleep for a second, and head to the airport. OUCH. So began our 17 hour day of travel to Barcelona. LITERALLY. 17 hours.

It's weird to basically just erase a day from the calendar by sitting on a plane. But landing in Spain makes it all worth it. More to come soon.