News From The Road

The guys rolled into the nation’s capital last week and played the MCI Center. Washington DC has always been a great stop and this night was no different. You could sense the band feeling more comfortable with the stage and set. There is a lot of room to cover and Steven and Joe especially, seem to be shedding that bit of rust they developed with the year off. Tom invited members of the touring group of “Cavalia” to the show and backstage. He had seen the show a few days before in Boston and heard they were headed to Washington next. The show was founded by the same guy that started the troupe from Quebec called “Cirque De Solie”. This show features horses. Joe and Billie struck up a conversation with some of the members and got invited to the show the next night.

Joe stuck around town after the gig to hang out with his son Adrian who is going to law school there in DC. Since Joe had to make a late flight to LA he couldn’t go to “Cavalia” but stopped by beforehand he left to hang with the horses.

The LA show was a private event. The band played for about 95 mins. The place held about 3000 people. With no catwalks or ramps the guys were confined to the 40-foot stage. This didn’t slow them down any and made for an intimate show. I asked one of the attendees how he got his tickets and he said he was told via mail. He was instructed to call at a certain time and if he got through in the allotted time frame he got a pair of tickets. I asked him what would happen if he was late calling and he told me “If you snooze, you lose”.

The guys went back to the Hotel after the gig to shower before hopping on the plane to head back to Boston. Joe and Brad met up with old friend “Slash” in the Hotel Lobby and chatted for a while before heading to the airport. Slash told them he is starting to put down some ideas for the next Velvet Revolver album.

Everyone crashed on the plane pretty quick. Believe it or not the tables on that bucket of bolts turn into beds. I ended up next to our Tour Co-Coordinator and resident good guy, Donny Wightman. Our Tour Manager, Jimmy Eyers, was lying down at the other end. It looked like something out of the 3 Stooges. I was sure glad no one snapped a picture of us - until Steven started passing around his nifty Sony digital the next day. If I can get it from him I will embarrass us next week.

With the Uniondale show the guys seem to really pick up steam. Steven’s voice is in mid-tour form. Joey’s pounding the skins with reckless abandon. If you get a chance, check out Tom’s basses. This guy is so color coordinated that even his basses have matching colored strings as his guitar.

I will be doing some updates via telephone in the next few weeks. I will try to corral a few of the guys and ask them a question or two or more until I run out of change. (Do they still have payphones?)

See you on the Road!
- John B