Friday 15 November 2002

On the Ohio turnpike in Andy Thurston's truck. We're on the way to our Cleveland gig tonight at Case Western Reserve University. Andy's driving while I sit here yawning with my sunglasses on - I'm doing my best to pretend that I'm not jetlagged, but my eyes always let the side down by going red and hurting a lot. Yesterday I had most of the day to myself to recover from the long journey, so I put in some practice time on 'Duncan Gray', which I've never actually played in public despite recording it complete with Venetian swell on Mungrel Stuff. It's one of those pieces where you can either play safe and get all the notes (like on the record), or you can live a bit more dangerously, play with the tempo a bit, and have the twin possibilities of it either becoming tremendously exciting or degenerating into a embarrassing mess. Great. 

I found an excellent artery-clogging pumpkin cheesecake in a cafe at lunchtime, and to my smug satisfaction was able to give directions there to a passing motorist who stopped to ask, despite the fact that I'd never walked down that street (or any other street in town) in my life before.

Last night Chris and I put in a brief drivetime appearance at KQED in Pittsburgh (I left them some ConCal CDs) and then we rehearsed with the band in my generous hosts' front room: the guys had already done a couple of school shows that day. It was fun to finally play live with the band the stuff that I'd done on my own in the studio, although more than once Chris said 'can you do that thing you did on the record?' and I couldn't remember what it was. I dug the CD out this morning to remind myself, but I'm going to resist transcribing my own playing so that I can reproduce it! Still, what a great bunch of musicians to be in a room with - this is going to be fun.