Staring Down The Path

North American Tour Journal

Day 13

November 22, 2011

Cambridge, MA

We left Rochester at about 6:00 am and headed towards Boston, which would be one of our shorter drives.  We woke up to Mark yelling about the fact that the bus satellite did not have the channel that carried the Manchester City game.  He attempted to stream it on the computer, which halfway worked, and the rest of us watched the Manchester United soccer match on television.

Before we slept a few hours, we boarded the bus and listened to music on the iPod, all of us tightly packed in the bus living area.  There have been many nights now where we have sung songs and bonded at night, especially after shows that have been strong and the audience has helped bring us back to life after long tiresome drives.

Did I mention yet that the top of the bus is leaking now when it rains?  Water has come dangerously close to dripping on the new mac pro as I’m typing.  Awesome.

About an hour outside of Boston, we stopped off at a grocery store and got essentials for the bus.  We were short on time, but I managed to pile a couple hundred dollars worth of odds and ends into my cart.  I have never been to the Big Y grocery store before, but I must say, they have the best oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever had.

Cambridge was a very cool town and was cleaner than most we have visited.  We took a stroll, took in some shops and had some tamales at a local Mexican place before going to sound check.  Sound check was a bit rough and we discovered the equipment and monitors were a bit outdated and not in good condition, but we kept our spirits up about it.  The opening act, the Curtain Society, were very nice and extremely talented.  I checked them out online before arriving at the club and was excited to see them perform.  They are worth a listen.  I could not hear my own voice during our set when we took the stage and consequently, my vocal performance did not exactly turn out the way it should have.  Folks in the crowd seemed to enjoy it, but after watching a video from the night’s gig, I thought it was substandard at best.  The sound guy at the club admitted the equipment wasn’t up to par and there wasn’t anything else he could do with the vocals, which made for a hard night on stage.  After I decided to skip a song and shorten our set, the sound guy called out from the booth that our tenth track would be our last song.  Seriously?  We drove 8000 miles and we can’t play two more songs?  I then informed the crowd we had a couple more to play in lieu of bashing the sound-man over the head with my microphone stand.

The crowd was great and very receptive and we filled it up last night, which was great for a Tuesday night.  On another positive note, our merchandise sales exceeded every other night of the tour in Boston, so I guess we made a better impression than I thought.  Wzbc radio was there and did a great job promoting the show and everyone who worked at T.T. The Bear’s was very cool.  If the sound system had done it’s job, it would have been a perfect evening.

Off to the Big Apple…  My first stop will be Chinatown for some good food!

J

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