3/27/09 Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA

On Friday afternoon, we made the trek back to San Fran, stopping for a photo opp by Lake Tahoe, an absolutely beautiful scene.




We checked into our hotel before heading over to soundcheck. Once again, a kind of weird non-chain hotel called the Phoenix and nicknamed the “Rock and Roll Hotel” due to its history of housing many musicians playing at several nearby venues over the years. I found that was rooming next to Ami, the Kimock publicist, and she hooked me up with a cool Tsunami Publicity tee. The gift trend was on a roll!

I then met up with my sister, Denise, who flew in from Philly for the shows. She was just in the midst of a cold, so I neurotically avoided any germ-spreading contact, and loaded up on Vitamin C, Zinc, Echinacea, and other assorted preventatives.

Leaving her to take a nap, I was shuttled over to soundcheck at the GAMH. It was a breathtaking room, even with the house lights on, and was slightly intimidating. Very cool ceilings and a kind of heavy vibe of history in the air.

Dinner was catered in the house kitchen, and I gingerly enjoyed a few bites of food on an antsy pre-show stomach. Steve finally wrote the setlist, and I scrambled to get my charts in order before we took the stage. I think I could have done without the charts, but I was still kind of attached to them and didn’t want to risk anything at such a high pressure show.

One of the many idiosyncrasies of this band is that when we take the stage, it seems like ages until we actually start playing. With FGC, we try to make a point of hitting the downbeat ASAP after we get up on stage, leaving little dead time. With SKCE, we get up there and I play the waiting game until we’re ready to start. Not much is really happening during the wait…people check their instruments, tune a string or a drum, or whatever. It drives me crazy at a “big” show because I’m always a little nervous until I actually just start playing, so those few minutes of waiting are like torture.

But once we did finally start, the show went great. The room was packed from the dance floor up to the balconies, and you could tell that this was an appreciative hometown crowd for both Steve and Melvin. I forgot about being nervous after the first song or two, and was totally energized by the crowd and music.

Musically, I thought Melvin rocked this show. He had the most amazing solo in “Stop That Train” and he even turned the “Melvin Seals” lights on his custom-built organ during “Outta Space,” per my request (i.e. beg) before we started the tune. The crowd went apeshit! It’s so cool standing right next to him and watching his hands flutter around the keys. This big dude has some serious finesse.

Thanks to Kerry Barbato and Susan Weiand for the live photos!

3/26/09 Crystal Bay, Crystal Bay, NV

Click here to stream free audio from the show!

We departed San Francisco around noon for our first show of the tour in the Lake Tahoe area. The band was split up into three vehicles (Melvin and Chris in Melvin’s van and trailer; Brian, Steve, and Johnny in a rented van; and Charlie, me, and “The Girls” in a rented SUV). My group, which we eventually dubbed “Charlie’s Angels,” (i.e. Charlie plus 3 hot chicks!) had the luxury of leaving for the venue at least an hour after the rest of the group, since we had no involvement in load-in, gear set-up, etc, and just had to be there by soundcheck time. The trade-off for this extra hour of sleep each night was that my car was full of bathroom sissies, who couldn’t seem to go more than hour without a bathroom stop. Accustomed to FGC’s super-efficient 3-4+ hour driving stints, I quickly became comically frustrated with the amount of stops required on trips that should be nonstop. C’mon people!! :)

The drive to Tahoe was beautiful. Lots of mountains and cool views, thankfully with no snow on the winding roads, but the real highlight was petting a cute dog at a rest stop.

We arrived at the venue on time for soundcheck as listed in the itinerary, which I would soon learn almost always occurred at least 30-60 minutes after the scheduled time. Luckily, our hotel rooms were located literally underneath the venue, so we had a comfy place to chill while we awaited soundcheck.

The venue was located inside a casino, so it was kind of an interesting scene there, but the music room was nice and had a great dry sound, which I like. While cruising the casino and looking for some dinner, I ran into Kerry from setlist.com, and Jon “Dooey”, a Kimock fan who found me on facebook a few weeks prior. Both brought me some sweet gifts, including a setlist.com jacket and a SKB batik shirt. I crossed my fingers that the fan gift-giving trend would continue throughout the tour!

Upon being shown the green room, which was unstrategically nowhere near the stage, I found that there was no Gatorade, which was the only item I requested on the hospitality rider. I informed the road manager, and the venue staff had to rush out to 7-11 to buy some Gatorade for me. It was so rock star – I loved it!
The show itself went great. The room got absolutely packed, and the sound was spot on. I felt basically comfortable with the music, but quickly learned that there is a great amount of unpredictability with this band. Lots of improvisation and ever-morphing arrangements. A few shows later, I decided to try not to make any sense of it and just go with the flow!

Thanks to Kerry Barbato for the live photos!