It was 8:30AM on Monday, January 25th, 2010 and the big blue van turned over on a dime. Regardless of the subfreezing temperature that acted like a nuanced taunt. I swear I could hear the wind whisper "You think it's cold now?". Knowing that we were about to drive along the Great Lakes for hundreds of miles. But first it was off to pick up Matt Cullen (guitar/banjo), Lloyd Cole and Brian Oakes (a close friend of ours that helped out on the whole trip in numerous ways). We were packed and on the road minutes before 9AM. Pittsburgh, here we come.
We made a pretty long drive (through some really horrible rain and wind) go by very quickly. Thanks, in large part, to a game that Lloyd introduced us to called "Botticelli". A game where three of you (you can play it with as many or as few people that you wish) are detectives who are trying to hunt down the famous person hiding in the gray matter of the fourth's head. Montel Williams was deemed the most difficult to get on that first day. And thanks to the length of the game, it essentially took us directly to the three rivers. We arrived in Pittsburgh somewhere in the vicinity of 7:30. We checked into our downtown hotel, and around 8 we were out to look at the venue, and more importantly, out to find food. We were playing at a place called Club Cafe and the people there were very kind and let us poke our heads in the door as there was a band on stage, just to check out the feel and size of the room. Lloyd had been to Pittsburgh recently, but Matty hadn't been there in 15 years and Brian and I had never been before. Each of us felt an immediate great vibe from the city. We had heard how it had quickly turned into one of the cooler cities in the East and that is most certainly the truth. People said hello to strangers on the street and there was a real big town feel to it rather than that of a big city feel. We left the club and headed out in search of Nakama. It was very easy to find and it turned out to be the best hibachi restaurant I have ever been to. The grilled vegetables, mushroom miso soup and the grilled sesame chicken were of another planet. The other fellas equally enjoyed their food. Highly recommended if you're ever in Pitt.
We walked back towards our hotel (Pittsburgh was the only city we played where the hotel was within walking distance of the venue) and stopped by a hole in the wall pub that was the perfect place for us. There was hardly anyone there and it had a real blue collar feel to it. And there were ashtrays on the bar! Something that made Brian and I really happy. Lloyd and Matty? Not so much. The bartender was extremely friendly and when he found out what we were doing in town he threw us a bunch of free drink coins for the following night. We promised him we'd be back the next night.
Back to the hotel. Our abs had a substantial work out all day thanks to the endless hours of laughter. My recent obsession with the the television show The Office (US) led to numerous "That's what she said" jokes that were both raunchy and mostly, completely obtuse. Brian, Matt and I had plans to head to the Warhol museum and PNC park in the morning. Lloyd was starting to feel a bit under the weather and was planning on hanging in and waiting for our amazing sound man, Dan Dryden who was flying in from NYC in the morning.
Pictures, videos and stories about all of our days and shows to come very soon.
That's what she said.
1 comment:
Thanks for the behind the scenes of this tour. Well written and we have linked to it on numerous sites that follow Lloyd's music on the web. Great playing by the way on the videos we have seen thus far of the Ensemble.
That's what I said....Tim
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