Thursday, February 04, 2010

Lloyd Cole Small Ensemble tour Day 3 - The Winchester - Cleveland, OH (1/27/10)


Another yogurt, banana and glass of OJ are staring at me. It's 8:30AM and Matty just pulled the van around front. Six guitars, two banjos, a mandolin, several bags of gear and clothes and all five of us somehow fit pretty well in my labored '96 Plymouth. Lloyd is at the wheel. Dan as his navigator. Matty, Oakes and I settle into the back bench for the trip to Cleveland. The three of us in the back are sad to be leaving Pittsburgh, we had such an unexpected good time in that city. But we're all equally excited to play again tonight in Cleveland.

Thanks to the glories of modern technology, Oakes whips out his portable DVD player (that's what she said) and the three of us nuzzle up to a few episodes of season 2 of The Office. Before we know it, there is a gigantic billboard of Lebron James in his grandest Jesus pose. We waved hello to Jacob's Field (actually, it has a new name now and none of us knew when that happened) and lo and behold, Lloyd has driven us to the hotel. We were staying at The Renaissance in downtown Cleveland.



We were all stunned with the magnitude of the place. For instance, this is what we walked into...



Sure was a long way from sleeping on some guys floor that you met at the show. With your head in a pizza box and bong water spilled at your feet.

We loaded in, checked in and took a scant few minutes to gather our thoughts before we were downstairs having dinner at Sans Souci in the Hotel.



I had an excellent tortilla soup for starters and a grilled swordfish salad with fresh arugula, chopped red onion, yellow pepper and roasted grape tomatoes. So good. Lloyd, Dan and Matty wanted to catch a little downtime after lunch and before load out so Oakes and I decided to peruse the mall that was connected to the hotel. We had a moment of thinking that we might be able to squeeze in a movie, but we were just barely too late to go to anything that would get us to the lobby on time. So we settled for this photo booth.



Yup. The original plan was for me to leave this on Lloyd's music stand before the encore. But I forgot. So I handed it to a random fan that was waiting in line for an autograph and asked him to ask Lloyd to sign it. Best part is, Lloyd actually signed it. Brian's got that copy.


I snagged a gag gift for Jen in a sports store (I had the goal of getting her some random souvenirs in every city that we were in). And it was back to the hotel to crap out for an hour. Speaking of crap, look at how big our bathroom was.



Another load out about an hour later and we were on our way to the gig. We were playing at The Winchester. It was only a few miles from our hotel. No more than a 15 minute drive. We arrived at 5PM. We were instantly greeted by Rebbecca. She was the multi-tasker of the night. Bartender, host, server. She was incredibly nice and went well out of her way to make sure we had everything we needed. The owner of the club was equally as welcoming. Jim, I think? Shit, I hate forgetting people's names. But I do it all the time. Anyway, their club was really nice too.



The dressing room was a little small, but it had a great collection of posters. For some reason, I just love this photo.



I really like the blue wall, for starters. And there's just something about the juxtaposition of the giant Chicago poster, Lloyd and an iphone. Sounds like the start of a joke. Lloyd Cole, an iphone and a giant Chicago poster walk into a bar. That's what she said.

Can suits rock? Matty thinks so. And I agree.



We had a great night playing. The crowd was receptive and warm and the people that we met after the show couldn't have been nicer. The only thing that ruined the night was the opening act. A self proclaimed "master of metal on mandolin". He called himself Pegasus Vending. I took this photo of him during his take on Shadows Fall's "Crushing Belial".



What a douche.

But in all seriousness, if you want to relive some of the night there are some videos from Dan (who came all the way up from Florida with his wife for the show!) that you can watch by clicking here! There's even a sneak peak at a song from our forthcoming record on there. Thanks for everything Dan! Send Dan a nice message if you watch some of the clips, cause he's a heck of a nice guy.

We ended the night listening to the Louvin Brothers and various other country acts on the XM Bob Dylan radio show. Just the five of us and Jim and Rebbecca. Such nice folks. But alas, it was back to the hotel where I nearly ruptured Oakes' spleen by making him laugh. I wish I could share the joke, but I don't really think I should. Maybe if you really want to know...

Off to Detroit tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

5 comments:

Rick said...

I'm loving these tour installments. Your writing is as wonderful as ever. That's what she said.

Anonymous said...

Joke please....Tim

Mark Schwaber said...

Thanks Rick!

Tim,

I just tried to send this to you through facebook, but they seem to be having problems. Hope this helps you. And I hope this is the right Tim! Let me know, either way, k?

Hi Tim,

Thanks so much for reading! I really appreciate it. The set list for every show we did was the same every night with the exception of Chicago. We removed "Don't Look Back" from band format and Lloyd did it solo that night. We played the same set every night because we only starting learning songs back in August or so. We have plans to arrange another 20-ish songs in this format (old and new) in the future. By the next time we hit the road, we will be less likely to be doing anything close to the same set each night I would assume. Anyway, here's the list from Ferndale.

No Blue Skies
If I were a Song
Perfect Skin
My Other Life
Woman in a Bar
Broken Record
Margo's Waltz
Why I Love Country Music
Trigger Happy
Westchester County Jail
Everysong
Don't Look Back
Four Flights Up
AYRTB Heartbroken?
Why In The World?
No More Love Songs
My Alibi
The Flipside of That Gentle Melancholy Feeling
Undressed
Lost Weekend

Encore

Like Lovers Do
Forest Fire


Unfortunately, I don't remember what Lloyd did solo that night. We were pretty busy getting ready most nights during his solo set. Only had time to catch a couple of songs each night. I know he did Rattlesnakes and 29. The rest, however, I didn't catch.

Feel free to say hello whenever you wish. And if anyone in that forum has any questions that I might be able to answer, I would be happy to do so! Not sure how speedy I will be each time, but I will definitely get to it as soon as I can. Just in case people want to know, we are starting the new record in March. And there are at least 5 songs in our live set that will most likely make it on the record.

It's been an absolute blast playing with Lloyd and my old dear friend Matt. We all really love it, and get along like we've been friends for years. Can't say enough about Lloyd's talents. He's an amazingly talented guy. Great ear for arrangement, balanced with giving us plenty of liberties to writing, or in some cases rewriting parts. And he's equally as great of a guy.

And his fans are all really great people. It was a blast meeting so many of them on this trip. You should all pat yourselves on the back!

Feel free to take any of this for re-posting elsewhere.

Hope all is well,

M

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mark,

I've added this to the Lloyd Cole forum to fill us all in on the setlist. Thanks for the updates. Gives some good reading and pictures. Love the support act. Catch up in Australia when you do!

Tim

Anonymous said...

P.S Don't bring Pegasus Vending!