"Get Your Phix" June '02 Tour Journal

6/4/02 - Day 1 - On the Road
Some interesting and beautiful events on the road before we even get much more than an hour outside of Boulder. An evening sunshower (typical for this time of year) spawns a double rainbow over the eastern plains of Colorado--an absolutely perfect rainbow that you could see from end to end, with its slightly obscure reflection hovering above it. We gas up in Gunbarrel and as we turn east onto Highway 52, we find ourselves heading directly under the rainbow! Figured that had to be a good sign of some sort.

We drive under it, and not 5 minutes after it fades from our view, we see up ahead that a police car has the road blocked off. Ordinarily this would be a disconcerting sight, but we can see that it is because some horses from a nearby farm have apparently escaped, and decided to chill out right in the middle of the highway. We're forced to wait a minute or two-they don't want us to drive past for fear of spooking them. Something spooks them anyway and they take off running into a neighboring field. They run full tilt for at least a mile, looking pretty psyched to be running free. A distraught-looking Mexican dude stands there with a lasso in his hand, but he's going to need a Wile E. Coyote crotch-rocket to catch those guys.

The whole sunset is beautiful on our way out of Colorado this evening-the clouds to the east turning pink in the sunset as bits and pieces of rainbow poke out from in between them. A nice sendoff for the Get Your Phix tour. Looks like we'll be driving through the nighttime to catch a few Z's so I can give Chris a break later on…

6/5/02 - Day 2
House of Blues - Chicago - set list from 6/5/02
Set 1 - Punch You in the Eye > Maze, Divided Sky, Bathtub Gin, Rift, Slave to The Traffic Light, Run Like an Antelope > Gotta Jiboo > Antelope, Yamar, LaGrange (w/Kevin & Trevor Matthews) > Jesus Just Left Chicago (w/ Pete the Butcher & Trevor Matthews), Chalkdust Torture (w/ Trevor Matthews)
Set 2 - 2001 > Susie Greenberg, Lizards, Reba, Hold Your Head Up > Touch Me (w/ Jim Morrison) > L.A. Woman (w/ Jim Morrison) > Hold Your Head Up, Mike's Song > Simple > Esther > Weekapaug Groove
Encore - Harry Hood

6/6/02 - Day 3
Too damn tired after the HOB gig yesterday to do any writing. The show went great-lots of friends and family showed up, heard there were over 800 people at the show. Great crowd-not the usual Colorado-style spinners and dancers, but a TON of energy in the room.

Spent the night in style at Paul's folks' house, had a nice breakfast and then bounced over to Mrs. Berg's house for an additional snack and a little more motherly love. Hit the road for Madison a little late but feeling good.

Tonight's show in Madison was a killer. Luther's Blues is a great room, and the sound system was kickin'. Not the biggest crowd we've played for, but they were loving it. Nelli and Saxton had the sound & lights dialed in. Saxton opened up the show, and we jumped onstage and melded right into our show from his…think we'll be doing that again, 'cuz it was cool.

Laptop's telling me that it's battery is low…long night ahead of us again, on our way down to Schwagstock. Once we get there we don't have to leave for a few days, so we're looking forward to some R&R time in the Ozarks.

6/9/02 - Day 6
Wrapping up the weekend here at Schwagstock. Had a lot of fun this weekend-We played the main stage on Friday and Saturday, then we did the late night show on the side stage until the wee hours of the morning-that was where we really took it over the top. The crowd wasn't huge, but man those people were partying. Nelli and Saxton did a great job of working with what they had available, and the show wound up great. We also played a small set on Sunday for stragglers and people on their way out on the side stage.

Next stop: the Blue Note. We hear it's a great room, so it should be a good show.

6/11/02 - day 8
Had the night off last night, just had dinner and kicked it around the hotel here in Columbia. All the gear is already at the Blue Note, so we'll be heading over in a while to set up and soundcheck. Not much happening here in Columbia, a college town in Missouri in the summertime, but on the brighter side, it doesn't look like there's going to be much competition in town, so I have a feeling it will be a good night. It's a beautiful room, so we're psyched for the show.

6/13/02 - day 10
Blue Note gig was good...good turnout for a college town in the summer, and they were having fun as usual. The show in Carbondale last night was awesome. Amazing energy for a college town in summer on a Wednesday night. It was packed and we played a great show. We left right after the show to head to Wisconsin for Farmapalooza. Had some minor van problems this morning but got it fixed within a few hours - we now have a new alternator, regulator and battery. It should be good for the rest of the trip...

6/16/02 - day 13
We ended up being the first band playing on Friday at Farmapalooza rather than playing the pre-party on Thursday night - there was just too much rain. It's hard to believe our home state of Colorado is on fire and we've seen so much rain in the Midwest on this trip that five minutes of it back there would make a world of difference. Anyway, right after the Farmapalooza show we packed up and headed to Milwaukee and played Shank Hall that night (we celebrated its Spinal Tap connection by sliding the beginning of Stonehenge into the beginning of Wilson) and then jumped right back into the van and headed back to Missouri for the Black River Music Festival, where we played the main stage yesterday for an enthusiastic crowd and enjoyed a Dark Star show last night. Today is a much needed day off and we are hanging at Bearcat Getaway, the site of the festival, for a psychedelic afternoon hanging out at the amphitheater, listening to Saxton spin records for the few people who have stuck around for the day. It's been a true pleasure having Saxton on the road with us for this tour. Apart from being an incredibly talented DJ and MC, his light shows have been amazing and his energy and patience have been nothing short of inspirational. At about 11 pm the most intense foggy mist took over the whole area surrounding the amphitheater and by 2 am we decided to pull out our light rig and shortly after it looked like a UFO (or a fleet of them) had landed on the stage. It was one of the most amazing things any of us had ever seen. This is a magical place.

6/19/02 - day 16
We head today to Cincinnati for our only Ohio show and we are looking forward to it after a great show in Indianapolis last night. The crowd was PUMPED! It was definitely a highlight of the tour - they were raging from the PYITE opener to the Loving Cup encore. Some people from the show last night actually said they would be making the drive to Cincy to catch tonight's show. Thanks to Paul's cousin and her fiance' for the great crash pad in "Nap town".

6/21/02 - day 18
Leaving Springfield for the last show of the tour in Chicago (Brookfield) tonight. Overall the tour has been a smashing success and we will probably hit most of these towns again when we go back on the road in September, in addition to adding on towns along the East coast. We had a great time in Cincinnati, great show, and got to hang out with some of Chris' family, taboot. We'll have an extra day to hang out in Chicago after the show tonight, before heading back to Colorado on Sunday, and are looking forward to relaxing and hanging out with our Chi-town family and friends.

6/23/02 - day 20 - Heading Home
We're in the Middle of Kansas, a massive expanse when driving across it, heading back to Colorado, and it's approaching midnight. It will be close to 4 am by the time we get back to Boulder, assuming we don't have any more van problems. It's been making some weird noises and surely must be beat after trucking through the Midwest's hot and humid climate with the A/C cranking all day. We will have put about 5,500 miles on it for this tour when it's all said and done, in addition to several new parts, but we figure it's still cheaper than if we had rented something. Now for some final thoughts on this, our inaugural tour...

We thought it kicked ass! We feel we accomplished the important goals we set out to meet at the beginning - we didn't miss a gig, we stayed healthy (for the most part), we managed to have some fun despite a grueling schedule and we played great shows and reached a lot of people. We had several people travel around to catch us in multiple cities, which we weren't really expecting at this point in the game, but we can say we have made some great friends and contacts in every area we played. We broke records at some clubs for attendance despite the fact it was our first time in every market we played. Most importantly we learned a lot and discovered we can be a great working unit on the road, which will be our home for much of the near future as we bring this project to the masses. See you again soon.