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What a Long Strange Trip!
On tour w/ Harvey Bainbridge.
Day1-On July 26 we determined that all systems were
ready for take off and hit the road leaving a clammy
Cleveland Ohio behind in a van and the LightShow truck.
Our goal was to make it to Madison WI in a day but we
got sidetracked by the insane Chicago traffic so we
just made it over the WI border when we decided to take
a break for the nite. We stayed in a hotel that right
behind the "Hormel Chilli" plant that had
a restaurant and a small pub that was attached. First
on the agenda, HIT THE POOL! The water was unfortunately
chilly so the road crew only got a quick dip and we
had a hell of a time trying to get Harvey to jump in
the "warm water", hehe. We told him the water
was nice and he said " Is that way you are all
standing around it shivering and turning blue?"
English sensibility in action I presume.
After nesting down in our rooms Harvey and myself headed
to the pub for a few, well, more than a few pints of
Beer and a chat. Were were latter joined by Jerry L.
who is our "Roadie" and strong back on this
tour. Back in our room Harvey and I had a nice talk
about music, politics, and England. I was sort of expecting
a "TV Suicide" but was happy to not see the
box get launched thru the window of the hotel.
Day2- After a nice breakfast we headed out again into
the land of Cheese and Fireworks (Exploding Cheese!).
I found WI to be a nice state with rolling hills and
a plethora of Dairy Farms. THE MAN there seems to have
an interesting presence...totally unmarked cars watching
for speeders but we had no trouble whatsoever.
After driving thru the entire state we started heading
toward our first gig in Minneapolis where were were
greeted with a nice rush hour traffic. After driving
about in this mess we found the venue (7th Street Entry)
and unloaded and started setting up for the show before
we were off to dinner.
We had a nice meal that was bought for us by the promoter
in the area named Dan Witt who is a regular attendee
of our Strange Daze Festivals. He also brought along
a few friends which was nice.
The venue was a small but nice one. In the same complex
was a larger club that was hosting "Salsa Nite"
(and I forgot the chips!) so all was pretty busy. Harvey
remembered this venue for he played there w/ Hawkwind
about 10 years earlier. By the time we got back we had
missed one of three opening acts, the first being a
solo act which the name escapes me now. Up next was
"The Morning Stars" which featured a lovely
blond Scandinavian girl on guitar. Lots of energy and
a unique sound. Following them was "Skye Klad"
who put on a great performance. We have heard a bit
about them so it was nice to see them play. Don`t miss
them at SD2K!
Harvey then came on to deliver a fantastic set to an
anxious crowd. The way the stage was angled we were
able to project some nice lights to fill up this black
painted club. I`m not going to ruin anything by rattling
off his set lists here...Come to the shows and see for
yourself what this legend has to offer!!!
After a late pack up we headed for Eric`s house who
is in Skye Klad and was nice enough to offer us a place
to rest for a few hours before heading off again into
"CheeseLand" on our way to J.J. Kelly`s in
Chicago.
Needless to say, the traffic in Chicago really sucks
shit! We spent at least three hours in it. From the
truck behind I could see Harvey and Jim L. getting gassed
by all the auto fumes as huge trucks would trap anyone
in front or behind of them.
By the time we arrived we were all a bit punchy, drained
and pissed so we got three rooms and crashed for a spell.
Later that evening we hooked up with our Ozric promoting
friends Jim and Carol Collins and had a "interesting"
dinner at The Olive Garden followed by some desert and
conversation back in our rooms.
The following day was gig day and we were able to get
everything set up at a nice leisurely pace which was
a godsend after the day of traffic just before hitting
this Windy City.
QuarkSpace opened up the evening with a blistering
performance. Harvey followed with an even better show
than the previous gig in MN and it closed with a high
energy band called "Solar Confusion" who I
hear formed after the last Strange Daze event. They
were a little rough around the edges but the next best
thing to old Hawkind I had ever heard as far as intensity
and visual effects go. They too are now on board for
SD2K!
We all spent another nite at J.J. Kelly`s and headed
off to take a quick pit stop home in Cleveland before
the next gig at Little Brothers in Columbus Ohio which
is only a few hours from us...phew!
We arrived at Paul`s ( from QuarkSpace) home in the
Columbus Burbs around 6.30 pm on Monday and were treated
to a nice dinner at a nearby bar.What follows is a short
review by our friend Keith Henderson:
Last night was a fun night. The fourth ex-Hawkwind
member I've seen gracing the Halls of Columbus since
I've lived here, following Nik & Del in 1994, and
Lemmy on a number of occasions.
As you all know, the show was retained at Little Brothers,
a moderately-sized club that brings in quite a few 'alternative'
artists of some note. It's not too far from the OSU
campus, so when in session, I'm sure it brings in a
fair numbers of upper-class (in a manner of speaking)
students. Not tonight though...summertime on a Monday
night is not exactly a happening' night on High Street!
But a decent number came out last night to see the show.
Doesn't sound like much, but we were thinking that it
would be barren. And a big turnout would have meant
that a lot of folks came thinking it was 'more' Hawkwind
than it was, which would have been bad. Q-space's Paul
kept hounding the papers to get it right, and the ads
were not misleading, though still a bit vague.
Anyway, Quarkspace took the stage at around 10:15,
and played about 1:50 or so. Their sound guy never showed,
so the band mixed themselves. (Chet took a few wind
sprints between the stage and the board.) Paul's drums
ended up being too loud (which has never happened before),
but it wasn't bothersome except for the one or two quieter
acoustic numbers (like Outerspace Highway). On these,
the percussion drowned out Chet's vocals (and nearly
everything else). They did a rather technotronic set
of stuff, prolly 'cause of Harvey being there. I can
never remember the titles, but I think 'Recaesarian,'
'Starbridge Freaks,' and 'We are QPR' were the ones
they did.
Guitarist Dave Wexler really was smokin' all through
the second half of their set, beginning with some terrific
space-slide guitar on the dreamy, Floydian track "The
Circle."
Harvey came on at about 12:30 and played about 1:05,
totally solo. He had only a keyboard and two other units,
one of which looked like a DAT playback unit, and another
thing full of knobs. So, really, it was less than a
fully 'live' performance, but then that's kinda what
I expected. He started out with Heading: Cygnus X-1
from Interstellar Chaos, and then went into the two
HW tracks Dream Worker/Blue Dreamer and Freefall. The
former is as you would expect, the latter a little strange.
E-bass for real bass of course, and his disjointed echoed
vocals not matching the original, certainly. Then he
went through a warm ambient phase (nice!) and a long
pulsating synth jam to close out. I rather expected/hoped
for TV Suicide (yes, I like it!), and Toad on the Road,
but maybe he could be talked into those at SD (if he
brought them with him.) :)
Jim L. and Brian F. did a fabulous job with the visuals!!!
Not so many bodies on stage (well, just one) and little
equipment gave them a big panoramic tapestry to project
onto, and all sorts of great space stills and rotating
lights were seen. This made it a great A-V show.
So...those of you in Philly and NYC, I'd definitely
suggest checking out the show, regardless of whether
you're coming to SD'2K or not. Partly because of the
cool space show, and partly because the openers there
(Sloterdijk and Escapade) won't be at SD'2K.
We left Columbus right after the show and came back
to Cleveland to get ready for the shows in Philly and
NYC. I hope to put annother update in after these gigs
and before the Festival.
-Bbri
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