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Wednesday, June 27th, Minneapolis
This diary update will be a short one.
I foolishly left my camera at the hotel, and didn't get even one shot from the Minneapolis show.
It was a long drive from Cincinatti, yesterday. We chose to stay in St. Paul, and the one memento I have of the trip is this shot of us with my good
friend, conductor/pianist Bill Eddins, outside Mickey's Diner (the place to be, in St. Paul!)
That photo makes me realize how big this band is!
Oh... here's one more photo, though hardly from Minneapolis. My friend Mike Portnoy wrote me today, from Aschaffenburg, Germany. Mike is the founding drummer
of Dream Theater, and it's ironic that he's not on this tour where I'm in the opening act of the band.
Anyway, he saw this photo on a wall in the club he's playing in Aschaffenburg. I do remember it being taken there, with a special camera and lighting system -- that shows every pore
in your skin. Hadn't seen it before, but now I have - and something to fill in the Minneapolis diary with!
Thursday, June 28th, Kansas City
Another long drive to the next city - a lot of this:
Interesting drinks they sell at rest stops around here...
Kansas City is broiling today - 105 degrees when we arrive ... and humid!
The show is outdoors. (a shot of the venue through Mike Mangini's drums - already set up when we arrive)
We, however, still need to set up
... and I'm sure somebody's got photos of me crawling around too, setting up pedal board and cables.
Aah.. a cool dressing room
Julie's trying her 'gift' from Mike Mangini, of a raw habanera pepper... not so hot, she says
Pat and Markus - always working on the new album...
The Stick is cooling off too
Here we go... drums starting it off as usual
Surprise guest player - Danny Carey, of Tool, jumps in on drums (Pat and Tobias had known this might happen, so there's some kind of plan!)
Not a real big audience, but a nice one
It's a longstanding tradition at King Crimson shows that women who are dragged in by boyfriends or husbands often don't make it past intermission.
A closer view of that photo shows what seems to be exactly that situation... you can almost hear him saying, 'but, honey, it's my birthday - you promised you'd stay!'
Hopefully the relationship can stand up to a little Thraaking!
Backstage, Danny joining in the fun...
Maybe we're just giddy from the heat... and knowing that an 1800 mile drive awaits!
Sunday, July 1st, San Francisco
Well, it was a long drive, but not for me - I jumped ship and flew to L.A. to visit with my daughter!
Maggie's boyfriend Matt is in a band, and their road bus was parked outside the house ... made me realize I'm pretty lucky to be touring by
van -- this bus is hardcore! (Runs on vegetable oil and smells like french fries!)
Then I flew up to San Francisco for the gig at the old Warfield Theater.
Gear on the sidewalk outside venue again... hope it doesn't rain.
Beautiful theater
A tad cramped backstage
(Jordan is showing us his music app, while drummers warm up against walls)
Packed house
Great time tonight - maybe our best show of the tour so far.
As usual, when playing San Francisco and then L.A. the next day, we hightail it out of town at night, stay a couple hours down the highway, and
give ourselves some leeway for tomorrow's Freeway traffic, which could be easy or terrible.
Time for a new page!
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