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July 26th 2005

Today we are doing a free show in Roseburg, Oregon. The park we are performing at is on the edge of a river. Very nice, and from what I understand some people come out very early in the morning to put down their blankets (4:00AM). We are staying at a hotel that not everyone is diggin’. There is no room service and not much of a restaurant to speak of. But across the parking lot is a place to eat. I won’t name the place, not that there was anything wrong with the food, but I don’t know the legal problems in regards to giving out names and all.

Sonny and I ate dinner at this place last night, and the food was off the chain good. The prime rib was “da bomb”, as we say in my ‘hood and can you believe home made mashed potatoes, Yummy!

Back to the gig. We are on the edge of a river and that means…. Bugs! I hate bugs, all bugs. I am getting attacked by bugs. (Where is the Raid?) And to make things worse, Sonny knows that I hate bugs, and he keeps telling me that there are bugs landing on my head. It is driving my crazy. I feel them everywhere. Can you believe the next three shows are outdoors? The show is good tonight, if not a little short. We are not used to playing 2 hour shows, but that is all the time we have. The crowd is different tonight. We cannot get a grasp of what they will like from us. So I think that Bruce in a way plays it safe. We play mostly the songs that the crowd will recognize. The best part of the show is the man that came on stage with an invitation from Bruce. This guy was the best. Bruce was introducing the song “Big Stick” to the audience, and ask if anyone knew of the movie Tin Cup. “What?” - a howl from the crowd. Bruce spots the culprit, “You sir! You are pumping us up. Please come up to the stage”, he says.

The guy comes up and stands next to Bruce. “Do you know the movie Tin Cup?” asks Bruce.
“Yes!” the man replies, “It is a cult classic in our house”.
“Do you know the scene where Kevin Costner is playing golf with a shovel and baseball bat?” Bruce asks.
“Yes!” the man says, “I do”.
“Well, that’s my song in that scene”, Bruce says.

Dude is awestruck. He is now looking at Bruce as if he were a three headed man (I mean this in a good way) :-} We play the song and dude returns to his seat to high fives and applause. I don’t think it was the best day of his life, but I think we added a great memory to it.

By the end of the night, the crowd was standing and dancing all over the park. Thanks, Roseburg for you hospitality. We had a ball.(but you got to do something about them dog-gone bugs) Yuck! It’s 1:37 AM and I can still feel them crawling on my head. Damn you Sonny!:-(

I will find some Raid for the next three gigs or else, JV :-}