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August 27 2005 - Wallingford, CT My first few months with the Bruce Hornsby band, we were opening the show for Bonnie Raitt. I love Bonnie, and her music. So, this was a chance for me to watch one of my favorites. But every night we opened the show to people who did not really care about our music. I’m not saying everyone hated us, I think we won some people over. There were nights when we would play for crowds that made you wonder if you had two eyes, two ears and a nose (wait a minute?????:-0 ) Imagine doing your job, and everyone you come in contact with just want you to go away. Yikes! We would make little plans before a show, just to get the attention of the audience. What kind of plan, you ask? Well I will tell you of one such plan. We would take a peek at the crowd before a show. If the crowd seemed shady, we would all come out and play the highest note we could for 20 or 30 seconds. This would guarantee two things. They would notice that something was happening on stage and, whatever was happening on stage they would hate. Of course Bruce loved it. I was new and thought to myself, what the hell are we doing? :-) That was ten years ago, and now I’m all about self entertainment. All of this leads me here. The Wallingford, CT show felt like this to us. We were the opening act for the band Ratdog, which features former Gratreful Dead member Bob Weir. Bob is a great guy and it is always a blast being around this group of people. But most people in the audience only want to hear B. sing Grateful Dead songs. In our set list are 5 or 6 great Dead songs. But, why would we play Jack Straw on a stage where the band that is coming after us has the guy who wrote the song? I think our audience was in the minority last night. One guy just kept screaming for JS. I went to sleep last night dreaming of Jack Straw :-( And I like the song. We all thought the show from a music point of view felt and sounded great. We were happy with the performance. Bob came and played with us on The Way It Is. The audience really loved that part of the show. But it was the last song. I hope we converted some people, but on the whole it was a hard night. I would love to hear a tape of this show. We had our moments. And now it is time to... what the hell? Wait a minute! We have just pulled into the hotel parking lot.. :-) I am convinced that this hotel is from a horror movie. I wish you could see this place, Yuck! The room smells of old cows doing the nasty. The air condition (circa 1920) smells like something is in the filter (change the damn thing) :-( I go back to the bus to retrieve my phone charger and find Sonny. "What are you doing?" I ask. Sonny replies, “ I’m not sleeping in that room, there are stains on the bed and I am afraid to sleep with the window open. Someone might crawl in and beat my ass”. I am on the ground rolling with laughter :-) Sonny spends the night on the bus. I get back to my room and get a phone call from our bus driver, Dale. Dale’s a good guy, and I really like him. Dale is also afraid to sleep with the window open. It is dark and gloomy outside and not much around. Where the hell did we dig this place up? It takes a couple of hours for me to fall asleep. It is gross and yucky here and I have dreams of cobra snakes all around my bed, (What the hell is that about?) With the sunrise, we find that we are not in a remote area. We are in the hood. And now things have changed. I cannot wait for the show tonight. I want out of this room and I want to check out this city. More details to come :-) See ya soon. JACK STRAW BRUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)
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