Day 27: San Jose, CA
Nau mai
Yesterday we played the San Jose Civic.
I had fruit for breakfast. This might have been the first plum of the tour. It was joined in the bowl by blueberries, banana, and yoghurt, and served atop a thin bed of granola.
Our day was to be spent in a very grand venue, a building that dated back to 1936. The halls were tiled in glossed terracotta as is the style that reflects its Wild West heritage and the walls were lined with photos of the greatest of the musicians and entertainers that had graced the stage.
We began our work with a midday load-in. The venue’s stage hands were old, like the venue. Too old to be lifting for a living, we thought. We tried to do as much of our own loading as possible to allow these folks to enjoy their working retirements.
Annie organised her friend Anna to run us a sound bath in one of the quiet moments of the afternoon. We lay on the dressing room floor and received deep auditory relaxation from the vibrating tones of a set of crystal singing bowls. If you could employ someone like Anna to play sleep sounds in your bedroom every night it would be well worth the expense.
Tristan struggles to extract himself from a powerful state of relaxation.
I’m not sure what is happening in this photo. It looks like someone is trying to sneak up and pounce on the drum kit. But it shows you how nice the San Jose Civic looks all lit up and full of people.
Sometimes you want the venue stage hands to help you pack up and sometimes you wish they would just leave your stuff alone. In particular they struggled with orienting equipment cases so that they operated as a wheeled vehicle instead of a sled. They also left a bit to be desired with their basic cable handling and storage procedures.
Gabe was dismayed when he found this monstrosity.
Here are the points from today:
