Man, this is distracting! There's some old biddies in the next room making a freakin' racket. Every couple of minutes one of them lets out a crackling, cackling blast of laughter. I think I'll set up my portable stereo by the adjoining door and treat them to a little late night sample of the Beastie Boys. I can't believe we're getting to the end of this phase of the tour. One minute we're in the shank of it and the next minute we're coming up to the exit ramp. It still feels like it's building. Well just have to take the momentum into the studio.
Some of us went to the circus in Chicago last week and, sure enough, one of the performers was an actor who had been our "Love in an Elevator" video. He was a "little person" named Mitsou. Anybody remember his part in the clip? They also had the usual person getting shot out of a cannon. Joe swears that the device was one of our old obsolete potato guns from early in the tour. Scandalous.
We based in Minneapolis for a week ,which was cool. I've always liked that town. People there couldn't get why we were still there a week after we played. From there we went to Chicago and did the same thing. We were camped out there for the Thanksgiving holiday period. It's pretty weird shifting out of the road pirate mode when all the families come out. You know in a science fiction movie, when they retrieve somebody from deep space and they still have all the alien slimy stuff on them from whatever life form they've encountered. Similar.
One of the shows was in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Months and months ago, a local radio station started a petition to get us to come play there. It had a definite effect on why that one got routed in. Then came the knee. Now after all these months we finally play it and everybody forgets to even mention the petition. Well here's my chance. Thanks to everybody who signed it because we had a great time there. Also, thanks for sticking with us 'til we finally showed up.
Another milestone along the way: We played in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, the home of the Fort Wayne 55. "What was that?" say all you people that haven't read the book yet. Why I'll tell you. Back in the seventies, when we read the newspaper after a show, there was always a report on all the arrests that took place. Nothing about the show, just a blurb about all the troublemaking that went on in and around the venue. We were pretty sick of the newspapers looking down their noses and trying to incite the local citizenry to ban Rock and Roll. Anyway, one night in Ft. Wayne we were just about to go on when we got a report that the police were arresting anyone in the building that was caught smoking. They took 55 kids who were looking forward to the show down to the station and threw them in jail. We were pissed so we told our accountant to go down there and bail 'em out. The next day we found out that the story was all over the news wires and reported in countless papers all around the country. The last thing we had on our minds was "publicity stunt" but I have to admit it doubled the satisfaction.
While I'm on the subject of oppression, let me tell you something that happened at a show just last week. You see, sometimes girls in the audience whip their shirts off in a display of healthy self-liberation. I actually feel kind of proud that one of our shows is the kind of place where someone can feel safe enough to express themselves that way. Anyway, I found out that some girl did it out near the soundboard somewhere and was promptly arrested. Gee, don't we all feel safer now.
We didn't find out about it until it was too late to do anything about it. Okay, enough about crime and punishment. Tomorrow night we get back to the business of stretching the cultural standards of our society. Somebody's got to do it.
Viva la Libertad,
TH
