I have to apologize for the blogs stacking up a bit. It’s hard to get online when you’re on the road, and-I’ve had responsible people take me to task for this:
“you can get online when you’re in your hotel room”
-Not when it’s $20 a day
-Not at 3am when you’re just getting in
-not when you’re half in-the-bag
-not when you can’t find the door
-not when you’re at the Rainbow (hourly rates) motel off Hwy 41 in some namesless town in Indiana.
“You can get online at most fast food places”
-Not when you’re going through the drive-through trying to make sound-check on time.
-not when you’re living on gas station burritos and Beef jerky
-not when you’re in the van 15 hours and you’re the one behind the wheel.
These are my excuses. May they suffice or may you forgive me.
Anyhow….
We played Joe’s Bar in Chicago last night. The fifth date thus far as support on the JAGERMEISTER COUNTRY TOUR w/ ERIC CHURCH (and Josh Thompson. And Rick Monroe. And your’s truly. And my band: The Jeff Beckley Band, also known as the Randy Hofgren experience, the reg’lar Joe’s from Buffalo, los boracho’s unidos, the fly-guys-from-WNY….okay that last one is LAME-and the Jeff Beckley thing, that’s a loooong story and a very funny inside joke. Get to know us, maybe we’ll share…)
So where was I? Yes, playing Chicago. Well after much travel and strife it was a big relief just to get to the limit’s of Chi-Town, the city of the Big shoulders, the second city, the Queen City, the Windy City…I digress, WHY?
Hell, I guess to be colorful.
So there we are onstage, and after the first date on this JAGER Tour where I’ve personally appeared for sound-check I walked onstage and had NO Monitors-which isn’t the biggest deal, but I mention it if for no other reason than to give explanation for all the funny hand signs I was making trying to get the sound-guys attention. Yes, my audience, I was not tring to levitate that black box on the floor, to send the runner to second, to land the f-14 on the flight deck… was trying to signal “turn it ON, then turn it UP.” That also explains the big smile on my face near the end of our second song when the sound engineer finally figured me out and DID turn it on and turn it up. From there, our set went without a hitch and the crowd seemed appreciative and a good time was had by me, and by my band and by our crew and by my cousins from Joliet and once again we live the rock and roll life and wake up a lil’ hazy and hurting but it’s a good kind of haze and hurt.
I should write about Josh Thompson and Eric Church. So I will: I miss most of Josh’s set while I’m out signing merch, but I can hear him and his band sounds great and they seem like nice guys. Same for Eric Church, ‘cept I do get to see him and it’s a pleasure cause I really dig his material and his band is friggin’ awesome. And I’m not just saying that, I mean it, I mean, I might-probably would say it– even if it weren’t true, but It’s true. They rock. And Jager rocks. And Chicago rocks. And with that I’ll bid theee farewell, and with that I’m reminded of an Elizabethan manner for asking “who farted?” that I thought of today while Hofgren and Guitar Joe slept and I drove:
“From whence cometh that malodorous expression of one’s gastrointestinal discontent?”
Don’t know why I had to go there. And I thought of more that I’ll share with you later, but this is the end. BYE.
Sean
When a Dollar Ain’t Worth a Dime