I said my emotional goodbyes to Adam and Malin and took my final bus of the tour down to LA, where my good friend from Wymeswold, Franic Rozycki, and his lovely LA-based girlfriend Oana came to collect me and take me to Amoeba Records, the largest independent record store in the world. I managed to escape without spending too much money and managed to pick up a birthday and Christmas present for Fran, with his help. We eventually located The Smell and, as not much was going on there, we headed out to find some gross Mexican food (my third tortilla based meal of the day - California!). By the time we got back to the venue, Taryn had arrived. Here's a team shot of all three of my 'fans' for the night:
A rock band played at an ear-splitting volume we were too refined/old to enjoy, so we hung out away from the stage, where it was still too loud to have a conversation. Then I played at a more sensible/square volume, and had a lot of fun doing so. Brannigan's Law were the band who set up the show and got me on the bill, and were one of the acts I was most looking forward to playing with. They did a great job and were very fun and energetic on stage. They are so young and so good and so cool that I should hate them for professional reasons, but I can't bring myself to. Check them out. The four of us went for a drink in a nearby bar, then Taryn and I headed back to San Diego.
Taryn and I spent the next day hanging out around the North Park neighbourhood of San Diego before heading over to the venue, Eleven, for the show. Here I met Mike Sherk, my companion from the first US tour (unfortunately carried out in the dark pre-blogspot age and therefore not painstakingly documented online) and a friend I am always happy to catch up with, and a bunch of Taryn's friends I was excited to hang out with. I was in very high spirits and it was fun to play in front of friends and friends of friends. Mike joined me for a couple of songs at the end of my set and it was cool to finish off the whole adventure with him shredding along to my celebrated version of Dancing In The Dark!
That's me doing my one 'stage move'.
The main purpose of the show was to give Taryn's band The Dirty Legs one last hurrah before their bass player and singer Carrie moves up to Seattle, so emotions and alcohol consumption were running high. They played a great, rocking, crowd-pleasing set, undaunted neither by the weird voodoo skeleton man throwing plastic sperm at them from the front of the stage, nor by the Jagermeisters forced upon them. Here they are in their specially designed matching outfits.
Rounding out the night, Mandarin Dynasty produced a great, playful set of Mike's terrific songs and some choice cover versions. My tour wrap up party took place back at Taryn's place where Mike and his girlfriend Carly joined us to spin some records, drink some booze, catch up and crack jokes. It was a great night and a wonderful way to finish what has been an incredibly fun tour. Ups and downs as always, but definitely a hugely positive experience overall. New Orleans aside, I thoroughly enjoyed every stop I made and even that is pretty funny in retrospect.
A thousand thankyous to all those who helped out along the way, from Brad and Mickey in Denton TX to Taryn here in San Diego and all the beautiful people in between.
Finally, as a thankyou to all my readers, particularly those enduring what sounds like an especially miserable British winter, here is a special holiday greeting card to you all
Thanks for your patience one and all.
Stay nice,
Hugh
x
