The Past Week of Touring: Part 1

Adrian Belew, Eric Slick, Julie Slick performing with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Umphrey's McGee

What an emotional week!

After last Monday's packed house at World Cafe, we all pondered if our show could possibly get any better than that night. The energy and unbridled spirit of the crowd was staggering, and I would also like to thank Larry Allen and Matt Klein for coming (sorry I forgot earlier). We woke up the next morning early and traveled to the airport for a rather quick flight to Atlanta. I didn't know our check-in would even take that fast considering the new guidelines of Airport security, but I made sure all of my shampoos and toothpastes were "stowed away" in my checked bags. The waiting was the hardest part for this flight, but I recall sleeping for most of it. I was hoping arriving in Atlanta would be a breath of fresh air but instead it was like taking a shot from an inhaler filled with murky, humid wind. Atlanta is beautiful, and the architecture is alarmingly modern, but the humidity was out of control! It was nice to have a night off, but I had a lot on my mind. I also took NyQuil the previous night because I felt sick. NyQuil is great for bad colds, but the aftermath is always dizzying.

After watching episodes of Jerry Springer all afternoon with Julie we went out to dinner at a small chain called Houston's. As a vegetarian, I'm always searching for the world's best veggie burger, and Houston's is now the reigning champion. As usual, Julie took a bite of it and I groaned (I love Julie but my personal pet peeve is when she picks at my meal without asking)

My night of sleep wasn't as good as usual. I slept on the fold out bed. We were staying at the HAMPTON Inn, which delighted all of us due to our recent impersonations of some people we had met in Amagansett, NY (none of the people attending our show, thankfully). "Today is an important day", I said to myself as I was waking up in the shower. In Atlanta, we were opening up for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and Umphrey's McGee. For those of you who don't know, they are heavy hitters in the jam band society. They've had a successful run this summer under the title "The Acoustic Planet Tour". After running around finding an appropriate pre-show diner with our magic GPS system that we nicknamed "Genie", we drove over to the Chastain Park Ampitheatre. I've only had a taste of playing venues this big in 2003, when I "rocked"(?) the ridiculous Q102 Jingle Ball with Hillary Duff at the Tweeter Center in Camden. During our soundcheck I had an out of body experience when I realized there were 6,000 empty seats in front of me and that night they were going to be mostly filled. Talk about serious intimidation!

My fears were laid to rest as everybody from the respective bands introduced themselves. The jam band people are so much more courteous and they were completely open to any ideas we had the make the show interesting and unique for that night. Our backstage area was immediately reminscent of "This is Spinal Tap", because I got lost after about 2 minutes of my playful wandering. Too many doors in strange places for this drummer. Julie and I decided to keep our good luck charm by staying at the venue instead of going back to the hotel. Julie even tried to show her reckless rock star side by throwing a banana into our chips and salsa. Very reckless, Julie. Speaking of the salsa, Adrian tried to open it up before the show and spilled most of it onto his shirt. Luckily, Adrian Belew is no ordinary man, and he buys drip dry acetate shirts! No stains for you, Adrian.

The next two hours kind of flew by with excitement as Julie and I ran around and schmoozed with the members of Bela Fleck. In fact, thanks to Victor Wooten - bassist extraordinare - for interviewing us with his video camera.

Suddenly, it was time for us to go on stage. I can't say that I remember our set because it was one of those nights where I was so caught in the moment that I can only remember my own mental snapshots. Bela was amazing enough to sit in during our set, delivering a blistering banjo solo during "Beat Box Guitar". I looked back during this song and the gorgeous Lauren Zuber was standing there along with my good friend Robin Gelberg from the Project/Object tour. My friends were here to support me! Eli Saline and his friend Matt also arrived late, but I'll thank him for his manic excursions through Atlanta. During our last song, "Elephant Talk", Umphrey's McGee stormed the stage and started playing along with us. What a great idea for a tour concept! All of the bands keep their gear onstage at the same time so the switchover is seamless. Adrian sat in with Umphrey's for a powerful version of King Crimson's "Red" and the crowd went ballistic. The Flecktones came on during Umphrey's last song and delivered an easy going but jaw-dropping set.

At the very end of the show all of the bands came together on stage and we did a pretty much impromptu version of the Beatles' "Come Together". It was wild, looking out and seeing 6,000 people dancing and waving their fists in the air. After that we did a bluegrass jam with some tricky changes, some of which I missed. When all was said and done, we stood together in a row and took a bow. We shook hands with the crowd and securely put a lid on one of the greatest nights of my life.