THE WEEK IN REVIEW
I left the Boston Opera House entry lingering online for a week even though plenty of journal-worthy things were going down in the days following that show. I suppose part of me was afraid that if I kept piling up road journals on the site people might never discover the one where we brought a guy that looked almost exactly like Bob Saget on stage.
So let’s review the last week in Guster, rapid-fire blogger style since the guslog v. 2.0 appears to be on hiatus.
4/22 University of Buffalo
Shared the bill here with Finger Eleven, The Roots, and Mr. A-Z. What a mix! What a wonderful tribute to the open-mindedness of students at the University of Buffalo! We talked about touring together this summer, the four of us in a rotating order — and it seemed like a good idea, the only hold-up being that it would be the worst-flowing show of all time.
Speaking of miserable showings, Buffalo’s airport security made it into ?uestlove’s myspace blog for being racist douchebags after the show. Read about it here. ?uestlove drew a cartoon picture of himself on a drumhead during the Roots’ set and flung it into the crowd for a lucky fan to take home. With like 10,000 people in the audience he probably didn’t expect our 45-year old truck driver, Roger, to catch it, but that’s what happened.
?uestlove signed drum head
Roger
We still don’t know what Roger was doing out there during the middle of the Roots’ set, and it’s anyones guess how many 19 year old girls he clobbered in a mad dash to get to the drum head. He presented it to me and Scooter proudly, even though “people in the crowd were offering me good money for it.” Thanks Roger.
4/23 Rochester
Speaking of big burly men mixed in amongst the crowd, it was hard not to notice the seven-footer in the second row of the Water Street Music Hall show in Rochester on Tuesday.
Dave Yonkman snapped that shot of him. What you can’t see in the photo is one very angry 5 foot 4 inch girl, with her forehead squarely between the shoulder blades of the gentle giant, weeping softly into her pint of ice cream and hopelessly calling out for “Cocoon” — we’ll never hear your screams, girl with no sight lines! That man’s stomach growls louder than your futile re?uests! Ryan called him “tall guy” a couple times during the show.
4/25 Williams College
Woke up to discover that the stuffed pig pillow I bought for $3 at a flea market in Branson Missouri had been gagged with duct tape, de-tailed, and de-flowered.
left to right: Dave Yonkman, stuffed pig pillow
De-flowered
To be honest, I’m surprised that it lasted in the front lounge of the bus for the three weeks that it did. There are 11 of us on this bus, and space is very precious. And a month into the tour people are probably starting to feel lonely. And by “people,” I mean Gordon. Gordon fucked my pig, I know he did.
4/26 Middlebury College
Starting to feel lonely at this point in the tour, Ryan read aloud an email we received through our website to the Middlebury College crowd:
Dear Guster,
We would like to remind you that if you play “Like a Prayer” at Middlebury, as part of a school tradition that is taken advantage of at our three social houses, all males (and many females) will take their tops off. Try it and see.
Mary and Dan
We were pretty sure “Mary and Dan” were just trying to con us into an ill-advised excavation our old acoustic version of Madonna’s song, which has been propogated on the internet despite its retirement from our set and despite its, uh, lack of merit. We actually stole the idea from John Wesley Harding’s cover of the song when we were in college. Anyway, we decided to “try it and see” at Middlebury because really, what did we have to lose? (Hey, free dummy).
It worked!
try it and see
There were a lot of topless guys, a bunch of women in bras, and one very brave completely topless girl (I am told)
4/28 Siena College
Joe decided to clean the bus today and that meant some difficult decisions. The pig is gone, after leaking cotton innards all over the front lounge. That was an easy one. But what to do with ?uestlove’s drum head? (It’s fun to type someone’s name with a question mark instead of a Q — try it). I’m really not a collector, but I’m a big fan of his drumming. The more I stared at the drum head, the clearer the picture became. It’s a new head… a snare head…. it’s a 14 inch coated ambassador from Remo, just like the kind I use…
If the kids at Siena College notice I’m playing a little funkier tonight (or maybe just a little less awkwardly), you’ll all know where the inspiration came from:
Go Irish!
Guster Road Journal 