adrienne's Tour Diary

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May 28, 2005
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May 24, 2005

May 25, 2005 - Bitterscene - Chelmsford, UK

Woke early this morning on Special Kids' kitchen floor in the basement. As Lauren had predicted, there was drilling on the street above, and Mai woke Dan to go upstairs to check the status of the 41 VN DK van. Dan pulled himself up from the kitchen floor and, as he'd slept in his outfit from the show last night, skipped up the stairs without any delay. I lay on the floor next to Chris G., his scarf wrapped around his neck, his head near the kitchen cabinets, and wondered if Dan would be able to get back into the house once he went out the front door so I went upstairs in my socks and found him behind the wheel, the van in the middle of the road, 30 feet from a man operating a street drill. I opened the passenger door and Dan asked me to move an orange cone so he could move the van and I did. The driller did not notice, or he didn't care. I put the cone back. Dan re-parked the car. We returned to the kitchen. Mike woke up on the living room floor. CW was gaining consciousness. Daniel had already left to catch the 8 a.m. Megabus with Laura back to Manchester.
The baked chicken from Somerfield's that we'd been carrying around as possible picnic had gone bad--I determined this from a distance of 5 feet. We packed our things, deposited the chicken in the trash, and drove into Brighton's town centre. CW and Mai went directly to an internet place and CG, Dan and I ate breakfast, different English offerings consisting of toast, piles of eggs, and sausage. The sun was coming out. We walked to the Brighton Pier, rode horses (mine kept loitering near the wall, though), played Euro Dance Revolution, and walked on the very rocky sand. If you listen to the tide come over the stones on the beach and then wash out for 10 minutes, you look three years younger than your actual age.
Following our sojourn on the beach the three of us went to the post office to mail CDs to Ren at Rough Trade in London and CG mailed his final international postcards. A friendly senior citizen said to Dan and I: "My husband asked me to just sit here and hour while he does the shopping." Like a trick learned from David Copperfield, she then produced two Werthers Originals caramels in the palm of her right hand and passed them to Dan and I. "We've been married 50 years," she told us. She and the candy or she and her husband? Her other half walked towards us and asked for his wife's "cards." Credit cards, to pay for the shopping.
Tonight is our last show in the UK for this tour--tomorrow we will be back in San Francisco, Saturday we play at home, enjoying paper towels in bathrooms, toilet seats almost a 100% probability on toilets at establishments. We are now driving to Chelmsford, outside London, for our show at Bitterscene, which we've looked forward to for many weeks.
Paul, one of the Bitterscene promoters, was walking home from the train station when we parked the van near the venue. CW went back to Paul's house to check his email and the rest of us hung out at The Original Plough, drinking on a picnic bench in the warm late afternoon light.
The last UK show...and as we did the sound check I wanted the night to stretch longer, the tour to go on for another week or month. We went on after The Hot Silk Pockets--one of THSP's guitarists wore a sweater vest/striped top combo that was hypnotizing. I came out of hypnosis at the end of their set and we started with Radar, played through the set, and then an encore followed Secret. Hung out with the promoters, signed the legendary bed sheet, and then it was past midnight, possibly past one a.m. Dan and I walked with Paul back to his and Jackie's house, while Jackie navigated the van. Back at their house we listened to Antony and the Johnsons, spoke of Las Vegas and hot water heater differences between appliances in the US and UK, and drank tea in the back garden. The weather was like summer. A perfect last night of tour...can't wait to come back!
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This entry is part of the Euro 2005 tour
<< more recent entry
May 28, 2005
older entry >>
May 24, 2005
© 2005 Citizens Here and Abroad ·  · Photography by Jason Koxvold