|
 october 17, 1996
Notes from the Road i'm frustrated. actually, for no good reason. we're here in columbia, south carolina in some generic motel, and i can't get online to get or send any of my mail. email has become my sanity out here. i hate not being able to get and send my stuff. i've become a great big computer nerd in the last year. i've never had a hobby outside of music, so when i got into computers, i fell hard. well i suppose this is for the best because a lot has happened in the last few days. yesterday we played in nashville at caffe milano. it was a real blast, but we had a hard time relaxing for a few reasons. for one, we felt like fish out of water in that place. it was very mod, and very well decorated, but the vibe was a little uptight in there. we're used to very low maintenance college gigs. it was cool that most all of our parents were there, and most all of the staff folks from warner alliance (our new label) were there. i have to take a second to say something about how much we love (love, love, love) warner alliance. over the years, we've talked to a few labels, and never been incredibly impressed with the way that they've done business. we've kind of made it a point to remain independent. it was only after a meeting that we had with some of the main folks at alliance that we just flat out changed our minds. we were so pleasantly surprised with the people. there was such an incredible chemistry between us and them. they've allowed us to do the things that we want to do, while giving us some great advice on how to do it better. neal joseph, the president of the label, prayed for our meal at the lunch meeting that we had at the label yesterday afternoon. just before he did, he said, "welcome home." i'll just say that we absolutely felt that that's just where we were. we couldn't be happier. anyway, the show was a real blast. ask me how we played, and i'll tell you that we could've played better. nevertheless, we felt pretty good about it. today, on the other hand, was a real test. we were all exhausted after the show last night, so we slept pretty late. that's the nice thing about a bus. you can sleep late, and still get to the next city on time. so when i woke up, i found out that we had broken down somewhere between tennessee and south carolina. i think that we blew out a tire as well. either way, we were about 6 hours late. we pulled up to usc about an hour before the show was to start. take into account that our average set-up time is about an hour and 45 minutes, not including sound check. let me tell you, as soon as we pulled up there were about 20 fca folks there to help, and we set records getting that show ready. we started the concert about 45 minutes late, and from there on everything was great. i was amazed how fast everything got done. we're heading off to clemson tomorrow (today). quality free time is getting a little hard to come by, so i apologize for not writing any more detail. i'm going to grab a 25 minute power nap before getting on the bus and heading for clemson. i hope that all is well where you are. please be in prayer that our bus problems stay at a minimum. we really appreciate everyone being so supportive. i'll talk to you soon- derek ps- some of this may be terribly out of date, depending on how soon i can find a place to get my lil' computer online... |
