Equal Time
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
I'm actually gonna reply to some of Monty's stuff because my entry was so brief.

05/06/2003 08:07 AM - The Lee Harris Trio
Our next task is to see if we can fit an entire band, and all equipment into a Ford Matrix.

It's a Toyota Matrix. http://www.toyota.com/matrix

We began to load up, and by the grace of god, and some hugely complicated packing methods everything fits. Tightly.

Monty fails to mention that the next two or three times we have a much harder time packing the car, especially after having a few beers. On the van rental experience-back when Monty had a job, he'd email me forty times a day with arbitrary commands and questions. One of these days, after finishing my paper route, I opened an email from him asking me to check on van rentals. I stayed up 'til about 2 PM looking for van rentals and emailing Monty back and forth. I finally convinced him we should take the Matrix-he was ready to drop about 300 dollars on a Windstar because it had a TV and VCR in it. I spelled out the finances to him and he saw the light. If we had rented the Windstar we would have started the trip, best case scenario, about 200 dollars in the hole. You know a band is in trouble when I have the mist common sense.

We get a couple wrong turns, take a couple truck routes we shouldn't, and with the Playboys constant speed of around 15 on the interstate, we show up at Rehoboth beach in about 21 hours (5 actually). The dude seriously does drive slower than everyone else on the road. I tell him he's gonna get pulled over, and he says "For What?", and then C-Dog chimes in with "OBSTRUCTION!". We had white haired grandmothers passing us in the other lane, flicking us off and shit.

I took one truck route, and we got to see some neat airplanes sitting in a field. I set the cruise control at 74 in a 65 zone-not sure where the 15 m.p.h. factoid comes from. I also have low car insurance because I haven't had a ticket since 1988.

Hotel is a little seedy, with a couple scenes happening that don't neccesarily appear law abiding.

Corey and I saw a lady at a hotel room door on a cell phone, and we heard her saying "It costs 30 bucks" and a few other things leading us to believe she was up to no good. Later when I saw her out of the corner of my eye I wasn't so sure she was a she.

We start out with our mellow stuff, but soon move into the rockers. People seem to dig it, but we definetly drive out some older groups who are there for dinner. We are a rock band after all.

We started with a slow song, and then another, and another. No one was leaving-they seemed to be enjoying their dinner. Since we had suspended our set list, we were winging what to play next-and Monty was getting restless. He suggested we take it up a notch-and because he was on a slight drum riser, and didn't have the spotlight thingy glaring in his face, he had a better feel for the audience. We fired up out blues/Fats Domino-type song, and people sat there and seemed to like it. Tempting fate once and for all, Monty suggested we take it up another notch to our loudest, fastest, most intense, obnoxious song. We do, and that's when the folks started streaming out.

The booker also thanks us for doing the whole set tonight, and informs us that we have an opener for tommorrow night.

Actually the booker tells me "You guys are horrible, pack up and leave." Not sure if he's joking or not, I keep a poker face and wait a second and he starts laughing. He then tells us we were 'great.'

We do our second set and finish up. Night was fine.

Well, during the second song I broke a guitar string, then I decided to try 2 of the guitar songs on piano, and they were disasters. We tepidly played two or three more songs and gave up, basically. I was screwing up all night long.

We are informed the one of the waitreesess has a tattoo that has won awards, and she is in lots of magazines.

She buys a demo and tells us her mom lives in Midlothian-the town Monty and I grew up in. She wants to come see us when she's in Richmond.

we find out the manager took care of our whole tab.

Not exactly. The manager picked up our tab for the beer consumed during the show and before the show. This last round (17.00) was paid for out of gig money. The manager paid us after we were done, asked us to please play quieter the next night. I could sorta tell someone at the bar wasn't keen on us, but could never figure out who it was.

05/07/2003 - The Lee Harris Trio

All we had were t-shirts, you gotta pack light when traveliing in a sub-compact with all the equipment. We determine there must be a thrift shop in the area where we can score sweaters and whatnot from the 70s for like 2 bucks. We are correct. C finds a nice vintage work jacket, thank gasoline attendant style, for like 3 dollars. The playboy, scores a "Rehoboth Seafood" wind breaker for like 75 cents. I am fortunate enough to have brought along a pantagonia thermal shirt, but I do pick up a "Texas Wisonsin Border Caf?" t-shirt for 99 cents.

Monty neglects to mention his idea-go to the Old Navy Outlet Store and buy things there. I spotted the salvation Army and lobbied hard for it. We went to an activewear clothes store and best they could come up with was a 40 dollar sweatshirt. After convincing Monty that the Salvation Army "washed their clothes first" we headed there-the cost of Corey and me's coats was 3.00 total. Then, we went and bout 18.00 a pound cheese. haha.

We go to the room and explain this to the Playboy (who on the ride home is convinced we didn't tell him everything)

I wasn't ever told there was a choice involved 'til we were almost at the interstate. All I was told was "we're not playing tonight, come on, we're leaving."

This is a low point of the tour.

Especially since when I got home at 2 AM I went and delivered the Sunday Papers with my substitute, not falling asleep until 7:30 AM. Those are the expansions and corrections submitted for your perusal.

Lee does not drive 74 Miles Per Hour

I know for a fact I looked over a couple times, and saw the speedometer on around 50

Re: Lee does not drive 74 Miles Per Hour

!!!!!!!

Maybe when driving on the beltway in DC in a traffic jam.

I always set the cruise control 9 miles an hour above the speed limit.

The Tour
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
To quote Darin Stevens #1, "For Cryin' Out Loud!"

I was just typing happily a loooooooooooooooong journal entry about the tour-in fact I was right at the most dramatic part of the story when POOF, my old computer cut off. So here I am on the new computer completey unenthused about typing all that crap again-so I'm gonna have to type up a cliff notes.

Decide the week before the tour we need something to sell on the tour, so Corey comes over and we polish off ten songs we started recording 6 months ago, I stay up for a couple of days mixing the songs and stuff, burn about 50 CDR's, paper route Thursday, run errands afterwards, try to sleep-can't, meet Monty at 11:30 AM Friday, load car, pick up Corey, 5 hours to Rohoboth Beach Delaware, see funny closed store on the way "Bob's Old Beds," and "Breeding Produce" which I redub "Fucking Lettuce," get there, check into hotel, I fall asleep, awakened at 9 PM, shower and shave, go next door to bar which is actually a fancy restaraunt, we are asked to start with "our quieter stuff," people are eating dinner when we start, other band didn't show up so we play whole night, fire up loud songs a bit earlier than we should have, I mess up a few songs hitting wrong notes or chords, everyone's nice, get paid extra for playing the whole night, whiskey, sleep, go buy jackets at Salvation Army Saturday because it's cold up there, buy Monty some quieter drumsticks called "hot rods" because the restaraunt manager told me in a very nice way we were too loud, said the Strokes had played their and "cleared the room," they all loved Meanflower, a Waitress was from from Midlothian and wants to see us play when she's in town, she has "the most famous tattoo in Rehoboth Beach," Happy Hour, play pool, I take nap, Corey comes knocking on door, "we're leaving they don't want us to play tonight," pack up car, on drive home takes me 2 hours to get the full story--woman asked to play Saturday Night at the last minute because it's "cabaret weekend," she's friends with the owner and wants to play 2 hours, we're welcome to play after her but it might only be about 30 minutes, Monty tells manager "I'll go see what Lee wants to do," I was never asked what I wanted to do, just told "we're leaving, they hated us" (which wasn't true), they paid us ANYWAYS even though we didn't play, AND offered us free dinner (which I didn't hear about until we're almost to the interstate), everyone there was very nice and I hope we play there again.

We get home, I drop Corey and Monty off, I come home and do the Sunday paper route in tandem with my substitute driver in seperate vehicles, go to sleep, wake up around 5, leave for Chapel Hill around 6, get there around 9, set up, play from 10-12, we play much better to a small bar-crowd than we did to the people in Delaware, other band sets up and plays trad jazz and boogie woogie, they devolve into a hilarious medley of hackneyed cover songs one must play if in a wedding-band (including "Strokin'"), get room at hotel, meet fellow "road musician" in hotel lobby, exchange CD's, can't sleep-Monty and Corey snore, noisy parking lot, etc.-get home Monday afternoon-paper route stuff, go record a friend of Travis' playing lap steel on the country sunshine stuff, play gig at Poe's Wednsday-record it and videotape it, spent next two days synching footage together for a DVD, watch the DVD, watch accumulating videotapes of 1950's game shows I've been taping, it was very very very foggy last night while delivering but papers are small so I get done at 6 AM, take mom out for mother's day.

Just the facts!

Road Trip aka The Spring Tour
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
Well the Lee Harris 3 embarks tomorrow on a "tour" of sorts. playing 2 nights at a bar in Delaware (Rehoboth Beach?) and then Sunday in Chapel Hill @ the Cave. Should be fun. The paperboy is busier than ever and is actually sitting here burning CDR's to sell at the shows after an early week realisation that, despite having hundreds of hours of recorded material we had nothing to sell for taco money. So I coralled Corey into coming over here 2 nights ago to finish some things we had started 6 months ago, I stayed up yesterday and mixed the songs, got Monty's approval, and now we have a 10 song CDR done. I think I'll call it "Rush Job" or even more imaginatively "the tour e.p." although is ten songs an e.p.? This isn't an official release or anything-just a "here's what we sound like" sort of thing.

Friday night we're opening for some band from NYC called the The Witnesses that I hear through the grapevine are the "Next Big Thing." If you look at their website at www.the-witnesses.com you'll certainly see they have the hair for it. I envision a huge entourage and gigantic amps-and the poor little ol' LH3 straggling in in the Toyota Matrix with one amp hopeing we can just plug the piano into the P.A.

Another Wednsday, Another Gig
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
The Paperboy took the night off to go to his other job, playing original rock music to an empty bar. Well, it wasn't empty-Dave and Lewis and Shelley and Nick and Seth and Doyle and a few other people were there. It IS a Wednsday night-and this IS Richmond VA, and I DID forget to send out emails about the gig until 12:42 AM this morning. But still. Shelley was nice enough to weild the new video camera and record the show for posterity (or at least Monty and Corey and Me to look at.) She did a nice job filming the thing, close-ups and a band walkaround and such.

It's sort of uncomforatable watching a videotape of a gig-even if it IS in full-digital glory and all. You know how people hear the sound of their own voice and declare "THAT'S what I sound like?" Then they get all uncomforatable about it and everything? That's what watching a videotape of a gig is like-except you're HEARING yourself, SEEING yourself, and second-guessing decisions you made on-the-fly while performing.

When I write and record a song, I have complete control over what the final product is-how I sing it, what the words are, how it's produced. Playing in an empty bar, you just have to hope you remember everything and play good. A song is a blueprint-and no matter what it sounds like in your head, or on your car stereo, it always sounds different when presenting it to the public.

Animals do the craziest things, I say the dumbest things while sitting in front of a microphone. I don't even realize I'm saying the things. It's just the way it is. With all that said--here's the gig rundown.

I loaded up the Matrix and headed out around 7:45-made my usual stops by the Post Office and Bank--listened to a CDR of songs I've been working on with different folks here and there (naturally-what else would a self-absorbed bufoon do but listen to himself on the way to a gig where he was going to have himself videotaped?) and got to the club around 8:48. Unloaded, other band (GONER) showed up, drank beer, ate corn dogs (I had no idea I liked Corn Dogs-but I do, and that's all the bar had to offer) chatted with Corey and Kristi, Nick and Shelley, and Monty.

GONER cranked up around 10:45 and they were GREAT, There's apparently millions of thrillingly talented people out there that have kick-ass bands that also play in empty bars. They were three piece-keyboards, bass, and drums (just like us!)-and played aggressive melodic rock. GREAT!

Corn Dogs downed, we set up and started playing around midnite (the time Monty promised everyone we'd be done) and we plowed through the "power set" Monty's been pushing for-fast, edgy, short songs one after another tempered with a samba or two.
I think we played 14 or so songs in less than an hour-and debuted my new favorite, "We All Hated Sting."

I couldn't really hear my piano (which is normal) and after a mis-step at the very beginning concerning what key we were playing in and which key I was singing in, I gained my bearings and proceeded to play the first ever LH3 gig withOUT my "cheat sheet" lyrics in front of me. You try writing 20 songs a month and remembering the words to songs you've writtn over the past 15 years. I remembered 95 percent of the words and 98 percent of the piano parts. When I review the video I see someone who is almost not ill-at-ease weilding an instrument and singing at the same time. I hear someone who seems to be barking the lyrics more than singing them, a habit I must rid myself of. I also hear the onset of "old-man vibrato"-think Paul McCartney in the early 90's. Monty and Corey played flawlessly throughout the evening, and all-said it was a good gig. We even had a "positive heckler" shouting things like "I love you guys! Which one is Lee Harris?" I ask that sometimes myself.

Not to be too hard on myself, I must say what we're doing now (or attempting to do) is miles above musically what I've ever tried before-to play songs, while playing an instrument, with set lyrics and melodies and things--as opposed to the earlier part of my musical performing experience which consisted of standing in front of a band and singing whatever popped into my head with the same melody every time. Hell, I even pick up the guitar some now and sing with that, although I think I need to "go electric" which scares the bejeesus outta me-but the acoustic just sounds so--acoustic.

If I can step away and see it for what it is, we did good and could be on the road to being great. If only I would quit barking the words and singing like an 80 year old man.

Buzzy's Blues
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
Well-the much-hyped sure-to-be well attended gig last night didn't happen. I pulled into the Poe's parking lot at 8:15, and went inside to take a wiz before I started loading in the equipment. Much to my suprise I saw another band's equipment fully set up and ready to go. Amps, guitars, intrument cases, drums-LOTS of stuff. So I just went to the men's room. Then I went to the bar and the bartender said "hi Lee!" I didn't know the bartender's name.

"Um, hey...I was booked to play here tonight-is this another band I'm supposed to play with?" he didn't know. He hadn't seen the club's "wednsday night booker" in "a month."

I recognised a guy in the band that had already set up. At this point, Nick-whom I worked with at Borders-was with me. He had volunteered to come early and help me set everything up.

We went over to the guy whom I vaguely knew in the other band, Buzzy. I presented the situation to him, and explained that I had twenty or thirty people coming, and he asked what instruments we had-bass, piano, drums...upon hearing we weren't an "acoustic act" he assertively declared that he was really sorry, but we weren't gonna play. Something to do with "we booked the gig a month ago, and you booked it three weeks ago, so we win."

I walked outside and called Monty and told him we weren't playing-Corey walked up and I told him-I called everyone else (everyone said they were coming to the show, too.) Dave McCormack and crew were already there in the bar-so for some goofy reason I called him on his cell phone and told him, too.

I think I stood there by my car for an hour just staring into space, talking to Nick and Corey, and figuring out how I felt about all this. Buzzy and a bandmate came out and offered sincere apologies and "man, this sucks" sentiments-and "maybe y'all could book next week." Prabir was standing with me at this point, and he said "no, we're booked here next week."

Anyways-my posse dissapated and I drifted into the bar to meet with an ex from 12 years ago who was sitting at a booth by the door. I actually freaked her out because she'd been told I had left. We caught up on things, and her best friend was sitting there-her best friend happens to be married to the bar's manager, so we'll get another gig booked soon as a makeup date.

Jenny showed up and sat with us as Buzzy's band played almost all covers-"Dead Flowers," "Ticket to Ride," "I saw Her Standing There," "Bell Bottom Blues," etc. Then the bar manager's wife noticed on the grease-pen board where the gig schedule is listed that Buzzy's band AND my band were listed as playing that night.

If only I had known that when I first spoke to Buzzy. I made a comment that "I'm not very assertive" and my ex started laughing hysterically. Que Sera Sera.

santy claus
Topic: Country Sunshine gig
we had a big time tonight playing music for a packed house at poe's pub. lee harris and country sunshine made their debut playing honky tonk favorites and some honky tonk originals ( a lifelong dream come true), and then i backed into the sidelines for the 5th incarnation of the miserable space cowboys playing bob seger and depeche mode covers. the snow came down, but people stuck around 'tl the bitter end soaking up the ridiculous sounds of seger and mode.

hard to say how country sunshine did-i felt like we nailed it, monty said we were really good, the moniters were boss-so perhaps we pulled it off. it felt good.

it took me 2 hours to drive home in the sleet and snow dodging the snowplows and whatnot. but lord was it worth it. i couldn't have asked for a better xmas present.

we saw harry gore, mike joyner, jim johns, eric bautista, scott raffensberger, bruce smith, jen, alex, dave mccormick, monty, melina, hunter boxley, lewis harris, elaine, jesse, sarah hand, kelly gotschalk- and on and on-pretty much everyone important to me in one way or another. i wish we could do it every week. bravo!

Life in the Rock Lane
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
Things I forgot to mention on stage Thursday Night.

1. I have a website. www.leeharrisonline.com lots of MP3's to download.
2. Lee Harris & Country Sunshine make their debut 12/4

Things I remembered to do on stage

1. Most of the lyrics
2. Most of the music
3. Mention the 100 song album.

The crowd was SRO (standing room only)-as I guess everyone wants to get out of the house before WWIII officially starts. Meanflower really packs 'em in-this was the first show I've seen since Monty and I left the band, and there were some kinks, but overall they did a bang-up job. I hope the new CD is successful.

As for the LH3, we had a few problems of our own, judging from the recording I made, but nothing huge-just sort of "groove related" things at the top of the set-when we were still getting used to the sound. As the songs roll on our momentum increased and we ended with a flourish to lots o' applause.

A friend of P's offered to sell some of our demos around the bar, and she did a great job. After the show I goofed it up with Lewis Harris, and then made my way over to Meanflower central with Dave, Tom, Hunter Chicken Hipster King Meanflower, and 2 people I didn't know. I left around 5:45 AM and made my way back to the country.

the tour diary-dodging snipers
my first gig i have ever booked all by myself went off without a hitch. it went off without an audience as well, but there's no need to complain. here's the timeline for those keeping track.

saturday 10/19 8 PM-sniper shoots in ashland, about 15 minutes north or richmond.

sunday 10/20 5 PM-i head into richmond to meet up with corey. monty drove down to NC seperately with P. get there and loaded up-we leave in corey's car at 6. then we stopped on west broad street at a gas station to fill up his car. the gas station sits next to a wooded area, so we fill 'er up as quicly as we can and hit the road.

sunday 10/20 6 PM-get on 95 south headed for chapel hill. arrive without stopping three hours later. i talk the entire time. poor corey.

sunday 10/20 9 PM-arrive at the cave, the other band hasn't arrived yet. apparently a no-show, as they were supposed to play at 8. all i knew is they were an "emo band from chicago." maybe they were too wimpy to dodge the sniper on I-95. that was supposed to be a joke. emo band-get it?

sunday 10/20 10:30 PM-we start our exhilerating 24 song set with '100 ways to say i love you', then 'your invention', 'good in this world', and on an on all for an attentive audience of two. the bartender and P. throughout the evening people wandered in an out, and there was a few bucks in the tip jar at the end of the night, plus the cave gives the band free beer. we played most of the songs really well-they are getting more ingrained so we can play them without thinking about them-except monty can never remember the song names. ('how does this go?')

monday 10/21 12:30 AM-we wrap up the set and monty splits, as he and P both had to work monday. we confessed to one another that we didn't stop on the way down for fear of mister sniper. i joked with the bar at one point that 'they better watch out 'cause the sniper's headed your way!' corey and i sit in the bar as i enjoy my free beer until 2 AM.

monday 10/21 2:00 AM-we head outta the cave, stop and fill 'em up again (off the interstate), and roll into richmond at 5 AM. I load my stuff outta corey's car, put it in mine, and cruise down route 6 back home.

monday 10/21 6:00 AM i fall asleep watching don imus on msnbc. don is making fun of the washington post because richmond's newspaper the times dispatch http://www.timesdispatch.com has scooped them on the ponderosa sniper note and the report of additional tarot cards.

monday 10/21 9:30 AM i am awakened with the 'news' that something is going on at parham and west broad street. i can't fall back asleep so i subsist on my 2 1/2 hours of sleep watching the local channels and the cable networks. local nbc affiliate does the best job, CNN scooped everyone with the news that 2 people had been detained. woman calls local nbc affiliate to say she had seen that van at her kid's high school hanging around. the west end of richmond is the middle/upper crust SUV suburban soccer-mom ville part of richmond. i winced as the woman described the men driving the van as "not white. asian or arab or mexican or something."

fun facts about parham and w. broad street!

1. it's two miles from where i filled up corey's car on 10/20
2. it's one mile from the borders books i worked at for two years
3. it's about 1/4 a mile from the temporary storage facility place i applied at
4. it's right next to where my sister went to kindergarden

you get the idea.

rumors swirling you don't hear on the news are thus-

there was an actual phone call from that exxon station's payphone made sometime after the saturday shooting in ashland telling authorities where they would find the long, detailed letter to them, presumably penned by the sniper. the call presumably came from the sniper. rumor two-the phone number written in the kookoo note is that of the exxon payphone.

confirmed, unreported news-the ATF agents had completely taken over the exxon, and were working the registers.

the fun facts make me uncomforatable-to know that this freaking nut was lurking around the west broad area creeps me out. ashland is about a 10-15 ride up I-95 from that interstection-you can get on I-95 or I-64 or I-295 within a half a mile of that intersection.

That's the news from lake wobegon.

i'm staying home.

The Big Gig
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
Thanks to all y'all that came out to the show on 10/8. I'm still getting used to the idea of the Lee harris 3 band-playing piano and singing at the same time. After years of being just "the singer," with full mobility, able to bounce around like a gorilla onstage--and hiding my instrumental playing away at home, it feels odd just sitting there banging on a keyboard.

It's difficult to explain to someone how different practicing is compared to performing. At practice, everything is set up the way you like it-mics, PA-and you can sit there and face each other while practicing. You can also hear each other. Some places you go play, this remains true-you can sit so you can see each other and you can hear each other. However, it's those other times that are so frustratingly bizarre.

You have drums, bass, and a keyboard situated on a stage. In a PA system there are typically a few different "mixes" going on. There's the mix the audience hears, booming out of huge PA speakers. That mix can barely be heard back onstage by the performers. All they can hear from that mix is a ringy echo of the vocal bouncing off a reflective surface. That's why we have moniters. That's why you always hear performers bitching about the mix in the moniters. "Can I have more vocal in the moniter." I know you've heard that before.

For bigger PA systems, each moniter has it's own mix-so you might have a moniter for the drummer with piano, bass and vocals (no drums), the bass player might just want vocals and keyboards, etc.

At tonight's show, I couldn't hear a damn thing. Neither could Corey or Monty. You'd think that three guys playing loud rock would be able to hear each other. Not true. All I could hear was Monty's drums behind me and a little bit of my keyboard. I could hear the bass a little bit, and a little of my voice-but barely. It's the damndest thing. It was like when my voice left my throat and sailed into the mic it dissapeared into a great cosmic void.

The moniter had definite sound coming through it-but since I was sitting down the moniter wasn't aimed at my ears, so the sound just flew past me up into the ceiling. It's a show like this where you have no idea what you sound like. Zero. None. You just fly blind and hope all the practicing has paid off-because you've been to shows before where performers are griping about the moniters. And that is annoying as hell for the audience, who can hear everything fine. So you troop on.

I asked some folks afterwards and they said the sound was good and we sounded good. I'll just have to take everyone's word for it, because without hearing it for myself I don't know. It's weird.

Then there are the bright spotlights. They really are bright if you're trying to play an instrument that faces horizontially. It's hard to see what notes to hit, and try to look out in the crowd, and all that. What it felt like tonight was really me sitting alone in a brightly lit soundproof bubble. haha-sorta frustrating, but I guess we did okay because many of you said so. It's just like having sex really drunk-so you don't really know if it was good or not. Therefore there's no real satisfaction. I donno.

I got there at 4 (first one there!) at the club 929, and I loaded all the stuff on the stage and chatted with a guy that worked there. I'm awful fidgety, and when I don't have anything to do AND don't know anyone in the room I have an instinct to just ESCAPE. That's what I did-I wandered to a bank machine, saw an old neighbor of mine who runs a tattoo parlor near the club (I said hi to him timidly and he kept walking, not hearing me, and I didn't really WANT to talk to him-but you know, I was fidgety and didn't know anyone.)

So I wandered back into the 929 and decided I should find out who the soundperson was gonna be, and I talked to a nice man in a fancy hat who said he was the normal soundman but he couldn't be there tonight, so "Billy" was filling in. The 929 used to be a bar called Twisters that I used to play at all the time when I was just "the singer," but I literally haven't played the place since 1991.

I actually had an ad hoc going away party for myself there a week before I moved to Tennessee in August 1991. The band I was in for 7 years also played their final show at this place. I also DJ'd a 70's dance night there for a few months in the summer of 91. So much history! The soundman who wasn't gonna be there knew none of this, nor did he care, but I volunteered to him that I had Dj'd there years ago and he said something about them having a newer PA. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was 11 years ago, when he was probably 13. You ever walk through a graveyard?

I think being there sorta freaked me out subconsciously. Like going to a class reunion and no one there knows you. So, ember swift rolled up around the time i was returning from the bank machine, and i talked to them for a few minutes, then did my freak shuffle back outside since I couldn't think of anything to say that didn't make me sound like a fruitcake. Better to just go hide somewhere until Monty shows up. He's a better people person. Ember Swift also kept referring to him as "cute Monty."

So he rolls up as I'm inexplicably leaning against my car doing NOTHING but avoiding people, and then we walk in together and I become chatterbox Lee with Monty there running offence. They sort out drums and whatnot, we get the soundcheck rolling, and then people start rolling in. I'm never able to just relax at a show until my part is overwith, and then I start getting fidgety again.

I sat at the bar with 2 friends of Corey's and we chatted the night away-one of them kinda caught on that underneath my calm exterior I was extremely uptight-about WHAT I don't know, I'm just a shy fidgety guy underneath all this show bizness. After the show was done I'd driven halfway home before I remembered a few things I'd left at the bar--sigh--so I turned around and went back and got them. Plus side-I was able to listen to all of TUSK by Fleetwood Mac on the way home.

Monty and Corey played great (from what I could hear) and I'm really lucky to be playing with those guys.

Tour Diary
Topic: Lee Harris 3 Gig
We had a good show last night. Corey and Monty showed up out here at our new practice space and Corey and I ate hamburgers while Monty played with the donkeys. We went through the set once and it sounded really good. I surmised we might have blown our load and were gonna suck at the show.

Monty split and Corey and I hung around for a bit playing with my cat Maggie. Then we headed to the big city-found the bar and set up our stuff. The bar is called the Bottom Line, and I'd never been there. There's an inside part and an outdoor part under a huge tent. We were playing in the outdoor part. Soundchecked and then started playing at 9:30. Here is the set list!

100 Ways to Say I Love You
I Wouldn't Have it Any Other Way
Good in this World
Remember Me
Most of All
Sunset Waltz
My Heart Drags Me Down
Top of the World
Your Invention
I Can't Trust You
Hand Over Your Heart
Cast a Shadow

It lasted about 45 minutes, and we played really well. It's nice to have a good PA and a soundperson there working it. Even if it does cost most of the money you bring in. But anyways. I hung out with Monty and Dave McCormack after we played, and I really liked SWOON, the next band. They reminded me of Throwing Muses (I think that's who I mean)-I'm thinking of that 4AD band that was a spinoff of some other 4AD bands-OH This Mortal Coil. That's what they sounded like to me-very British and cool for some reason.

Towards the end of the night I got into a barside chat with a guy named xavion cerrone about music and had a fun time doing it. On the drive home I was happy to see that the new SHEETZ is open out here in Powhatan, and I was able to get a Swiss Bacon cheeseburger at 3:30 AM. Amazing.

Now, to get a job!