Canadian Club, Part One.

   I once wrote that being on tour was like Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit”. Of course, that was a couple of years ago, and despite being proud of tossing around literary allusions like Gatsby’s shirts, (ahem), I was referring to a rather specific set of circumstances.

   Those circumstances don’t need to be recounted here, though, because this story is about spending time playing music with a great band, and more importantly, great people. I first met The Red Hot Blues Sisters on a trip to Seattle, and we hung out, jammed, and they took me to some crazy, middle of the night diner. All ‘golden’ to musicians! We’ve kept in touch, and I’ve been waiting for the day when I’d actually get an opportunity to work with them.

   That opportunity happened this last weekend, when they flew me up to Seattle, allowed me to stay in their home, and took me along for a long weekend of gigs. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to this trip. Going places to play music for people that want to hear it is the best single thing to do, musically. Doing that with people you like and admire is huge.

   The weekend started bright and early…okay, more like sleepy and early, Thursday morning at Oakland Airport. The tall guy with the sax was obviously my travelling companion, Robert Zuckerman. Robert plays with Cold Blood, so we have some mutual friends, and was part of the whole weekend. Suze picked us up at the airport, and we got a quick tour of the radio station…actually the five radio stations under one roof, she works for. Then Robert and I we’re left to fend for ourselves in downtown Seattle for the afternoon.

   Seattle is a great city, very similar in feel to San Francisco, with a lot of hills, surrounded by water. One other thing; the clichés are true, there literally IS a Starbucks on every block, and the lines in all of them were five or six people deep. The Raiders were in town for a pre-season game, but Raider Nation was vastly outnumbered by the LSU fans - decked out in Purple and Gold, handing out beads – in town for a game against UW.

   Thursday night we had a quick rehearsal, and Saturday we headed for the border. Now, I’ve had a couple of occasions to cross the US – Canada border with a band a couple few times, and whether it’s because of the new guy who lives on Pennsylvania Avenue, or maybe just a…better class of people crossing this time, I’ve never had an easier time with Canadian officials. Not quite warm n’ fuzzy, but efficient, and almost…friendly. In any case, the whole thing was quick and easy, and we were headed for Vancouver.

   And we would have made it quickly and easily, if Canada hadn’t decided to close one lane, and have all the in-flowing Friday-of-a-three-day-weekend traffic go from four lanes to one. Huge traffic jam. Eh. But no matter, after a bit we were in Vancouver, and checking into our hotel. The nice thing about this club, The Yale Hotel (which I’ve played before), is that the hotel is a block away. I had this vivid memory of the last time I was here; after the gig, I went to the 7/11 across the street, and got a Cup o’ Soup, which, as I recalled, I heated in the room’s microwave, and it was the perfect after gig snack. But my room didn’t have a microwave, so how could that be? Was this even the right hotel? Weird.

   The Yale is an institution. It’s been a blues club for decades, and anybody who’s anybody has played there. Even me! The club has its own bass amp, and…

  Sidebar; how brilliant is this idea? I’ve always felt that a club should have at least a basic backline in place. It makes for a quicker set up, it means your soundman gets used to how things will sound night to night, and at the end of the night, no gear to move. Unplug and walk.

   So, the bass amp is a big old behemoth 2x15 cab with a GK 800RB head. Old, ugly, and perfect.

   I won’t lie about Friday nights gig; we didn’t exactly play great. Oh, we were good, but without trying to make excuses, I’d never played with the drummer, outside of our one rehearsal I’d never played with the band. Tempos were sketchy, feels were questionable, and cues were missed. The first set, heavy on originals, was tentative. The second set, full of R&B standards, went better. The crowd was great all the way around. The club was full, and the party was on.

   After the set. I hung out for a bit and watched the late-night band (we finished at midnight, and then a local band plays from 12:30 to 3:00AM), but it was too “Blues Rock” Cabaret for me. When the drummer started “rapping” during Bill Withers “Use Me” – which they introduced as a Al Green tune, insert eye-roll here – I headed for the Quality Inn.

   A bunch of us gathered in Terri and Suze’s room for some late night goofing off, and the hanging out and laughing took away any lingering bad feelings from our perceived shortcomings on the bandstand. Saturday would be better.

Part Two Coming Very Soon!