February 2, 2004 - Park City, Utah

I woke up early again this morning and just lounged around in bed for a while. Talked to my wife on the phone a couple of times. I walked down to the breakfast room in the hotel and grabbed some cereal and a danish. The danish was really good. Our bus call wasn't till 12:30 so I went back to the room. I had considered getting into the hot tub, but after last night's experience I decided not to! Even though the hotel was literally across the street from the venue, I decided to ride the bus. It was kind of chilly out and I wasn't in the mood to deal with it right now. Only 1 of our 4 loaders was around, so I ended up helping to load in the gear. One of my biggest hang ups about the tour is that sometimes the loaders that the venues are supposed to provide don't come through. Don't get me wrong,...most of the venues provide excellent service. But sometimes,...the service falls short of what we expect. I think that our rider calls for 4 loaders for load in and load out. But since we only had 1 loader I had to help with load in more than I wanted to. The stage was kind of small so I didn't set up Victor's whole rig. That would make for easier load out. While we were setting up, my friend Russ and his wife Robin showed up. I hung out with them when we played Salt Lake City last year and they wanted to take me to dinner this year. Russ is a bass teacher in the Salt Lake City area. Also I forgot to mention that last year Russ interviewed me for an 'article' on the history of modern bass guitar.Last year I asked them to take me to a book store and I bought Russ a copy of Zen Guitar by Philip Sudo as a gift. I think that is a very important book for all bassist and guitarists to read. Russ and Robin hung around for sound check which went a little bit longer than expected because of not having loaders. We finished sound check after 6:00PM. I rode with Russ and Robin to Salt Lake City which was about 20 miles away. We went to a very cool book store/café. I looked for another book called 'Laws of Spirit' by Dan Millman to buy Russ, but they didn't have the book in stock. I think that he would have really enjoyed the book and if you get a chance to pick it up I think you would really enjoy it. I found a book that Victor had recommended to me. Russ insisted on buying it for me. That was very nice of him. We went next door to eat at the café - it was more like a restaurant. I ordered sautéed vegetables in a spicy peanut sauce. It was one of the BEST meals I ever had in my whole life. I definitely want to thank Russ & Robin for the book and the great meal. After we left the restaurant we drove the 20 miles and 2000 feet in elevation back to Park City just in time for me to check the basses before the show. Right before the show one of Russ' students took a picture of me, him and Robin.

The show was incredible. Everybody played real well as usual. Divinity is coming down with a cold but it didn't seem to effect her during her segment. Regi's been very animated on this tour. In the beginning of the show Victor walked back to me and said that his fingers weren't working well. I think he was implying that he wasn't playing well. But I couldn't tell because he was playing his ass off. I played a pretty decent bass solo again but it seemed like my bass was playing kind of loud so I need to make a note to check the levels on the bass. I ran into a guy named Greg who I met on my very first tour with Victor. He's a drummer and I first met him while he was living in Ft. Collins, CO but he recently moved to Utah. My friends Russ & Robin had to leave before the end of the show to go pick up their kids from the baby sitter. While we were loading out the venue provided a little more help than they did at load in but not much more. When we finished we drove across the street to the hotel so everyone could shower. Then we headed out on our 7 hour trip to Boise, ID. I called my wife to wish her good night even though it was almost 4:00AM her time. Danette was on the back of the bus conducting business so I fell asleep on the front of the bus. After she was finished Joseph came to the front of the bus and told me that she was finished so I went back there and fell asleep. It's been kind of cold on the back of the bus but if I had to choose between being too hot and too cold I would choose being too cold every time because I like sleeping with covers on top of me. So I wrapped up in some blankets and fell asleep in the back of the bus.

Here's Ted working his lighting magic..

peace & blessings

anthony