February 7, 2004 - Portland, OR

The bus call wasn't too early since Portland is only a few hours from Seattle. I had planned on staying up front with Jeff for the whole ride. I wanted to see if I could see Mt. Rainier and Mt. Saint Helens from the bus. We were traveling in I-5 South. Portland Oregon is right across the Washington State border. We did our usual laughing and joking on the trip. Jeff pointed out some landmarks to me on the way. We rode past the Boeing plant. They had a Concord out front. I didn't realize how small they were - I always thought they were big planes. We got to the Alladin Theater and pulled around the back to park the bus. We only had 2 loaders and one of them was the promoter. I thought load in was going to be a mess, but they were actually very competent. One of the things I'm known for on tour is remember small insignificant details about cities and venues. The two things I remember about this place is that the stairs leading up to the dressing room are quirky. The last step is about an inch and a half higher than the rest of the steps. So if you go up the stairs in a particular rhythm you always trip over the last step. The other thing I remember is that this place had some of the best guacamole that Joseph and I ever tasted. I still find myself tripping on that last stair even though I know about it...and the guacamole sucked this time. After we set up I went to the front of the venue and struck up a conversation with the guy working the bar as he was setting it up. He told me he was getting married and had bought the engagement ring today. After our conversation he pointed out some places to eat that were walking distance from the venue. I ended up walking next door to a burger joint. There was a guy in there who recognized me and invited me to sit down with him and his friends. They were Ruel Olsen, Nathan Mills and Scott McClung. We had a great conversation about music. The cigarette smoke in the bar was so thick that I could barely breathe. I'm so glad out shows are non smoking shows.

After eating I went to a piano store that was down the street. I saw some of the most incredible pianos I had ever seen. They had a piano made out of the same maple burl that my 7 string M-bass is made out of. It was about $70,000. The place was loaded with Steinway & Sons pianos. Their used ones started at about $45,000. I was there to pick up some manuscript paper for Victor and Joseph. Regi was also in there looking around for books. He found a great music dictionary written by William Lee. He used to be the dean of music when I attended the University of Miami. Regi ended up buying me a copy of the book and Victor and Joseph some manuscript paper. Regi's amazingly kind. He hardly ever says anything, but when he does it's usually thought provoking. But even when he's sitting quietly by himself you can sense that he's thinking about some heavy stuff. Ted went and bought a new laptop today. I'm not sure but I think that Victor did too.

The show went smoothly. I played a great solo. Joseph's friend Kevin Johnson from the side of his keyboard rig. He does that every year when we're in Portland. Kevin is an athlete who is primarily a distance runner, but he is one of less than a 1000 people who has run a mile in less than 4 minutes. I think he's in the top 10% of that thousand. After the show I got to finally meet some people who have been emailing me regularly. Ricky Bakken and his dad. Ricky has been emailing me for a couple of months. He lives in Seattle but he wasn't old enough to get into the Seattle show, but the Portland show was an all ages show. So him and his dad drove down. There was also Alex and Scott who had emailed me a couple of times offering to drive me around Portland. If I hadn't been so busy I would have had one take me to the Ducati dealer (of course). The person I was most glad to see was Jonathan Chase. We've been good friends since I met him at the bass camp he attended. He's always emailing me asking for advice and I try to help in any way that I can. He brought him mom, Lyn. I had met her at last years show in Portland. She's a very sweet woman. Jonathan is a very good player and to top it off...he wears a cape. Only cool people wear capes! One day at camp he wanted to wear my cap and I wanted to wear his cape, so we switched for a day. I couldn't pull the cape off like Jonathan can. I felt like a cross between Count Dracula, Batman and a Pimp! Here's a picture of me in Jonathan's cape....

....see -- I told you so!! By the way, Toné posted some pictures from 2003 tour on a 'Backstage Pass' page. You can check them out by going to 'The Downbeat' link and then click on 'Backstage with VWB 2003'. Or just click here!

peace & blessings

anthony