February 8, 2004 - Eugene, OR

I was going to try to stay up for the less that 2 hour ride to Eugene. I wanted to sit up front with Jeff and take in the sights and have him make me laugh for a while. I'm starting to realize that I'm tired to the bone. I went to the back lounge and passed out. Next thing I know Victor was waking me up telling me that we were here. This is at least our 3rd time in Eugene. I hear the first place we played is no longer open. While we were setting up, Joseph told me that his mic stand was left in Portland. I remembered that Jonathan Chase from Bass Camp said he was coming to the show also. I had my wife track him down. She also contacted the venue and made arrangements for Jonathan to pick up the mic stand and bring it with him to tonight's venue. Thanks, baby, for making that happen.

(you are very welcome!!)

And thanks to Jonathan for bringing it. I got Victor's whole rig and 9 basses set up in less than a half hour. I had Justine, the hospitality person for the venue run me to some stores while the other guys were setting up. That was the first time I got to see more of Eugene. She was a pretty good tour guide. When we got back the guys weren't quite ready for sound check yet. Joseph and Ted played another game of duct tape basketball and Joseph scored a basket. After sound check we all ordered food from a Thai restaurant in town. Kurt and I rode with Justine to pick up the food. I also stopped at a hardware store to pick up some epoxy to fix up the bass mishap that occurred the previous night. Justine gave us another little tour. She told us the town was named for Eugene Skinner. There's a hill called Skinner's Butte. We took a ride up there and could see the whole town from up there. It was an incredible view. She told me that the makeout scene in Animal House was filmed on this hill and the rest of the movie was filmed at the university. We arrived back at home (the bus) with 10 orders of Thai food. Mine wasn't that good. Before the show I walked around the venue a little while and saw some familiar faces. I thanked Jonathan for bringing the mic stand. He showed up with it while we were out with Justine. The venue's camera crew filmed the entire show for us. I think they used three or four cameras. There was a camera man on stage wandering around shooting footage. I guess everybody had gotten a decent amount of rest since we were all very animated on stage. The highlight of the show was when Victor whispered in my ear to invite Jonathan Chase to come up and play with us. During one of the songs I waved for Jonathan to come to the front of the stage, but I was pretending like I just wanted to talk to him. At the end of that song, Victor thanked him for bringing Joe's mic stand and then invited him up to play with us. Jonathan & I had played 'Thankyouforlettingmebemyself' during jam night at the bass camp that he attended. I had mentioned to Victor that it would be a good choice to get him to play with us. I handed Jonathan one of Victor's basses to play - I thought he was going to pass out at one point! He had that 'deer caught in the headlights' kind of look on his face. Even though he was nervous, he wasn't too nervous to break out into the groove. Jonathan was 'holdin it down'. I was so happy for him. When he finished playing and went back into the audience I could see people patting him on the back. And his 2 friends that came along with him were so proud of him. His mom called me later to thank me for making that happen. But I didn't make it happen...Victor made that happen. That's the kind of guy he is.

Later on the bus Ted and Kurt kept telling us how good the video was. They got to watch it on monitors while the show was going on. There were 3 discs total. We ended up watching the whole show. So think about it,... We played a 3 hour show, broke down the gear, loaded up the trailer and watched the whole 3 hour concert. When it came time for my solo I was watching nervously. But man,... I played great! By the way, this DVD looked like it was ready for release already. I'm sure a lot of it will show up on a VW Band DVD. After we watched the DVD mostly everybody retired to their bunks. Of course, I went to the back lounge and sprawled out on the 'L' shaped sofa. I'm getting used to sleeping like an 'L'. I think we have a 500+ mile trip to San Francisco but there will be no bus call because we're going to have a day off. YIPPEE!!!

Show time.......

Great show -- see ya...

peace & blessings

anthony