January 30, 2004 - Boulder, Co

I woke up at 5:00AM. My body was still on East coast time. I was so restless that I went down to the tour bus and grabbed 6 of Victor's basses to restring. After restringing the basses, it was still very early so I put them back on the tour bass. Bus call wasn't till 12:30PM. Hilary came back at 10:00AM to take Victor on a hike. We decided that we get some breakfast before they went on a hike. I rode down with them to the Pearl Street mall in Boulder. I love that place. It's one of my favorite places in the whole country. There are a bunch of cool little stores and there are all kinds of performers displaying their talents for money. The first I had ever been there I saw a guy with one of the most amazing talents that I'd every seen. You could give him any zip code and he would tell you the corresponding city. But even more amazing than that, he could give you landmarks in that city. I tried to stump him with some of the zip codes that I knew in the DC metropolitan area. He not only knew all of the cities, but he knew of stores and restaurants too. One woman had given him a zip code from another country and he knew the city. It was amazing! I also saw a contortionist that could pass his whole body through the head of a tennis racket!

Victor, Hilary and I ate breakfast at a place called Rocky Mountain Joe's. The food was incredible. We went into a very nice metaphysical book store. There was a handicapped woman with a very beautiful voice singing out by the mall. I walked over to where she was singing and put my hand on her shoulder and read from the notebook that contained the words for the song she was singing. She smiled - and I dropped some money in her cup and then we walked on to another book store. I decided that I would walk from there to the venue which was about 20 minutes away. The weather was so nice. It was an uphill walk and because of the altitude I felt very winded when I got to the venue. I have to remind myself that I'm not at sea level anymore.

The bus wasn't due for another 45 minutes, so I decided to find a place to get a tattoo. There are 3 tattoo parlors right by the venue. Somewhere on this tour, I'm going to get a tattoo. When the bus arrived, we loaded in and set up really fast. Ted and Joseph started up a new game of duct tape basketball. They pulled the duct tape off of all of the equipment cases from the previous show. Then they balled it in a ball, find the skinniest trash can they can find and they place the trash can about 30 or 40 feet from the stage. Then they take turns throwing the tape into the trash can....and they both talk a lot of trash while they're playing. Ted scored 2 very early baskets so now he leads 2 to 0.

Our friend Merav showed up. She helps us out whenever we're in Boulder or Denver. Also our friend Michael Kott showed up. He drove in from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael wrote 'Hormones in the Headphones' and 'Go Girl Go'. He's also an incredible cello player. During sound check we learned a new song. It's actually a cover of and old R&B song called "People Make the World Go 'Round." That song has some very cool time signature changes in it. Of course Victor made it even more challenging, but it sounded very good. I was glad to be playing on another song. I was also glad that I could handle all the time signature twists. I wasn't confident that I could pull it off tonight since I just learned it, so I convinced Victor and the guys not to try the tune tonight. I didn't think I was going to be ready tomorrow either, but since Denver is so close to Boulder I knew that Victor would want to do some different stuff. After sound check most of us went to the sushi bar in the venue and ate raw fish. I went upstairs to check email after I ate. We all have a lot of friends in Colorado, so we all kind of did our own thing. Danette has a cousin here that she hadn't seen since she was 8.

The show was absolutely amazing. You would have never been able to guess that it was the first show. There were no missed cues and Victor was on fire! Victor invited Michael Kott to play cello on Yinnin' and Yangin'. He sounded great. After he took his solo, then Victor invited me out to play a solo. I had already hooked up the envelope generator just in case. I wasn't sure he would invite me out since he had invited Michael out, but I wanted to be set up just in case. I grabbed my 7 string and I started playing and the ideas were just flowing. I felt that I had played the best that I ever played with the Victor Wooten Band. Divinity later told me that she thought the same thing. Victor complimented me a couple of times. Whenever he compliments me I try to act nonchalant, but on the inside I was doing cartwheels and jumping for joy! He's played with so many incredible bass players that it makes me feel good when he compliments my playing. After my solo I thanked the crowd and I jokingly told the story of my experience in Boulder last year, when I thanked the wrong city. Many of the people in the audience remembered and we all had a good laugh. There's a Southwest Airlines commercial currently running on TV where a person in a band has the same kind of experience. Every time I see that commercial I am reminded of what I did in Boulder. Of course, there were plenty of bass nature campers there and I saw my friend Josh Leather. I met him on my very first trip to Colorado with the Victor Wooten Band in 1999.

After the show we loaded out very fast. We're getting very good at this. And what's very cool is that we still manage to greet fans and sign autographs. When we got back to the hotel Joseph and Derico came to my room. We were laughing and joking and being juvenile. That's all I'm going to say about that!

peace & blessings

anthony