October 3, 2003 - Charlotte, NC

I was really looking forward to getting into town in the morning because I knew my wife would be waiting for me at the hotel. She had gotten into town the day before. She actually followed a friend of ours, Cindy Woods, down who was riding her motorcycle all the way down to Texas. They decided to do the first leg of Cindy's trip 'caravan' style. Cindy's son Nash studies bass with me. When we pulled into town around 10:00AM, Cindy had already left so I missed her. So I went up to the room that my wife was in. We talked about her trip down and then decided we would go out for breakfast. We ended up not eating, but we did find a Best Buy that had the Tungsten T3 Palm Pilot. We gave Victor a call on the phone and he wanted us to pick it up for him. He just bought the Tungsten T2 a month ago - he is definitely the gadget guru!

When we got back from our trip we took Victor his new 'toy' and then Toné & I drove over to the venue which was the Visualite. We played this place a couple of times before. I like this venue and the staff is very warm and friendly. Because we had our own car, we got to see a little bit more of the surrounding area. We rarely get a chance to do that when we're on the road. When the bus got in we took our time loading in and setting up. Ted and Joe played their usual game of duct tape basketball. It's always very amusing. It seems that every body from band members to venue staff gets involved in watching them play. Divinity jumped on the drum set for a little while and then she picked up Regi's orange guitar and started messing around with it. Toné got a cool picture of her playing the guitar.

After sound check, Toné & I went back to the hotel room. A lot of the other band members went down the street to eat at a Malaysian restaurant. I was extremely tired and kinda' felt like I needed to go back to the hotel to get some sleep. Everybody's been commenting on how puffy my eyes were and how tired I looked. It seemed like I made up for some sleep this evening. When we got back I saw my friend Garry Hamilton and his wife in line to purchase tickets. They had driven all the way down from Waldorf, MD. I told them that I would leave their names on the guest list. That was the least that I could do for them after they drove all they way just for the show. Paul Hargett, his two kids and his girlfriend came to the show. Sifu Brian Edwards also came and Jeannie Wiggins from bass camp and her mom were also there. Ted Atwell, our lighting director also had family there and Victor had some childhood friends and relatives come out. In all I think I saw 3 people from bass camp there including Ricky Brooks who I adore greatly.

The show was good even though the stage was kinda' tight. Kaki King opened for us again. I got to chat with her a lot before she went on. We found out that we know a lot of the same people including her roommate Mitch Cohn. He's an incredible young bass player.

Originally it was planned that we were all staying the night after the show, but it was decided that the bus would leave for Asheville right after the show even though we didn't need to be in Asheville early. Since Toné & I had our car we decided to stay and meet the band in Asheville. So we drove back to the hotel and I crashed hard! My body was spent.

peace & blessings

anthony