April 14, 2005 - Somerville, MA
Man,…I woke and forgot where I was. I generally sleep well while the bus is moving. As soon as the bus stops moving I wake up. We only stop for 2 reasons. They are:
1) We’ve reached our destination.
2) We’re stopping for fuel.
Stopping for fuel means food. Generally, it’s truck stop food. But that’s usually pretty good. Truckers live a pretty interesting life. I try to notice everything at truck stops.
Anyways,….I realized that I was on the family bus. It was a lot quieter than the band bus. For some reason I thought it would be louder with 4 kids but it wasn’t. I think the kids were still sleep.
I jumped off the bus (in my pajamas) and ran across the parking lot to teh other bus. I grabbed my suitcases and ran up to the room. We weren’t staying the night so I was sharing a clean up room with Ted, Kurt and Dave. I got to the room early so I could shower before it got too crowded in there. Dave was already there but he was handling some business stuff on the computer. By the time the rest of the guys got up to the room I was already showered. Some of the folks like to just stay in their bunk and not be awakened when we get to the hotel. I liked to be woken up so I can go up and chill in the room before having to go to work.
Of course, by the time all 4 of us (Ted, Kurt, Dave and myself) were in the room we were already acting foolish. We found these leopard skin robes hanging in the closet. They were the most ‘pimped out’ robes I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe it! And,…now get this,…the hotel was actually selling these ‘pimped out’ robes. I immediately put one on. I had to do my best Barry White imitation. Dave started laughing and pit the other one on. Of course, we had to take pictures in the robe. Ted put one on and did his best WWF wrestling pose. Man,…we were being way too silly. The scary thing is this,…there are pictures of this behavior somewhere!
(.......um...and I just happened to find one....).
(....here it is another 'version' of this silly behavior....)
We had an 11:30am bus call. I got on the bus around 11:10. I saw someone with a McDonald’s bag so I jumped off of the bus in search of food. By the time I got back it was time to go.
We arrived at the venue and tried to find parking spots for the 2 busses. I hafta’ admit,…I feel like were big time traveling around in 2 buses. Man,…it would be great for all of us to have our own buses one day. On second thought,…maybe it wouldn’t be so nice. We couldn’t laugh and joke with each other then. I’ll just hope that stays a ‘nice’ fantasy. Ya’ know,…like Jennifer Lopez. I don’t want to be with her,...but it’s not a bad thought (I hope my wife laughs when she reads that).
( …hee hee! That IS pretty funny, baby! ..).
Anyways,…we get the buses parked and the gear unloaded. It was a pretty hard load in. I mean,…we had good help and all but,…the venue had some very narrow hallways. We ended up leaving our ‘dead’ cases in these hallways.
The Katsuki’s from bass camp came and hung out with us during sound check. My friend, Caryn Samuell, and her son, Brian, came to hang out with me. Brian plays bass and works on a submarine. That’s about all he can tell about himself.
We walked to a Tibetan restaurant in Somerville. The food was great. We got all of the way back to the venue then I realized that I left my ‘pouch’ there. My pouch/back pack/ man purse (whatever you want to call it) is my lifeline. I keep everything in there but my basses. I ran back to the restaurant to get it. Fortunately, it was in the same place where I left it.
Oh yea,…Rich Appleman from the Berklee School of Music came by with some students. I hear he’s a great bass teacher. I use one of his books to teaching ‘reading’.
We had a great show later that night. The venue looked very nice on the inside. It had a very ‘historic’ vibe to it.
Afterwards,…I said some hello’s and goodbye’s to some bass campers and then we broke down the gear and headed on our way to DC.
It’s a 450 mile trip. That’s gotta’ be a 9 or 10 hour drive in a big bus pulling a big trailer for of gear.
I’m excited about tomorrow’s gig. But I’m trying very hard not to show it. The reason is,…
The Anthony Wellington Experience is opening for the Victor Wooten band!!!!! OK,…I know it’s a stupid name and,…I didn’t even choose it. We all were sitting around being silly thinking of names for my band. That one came up. Somehow,…it got sent to the booking agent. I later realized that the initials spelled AWE! It’s my ‘fantasy’ anyway,…I’ll dream it up how I want to (hee hee).
Happy Anniversary, Toné!!! It’s been 3 years today! Man,…the years are just flying by.
Peace&blessings,
anthony