|
March 24, 2005 - Charlottsville, VA I woke up a lot later than I wanted to. I wanted to be up when we rode through the DC area. There’s something about riding through your town when you’re on tour. It’s the only time I fell like a tourist in my own town. But,…a ‘bruvah’ was ‘knocked out’. When I finally woke up we were well past the DC area and we were somewhere in Virginia. First, I assumed we were on Rt. 29 but later I realized that the road was toorural to be Rt. 29. I rode through Charlottesville on my motorcycle at the end of last summer. But I didn’t stop. I was just riding through on my way from Luray. The last time I was really in Charlottesville was when I was there for my friend, Don’s wedding. That had to be in the mid or early `90s. We didn’t get into town early enough to check into our hotel rooms. We headed straight for the Venue. Our bus driver was using a laptop with GPS. He’s the 1st bus driver I’ve seen using GPS. After navigating a buncha’ dead end streets he got us to our destination. The venue was beautiful. It’s a very old converted movie house. The theater first open its’ doors in 1931. I think we were a ‘tad bit’ early so we had about 30 minutes to kill before their loaders got there. Once the got there we jumped into our routine which pretty much consist of this,… We usually get to a venue around noon for load in. Ted, our lighting director, usually stays in the trailer and hands off gear to the venue’s loader. I usually will bring the basses off of the bus then I’ll hit the stage to direct where the gear goes. If I don’t do that we’ll end up having to move the gear a couple of times. It’s no point in doing that. So, I’ll point to the spot on the stage where I want the gear to go. Anything keyboard related goes ‘down stage left’. The guitar stuff goes ‘down stage right’. All of the drum stuff goes ‘up stage right’. Of course, all of the bass gear goes center stage. The FOH (front of house) mixing board goes,…uh,….front of house. The monitor board and rig goes wherever it’s convenient to patch into their monitor rig. There are also assorted cable boxes and instrument stands too. I just put those where there not in the way,…which is a different place in ever venue. When everything is in its’ proper place, we start setting up our rigs. Derico sets up his own drums. Joseph sets up his own keyboards and stuff. Regi sets up his guitar. And I set up the bass rig. Ted sets up the light rig we’ve been traveling with and Kurt sets up the mixing boards. The venue’s crew just usually stays out of our way and they put away our ‘dead’ cases for us. The longer we’ve been on tour the faster this process happens. While we were setting up, one of my bass students show up with his band mate. Rob Muller has been studying with me about once a month for some time now. He makes the 3 hour drive from Charlottesville. He was stopping by to say ‘hello’. He wanted me to join him, his wife, Terri, and some friends for dinner but I couldn’t get away. My friend, Wayne Parham, dropped by to bring us some home made chocolate chip cookies. Man,…if we keep getting cookies while we’re on tour I’m never gonna’ be able to loose weight. Wayne also took Saundra and I to WalMart. After sound check I walked around the little downtown we were in. It seemed to be very cool but by the time got to walk around every thing was closed. Oh well,… The show went very well. We rocked that ‘joint’! Something weird but funny happened during the show. I was offstage at one put during the show watching Victor during his solo spot. There was a guy standing at the side of the stage with me and some other crew members. I assumed he was with the crew but I hadn’t seen him at all before. He was just standing there with his head kinda’ down enjoying the music. If I didn’t know any better I would say he was ‘high’ as a kite. But, like I said,…I figured he was with the crew, which consisted mostly of the local college students. Well, at one point, I hear this loud ass scream! I look over and,…it’s dude!. He was definitely ‘high’ as a kite. So,…being the ‘former’ thug that I still ‘am’, I went over to him with a scowl on my face and asked,…’Do you work here?’. To which he replied,…’No’. So I said,…’Dude,…you gotta’ leave!’. We just keep way too much valuable stuff back stage. I don’t know how he got back there. The stage hands were guarding all of the exits. Now here’s the funny thing,….the guy looked at me and said,…’The scream gave me away, didn’t it’. I just fell out laughing. I definitely knew he was ‘high’ now. I knew he was harmless but I had to kick him out. He begged and begged me to let him stay back there but I just couldn’t risk it. Let me tell y’all,…I’ve pretty much seen it all,…but that was funny! After the show we signed autographs and broke down the gear super fast. My friend/student Jeff Bryant drove down from Stafford. I didn’t even know he was coming down. Victor’s childhood friend, Curtis Swanson, came out with his friends. I finally got to meet Rob Muller’s wife, Terri. We’ve been emailing each other for almost a year now. She bought the tickets for Rob to the show as a ‘surprise’ gift after I emailed her to let her know that a Charlottesville show had been added. The crew wasn’t as helpful getting the gear. Well,…I shouldn’t say that. It was a different crew. This crew just seemed to be college students who were recruited to help us out at the end. They musta’ been promised tickets or something. But they kinda’ didn’t know what to do so they just kinda’ stood around. On the way back to the hotel most of us jumped off of the bus on Rt 29 to stop at the local Waffle House for a late night meal. Most venues are supposed to provide pizza for us after the gig but we didn’t have any waiting for us here. Everyone went except Danette, Joseph and Derico. So here we are, Victor, Regi, Divinity, Saundra, Kurt, Ted and I crossing this 8 lane highway in the middle of the night after jumping off of a million dollar bus. Man,…we musta’ been REAL hungry. We really shoulda’ went to our hotel rooms and went to bed but,… Of course, we laughed and made jokes and were silly as ever. Oh yea,…I just love grits mixed with scrambled eggs (It’s the ‘country’ in me). Victor ordered the same thing but with cheese. After eating we all walked the ½ mile back to the hotel. Man,…that road was dark too. I just started laughing all of a sudden because it seemed all so ‘surreal’ to me. A couple of hours ago we were all onstage and people were screaming for us and now were all were walking down a very long and very dark road,…all alone. I can only imagine what the people who were riding by were thinking,….”Look at all of those fools walking down the road this late at night,…and that one guy looks just like Victor Wooten. Nah,….Victor Wooten wouldn’t be walking down the road in the middle of the night.” Man,…I wish I had a camera. Most of us had to go to the bus to pull of luggage. I wasted no time,…I grabbed my bags and went straight to my room. I called my wife and chatted with her for awhile. After I got off of the phone with her I thought to myself,…. I CAN’T BELIEVE WE HAVE AN 8:30AM BUS CALL,…I thought Roanoke was only a couple of hours away. Then I turned on Sportscenter and fell asleep. Peace & blessings, “Smells Like Grits and Eggs”
|