Bert Lams' Road Diary

Bert Lams' Road Diary - July 1998

The following are entries from Bert's journal of the 1998 Summer East Coast Tour.

6 July

We leave New Jersey early in the morning for NY City. At 11 am we will be taping a radio show for WNYC with John Shaefer. It will be aired at 11 PM the same night. When we get there, the underground parking is surrounded by police. They make us open the trunk of the van. When the officer sees the guitars and the rack with our gear he says "Any weapons?...No firecrackers either?" "No sir.'' and we're clear.

WNYC studios is on the 25th floor. The high speed elevator makes us dizzy and Tony says he feels it's like being on tour with the Monkeys.

John meets us and tells us that one guy showed up that morning, thinking it was a live radio show. I wish he would have let him in. Radio shows without an audience are demanding because you don't get that live energy. Also you have to be good at talking in-between the songs as well. Sometimes it can throw you off completely if you have to play right after. Actually that's what happened to me today, because during Barber's Adagio I forgot my part and we have to start again.

But all goes well though and when we listen back to the tape in the van, on our way out we find it sounds great. A new piece called ''Caravan'' sounds like a lot of fun and I can hear Paul cracking up laughing because I dropped a clam or two in my solo.

Today was probably our fifth show on his program, and definitely the best one so far.

John has been a strong support for our music over the past seven years. I feel very tired today. We have been going almost nonstop for more than ten days.

7 July

Tonight we play the Bottom Line, a club in NYC. Last year we played there with the Trey Gunn band and several years ago with The League of Crafty Guitarists.

Its the first time that we have been billed on our own here, without the support of Robert or King Crimson so we're a little nervous: Will we have a good turnout?

Sound check is quick and we have time for a bite at DOJO's across the street.

We have two hours to get ready for the show.

Tony goes on first and we can hear that there is a good crowd. Before he starts playing Tony addresses the audience: ''If you take a picture, Robert Fripp will leave the stage.'' Laughter and Tony does a great set on his twelve string guitar. The sound is excellent.

The whole show goes over really well and there is a lot of support from the audience.

Afterwards there are a lot of people lining up for us to sign their CD. Quite a few had never heard of us before and came because they heard us on WNYC. We have barely enough time to chat with the fans because the club has scheduled a second show at 10:30.

Tonight's performance feels like a breakthrough for all of us. The club owner invites us to come back.

We are escorted by our good friend, ''Hellboy'' Tom Redmond. We have stayed several nights in his house, he did our merchandising tonight and to round it all off he offers us a night in a suite in the business district! We go out for New York's yukky oozy cheesy takeout pizza.

8 July

Its a day off and we enjoy it. Its just about the only day off on this tour. We hang out all morning in the suite. Hideyo falls asleep in front of the Worldcup on TV, Paul has his hair cut short for $30 and I go for a walk. I hear two men in suits talking about their high power jobs. In the afternoon I practice guitar for an hour and then it's time to head for Philadelphia.

9 July

We stay at Tom Webb's house. He's an old friend of Paul and he's the one who introduced us to Ervin Somogyi's work.

We do a Borders gig at noon, about two hours drive. When we get back, we have to go straight to the Ethical Society building for our show at 8 pm. First we have to maneuver through rush hour traffic and pick up a PA system.

We get to the gig about an hour and a half late.

After setting up the PA, we find that the amp doesn't work. We fiddle for another twenty minutes with it but the amp is determined not to give a sign of life. In the meantime people are starting to arrive at the door.

Our only alternative is for Tom to hurry home and bring his home stereo amplifier. We cut some cables and connect that to the speakers we rented from the music store. We will have to play without monitors. Tom is sweating bullets by now...

In the meantime we tell people at the door that the show will be delayed. When Tom gets back we hook up the improvised system and we do a quick check.

The show will be one half hour late, that's not too bad, thanks to Tom's bullets.

Only forty people tonight but they get their money's worth. For the first time I feel that there is ''something'' there on stage with us and we can plug in and draw from it. Usually it is a short visit -- now and then, but tonight it's there the whole time.

10 July

At 3 pm we have a Borders show in Columbia. Afterwards we meet Adam Levin, our friend and the promoter of tonight's show, at Orion Studios in Baltimore. He brought some friends and they look familiar. Suddenly I realize it is the band Anekdoten.

I tell them how much we enjoyed their show in Quebec and that I feel honored that they've come to see us. They played in the area yesterday. Orion is a complex of rehearsal studios with a central performance space. When we get there all goes smooth and according to schedule. People show up half an hour before show time.

We are gearing up for the gig. Suddenly, the walls start to shake. Is it Godzilla? No, a local band just started rehearsal at their loudest, next to our dressing room. The owner apologizes and says that this band usually doesn't come on Fridays...but they rented the room and there is nothing he can do about it. I go and check the performance space. Here the walls AND the floor are shaking. The noise is hideous.

We take the Gandhi approach: I tell the owner (who is a nice guy) that we will wait until the band stops rehearsing. The next half hour we spend in the backstage room right next to the noise, not knowing when it will stop. Its draining because we were all prepared to go on. The audience's patience is also put to the test...

But a little later the band stops and Tony goes on. We are lucky that we have the audience on our side tonight. They are really listening. I can feel that -- like when someone is standing right in front of me, and a lot of help comes from that. We can plug in and play...

After the show we agree to do an interview. The interview takes much too long and it's not going anywhere. We are exhausted as well. Somewhere in the middle Tony saves us and says that we have to get some rest. We stay in a hotel about 45 minutes away.

11 July

We do a Borders gig in Gaithersburg at 12:00.

The internet is a powerful thing: Everytime there are a number of people who come because of Email or Website postings.

We hang out a bit, chatting with the audience after the concert and we meet over lunch with some old friends. We drive back to Philadelphia to stay one more night at Tom's house.

We have Belgian beer at Toms and we watch an instructional video of Bill Frisell. We loved the part where he explains his effects and decides he doesn't need most of it anyway. It is very funny and also very good because he makes it all up on the spot.

12 July

Drive to Princeton, New Jersey for our last Borders gig. I am quite nervous before going on to play, maybe because its the last show, or is it because of physical exhaustion? As soon as we go on I feel a lot of support from Paul and Hideyo and all goes well.

There is about forty people in the audience today. The whole set is really hot. I end up playing a ''nervous'' solo in Caravan and everyone goes wild!

We go straight to the airport. Hideyo flies to Japan, Paul to Salt Lake City and I'm going to London. Tony stays in New York.

best,
bert

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