Famous Last Words

General Custer: "This shouldn't take but half a day"

Titanic: "She's unsinkable"

Ryan Sims: "Is the sound quality shitty tonight?"

As musicians, we've trained our ears to distinguish very subtle changes in tone and timbre of instruments, vocals, speakers, etc. We have favorite venues in which to play because the acoustics or "sound" of a room. Our sound engineer, Erik Schmitz knows us so well and is always able to fine tune our sound at each gig. Up here at 'Koots, they have a "house" sound system with two different engineers. One tends to be very heavy on the bass frequencies which I actually don't like because it get so damn BOOMY, while the other guy tends to put our vocals first, which is more appropriate for EastonAshe.

Well, anyway, I hadn't noticed any change in the sound last night; it certainly didn't seem shitty, but during our first song, Ryan was definitely hearing something in his ears. I told him it was fine to me. So we started playing the second song, "I am the Walrus" (our fav) and half way through the song I noticed that Ryan had stopped singing all together- I looked over at him and realized that his monitor speaker (next to his feet) had spontaneously burst into flames! Not just smoke and mirrors, but big, orange, shooting flames. He spoke into the microphone, trying not to set his pants on fire, and said "we never stop a song, but I think this would be a good time!" Just the same, the rest of us kept the beat going (seemed appropriate to have some kind of soundtrack for this unfolding drama) for the next minute or so (it seemed like an eternity) as quick thinking Ryan wisely unplugged the speaker, dumped a bottle of water on it, (which didn't quite douse it), and then kicked it off the stage (where someone on staff hit it with a fire extinguisher), like true professionals, we picked up the song in mid stream and finished it out.

Well, we had a good laugh about it, but let me tell, you, I was ready to head for that side door any second (remember George Costanza in Seinfeld-where he knocks all the little kids and old ladies out of the way when the fire started?)! And on a serious note, we all remember the terrible night club fire in Rhode Island a few years ago....

Aside from this, the night was great fun and we saw a friend from Harold's in Cave Creek at the show last night as well. It's so amazing to have a little connection to home like that.

I think we're all about ready to wrap things up next week and get back home. It's absolutely awesome up here, but you know how it goes; it's nice to travel but always good to get home too. Six more shows to go, and then we pack it up!

We've learned a couple of new songs up here, but of course our good intentions of practicing on our off hours went out the window as soon as we settled into partying late, sleeping late, and sight-seeing on days off. Matt and I have begun a routine of sampling gin and tonics in the afternoon, then sleeping it off by showtime! What a couple of slackers. Well, anyway, we promise to come home with at least one new original and a very cool cover by The Who! Maybe even more if I can make it through detox! Ha!

Okay, thanks for checking in- More soon!