October 2009

The night is young, Georgia. And here we are, at the 40 Watt, show 4 of 5 nights in a row. Athens gave us all a sauna at load in and we are grateful for the calm before the storm, when the room is still cooler than outside (but not for long, we’re about to show the world what real humidity is…) Today, we finally rescued our amp rack from the clutches of the evil UPS empire, and have the stage geared to the teeth, sound check having dumped my water bottle all over the floor. Again. This night is the first of four for which we are collaborating with Conscious Alliance, next up Charleston, then Asheville, and an exclusive Halloween poster for Denver (stay tuned, I haven’t even seen it yet.) Jesse is busy on an art project of a portrait of his girlfriend (who, he assures us, is not actually purple) and the rest of the team are heading up the table, collecting food for the hungry in Athens. On their table is an impressive array of posters from previous events, String Cheese to Rothbury, where awesome volunteers, artists, musicians, and event organizers have collaborated to assist local

Another one straight from the merch booth, under the dominion of Lia, in the classic style of DIRECT, just as Lorin drops his latest mashup of Boombox and the crowd of extra-gorgeous freaks and bassfiends parades by. How could you not love these people, in between the guys in banana suits, the anime-esque gorgeous girls from the future, complete with massive fuzzy legwarmers and little backpacks? The number the booming bass is doing on my neck tension… I have to call this night quite fine. With the Wobble Factory, every chair is a massage chair. The weirdest thing ever is the time change between Nashville and Knoxville, and while jetting in between with my top-notch travel buddy, we lost an hour. I don’t know how to program my phone to adjust to time zones… Everything’s an hour later than last night, here’s hoping that puts us with a curfew of four? Nashville ran until 3:30. InSANE. Best thing about TN hands down, including the gorgeous scenery with the leaves just starting to turn, is those who defend it. That’s why we brought United Mountain Defense back for round 2, and tossed in Keep Knoxville Beautiful, because who doesn’t want to?

Miss Lia bloggin’ atcha DIRECT from the merch table in Nashville, TN. The boys have obviously been playing with the fog machine again, because it already looks like height-of-set in here, minus the people packed like undulating sardines and the handbills vibrating off the table. Let’s call it the calm before the storm. I just have to give a serious shoutout to my cab driver today, who warns us all to stay away from the white powders, that Jimmi Hendrix is worth any effort you have to exert to see him (dying??) and that someday you, too, will wake up and be 60. And that we should all dive in headfirst and make those memories while we can. Memories are on the menu tonight, I’m so proud of all these people to be here and hyped on a Wednesday night. Viva Nashville. UNITED MOUNTAIN DEFENSE And, as if it couldn’t get any sweeter, we have a righteous crew from United Mountain Defense here with us tonight to teach about the appalling effects of mountaintop removal and how we can stop it. Clean coal isn’t an oxymoron, it’s a moronic verbal cover-up of a technology that will never be clean. So,