NOTES:
--mill valley and seattle were probably the two best shows (though l.a. was also special, because of the presence of jon brion).
--you read right: they performed All I Have To Do Is Dream *twice* in seattle.
--robyn only did a very few lines of Orange Claw Hammer, but they were spot on.
--grant played slide guitar using a highball glass during Are You Experienced? very cool!
--um, too out of it to think of any more notes. have just deposited mr. franz at the airport, am currently taping last week's kcrw spot from the "internet" (though not listening to it very closely), and am about to head over to the two bells to see if anything's doing over there. after which, i think i need to get back to "real life".
--to anybody i owe an e-mail: be patient, if you would.
--fegs rule!!!

Eddie Tews


We spotted a Texaco station to the left and were drawn to it like the Space Needle to Jeme’s ass. I hated to ask the guys to retrieve my chair from the trunk, but pee-wise it was now or never. Jeme held the door as I entered the building. As my eyes adjusted for the light, I spotted a tall figure in a sport jacket standing at the counter. Holy shit. You’re wearing a different shirt than last night. It was green.” The tall figure spoke in a familiar tone. Err, yeah. It had pineapples on it” I said. Looking down at my Jewels For Sophia T-Shirt, I thought “Fuck, I’m such a little fan-boy.” I had only brought this shirt for
something to travel in. I scurried into the bathroom and frantically made sure nobody was in there with me because I was making giddy, almost psychotic noises. “He must think I’m stalking him! How else could we end up in this shithole at the same time?” It was unreal - kind of like Tangiers. I exited the bathroom and saw Robyn perusing the postcards about three feet away. I got the impression he needed to use the facility but thought better of entering while the mad stalker was in there. I proceeded past him and out the door with the biggest grin you’ve ever seen. We pulled away from the Texaco station among a mixture of tense silence and spontaneous Holy Shit’s.

Unfortunately, we hit a couple of pockets of slow traffic which meant we hit SeaTac quite a bit later than we had hoped. I checked in to my hotel and invited my companions up to my room while I showered. Afterward we drove downtown and located Michael at the arcade. Surprisingly, he came walking out of the building with Natalie. Now we were six people in a four person car. The back seat was pretty crowded, but Viv seemed to be enjoying the crowd surfing. I think it had something to do with the random groping. The city was all a buzz as we noticed Bud Lite was saluting Gay Pride that day. It took a while, but we finally ended up at a nice sushi place and proceeded to plow through roughly $100 worth of food. Two cabs then took us to the Crocodile.Little by little the fegs arrived. Cynthia, Eddie, Simone - the gang was all there. I set myself up for the evening with a speedball succession of Guinness and black coffee before the doors opened at 9:30. Once inside, it was Maker’s Mark Manhattans that occupied my time until the show started at 10:30.

As has already been described, Grant and Robyn were sucking down the drinks as well. And I’ve never seen RH smoke so much, practically inhaling an entire cigarette before starting to play. The show was fabulous. The version of “Uncorrected Personality Traits” was great, as RH accompanied himself on guitar. “Antwoman” flowed nicely into “Are You Experienced”, with Grant doing slide work with an empty cocktail glass. Then, during the last encore, Robyn threw in some Dylan. To top off this weekend of coincidence, he played the song with the line "She wears an Egyptian ring " (She Belongs To Me). That was freaky.Afterward we all mulled about. I went to buy a T-Shirt but they were sold out. I asked Rick Gershon to let Robyn know that I was not stalking him; our chance meetings throughout the weekend were just that. He said he’d tell him, but he probably wouldn’t believe me (smiling).

Natalie, Viv, and I exited the Croc to wait for Jeme to fetch the car and we struck up a conversation with the video crew who were documenting the tour. They said they were going to edit it together and sell it on both Robyn’s and Grant’s web sites. Naturally the whole thing will be edited on Macs running Final Cut Pro. Right On.

Jeme arrived about three days later to pick us up. It was just in time too. I was annoying the ladies to the point that Viv was about to lose it and burst into tears. Whew! We drove back to the hotel where Jeme grabbed a room rather than make the trip back to Portland. The next morning the Jeme, Viv, and Natalie accompanied me to the airport where we dined on fruit, sausage & egg biscuits, and Cinnabun. I’m not going to say who had what. We said our goodbyes and I waited for my plane. I cracked the Nick Drake bio again and read in it a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre: "Hell is other people." Looking around the terminal at the clueless zombies I would be traveling with, I wholeheartedly agreed. But just then, thinking back on my weekend, I was forced to reconsider.

Tom Clark