Post by Dan the G-Man on Dec 4, 2003 19:27:48 GMT -5
Road Report Six For '99
Hello. Before we start, let's all wish a belated happy birthday to the Duke. He was surprised during our show yesterday in Belfast not by flying cream pies, not by ribald embarrassment in front of a large crowd at the hands of rowdy road crew members, not by lavish presents, but by the complete and utter lack of acknowledgement of his special day by his bandmates. We forgot. We suck. Sorry Duke, next year for sure. Anyway, we're still here. On the road. Lots has happened to your Garbage friends lately, and we hope that there's been more good than bad for you too. Happy holidays, better late than never like they say. Last time we checked in, we were finishing up our own touring thing, playing more towns across North America than you can shake a stick at. We thought that it went really well, and we're always relieved when we get done with something and one of us hasn't strangled the rest of us. Something like fifty shows on our own with Girls Against Boys opening up, who were kind enough to persevere with us through thick and thin (cowboy bars in Oklahoma, food poisoning in DC, Garbage-sized cocktails in Madison) and who also didn't strangle us for which we are grateful. Wouldn't have blamed ‘em if they did. Fresno, anyone? Although they did invade our stage at the last show in Green Bay wearing only towels, provoked in part by Daniel and Butch's earlier interpretive noodle dancing during their set. I assume it was only towels, you'll have to ask Shirley what was really under there as she was the only one to get a close look. Thanks guys, we'll get you back someday, when you least expect it.
Then came "radio show season", or December to the layman. This is where many bands with nothing in common get together and play short sets in huge venues to people who have come to see somebody else. We tried to make the best of it, though, and managed to have quite a lot of fun actually. Low pressure. Got to see Beck, and Hole, and lots of other people we admire. Come to think of it, if you had told me a couple of years back that I'd be in a band playing a show in LA along with Depeche Mode and Billy Corgan, I would have laughed. So there you go, life is strange and sometimes really good. Somewhere in there we played on Leno, too, which turned out to be more fun than we thought it would. Firstly, Jay was really nice and actually talked to us before the show (and we got to sit on the famous couch at the end of it!). Secondly, I had assumed that the audience would be octogenarian tourists from Albany who hadn't been told that Carson had retired, but we walked out to a sea of orange Garbage- related clothing, being worn by Garbage-related fans. Who were loud. Cool! Who let you guys in here! Much better than anticipated. We also went to Mexico City, home of some of the friendliest people on earth. Did one of those ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the new Tower there, and tried to sign stuff for the kids but we had to run for our lives when it got out of control-- thousands of fans screaming and almost breaking the huge plate glass windows of the store. Exciting stuff. Thanks all of you out-of-control, passionate, incredibly loud, verging on hysterical, Mexican Garbage fans!
Then we all went home and collapsed. I went to Omaha for family and skied (not in Omaha), Duke had his folks in, Butch remixed Korn, and Shirl got some chill out time at home in Scotland. Woke up one morning to about 500 messages on the message thing--we're up for two Grammys! Of course we won't get them, but we kept that nasty Celine D out of the best albums! Victory is ours no matter what! Lots of frantic congratulatory emails were flying around the world that day, and a bit of champagne was consumed as well. Now we have to worry about what to wear, and practice clapping whilst sporting a fake "oh isn't that lovely" smile for when somebody else wins our awards.
A brief moment of silence for The Pig. The Pig was Butch's suitcase, but she's dead now, sacrificed to the tour gods as penance for all the Garbage misdeeds and misadventures of the past year. The Pig was killed by Northwest Airlines on the last day of touring, 1998, and we all shall miss her. We'll miss her for her unseemly bulk, we'll miss the long waits at the overweight luggage check in counter, but most of all we'll miss not being able to fit our crap in the back of the van due to her enormous stature. The Pig has gone to a better place now, and for this we're glad. Long live The Pig!
If you follow British music you probably know that the place the biggest bands play is called Wembly Arena. We just sold it out. Weird, no? Anyway, we're thrilled at how the European tour that we start on Jan. 14 is shaping up. It's a proper arena tour in the UK--33 people, three busses, four trucks, catering, big security blokes, everything. Hard to believe, but we'll take it. The shows are longer now, and we're playing Sleep Together and Can't Seem To Make You Mine (a b-side for Special), and doing Medication almost acoustically. Moloko is opening up, and they sound great and seem like fine folks despite a worrying obsession with Cricket (that's a sport in England sort of like baseball if each baseball game took five days to play). Look for a special guest star at Wembly, too. Dublin was the first show and it was one of our best ever from my perspective. We were scared to death after not playing on our own for a long time, but the crowd was so insane and supportive it didn't matter if we goofed up here and there. Of course, every band that plays Dublin gets flowers from U2 and goes back to the hotel they own to drink Guiness with Bono, right? I'm not sure if this is always the case, but it's what we did. Nice hotel, nice guy. Highly recommended. All in all, a magic night.
So--more UK shows, ending with a big last night in Glasgow that's being taped for an MTV special. And a massive aftershow to thank the Scots for their support and for giving the world single malt whiskey and Shirley. Then we're off to Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Germany, and Spain. Ouch. Time for a break? No! No rest for the wicked or for Duke either! Right after that we're joining the Alanis Morrisette tour! Because we're crazy! Nuts! We're going to drive all around the US in a smelly bus again! And this time it's going to be even more crowded on the bus because we only get one instead of two! That would make it pretty much twice as crowded and smelly wouldn't it! Arrrggghhh...
Anyway we must do this because we love doing it, smelly bus or no, and we thank you for the support. Till next time, Steve and Garbage.
Hello. Before we start, let's all wish a belated happy birthday to the Duke. He was surprised during our show yesterday in Belfast not by flying cream pies, not by ribald embarrassment in front of a large crowd at the hands of rowdy road crew members, not by lavish presents, but by the complete and utter lack of acknowledgement of his special day by his bandmates. We forgot. We suck. Sorry Duke, next year for sure. Anyway, we're still here. On the road. Lots has happened to your Garbage friends lately, and we hope that there's been more good than bad for you too. Happy holidays, better late than never like they say. Last time we checked in, we were finishing up our own touring thing, playing more towns across North America than you can shake a stick at. We thought that it went really well, and we're always relieved when we get done with something and one of us hasn't strangled the rest of us. Something like fifty shows on our own with Girls Against Boys opening up, who were kind enough to persevere with us through thick and thin (cowboy bars in Oklahoma, food poisoning in DC, Garbage-sized cocktails in Madison) and who also didn't strangle us for which we are grateful. Wouldn't have blamed ‘em if they did. Fresno, anyone? Although they did invade our stage at the last show in Green Bay wearing only towels, provoked in part by Daniel and Butch's earlier interpretive noodle dancing during their set. I assume it was only towels, you'll have to ask Shirley what was really under there as she was the only one to get a close look. Thanks guys, we'll get you back someday, when you least expect it.
Then came "radio show season", or December to the layman. This is where many bands with nothing in common get together and play short sets in huge venues to people who have come to see somebody else. We tried to make the best of it, though, and managed to have quite a lot of fun actually. Low pressure. Got to see Beck, and Hole, and lots of other people we admire. Come to think of it, if you had told me a couple of years back that I'd be in a band playing a show in LA along with Depeche Mode and Billy Corgan, I would have laughed. So there you go, life is strange and sometimes really good. Somewhere in there we played on Leno, too, which turned out to be more fun than we thought it would. Firstly, Jay was really nice and actually talked to us before the show (and we got to sit on the famous couch at the end of it!). Secondly, I had assumed that the audience would be octogenarian tourists from Albany who hadn't been told that Carson had retired, but we walked out to a sea of orange Garbage- related clothing, being worn by Garbage-related fans. Who were loud. Cool! Who let you guys in here! Much better than anticipated. We also went to Mexico City, home of some of the friendliest people on earth. Did one of those ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the new Tower there, and tried to sign stuff for the kids but we had to run for our lives when it got out of control-- thousands of fans screaming and almost breaking the huge plate glass windows of the store. Exciting stuff. Thanks all of you out-of-control, passionate, incredibly loud, verging on hysterical, Mexican Garbage fans!
Then we all went home and collapsed. I went to Omaha for family and skied (not in Omaha), Duke had his folks in, Butch remixed Korn, and Shirl got some chill out time at home in Scotland. Woke up one morning to about 500 messages on the message thing--we're up for two Grammys! Of course we won't get them, but we kept that nasty Celine D out of the best albums! Victory is ours no matter what! Lots of frantic congratulatory emails were flying around the world that day, and a bit of champagne was consumed as well. Now we have to worry about what to wear, and practice clapping whilst sporting a fake "oh isn't that lovely" smile for when somebody else wins our awards.
A brief moment of silence for The Pig. The Pig was Butch's suitcase, but she's dead now, sacrificed to the tour gods as penance for all the Garbage misdeeds and misadventures of the past year. The Pig was killed by Northwest Airlines on the last day of touring, 1998, and we all shall miss her. We'll miss her for her unseemly bulk, we'll miss the long waits at the overweight luggage check in counter, but most of all we'll miss not being able to fit our crap in the back of the van due to her enormous stature. The Pig has gone to a better place now, and for this we're glad. Long live The Pig!
If you follow British music you probably know that the place the biggest bands play is called Wembly Arena. We just sold it out. Weird, no? Anyway, we're thrilled at how the European tour that we start on Jan. 14 is shaping up. It's a proper arena tour in the UK--33 people, three busses, four trucks, catering, big security blokes, everything. Hard to believe, but we'll take it. The shows are longer now, and we're playing Sleep Together and Can't Seem To Make You Mine (a b-side for Special), and doing Medication almost acoustically. Moloko is opening up, and they sound great and seem like fine folks despite a worrying obsession with Cricket (that's a sport in England sort of like baseball if each baseball game took five days to play). Look for a special guest star at Wembly, too. Dublin was the first show and it was one of our best ever from my perspective. We were scared to death after not playing on our own for a long time, but the crowd was so insane and supportive it didn't matter if we goofed up here and there. Of course, every band that plays Dublin gets flowers from U2 and goes back to the hotel they own to drink Guiness with Bono, right? I'm not sure if this is always the case, but it's what we did. Nice hotel, nice guy. Highly recommended. All in all, a magic night.
So--more UK shows, ending with a big last night in Glasgow that's being taped for an MTV special. And a massive aftershow to thank the Scots for their support and for giving the world single malt whiskey and Shirley. Then we're off to Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Germany, and Spain. Ouch. Time for a break? No! No rest for the wicked or for Duke either! Right after that we're joining the Alanis Morrisette tour! Because we're crazy! Nuts! We're going to drive all around the US in a smelly bus again! And this time it's going to be even more crowded on the bus because we only get one instead of two! That would make it pretty much twice as crowded and smelly wouldn't it! Arrrggghhh...
Anyway we must do this because we love doing it, smelly bus or no, and we thank you for the support. Till next time, Steve and Garbage.