It’s more than just the best Jane’s Addiction song, it’s also the amount of time it takes to feel decent on tour. We have played three shows, all with my neck aching from headbanging, and this morning I forgot that it ever did until someone asked how it was feeling. Okay, that probably means some vertebrae is liquifying, but what’s a few neck surgeries in my old age?
This is why I hate short, 2-3 day band trips, i.e. what Ludicra called a tour for the first six years of our existence. It’s just enough time to feel like shit and then head back to work.
3 is a special number. Christy might say, “magical,” because she believes nonsense. Who knows? 3 is the number of guitar amps we should have had at the show in Leipzig. When John’s borrowed head crapped out during line check, there wasn’t one to spare. Kudos to John, however, for having spare fuses ready to put in this boutique Marshall clone. Oh wait! This “boutique” designer decided to use a non-standard fuse. You can’t possibly argue about fuses affecting tone, so I deem this amp retarded. Superkronik superpromoter Kristoff came to the rescue and acquired us a Marshall 900 lead in 10 minutes, and we had a great show. Check one list against uncommon gear and alway pack some standard replacements like fuses for tour.
3 is also the number of amps I thought was too many to take when we finally picked up our rental amps from Nomads of Prague. This is the best gear rental place in Europe. Walking into their warehouse is depressing in that you’d rather spend a month playing with all their reams of insanely classic gear instead of tour. It’s the place to go to get exactly what you need for tour. Plus, they loaded us with a back up head for guitar and bass. I thought we didn’t need a big heavy back up to cart around. When we did soundcheck, Sir Cobbett’s 5150 sounded dreamy. Come time to play, it took a crap. So I was wrong. It happens… But not often. It’s making me think of playing around more with some of these prissy little modern solid state numbers a bit to find one that I can stomach to bring around for when my beautiful beast of a tube head invariably craps out at the worst possible time. Hmm…
The show in Prague went well enough, making some new fans and playing through the hangovers that we brought with us from Leipzig. One personal skill I never thought would be handy in the Czech Republic surprised me: knowing some Spanish. Turns out the 1 Spanish speaking Czech was at our show and he didn’t know a lick of English. I felt reasonably good about our long exchange considering I feel like an idiot when Impaled goes to Mexico. Maybe I rely on Raul too much there, but it’s just so fun to make him have to baby his gringos.
3 is also the number of times poor Sir Cadbury Cobbett has had problems on stage so far. Our show in Črnomelj, Slovenia was not so well attended, and we’d driven about 11 hours to get there. John normally changes his trusty GHS Boomers before EVERY show, and then, when he has Internet access, he tweets a photo of his guitar to let you all know how awesome and dedicated he is to the craft. Surely, for this little show and after the drive, he could skip this ritual, Christy and I assured him. Turns out we were both wrong. Don’t skip your rituals, or the guitar gods will be angry.
3 is the number of instrument cables I should have brought. 3 is the number of times Rambo, the simple-giant of a Slovenian who had a bike accident, freaked me out. 3 is how late we were walking around in beautiful Prague before 3 of us took a taxi home. 3 is the number of people in this van divided by 2.
The point is you can see something anywhere, anytime you focus so hard on it. This can also include focusing on having a good time. Even though last night for us wasn’t so spectacular, we had good time and got this amazing picture of three people at the hostel: John, Aesop, and the old Slovenian man who dozed off in the common area while watching pornography.
Doktor Ross Sewage
www.doktorsewage.com
dispatched from Die Struwwelpetra Ludicra 2011 European Tour