Pacific NW Feb. '05
(or, what key slot machines play in, God bless Craigslist, and why Bellingham rocks)
Wednesday we leave SF in our brand spanking new to us bus, the White Stallion (avid Just Vote Tour Diary readers may recall it as the big white converted city transit mobile known as Son of Votemobile), early morning and drive all day to the Blue Lake Casino up in Arcata. The locals dig our wigs but are a little disappointed when a request for Muddy Waters goes unheeded. Still, three sets of Aphro Beat later we've made plenty of friends and discovered you can lose less of the band's gig money when you confine yourself to the quarter slots between sets and stay away from the Blackjack tables (right, David?). Thursday we thread the stallion through the redwoods and drive all day to Portland, where we make our NW debut for a decently filled Goodfoot Lounge. Friday we wake up at Mike's mom's and drive across the river to Portland State University for an outdoor show at noon- when we arrive there's a homeless guy named Cedric freestyling rhymes for change on a park bench; we invite him up and he spews fantasmagoric imagery all over 'Ogun'. A true highlight.
Cedric Entertains
Bellingham is an all day drive through Seattle traffic, we miss soundcheck but not the swinging Latin jazz opening set from Yambique. We also meet our trumpeter for the next two nights- unable to find a trumpet for the tour when Abe cancels on us Tuesday afternoon, we place an ad on Craigslist Seattle and receive a call from one Mr. Peter Green. He says he plays salsa and big band jazz and can read an Aphro Beat horn chart, so we decide to roll the dice, and goddamn are we luckier than we were at the Blue Lake slot machines. Not only is Peter a stunningly good player, but he dons an American flag cape and dances around on stage with the rest of the horn section all night. "Craigslist- it ain't just for finding room mates anymore."
We didn't know what to expect from Bellingham, a little college town a couple miles from Canada, but seconds into our opener, Fela's "Let's Start", the dance floor is packed and stays that way all night, especially when the Yambique horns come join us for a monstrous "Kari Buro". After the show some new friends invite us back to their afterparty- it's a tiny little house with a drum kit, Rhodes and bass amp in the front room and a muddy backyard with a fire pit out back. We've never felt so at home and make noise until 5 or 6 or something, when some of us finally wander back to the apartment above the club with help from a ride we flag down at a McDonald's drive through.
5 AM, Bellingham Style...
Bellingham is hard to top, but we almost do in Seattle. The crowd at Nectar, a swanky new club in the Fremont district, reminds us of Philly last summer- maybe partly because Darren from Philly has flown all the way out here to see us! The vibe is great, the band steamrolls through its fifth gig in four days and when David plays a snippet of Smells Like Teen Spirit as people are calling for an encore they get the joke (support local music!). Our man Shannon from Burning Man comes up and freestyles over Kari Buro, Peter wears a blonde wig and turns in a solo on "No Agreement" that would have made Lester Bowie proud, and as we pile in the Stallion we don't even care that we have to drive all night and all day and pay everything we made on biodiesel (the veggie's not quite working yet...) just to get home. Northwest, we'll be back in May....see ya then.
