Archive Sunday #43

For the rest of the week in California killing time between Coachella performances, we had a pretty full schedule. First up was another television performance on Conan's TBS talk show. It was such a trip driving through the Universal Studios lot dodging the golf cart tours and trailers full of potential famous actors. We got there before lunch, but not nearly as early as the 8am call times we experienced in New York. The backstage offices were packed with stage props and lined with cheesy Conan action figures and portraits. We had the typical setup and soundcheck where the camera guys ran through the song a few times with us to practice their lines and shots with us. The especially large studio made it possible for all the gear to stay in place during the show, which was such a relief cause we didn't have an added rushed changeover for things to go wrong.

Afterwards we took a golf cart to grab food at the Universal studio's cafeteria for lunch. It kinda reminded me of a college-style dining hall but the food was pretty good and super convenient. We still had hours to kill before the taping so we hung out in the musicians green room where we took turns playing through the house pedalboard and amp they had laying around. It had a couple of cool delays and a chorus along with a couple drive options that had me on the floor twisting knobs and switches for so long I lost track of time. A bit later Will took the opportunity to visit the hair and makeup office and grab a free professional haircut during the downtime.

We watched a bunch of the rehearsals in the early afternoon and soon realized it was actually Conan's birthday. Honestly he seemed a bit out-of-it at first and not quite his outgoing on-screen persona. It was probably the combination of a long week and him totally not being excited about coming to work on his birthday, but he spent a lot of the rehearsal just noodling on guitar with an indifferent expression sitting at his desk while the writers fine-tuned jokes. Looking back at it he could have just been making use of the absurd amount downtime in a large scale show like that; but hey, turns out he's a pretty great guitar player. We always find it interesting what bits they decide to keep for the show. I distinctly remember them running a bit with a paid actor sitting in the audience for at least an hour in rehearsals. He was covered in red makeup and festival gear to pretend he had spent the entire weekend out in the sun at Coachella while Conan cracked jokes about it. But yeah, they spent all this time and resources rewriting this two minute bit multiple times that probably should have just been cut haha.

When our time finally came, we played an edited version of Unforgiving Girl that the audience seemed to really enjoy. It kinda brings me back to staying up late to watch the end of Late Night with Conan O'Brien to catch the countless great musical guests, so I was stoked it turned out well. Afterwards we all went out to eat at this old-school steak house with Chris Lombardi and his son Luca. It was nice to decompress with some good eats, and I loved how much Andrew and Luca geeked out over video games together.

The next day we drove to Pomona, California to open up for Future Islands playing at the Glass House. I had been a fan since On The Water, so I super excited to play a show with these guys. It was a bit of an awkward fit getting all our stuff setup around the the other gear on the small stage, so I think we ended up all lined up horizontally across the stage haha. The Future Islands guys were super nice and chatted with us for bit before we had to go on. I think I even snapped a pic of William's pedalboard because I'm always impressed by his bass tone. Though I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that he plays through both a bass amp and a jazz chorus guitar amp. But yeah, the show went great and I remember talking with Andrew about how we wished every day would this chill and relaxed by playing these opening slots at venues.

The following day, we went back out to the desert to play at this really cool venue in the the middle of an old western movie set. It's called Pappy and Harriet's in a place called Pioneertown, California not far from Joshua Tree. We were set to play along with Preoccupations inside the small indoor venue while the band Survive played out in the larger ourdoor venue afterwards. I remember thinking the desert sun would have terrible for getting all of Survive's analog synths in a stable tuning, but they seemed to get everything working by the end of soundcheck. Our greenroom was at this small ten-room motel down the dirt street where I guess hikers and western movie buffs sometimes stay.

The show was extremely fun! Something about the really tight-knit venues where the crowd is the same level as the band makes it extra exciting. I think our show didn't even start till after midnight, but with that kind of atmosphere it didn't matter at all. We raged along with the audience a foot or so in front of us and had an overall great time. Afterwards we all sold some merch from the little table they had up front then drove about a half hour to a hotel near Joshua Tree. I'm definitely bummed our show last year at Pappy and Harriet's got canceled cause it has such a unique atmosphere, but I'm sure it's on our list of venues to hit in the future!