TimFest Was A TOTAL Success

Good morning everyone, back with another post-weekend report for you: 

Wow! What a goddamn treat this weekend was! 

Last summer on the bus we were talking about doing something with the band that wasn't a tour, but a residency or some longer stay... and over time that evolved into my dream weekend of all my world colliding and combining into a fun little festival. And after getting nearly everyone on board (our drummer Josh would not be able to commit, due to his Cat Power touring schedules) we locked it in. Why Portland? Why not?? It's a great town with lots of TImHeads, it's a destination city where people may make a trip out of it... It's easy enough for us to fly to... 

Friday started a little dicey though - I went for a run to work off some of the nerves and think over things... When I got back I have an audio message from Ellie with some bad news: She has a horse, who she loves (who has a horse that they DON'T love) and the horse is getting up there in horse years and was having some serious health issues. She tearfully told me that she had to deal with the horse issues and wasn't sure how things were going to go but she would skip the flight up on Friday and join us on Saturday - She promised me she would be there, but my mind went reeling - oh no. Ellie's so key to the band, as many of you know... I talked to JP and he was concerned as well, but did his best to reassure me that things will work out one way or another... 

A few hours later at the airport, we got word from Ellie that the horse was in good, stable (har, har) condition and in fact had... POOOPED which is what the problem was! It took a big old shit that gave full clearance for Ellie to come up and join us.  She got in around 3 pm on Saturday, RIGHT before Office Hours Live started up, so I could start the show with an easy mind! 

The night before, "the guys" all went out for dinner - The whole crew, me, Captain Carlin, doug, vic, luke, jp, Connor, our sub drummer Matt Carroll and Gregg all had a lovely walk to a Burmese place that was fantastic. We ate outside on the sidewalk patio and noticed down the street a theater was doing a screening of The Room with Tommy Wiseau in person... sometime later, Tommy walked by our table and I called him over to say hello... The guys at our table were totally starstruck and we had a fun and goofy little encounter with truly one of the strangest men to ever live. 

Back to Saturday... Office Hours Live was a goddamn blast. It flew by, and the crowd was fully packed and right on top of everything... Thunderous love for Doug and Vic as they destroyed with their drops... Eric Fensler dropped in with a fully insane bit where he put himself in the makeup chair for 3 hours to transform into this strange giant, old muscle man for no reason. He wanted to be the Ed McMahon for the show and came up and joined us. 

James Mercer of The Shins came up and knocked everyone out with a cover of "Only You" by The Platters. We had a wholesome trip down memory lane about our intersections over the years... We laughed. We had FUN! 

After an intermission, Doug came out to introduce Rock and Roll Gary who had a few dirty poems about his rock and roll pals... and then Neil Hamburger hit the stage and slaughtered, of course. I think it was really nice for him to play to a bigger crowd who was just all in for him. He was really happy with the reaction.

I came out with the Very Good Band - we were not as tight as we would have been mid tour and with a new drummer behind me it was a little bit of a high wire act, but Matt really locked in and even though we may have missed a little endings it was probably something no one really noticed. It was so fun to be playing with the band again. We mixed up the usual set and tried some new things which kept me on my toes and boy did I have fun. 

It was a long day, so we all crashed early to rest up for Day 2!!! 

Day 2 started with a tech run through of On Cinema which was a little more complicated than Office Hours, at least for me, since Captain Carlin was handling the cues and stuff for Office Hours... We ran through everything quickly and hoped for the best.   Gregg and I did a meet and greet and got to answer a lot of smart and thoughtful questions from the VIP'ers...

On Cinema Live went really well, and the rabidness of the fans really just lifted us up and sailed us through the whole show - felt a little like a Trump Rally or something - everything we hoped would work, worked but I said to Gregg before the show that the best stuff of the next 90 minutes is going to be stuff we have no idea is going to happen. And that sure was true. 

DJ Douggpound came up after the Intermission and slayed, of course. We were off to the side, cackling. Ellie hadn't seen him perform before was was just giddy over him... especially DARKPound. wow. 

Very Good Band came out and we were a little more confident and dialed in. We mixed up the set a bit. I was able to let loose a little more - Ellie and I had nice little acoustic duet mini set in the middle that was so well received, in the sense that... man,  earlier in the day, the place was full on wild on IRONICALLY cheering for "Empty Bottle" and "Bang Bang" and now were watching me very sincerely singing some pretty serious, sad songs and there was no scoffing or uncomfortable shuffling... Just a smart, cool crowd who can adjust to the mood so nicely. Felt really good. 

We ended with a powerhouse closing four songs; Nothing, In Glendale (on cocaine version) Work From Home, and Hot Piss... Folks we singing along to all of it, dancing in the aisles and just really having a ball.  Total success. 

We went out for a nightcap which was nearly derailed when Matt the drummer, an American living in Denmark, was not allowed entrance due to his Danish ID by a VERY serious, Kyle Rittenhouse-style doorman...(this dude was in full tactical gear... but I guess Downtown Portland is a little dicey)  I went in and pleaded our case to the bartender who came out and dressed the doorman down and let him in. 

I was so grateful everything worked out and everyone had a good time, but I was even more grateful to be putting on this weekend with such an amiable, professional, friendly and FUNNY group of people...  JP and I toasted to the success and he said, ya know it's hard and it's a lot of work but we do it because we love it, we're proud of the work and we love each other...  it's really fun and it makes a lot of people happy.  

I hope it's the first of many. 

Today we fly home to Burbank and I spend a few hours with the family and then will be off to the OTHER LA airport for a red eye to Toronto for more fun work on Shadows. I'll be zooming in this week. Looking forward to talking more about the weekend with you and the boys. 

I'm a little too tired to post some great pics and vids from the weekend... I'll ask Doug Vic and Matt to make another post with their pics and observations if they want. 

PEACE AND LOVE! T 

PS - you'll be getting the audio version of TimFest's Office Hours Live sooooon!