Tour Diary - Part 13

in YALE country. New Haven. Sitting outside the venue, after a bumpy ride from NYC! But slept good and hard once we landed. 

Holy Moly, lots to get through on this one, as it was a big, fun one at Webster Hall! 

We were soundecking, just finishing up and I was sitting at the piano, and for some reason started playing a song we played a few times last summer: Look Out Cleveland, by The Band...we played it when we were in Cleveland, and then again in Toronto, as The Band is Canandian (mostly) but hadn't played it since. It's a fun one to play, although nearly impossible for me to stay on top of:  lots of weird changes and a dizzying flow of lyrics.  But everyone locked in and we found it again - just as we were finishing, Vic's phone, which was sitting on the music stand llt up and I see a New York Times News Alert: Robbie Robertson Died.  What??? What the fuck??? 

Robbie and The Band are responsible for hands down some of my favorite music ever recorded.  He was not a saint, and did some of those guys dirty back in the day, and you can read all about that in Levon's book, but I still love him and also imagined he'd be one of those rockers to outlast em all. Certainly Garth Hudson at least! We ran through the song one more time, and agreed to play it that night. Mostly, because Catfish can play like Robbie so well... I posted an Instragram story of a little piece from last night, which we managed to stumble through, missing most of the lyrics. 

Backstage was really nice, the whole venue was - good classic ballroom, good sound, with decent on stage sound.  The show was sold out, and nicely packed with a mix of seated and standing. Everyone was ENGAGED. 

We had Joe's Pizza (my fav) and Superiority burgers. Everyone was in good spirits - Ellie enjoyed a visit from her brother...  Jarred, my oldest and dearest friend, who has been shooting doc footage for the tour was there and we had lots of laughs. 

I had invited Dave Foley to the show, as he wanted to see us last year but was out of town. I walked up for the stand up set and immediately saw him, sitting in the front row. I know Dave a little bit, but we're not close or anything. I didn't know what he was expecting. I tried to not watch him, to keep me from not thinking about it but it was hard. Toward the end of the set, he got up and walked back. I saw it, and thought, "oh well, this isn't for him" 

We came back out for the music set and he was back in his seat. OK! Then about four songs in he got up and left again. I thought, "oh well, i guess this isn't for him." BUT he came back!  That happened a few more times, and each time, I just thought. "oh well, I guess this isn't for him!" 

We launched into Backwards and I always ask is anyone here is by themselves, to bring them up to dance with me... and Dave raised his hand. I invited him up and he came up on stage, beaming and we embraced and he said "this is so great. I'm so envious!"  The crowd registered who it was and gave him a warm welcome.  Another woman came up as well, who was... LIT and she and Dave did some wild country dancing during the set. Dave was having so much fun. I was elated! 

Dave came back after taking many pictures with the grateful crowd up front and we had a nice hang.  He really loved the show, which meant the world to me and the band, who were all a little star-struck. 

So, 2 Canadian heroes of mine helped make New York a really special one for all of us. 

I can't wait for you to see what we have in store for Office Hours today. It's a big one, that's gonna get a lot of people TALKIN! You'll see... 

See you tonight New Haven!