LUNA 2000 Tour Diary

In re-reading my tour diary from Europe, I am confronted with how much of it sucked (excepting Spain and Scandinavia and parts of France). I never got around to writing up the fall U.S. tour, but I promise we set Luna attendance records wherever we went and it was sometimes fun, except for the part where, after the final show of the tour in Burlington, Vermont, Justin got on a plane to New Zealand with the keys to the rental car that Sean was travelling in. Luckily I was hours away in the van when this happened.

As you may or may not know, we did three shows earlier this year with an interim bass player named Matt Quigley, who is a very smart and interesting guy but was not the perfect fit for Luna. His all-time favorite band is Cheap Trick. Anyway we played the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah at a rotten little club, but at least we went to see one film and went to a pretty good party and got to see all those Hollywood actors walking up and down the street. Some of the cool people I saw on the street: Tammy Faye Baker, Charlie Sheen, Ethan Hawke.

When we got home we held some more auditions and discovered our new bassist Britta Phillips, who was recommended by our guitar tech Lawrence. She has recently been touring with that young Australian singer Ben Lee.

Our first show with Britta was actually a TV appearance (our first ever network TV show). Later with Cynthia Garrett. We flew out to Los Angeles to tape this show, which they make right next to the Jay Leno show. In fact the audience is comprised of people who couldn’t get tickets to the Leno show. Sean wore a nice Dolce and Gabbana suit.

I saw Faye Dunaway in the hallway, which excited me no end. I wanted to tell her that we had tried to get the rights to a photo of her for our Chinatown/Bo nnie and Clyde EP but I just kept quiet. The taping of the show was pretty nerve-wracking and they wouldn’t give us any vodka. So afterwards we went and had fabulous martinis and steak dinners at Musso and Frank’s in Hollywood. Then we went to the Viper Room to see some DJ (he’s English, but had a French name) but we left before he came on. Then Sean and I went back to the hotel and made an art film with Sean’s friend Matthew Buzzell. In this film (which is actually sort of a documentary about yours truly), Sean writhes half naked on the bathroom floor while I stare into the mirror and think about my life.

Our spring tour started March 23 in Boston, at a club called Axis. I don’t like playing the clubs on Lansdowne Street but apparently the Paradise (where we were supposed to play) was shut down by the police. I remember seeing Pere Ubu play the Paradise when I was in college, which was a pretty great show. The next day we drove to Amherst College and played to a small but mostly appreciative crowd. Two guys stood in front of me the whole time doing magic tricks to each other. It was weird. Then after the show I witnessed a strange karaoke show where seven girls got on stage and did a Madonna song together.

The next day we were about a mile out of the hotel when someone honked their horn at us -- the back door of the van was open. Sean got out to check that nothing was missing and gave the thumbs up. Four hours later I got a message -- my bag had fallen out and was still in Massachusetts. I had to buy a new toothbrush at the gnarly store next to our gnarly hotel in Washington, D.C. Opening for us in D.C. was Black Beetle, featuring our friend Oren Bloedow.
It was nice to play at the Black Cat for a change. Our show got a good review in the Washington Post I am told, noting the “beguiling Britta Phillips” on bass.

Seattle. We flew into Seattle one day early, which gave me time to go to the movies. I saw Erin Brockovitch, which made me cry a little on the inside. In fact the trailer for that silly-looking Ed Norton/Ben Stiller film made me cry. I must have just been in a weird mood. The show was at the Showbox, and we certainly had far more people than ever before in Seattle. Maybe that’s because we finally played a decent sized club. I’m glad that whole grunge thing is over. They can’t give you so much “Seattle-tude” anymore. Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening/K Records drove up to see us, but chickened out of performing “Indian Summer”. He wanted to sing “Dear Diary” instead.

Vancouver. As usual it took us about two hours to cross the border. The Canadian immigration people acted real friendly while they searched our van for drugs and counted all our t-shirts. Why would we bring drugs into Canada. Canada is where drugs come from. Case in point -- people at the club in Vancouver plied us with mushroom fudge and joints. I don’t even smoke pot but I tried a little after the show and started acting silly.

Portland. Lee’s mother came to the show. She lives in Portland. My cell phone won’t work.

San Francisco.

Sean received disturbing news from home. There had been a fire in his apartment building on Second Avenue and 6th Street, and there was some serious smoke damage. It happened to be April Fool’s Day, so he couldn’t immediately be certain if this was true. Turns out it was true, and Sean is now looking for a place to live. I don’t mean to make light of this. If you know of any good deals on apartments in New York, you should contact Sean.

Two glorious days in San Francisco, two nights playing at the Fillmore. On Saturday night we were about two minutes into our first song (“Bewitched”) when the power went out in the club, and on the whole block. We all waited in darkness for an hour till the power came back on, and a free round of drinks was dispensed to the audience. Then we played the show as planned. Tonight we also broke out “Bonnie and Clyde”, having practiced it each day at soundcheck with Britta singing the Brigitte Bardot part. Sean refuses to sing the “hoo-ha-hooo” part that he did on the recording. I understand that. I don’t like to sing “bom-bom-bom” during Chinatown either. Our friend Howard Thompson was at the show -- he used to be the Head of A&R at Elektra in the good old days. I remember him taking me to a nice club in Paris called the Tiger Lily, which sort of inspired that song.

Sunday was to be our day off but instead we played a short in-store set at Amoeba Records up on Haight Street. Lots of people were there. It’s just about the biggest store in the world.

I ran into my high school friend Graham, recently moved from North Carolina. He’s the one who invented the game “pup tent”. Sunday night we played another show, and against our better judgment went out drinking at a club “Sixteen” that is sort of like Don Hill’s in New York. Glammy and stuff. My cell phone still isn’t working.

Boulder, CO. A long time since we’ve been here. Before Lee joined the band even. Lots of people came into the dressing room after the show. Some of them were nice, some were annoying. The people at the club seemed to be spreading a rumor that Luna were playing another show at a little bar next door later that night (a bar they also own). This was not true. I went to bed early, cursing my cell phone.

Chicago. I wish I could say that I had given up on my cell phone, but unfortunately I kept turning it on to see if it would work. We played an early show at the Cabaret Metro, then went back to the hotel to watch ourselves on TV -- “Later with Cynthia Garrett” was finally airing that night. It was much better than I had thought it was. They showed little snippets from old Luna videos, so you got to see some different hairstyles.

Columbus. We are doing some shows opening for a band called Guster. The average age of their fans seems to be fourteen. And they have alot of fans. I don’t think they liked Luna so much.

Detroit. Again with Guster, but this time the crowd seems to like us. I guess some of them are actually there to see Luna. At the hotel we saw the Methods of Mayhem people. They have three buses and two trucks, but are only playing at St Andrew’s Hall. Someone must be losing some money.

New York. This is our tenth show in a row without a day off but I am feeling pretty good. At tonight’s show (Bowery Ballroom) I had a blast. Why was it such fun? The next day I decide I must have been drunk. Whatever. We opened with “Bewitched”, joined by Lee’s friend David Knowles on trumpet, and did a few songs with Jane Scarpantoni playing cello. Things sound beautiful when she plays. People screamed when Britta started singing in “Bonnie and Clyde”. Like it was a strange release of nervous tension. After the show I met a guy (we’ll call him N.) who told me that Guns N Roses didn’t write “Sweet Child O Mine”, that they bought the song from a friend of his in Florida, and that N. actually dated the girl the song was written about. I’m just repeating what I was told. A journalist in Philadelphia told me it’s more fun if you just believe all the rumors, so I do.

The next night we did two more shows at Bowery Ballroom, both a lot of fun. My cell phone officially doesn’t work in any city.

Mount Holyoke College. This is another one of those shows where we open up for Guster. Lots and lots of kids again.

Penn State University. This was sort of a big outdoor festival with lots of sucky bands playing. We were paid handsomely though. Did I mention that our soundman and guitar tech have both deserted us to go on tour with Tracy Bonham? I really hope they’re having a good time. Actually we ran into them at this very show, as Tracy Bonham is playing there too. It was a little like running into an ex-girlfriend or something.

Pittsburgh. A couple of years ago I bought a leather jacket in Chicago. I’m wearing it in the photo on the back of the import version of The Days of Our Nights. Today I sold that jacket to Lee Wall for $50. He already had a similar jacket, but mine was much nicer. In fact Sean has a similar jacket too, and it got to
where we had to call to make sure we all weren’t wearing the same jacket. I don’t have that problem any more.

Luna have never ever played in Pittsburgh. I played there once on the very first Galaxie 500 people, in a former Masonic Temple. We had about fifteen people in attendance. Guess what -- Pittsburgh is nice. Our hotel rooms have a lovely view of the rivers and the stadium and bridges and boats. We drove down a night early so we would have time to visit the Andy Warhol Museum. The nice people there gave us a tour even though the museum was closed to the public, and we saw some great things. A new show of Warhol’s drawings which was a real eye-opener. Some original lyric and music sheets for songs from the Velvets’ banana album. We also visited the museum gift shop and bought some books and posters. Lee saw which poster I bought and then got the same one for the bathroom of his new apartment. What a copy-cat! It’s a poster of photographs taken by Billy Name, photos of people exiting the bathroom at the Factory. Lee says he’s gonna put it up in his bathroom.

Baltimore. We’re back in Baltimore for the second time in five months. That’s very unusual. We had some loud Polish fans in the crowd who kept insisting that Luna is “Number One in Poland!” I doubt it. I dedicated a song to Rosa Luxemburg, just for them, but they said “she’s not Polish, she’s Russian”. A kind fan sent us an Email the next day confirming that she was indeed born in Poland.

Providence. Every time we play in Providence we have to drive through a terrible rainstorm. This is another Guster show, in a beautiful theatre in downtown Providence. After the show we watched Norm McDonald on the David Letterman show, talking about mixing booze and pills and waking up with a strange man in your bed.

Philadelphia. A packed house of Guster fans at the Electric Factory. Two thousand screaming kids. It was like a strange dream. New Orleans. I’ve noticed in the past that the further I get into the tour diary, the shorter the entries become. Like I’m running out of things to talk about. We played New Orleans during the middle of the famous jazz festival. Had some delicious seafood bisque and bread pudding at a place called Mother’s. Grasshopper came to the show. He had been mugged at gunpoint two days earlier while standing outside a show talking to someone from the Counting Crows. Maybe he’ll be more careful who he talks to next time. New Orleans is a late town so we stayed up real late and slept on the flight home. University of Massachusetts. We played a short set here because one of the opening bands arrived hours late and then took forever to get onstage and
play. There was some very spirited dancing during our set, even a couple of stage divers. After the show we went back to one of the dorm rooms to have a drink, and the students were having a little Napster party. Instead of having a stereo, you just get Napster up on your computer. But I’m sure you know this better than I do.