#29: Notes from the Road (Cambridge, Beacon, Bethlehem)

Six shows in five days from Cambridge MA to my current location in Bethlehem PA haven’t left me much time for writing. And even when I have been able to grab a moment, I’ve found the experience too immediate, too strong to make sense of in sentences. So maybe I shouldn’t try. To make sense I mean. My first tour in nearly four years is still under way, happening in real time. And a journalist I am not.

But I am keeping a list.

— I-84 in Connecticut is still under construction. I’m pretty sure that jackhammer outside of Waterbury (the one that reduced three lanes to one) was working the same same patch of asphalt the last time I passed that way.

— On I-84 in Connecticut, where the concept of alternate feed has been under threat for years, the process of funneling from three lanes to one seems to have gone full bella omnium contra omnes. Hobbes was right, as if we needed confirmation.

— Still on the subject of I-84 in Connecticut, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the trucker who let me in. In the “you can’t make this stuff up” category, he was driving for a company called Super Ego Holding. And of course he was. But I’m still pessimistic. The name makes me wonder if there’s a rival company out there called Id Logistics.

— I still love driving after the show. I mean those two hours or so heading toward the next town. There’s less automobile traffic between, say, midnight and 2 am. The long-haul truckers hold sway. I tuck in among them and listen to the BBC’s Shipping Forecast “Fair Isle good, becoming poor. Lundy, moderate”.

— In Cambridge MA I stopped in at one of my favorite stationaries: Bob Slate. I confess I have a stationary problem. I went in looking for a certain ink cartridge I can’t get in Buenos Aires and walked out with three kilos of Blackwing’s new legal pad. The rule is perfect. I thought I’d use one last night in Beacon NY to write out my set-list. I couldn’t bring myself to mar the surface. I’m the Nigel Tufnel of legal pads. Don’t even look at it. Time to look away now.

—Also in Cambridge I went to Cardullos for other sundry items unobtainable in Argentina: Coleman’s mustard, marzipan, a certain kind of anchovy, lingonberry jam.

— I am really enjoying these shows—even the first one, in Cambridge, where I was very, very rusty. I described it to a friend as “a train wreck wrapped in a fiasco wrapped in a perfectly lovely evening”. That last part is thanks to the audience. They were forgiving and delightful. And helpful! Someone’s ringtone went off in the middle Transit. It was perfect! A little three note melody—in the right key, over the right chord. The timing could not have been better. Generally I am not, let’s say, a fan of ringtones going off in the middle of the set. But this one was special. These kinds of accidents are to be appreciated. Tonight I’ll be playing at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem. I don’t know about now, but back in the day there was a biker bar nearby. Sometimes one of those Harleys would hit just the right frequency.