Other bands: none
Peaceful, idyllic Northwestern University.
No one knew, as far as I could tell, that we were supposed to play in the cafeteria at Northwestern University. Other than the small vocal PA set up in front of the doors near the courtyard, there was really no clue that the student body expected anyone to show up to entertain them over Chik-fil-A and Panda Express.
We played loud in the noontime hour while a handful of bored students sat at the rear tables, texting their other friends who had moved to places where they could more easily talk without the noise.
I was utterly bored and mouthing the words with very little brainconnect so I threw a bottle of water up onto the balcony and stole an unwitting girl's cell phone.
It was a waste of a good Wednesday afternoon, one where I could have been raking leaves or taking Elliot to the Children's Museum, and our performance had all the imagination-capturing of a visiting washing machine repairman. There's something wrong with leaving a venue at 2 in the afternoon.
I had more pressing things to fuss with, as it were. We had an official album release show coming up in a week and I'd made designs to make it an enormous ordeal, taking a cue - probably too heavily - from The Flaming Lips. I bought confetti cannons, champagne poppers, balloons and I was scoping out those giant wobbly air statues that new car dealerships have to announce great savings.
This was going to be huge and I aimed to make it memorable for all involved.
We were invited to play, initially, by a young Indianapolis kid I'd never met. He rented out the old Irving Theater, which sat in one of the many tiny and spotty artist districts in the city, and was another old relic from the days of Tallulah Bankhead and hats that came in boxes.
This kid talked big, especially of his flyering campaign, and I chose to believe him. We made our show part of an Amnesty International benefit for Darfur, which gave us a modicum of more exposure for the show. Our promo shots were on a photo carousel that included Sparta and some other bigger bands.
And what's more, Alison, my wife, planned to come. It had been almost 2 years since she last saw me ply my trade on the stage and saw with her own eyes the reason I was away for so long. It was a chance to captivate her again, to bring her up out of our fast forming rut and feel like she was married to someone unique and special whose ass wasn't glued to an office chair and who considered doing for a living what you love the most honorable thing one can do. I very much looked forward to it.
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