Portland

Animals: Great Egret

Quotes: “I’m gonna look at that pizza the way Peter Boyle looked at Madelyn Kahn.”

SIARPC: Burp Reynolds

Portland’s not much of a drive from Seattle so the band slept in and I got up to go have coffee with my ex-wife’s aunt and uncle, who I had not seen in 10 years, or more specifically since the divorce. They had always been my favorites. Kind of cool and more prone to smiling than some, they also always sent our kids the hippest gifts. Chuck and I had been talking about our respective divorces a day or so before when I told him about getting to see them, and we both agreed it’s among the most brutal things one can go through. In Chuck’s words, there is always a place that doesn’t quite heal. For me I still feel the loss of a family I loved, because when you take people into your heart as family that’s what they are. I was nervous but of course it was lovely and wonderful to catch up. It’ll probably be another ten years but that’s the nature of the thing.

When I got back everyone was getting around and after attempting to remove our shame from the house we got ridiculously yummy pizza at Razzis Pizza and left for Portland.

We were playing the Alhambra Theater, which was in a little hipster neighborhood* on the east side of the river. So no Powell’s Books this time. We were in the smaller of two theaters and there was a variety/burlesque show in the larger, which meant unexpectedly costumed people regularly popped in and out of our lives for the rest of the night. Ticket presales had been good and we ended up selling out for the second night in a row. People actually had to be turned away.

The theater was tiered so there was audience on the floor slightly below us and then another layer farther back at eye level. The show, although largely consisting of the same songs couldn’t have been more different than the previous night. We had burned some of our nervous mania away but also the audience was putting out so much love that the show immediately took on the air of being among friends. It was a night of many discursions and silly stories. What a pure pleasure to play this night.

I happened to walk up to the club earlier in the evening right as doors opened and there was a line up the sidewalk. That’s never happened before.

Afterwards I was getting hot dogs for the band, because that’s exactly what you want the van to smell like the next day, so I missed the apparently comical exchange between a guy with white Elvis socks pulled up to his knees berating Lisa because her Neil Young shirt was not a “real” Neil Young shirt. Chuck gave him what for but the man just walked away to make psychotic distinctions another day.

Tomorrow is a travel day:

*Is that redundant?