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The "Spitting" Tour Diary [ 10/1/2004 ]
- Posted by : Mike Inez | Hey you ****ers - go out and buy the CD if you haven't already....and **** the Yankees - NY Yankees that is!
OK - here's my tour diary since that ****er MagicMan has been a pain in my ass all tour about it:
Vegetarian Stromboli
Ingredients needed:
Mozzarella Cheese Slices
Premade Pizza Dough
Chopped Spinach
Chopped Onion
Chopped Mushrooms
One Can of Spaghetti Sauce
2 Garlic Bulbs (chopped)
Olive Oil
Corn Meal
1- Saute Spinach, Onion, Mushrooms and Garlic in Olive oil (til the onions are tender)
2- Roll out the pizza dough
3- Spread the sauteed veggies around - leave about a half inch around the sides.
4- Layer the sucker up with Mozzarella Cheese
5-
Roll it up (not like a joint) - like a cinnamon roll. Seal it up closed
by rubbing water across the edge and pressing to rolled section.
6- Spray with Olive Oil and rub a lite layer of corn meal
7- Preheat Oven to 350 and cook for 20 minutes.
That's my tour diary....(spits)
M.I. |
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| Road Warrior strikes again [ 9/20/2004 ]
- Posted by : Ben Smith | Hey everyone! it's been ga-vate! seeing everyone out on the shows this summer!
One of my favorite experiences of being out on tour when not playing is trying to talk and connect with the fans.  We
(Mike and I) will hang out with audience members after the show and
connect. If you don't connect with people in the crowd, I find it
harder to perform and make that connection of who is actually watching
you.
Because of that, I have found over the last few years that
people are more "themselves" by coming up to say hi without getting
nervous and that people feel more comfortable meeting with a band
member of Heart.
When we toured Europe, it was amazing. It was
seeing buildings and architechture that is actually older than Seattle!
Birmingham had some of the greatest architecture that I had ever seen
and Cambridge was just killer! It had been my first time to Europe. In
the Netherlands and in Sweden, we played these really big rock
festivals and while there, we ran into some old friends in the
Queensryche camp. It's funny - the only time we see our friends is when
we're on tour and not even in our own neighborhood! While at these
festivals, I ran into Pamela Moore, a local Seattle artist as well as
Alan White from Yes.
After Europe, we began a slew of press to
promote the new album, Jupiters Darling. We performed on Conan O'Brien
and XM Radio and the Hard Rock Café when in New York back in June which
were all great experiences. One of my favorite moments on tour is the
opportunity to visit with my family when they come out to visit. I love
spending time with my son whenever possible - either on or off tour.
The
US Tour has been nothing less than superb. We have all had a great time
in these nine weeks on the road. Sometimes it goes too fast. I really
enjoy playing all the new songs from the album live in concert. The one
that is probably the most challenging for me is "Fallen Ones" as it is
more loose than the studio recording and has more of an acoustic feel.
Another song I really like doing live is "Things" as it involves
getting up from the drums and doing the cardboard box "jam". When we
first did the recording for "Things" in the studio, we were looking for
something cool - a groove - sort of like a roots blues record where you
heard the cardboard box. We put a bass drum shell so that it increases
the low end and added a bass drum that has heads. Then we put in a
separate mic for that extra low end sound. Talking about rehearsing the
song for the tour was easy and then after we talked, we made the choice
for the cardboard box to bring out with us.
Some of the cities
that I remember being terrific include Detroit and some of the bigger
East Coast cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Boston. We rawked
so hard in the South that we had hurricanes follow us in our wake
everywhere we went. There were two occasions where we had hurricanes
appear where we were just the week before the day! Talk about close
call! Other cities that come to mind that were great was the Greek
Theater in Los Angeles. The West Coast dates were great in the
beginning of the tour as we spent a lot of time dealing with personal
friends and family.
The Zeppelin songs at the end are a great
way to end the show. Those songs to perform and play are huge shoes to
fill. We are really glad it's working. We put those tunes at the end of
the show so we can pull out all the stops and give it our all!
Some
of my personal plans afte r the tour include a good night's sleep in my
own bed and some rest! I will also be working on music and doing some
side projects by working with some producers who are friends of mine in
the local Seattle area.
See ya soon!
Ben Smith |
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| And this one time....at band camp.... [ 9/18/2004 ]
- Posted by : Debbie Shair | From the Road:
This
year's keyboard player, ME, has also been secretly regarded as the tour
"bag lady." Yes, thank you very much! I'll fill you in on my wardrobe
changing experience!
Usually the band members share a dressing
room and so far, I have been very "creative" in finding the most unique
places to prepare and change for the tour this past summer. As with
most bands, they are never settled in one place for too long and I have
been the transient type - whether it's traveling on different buses or
changing in various places and/or finding the oddest places to change
or get some down time right before the show!
I
regard myself as the smiling gypsy - wandering from place to place. The
only thing missing is my own shopping cart. Unfortunately, there's just
not enough room on the buses for that so I left my shopping cart at
home. I will look for any place possible to find my own "zone." Take
Temecula and the EMP shows for example. In Temecula, I found the right
place to make an appropriate wardrobe change: Under a banquet table! At
the Seattle EMP show, a similar occurrence: in the band's dressing room
under the table! Talk about flexibility!
At the Conan O' Brien
Show earlier this year, the band dressing room was designated as the
"hang out" spot. The bathrooms were inconvenient so I chose to take it
up a notch by getting changed in the stall which can be tricky for any
woman. So I decided to venture out and find the "perfect" place. I
found a tiny tiny closet inside the band's dressing room that had a
water heater inside the closet inside the band's dressing room. I said,
"what the heck" and attempted the greatest bag lady challenge in rock n
roll history: I stepped foot into a one foot square space and voila!
The New Debbie Shair has arrived - wardrobe change and all. Eat your
heart out Wonderwoman!
In San Diego, the dressing rooms were
part of Humphrey's hotel rooms and the band received one dressing room.
I knew that I would have to perform the infamous miraculous feat of
doing the closet change again. Well, hehe, at the end of the show, I
was going to use the same closet to change back into "off show" wear
but found that my secret changing closet had been used.....it was full of
big lugies by the "spitting bassist!" EWWW! Needless to say, I found a
different place to change back to "offstage" Debbie.
In Atlantic
City recently, I managed to top off the challenges of all challenges by
changing in a 4x4 cardboard box. Everyone gasped, "How did she do
THAT???!" I amazed myself by that feat.
On the song,
"Vainglorious," you can hear and see me clanging away at the cowbell.
Well of course Mike Inez has to put his comments forth and give a
little tease every now and then by stating, "We need more cowbell!" in
his best Will Farrell imitation taken from the Saturday Night Live
skit. Well, "this one time at band camp", I decided to write a little
comment on the cowbell by stating "I love Mike Inez" on it. That
certainly caught him offguard!
My favorite songs to perform on the tour are: Enough, These Dreams and Misty Mountain Hop.
Two of my favorite bands: The Beatles and Queen
Keyboardists that have inspired me: Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks and Freddie Mercury
See you all soon and thanks for rawkin out with me on my first tour with Heart! 
Debbie |
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| Life on the road.... [ 9/8/2004 ]
- Posted by : Craig Bartock | ...or "sleeping in buses is full of bunk!"
Ah, such wonderful memories! Maybe it's just because I'm getting so good
at dodging Mikes spit on stage or learning how to walk down the isle of
the bus while it's going down the freeway at 4 in the morning and not
feel like I'm one of the extras in Das Boot trying to get his sea legs,
but I have to tell you, this is damn fun! I find that I'm not really
remembering the cities as much, but the people I meet or the unique
circumstances that brought us all together .....namely just good music.
It's always great to look down there into the audience and see those
familiar faces. You mongers make us always feel at home. It's amazing.
Some of the best moments on this tour happened by accident. Like the
time when we were in Sweden and Ben missed my cue in Magic Man and the
band just lost our place right in the middle of the song for about 10
seconds! So after the show, I told Ben that I would not only just look
at him for the cue, but I would turn and point to him. It worked just
fine. Then about half way through the tour, the whole band had the idea
that they were going to play a little trick on me. When I turned to
point at Ben, the whole band (including Ann and Nance) stopped playing
and pointed at me! From that point on, it was all out war. The next
night, I put an extra pick in my hand and when the cue came up, I threw
it at Ben. Now this was a shot that only I once (or maybe Bruce Lee
twice) could ever make in a lifetime. It flew over Ben's drums and hit
him right in the forehead! We all just stood there for a second in
amazement. From then on, everyone got into the act. Nance started
throwing picks at me every night and it's turned into a free for all.
The other night she hid behind me during my solo and tried to put a
feather boa around my neck .......the only problem was I was too tall
for her to reach!! Ah, life on the road. You've gotta love it!!!
Some great moments ........ Deb's cowbell in Vainglorious. She could
give Will Farell a run for his money in that SNL skit!! Nance always
stepping on my boots during the end of Barracuda and putting a dent in
them. Hearing Ann sing the end of Crazy On You every night. One night
after the show I told her how amazing she was and she told me that she
was still trying to perfect that part. I was floored! She is perfect
EVERY NIGHT and she NEVER sings it the same way twice!! Damn, what a
gift she has. That is one beautiful woman! Ben and Mike are totally like
brothers and no one can make me laugh like they can. They are wonderful
people all the way around. It's a good group of people here my friends,
and we all love music so much and believe in what we are doing that it
makes each night a real moment in time. I always find it funny because
coming from the studio side for so long, it's different knowing that
what is captured in a recording will go on and on forever. But at the
shows, the music is only there for a second and then it's gone. These
great moments of hearing Ann and Nance; Ben, Mike and Deb vanish as
quickly as they appear, but what a memory to hold on to!!!
Craig |
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