The Family Ghost "tour" #2

So ends one of the most awesome weeks in recent history. I got home after work on Friday and everything was already loaded so we got straight on the road. Jacques and Ryan took the van with the gear and I followed in my own car with Paul and Mary Beth. We got to the Mercy Lounge in Nashville and starting setting up on the Hi Watt Stage. The sound guy was being an asshole, chastising us and complaining about how long we took to set stuff up. Anyway, Bottomless Pit showed up and we left to get some food. I mentioned the hot chicken place we ate at last year and we all made our way there to find it closed. Tim found another place nearby on his phone and we went there and it was closed. This is 8 pm on a Friday in Nashville. They just saw a fish and grits place down the street so we went there. This here was the best part of the whole weekend, probably. I think the place was just called Fish and Grits. Some of the best food I've had in a while. I had, like many of us, the fried catfish and grits (bacon cheese grits). It blew me the hell away. Then we got back to the club and the sound guy was saying we were late (said the show was supposed to start at 9 when we were told 9:30, we just told him that and he was like "well, then you have 1 minute"). Anyway, we played and we were spot on for us. Here is our set:
A Series of False Starts
Death Blow
Fall Behind
Lost Year
Like Clockwork
Battle Chant
Doctorate
Bottomless Pit were really good. I enjoyed their set. Afterwards I bought a shirt (the design is awesome) and a cd set: Lottery 2005-2012. I almost bought just one of the cd albums and Tim pointed me to this as it has everything on it. So that was good of him. We all hung out at the place for a while afterwards. We loaded and then hung out talking with people who showed up to the show in the parking lot for a while afterwards as well. Jeff, a friend/colleague from Nashville let us stay at his place that night. So we continued the hanging out and laughing and talking and all that. He was about the nicest and most hospitible dude around. We had a late morning and start, stopped at Jack in the Box on our way out and killed some time for a bit. The drive back was uneventful. We had enough time to bathe ourselves and after not too much longer it was time for the next show! We met up at the Hi-Tone and were told we'd be playing outside in the back. We knew it was an early show because of a burlesque show later. Everything inside was set up for that. Jacques got super-pissed at first. The weather was wonderful so I just thought we should go back and see what's up. They had a good pa setup back there and everything was just nice and lovely. We set up. There was even free pizza for the show. Our performance in Memphis wasn't AS good as the Nashville one, but it was still good. We played the same set as the night before. We had come up with a different song order for this show, but at the last minute the other guys decided to go with the previous set. I was not for that, but whatever. Paul broke a bass string during "Like Clockwork" so we had to use the backup bass (it was the backup because there's a short in the connection). It was mostly okay with the cable tight and not moving too much, but in my discombobulation I forgot it wasn't tuned. I actually played through all of "Battle Chant" without tuning it (the string I mostly play wasn't too bad, and it's not the most tuning-essential song, I guess). A little into "Doctorate" I realized it was out of tune a bit too late to stop, tune, and start over. I think I did an alright job of tuning on the fly as I was playing. Anyway, both nights the sound was really good. Being outside last night was just an amazing experience as well. The weather was perfect and it was just a lovely night. Bottomless Pit sounded good and it was a good show. As we were loading stuff up later I overheard someone say something about it being a fun environment to be at but musically it was boring. Now, they COULD have been talking about something else. I didn't hear them specifically mention the show last night and I only overheard like a sentence or two. Pretty likely though that they were talking about our show. Funny, anyway. Oh, I heard later, someone mooned us from the walkway above the "stage" while we were playing. Too bad I missed it. We were going to meet Bottomless Pit dudes at Rendezvous afterwards, but when we got our stuff loaded it was too late. Mary Beth and I did meet Jacques and Sarah and her sister and Paul and Shawna at Huey's. I skipped the gym because I have too much work today. I haven't done any fucking work. I've been wasting time. Have I done anything?

In my last post I forgot to mention the biggest thing from last week. I got a fucking speeding ticket on Monday on my way to work. 60 in a 55. I'm not sure what to do about paying it or whatever. I don't want this stupid little thing to fuck up my insurance.