West Coast Memories: Chico

My main memory of Chico is the HEAT. Man it seemed like every time SCI played here it was insanely hot. I guess it must have always been summer when we passed through. I do remember playing a show with our friend Dar Williams here at some strange, long barn thing. Dar was totally cool and her keyboard player rocked. I dug what they were doing. Before the show I think we all snuck away to some watering holes along a river and soaked for a long while.

And there was one super hot night at the Senator Theater where we played "Oye Como Va," the Santana tune, a rare play for us. It's funny because on some of these tours each band member would make the setlist for the night and, as I look back at these shows, I wonder who made the each list. You can kinda can tell by openers and closers and overall flow in the set. It can be a tough to make the list. Especially with five other opinions flying round.

So this is the show closer for my West Coast run with JBB. It has been so much fun. They are great guys and they sound killer. I can’t believe it's over. But we will hook up with them again at the Boulder Theater in couple weeks.

Come on out tonight and try some Hop Bam Ale at Sierra Nevada. It's going to be a great tour closer with beer and music and I imagine the temperature will be less of an issue this time around with Sierra Nevada on board.

West Coast Memories: Santa Cruz

Heading to Santa Cruz tonight. SCI played Palookaville and The Catalyst in those early days. I remember wandering the streets checking out the music stores and markets. One time while we were there a small earthquake hit. We were all sleeping in Bussy, in a random parking lot as usual, and the bus started to sway. I awoke to a jostled band and spilled water bottles, but no worse for the wear.

I have a vague recollection of us playing a gig in a garage with Keller somewhere in town. I think it belonged to a friend of ours, Frank. In fact I think he did all the great woodwork on the inside of Bussy. That must have been an early rendition of the Keller and SCI collaborations. I’ll have to go check out those tapes. Looking forward to getting back there I love this city.

West Coast Memories: San Diego

Heading to San Diego tonight. KHB is playing the Belly Up. SCI performed there the year that I joined (1997). Man, that was a whirlwind year. I just looked back at all the dates and there seemed to be no downtime at all. We were serious road dogs back then. We had just come from a long run starting in Gainseville, FL, through New Orleans, Houston, Santa Fe and Flagstaff. So I have scattered memories of that gig, but I do remember walking randomly on the railroad tracks looking for a laundromat (I probably never found one). Also, that night, I met a keyboard player that I had admired from my Baltimore days. He played with a band called New Potato Caboose. They were a great group that fell into the early “jam band” genre. The keyboard player would do this killer percussion jam on his Hammond B3 with the drummers - very inspiring.

SCI has come back many times since then though. I recall a great show at the RIMAC Arena in 2002. I’ve heard that the “San Jose” from that show was pretty slamming. We also played with RatDog in 2006 at the park. That whole run with them was so much fun. I had a blast talking and jamming with all the guys. Plus I got to dance my ass off watching their set every night. I am psyched to in SoCal. again and looking forward to another great night of music.