Room Most Acceptable, Hotel Quite Acceptable, San Francisco.
A late rise for me, at 10.10.
The drive back from Santa Rosa became another band meeting, of the endless kind. This is where a meeting, nominally to address reasonable concerns, points arising, strategies, direction, becomes a venting zone for frustrations, feelings of betrayal, abuse & non-delivery by record company & management. In a word, the negativities ingrained in the lives of long-term professional players, players who have been duffed over on a regular basis since the beginning of their professional lives, and maybe before that.
How to create planning, discussion & decision-making zones within the band & management, so that band meetings are discussions of practical issues, rather than negativity dumping pits? Ah, to bleat or not to bleat, that is the question.
This concern stayed with me into the early hours, and kept me up e-mailing & telephoning.
23.41
Packing & onto the Crimbus for a midnight business meeting with US manager Charlie Hewitt. Then an overnight drive to Los Angeles.
The performance was interesting. It began strongly and then something changed about 15-20 minutes into the set & the integrity of the performance was lost. I'm not sure exactly what or why or how. On the surface, an enthusiastic & encouraging audience in an excellent venue for this band: standing & seated.
"Relaxation is necessary tension.
Tension is unnecessary tension."
