It doesn’t get too much better on tour than a day off in San Francisco. A great walking city, with a very intense street life. This city doesn’t hide its junkies, hookers and panhandlers, they are mixed right in with the rest of the population and are as much a part of the San Fran experience as are the cable-cars, Coit Tower and Golden Gate Bridge. It gives the city a healthy edge and makes you pay attention to your surroundings…this ain’t no Disneyland.

We had two shows tonight at the Great American Music Hall, a very cool, hundred year old room that we haven’t played since the early 90’s. Duke Ellington played here and that is about all you should need to know about it. We finally put it all together for both of these shows: two excellent audiences and two excellent performances. A very exhilarating night.

*****

We use to come to Santa Cruz on a fairly regular basis. It’s a very cool, odd, little town settled and inhabited by the first band of hippies that came across the Great Divide….or something like that. It felt great to back.

We spent most of the afternoon watching hockey. The playoffs have started, so our attention is focused. The beauty of the NHL playoffs these days is that you truly have no idea who will be in the finals. It is such a marathon to get there and each game is so intense that injuries are inevitable. Some years it simply comes down to a battle of attrition…….The first team to 16…wins.

The venue tonight was a new one for us, the Rio. It is a 1950’s style movie theater, with what looks like some of the original projection and audio equipment, still in use for screenings. It is a very cool venue. The staff treated us great….and we had another great Northern California audience. It was kind of an odd show for us. We all enjoyed it, but it had a strange energy and intensity, which I was never able to fully tap in to. Sometimes after a night like we had in San Fran it’s hard for the following nights show to live up to ones personal expectation. Luckily the audience was so intense and engaged that they kept us from wandering off. It was a very good day.