Tour Diary – Agoura Hills, CA (June 12, 2014)

It's a familiar feeling after all these years. Waking up at 4am to catch a flight, reconvene with old friends, and head out for a Cowboy Junkies show in a new town. As the years pile up, the yearning for an afternoon nap grows stronger. But today was the kickoff of the World Cup so reaching Agoura Hills early enough to find a pub was the order of the day. Settled into a bar in one of the many strip malls that make up Agoura Hills, we watched the ref take down Croatia and preserve peace in the host country. 

 

The venue sat in a strip mall full of antique shops where one man's trash now retailed for $500. I never saw a home driving around the city but one has to believe there are some beautiful estates nestled somewhere up in the surrounding hills. The band spent the afternoon shaking off the dust in sound check as family and friends came and went including sister Cali Timmins who appeared in the video "Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning" a few years back. It brought back fond memories of the band's emergence in the late 80's when I fell for the music, a feeling that has yet to waver.

 

Doors were at 6pm so we dutifully arrived at 6pm (for a 9pm show) as the many housewives of Agoura Hills began to fill the tables near the stage. The venue charges extra to reserve a table and then requires you to purchase a pricey dinner once sat. If cheap is how you feel, you can stand in the back or sit in a few rows of chairs to the side of the stage with a pole cutting the view into two. It allowed the west coast fans of tours past to seek each other out and reconnect as we wandered around the eclectic road house decorated with House of Blues leftovers. 

 

When the band took the stage, the set offered some wonderful surprises including a stunning take on "Spiral Down". As Margo sang about the slipping away of life, two young boys shot pool in a small room adjacent to the stage. Somewhere between the waning moments of life in "Spiral Down" and the innocent hope of being a ten year old playing pool sits the rest of us. As these tours pile up, I feel myself inching further and further away from that pool table and I'm reminded to cherish every step of the journey. The band played the rarely heard "Rock And Bird" in the middle of the set and I was full of joy that can only be felt when your favorite band plays a deep cut that you've waited a lifetime to hear. Moments like that are why you leave your bed at 4am and head out in search of the next show.