Tour Diary – San Diego, CA (June 16, 2014)

Jason Lent will be following us and the World Cup over the next 10 days. We'll be mixing things up by posting his diary as well as Michael's diary (whenever he can pull himself away from watching futbol).

by Jason Lent

The alarm went off at 4:30am in Las Vegas and I was headed to the airport for a 7am flight to Long Beach in my own personal Groundhog Day. It was the exact same morning I had last week when I headed for the Agoura Hills show.  Landing in Long Beach, I met up with West Coast tour mainstays Chris and Stephen and we ran, literally, to an Amtrak train that hugged the ocean all the way down to Solana Beach. This was my second visit to Solana Beach and The Belly Up for a show and I'm not sure I have any better idea of where I am in California. The expensive homes on the cliffs, the beautiful people, and an endless selection of specialty boutiques seem to stretch from San Diego up to Los Angeles. It's a bit disorientating at times but its also a relaxing sliver of the world with a steady ocean breeze. Football fever was high this afternoon as the local pub fill with red, white, and blue and the Americans scrambled to a promising victory.

The Belly Up is a funky little rock club with an efficient staff and a giant shark hanging above the bar. After two shows in odd dinner theater rooms, The Belly Up was a welcome sight with enthusiastic fans crammed around a small stage. The Nomad set opened with three beautiful Vic covers to set the mood as Margo continues to wrench more and more emotion from Vic's magical words. The second half of the night simply soared from the first chord of "Notes Falling Slow" to Mike and Jeff digging up ghosts on "Me and the Devil Blues". Margo's voice powered through their fuzzy din as smiles darted back and forth between the musicians.

"Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning" made a welcome return and I was struck by the grace in Margo's delivery. Years pass, music evolves, lives change, and we know a little more than we used to. All of that comes through when she sings the older material. On stage, she looks the same as she did when I first saw them in the early 90's but a simple line like "No milk, god how I hate that" comes through with multiple layers of meaning that only time can teach us. The integrity of the music and how it is presented has been a calling card of the band from its inception and the reward for that consistency is beautiful shows like tonight. Loose and fun, Solana Beach made that early morning cab ride to the Vegas airport a distant memory.