2003-05-12 - 8:09 p.m.
March 19
Todays drive is the worst yet of the tour thanks to the high humidity and the 90° plus temps. Here’s a first; Andy, Todd and I arrive at “The Freebird Cafe” in Jacksonville Beach ahead of everyone! What a nice club with equally nice folks running it. After a great meal of pork chops and grilled veggies I head over to the beach and check out the ocean. The water is very rough and blue streaks of lightning fire the evening sky ahead an approaching thunderstorm. The roar of the surf would provide beautiful ambient background for meditation. It would be easy to find the silence in the center of the noise. But there’s no time.
Sound check and then the show, which goes well. The room is perhaps 1/3 full but they are receptive and seem to love it. The club has prompted the show as a pre-Springfest party and many of the folks in the crowd are Springfest ticket holders who have seen us there. The question that was asked dozens of times was, “How come you guys aren’t playing Springfest this year?” I express our disappointment at not being asked to come back this year but don’t have any real answers. A couple tells me that they e-mailed Randy (Springfest’s promoter) to ask why we weren’t on the bill. Randy’s response was a very logical one. They had a certain budget to work with and to afford to have the headliners they wanted they couldn’t afford to have everyone they wanted. We’ll sure miss playing it but maybe they’ll ask us to do Magfest in the fall.
We spent the night at a really cool and funky hotel next to the venue. It had a courtyard that was ringed with sheer white material that hung from the roof of the second floor balcony all the way to the ground. The soft sea breeze billowed beneath them, causing them to breath. They were dramatically underlit with green and purple lights. We hung out at a glass block bar in the center of the courtyard(that was similarly back lit) with our friends Billy and Spring. Ally took a picture of Carey standing with his arms outstretched on a small stage in front of the back lit fabric. He looked like the Jesus of the Waves in Rio. A surreal time was had by all!
