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Tour Diary Part 1
🕑 Added 2025-01-23 18:02:46 +0000 UTCGood morning from Medford Oregon! our bus is parked outside of a hotel after an overnight drive from San Francisco. I think I'll do these as "Parts" as opposed to days. Days seem to get confusing for me!
Last night was our first show of the tour but it actually kicked off the night before as we loaded up the bus at JPs and drove up from LA, narrowly avoiding the 5-5 closure due to yet another fire north of the city!
First nights on the bus are hard. I'm in the back which is a little like being in the back of a collar coaster. I don't think we were but it felt like we were making much of the journey on some dirt roads. Suffice to say, i didn't get much sleep and spent much of the day in a stress daze, trying to collate all i had to remember for this new set... The SF show would be a unique one, as Kyle Mooney had to bail at the last minute (he's still on for Portland, Seattle and Vancouver friends!) So Doug came up with us and I added my "no more bullshit" stand up guy as an opener to try and fill Kyle's absence.
The club, Bimbo's 365 is located right in the middle of North Beach, just about the nicest little stretch of the city in my opinion. Very walkable, lots of shops and Italian restaurants. Ellie and I walked over to City Lights Bookstore and I picked up a short book of essays from Zadie Smith called Intimation, then we had a fantastic lunch at Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe! High high marks for their meatball sandwich.
I cobbled together some truly terrible for you (but delicious pun-centric jokes) and then did a few longer chunks I had did last year, but not in San Franciso... It was fun to dip back into that guy, but I'm glad I'm not doing him every night. It was just too hard on my voice.
Doug slayed. And off the stager immediately warmed himself to the band. Who doesn't love Doug?
Remarkably the Very Good Band set went off without any major fuckups... We're playing a lot of the new record and often it takes me a few shows to lock into the lyrics again, but somehow I stuck the landing on nearly all of them. The sound was good but a little dead on stage and I had a bit of a hard time "getting into it" - and often felt like we were just playing for ourselves. Afterwards the house sound guy said "we hear that from a lot of bands"
The Bay Area is Ellie's backyard, so her family came out and I finally got to meet her folks, who i've said hello to many times on Facetime. They seemed to LOVE the show! Her brother got us all donuts from... Bob's Donuts. And folks... you know how I don't like hyperbole.... these were very much the best donuts I've ever had. WOW.
There were a lot of funny off the cuff moments that came with a brand new show as I play around with the audience and the band... I hope some of them stay in the show for good and I can't wait for you to see what we cooked up.
I had a restful(er) night last night and feel much better today. We park here for the day and much of the night before heading up to Portland... weird to have a day off after only one show, but probably a good thing, as just getting this one up took a lot of energy and we'll use today to dial in some stuff.
The night before, tossing in my bunk my thoughts were "oh no, what have I gotten myself into... but now this morning I'm thinking Happy to be back on the road and can't wait to see you all!
More soon! P&L T
Comments
jay blair
Bob’s is god-tier
Ashley Oh
Love reading these tour diaries and I love your frank and open account of the day/night. Seems like touring can be a bit stressful, but fun to come around and see the people who love you! I bet that donut cheered you up. My pregnant ass wants one now. 🥲 --Can't wait to see you!! ✌🏼❤️
Morgan Foster
Long time first time here. The SF show was good times! Thank you for the show, we were a lucky crowd. You and the band were great and I’m incredibly happy we got to see no more bullshit guy! What a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise. First shows of tour can def be rough, especially when you’re playing mostly new music for the first time live, but you all sounded awesome and had some groovy gear. Also I’m a huge Wilco fan so it was epic to see Mikael on stage. I think most people were hoping for more bangers from the previous records, although I know that’s not what you, or most musicians, want to do when you have a new album out. That being said (lol), you have so many hits and bangers from the previous records (stoked you played cleaning up the baby/dog shit). Central Air! I Saw Nicholas Cage! Illegal!! Finally Getting Over! Future Is Uncertain!! Looking forward to your next tour and good luck on the rest of this one. Hope the bus sleep improves, that can be real rough. Safe travels and have fun out there, it ain’t always easy <3 PS thank you for doing these tour diaries, as a somewhat jaded touring roadie/musician it’s really nice to hear about the road from someone as articulate as yourself. Also I’ve been off Instagram for over 6 months now so I’m enjoying this active Patreon community.
Megan McKeever
Did you pack less underwear this time around? Pm me if you don’t want to say out loud.
Chalameybe
nothing like a meatball grinder to smooth the rough patches a bit. wishing y'all fun sights, safe travels and gold sounds!
Joe Borkenhagen
Tim you and the VGB brought the house down! DJ Dougg Pound and Dark Pound both crushed. No More Bullshit the cherry on top. The new songs were incredible, keep it up! Looking forward to your return to SF <3
Zach Searcy
Personal fav is the crème brûlée but it’s hard to go wrong.
Tim Heidecker
hand off to our wonderful merch person Stephen. thank you in advance!
Jake Newcomb
i really wish no more bullshit guy was opening every show but i understand it’s too much to take on haha
Jake Newcomb
so incredibly stoked for the show tomorrow night in portland. how can we arrange gifts for you and the crew? leave at the door? 💐🎁
Melissa
Adding to my bucket list for sure, thanks!
Luke Brown
See you in Porkland big T
Mac
A San Francisco institution. The original location was open 24/7, always smoke-filled and worn down in a wonderful way. People used to compete to eat the “mega donut” (the size of your head), as fast as possible, with milk. Horrifying. Savor them, guys! They are indeed very good. Something in the proofing stage or the type of flour they use.
lilula9
woohoo! so excited the Tour Diary is back! I guess Kyle took that Canadian caller's disappointment to heart and made room for Doug 🙃 jk Doug is amazing and such a dependable guy salivating for some dad pun jokes from the dad of the year 🏅 hope you get better rest and see you soon!
lilula9
see you there!
Kevin Doyle
Utah! Get me two meatball sandwiches! Get me two!
Shawn Girvan
Can’t wait to see you guys in Durham!
Ellie Hajdu
Was a GREAT show Tim! “No more bullshit” guy had me laughing so hard…. It was great… Doug was amazing and the band sounded SO good. Great to hear the songs live.
Chrrrrrrrrris
New to the world of Tim etc., can't make the Portland show but will be there in spirit. Really enjoyed the standup special, Awesome Show and OHL this last month or so. It's fun to have so much great stuff to catch up on, thanks for all the laughs, especially Hot Piss. Nothing better than the moment after chorus 1 when the piano is deeeep in the pocket.
Monique
Who doesn’t love Doug? I stood next to a woman at Eric Andre in Tucson who didn’t love Doug. I typed out some texts to my friend about her being a dumb bimbo and I tried to let her see them.
Steven Meltzer
You got this Tim! Can’t wait for Grand Rapids with the Hamburgler!
Sean Enright
I’m planning a drum corps tour and love your road life stories. We usually like to easy into the pace as you guys are now. But this summer the first part of our tour will be 6 shows in 7 nights. I already feel like I have to rally everyone’s energy for it and we’re months away.
Melissa
I would like to hear more about these donuts
George Quick
Great North beach strut, hittin the locals spots, nice work.
Scott Pauli
Hi Tim, we interviewed you last time you came to Madison for our little all volunteer community radio station. I know you guys are busy on tour, but would you or Vic want to curate our show next Wednesday night? You could just send us a playlist and maybe send a little recording on your phone describing why you chose the songs. We plan on playing some of your songs from the new album and promoting your show at the Majestic on Thursday . Our show will air on Wednesday at 9pm. The station actually gave us a permanent show after our interview with you. Our show is called The Seagull. We play things like Little Wings, Christian Lee Hudson, Squeeze, Brian Wilson, etc. Our instagram is https://www.instagram.com/wearetheseagull Can't wait to see you back in Madison, Scott + Kevin
