Lou Barlow and Dinosaur Jr. Tour Diary - 10/14/09 - St. Louis, MO

Been on tour for well over a week. In St. Louis now: a good place to start a tour diary as any, the gateway city. Sebadoh played our 2nd turbo acoustic (Jason Loewenstein on bass, me on guitar, drums on a boombox) show here six years ago. We sold 50 t-shirts from the stage and a woman was trying on t-shirts, on the stage. Sexy chaos, and one of my favorite shows of all time. This time, dinosaur is greeted by a series of threatening phone calls to the club from a man vowing to “kick our mother fucking asses” because we ruined his hearing at a show in Columbia, Mo. during the first reunion tour. Luckily, there’s a great record store down the street (Vintage Vinyl) and much thai food (a Dino favorite) to distract us. I do a radio session in the morning at KDHX, a community radio station with an admirably diverse playlist. If i was to guess the music format by the appearance of the employees, I would say they’d play a lot of Wilco and Warren Zevon, but the music I hear on air is of the fucked up noise variety. Nice.

I sit on a box while the interviewer and his friend, a woman with very intense eyes, watch me, sitting five feet away. These radio sessions can feel unbearably intimate at times. DJs sit and stare at me while I play, no separation of studio glass or even a desktop. This happens a lot. In Berlin, the interviewer was practically sitting in my lap. I could hear him breathing while I played.

Anyway, I’ve grown into my songs in the last week and my voice feels good so I don’t feel too self conscious. I like this random aspect of tour days, the challenge of trying maintain my composure and having no choice but to maintain my composure.

I guess this whole tour is a challenge, opening for Dinosaur Jr. with my own band. “My band” is actually Mike Watt’s favorite backing band, the missingmen It is typical of me to be working with a band that i cannot reasonably expect a commitment from.

The first week was the most exhilarating and exhausting i’ve had in a long time. Trying out my new set up, playing bass with foot pedals while singing and playing guitar, synching with Tom and Raul, getting all our gear out to Massachusetts from L.A. ( $900 baggage charge), driving the van for the first week (till the Dino tour bus arrives), doing interviews and radio/internet stuff for Goodnight Unknown in NYC, sometimes playing four times in a day, maintaing my connection to Murph, J and the juggernaut that is Dinosaur Jr.

Highlights:

#1. Finding four old suitcases in excellent condition at a Goodwill less than a block away from our first show (Middle East, Cambridge, Mass.). I arrived without any proper cases for my synth, foot pedal, effects, etc. This is typical of me, too. I have an aversion to taking care of my gear, a wayward manifestation of my punk ethos. I realize during our first soundcheck that I must protect and organize my bits so I don’t drive everyone crazy. A suitcase owned by Vera Brown that once traveled to china and an awesome suitcase with two others nested inside are now travelling with the heavy duty road cases of Dinosaur Jr.

#2. Practicing with Tom and Raul in the kitchen of our grimy SoHo suite. Tom and I playing through his amp, Raul on cardboard boxes. I haven’t had a band playing new songs in over six years. I drink wine and believed this to be one of the musical high points of my life, somehow. My friend Ramona is our audience of one and I think we almost made her cry.

#3. The “record release” show at the Mercury Lounge. My only headlining show of the last two years. It’s the fourth show for Lou Barlow + the missingmen, and I’m still stumbling on my pedal-keys and apologizing incessantly. After we make it through the official “opening for Dinosaur Jr.” set, the show dissolves into an informal t-shirt sale/request hour. I play songs solo while Tom and Raul sell shirts. This is an old Sebadoh trick. It’s uncomfortable at first, but soon everyone gets into it. Tom and Raul are good humored about it.

#4. Buying a ‘70s Peavey Mark III bass amp and speaker cab with one 15" speaker,
adding a third amp to my Dinosaur Jr. artillery. Replicating the solid state growl of my mid ’80s sound and making my amps taller than J’s (over 7’). Between my Marshall guitar amp, my 400-watt transistor Little Mark and this Peavey war horse, I can finally hear the nuances of my bass chords over J’s three full stacks and combo that often overpower everything on-stage. Noel, our sound engineer, approves. It looks good, too, and it was cheap.