Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/14/14

 Soundcheck at De Hamar.

Friday, 2/14/14 – Belfeld, De Hamar (Acoustic Show) – We’d known all along that our old friend Jean-Paul Geurtjens had booked an “Acoustic Show” for us at his local Culture Center, but none of us, especially Mike, were sure what that would entail. I’d been noticing that Mike would be playing acoustic as much as possible on the road, probably thinking of what tunes he’d do. It’s important to know, if you don’t already, that he’s a really amazing acoustic guitarist as well, with a very deep knowledge of and appreciation for Delta Blues and especially early slide playing. I actually wish he’d do a lot more of that, and this looked to be a good chance to hear him at it. We met Jean-Paul, as cheerful and fun a guy as always, and had an incredible dinner at his house with him and his lovely wife. Really nice to see them again, after all this time!! Then off to the very nice and nearly new Culture Center, a large and airy building with several beautiful performance spaces, including one next to the Center’s bar. Needless to say, we were set up there. I wasn’t sure if I was even supposed to be playing, but I wound up with a rented upright (which was totally unexpected); Mike had two acoustic guitars brought on; and Johnny brought out a truncated version of his stage drum set. The bass itself was OK, but unfortunately the pickup it came with was woefully inadequate and the sound people had apparently never worked with an upright bass before. The upright is a problematic instrument to amplify, though…had I known, I might have brought a pickup with me. After struggling with them and it for a good while, I plugged it into the small amp I’d been brought and hoped for the best.

 With Jean-Paul.

We wound up with a good crowd of happy and curious folks! Mike started the show out solo, singing and playing a tiny 3-string cigar-box guitar that someone had brought to the gig. If I recall, he started with “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” an old slide tune, and it sounded fantastic on that little homemade instrument. He proceeded to give a really interesting talk about the roots of the blues, interspersing it with various songs on both of his other acoustic guitars. I’d always known how knowledgeable he was about this, but it was really nice to see him talk about it so eloquently and to play this classic old blues so well. He could teach a university course on the subject! Some folks who have only seen his electric shows might have been surprised to hear him on some of this intricate fingerstyle and subtle slide work. After a while, he brought on a young player from the local area and had him sit in for a few songs, then brought me up to do some duo stuff. I played the upright for a handful of tunes, but after he brought up Johnny the sound was so problematic I switched to electric. With me on electric and Bee on drums, the “Acoustic” premise broke down a bit and Mike played pretty much the way he always does, albeit with many more classic blues and rockabilly tunes, just with an amplified acoustic guitar and not as loud as usual. But still pretty loud, though!! And everybody seemed to love it. All in all a very fun night, I’d like to see him do more of these.  

Michael Katon plays some acoustic slide Blues. 

Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/12/14

 Cafe de Kirk, load-in and setup. Note available floor space on my side of the stage (which would be to your far left!!)

Wednesday, 2/12/14 – Boxtel, Café De Kerk – De Kerk means “The Church” and this tiny club is decorated with rescued and recycled bits of an old church that was being torn down – an old stone archway separating the bar from the performance room, stained glass windows, old beautiful woodworking, bits of the wrought-iron gates…lots of other items loaded this joint with real funky charm. Reminded my of Ann Arbor’s old Mr. Flood’s Party back in my yoof. The folks who promoted and set up the show had done a fund-raiser amongst the fans so that they could afford to have us come and play, which was very cool. Setting up in a space like that was a challenge…I sized down my amp to one cabinet again and squeezed out enough space so that I had a place to stand on stage, but it was a tight fit!

Writeup in the local newspaper.

 Although the place was about the size of my living room, it was a fantastic place to play and a fabulous time…wonderful people! I’m sure that they packed in what had to be well over the legal limit of patrons, it was absolutely jammed. If I wanted a drink, people would shout across to the bar and a beer would get passed through the crowd…I’m really glad there wasn’t any emergency, my only game plan in that scenario would have been to bust through a stained glass window, which I would have hated to do!! We had a great show, and at the final encore Mike’s amp (a Fender Deluxe Reverb borrowed from the promoter) literally burned up its transformer, giving a little smoke and excitement to the end of the night. Fortunately, the owner of the amp was not at all upset…perhaps having the Boogieman From Hell blow up your amp is a good enough story to justify the repair bill. He really loved Mike…everybody there did! It was a real Hooray Michael Katon fiesta!

Johnny Bee and pal out for a ride.

I do a lot of reading on this bus…and in hotel rooms when I get the time. And yeah, I bought a tablet thinking I’d do the e-book thing, but when it came down to it I did what I always do…loaded my bag with paperbacks. I just really LIKE physical books, and they don’t run down my batteries either. Right now I’m reading Arms Of Nemesis by Steven Saylor, a good book set in Rome just before the reign of Julius Caesar. The institution of slavery is a big part of the story, and I’ve had some very interesting conversations with Henny Houben, who is a serious student of history, about this, since he’s taking an online course where he’s writing a paper about American slavery and Jefferson’s take on it. He had a document by Jefferson discussing this, and it was a fascinating read. Some very strange and conflicted ideas involved there, to be able to rationalize enslaving another person. But I digress…I have a fear of running out of books on the road. True, I know I can download something in a pinch, but still. I need the actual books. So I wound up buying another on the ferry back to the Continent…Dissolution by C.J. Sansom, which is set during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries of the Catholic church. A pretty dark period too, but it looks to be well-written. And that brings my total of unread books to 5, which should hold me through the tour!! 

Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/11/14

 

2/11/14 – Bremen, The Meisenfrei – GREAT 1^st German gig, especially for a Tuesday!! We’d played here numerous times before on tours long ago, and it was wonderful to be back, especially with this new Super Band. It’s a good-sized club with a great staff, an excellent sound and lights person and a large stage that seems to be covered with a large sheet of a hard rubber-like substance. Times before that had been a problem with some soundpeople, since it’s designed to absorb sound to minimize reflection, and often if someone isn’t savvy to how this works it can make for a curiously dead-sounding band. Not a problem this time!! Everything on stage sounded fantastic, and it was just a delight to play when it’s that good.

 We’ve got lots of great friends from times past in these parts, who showed up VERY happy to se us…and we were happy to see them too! I think we played a really stellar show (all modesty cast totally aside), largely in part responding to a cheerful, rowdy crowd who were with us from the start. Mike in particular was really in his element, and his playing was on fire…although Bee was also amazing!! His spotlight solo on “Rip It Hard” was especially brilliant. And I wasn’t so bad myself. Really nice when all the elements come together and raise the thing to another level, and that certainly happened here.

 

Afterwards there was a big after-party drink-up at the adjoining bar that went on quite a while, with Johnny, Tanya, Bremen friends Hartmut, Bjorn & Flo and myself getting pretty celebratory along with many other partiers and well-wishers. A LOT of Weissbiers were thrust into my hands, and wound up inside me, too. I was a good bit overserved, but it was just so much fun. Johnny was dancing quite festively with a pretty schoolteacher in a bright red dress, and seemed in fine fettle himself…we all were. Mike of course wasn’t drinking, but he was having a great time too, I could tell.

 Checking out my room, minutes from my accidental lockout. 

Didn’t have quite such a good time later that night at the Robo Hotel. I should explain that these hotels (not really called Robos) are largely automated and don’t really have staff in them at night…you check in with a credit card at a machine, which dispenses your key card and opens the doors. Eerie. Tiny little rooms that seem to be made of plastic, with narrow little beds…strange to say the least. Anyhow, I’d gotten into my pajamas (well, sweatpants and t-shirt) and suddenly had the thought that I left a bag in the hall, so I went out to check…and the door locked behind me. Key card in my pants pocket! Well, hey, I was drunk. So I thought I’d go down to the lobby and see if I could get help there…and as I left my hall, the door to that locked too. No way to get back, or to knock on my bandmates doors! The lobby was empty…I wandered around, doors locking behind me, till I was in a deserted staircase. Finally I found a dropcloth some painters apparently were using and after some cursing, prepared to sleep on the landing under it. Pretty hard floor! I drifted off…just before dawn someone from the hotel found me and helped me get back into my room, for which I was profoundly grateful. I actually got to use that tiny bed for a few hours!!

Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/9/14

 Tanya  and Bee share one of the many fine dining experiences available in England.

Sunday, 2/9/14 – Driving, driving, driving – well, I’m not, but Tanya is. She’s doing the hard work, and she’s sick, so I’m inclined to forgive her blasting “Smoke On The Water” from the radio for now. I may have to find a way to destroy the radio if this goes on too long, though. Now it’s “Rocky Mountain Way”. Oh God.

A quick, kind, overview of my room in Wales.

That huge, insane drive through the wilds of Wales cumulated with a gig at the Marine Hotel in Colwyn Bay, in a small hall there. Good playing from all, nice people, mediocre food and really pretty crummy rooms. Toilet across the hall, threadbare sheets, uncleaned sink and tea maker, and a smell of fustiness at best, and some true stomach-turning smells at worst…especially in the stairwell, where apparently something must have died and decomposed into the carpet. The hot water tap ran yellow and brown with bits of unknown particulates spitting down into the basin. Rinsed my hair with clear cold water, and forwent breakfast. They said it was built in 1840, and apparently they hadn’t cleaned the hallway carpet in all that time. It really did have an appalling stench.

Giant straw Dalek. 

You see strange and beautiful things on the road – before I could get out my camera, we’d passed the 30-foot Dalek statue that was just standing in a field!! The fact that none of my fellow travelers had a clue as to what it was was strange. Oh, well, I can tell Cyn about it via Skype later. We’ve been communicating that way when we can, if I have time and a wi-fi available, all the way through the tour. Sometimes when there’s wi-fi but the signal’s weak we’ll IM on Facebook, which is fine. So much better than the old days, trying to make a phone call in the middle of the night in some booth in Germany…or sending postcards that arrive after I get back. My last tour before this one, there was Internet available occasionally in hotels, usually on a machine in the lobby. Even email was a luxury for staying in touch with your spouse. Really, the new technology makes touring and staying sane so much easier!

 Our Dutch brother and manager of Boogie Headquarters In Europe, Henny Houben.

And with luck we’ll be at Henny’s tonight! We’ve been driving 4 hours or so, and I suspect a few more to go before the ferry. At least we’ve got good clear weather! I wish we’d had it for our drive up yesterday, it would have been even more stunning in regards to the scenery. Wales is largely wild and quite beautiful. But I’m looking forward to seeing The Netherlands and Germany again – and I’d like to get some edible and healthy food, too! Then there’s Spain…that should be interesting. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there.

Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/8/14

 Saturday, 2/8/14 – The road tires me out and runs me over itself, but I kind of like it, too. Living on hotel tea and bad (sometimes REALLY bad) takeaway, there’s a similarity to the days that can be hypnotic. Is it Monday or Thursday? Hard to tell. Few real choices to make, our route is planned by the Tour Manager and we just jump in the bus when she says…it’s a bit like I’d imagine the Army being, except without the guns. And yet I’m always curious about where we’ll be next – Wales? Well, what’s that like, then? Apparently, really really beautiful hilly countryside, liberally covered with sheep, and towns and cities with unpronounceable names that seem a combination of lovely old architecture and contemporary urban blight. But there’s always something new, new country, new venue, new people, and it’s interesting. Last night a biker bar in Wales, tomorrow a ferry ride in a possible hurricane, and tonight…hey, all I know is it’s somewhere in Wales.

  

Riding through the middle of Wales…it’s beautiful, terrifying, mountainous terrain, really another country from anywhere I’ve been before. Driving through part of the British Super Storm, a hurricane-like system that’s biting it’s way through the UK, and I’m wondering if this was such a good idea. Tanya is driving very well, but also pretty fast, and sometimes I think she’s over-confident. Lots of hairpin turns and very few guardrails – and plenty of sheer drops down, way down, to the swollen rivers. The country is so flooded, it’s incredible. And yet the countryside is so beautiful and the villages are so picturesque, even in this crazy rain. We stopped at a B&B for lunch, at a very nice place, but the power kept going out, and then back on, and then out again. Poor woman couldn’t even open her cash register!! Couldn’t even make change. We gave her a little bit over to help her out, which she appreciated – still, kinda crazy. She said this kind of thing never happened usually, it must be the storm.

This is a very long drive! Apparently we're going from the south of Wales all the way to the northmost point, or close to it, in Colwyn Bay. And we're on a two-lane highway which is not fast going even with Tanya's expertise. Hopefully we'll be there in time for the show!

Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour - 2/6/14

Down the street from Colin's in Stoke-Albany. I was feeling a little better, so I managed a stumble down the block and took a few photos. Beautiful place.

 

Thursday, 2/6/14 – Well, I’ve been sick since Sunday, really. Sick is pretty uninteresting, so I’ll leave that out, except to way I’m very glad we had a couple of days off for me to get over it, and we had the hospitality of our friends the Watts’, who put us up again. They’re such nice people and they made it so very much easier.

Resting up from this virus the other night when I heard an awful, amazing racket! Went downstairs (this was around 2 in the morning) to find Tanya, Bee and Colin Watts all playing his collection of Claxtons and Car Horns, marching around the kitchen and laughing hysterically!! I have no idea what brought that on, except maybe a little red wine and the punch-drunk goofiness that happens in the middle of tours. Somebody passed me a horn, so I joined in the orchestra for a while and had a half-glass of Cabernet, then went back to bed. Somewhere there is a photographic record, but I’m pretty sure it will never be seen. Just a silly moment.

I was much better, if not 100%, when we played The Talking Heads in South Hampton. At first the place didn’t look like much from the outside, or even seem that it was a working business, but once inside it was fine and the people, the owners, and the opening acts were all very nice. Dinner was a “buy-out”…they gave us some money and pointed us at the only restaurant around, a Chinese take-out that served me some completely inedible meal…probably the worst I’ve ever had, and that’s saying something! I mean, I’m not Anthony Bourdain, but I do know chicken should be cooked all the way through. And that bright orange stuff on it was really hideous in every possible way. Wow. My playing was all right but my head was spinning from an antihistamine – I made it through, though.

The tourbus' equipment section. Not completely packed yet...more gear to come...but you get the idea.

 Dream # 1 – Sort of a Harry Potteresque dream. These young people were finding strange powers through these ancient stone masks. You could layer the masks up to do different things…travel through time & space, fly, etc. – kind of cool.

Dream #2 – I had some kind of cooking show (maybe because of the bad chicken) and I was talking about food. At the same time, I was getting my new studio together, which was very nice, large and airy. I had some professional helping me, a small Puerto Rican guy who was assisting me in getting everything organized. I remember being so pleased at having staff! A good dream.

Road Journal - Michael Katon Tour -

Michael Katon, midsolo.

Saturday, 2/1/14 – A couple of days, 2 gigs, 1 night of strange dreams. Thursday was the Beaverwood Hall in Chislehurst – a soccer team’s hall that has frequent Rock shows. Dressing room next to the stinky toilets, very cold and gnarly. Good folks working there though, some sandwiches and an ale (or in Johnny’s case a glass of wine, and of course a soda for Mike) took off the edge and cheered us up. A small turnout but a happy crowd – the opening band was the Dave Jackson Trio, a real nice bunch of people and a cool band. And Mike is sounding great!! One of the great things about touring with him is just getting to watch him play, and he’s really kicking it out this time around, too. His solos are amazing, especially some of his slide work. I don’t know how to convey how much fun it is to back him up when he’s rockin’ out.

Dave Jackson Trio.

 Next gig was down the road  in Sutton at the Boom Boom Room (love the name), another soccer hall, with the same support act – booked by the same promoter, surprise! A bigger room, better PA, nicer dressing room and much larger audience. I was extrapolating on the bass lines in the tunes, playing more melodic licks in the more static numbers, developing ideas to make them more exciting in the low end. And nobody yelled at me, so I guess I’m doing all right. Plus, Mike’s been giving Johnny a solo in “Rip It Hard”, and the other night after the drum solo he gave me the nod to take one…so that’s been in the show, too. I had to wing it at first, just because that’s the Michael Katon onstage way, but by now I’ve got a better idea of what I’ll do with it…where I can take it to…not that it’s ever gonna be the same every night by any means. But I’ll tell yah, following a Johnny Bee drum solo ain’t easy!! He’s really been tearing it up, and he’s so musical and high-energy…it’s a treat just listening to him go. They're not just solos, they're like complete percussion compositions, spontaneously done. Pretty remarkable stuff! I have to take the vibe WAY down at first when I start out, just to give some contrast and let the song breathe a little. I get busy later, and it seems to work, people get rowdy and clap along and shout so I must be doing something right…but man, following Bee…it’s good for my character, that’s for sure. 

Mr. Badanjek on the groove.

 

Another IM session with Cynthia after the show. Even with the Skype unavailable and me typing on this teeny keyboard that makes it hard to do apostrophes or capitalize anything (my replies look like I’m Archy from Archy & Mehitabel) it’s a huge comfort to be able to talk (or write) with her. It’s still freezing subzero cold there and she’s cutting her way through chest-high snowdrifts…I feel guilty I’m not there to help her out. She’s doing all the hard work and I’m just being a Rock & Roll Bum.

Dream # 1 – I’m at a bookstore, and I find a series of comics with beautiful illustrations. There’s no dialog, just pictures – but they’re so amazing that I’m actually transported into the drawn scenes, and then back when I close the book. I’m thinking, “That’s pretty cool”. Then I go into a record store and see the same comics on a rack. I also see David Bowie, who’s standing there, so I walk over and introduce myself. He’s really nice and friendly, and we’re talking about his work and the fact that he seems to listen to everything, that his music seems informed by all the other music that’s cool and happening at the time. I’m saying, “How do you ever have the time” – and then our eyes meet in instant amused understanding – “Or do you have some researchers who listen for you?” He’s laughing and nodding, and I’m telling him that that’s gotta be a cool job, and that he should hire me, too. Then I wake up. A good dream.