DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME;

"Countdown Shows 80-84"

Show #81-Sept. 26, 2002-Solano Beach, Ca.-The BELLY UP TAVERN

The last time i stepped foot in the Belly Up was sometime around 1994 to see
LA's "The Untouchables" play. It still looked the same; essentially, a rock
bar in the belly of a whale that seats about 300 people. The sound guys at
soundcheck were really funny, but extremely good at their job. The sound guy
also had conspitcuous mics placed high up on opposite sides of the room but i
forgot to ask about them at the end of the show. I really thought this was a
good show and my buddy, Frank Ciriza, came down from San Diego (about 20 min
south of Sol. Bch.) and said he enjoyed it a lot. After the show, we stayed
ina pretty nice hotel not far from the club, walking distance from the beach.
But the next morning was over cast. Gene, Rusty and i went to "In and Out
Burgers" on the way back to Los Angeles. 3 "Double Doubles" thank you very
much. If you haven't had the pleasure, then you might as well be dead, as 'ol
Pete Townshend was fond of saying...

Show #82-Sept. 27, 2002-Los Angeles, Ca.-The HENRY FONDA THEATRE

i'll never forget the feeling of seeing all those people (850) lined up to get
into the Henry Fonda Theatre to see us! it was great and a pleasant durprise
was seeing my old friend, Randy Bookasta. Randy used to be the editor of (RIP)
RAYGUN magazine, helping to start and manage the direction of the trendy
pop-culture rag. Randy was now in Soundtrack Production at Sony Pictures. But
what was really interesting was that Randy's dad, Gary Bookasta, used to manage
Arthur Lee sometime in the 70's. Although the monitor sound was aweful, the
show came off really well and it was a special treat to finally meet x-LOVE
Guitarist, Jay Donnellan. We saw a few familiar faces like Jazmaan. Someone
said Neil Young was at the show. They saw him. We're still trying to confirm
that rumor!

Show #83-Sept. 28, 2002-San Jaun Capistrano, Ca.-The COACHOUSE

Trekking it back near San Diego (say, can someone put Bruce from the AGENCY
GROUP on the phone so i can find out he's got the funny sense of humor, having
us backtrack n' all...) for this show took about 90 minutes. The Coachouse
demands that everyone stay seated during shows but i still saw people dancing
while we played, including a couple of guys dancing "Ska-style" during "The
Daily Planet." The sounds was great at this show and, even though it was a
more "mature" audience, they seemed just as wild as any of our shows. ( Jazmaan
seemed to think they were more enthused than the Hollywood show the night
before but i will totally disagree there; there were chicks at the Henry Fonda
show throwing face sparklings at me and Arthur the whole time of that show...it
took 4 showers to get all the sparklings out of my hair...) Afterwards, we
just chilled backstage with Jazmaan and had some beers. It's worth noting that
the food was not good and we're lucky we got it free cause i heard it was VERY
expensive to eat at the Coachouse.

Show #84-Oct. 20, 2002-San Francisco, Ca.-The SUMMER OF LOVE Festival

Well, the best part of this SF experience was seeing CANNED HEAT, who just were
just....i mean, words wouldn't do justice to describe how good of a band they
are, ok? Their Manager, Skip Taylor, use to manage LOVE back in the day so
this was really sort of a favor but also we were excited to be asked to be part
of something as cool as the 35th anniversary of the Summer of LOVE. Suffice it
to say i don't really want to bring anyone down but i will say it was anything
BUT summer and we were the only LOVE there. But people seemed to have a good
time, despite how unorganized and misleading the whole thing was. Just getting
food in the backstage area took a bit of skill and luck and getting a picture
of beer was simply down to proper threats and mean glances. Then there was an
after party, which was more like we got there AFTER the party had ENDED. But
hey, it was nice to be in the CITY again and it's always nice to play music in
the Bay Area.

Mike Randle
mike@lovewitharthurlee.com

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