Morcheeba Day 19, San Francisco, CA
Today we finally got our first taste of summer on during our drive down from Seattle. We stopped at a gas station somewhere in California, I think near Redding, but it really doesn't matter. The sun was shining, the grass was green and fresh and there was no rain or snow. It was amazing.
We were scheduled to get in to San Francisco in the early afternoon, but that didn't even come close to happening. A handful of accidents and some rush hour traffic messed up our plans. We barely had time to shower before grabbing cabs to the ball game.
We've been trying to show the Brits as much as possible about local cultural stuff on this tour, and there's nothing more American than baseball, and the Giants happened to be in town. It was really cool for me too because the Giants were my favourite team growing up. And there's no building like an American stadium. It was a really great way to spend a night off. Giants beat St. Louis 5-1, everyone had a dog and a beer (or two...) and a lot of fun.
After the game it was almost impossible to catch a cab, so we started walking back to the hotel. It was ok for a while, but it wasn't too long before we hit some sketchy areas. The first "event" was three realllly big black guys walking towards us on the sidewalk. Our backline tech, Troy, was typing a text message and one of them deliberately ran into him and tried to grab the phone out of his hands. Troy hung on, with a little shoving for good measure. About a block later, we see a police car and an ambulance. We get closer and we see little pools of blood on the sidewalk. The cop was trying to figure out what was going on and an old lady walked out of a convenience store and screamed "I saw that boy try to hit him with a shovel!". There was a bandaged guy in the ambulance, seemingly confirming the story.
We carefully made our way through the last couple blocks and tried to get a drink at the hotel bar, where we were told we couldn't get in because of dress code stuff, even though we were guests. This from a bar in the crappiest part of town. I can't figure out why they put a boutique hotel there, and why all the bands stay there. Panic at the Disco was there too.
So anyways, we got a ride out to a normal area of town to a normal pub. We walk in and there's a 7' tall guy bear-hugging everyone. Eventually he hugged someone the wrong way and got kicked out, but he kept coming back, trying to get in. I'm not sure how he was involved, but one of the guys looked like he was straight out of a mid-80s Poison or Warrant music video. And he was for real. It was absolutely hilarious, bandana, cowboy boots, unbuttoned shirt, jean jacket and all. He had a buddy with a similar look and we couldn't stop laughing at them all night. It was too much, wish I had a camera with me...
A ride back to hotel got us through all the crap without anymore bloody sidewalks or drama, and we sat around and laughed about the Poison dude til we fell asleep.
We were scheduled to get in to San Francisco in the early afternoon, but that didn't even come close to happening. A handful of accidents and some rush hour traffic messed up our plans. We barely had time to shower before grabbing cabs to the ball game.
We've been trying to show the Brits as much as possible about local cultural stuff on this tour, and there's nothing more American than baseball, and the Giants happened to be in town. It was really cool for me too because the Giants were my favourite team growing up. And there's no building like an American stadium. It was a really great way to spend a night off. Giants beat St. Louis 5-1, everyone had a dog and a beer (or two...) and a lot of fun.
After the game it was almost impossible to catch a cab, so we started walking back to the hotel. It was ok for a while, but it wasn't too long before we hit some sketchy areas. The first "event" was three realllly big black guys walking towards us on the sidewalk. Our backline tech, Troy, was typing a text message and one of them deliberately ran into him and tried to grab the phone out of his hands. Troy hung on, with a little shoving for good measure. About a block later, we see a police car and an ambulance. We get closer and we see little pools of blood on the sidewalk. The cop was trying to figure out what was going on and an old lady walked out of a convenience store and screamed "I saw that boy try to hit him with a shovel!". There was a bandaged guy in the ambulance, seemingly confirming the story.
We carefully made our way through the last couple blocks and tried to get a drink at the hotel bar, where we were told we couldn't get in because of dress code stuff, even though we were guests. This from a bar in the crappiest part of town. I can't figure out why they put a boutique hotel there, and why all the bands stay there. Panic at the Disco was there too.
So anyways, we got a ride out to a normal area of town to a normal pub. We walk in and there's a 7' tall guy bear-hugging everyone. Eventually he hugged someone the wrong way and got kicked out, but he kept coming back, trying to get in. I'm not sure how he was involved, but one of the guys looked like he was straight out of a mid-80s Poison or Warrant music video. And he was for real. It was absolutely hilarious, bandana, cowboy boots, unbuttoned shirt, jean jacket and all. He had a buddy with a similar look and we couldn't stop laughing at them all night. It was too much, wish I had a camera with me...
A ride back to hotel got us through all the crap without anymore bloody sidewalks or drama, and we sat around and laughed about the Poison dude til we fell asleep.
posted by t. at 6:03 PM
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