It’s different these days, in Clumsy Lover land.  We used to be on the road over 300 days a year.  Basically lived in the van, more or less cut off from the realities of home life.  Not saying it wasn’t fun a lot of the time, but honestly, looking back, it’s not really a way to live.  I’m quite proud of us that nobody had nervous breakdowns, or at least not super major ones. 

But it’s a new day.  And while it does suck that we don’t get to towns as often as we used to, or some towns really at all anymore, it is really great to have some balance in our lives.  Makes a fella feel like he could keep doing this for a long, long time.

One by-product, tho, is that we very often arrive at gigs from different places.  Tonight’s gig in Pocatello is a fine example.  Trevor, Rebecca and Jason drove from Vancouver to Boise last night.  Tyler drove in today with the Bellboys, who toured this past week, from Billings.  I flew in to Boise this morning, via SLC, and caught a ride to Pocatello with the van.  I should have just caught a ride up from SLC with Renee, who was driving up to run the door.  These types of arrangements have become the norm, and while it can be a little stressful, so far everybody’s made every gig (although I did get an 11:30pm phone call from Tyler December 30, needing an emergency plane ticket for early the next morning to make the New Year’s Eve gig – but, hey, that’s what orbitz.com is for).

What’s that?  The gig?  Oh yeah.  It rocked.  After The Bellboys played a stellar opening set we did three full sets of our own.  As somehow seems to always happen at the First National, it probably went a drink too far.  Man, they pour stiff ones there.  Plus I got coerced into an over-the-top shot of whiskey by one of the Bellboys (I think Brad).  Those guys are a bad influence.

But honestly, it was a really, really fun gig.  A packed and sweaty bar of people ready to participate quite simply never gets old.

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