What a Fall Break. Ceej & I went to see Cat Power thrice, because her tour took her thru town at the perfect time to match up with my four-day weekend. I bought us tickets for three consecutive shows in Asheville, Nashville, and Memphis on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights, respectively. Why? Because that extra cash has been burning a hole in my pocket, I guess. It was suppost to last me thru spring semester, but at this rate it’ll be totally spent by Xmas. Anyway, Friday: first we went to Gallatin for Ceej to get a copy of his driver’s license, then to Echo Hollow where I bullshit with Jeremiah & Chris outside while Ceej did whatever it was he needed to do at his folks’ house. Next, down to Murfreesboro to hang out with Jess & Pax at Waffle House while Ceejay was at Ericka’s doing (ahem) whatever he was doing there. Over to Malvern, then, to sit in my car in the parsonage driveway & listen to music & smoke. We got “high as fuck” as Tayler would say. Tiger finally cald at 1:30 to say the doses had arrived, so cautiously we drove to the Muse to pick them up—then back down to Malvern to tiptoe inside & crash on the couches in the bonus room.
Saturday we drove east to the Smokies. It was warm & sunny, so we tuckt the foil holding the blotter paper in my Camry’s AC vent to keep it cool, since heat & sunlight can break down the acid molecules. As we wound our way up from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg that afternoon we discoverd that all campgrounds & most hotels were full, so we had to settle for a “cheap” room ($90) at the Edgepark Inn, a somewhat decrepit two-story motel whose interior hasn’t changed since the late ’70s, run by a nice couple of queens who perhaps gave us a deal because they thought me & Ceejay were lovers. We checkt in & dropt 3 hits each. Walkt one block to the main drag, ate pizza by the slice as it was getting dark & rode the skylift right around the corner as we came up—the town was bright & melting behind us, and again glowing brighter on descent. They snapt our picture at the top of the ride in case we felt like buying a copy for posterity; we didn’t but we laughed at our images on the monitor, our stund trip-faces caught in the flash. The trip itself was mild but we stayed in the room anyway, Ceej venturing out every so often to smoke a cigarette. We both had a pretty nasty cough. Smoked about 5 joints over the course of the evening in the funkt-up bathroom. We didn’t really lose touch with reality—the strongest change I felt was a scrambling of my bodily reference points, ie. my lips felt like they were at opposite corners of my face. We had the TV on the whole night & developt paranoid theories of terrorism (not serious) based on clues found in whatever we were watching. Hurricane coverage interrupted by a message from the Department of Homeland Security? Terrorists are controlling the weather. And, also, the reason we were sick & coughing up such thick, white phlegm was due to the mysterious gasses emanating from beneath UNash’s campus.… Eventually I was able to drift into some kind of sleep; dunno if Ceej got a single wink.
Got up groggy Sunday in time for checkout & left for Asheville, via the winding Route 441 thru the mountains & National Park, stopping at Subway in Maggie Valley for lunch. Ceej askt me to order for him while he took a piss; said he only wanted cheese on his. When the sandwich artist askt what kind of meat goes on the second sub, I said “I dunno, I think he just wants cheese.” So Ceejay ended up with a plain cheese sandwich. Another motel ripoff on the interstate west of Asheville, but at least we got another 4 hours of (real) afternoon sleep. DayQuil and a joint also helpt. We were fairly early, so we wanderd around downtown Asheville a bit & got coffee at this dope bookstore. Nice city, much like Albuquerque (where we almost played a gig in August, thanks to our friend May—but that’s another story).
The show was excellent. The opening act, Dex Romweber, is this aging rockabilly guitar player and singer. Good stuff but not as good as Chan Marshall’s haunting songs. Ceej & I had goose-bumps. We sat up front on the left side (same for the other two shows, in fact). Chan came out with her guitar on; she switched back & forth between it and the piano. Her songs were extremely simple musically, yet the lyrics & vocal rhythms were complex and well built. Afterwards, we tried to find out about Asheville’s nightlife but all we figured out was that it was non-existent on Sundays. So we hung around the venue (the Orange Peel) to see if we could talk to Miz Marshall. Of course, the venue’s employees told us we weren’t allowd backstage. We went outside, turned the corner to start walking to my car, and there was Dex Romweber smoking a cig. Ceej struck up a conversation with him & askt if there was any way we could meet Cat Power. Dex was real chill about it & let us backstage after he went to his car. (“You guys are gonna be cool, right?” he said, giving us the once-over; he seemed relieved when we told him we’re musicians, too—) And there she was… and when she was thru talking to some other dude, we walkt up & Ceejay just said “Chan.” We told her how much her music meant to us, how we had driven from Nashville to see her play, and she said nothing at first, just grinned. Her hair was long, straight & brown (kinda blond at the tips), she had bangs, and her eyes were light, light blue, contrary to every picture I’ve seen of her. She askt Ceejay what his sign was; he said Leo, she said she was Aquarius & that just because they’re opposites doesn’t mean they can’t get along. She askt how old we were (“Maybe she wanted to date,” Ceej joked later) and where I was going to school. I askt if the songs she played were off her upcoming album, and she said “Yes, that’s why they’re so boring” & I said that was nonsense. Her voice was real soft, almost a whisper. Someone cald for her from the venue, she apologized & left the room. We stayed for a bit, talkt some more with Dex, then we left. We went back to the room, starstruck, and smoked a long roach that some hippie had bestowed upon us. Ceejay cald Ericka & was gushing to her about it all; she must have been less than thrild because after a pause he said, “C’mon, baby, she’s a rock star. That’s all. Damn.”
Monday we woke up & drove 3.5 hours to Malvern—and learned about Chad in 318. He’s in the hospital; he might be paralyzed. Fell/jumpt off the balcony early Sunday morning. It happend outside 302, Tayler & Kenan’s room… and now they’re in trouble. I found out thru Jordan, who cald to advise us not to return to the dorms yet.
That’s about all I got for now, I can’t keep my eyes open.