photo by Todd Westphal

Wake up feeling a little better, not much. We drive to Seattle today but first stop at Denny’s for what was to my surprise, a decent meal. Chauncey orders a nice raspberry lemonade drink thing and I notice he loves an assortment of refreshing drinks. At a gas station or rest stop Chauncey will always get a frozen drink or something interesting. It’s amazing the little things you learn about people when traveling together. Chauncey tells me he always gets the Superbird at Denny’s, which is basically a grilled cheese with tomato, bacon, and turkey. I get mine without bacon and when it comes, it gets housed. Cage does not feel good today. It seems like we all caught some form of the same bug except Sean AKA Destructive Force AKA Speedo, and Todd. We finally make it to Seattle and hit traffic until we get to Nectar. A friend of mine, Shaina Foley, who used to work for a company that brought us out to Seattle a bunch of times, now works as the booker for Nectar and it is cool see her in that position after many years of coming here. Familiar faces are great on tour, most of the time. I hit up a diner down the street and get back in time for soundcheck. After soundcheck Chauncey and I do a photoshoot on the 2nd level of the venue with a sick photographer named Darien Chin. The photo’s came out amazing and we were psyched. I’ll have them soon. Time for me to go on and I still don’t feel great. But the sound is probably the best yet on the tour and I attribute it to their soundman Bill, who is excellent, and actually cares. During soundcheck, Cage went to the hotel since he was feeling under the weather. He calls me from the hotel and says “yooo we’re staying in The Shining” referring to the Stanley Kubrick movie. He explains that we are staying in a mansion-like hotel with very old, classic decor that looks just like where Jack Nicholson‘s character goes crazy in the movie. I’ll see it when I get there. I watched Cage’s set from the stairs, and for as miserable as he felt earlier, with a fever and body aches, you would have never known as he performed with poise and control. It is important to be able to perform when things are not 100%. More times than not, it is usually the case with most performers to have to work through problems as if they never existed. After the show I got to meet several fans from Vancouver who drove to Seattle because the Vancouver show was canceled. So to the boys and girls who drove down and had to go through the border, thank you. After the show we head to the Marqueen hotel. Cage was right. This place is creepy. The rooms have green doors, the wallpaper is a old floral pattern, and there is no elevator. Instead of an elevator there are stairs with a huge chandelier hanging in front of them. When we get inside the room, Cage tells us the guy at the front desk told him Ted Bundy used to live in this building, and the bar he used to pick up his victims from is still there, around the corner. Todd then goes downstairs to get an extra blanket and comes up like this place is really weird. He tells us he saw an employee in the hallway and asked him if he ever saw any ghosts here. The man tells Todd no but he always gets chills on the third floor. He also said that years ago, a woman hung herself in the room right below ours. Not too long after Todd turns to me and says “I kind of like this place, it reminds me of staying at someones Grandmas house.” While this is happening Cage is on the phone dealing with Chauncey and Sean who are complaining that their room smells like dirty diapers. Cage is rolling his eyes while I’m laughing because that is just funny to me. It sounds horrible. I lay down and watch a panel discussion/debate on whether or not Michael Jackson was murdered. Apparently Latoya has just accused doctors of murdering her brother. This whole thing is blowing my mind and I think our country is so sick when I realize that this breaking news is on every news channel. I’m guilty for being sucked in and succumbing to what is feeding my eyes and ears with useless slop. I watch this until I’m too tired to keep my eyes open.

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