Our beloved, Jacob Cole, is on tour for two weeks playing guitar with Dante Elephante. While he’s away, he’s keeping us updated with this tour diary, so we can live vicariously through him. Here’s his fourth entry.
5 hours to Boise, Idaho (land of potatoes), and so far it’s been the easiest trek. This next week and half of touring will be a lot less driving time overall.
Falling Out Of Love’ by: The 6ths, has been stuck in my head. I have a had a hard time falling in love and an even harder time falling out of love, & this song really hit home on all levels. Also, our bass player Rafaell turned me onto a rad Brazilian guitar player named Luiz Bonfa. Beautiful finger style work, something that as a guitar player is both inspiring and intimidating to listen to.
Lunch was provided by Treefort Music Festival at the convention center, in the artists lounge. Not only were they constantly bringing a mix of vegan, vegetarian and sugary foods out. They had coffee, tea, wine, beer, mixed drinks and every half an hour they would bring our several new dishes of a variety of food. Extremely lucky break considering we are all trying to save money for the rest of tour.
Dinner was food from the venue, very cool quinoa vegan burger and purple fries locally grown in Boise Idaho. Amazing taste. Had some blueberry ketchup on the side, which was unusual but exciting to the palate. Would definitely go again and sample all the other kinds of fries they offer. Quite a selection.
Helped a lot on sound for this gig. The PA was one of those suitcase Fenders, super small. The sound engineer was really cool, and let me mess with the PA as much as I wanted. We just played quiet and bumped the vocals, I think it ended up coming across well.
Gig was at Boise Frying Company, a local burger and fry joint
Hallowed Oak played right before us and was actually the only other band we caught prior to our set. They started out very loud for the room, but by the second song found a good volume that complimented the environment. Interesting line up of Trumpet and violin in addition to two guitars, bass and drums. The singer had a Thurston Moore delivery and overall their sound was reminiscent of Wilco, pre Nels Cline.
Crowd was small but mighty. Made some good friends.
I actually screwed up one of the songs we had, in my mind pretty bad. We bounced back though pretty fast after I caught the drummers eye. I was distracted by an overtone from my guitar amp that was messing with the reverb and delay – making everything I did more honk-y (not the negative white slur from yester-year) sounding. Took me a minute to correct, the room was very live and I hadn’t adjusted my settings since the previous gig. Playing wise I think we are finally in a good pocket. Since we’ve had ample driving time, we have been fitting in acoustic practices in the van and working on timing and harmonies. Everyone is listening and grooving well and giving Ruben the space he needs to carry the vocal.
Salt Lake City was beautiful and I wish we had time to check out the some of the mountain hiking that the surrounding countryside provided.
Standing outside of mount Olympus in Salt Lake City before hitting the road
So far Treefort Music Fest has been night and day compared to SXSW. Not better or worse but definitely more my speed. It’s a lot more involved in the community and feels all around more inclusive. The people in Boise are incredibly welcoming. The event itself really takes care of the artists passing though. Got a free haircut and there is always food and drink available in the artist lounge where most of us have been hanging when we need to chill or want to save money and sample the fine local meals provided. So many other artists we’ve crossed paths with, it’s been a real treat. Looking forward to the next couple of days here.
Hope everyone back in our little neck of the woods is doing good.