Drums And Dust

Saturday, Dec. 02, 2006 - 8:13 a.m.

Hi, kids. In Anaheim safely.

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There's something in the air, and I'm not talking about that holiday magic, folks.

The minute I stepped off the plane, my allergies fired up, and I spent all day Thursday and half of Friday sneezing and coughing.

Just about the first thing that happened when I arrived was that Old Buddy Dave received a telephone call from Bob Chance, telling him that Paula T. Bartender called from Cero's a moment ago to tell him that there were several bands expected in there later than night, and to please remove the current set of instruments from the stage.

This meant a drum breakdown.

So, still in my traveling clothes, I put my hair in a ponytail and jumped back into the vehicle with Dave, and Charlie and Ai Vy jumped into their car because they were heading out anyway, and the four of us went traipsing over to Cero's to see what needed to be done. Rocky was already there, breaking down his and Bob's stuff, and Dave looked at the amount of stuff that was remaining and decided it was a two person job instead of a four person job, so Charlie and Ai Vy got on their way.

During breakdown, my allergies were absolutely legendary, and I finally went over to Paula and begged for a couple of bar napkins because I'd blown through all the tissue I had, and had commenced dripping on the drum equipment every time I leaned over to reach for something.

It took about thirty minutes to get everything broken down, but it did get accomplished.

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There's a convoluted formula to getting a drum set into a regular old car, but it can be done. The two largest drums go into the back seat, along with the smallest tom, and the cymbal bag. The microphone and drum stands fold up and go in the trunk of the car, along with the stick bag, his Animal mascot, the two larger toms, and the milk crate full of cords and the work lamp and the small portable fan. And then the drum throne gets to go in the passenger side of the car -- except that's where I was sitting. So the improvisation was made where I would stick one leg into the car, the throne would be placed seat-down into the floor of the passenger side, and I'd get to ride home with the five-wheeled base up by my shoulders.

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We got the drums back to his place and up the stairs, and then I had to let Dave take over and dust them, due to my allergies. I carried a roll of tp around with me, but it was the house brand (sturdy) as opposed to a wimpy name brand -- and as a result of using that stuff in the place of box tissue, I could at one point probably have struck a match on the bridge of my nose due to my dry skin.

After Dave cleaned his drums, I begged for mercy and asked for a trip to Walgreens so I could get Puffs Tissue With Lotion, and a big bottle of saline.

Ahhhhh.

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When I got ready to go to sleep Thursday night, I would sneeze every time I touched the clothing I'd been wearing that day. I finally put two and two together and rooted around in the kitchen until I found a white plastic trash bag to put those clothes in.

And that's how my first day went.

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That's it for now. Have a good Saturday!

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