FraKctured

November 4, 2000 The Odeon / Cleveland, OH

Well, I must be deep into this touring routine. I just had to ask Laurie, our tour manager, where we were yesterday so that I could write about the show. Urgh! (We're in Detroit, right now. But more about that in a minute)

Last night's show in Cleveland was a little strange. I don't know if it was the band, the audience or the venue. But, the show took a sad turn around the middle of the set. Not sad like something specifically bad happened. But, more like the life of the performance began to dissipate.

We were cruising along fine and the audience was pretty much with us. When we hit the ProjeKct improv segment things really began to pick up. Pat and I got into this very heavy, almost hip-hop-py, groove. You could feel the room starting to move. The people right in front of me began to dance. It was beginning to feel good, and quite a different vibe then I usually experience from this band. When the improv ended we launched right into Larks', and from there we died a quick death. Larks' was just not happening at all. I could feel the band want to speed up the tempo just to inject some illusion of energy into the piece. But, no that wasn't going to help. It was flat, limp and sagging -- real pushing-up-a-hill putz of a performance.

Then we sagged our way through the end of the set. Redemption began with Elephant Talk, which ended the set. Then we followed through the 'cleaning of the house' with Three of a Perfect Pair and The Deception of the Thrush. Now are getting back into it.

Oyster and Red finished off the night.

So, now we are in Detroit. And I have to say that this hotel hasn't disappointed with my experience of Detroit hotels. The last time I was here, only about a month ago with The Trey Gunn Band, we had a stupendous hotel experience. A one of kind deal, I must say. for the grim realities of a successful club tour.)

Usually when I am in Detroit we stay at the Westin in the Renaissance Center. The rooms are fine, but the setting is fucking bleak. It is situated over this gigantic concrete mall that is largely desolate, except for a few shops and a General Motors museum.

Unlike the Westin, this hotel that we have just checked into, The Pontchartrain (sounds kind of fancy, huh?) is NOT clean. It is rather scabby. Not nearly as scabby as the Ramada Downtown, but there is a fair bit of skank here and there. We waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes before I got my key. I took the elevator up to the 9th floor and went into my room. Firstly, I was met by the housekeeper's cleaning cart. It was jammed in the small entryway. I could have left right then but I thought, what the heck, let's just have a look around. There was trash everywhere. There were four vacuum cleaners filling up every inch of floor space. There was a giant hole cut in the ceiling over the shower and sawdust all over the bathroom!

Needless to say that I left. Currently Adrian, Laurie and I are sitting in a holding tank room on the 19th floor waiting for our new improved rooms.