Hot, Hot, Hot-Lanta

Happy Hump Day readers!

If there’s any draw back to planning a concert tour in June, in the South it’s that you can almost guarantee the weather is going to be HOT and Atlanta is no exception. It’s about 4:30 and the SRP has been here since about 3, setting up and doing the sound checks. The first thing the band asked for? - four pitchers of ice water. I’m still sweaty and I’ve been inside for 15 minutes. Basically unless you were born on the sun, today is crazy hot. All that being said, as long as no one passes out, I think this has the potential to be one of the best shows of the tour. The band is actually set up on a REAL stage, the vocals sound fantastic and everyone is well rested. Today’s show is also part of a combination dinner/concert fundraiser that Holy Innocence is doing for their upcoming mission trip, and the attendance is expected to be 100+. That’s pretty exciting stuff.

The trip down from Gastonia was an uneventful 3.5 hours ride, during which the contest mixes were finished (no winner has been determined yet) and the remaining time was spent playing Random Car Trivia, including such questions as “Name all six light-weight characters in Mario-Kart?” And “Luke Skywalker didn’t want to clean the new droids because he was going into __________ to get some _________.” Are we big time geeks? I think so.

A few quick notes about the shirts – first it has been determined that the official color of the tour shirt is Rangpore Green. Does that color exist in a box of Crayolas? No probably not, but Sam Hensley said it was so, and hence it is. Also, we’ve sold all the tour shirts we ordered for this trip, but if you would like a shirt, just send an e-mail to mailtheSRP@gmail.com with your size and shipping address, and as soon as we get enough people for a minimum order, we will place one. You can also send any comments you have for the band to that same address, unless your comment is negative, in which case you have poor taste in music and can stick it in your ear. (j/k the SRP is certainly open to constructive criticism.)

A special thanks goes out to last night’s crowd – you were both fun and generous, and as always, we appreciate it. Also further “thank-you’s” are in for the entire Robertson family for feeding us (twice) and for housing us. Without generosity like theirs and the other families and friends who have put (and will be putting) us up, this tour would probably not be possible.

Btw, here is last night’s set-list…

Heal This Land
Amazed
Trying To Find A Purpose
Let Your Light Shine
Blue Boat Home
Sunflower Land
40
Prodigal Son
Broken
Shine On
Where Is The Light
Help From My Friends
Umbrella
Long Train
Turn Turn Turn

Ok River Rats…I’m going to pause this blog now, so the laptop can charge up a little, then maybe I’ll try and have a live band interview session before show time tonight. Peace out for now!

And we’re back! Ten minutes till show time, so we’ll sneak a few questions in…

Me: You’re stuck on an deserted island for the rest of your life. You can take one album from the past ten years to listen to...what do you take?

Josh: That’s really tough. Really, really tough.

Me: So is being stranded on an island.

Steven: Are we all going to have to answer this?

Me:Yep.

Steven: Ok, I'll start putting some thought into it now then.

Josh: I’m on an island – so probably some Jack Johnson. Very islandy. Definitely not Brushfire.
Probably Sleeping Through the Static.

Drew: I’d take the new DMB album – I haven’t heard it yet, but I bet it sounds sick.

Sam: Bruce Springstein – "The Rising". That is an amazing album.

Josh: I can’t believe you didn’t’ say the WL 33 album.

Sam: I flip-flopped on it.

Steven: I have to take metal.

Drew: No metal.

Steven: Quiet - this is for me.

Drew: No, for me.

Steven: And I would have to say Devin Townsend's "Terria".

Me: Why?

Steven: Because it’s beautiful, loud and I can listen to it over and over again. I’m going to make everyone listen to it on this tour.

Josh: Not while I’m driving. Unless you’re there to explain to me what exactly it is I should be appreciating.

Steven: I’ll just remind you that it’s good.

Me: Drew, your #1 musical influence, who is it?

Drew: Carter Beauford. He’s good as keeping it simple, but also doing a lot of stuff without making it messy. He’s completely ridiculous.

Josh: Paul Simon for me and David Wilcox. He’s a Boone NC guy. He’s great...14 albums, singer/song writer. It’s theology in 3 minutes. Very good stuff.

Steven: Do I have to answer this too?

Me: I wasn’t going to make you.

Steven: It’s going to be really lame.

Me: Ok...

Steven: Devin Townsend – go figure. But also Ben Folds. Both those guys really taught me a lot about song writing.

Sam: James Taylor, Vertical Horizon and Fran.

Me: What do they have in common?

Sam: Well they’re all tall skinny white guys for starters. (much laughter)

Me: Right, true…but I meant more musically.

Sam: Oh. Right. It’s the guitar work. James Taylor has this amazing lyrical ability and he also plays such incredibly artistic guitar. It’s almost lead and rhythm at the same time. Vertical really showed me that acoustic guitar can be powerful if you use the right cords, and Fran gave me my start playing guitar on stage.

And now it’s 6:30 and show time is imminent. The band is working a few final acapella harmonies, and trying to relax. It’s still hot, but not as bad as it was now that the sun has gone down a little. That ought to last until these guys get on stage tonight – I’m predicting great things, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m going to close down now and go get a good seat – more blogging tomorrow!

Overheard on Tour:

"Click."
“I’d like a nice strong kidney punch right before we go on”
“I think I got a side of gas with my combo meal.”
“The band left with out me?! What the hell man!”
"No whining."
"This is Arnold's pizza shop..."
"Want to go shoot some BBs?"