October 27, 1995. We drove to the University of New Hampshire, which is located in a a New England coastal town -- waterways, buoys, wooden houses and widow's walks. We did an interview at WUNH with this mop-topped curly haired kid named Roy, who was nice enough. He actually played all of our requests (I didn't make any), including Jim's 'December' by Teenage Fanclub. Jim had been humming that song in his low monotone for about an hour in the van, so it was driving me insane. Jennifer has entered the nose-blowing/sinus-infection stage of the tour, so every time she blows her nose it sounds like a goddam bullhorn. At dinner she said: 'It's amazing, I bit into this pepper and a jet came out my nose.' The show in Portsmouth ended up being really good. We ate dinner in this place called the Stock Pot, which had a downstairs section overlooking the harbor. Then we walked back to the 'Elvis Room,' which is really a coffee house. I played backgammon with Mike and almost threw up from all the cigarette smoke being created by these four teenage girls who were sitting around a table chain-smoking different brands of cigarettes and talking about which ones they liked best. A bunch of kids came to the show and we sold 4 or 5 discs, which felt like a gold rush at the time. The band who headlined was called Waiting Kates, which was funny because Jennifer had just been complaining about bands who named themselves after a girl and worse, a gerund. They were terrible -- the guitar player had a million effects, the bass player wore his bass around his knees and the singer had a very sing-songy girl voice: th' Faith Healers they were not. During a drum break in one song, the drummer actually got out from behind his set and started break dancing. I went and tried to sleep in the van. Our soundman was this 19-year-old kid name Cam who played in a local hardcore band called 'Humping Muscle.' He liked us and spent a lot of time telling us about the stage show they had planned for their special Halloween show: white curtain, strobe lights attached to the drums and a murder scene with fake blood being splattered on the curtain. We drove back to Amherst in downpour, leaves blowing around on the windy roads, cloud banks setting into the mountains of Route 202.
October 28/Williams (before). Our highest guarantee ($800). we are heading to Williams at the moment on a winding two-land highway called 116 through the Berkshire Mountains. The sky is still an angry gray, and all the colors have been muted by the rain. We are riding past stone walls, old trees with lichen-covered trunks, and tree-lined lakes slightly whipped by the rain and wind. The horizon is brightening, and I can see patches of blue beyond the mountains.
October 29/Williams (after): We sat around Williams all day and played backgammon. We set up in the same hall where we played last year, and waited for Guppy Boy, who showed up about an hour late. Guppy Boy played around 9pm and seemed a little stunned to be playing live after recording for three weeks. They also switched instruments after every song, which gets kind of annoying. There weren't tons of people there because there were several Halloween parties on campus, but it was worth it for the $800 we made. I drove back to New York City with Jim so that Mike and Kelly, Jennifer, and Jeff and Sasha could stay at Williams for the night. The drive back was harrowing, as the edge of the highway the entire way south was lined with deer, all of whom seemed to be on the verge of jumping in front of the van. I was glad that Jim was driving.
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