RICHARD BUCKNER TOUR DIARY ("Incoherencies") - Entry #6

9/19 – Boston, MA

Got up early to get my broken window replaced in Albany before leaving for Boston and an incoming storm.

And Boston...Take a map, rip it up, throw it into the air: where it lands is the street layout of a town that overturns cars whether or not their team wins or loses. Sprinkle with scraps of LL Bean khakis and blue button-ups. Played a small stage in a club steeped in folk traditionalism: i.e., loops and e-bows need not apply. Driving out of Boston, you feel like a cockroach trapped between someone’s giant hands, and every turn you make, the hands move and you’re lost again. You just wanna turn over on your shell and kick your legs up into the clammy air.



9/20 – New York, NY

NYC / Bowery Ballroom-lovely sound and nice professional club and crew. You feel so welcome and secure until you step out on the street watching for gear-rippers, parking meter soldiers, and the grand-theft-auto-style drive to Brooklyn. Load the equipment in at 3am, and load back out at 8am.



9/21 – Washington, DC

Got to DC early for an XM Radio interview with Bob Edwards. He’s quite a presence: sat quietly as Doug and I set up our stuff, then made for an easy, enjoyable talk. Then, to the IOTA in Arlington, VA: I’ve been playing there since my first tour. Usually stay at a strange motel down the street where sometimes there are people in bathrobes in the lobby, but it’s an easy walk to the club and there’s a place next door for ugly, yet satisfying drunky after-hours food(?)-ish.



9/22 – Chapel Hill, NC

Chapel Hill/Local 506: Good rock club - easy hang. Didn’t get my shrimp and grits at Crook’s Corner this time, though.



9/23 – Asheville, NC

Asheville, NC / Grey Eagle: The LSD mountain fog was really rolling down the hills tonight. It’s always a little weird in Asheville, but good. Tonight it was a little stranger, though. Even the pavement felt strange driving around. Saw two different vehicles with either missing or open doors while driving odd patterns. A health food market with an agro-flute blower marking the entrance with some super-loud (louder than I thought a bamboo flute could ever be) hippie/eastern melody. The merch table reported that football-player-ish guy came in looking for gumbo and asking about shotguns.

At the hotel, people milled about without shirts, one guy with just a towel as he dug through his car for something.



9/24 – Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA / Variety Playhouse. I was the oldest person on the stage tonight; by even double, I think.



9/25 – Off Day

Day off in the ATL; got my shrimp and grits. Later, for old times sake, a yacht dog, and much later, the Claremont Lounge, just to be complete.

-buckner