Tales from the road

[TheTimeBeing]

The middle.
Next stop Munich. Orangehouse, an old warehouse venue, muddy and wet. I played a song with The Von Bondies on the Rhodes, which was already set up for The White Stripes. Having a ball. The bus broke down halfway to Milan, so we waited roadside for 4 hours until two ancient mechanics arrived. They were laughing at the spectacle of a crippled flash-looking bus, “who eez zis? Ze Beatlez?” We raced to the gig late, setup, soundchecked, show, loaded out, drove, heard that George Harrison died.

Mojo Magazine came to Toulouse to get photos and interviews. I remember being mightily impressed that they sent people from England.

In Barcelona we all (except Meg and Jason) went to Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, one of the few opportunities to do some sightseeing.

The Brussels venue was some horrible ‘enormodome’ type of complex that had multiple venues inside. Steve Vai was playing in one of the adjoining auditoriums. All over the floors were coloured paint stripes. If you wanted venue x follow the yellow stripe. If you want catering follow blue, etc. At show time we were following the red stripe through this maze. At a stair landing miles from the room The White Stripes in their red and whites, paused to let Steve Vai in his purple velvets pass and carry on down the stairs. In silence. Both lost. A great moment.

Europe leg winding up in Amstredam at Melkweg. Our paths crossed with The 5,6,7,8s here so they were added to the bill. And after a big blowout party they hitched a ride in the bus back to London.

The last show of tour was London Forum. Jack had wanted the band to play outside on the awning, or up in the balcony for an encore. But everything was either not allowed, or too expensive, or too easily lame. Fantastic show, the London crowd was pumped by this point. Jack threw in Gene Vincent’s Baby Blue, always a good sign.

I’d had a bloody fantastic holiday! Back to NZ fizzing.

Their next tour was Big Day Out in New Zealand and Australia January 2002. Ben Swank was down as tech/ally so I didn’t do the whole tour, just the NZ dates: Big Day Out and a warm up gig at the Dogs Bollix.

The Dog Bollix was jammed, the night before the first BDO. At the BDO I had to race home to retrieve my Fender Twin when one wasn’t supplied to their stage. I returned plugging it in as they walked on stage. After their BDO set Jack, Meg, John and I had a meeting in the hotel Jacuzzi. There was some more Europe touring and an East Coast USA tour on the cards, and if I wanted in, they’d start paying me. Needless to say I was up for it.

3 albums in and Europe was addicted. America still needed convincing.

During the flights and hotel rooms to London I helped John assemble the clocks.

The first show was a last minute addition in London at 93ft East in Brick Lane. Whirlwind Heat were tour support this time, and for this show they added The Buff Medways to the bill. 400 capacity, sold out in 10 minutes, there was massive London buzz around them at this point. Jack pulled out The Big 3 Killed My Baby and Do, both rarities in the live set.

The Europe tour was 500-1200 capacity rooms, finishing up in Scandinavia which was something new and pretty exciting.

After the tour I met up with Meg and friends in NY to catch a few Greenhornes and Holly Golightly shows, before heading to Detroit to start the East Coast tour.

The East Coast tour was supported by Brendan Benson and band, with the Whirlwind Heat, The Soledad Brothers, and The Datsuns all having a turn as the 3rd band.

I was stoked to have my mates from back home The Datsuns opening some shows. They had just come from SXSW and a tour with The Mooney Suzuki and were on fire with self-confidence. After 3 shows with us they went onto London, and once again Europe/UK went mad for them first.

New York for 4 nights at the Bowery Ballroom was a highlight. New York had caught the bug by now, and everyone wanted a slice of the action. Aftershow parties in the tiny dressing room. The Strokes everywhere. Julian insisting that Jack listen to his new song on cassette on a shitty ghetto blaster. Macaulay Culkin! Bette Midler!? I remember hearing that Bob Dylan sent his regards and would’ve liked to have come to one of the shows, but the ruckus he’d generate in such a small place prevented him from coming. Jack was not only starting to meet his heros, but they were big fans of his! And of course the film crew in their white lab coats, capturing everything. I’m sure you all know about the subsequent film. What a shame they did such a lousy job. It was an exciting time.

The tour ended in Morgantown, West Virginia with Jack playing This Protector, the only time I ever heard him play it. West Virginians will know why.

Back to Detroit for a rest. I’d either crash on the spare bed at Megs, or on Jacks couch. One last show down the road at MSU in East Lansing, then home to NZ for a short break.

The momentum was gathering.

[7th_son]

I think I see Kees!!!

Uh, I'm speechless. This is epic.

[2crazikids]

so cool! keep the stories coming. Love the pics!

[hawke000]

this is the best thing to happen to white swirl since me.

[shaneoftheroad]

I'm speechless, man. "Epic" works.

[gdm]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[love_islander]

The Swirl has a new member to be jealous of - move over Grim

[TheTimeBeing]

Some more bits n pieces from those tours

[rsimms3]

I'm originally from WV but never caught a Stripes show back home. I didn't catch up with them until 2003 in NY for the rescheduled Summerfest date in November.

[woodisgood]

This isn't gold. This isn't platinum. It's PRICELESS. Thank you for all this, and many thanks for whatever you lay on us next!! A total treat! _/\o_

[TheTimeBeing]

More middle.
I was in Detroit before the May 2002 West Cost tour with Brendan Benson and Whirlwind Heat in support. In Detroit Jack took John, Matthew & myself suit and hat shopping. Suits from some mega-outlet-ghetto-suit-barn, and hats from Henry the Hatter downtown. Stoked with the hat! And so began the crew dress-ups.

We flew to Tuscon to start the tour. 2nd show was Mesa, Arizona opening for Garbage. It was a moment of weirdness amongst a bunch of club dates. Garbage DI’d everything, even drums, no sign of any amps. The whole band on in-ears. Mixed by a guy in a truck out in the lot. Super hi-tech. We set up the kit and 2 twins and made a huge racket.

On to 4 nights in LA, 3 at the El Rey and 1 at Pomona Glass House. Quite a different affair to the 4 New York nights. MTV had squeezed themselves into the schedule, and on the night of the Pomona gig they played the MTV Movie Awards. It was pretty buzzy. Huge elaborate set. Eminem played too. Rehearsals the day before, Jack didn’t want to just deliver Fell In Love With A Girl, the song which MTV were going mad for with the Gondry lego video, so they belted out a 3 minute long medley. It felt quite punk. The second they were finished, MTV raced us to City Hall, up to the roof, and into a helicopter, and off to a landing strip in Pomona. Surreal.

The show that night at the Glass House by contrast was an epic highly charged affair, in a sweaty packed out room. Fan frenzy American style, getting to the bus and signing shit.

The El Rey shows were cool too. Good to have some days off the bus in a row. Able to do laundry. Elliott Smith came to one of the El Rey shows.

During the stay in LA they welcomed a Rolling Stone journo into the fold for a few days to write a feature. When the issue finally came out, they’d unearthed the divorce papers and that was the focus of the article. Jack was well pissed.

On to Portland, where we got a hotel room so we could have somewhere to hang out to watch the MTV awards on TV.

The San Francisco Filmore shows are memorable. What a beautiful room. With the original dressing rooms and fixtures. We used the same toilet Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townsend used! Tom Waits came to one of these shows.

After the West Coast, downtime in Detroit. They used to book the US tour in 2 week blocks. Then home to Detroit to rest for a week. More and more these gaps were getting filled by other opportunities. A week in London at Toe Rag to record. Pop over to London to shoot a video. Often they’d arrive back, do laundry, and get in the van/bus.

Then back to Europe for some festivals. Totally different to your own show in clubs, we all know. But they were great in other ways.

Headlining Glastonbury 2002. I think everyone’s minds were a little bit blown that day. In the short time I’d known them: Pizza Pizza to Glastonbury. It was a pretty sweet view from the stage that day.

Opening for Bowie at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway was unforgettable. Although there was some strife when Meg’s hi-hat was all bent and wouldn’t work properly. After struggling through a handful of songs she’d had enough, and proceded to kick her entire kit off the riser, leave the stage and trash the dressing room (tent). End of set. The next day the review said blah blah explosive punk rock set by The White Stripes blah blah Bowie awesome. They could do no wrong.

Back to Detroit for a Mid-West tour with The Clone Defects. A noticeable shift in the audience in America. They were an MTV band now. The fans stopped being kids in chuck taylors getting 7 inches signed, and became buff dudes getting baseball caps signed. I remember Jack being told that an MTV news clip of them could yield around 10,000 sales each time it aired. Jack remarked that he thought they’d sold maybe 10,000 of everything up to that point.

It was an astonishing rise.

[mojoryan]

More middle.
I was in Detroit before the May 2002 West Cost tour with Brendan Benson and Whirlwind Heat in support. In Detroit Jack took John, Matthew & myself suit and hat shopping. Suits from some mega-outlet-ghetto-suit-barn, and hats from Henry the Hatter downtown. Stoked with the hat! And so began the crew dress-ups.

We flew to Tuscon to start the tour. 2nd show was Mesa, Arizona opening for Garbage. It was a moment of weirdness amongst a bunch of club dates. Garbage DI’d everything, even drums, no sign of any amps. The whole band on in-ears. Mixed by a guy in a truck out in the lot. Super hi-tech. We set up the kit and 2 twins and made a huge racket.

On to 4 nights in LA, 3 at the El Rey and 1 at Pomona Glass House. Quite a different affair to the 4 New York nights. MTV had squeezed themselves into the schedule, and on the night of the Pomona gig they played the MTV Movie Awards. It was pretty buzzy. Huge elaborate set. Eminem played too. Rehearsals the day before, Jack didn’t want to just deliver Fell In Love With A Girl, the song which MTV were going mad for with the Gondry lego video, so they belted out a 3 minute long medley. It felt quite punk. The second they were finished, MTV raced us to City Hall, up to the roof, and into a helicopter, and off to a landing strip in Pomona. Surreal.

The show that night at the Glass House by contrast was an epic highly charged affair, in a sweaty packed out room. Fan frenzy American style, getting to the bus and signing shit.

The El Rey shows were cool too. Good to have some days off the bus in a row. Able to do laundry. Elliott Smith came to one of the El Rey shows.

During the stay in LA they welcomed a Rolling Stone journo into the fold for a few days to write a feature. When the issue finally came out, they’d unearthed the divorce papers and that was the focus of the article. Jack was well pissed.

On to Portland, where we got a hotel room so we could have somewhere to hang out to watch the MTV awards on TV.

The San Francisco Filmore shows are memorable. What a beautiful room. With the original dressing rooms and fixtures. We used the same toilet Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townsend used! Tom Waits came to one of these shows.

After the West Coast, downtime in Detroit. They used to book the US tour in 2 week blocks. Then home to Detroit to rest for a week. More and more these gaps were getting filled by other opportunities. A week in London at Toe Rag to record. Pop over to London to shoot a video. Often they’d arrive back, do laundry, and get in the van/bus.

Then back to Europe for some festivals. Totally different to your own show in clubs, we all know. But they were great in other ways.

Headlining Glastonbury 2002. I think everyone’s minds were a little bit blown that day. In the short time I’d known them: Pizza Pizza to Glastonbury. It was a pretty sweet view from the stage that day.

Opening for Bowie at the Quart Festival in Kristiansand, Norway was unforgettable. Although there was some strife when Meg’s hi-hat was all bent and wouldn’t work properly. After struggling through a handful of songs she’d had enough, and proceded to kick her entire kit off the riser, leave the stage and trash the dressing room (tent). End of set. The next day the review said blah blah explosive punk rock set by The White Stripes blah blah Bowie awesome. They could do no wrong.

Back to Detroit for a Mid-West tour with The Clone Defects. A noticeable shift in the audience in America. They were an MTV band now. The fans stopped being kids in chuck taylors getting 7 inches signed, and became buff dudes getting baseball caps signed. I remember Jack being told that an MTV news clip of them could yield around 10,000 sales each time it aired. Jack remarked that he thought they’d sold maybe 10,000 of everything up to that point.

It was an astonishing rise.

I've enjoyed it all thus far, but this last post...this is what did it for me: very personal; very real: dissolves the illusion of bigger-than-life. Nice connecting.

Thanks, man.

[love_islander]

Dude, this shit is un-fucking-believable. Keep it coming!

Is this all out of a diary/log, or off the top of your head?

[TheTimeBeing]

Dude, this shit is un-fucking-believable. Keep it coming!

Is this all out of a diary/log, or off the top of your head?

Thanks man. Photos trigger a lot of memories. And I did keep a diary off and on.

[love_islander]

This is just like the Whirlwind Heat Meg bunny cover