It’s that crushing weariness that is all consuming. You want to do something you want to have fun but you can’t. All you can do is stumble from one event to the next falling in and out of consciousness. It’s called jetlag and yesterday it was then only real experience anyone was having.
Then you finally lay down to go to sleep and bang you are wide awake and staring at the ceiling.
Airports are a strange world all bad food and bad carpeting.
Then there are the passengers all in a netherworld of confusion and hope that everything will work out, their connection will be on time and they will reach their destination. Purgatory is probably one big airport.
Saturday came and the lips were stunning, lights, furry gloves and fun fun fun.
More tickets bought, this time for the Flaming Lips.
The great gig list so far:
It’s shaping up to be an eclectic and interesting few months music wise, everything from psychedelia to pop music with folk and reggae in there too, no mean feat and an exciting prospect before us. The Flaming Lips will be 13 year old Ben’s first big gig he will remember, he is very excited, it is outside on the lawn at the McNemanins in Troutdale so should be fun and entertaining.
In exactly one week today we will begin our trip to the UK for Chris’ graduation, a time to see family, visit the homeland and have fun. Although this has been two years in the planning it still feels a little like we have no idea what we are going to do. There will be much travelling and sightseeing, a festival and visits with family and friends.
Anyway check out the Lips:
Hawkwind in the USA and on the west coast. This is a statement that I absolutely never thought to be writing, saying or even thinking. Yes there have been tours on the east coast, appearances at festivals and other events, but never anything in reach for me. Of course in reach means the twelve hour drive from Portland to San Francisco but how could I do otherwise.
Hawkwind were one of the first bands I ever saw, then they became one of the bands I saw most frequently throughout the eighties and nineties in Liverpool until we moved to the USA. This effectively ended my ongoing fascination with the strange trip that Hawkwind is. They are a band it is hard to classify, more members than most American Football teams and many changes in sound. They have flirted with metal, techno, ambient and punk in their time. They have overwhelmed with sound and visuals and at times been a bit silly. I am convinced Hawkwind are one of the bands in mind when Spinal Tap was made. They have astounded and confused sometimes in the same song, they have however always managed to be interesting, even when they reached too far.
This tour they are playing the album Warrior on the Edge of Time in its entirety. This has consistently been one of my favorite albums ever since I first heard it. Not only in the days of vinyl did it have the cool fold out album sleeve that became a shield but it has some of the most dense music you will ever hear, two drummers, electric violin, Lemmy’s bass, Turners sax and flutes and Brock’s guitar holding it all together. Now many of those elements will be missing, in fact the only original member is Dave Brock but the current band is more than capable of pulling this off. The band have also promised, dancers and the whole light show, yes it will be silly of course but isn’t that the point, rock music is just a little silly.
So I am taking two of my children to a Hawkwind show, along with Gong and Here and Now Hawkwind are legendary in my house. Let’s face it San Francisco is the perfect place to see Hawkwind, although I am maybe thirty of forty years too late. October 18gth is destined to be a special day, and the tickets have arrived so its real.
Of course Warrior and the Edge of Time is the first Hawkwind album to be so closely linked to Michael Moorcock. It is a musical representation of the Eternal Champion story, Hawkwind would revisit this with the Chronicle of the Black Sword but this was the first and original attempt.
timeweleftthisworldtoday 