I Survived Wanee!
Hello, friends! Rob here.
Today I write you from the lavish backstage area at Norfolk, VA's Norva Theatre. Of course, anywhere with an artists-only bathroom seems palatial by our standards, but for goshsakes, pressing "3A” in the elevator takes you to a basketball court, and apparently there's a hot tub somewhere around here.
Of course, nobody actually uses the hot tub anymore. One of the guys on Gov't Mule's crew described it as a "roadie bouillabaisse.”
Speaking of dirty fun, I am pleased to report that The Revivalists survived Wanee Festival with nothing more than a few missed showers and a lot of unabashed hero-worship. I got to see one of my favorite saxophonists ever and my all-time favorite band in the universe, and there are at least a few pictures of all of us with veterans who are way out of our respective leagues floating around Facebook.
The festival itself is an extremely successful production. There are only two stages: the classic festival stage with layers of security and forty-foot stacks of amplifiers booming across a huge open field, and a more intimate ampitheatre-style stage shaded by a canopy of live oaks and Spanish moss. The overall size of the festival's beautiful campus hits that Goldilocks sweet spot- not too big, not too small. The people were all kind, our set was good, and pretty much everything was fun.
Also, Dave killed it so hard with Galactic to close out Saturday night at Wanee and if you don't believe me you can check it out here. There's a little bit of me on there as well, but who cares because you should actually probably skip to track twelve and listen to mad scientist Skerik take an innocent saxophone solo and gradually twist it into a tricked-out metal odyssey. Anyway, Wanee was cool.
And now we are doing real tour stuff again.
Well, sort of. Right now we're on night two of eight with Gov't Mule (and two more shows without them), but I almost feel guilty calling it "real tour stuff” when we've been playing seated theatres with catering and basketball courts. Anyway, we are driving to places. And when we get to those places, we play music and then leave. So that is happening.
Speaking of things that are happening, our Clevelandian comrades The Burning River Ramblers (whom I believe I have mentioned once or twice before) are finalists in a vote-gathering contest sponsored by Hard Rock Cafe which, if they win, will put them on an awesome international tour and basically make them rich and famous forever. They totally deserve it because they're a great band in their own right, but if that's not enough to move you then please remember that these guys rank among our oldest and dearest band-friends and a lot of why we've had such a great time in Cleveland boils down to their hustle and hospitality. So please, for their sake, for our sake, hell, as a personal favor to me, please click on this here link and vote for our friends The Burning River Ramblers:
Thanks! Bye.
