pop stand: blown! my snowy egret count is OFF THE CHARTS!

so, after years of no summer vacation, i am on the road! this afternoon i am sitting on the 5th floor of a holiday inn in charleston, sc. i made the drive up from st. augustine, fl yesterday. i'm doing a little road tripping, seeing some my morning jacket shows and minor league baseball. i took the pic above somewhere between savannah & charleston. i thought to watch out for fire ants as i walked up to the sign, b/c last time i was in nc i got bitten by one. and there was a fire ant hill right by the sign! i avoided it/them and am feeling pretty good about that. :)

you may know i'm an armchair birder. comes from living next to the bird sanctuary in arcata. i started counting birds when in got to FL. heron: 1, snowy egrets: 2. on the drive yesterday, my egret count went off the charts. this territory is ALL marshes, creeks, swamps and rivers: water fowl turf, so i am all agog. it's a wonder i didn't drive off the road.

the bit below is what from what i posted on the mmj forum (blogs, forums. really? lord.) about the show in charleston last night. so far, it's just about the preservation hall jazz band. i've got to go outside, so more on the show later.

**pic of me before waiting for the show to start.**
just slept 10 hours, showered and have ordered up room service coffee.

got to see the show last night with ruckus and his pal, jordan! it's always great to be around people in the crowd who are there to see the show. sounds like a no-brainer, but you know, there are those who go to a concert as an event, and those that go to see the performers. i just find the peeps there to see the show make better company. :)

i left st. augustine at about 11:15. turns out the hwys between FLA and SC run through a lot of little towns, so the trip took a lot longer than i'd expected. add to that a the street i wanted to use to get from one hwy to another in one of those towns (speed limit 25mph) was shut for a bike race/street fair/butter churning. i don't know, but it made finding my way out of there challenging.

anywhoo.

i got to charleston, checked into my hotel (populated by 175 teens, a youth group or something. apparently the room next to mine was party central. oof)

the venue was lovely. who knew? i expected it to be much bigger, but it didn't seem massive. the light & sound boards were on the ground level at the end of the court.

there was not a cloud in the sky. really, just beautiful. the crowd was really slow to file in. it's such a funny thing about when an act tours with a supporting act. everyone is in the lot or lobby until just before the headliner takes the stage. i've done this, but when you're inside seeing it happen, it's just weird.

bear antics: when pooch & denise came out stan* (name changed for discretion) put them with denise stage left, pooch stage right. but before the show started, someone else came out and swaped them. what cracks me up is that there is a particular arrangement of who goes where.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band:

--jelly roll
--short dressed gal
--a bad ass song that reminds me of "sing sing sing". it's just drums and trumpet for most of the song. cannot convey the swing of this song.
--ole man mose
here, mark braud introduces the band, then brings out jim for...
--tennessee hustler (when jim came out the girl next to me said to her boyfriend, "he's cute!")
--a jimmie rodgers sounding song that may have been blue yodel...jim was yodeling, some of the phjb were singing along. wonderful!
then patrick, carl, bo and tom come out to play percussion (lots of shakers!) for...
--st. james infirmary sung by clint maedgen

i think this was the last song. my end of set notes are always spotty b/c i get in the momentum of the show. at the end of the song, clint m. sat down. there were a couple of looks exchanged among the band and they ended the set. they probably had another song or two to play, but cut it short. either b/c of the late start or b/c st. james was such a blow-out.

the crowd for the start of these PHJB sets has been SMALL. small enough that as the band takes the stage you can see them marvelling and shaking their heads at the hilarity of it all. and when they start playing some of the crowd seems not sure what is happening, but two songs in and the crowd loooooooves them. which is fantastic.

i watching them last night i kept thinking that this tour is really special. that we're getting a chance to see PHJB like this, outdoors, small crowds, swinging, swinging, swinging. fucking brilliant.


snack note: room service coffee, fruit salad
groovy tunes: wilco "theologians" on the shuffle