pomeroy.

pomeroy are not only a supertight band, they’re a bunch of great guys. i sat in with zack on some more tunes to rock it up a bit, then a bunch of pomeronians joined for the last tune for the full rocktential.
hung out for a bit at the granada, a big rock club in the middle of lawrence, kansas, where the university of iowa is. great little town, great club, good people, all in all a great night. drove a few hours (not me – adam, i think, i was in the back crashed out hard) ‘til we arrived somewhere called hays, iowa, where all hotels were full due to graduation from somewhere. continued on another half hour, found a vacant hotel, crashed ‘til 11a this morning, took off.

i felt like driving today, so basically drove from wherever we were in iowa across kansas & through denver, up the hill a little bit towards aspen. unfortunately booking wouldn’t allow a denver show before aspen, so we’re going through denver to aspen (3 hours beyond), then back to denver tomorrow night before shooting across to salt lake city. insanity, but such is tour. the drive was just beautiful, totally serene, adam/zack/brian were reading most of the time, i was kinda in the zone, enjoying the scenery of barns, land, sprinklers, other travelers, and listening to satellite radio. as we approached the outskirts of denver, the rocky mountains began appearing on the horizon.
this made me wonder how it must have felt to be an early settler of this country, heading west across flat flat flat flat flat land for weeks, then slowly beginning to notice the hulking, majestic peaks ahead. oh crap, one might have thought, if one were headed to the west coast or something.

after a short baseball toss at a local gas station (replete with old school spigots with spinning mechanical numbers), we’re back on the road and rising by the minute, passing little ski resorts along the way. so suddently so different, the terrain. there’s still lotsa snow on the ground, but apparently not enough for skiing. pine trees dominate the landscape, with perfect streams/rivers winding along below the roads.

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the belly up in aspen is a world class venue in one of the most idyllic settings i’ve ever seen. mountains tower over the city of aspen, and we arrived to perfect weather. anyway, the belly up has hosted tons of huge artists.and it was a pleasure to be on such a great stage in such a great place. great dinner, hotel, and plenty of sleep that night before driving to denver.

zack has a friend who works at an incredible restaurant in denver’s lodo (lower downtown), mccormick & schmick’s or something like that. i think it was in like a hundred-something year old hotel, really tall ceilings, seafood shipped in twice daily. incredible. huge meal, totally covered by glauco from m&s. really appreciate it, dude, and thanks for coming to the show, what a great night.

some great old friends came out of the woodwork for the walnut room show in denver, a relatively new venue with great sound, a great soundman, and all in all great vibe. thanks to all of them, and apologies to the rosses, who weren’t allowed entrance with their baby daughter! next time... played with rachel cantu and tyler james, both will be there tonight as well in salt lake city. this was a particularly great show, dunno if i’ve made that clear...
watched an awful movie (or rather, zack and brian did, while adam and i listened from the front seats) on the first leg of our drive this morning, called “kingdom of heaven” with orlando bloom and liam neeson. it’s basically nonstop fight scenes in the crusades. pretty rough, but passed a good couple hours in the car as we went through the wyoming countryside, where it looks like there’s lots of oil drilling going on far off the road. there’re lots of dilapidated trailer parks around, where i’m assuming the employees of these oil companies live.
adam’s trying to keep time between aerosmith’s “walk this way” and the bumps on the road. the scenery is slowly changing as we get into utah, red hills, bigger hills after the rolling short ones in southwest wyoming.
with satellite you hear stuff you don’t hear on normal radio, like billy joel’s “big shot,” which is on now. and lots of phil collins and genesis, which is fascinating. oh, i should mention that one of the trailer parks was called “point of rock,” where i feel like i’ve been headed my whole life, and another “point of entry.” awesome.