Day 4: San Francisco CA
Welcome
Yesterday we drove from Mount Shasta to San Francisco and played a show at The Independant.
It was our first daytime drive so I took the opportunity to ride most of the way in the jump seat. Our driver Robert calls it the best seat in the house and if I’m honest it was bloody comfortable. You can see me below using the electric foot rest in it’s fully raised position.
Along the way we stopped at a Loves gas station and I bought a bacon and egg burrito for breakfast.
On the approach into San Francisco we crossed the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge which is actually comprised up of two main structures, a double deck double suspension bridge on the Western side of Yerba Buena Island, and a self-anchored suspension bridge fed by a pair of viaducts on the Eastern side. The original double suspension bridge was completed in 1936 and stands 160m above the water with it’s two suspended spans coming out to just over 3km in total length. The eastern section used to be a double balanced cantilever design but was damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and eventually had to be replaced. The new structure was completed in 2013 and is unique for it’s single tower and asymmetrical design that allows for ship channel clearance while avoiding problems with building footings in deep bay mud.
The new self-anchored suspension bridge in the foreground with the old cantilever bridge awaiting dismantling.
📷 Leonard G
Crossing the upper deck of the double suspension bridge affords breathtaking views of the Embarcadero Piers and Alcatraz Island.
We pulled up outside the venue around lunchtime and had a quick round of refreshments before beginning the load-in. Already it feels like we are a well-oiled machine with everyone completing their tasks with time to spare. After a productive soundcheck we got to work on a few chores with Tristan lending his sewing skills to my broken bag and Liz restringing her guitar - until getting strings stabbed deeply into her thumb and pinky prevented her from continuing.
Tristan, hard at work fixing the cardboard-cutout storage box.
Injured but okay.
Lunar Vacation sounding and looking great in their soundcheck.
Right before the show we were hot on the social medias as our new single ‘A Real Thing’ had just gone live. Right below this paragraph you can check out the video made by our friends Callum and Annabel aka Sports Team.
After the show we ate a late dinner expertly ordered by Tristan from a local Mexican restaurant. This was followed by a valiant attempt to fix the TV’s receiver unit which despite being properly air-cooled was suffering from an inability to transmit a continuous signal. Luckily we have some very clever technical minds on the team and with a combination of brute force and jiggling we were able to get it working about 70% better. As is tradition before watching a movie Tristan warmed us up with some Zelda before we began our screening of ‘Some Kind of Monster’. The after film report will have to follow in a later blog as we accidentally watched the extended edition and failed to make it to the end.
Tristan’s Zelda moment.
I have been receiving quite a few requests for a tour of the bus. So here we go. I’ll start off today by showing you the Rear Lounge Mirror.
