Day 33: Baltimore
Welcome
Yesterday we played a show in Baltimore and celebrated the first day of Tristan’s birthday.
After noticing the optimistic sign at the entrance to the hotel lobby the previous night, I decided that I would give the breakfast a shot. At 9.30am I headed down and helped myself to a bowl of oatmeal to which I added some walnuts, sultanas, Yoplait strawberry yoghurt, and chocolate drizzle. It was an unfortunate result, but I ate it all and moved on to the next part of my day.
Jon pulled the van around and we all piled in ready to head to our first destination which was on the northern edge of Richmond. This was Tristan’s birthday surprise and we had told some convincing lies to get him here unsuspecting. The place was called Sim-Seats and they build and supply car racing simulator rigs. These high-performance systems featured multi-monitor setups with powered steering wheels pedals that mimic the feel of a real race car. They had kindly agreed to let us come in and try out a few of these systems and even set us up on the Spa racing circuit in preparation for the upcoming Formula 1 race this weekend.
Tristan put in a few impressive lap times and all of us had a number of impressive crashes. It was tough to leave before we had mastered the skill of race driving but we had a load in to get to and the worst highway in the US was standing in the way.
We were told that one of these rigs will set you back $35,000 USD.
I95 was bumper to bumper for most of the time we were on it and we drove past several accidents and witnessed some pretty ugly driving. Then we transitioned to the 395 which carried us through Washington D.C. and passed some very famous buildings.
The Pentagon.
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument.
The more pleasant part of the journey happened when we entered the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the beautifully maintained highway lined with thick belts of trees and replete with beautifully serifed signs.
We pulled into Baltimore an hour late but at this point in the tour we were a well-oiled machine, completing our load-in and soundcheck rapidly and getting back to the business of the day, celebrating the birthday of the youngest member of our band.
Approaching Baltimore.
The venue mic clips were all firmly stuck onto the stands. It took four pairs of hands to generate enough torque and clamping force to remove them.
Everyone knows that Tristan loves a spicy food and Liz had ordered a meal of hot wings from the best place in the city. We had a green room feast, consuming just the right amount of spicy buffalo sauce to make ourselves feel a bit more alive for the ensuing hour of music making.
Ottobar, a dive bar with lots of different viewing heights.
The Baltimore audience were very sweet and sang Tristan the birthday song. I’m not sure how they organised this but it sounded pre-planned.
After the show we all gathered to sing Tristan our own rendition of the birthday song, of course in an unsuitably high key. Six candles were lit (the rules require a number divisible by the birthday years earned) and placed in six cupcakes. Tristan made his thirty wishes and then day one of Tristan’s birthday celebration was complete.
The pack train ready to be stacked in the van.