Day 27: Birmingham, AL
Welcome
Yesterday we played a headline show in Birmingham, Alabama.
It felt luxurious to sleep until 9.30am. We awoke feeling alert and capable, as dormant parts of our brain came back to life, finally. I headed out for a run, wanting to see a little of the city of Huntsville, as so often we are in and out of these places without a second glance. A couple of kilometres from the hotel was a green blob on the map that identified as Monte Sano Nature Preserve, and I headed in that direction hoping to find some trails to run along. On the way I passed through a suburban landscape that felt quiet, affluent, and lawny. The nature reserve began abruptly and right after leaving the road I was under a thick, leafy cover and climbing a steep path criss-crossed with tree roots. I passed the Three Caves, a Huntsville landmark that is actually a former limestone mine that supplied paving material for many of the city’s streets and parking lots in the late 1940s. From there I ran along an undulating trail that wound its way up to the northern edge of the park, where sadly I had to leave the relaxing surroundings and head back in the direction of our hotel, returning along a succession of footpathless curvilinear avenues distinguished by lawns so sprawling as to warrant the possession of a ride-on mower.
At 12pm Kayleen pulled the van around in front of our Homewood Suites by Hilton, and we all boarded, taking one last look at the crisply landscaped frontage of the hotel which had impressed the Huntsville Beautification Board in its search for ‘beautiful and litter-free curb appeal’. As we drove, I ate a takeaway breakfast I had grabbed from the Taco Mama restaurant just around from our hotel. My order was an AHI TUNE-SI!! taco basket, with AAA Sushi grade Ahi Tuna, sriracha slaw, and avocado, with chipotle ranch on the side. It came with a side of tortilla chips with salsa, and a small container of ancho chile slaw.
We made one stop on the way out of Huntsville. On Interstate 565 westbound, just a few minutes from the city centre, we crested a hill and saw an object of great magnificence. Looking distinctly out of place in the type of landscape that doesn’t usually host super heavy-lift space launch vehicles, the 111m-tall full-scale mockup of a Saturn V rocket stands right next to the highway, a beacon to travellers approaching a city with a history steeped in rocketry. This is the location of the U.S. Space and Rocketry Center, a museum that houses a rich collection of space exploration artifacts, the most impressive being the Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle, the prototype that was used by NASA to test the performance of the rocket when it was vibrated, like it would be during a launch. We had a schedule to meet and sadly we couldn’t visit the museum properly, but it was well worth stopping in the carpark for a few minutes just to gaze up in amazement at the scale of this pretend spacecraft.
I hadn’t heard of Huntsville before we arrived there in the evening after Bonnaroo. Southwest of the city is a 20km² piece of land that contains the Redstone Arsenal, a US Army installation that in the early years of the Cold War was responsible for rocket research and development, specifically for ballistic missiles. The creation of NASA in 1958 led to the establishment of the Marshall Space Flight Centre, and the Army’s facilities and personnel, notably a group of 130 German scientists led by Werner Von Braun, were transferred to this civilian agency. Huntsville was the centre of development for the Saturn launch vehicles for the Apollo programme, the Space Shuttle main propulsion and external fuel tank, and the International Space Station, and is currently developing the next generation’s super heavy lifter, the Space Launch System.
It felt like a strange coincidence that our venue in Birmingham, Alabama, was named Saturn, and that the air-conditioning ducts hanging from the ceiling of the bar had been cleverly modified to resemble NASA’s most famous rocket. There was a lot to like about this venue. The theme of space exploration was thoroughly explored and there were plenty of posters, artworks, and memorabilia scattered through the building. The performance space was a nice wide room, and the ceiling was adorned with coloured festoons. Gabe was deployed next to the lighting engineer in an elevated booth that was labelled ‘Mission Control’. It sounded nice up on stage and after completing so many chaotic festival setups on this tour it was a delight to indulge ourselves in a long soundcheck, even taking the time to rehearse a few numbers that were really crying out for it.
The bar has a nice collection of vintage consoles that you can enjoy while you have a drink.
Our evening brought a reunion with a group of old friends, members of the band Lunar Vacation who are supporting us for the four headline shows of this short US tour. It was great hearing what they’ve been up to in the 15 months since we shared a tour bus in our first post-pandemic tour. Getting to hear them was nice and it’s obvious how much they have grown together musically.
Playing a set on a full night of sleep felt unfamiliar. I had more energy than I knew what to do with. The crowd that filled this room were also an energetic bunch and the gig had a great mood, a collaborative dynamism that benefitted all parties. We spent a while chatting to folks afterwards and it was nice hearing about the city of Birmingham and also discovering just how many people travelled from as far away as Atlanta to come and see the show.
Tristan gets a mention and at least a couple of gigaboints thrown his way for organising our lodgings for the night. The upper level of Saturn houses the venue’s green room and it is the best green room we have had the pleasure of occupying. Pinball machines, a pool table, a selection of board games, full kitchen and laundry facilities, and a TV screen that should be measured in feet; these are some of the features that have helped this space to ascend to the top of our green room rankings. There are also two fully furnished bedrooms and four bunk beds, a fact that once discovered spurred Tristan into action, calling our hotel and managing to get a free cancellation at the last minute. After the show we retired upstairs and enjoyed a game of Codenames and a screening of Gone in 60 Seconds, while outside it rained heavily and the grey-blue skies regularly flashed with lightning.
The Green Room at Saturn.
Tristan ticked something off our tour bingo list last night when he was able to capture a photo of forked lightning. Here is the proof, plus his latest video update.
