7/25/2006 (Tuesday)

Deaner's Tour Diary

first time ever in bend, oregon too. we had a day off before the show and they kinda greeted us like the liberating army. everywhere we went, walking around the town on our day off we were thanked by people for coming. i think they sold 3,000 tickets for our show. in the past this would be the kind of show where 200 people would show up. bend is a very cool and beautiful town tucked along a river. tons of natural beauty and a lot of cool shops, restaurants, and bars. i played golf on my day off and got paired up with two middle aged guys that work for ford motor company. we shared a common love for beer and had a good time drinking and playing mediocre golf. i should mention at this point that during this whole tour the west coast has been getting totally crushed by a heatwave. everywhere we've been it's been in the neighborhood of 100 degrees. this show was on an outdoor stage in a field with a view of the river. this show was insane and the crowd was wonderful. the promoters of the show treated us very well, we had a masseuse, ping pong tables, and a killer spread of food. all in all this was just a great gig, a great killer, and a reminder of why america is the best place to tour. just when you think you've visited every cool city you find a town like this that has it all. the only thing that was fucked up was that i decided to retire my old red stratocaster before this tour, it was time. i went to the music store and bought a brand new american standard strat for like 7 hundred bucks to use this summer. the temperature in our truck was so hot that the wood glue on the back of the neck actually liquified and all the finish on the neck cracked and the skunk stripe popped out of the neck. i can't win. i played it like that for the remainder of the summer dates.