ROAD JOURNAL 9.20.21
Hello from outside Hartford, CT.
We are two weeks into The Hunting Ground tour. It seems we add a few new road cases, lights, and merchandise items every tour, and we are still amazed we find the room in the trailer. Getting the packing schematic nailed has been a gratifying game of Tetris for Jon and Terry.
The shows have been great and the band is playing well together. We are mixing up the set lists nightly, which has been energizing for the band and crew. The sound and lights are feeling good with Doug and Jason at the helm. The clubs are adhering to the Vaccine Card and/or Negative Test rules. The fans have been awesome and enthused.
Thank you for making the efforts and taking the precautions to come out to the shows.
The tour started in typical Leaf fashion with a small raft of road bumps to tamp down…new coach batteries, a refurbished Onan generator, a roadside truck tire repair. Today perhaps some fresh fuel injectors, 6 new Whale tires, maybe a new muffler system. Expected and typical, all good stuff.
There’s been a lot of general staging and workflow refining as well, as we get back into the stage and performance groove under the Big Top.
The band flew back this morning from Chicago, while Doug and I are aboard the White Whale on a night drive to Connecticut, where our generator awaits re-installation. The original plan had Doug driving toward PHX from Chicago, while the band flew home to play two VA shows with our studio gear this weekend. Now, Doug and I will finish up here in CT then start driving westward to close some gap towards Arizona, then I will hop on a plane around St Louis and fly back to VA for shows Friday and Saturday. The band will fly out to PHX on Sunday where we will rendezvous with Doug and the Whale and resume the western leg of the tour.
Got all that?
Thank you to everyone who is joining us on these shows. It feels good to play music in a live setting again and to see people’s faces, even if they are behind some masks.
-Barry
