Show Day in Poughkeepsie

Glad I stayed in last night. Today is the first of four shows in a row. And I feel like a million bucks when I wake up just before 6. My alarm was set for 6:30, but I knew I wouldn't sleep that late.

Today we're playing at Marist College, here in Poughkeepsie. The entire crew is made up of college kids, who are all very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed looking. They kick ass on the load-in and especially the load-out.

The show is being held in the gymnasium inside the McCann Center, the campus' athletic facility. There isn't a real production office area available, so we set up camp in one of the handball courts. There's a tiny little door in the back to enter the room and zero electrical outlets for all our stuff – have to drop in lines from the hallway.

Poor Travis (band assistant). He's about 6'4" and I watched him bang into the top of the doorway twice before 10am.

The court is light by a bunch of really brutal sodium lamps which give off that sickly yellow-ish glow. It makes all of our laptop screens look blue-ish. By 10:30, everyone's eyes are hurting and I'm having a problem with running tear ducts. WTF? We send out for a bunch of table lamps and shut off the overheads. Gives the production office a kind of "living room" vibe for the rest of the day.

Mobile phone reception in here sucks today, so I have to step outside whenever I make or take a phone call. For about a two-hour stretch this afternoon, this worked out pretty damn well. When you step out the door at the end of the hall, to your right is about 40 linear feet of 8-foot tall windows, just inside of which is the olympic-sized swimming pool. And hey, look, there are about 40-45 college girls in swimsuits. There's a game of water polo going on, but only 14 girls are in the pool playing at any point. The rest are standing around the side of the pool, watching.

It really sucks to stand out here on the phone and have to watch all that.

No, really.

NOT!

Chris Sheridan calls me to see if I'm watching the State game. Looks like they might upset Florida State. I don't have time to watch right now, but I make it to the bus in time for the last 10 minutes of the game.

Finally get into my bunk around 2:15…