Some might think it a little crazy to travel such a great distance for only
one concert.....including me.........(as it ended up taking somewhere around
15 hours including the bus ride after the plane from LA to get there...) but
the thought of seeing this exotic and mystical place, compounded with playing
with some of my favorite musicians on the planet, won over any possibility of
my turning such an incredible opportunity down. (Unfortuantely I did have to
miss the first date on the Beatlejam tour with Jazz Is Dead, but cloning is
not yet an option for the peevman)
Also on board this project was bassist Tony Levin, whom I have been fortunate
to have been involved in some wonderful recording sessions in the past (w/
James Taylor in 1988 as well as Tony's own record "Waters Of Eden" a couple
years ago) talented drummer and producer Peter Bunetta, husband and wife
musical team Jayne & Thomas Nicholson on vocals and keys and rounding out the
ensemble was sound engineer and road mgr. Robert Frazza, whom I shared, what
one might call, a definite "male bonding" experience with.
After I accepted the offer for the trip, I found out that this resort
boasted, what I believe to be, the tallest roller coaster known to mankind.
Rob F and I were crazy enough to agree to ride the f***er...
On the day of the gig, just before soundcheck, I knew it was going to be our
one and probably only chance to do this. Now, I'm not what you might call "a
roller-coaster guy". I hear that there are actually THESE KINDS OF PEOPLE OUT
THERE!!!
Well, I don't seek out and travel to various locations that feature
gut-wrenching, death-defying roller-coasters....in fact, after some of the
more adventuresome escapades of my youth, I now enjoy frequenting solid earth
with much more regularity, whenever possible...
That being said, it wasn't just the ride but moreso what it represented...
There WE were..... and there IT was...so, was I going to wimp out or was I
going to @#$%^ GO FOR IT!!??!!
A symbolic representation of overcoming and grasping personal goals.....(oh
christ!! what happened to just getting to gym a couple days a week?!) for
some crazy reason, I had set it in my mind that I HAD to show myself I was
going to get on this damn thing and prove to myself I had the balls to do
it...
So there we found ourselves...the tallest two guys in line with all these
japanese tourists...needless to say, we definitely stuck out......It wasn't a
short line either, so we were definitely committed once an hour went by and
we were still winding our way up to the thing...Even though it was getting
close to soundcheck time, we couldn't just get out of line after all that
time!!
By the time we finally got up to the coaster there were lockers for all your
hand held things...ya know, pocketbooks, hats, bags, anything that wasn't
nailed down really....I truly thought I was going to take my camera and video
tape us going down this thing..ha ha....but the attendant wasn't going to let
me do that....and it's a lucky thing, really...I would have never found that
camera. With the speed that we were traveling on that thing, it would have
left my hands in the first few seconds of the initial descent. This thing was
so high, birds were looking at us while we were climbing that initial ascent,
looking at us as if they were saying, "aaawk....What the #$%^& are you doing
up here??
Around that time, while Rob and I were listening to the sound each click of
the ratchet, lifting us further and further up the slope of this monstrosity,
I did utter these following words..."uh, Rob,..... I think may have been a
very bad idea".... We both laughed that nervous kind of laughter that you do
when you know you are going to get the #$^&#$%^ knocked out of you.
And we did. That first descent would have obliterated my video camera. In
fact, I have never felt my hands grip anything as tight as I gripped the bar
on that roller-coaster. I think there may have been indentations in the metal
on that car.....
You know, I can't believe that people repeatedly pay money to feel what we
felt going down that thing at around 80 miles an hour.....My insides were
trying to exit through a small pore in the top of my skull at around 75....
In full consciousness, I experienced what felt like the nightmare of falling to
my death. (I always wake up just as it starts to happen in my sleep).. this
time, it wasn't a dream....
...but we did it!!!!..... and like the true tourists we were, I had to even
buy the photo of us flying down one of those inclines. In an effort to make
even more money on tourists such as ourselves, they position about 10 cameras
to photograph every member on those cars, so when you finish the ride and
lived to talk about it, you can also purchase a picture of yourself praying
to God to let you off the damn thing...or at least that you'd be a REAL GOOD
BOY, if he'd just let it be over soon!!!
The gig went really well that evening. Robbie is a wonderful musician as well
as a brilliantly funny and charming person and performer. I always look
forward to any opportunity to do music with him. Although I didn't have as
much time to prepare Robbie's music as well as I would have liked, after
surviving the coaster that afternoon, I was ready to take on the world!!
more soon---------
