Recuperate at the Super 8

Last night's show was a thrilling swirl of emotions for me. I've never been more angry before a gig and I poured my frustration into my performance. It was headbanging to the tenth power..there was blood welling up behind my eyebrows and sparks in my hair from all of the energy. Even my bad ears were ringing this time around, in bright midranges left over from the resonance of burly riffs and the mood demons having a support group in my cerebrum. The emotions came from many places..none of them having to do with this great band.It was a great feeling to play at the legendary Masquerade...

I spent some time upstairs in "Heaven" trying to retrace my steps from the Alice in Chains show so long ago. Nothing had changed in that place...the floor was still wafting with a hypnotic scent of buried Budweiser and patterned with the stomped out scuffs of a million Doc Martens. The ghosts of dead rock stars were hovering in dark corners and funneling the wailing echos of lost voices throughout the speaker stacks in the empty hall.

The boys in Leslie and Bang Camaro did a tour on a cruise ship with Lynyrd Skynyrd last year and a good bunch of fans and road family showed up in support last night. I briefly spoke with Mary Rossington, a fiery southern redhead and daughter of legendary Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington. That was a short blast of rubbing elbows with rock royalty..but we had a show to do and I went on about my business of scales and preparation.

I also signed my very first autographs last night with a silver sharpie on a couple t-shirts for two completely enthralled young rocking gamers named Beau and Chase. Rock on young dudes!

We have 10-13 hours of Vantastic-ness to get to Allentown. There will be lots of podcasts and road songs on the headphones today.