Diary Archives
08.23.2006
Final Diary Entry
Our final leg of the year long Life in Slow Motion tour started with our bass player Robbie's Dad being hospitalized for what the doctors said would be his final time.
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06.15.2006
European Festivals/South Africa
We got back together to rehearse and perform a radio show at the Church at the end of May, but our bass player and his wife had their first child, Finn Malone, on the 21st and Robbie needed to stay home.
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05.08.2006
Byron Bay/New Zealand
Our first show in Australia was the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival - a really cool hippie festival held over five days in this amazing part of the country.
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03.11.2006
USA Tour
We started March 1st at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. We've played here before and remembered it fondly. Like the Fox in Detroit, this is an amazing looking and sounding venue.
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02.07.2006
European Tour
2006 began for the band with a couple days rehearsal in the Church where we learned a few new songs and ran over the others. Everyone was in top form and looking forward to our European tour.
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12.13.2005
UK Tour
Manchester Evening News Arena...we got in to Manchester on the Saturday of George Best's funeral. Robbie threw his bag in his room and got a taxi to Man United game...
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12.05.2005
Start of the UK Tour
Dave's larangytis brought our American tour to a screeching halt back in October and the healing process was slow.
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10.16.2005
Toronto, Washington D.C. and New York City
We started our latest tour in Toronto, two months to the day after our last show in Toronto.
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09.26.2005
UK Tour
So this has to be the shortest tour I've ever been on. It lasted six days! Can you really call it a tour if it's less than a week? Maybe it should be called a leg.
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09.16.2005
Promo, TV Tapings and the Record's Release
We have been taping a lot of television shows since getting back from America last month.
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08.30.2005
Promo Tour Wrap Up
From Boulder Colorado we flew in to Seattle for a day off which also happened to be Clune's Birthday. Dave had something special planned, we were told to meet at the pier at two in the afternoon.
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08.16.2005
Boulder Colorado
Boulder Colorado is the site of the long running, annual "Triple A" Radio Convention. This was the original show that this tour was built around.
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08.05.2005
The Tour Begins
So I am in the back lounge of our bus, driving from Boston to Philladelphia overnight. Our show at the Avalon tonight went really well, for everyone except Dave.
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07.13.2005
Rehearsals in North London
My name is David Nolte and I'm the guitar player in David Gray's band. Dave has asked me to update his website weekly in the form of a tour journal which will start today.
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Diary Entry
Promo Tour Wrap Up
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
From Boulder Colorado we flew in to Seattle for a day off which also happened to be Clune's Birthday. Dave had something special planned, we were told to meet at the pier at two in the afternoon. We ended up sailing the Pueget Sound all afternoon in 'Clune's Car' (Check out the picture) The weather was perfect, great wind and I didn't get sick...excellent afternoon!
Next night we played the Moore Theatre and thouroughly enjoyed it. Everyone was in great shape and we were all playing together really well. The crowd in Seattle was really cool, everything you'd expect. After the show I got on our bus that was parked out front and could hear a guy singing and playing Babylon. It was very strange to hear. I thought about going out to watch but I opted for the safety of the bus.
We drove to San Francisco straight after the show in Seattle and pulled in at 5:00 the next evening...that is a long drive. The Filmore was a truly memorable show. Everything came together so perfectly that night. The shows on this tour have all been 'good' or 'great' but for us, this show was perfect. Dave was so happy afterwards, he really loved that crowd, San Francisco is a big, sentimental favorite of his. 
So we drove overnight to Los Angeles next and checked into the Sunset Marquis, which did not dissapoint on any level. It provided a completely surreal backdrop to my long anticipated reunion with my wife and kids. They drove over from our home in the Valley to pick me up which took longer than I thought it would. So I sat on my balcony and watched Anna Nicole Smith sun herself while someone from South Park had a meeting with the Bo Selecta guy. Is the poolside thing what this place is known for? It was alright for awhile but I just wanted to go home. That night we played the John Anson Ford Theatre which is right across the canyon from the Hollywood Bowl. It was cool venue, open air amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills with subterranean dressing rooms where you are told to beware of rattlesnakes. The place was built for the express purpose of presenting 'faith based' plays. You can tell because there are multiple crosses built into the building and a big white neon one above the place. The stage was sloped forward and I constantly felt like I was going to fall over. The music was particularly quiet because of neighborhood noise restrictions and, therefore, the crowd was particularly loud. There was this lady that kept yelling, "David, David, WOOOO, Over Here, Look at me, David, look over here!!!" This was on and off the entire night with a strong rally of woops at the end. What did she want him to do? Stop the song and smile at her? It was strange. The show, again, was great...Dave's performance was really good this night, a payoff from all the shows we've done. I said goodbye to everyone as they were all going home the next day and I was home.
I talked to a friend after the show that night about this diary thing. She had read them and thought that an English person had edited my stuff because it said 'queue' up instead of line up. I realized I was doing something I swore I wouldn't do. Talk (or write) English! I hate when Americans come back from London and start throwing around words like mate, loo, shite, pissed, etc. etc. All done with an accent...horrible! And now I find myself asking where the lift is and mispronouncing tomato and there's nothing I can do about it. I've spent the last couple years living in London as much as Los Angeles and it's rubbed off on me. Sorry. At least I never sound English.
So that's it for the North American Promo Tour. We are taping TV shows in London and preparing for dates in Ireland and the UK in September. That will be the next entry.
