mattwertz

The last couple days have been amazing. We've added a new member to the family!

see it? it's our new GPS.  it talks to us in a british accent and tells us where to turn. I think sometimes he gets confused though and sends us driving in circles, or into people's driveways...or maybe 
it's just his way of having fun... either way, it's nice to have an international member of the van.

We played a killer show in Lawrence at the Granada Theatre.  The last time i was in the Granada was watching the Ben Folds Five play in the fall of '97.  One of the best shows i've ever seen, so it was a dream come true to play the stage of the Granada for myself.

We had to make the drive to Boulder the next day, which is like 10 hours, so we got a head start and slept in Hays, Ks for a few hours. The last time I stayed in Hays, Kansas, I was probably 10 years old and my family was stuck in a blizzard on our way out to Colorado to ski.  Ahh, the memories.

Boulder greeted us with 40 degree, sunny skies and the Flatirons in the background. the Fox was ready for the show, and so were we.

We had no idea what was coming...I drove up to the Fox after dinner to see THIS:

People just kept coming in! I really don't know where y'all came from, but i'm glad you did. Sell out number five, and the best one yet. This was also to be the last show with the Alternate Routes, and 
the last time of us performing 'Gonna Get Through' together. We made it an extra special one, and had Jon's tour manager Bob come out and play banjo.

I think that's 11 people on stage.  yep. 11.

and the view from the balcony...

beautiful.

I think Boys II Men said it best when they sang 'it's so hard to say  goodbye to yesterday'... and indeed it was, you gotta get the end of  tour group pic in, though.

See ya soon...

Wertz

So i dont know what it is about the mid-west, but the coldest experiences i've EVER had in my life have taken place in the midwest.  Prior to this past week, the coldest i remember being was   in Orange City, Iowa... -4 degrees.  We slaughtered that record in Minnesota... with a painful (and completely unnecessary) -11 degrees.  don't believe me?

 

We obviously got out of there as quickly as possible... i mean, what GOOD is cold weather, anyway?  I'm trying to figure out the POINT.  I mean, i understand it to a certain degree- like to the degree that it takes to get snow... but beyond that, do we REALLY need it THAT cold?

I guess the other good thing about cold weather is it makes being INSIDE that much sweeter...especially on super bowl sunday. It also makes Rufus's Super- Secret chicken Chili even more amazing then it already is.

Someone mentioned that Rufus looks like David Arquette the other day, and now, looking at this picture up next to David Arquette,  i think the guy was right.

So, my buddy Bradley opened up his house to us in Des Moines and we invited the Alternate Routes guys over and we had a little Super Bowl Party. Timmy had the idea to make the game a little more interesting, and guess who won both the half time and the final draws?

yep. and as you can imagine, since i was the guy drawing the numbers,  there were conspiracy accusations being flung left and right.

i won fair and square.

we were all excited about the Colts big V. Probably because we think Peyton Manning is the Man (ning).  I guess Rufus wasn't uber-stoked, but he kinda decided at last-minute to root for the Bears, so it doesn't count.

After the game, we all sat around and had a 5 hour jam sesh. It was amazing.  The Routes love them some jam seshes and it's so refreshing. They are the real deal, folks.

There were more g-strings in that room than at a dance club... what?

All for now- we're piling up miles on the van. Funny how 99% of our  life is being lived in this thing, but everyone else only sees the 1%  lived on the stage.  that's what the blog is for, i guess...

Wertz, '07

Sitting here in Madison, Wisconsin on what could be possibly be the coldest day on record EVER.  We kept watching the Weather Channel, hoping that what it was forcasting for the next couple days was a mistake, but so far it's proving to be dead on.  I feel like I've been a little dishonest with you lately, and need to reconcile... you see, i left out a really important detail on the last blog that i
feel needs to be addressed.  (see image)

yeah, we ran out of gas, and not just anywhere... we ran out of bridge going through New York City.  (see image)

That's the exit for the George Washington Bridge.  Probably one of the least convenient places to run out of gas... fortunately Jon McLaughlin was about 20 minutes behind us and were able to stop and
get some gas and rescue us (see below)

We played an incredible room last night in Ann Arbor called 'The Ark'. The list of who has played at that place is endless- everyone from Marc Cohn to Patty Griffin to Nickel Creek, Tom Waits, the list
goes on and on.

We can't stop watching the 'Dog Whisperer' on the National Geographic Channel. Its funny how much what he's doing with dogs applies to humans, too.  More on this to come... we've got to go play a show-

Wertz '07