03.01.14 — 5:42PM Mountain — Sat. — In the Venue, Salt Lake City, UT

“I want my fucking Red Bull…” — Some kid

Doors have not yet opened and I’m already anxious about getting to the airport. It’s a 1:15AM flight out of SLC airport, which is approximately 15 minutes from here. Current plan is to leave the show somewhere between 10:30 and 11PM to get over there. I do not know how it’s going to work, with Jim Pitts driving us over there and then coming back here to get gear after the Pentagram set, loading out with help from the Pentagram guys while we’re at the airport doing security and all the rest of that shit to get on a plane and head back east in what so far has proven to be lackluster weather.

The latter I probably shouldn’t be too concerned with, since none of the weather we encountered today lasted very long. We got into Laramie, Wyoming, last night somewhere around 4AM, after hitting some ice fog and a considerable storm along the way. I got to drive the last two hours or so, which weren’t nearly as bad as some of what I’ve come through this winter at home. Bonus was we did get to wake up later than the last couple days, and I think that’s made the difference, but after 500 miles on the road through Wyoming and Utah to get here, patience is pretty thin. Doors are in about eight minutes. 6PM.

I’ll say this, in hopes perhaps of pulling myself a little bit out of my anxious funk: Wyoming was fucking beautiful. Some of the most righteous “nothing” I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if it topped the desert — I’ll probably be a while in comparing the gorgeousness of the sundry landscapes witnessed before a clear winner emerges — but from mountains covered in snow to bare rock, high desert and vast, empty, big sky open spaces, the scenery was nonstop more or less the whole way out of Laramie. We watched Zoolander in the back and it actually didn’t take as long to get to Salt Lake City as I thought it would — Utah following suit in visual impressiveness — but I continue to be tense and frazzled after the ride.

Probably not as much so as Radio Moscow, who spun out en route and did two full turns on the ice but fortunately kept their van on the road. No substitute for adventure. I hear pre-sales aren’t great. I hear the show is ending at 11PM. I hear the venue wants a piece of the merch. I hear Clutch on the P.A. I hear a plane flying overhead coming out of the airport. I hear all kinds of things, and my ears aren’t even that good. I’ve always had better vision than hearing. Ignore me. I’m fucking tired and nervous about getting to the airport in time. I’m glad to be here. I realize how lucky I am to be here. When I go home, I’m going to eat baguette and pesto, and I’m going to have a salad and some of my own iced tea, and I’m going to sit quietly on the couch with The Patient Mrs. and the dog.

Who the fuck am I kidding? I’ll be about 10 minutes in the door before I’m upstairs in the office checking email. Every one of these days has been a gift. I know this.

Tags: Pentagram Radio Moscow Kings Destroy Tour, Salt Lake City, Utah

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2014 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.