Washington - 21/03/01

Bit of a sad rainy drive from Philadelphia to Washington .... Paul is not used to going in this direction so he gets lost ... on the way out of the city we notice all the boat houses by the river which is quite like, on a smaller scale, the stretch of river in Cambridge where we rehearsed for Underwater Moonlight all those years ago .... but there is a real plus when we get to Washington because we are staying in a really posh hotel called the Wyndham ...... I try to negotiate staying here an extra day whilst the band goes up to New York, on the pretext that it has a high-speed ISDN link, but Paul rumbles me and counters with "There's a radio interview in New York tomorrow and they want all 4 of you" .....

The gig is one of those mega-friendly ones, staff-wise, and really well decked out too, with beds, showers and blue lights in the dressing room ... before soundcheck I head off for a nearby CVS to buy a power supply for my POD effects pedal and outside there is a guy called Kenny, a black guy, who is telling stories and probably wants some money .... we hook up and as he's an out of work electrician I 'hire' him to help me find the power supply ..... it doesn't seem safe round here, one of those "funny looks" areas I've got used to recognising in the US, usually because I'm white - I'm glad Kenny is here .... we stop for coffee and he tries to explain what being black is like in Washington ..... he can't, and I can't do more than feeble attempts to respond, but his "I wish you could be me for a week, have my skin, my feelings" and "don't forget me" sound genuine so maybe he did just have two twin girls this week, 3 months after being laid off .... he thinks the soft boys is a funny name and fades into the distance, thumbs up ..... we didn't find a power supply ....

After sound-check (we work out Rock and Roll toilet and a surprise for the Young Fresh Fellows) Ryan's girlfriend phones up Ryan, who is selling merchandise, and says she is bringing some meringues ..... Robyn points out that in almost any other band, "meringues" would probably be code for something more naughty and illegal, but not us .... soon, real meringues arrive with Ryan's girlfriend, and they taste great ...... Robyn also allocates us all "spice" tags and I start off as sporty because of the Fulham shirt I'm wearing, with Morris as posh, Robyn as scary and Kimberley as the all-new "sensible" spice ..... I argue that Kim should get baby on height grounds, which backfires later .....

Watch the Young Fresh Fellows set for the first time .... I didn't realise how good they were ... then have a shower whilst Robyn sleeps on the top floor of the bunk-bed with Kimberley writing out set-lists (new changes from last night) in the corner .... The promoter comes backstage and I try to keep him out of the dressing room, not realising he is the promoter but Robyn wakes up just in time to prevent immediate cancellation of the show ... which is good, because the gig is great although I didn't particularly enjoy ending up as "baby" soft-boy when Robyn ran through the list for the audience .... then we play Rock and Roll Toilet and then spring it on the YFF that they have to play "Give it to the Soft Boys" for us as the second encore .... But "Tad is ill, he's gone home", so Morris sits in on the YFF sitting in on us, and is the only one to make a (small) mistake! Sounds great though, and afterwards Morris is looking pretty moved by the whole experience which he describes as "intense" ... he liked the breakdown in v3 of "Kingdom of Love " (so did I actually) and played Pervert brilliantly tonight .....

Happy happy with the YFF ..... we make plans for New York and Lisa says she might come to Detroit ....... so far, things are getting better every night ....... back at the hotel, Robyn and I discuss our next set list which might start with all the slow songs ... back to the hotel to start uploading .... Oh yes, and miracle of miracles, the dummy sale of one of my CD's (Snail, with Jon Klein my mate, on guitar) on Monday has become a REAL SALE ....... I am "over the moon" as the soccer managers say, but if you want an anonymous tip-off, my money's on Morris's "The Gliders" and track 5, "Trinity" - Lisa, the promoter, thinks otherwise and plays a track from Kimberley's solo album (which Robyn says he really likes) after our set ....... now it's 6 am which is a decent time for a phone call back to the UK where Hiromi says she is selling our house ....... yikes, the creative boredom theory does not only apply to music, it would seem .........

— Matthew