West Indian Girl

yes…our first show in broad daylight

the sacramento heritage festival is all about real music for real people damnit. this festival was really cool cos it reminded me of some of the towns i grew up in. unfortunately for me the day started way too early for my liking but that’s what happens when you have to sleep in the van the night before. you see, the night before at the super 8 motel the lady refused let me bring tony in. needless to say i just couldnt leave the kid out there by himself so i slept in the van with him and thus ended up waking up at like 7am when the sun came beating in down on my face. fun? no. even though it sucked it was kinda cool cos i got up earlier than i think i have in years, fed tony, and walked over to some psuedodenny’s type restaurant to have myself some breakfast. i also took tony for a long walk and called my dad who was wondering why i was calling him so early in the morning. as far as the show went i thought it was pretty awesome because we were real loose. i kinda liked playing outdoors in the daytime. yeah it was weird but it was cool to be drinking beer and playing on the banks of a river on a sunny day. overall i had a great time. the sacramento people were all no nonsense music fans and that’s a nice change of pace from the average detached snobby la industry wank that take up precious space at la shows. brian (above right) was a cool promoter and i’m gald he booked us at the festival because we made a bunch of genuine fans. on a really random note – i played the whole show with my fly down which is really fucking funny…and funnier that noone in the band told me. you can see it in the picture.

Mariqueen’s Mind

The City: um… i’m not a big sacramento fan only because i used to loathe chris webber. however, since playing this festival, i’ve changed my mind. sacramento is a beautiful town with some of the friendliest people ever.

The Venue: it was outdoors and grassy… nice and clean… as pleasant as pleasant can be. except the burritos… ugh, the most substandard burritos i’ve ever had to eat in my life. i should’ve gotten the barbeque chicken sandwich… i’m still kicking myself for it.

The Show: we were all a little disheveled from last night. we’re not used to playing our set before 9pm… much less outdoors. i didn’t get to go through all my usual pre show warm ups. no hot tea, no dropping deuces… no vocal warm ups. in spite of it all we managed to bust out the set. we got a great response.

What Were You Thinking While Playing: i was jonesing for a hammock and some iced tea for most of the day. but most of the time these thoughts plagued me during the set, “i can’t hear myself”… “i can’t believe we’re playing outdoors in the daylight… crazyyy”… “i can’t believe i’m up right now”… “god, i must sound like crap”… “i need tea”… “oh i hope abbey or sabrina don’t think i suck (they were sitting right at the front and kind of making me nervous)”…

Interesting Things After The Show: well, i tried to buy sunglasses and found that no one at the outdoor festival was selling any. weird. what else? um, i used the port-a-potty… is that how you spell it? that was especially interesting because i hadn’t used one since last year’s coachella and i had just gotten a visit from aunt flow and i was in all kinds of weird chinese acrobatic positions and it didn’t exactly smell like a bakery in there… num sain? fear not… i am a pro and worked everything out. i hope we get to play in sacramento again… i have one request though… i think they should totally bust out the cowbells… i have a hunger and that’s the only thing that will satisfy it.

Carter’s Conscience Sacramento — talk about a doing a 180! Fillmore at night, then the Sac heritage festival during broad daylight. We played at 2:00, which is just crazy. I don’t even bother calling Fran or Rob at 2:00 on any average day, because more than likely there still in bed! But having said that, the crowd was really appreciative and cool, and we got a warm welcome being that it was our first time in Sac. I had a beer, ate a BBQ sandwich, wore a wifebeater and had a great time. For the rest of the afternoon people were stopping us and telling us how much they enjoyed our set, etc. I think that was the first time I’ve ever played with a band outside during the daytime. Sorry about the Terminator, SAccers, that was our bad down here in LA!

bernie – making it happen

what my bed looked like

what everybody elses bed looked like

well rested people outside my hotel room

again…what my hotel room and roommate looked like

— F.TEN