Wow, what a weekend. FINALLY I have a few minutes to fill you in.

Friday’s gig at the Blue Pepper in Salem with Breanna was great, of course. It was just me and her, and I played cello. Mark (the guy who books shows at the venue) joined us on acoustic guitar for a few songs. It was really nice to see our Salem friends again. Say what you will about Salem’s drug problems and crime problems, but all I know of the town is the Blue Pepper. Love it love it.

Saturday I sorta dinked around in the morning, doing laundry and stuff like that, until 5:00, when I had to get to the Doug Fir for TheStephBand’s soundcheck. We waited until almost 6:00, while the main band did their soundcheck, then we finally got to do ours. The show didn’t start until 9:00, so we all went our separate ways afterwards. I went home and relaxed for a while, had some sushi and took my time heading back. The show was great; quite possibly one of our best this year. Everything sounded awesome, and all our shows lately have made us really comfortable playing together. DrummerDrew and BassistWill are really becoming familiar with Steph’s music by now, and it’s nice to see them both stretching out inside the songs. Another fun thing about the show was that I got to meet a blogging friend for the first time. Elizabeth (you know her from Lizzy Dishes Portland fame) was there, and it was really nice to meet her in person. (Hey, Elizabeth!) Saussha and Conny came too, and so did Shelby. Good times were had by everybody, but I think I had the best time of all.

Sunday morning, Saussha and Conny and I went on a little picture expedition. We started down in Southeast Portland, looking for urban decay. There was plenty of urban, but not so much in the way of decay, so we headed up toward the industrial part of town underneath the Fremont Bridge. We each got quite a few pictures, but I haven’t uploaded mine from my camera yet–I’m doing that today–so I’ll have to share some with you as soon as I do. Saussha was talking about making a Flickr page, so you may get a real treat, and be able to see pictures taken by all three of us.
We spent a good amount of time out there, then started to get hungry, so we drove back across the railroad tracks to have a wee bit o’ lunch at the Widmer brewery. I wouldn’t say it was spectacular, but it was decent enough. Then I had to get to the Mississippi Pizza Pub for another cello gig with Breanna. This time ViolinistKarli was there, and that alone catapulted us to the Next Level, for sure. When she would do melodies, that freed me up to do nice counterpoint bass lines and harmonies, in an improvised classical style. The thing I love most about playing in Breanna’s band is that not only are we an amazing and textured rock band, but we can then turn on a dime (“I’ll give you nine cents change.”) and play in a classical ‘chamber pop’ style, and have even more fun because that’s such an unusual thing. LOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEIT.
Wayne (who produced her CD) was there last night too, and he joined us on glockenspiel and harmony vocals for a handful of the songs. So nice to see him and his wife Meg again. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to see Meg since all of us were in Yakima to play with Chad Bault two or three months ago. We (Breanna, her friend Jeff, me, Wayne, Meg, and Cris and Manda from the other band who played with us) went to the Crow Bar afterwards to talk until the wee hours. And yes, I brought my cello inside the bar with me. No way I’m leaving it in the car to be stolen.

Incidentally, that thing about stopping on a dime (“I’ll give you nine cents change”) is a reference I slipped in here for Alyssa’s benefit. If you too are wise to the ways of the Cos, feel free to leave a comment.

Today I have NOTHING to do, and I’m very happy about that. All I know is that at this moment I have nowhere that I need to be, and I can spend the entire day at my leisure. After so many days in a row of gigs and driving and trips and conversations and cars full of instruments, it’s nice to just sit here on a sunny day and read. Or write. Or listen to CryingNeighborBaby. Or best of all, I could just sit and reminisce about how fun this five-day weekend has been.