Day 5 – Philadelphia

The drive from Boston to Philadelphia takes you within a stone’s throw of NYC, so I made a quick pit stop at my apartment. I decided to lighten my load a bit, so I dropped off a little bag of dirty laundry. But the real reason I stopped was to use my own bathroom – there’s nothing quite like using your own toilet after a few days away.

I get to Philly and promptly get lost. It seems the hotel isn’t where it is supposed to be. I start to get a little frantic – how the hell do I find this place without an Internet connection. Then suddenly I realized, “Hey, I have a phone.” So after quick call to 411, I get the true address for the hotel. It’s about 20 blocks from where I thought it was. I get there, and the place is gorgeous, but it’s nowhere near the gig in Germantown. Now I had been staying at the same hotels as the band, because I asked the road manager if he could hook me up with recommendations, so I didn’t have to scout my own places. So, it seemed odd that they would pick this really nice place, 45 minutes away from the gig. Turns out the hotel booking was a goof, and they were staying a lot closer. Oh well.

At this point I have a confession to make: I didn’t have a cheese steak while I was in Philly. Ugh, I know.

Anyway, I get to the gig and parking of course is a pain in the ass. After leaving the car on a scary side-street, I hustled toward the bus. I wanted to make sure that the tour manager had put me on the list – he kept forgetting. I went on the bus and it ended up being a really interesting half-hour or so just chatting with the road manager. He’s been doing this kind of gig for years, and we was just shooting the shit with me while he was half-assed watching TV. It was a neat little education – I got to watch him work the phones, and handle the venue people. I then got to hear the story about what had happened that morning. The guys had agreed to do an in-store that day before the show. They were running late getting to Philly, so consequently they were late to the store, which was going to make them even later for sound check at the real venue that night. After the performance at the store, the roadie and merch guy loaded up the U-Haul behind the bus, and they take off to find the venue. About two minutes into the drive they hear all this honking behind them. The roadie jumps out of the moving bus and starts jamming down the street. Turns out the merch guy didn’t put the lock on the U-Haul and the gates popped opening, spilling gear and merchandise all over the streets of Philadelphia. Luckly the only thing they lost was a box of posters that got ruined.

The show that night was phenomenal. The place was packed two hours before the show even started. I ended up meeting some old friends, and made a ton of new ones, and the guys went on stage and promptly blew everyone away. At the end of the show, when they’re walking offstage, the bassist grabs my hand, pulls it open, shoves something in it and walks backstage. It was his pick… sounds corny, but oh-so-cool. My night was completely made.

I made my way back to the hotel and slept very well.

Interesting side-note, when I received my credit card bill, I was only charged for the parking, the room charge never came in.

Next stop – NYC