Saturday, October 15, 2011

Sweat Sweat and More Sweat

As we continued our steamy Summer tour down the East Coast, I gradually became hotter and hotter. Our next stop was Wellfleet Mass at the Beachcomber. Thanks to our good friends at Pipeline Surfshop, we were able to get off the bus and grab some waves down at a local break called Coast Guards.   The poor folks at the shop must hate it when we show up with a handful of people wanting to take out their best sticks. We always play two nights at the Beachcomber. I love this place because it is at the end of the road. There is nothing around for miles, spotty cell service and no shower. We parked the bus behind the venue and camp for a couple of days. The Comber has some of the best seafood the Cape has to offer. MMMmm... I love the lobster.  The fans are off the chart. People pile in this little place after dinner is finished and the Comber is transformed from Seafood shack to concert venue. The staff takes a break and gears up for the thirsty fans. The stage doubles as a dinner table area during the day. It feels like I am at home playing a local gig. 
     Both shows were great and the second day, we scored some great surf right before dark. It was a solid 6 foot swell jamming on the sand bars right out front of the Comber. I ran down the hill towards the beach board in hand with no leash and very little wax thinking it was waist high. Boy was I wrong. I swear I thought Donavon was going to break my longboard in half as he was sliding into these ridiculous barrels. I became very humbled as I paddled out. 
     At 3 am, we loaded up and headed to Fairfield for the next show. The Fairfield show was sold out and super fun. The Venue was a small theater nestled in the heart of the city. The patrons were sitting at tables around the horse shoe-shaped stage which made for an intimate show. It was a nice change from the sardine packed Beachcomber plus there was a shower unlike the past few days. It was nice to be back in civilization and Starbucks. 
     The next drive was a long one. We drove all the way out to Montauk, NY to play a free show at the Surf Lodge. Once again the venue is right on the water and the weather was great. This was my third time at the Lodge. We quickly got off the bus and headed down to the ditch to get some surf. The beaches in this area are all covered with stones which makes it very difficult to walk your board out. My poor toe got hung in between some rocks and pulled it out of socket. The locals were kind enough to lend us some foamies from their surf school quiver. I ran into surf legend Tom Curren while we were out in the water. The locals out at the ditch are very friendly and will let you get your share of waves. It seems to be a small knit surf community up there. Although I do hear the local sea life is not so friendly. There seem to be a good deal of shark sightings in the area due to a trash dump located off the coast. 
     The show at the lodge was over crowded and full of very wealthy vacationers from all over. The lodge is set up like a small open air bar and eatery with a 25 room hotel attached to it. It lies somewhere in between hostel and Boutique. I have never seen some many luxury cars in one place. The venue holds around 500 people but that night I heard there were around 1500 peeps on the property. The fire Marshall was not happy. After our 90 minute set the lodge turns into a disco inferno with bass pumping jams blasting out the crowd while they sip on their $15 cocktails. 

     After recovering from a late night, I headed down to the beach with the Billabong crew and surfed off the last night's binge. Nothing like cold ass water to wake up your hangover. Donny was already at the beach with a photographer shoot some amazing photos on a tin plate camera. 

3 comments:

  1. Eric, I am a Brazilian keyboardist who just know the work of Donavon and also yours. Dude, I would tell you that I was impressed with the sound of the keyboards in the show at Abbey Road (the DVD that introduced me to Donavon).
    Also now I could follow his small diary here on the blog and I was excited about the life of a musician that you carry. I guess that should be a great satisfaction being able to do what you love, like you do.

    Greetings from your new fan of Brazil, Carlos.

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