Well, here I am in Victoria. Or perhaps I should say here WE are because there is a fair entourage on the road this trip. Lori is with me and Rich has his wife Mary-Lynn and daughter Holly. We have two Dans…our sound man and friend Dan Belanger and his friend, Dan # 2; they drove from North Bay, Ontario in a van full of gear to do this BC run with us. And of course we must include the one and only Ronnie King who, really, should count for two on the strength of his larger than life persona. We have two rental vans plus Dan’s truck for transportation, all loaded to the max with gear, merchandise and luggage. Ronnie, of course, has the most baggage, out-doing any of the girls by at least half…Ronnie does not do laundromats. 

It’s 11:30 am…day one of six show nights in a row…something we haven’t done since the seventies. I’m not sure why we’re doing it now. Perhaps it’s a test to see if we’re still worthy of wearing the mantle of Rock n’ Roll…more likely it’s because of the availability of suitable venues in co-ordination with ‘not-completely-insane’ routing. 

Sadly it’s raining today, smudging the beauty of this lovely city. It will be raining for most of the tour according to my weather app. That’s kind of a shame for the guys from the east because BC can be very beautiful in spring and I’m sorry they won’t be seeing it in all it’s sunny glory. I am hoping that we don’t run into snow on any of the mountain drives but  am all too aware that rain in the low country is snow in the mountains, so it will depend on just when we hit those high stretches. 

These are the things that go through one’s mind on day one…the concerns… the worries. 

The big question though, is will we be able to sustain the kind of energy required to do so many consecutive shows…and will anybody crash and bring the caravan to a screeching halt? Who knows? 

As for myself, I have noticed over the years that I tend to subconsciously conserve energy. I feel tired all through the day until show time and then seem to kick in with a big burst of juice that carries on until about midnight which, in these circumstances, is about two hours post performance. I think Ronnie does that too but Rich seems to go like the Ever-ready rabbit all day long. 

Anyway…we shall see. I know that when the lights come up and we walk on stage that we will all be putting out everything that we have. We talk about pacing ourselves for the long haul but the fact is that never happens. Every performance is all in. 

On the days when everything goes smoothly we can catch an hour of sleep, or at least what I call ‘zoning’, before heading for the venue. Some days that won’t work out and we’ll go from the drive to the sound check to the gig without time for a decent meal. 

That’s another issue…eating. Timing dinner is important. A meal too late will leave you bloated and gasping for breath, especially on the high notes, so with shows starting at 7:30 (the new norm for aging audiences) it is best to be finished eating no later than 6:00. I like to be done with two full hours to spare because drumming with a tummy full is like swimming with 50 pounds of lead strapped to your waist. If time is tight I usually opt for a salad or soup, enough to fuel me for the show but afterwards I’m ready to consume anything and everything I can get my hands on. 

So that’s how it is on day one. I must end this now because I have to go help organize the merch…then sound check…then dinner…hopefully a little zone-out and…

It’s showtime folks!