May 26, 2008
Reports From The Road by Bryan Devendorf (Post #2)
The National are in the midst of an international tour with REM and Modest Mouse. (Well, Canada and the US, but still.) Amid the chaos of traveling from gig to gig, drummer Bryan Devendorf has been kind enough to keep up with a blog, sending us news from the road when he finds the time to sit down and organize his thoughts. Yesterday we learned from Bryan why Côte de Beaune is absolutely delicious. Today, he provides more nuggets of wisdom; if you're curious to learn who the "H.A.'s" are and why Face/Off makes for a memorable film, keep reading.
DAY TWO (5/24): Border Patrol and Sasquatch!
The bus died today - something to do with the battery - which set us back several hours. Then came holiday traffic at the border. Our luck at the US-Canada line has never been good. Once, before being waylaid for like an afternoon, a US border agent asked us if we'd had any contact with the "H.A.'s" up there. I was like, What? He paused to remove his sunglasses and said, all dramatic, Hell's Angels, son...
Today, we are bottlenecked in a long idling chain of America-bound motor coaches that crawls forward at a pace of about one bus-length every half hour. Our window of opportunity to arrive on time at Sasquatch! passes. (I hate this word "sasquatch." For me it's like "clit" or "chuckle." I shiver inwardly just typing them. These are among my least favorite words to read or hear spoken.)
Several hours later we are barreling south on I-5. The sunshine is glorious. North of Seattle we bear east on 90. The views out the window are of evergreen forests and snowy mountains. I am wearing shorts. At a rest area, Matt and I throw snowballs at each other.
Now unable to make our assigned set time at the festival we are moved to the smaller Yeti! stage. It was like a backyard barbecue for two thousand people. A special one with special seasonings. The night ends and there is no food. No alcohol. We are repeatedly warned to STAY OFF THE ROAD and to NOT LEAVE THE ROAD because of rattlesnakes. The last thing I do is watch Face/Off. John Travolta plays an FBI agent named Sean Archer who says so many priceless things, including, "When we put this thing to bed you can ram the 4th Amendment up my butt!"
-b
For more photographs taken by Bryan while on tour, be sure to head over to Flickr - you can even see the truck that brought the bus repairman. Woo!
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