In Search of Cool City

Each day we roll into a new city on tour and if time permits between those Phoner newspaper interviews and radio station visits.. we go in search of the cool areas to visit… sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you miss.

Take Portland a couple of days ago. Here the good thing is the central area is pretty small allowing us to walk everywhere. Mick and I  walk out and within a couple of blocks we hit the most amazing Cool second hand comic and book store… so much stuff there to take home for the Rock and Roll Library.. within 10 minutes I already know next stop we’re gonna be heading to “Ross”  to buy another suitcase to hold the buys including so many comics at a dollar a throw and a giant hardback book on “the Oregon Trail” that I know will cause United Airlines to send us gleefully to the overweight baggage checker to pay the overage.  The place is kooky too but the girl assistant is really knowledgeble – you could buy a Time magazine corresponding to your birthdate to the Model railway magazine you bought as a child to old Rolling Stone magazines…everything, if you know what to look for –  heaven.

In search of the Cool diner next. Miss Kooky points us across the block to “Mothers”. Kinda modern design, lots exposed brickwork and sections of black flock wallpaper and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They’re playing Sinatra live from the Sands on the sound system. Its perfect. We eat chicken soup with Matzo dumplings – a hearty meal for starving musicians. . Fate (well, and Miss Kooky) has pointed us here and now we can sit back, discuss how things have been going and in those moments of clarity that come when the perfect music hits the perfect food plus ambience, new ideas start to flow.  It’s a world away from the microwaved horror plates you get in the local corporate mall bland food supercenter. We love it. Anthony Bourdain would love it and we love Anthony Bourdain.

Quick trip to Ross and drop off the first load back at the Monaco Hotel and back out. Next we stumble on “Jackpot Records”. Now here it is – a local store run by people who are passionate about music, specialising in the records they’d like to buy themselves. There’s an amazing Psychedelic section with loads of far out bootlegs. Its inspirational. In the background we both become aware of this music playing that we’ve never heard before – it’s great so we enquire –  “Skin turns to glass by Nadja”  is in the bag along with a Stones bootleg, a dvd of a 50’s live TV show TNT with the Byrds, Spector, Petula Clark, Donavon, Bo Diddley – all playing live. I’m scribbling new lyrics on the back of a local store guide before we’ve even left the building.

We pass a store selling 50’s toys and then into what in the 70’s would have been called a “head” shop with so many rock and roll books I had not seen. Again the owner is helpful and chatty… “maybe we’d like to see the porno section downstairs?”  he casually asks as if he were directing us to the cookery shelves – not really what we are looking for – but we liked the scale models in fantasy positions though. …maybe next time.

We leave and load up the donkeys and we haven’t even reached Powels, the West’s largest bookshop yet – Borders it is not. People are playing chequers in its coffee shop and you can take books there to read before buying.

Over the road we spy “Judgement at Nuremberg”  the original  50s black and white movie which is playing at a tiny cinema and are tempted, but having seen it already knowing it’s a long movie we pass –  but nearby in a homely cinema called “The Living Room” they are showing “Dog Day Afternoon” – also along with each new feature they team it with a directors early work – genius. You sit in comfy chairs – hence Living room, to watch the film. We decide an hour in the foyer bar is what is needed to regroup. A man and his fiance come up to chat to enquire why we are there, sorry they missed the show the previous night but they just got in from Seattle to hang out here and soak up some of this amazing city. They did not even know we played in Seattle – damn, thats why we’re here on tour because we’re not connecting with these people yet. There’s a lot of work to do.

When we were in SWSX in Austin Texas Mick and I did this crazy Q and A in front of an audience where for over an hour we talked about anything and everything, from culture to history – anything except “how we made the record” How do you know all this stuff they asked us afterwards – well now you know.

Taking the wagon train packed with culture back to the Hotel for a quick refresh we then  hit a restuarant we’d spotted on our travels called “Clyde Common”. You sit with other diners on long tables all together. The kitchen is in the middle of the room and you could watch the chefs cooking real food – it was friendly and delicious and after finally sharing a pineapple upside down cake dessert we staggered back to the hotel ready to leave for Denver.

“That’s what living is all about..” Bob Dylan, from “Sign on the Window”

How great is being on tour when it’s like this. When we arrive in some cities we know people who can show us where is Hip and cool and where to go. Other times we haven’t a clue because we don’t know anyone and just rolled in.

We’ve got a lot of places still to visit – Minneapolis,Philadelphia, Cambridge, Cincinnati, Washington, Orlando.….

I hope we find the cool places…. we’ll be looking out.