23 July 2001
Reno/Tahoe Travel Journal
I wasn't very diligent about keeping a travel journal this time. But here are some of the highlights of the trip:
7-20-01 (Friday)
The flight to Reno was uneventful, as most trips via Continental (the best domestic airline going right now -- Gordon Bethune has done an amazing job turning around that company) are these days. It was our first trip to Reno, and Callie and I were both surprised at just how desolate the place is. I guess the description "desert valley" didn't really register before we arrived. I was pleased with the rental car -- a 3-day compact-class rental that turned out to be a Mitsubishi Mirage. Nice little car.
We had time to kill before we could check in, so we buzzed all over Reno (which did NOT take long). We checked in to the Hilton, where the Crows were scheduled to play that night. I must say, the Reno Hilton is the worst "nice" hotel I have ever stayed in. I guess to crazed gamblers it would be okay, but the thing was not as clean or as well-maintained as I would expect. And it turned out when we got there, the restaurant with the buffet had shut down for the afternoon (never mind the "24-hour" advertisement). So we made a trip into downtown Reno, and hit a local establishment of some color (read Dive) called Longneck's (with a giraffe motif -- get it? Told ya it was a dive), which had a really friendly bartender and was fun. Back to the Hilton.
The show was just downstairs and that made up for the Hilton's other inadequacies. More than made up for it, as it turned out. Glen Phillips (former Toad the Wet Sprocket) opened. He played some old Toad favorites, but he REALLY has taken an alt-country/folk-rock turn -- and a good turn, I think. The guy would fit right in playing the Mucky Duck or Rudyard's. He was a little subdued Friday, but then so were the Crows. They started with a couple of new songs, and I got this sick feeling that they had sort of gone the way of Fleetwood Mac towards the end of their mega-success -- you know, when that group released that dreadful cd with "Save Me" on it, and all the fire and passion was just gone? But then they cranked it up, and all such thoughts disappeared. I think the problem was that they just aren't really in tour mode (they aren't supporting a cd, just playing some select shows to work on their new stuff) and had just arrived in Reno. Hell, if my reaction to Reno is any example, I shouldn't have been concerned! After a few songs, the rest of the show was amazing. Their new stuff is original and different (they, too, have adopted more of an alt-country/folk-rock sound), and they reworked some of the older songs into an acoustic set (Charlie even broke out the harmonica some). I like that. I don't want to hear them try to remake Mr. Jones 500 times! It is so awesome that they trotted out Dan playing a banjo (!) on some songs, and Immy on pedal steel, and Charlie on harmonica (and sometimes accordion). And Adam -- Adam is just Adam. Good show. Better than last year's much more commercial, "slick" shows. Favorite new song: Richard Manuel is Dead (very clever writing, country sound, nice harmonies).
07-21-01 (Saturday)
Off to South Lake Tahoe for hiking and two more Crows shows!
Climbing out of the armpit known as Reno was pretty cool, as was Carson City. About 5 miles outside of South Lake Tahoe, we stopped at the Spooner Summit Trailhead of the Tahoe Rim Trail I had previously researched. We headed up the south side of the trail and hiked about an hour and a half to a height up about 7800 feet. All of the photos first set of "trail" photos are from this hike. We did most of the ascent (700 feet) in the first 30 minutes, which was quite a workout for a couple of flatlanders! But well worth it. Photos do not do the beauty of that place justice, nor do they capture how stunning Lake Tahoe appears from a mountain overlook. And there is no way to relate the smell of those woods. The piney fragrance was the strongest I've experienced hiking anywhere. So too was the sense of isolation. Though we were not THAT far from the trailhead, the road noise was minimal, and the heavily used trail showed NO real signs of abuse. I didn't see one piece of trash the whole time, which impressed me. I like people who take care of public lands. Too many people don't. They are a-holes.
We came back down (literally and figuratively) and managed to get into South Lake Tahoe, check into our room, check the place out some before grabbing a nap, then off to Caesar's for dinner and the show. The Vegas-style buffet was too much. The show rocked. None of the slow start from the night before. They just opened it up and played their asses off, and Glen Phillips was much better opening. Maybe it's just the mountain air that had the effect. I couldn't help noticing just how damn HAPPY everyone around Tahoe looked, and how healthy and, interestingly, ATTRACTIVE (happy, healthy people are ATTRACTIVE). I had the same observations in Calgary last year -- the same healthy robust spirit in almost everyone (even if they're all socialists in Calgary -- St. Ayn would certainly be perplexed, and would probably mutter angrily about evasion as she hacked her lungs up while puffing a beloved cigarette). The only downer -- for some reason, the greedy bastards at Caesar's set a strict 11 pm curfew, and so the Crows were forced offstage with no encore probably 3-4 songs short of what one would expect from a show where the lowest ticket price was $35. It didn't help that Adam launched into one of those bizarre episodes where he repeats some poem or phrase over and over and OVER (along the lines of "She fucked over my friends, stole my records" blah blah blah. Kinda funny when he does it most of the time, just not on a night when the show is artificially short anyway). Still, it was a good show, and the rest of the evening capped things off nicely.
07-22-01
We got a late start after sleeping in satisfyingly late. Couldn't find one trailhead for which we had poor directions, and that's probably good (it had an ascent of 1400 feet over 1.6 miles, which would have been interesting). So we went back to the Spooner Summit Trailhead and hiked the north side this time. In just under an hour and a half, we managed an elevation change of 900 feet, stopping on the trail at another stunning overlook at 8000 feet. Lots of beautiful shots along the way, including looking back down over the highway where we were parked, from about 700 feet directly above (Carson City and the Carson Valley in the distance, but not really visible because of the limitations of digital photography).
We got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and took in our final Crows show of the adventure (and of their mini-tour). Adam seemed very happy, perhaps because he was partaking heavily of a bottle of wine throughout the show. He seemed really to enjoy the sound the band was pounding out during instrumental solo interludes. And he should have -- they really did some interesting work. I hadn't seen the Crows before last year's tour promoting This Desert Life. I really like that CD, especially Mrs. Potter's Lullaby (which they didn't do, unfortunately, because, as Adam said, "That song's 50 minutes long, and I don't remember the lyrics. And there's not even a solo section so I can sit down and look them up in the middle of it"), but that tour was too slick and too commercial for my taste. That's not to say they weren't good -- they were REALLY good, and really slick. But for these shows, they seemed to have a lot more FUN playing, and the passion and conviction came through. They really seemed to feed off the crowds in these intimate venues.
* * * *
So there you have it. 3 days of playing Counting Crows groupie. Probably the 3 best shows of any band that I've ever seen. Throw in the mountains and the company, and not a bad getaway at all.
[Posted @ 10:03 PM CST]
