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Sparklehorse and Mercury Rev US Tour, Summer 1999 Tour Manager Matt keeps you up to date... Sunday 20th June, 1999: The tour has gone really well, with Sparklehorse and Mercury Rev alternating headlining the show each night, tonight we are in Woodstock New York, Sparklehorse played a great set. Woodstock (Bearsville Theatre) Babies on the Sun Spirit Ditch Painbirds Tears on Fresh Fruit Saturday My Yoke is Heavy Sad & Beautiful World Sparrows Sunshine Hey Hey what do I say Hammering the Cramps Heart of Darkness All Night Home Happy Man Jonathon Donahue from Mercury Rev played "The Saw" on Spirit Ditch which sounded awesome, Mark went on at the end of Mercury Revs set (the Last song of the encore) and sung a verse of "Cortez the Killer" by Neil Young! The local radio station put the show out on the web @ www.wdst.com. |
US Tour, Spring 1999
Back in April 1999, during the tour with Varnaline, the band thought you should all know what was going on, so they decided to write: jonathan here: 
"presently on our way from boulder to lawrence kansas. For those of you not familiar with US
geography, we've been drving a lot between gigs this week: vancouver - salt lake city - boulder
- kansas city.. half the country covered. i just decided in my sleep to write up an entire tour
diary soon, but i may post it to the magnetic web site because it will definitely be my
interpretation! i will say this as a holdover til then: so far we've done some great shows.
the entire west coast was covered in excellent sparklehorse shows. our new bassist, dave dreiwitz,
has integrated nicely and we now have electric bass on some songs which has expanded the sonic
range and the repertoire. from here, onward and upward through the midwest to the east coast..."
Scott Minor (Drums): "all excited about decor posibilities for the
skipper's lounge... nothing else going on really. founda 3D camera at a pawn shop for cheap.
favorite tourist location so far: bonneville salt flats - holy ground of land speed. enjoying the endless persuit for the perfect casio deal. thrift, pawn, used electronics shops, seen some good ones, but will always find rest and comfort in the skipper's lounge with our SK-1. most confusing moment: david performed a stunning version of Led Zepplin's "Rock and Roll" at the denny's lounge friday night kareoke competion, south east Idaho,to a despondent crowd, mostly truckers, pregnant high school cuties, and bitter local competitors." mark linkous:
"the most interesting part of the tour for me was the new guy david, or something, got lost in the
woods during rehearsal in virginia . he turned up at a nearby ostrich farm a little shaken being
chased by one of the large birds. i think he also bought an ostrich wallet."
For a more in-depth look behind the scenes of this tour, I recommend Jonathan's tour diary. Read about the wild adventures Cheeseman, Stony, Stinky, and the gang have travelling North America in their mystery machine! Ostrich chases, embarrasing motorcycle mix-ups, and all sorts of mayhem abound in this tale which should appeal to fans of all ages.  "...our bus has a rotating placard on the front with many different choices. here it says Alice Cooper, which we think is all funny and shit, but the locals outside the club are pretty hyped to see Alice, they're yelling threateningly from their porches, "where's Alice?" |
European Tour, Autumn 1998
Jonathan Segel's account of what the band were listening to as they traversed Europe and Britian in September and October 1998. "Here's a rough list of some of the things we were listening to on tour: Scott Fitzsimmons is hard to pin down. I don't think he brought his own music, although he seems to prefer classical music or jazz. I do know that he read an awful lot of 19th century Russian literature. And watched an awful lot of Black Adder (as did we all). Scott Minor brought a ton of cds. He listens to the weirdest music, 'bands' like Microstoria, Oval, Alpha, the Arab Strap, Tom Recchion, lots of music that when you enter a room where it is playing, you can't tell if it's going on inside or outside of your head. He did also bring some rockier stuff, Headcoatees, Yo La Tengo. I brought no cds, hoping that I would find some, and I did. After we met a couple Cardigans in Sweden, I got a couple of their cds. I got some Serge Gainsbourg in France. PJ Harvey's newest, (because I'm a huge fan, not just 'cuz we were going to play a show with her). I finally got OK Computer, I admit I'm a bit late.. also Frank Black and the Catholics, OP8 (Lisa Germano with Giant Sand), Neutral Milk Hotel (with whom we did the whole European tour), Slapp Happy's new one (!) Ca Va. In NY i met a guy named Chris Harford who gave me his cd and it's excellent. Mark seemed to obsess on certain records one after another. One was Will Oldham's newest, 'Bonnie Prince Billy'. Another was a tape that Nina Persson gave him of her Cardigans side project called A Camp (I think). Can't remember if there were even others. I should point out that this was all in the face of our tour manager, Matt Johnson, who tortured us by playing David Crosby Cds." |