Nicholas David West coast Tour ’13: Idaho, You da' Ho.

We spent all day yesterday driving out of California and into Idaho.  It was a cool transition from the desert mountains into the wooded mountains.  I am still blown away by the scenery on this tour.

Our show today was at the Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Boise State University. I didn't do any research on this, but my guess is that this center was built with money from or funded for years by a rich widow.  This is based on the facts that the place is named after her, and in the lobby there is a huge painting of her in classic rich widow wear (mink stole, pearl necklace, white gloves, evening gown).  The lobby of this venue also had a few other oddities about it.  First, there was really ugly cartoon-like paintings.  I'm not an art aficionado by any means, but this just looked silly.  Second, they had a booth that sold high end jewelry during intermissions, right next to the beer and band merch.  I'm sure this makes more sense during the intermission of an opera, but it seemed a little weird.

Trying to add myself to the weird Camelot artwork. 

The theater was huge, and it was a sold out show.  The crowd was subdued but appreciative.  But I didn't expect too rowdy of a crowd on a Tuesday night.  Today is the release of the Avett Brother's new CD Magpie and the Dandelion.  In talking to their cello player Joe (who happens to have an awesome tour blog), he told me that this record was recorded at the same time as their previous record.  I thought that would be weird to shelf an album for that long, but it didn't seem too odd to him.  I haven't heard the album yet, but my friends on facebook say it's awesome, and I've liked the songs from it that I've heard them play live.


The Avett Brothers put on a great show.  During part of their show, the entire band breaks down and Joe, the a fore mentioned cello player, plays an intimate, quiet and moving solo.  Tonight when his solo started, I was standing int he wings near the crew.  As it got quiet for Joe's solo, one of the crew came over and switched off the huge hazer, as it was loud enough to hear during this quiet moment.  This enhanced the silence and made everything that much more focused and intimate.  Then, when all that could be heard was Joe's solo cello, with expert timing, one of the crew members (don't worry I won't name names) leaned on one cheek and let a huge fart rip.  All of us in the wing had to hold our mouths and stifle our uncontrollable laughter.  I had to leave the side of the stage so I could laugh and also breathe fresh air.

Photo (c) Jackson Tyler Eddy/A Frame Forward Photography

After the show we packed up and ordered a pizza on the way out of town.  I didn't have any, but the rest of the crew ate the crap out of two pizzas in about 10 minutes as we sat in the van outside the pizza place.  We drove a few hours and checked into our hotel.  It's not nap time.  Tomorrow we head to Seattle.  Nicholas' family and Dylan's wife will be meeting them in Seattle, so they are in a hurry to get there.