The heat! At one point I went outside and just stood there and focused, concentrated, and paid attention to how it actually felt out there. I lasted less than a minute, I was back in the A/C before you could say “burning cactus”. The air is thick, and even later at night in the blackness, the arms of the heat grip your body tight and scare you back inside. It isn’t letting up and as we prepare for Salim’s shows we hope that the three venues in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas have their A/C pumping. I remember in the eighties playing shows in the blistering summer heat, once in Sans Souci playing with Cold Chisel where the windows were melting, the guitars were melting, we were melting.

Sarah and I were in the car waiting for Olivia the other morning when a bright green lizard appeared on the fence where we parked. It sat there still in the heat until it began pushing out its red throat…technically called a dewlap, this species is called an anole. This from Wikipedia:

The dewlap is the red extension on the male’s throat, which is usually visible when they are agitated by another male (females have white dewlaps). Usually, territory disputes are settled by the loser performing a submissive head bobbing gesture, and it will then retreat to another territory.

Rhys came around today to put together the pedal board, he is the local expert in such things. It’s a complicated job, getting them in the right order, plugging it all up and making sure they all actually work. Qapla’! Rhys also had a look at the dodgy input on the UE 405 which we hope is fixed (haven’t tried it yet). What’s fascinating is what it looks like inside these old machines, it looks like an intergalactic city on another planet, you can imagine alien craft flying over the circuit board.

We started rehearsing the minute Rhys was done, so I didn’t get any chance to try out the new board, I’ll be doing that tomorrow as I try and decide which amps and which guitars I need for the gigs. The Gretsch isn’t the right sound for this band, so I have to find the right 12-string and 6-string from the available guitars. It could be William’s Rickenbacker 370, or it could be the Piers Crocker 12-string. On six strings, it could be the painted Strat or Les Paul, the Piers Crocker 6 or something else, after rehearsals today I’ll be trying them all out.

Music today has been Matthews Southern Comfort’s Later That Same Year, US version (1971), it’s the album with the great version of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. On Spotify, the record is listed as being from 2016, why can’t they get it together? If it’s a reissue, put the original year and reissue year (1971/2016). We know why. The Goffin/King penned second track To Love might need to be skipped but otherwise, if you dig deeper into the album you will find some gems from Iain Matthews‘ (ex-Fairport Convention member) country folk, another cover of Neil Young’s Tell Me Why is also excellent.

Music Of The Daze