jeff

A few weeks ago, Tom Morello was in SF for his Nightwatchman project at the Sweedish American Hall upstairs from Cafe du Nord. It was the first time that I went to the venue and it seemed perfect for Tom's solo acoustic gig. Cameron O did a pretty cool blog already on the event (check out [url=http://www.fuzz.com/fan/cameronobscura/blog/PHOTOS-The-Nightwatchman-Swedish-Hall-July-20-2007)]http://www.fuzz.com/fan/cameronobscura/blog/PHOTOS-The-Nightwatchman-Swedish-Hall-July-20-2007)[/url] so I won't repeat what happened at the show. The only thing that I would add is that when Tom was joined by Boots Riley of the Coup and Ike Reilly for a funk jam, I nearly lost my shit - completely off the hook and I hope someone out there captured the jam on contraband video...

Maureen brought me into the green room where Tom was relaxing after his show. (Abigail and Colleen were still working the merch table... thanks guys!) There was some food, booze, and random items scattered around the table. Tom is one dude that knows how to enjoy his booze, but kept complaining how bad the wine was - I'm twisted, but it got me tempted to actually try it to see how bad it really was... yes, it WAS bad. Anyway, he also started playing with a promo item that some company sent him for his guitar... NOTE TO CORPORATE SPONSORS - artists DON'T CARE about the shit that you give them after their shows... he read the note out loud, shook his head, and simply tossed it aside. It was pretty funny.

Tom is clearly passionate about the plight of the working man and is a supporter of unions. He has strong political views and is deeply troubled about our current administration. But more important, he loves his friends and seems to go to great lengths to spend quality time with them. It was funny to see him in action downstairs at Cafe du Nord. Several fans came up to him and it seemed like at every moment, people were trying to find an angle to chat with him. He was polite to everyone and truly grateful for his fans' support and admiration. But at the end of the day, he seemed most interested in just hanging out with his friends at the bar - just like he was one of the boys. The group was later joined by Ike, Boots, and several other Fuzzheads (Jen, Sandy, Abigail, and Colleen) - it was a good time.

At the end of the night, Maureen, Tom, and I left together - I was included in the mix because I was still sober and had access to a car, but hey, I had the chance to chauffer some of the '93 Lollapallooza crew (Maureen played bass for Babes in Toyland and Tom obviously played with Rage). Tom is really a great guy and we had a bunch of laughs about some wild events on tour. He talked about the upcoming Rage shows and the amount of practicing they were doing to get prepared. He explained that they got more accomplished in a week than what Audioslave took to get done in a year. (More laughs...)

I'll never know what it's like to be on the road, but he seemed exhausted and was excited to get back home to LA. We dropped Maureen off and Tom and I had a chance to chat alone. He asked me what it was like to start a company and how it all happened. I explained that life is too short not to pursue what you love doing - even finance geeks can get wacky and fall headfirst into the world of music. We had a couple of laughs and he then asked me where he could get a slice of pizza. I dropped him off near his hotel and I went on my way. There were a thousand questions that I wanted to ask him - about his guitars, getting his sound, the settings on his amp, his pedalboard, what it was like playing in front of 60,000 people at Coachella, etc. but I just never had the chance. I guess it was just really cool to be able to hang for a brief moment with one of the great guitar players of our time. Maybe next time...