Two different opening slots for the Feelies on February 12–Bard, 1987 and Raleigh, 1989 (only song played at both: Serpentine). But it’s 1994 we remember best. We were on tour with Teenage Fanclub. They were on a tour bus; we were in a van, which meant we spent long hours dodging black ice to try to keep up. We had already encountered white-out conditions en route to Denver, wondering (and happy not to find out) what it took to get a highway closed. On the 11th we performed in Chicago. Exhausted from touring, well rehearsed from touring, in a city where we had lots of friends, and facing a relatively short four-hour drive to our next date in Detroit, we made the decision to relax a bit, get a late start and forgo soundcheck. Should we have checked the weather forecast first? Undoubtedly. The trip to Michigan took place in a moderately harrowing ice storm. Every time we pulled off the road to de-ice the windshield wipers, the likelihood of us arriving in Detroit in time to perform decreased. As I remember, we got there about a half hour after our set was supposed to start, as the stage crew was about to give up on us and put Teenage Fanclub’s stuff in place. Instead, everyone rushed out to our van, got us up and running faster than we thought possible, and we just barely got to do our set (only song played on February 12 as both Teenage Fanclub’s and the Feelies’ opener: Drug Test).
