Today is the 22nd anniversary of our appearance in Gent with Seam, the second of 28 shows in 33 days in Europe we’ll be spending together. Eight people–among them John McEntire, who you’ll remember from such records as Fade, taking over from original drummer Mac McCaughan–are shoehorned into a van that whatever number it holds comfortably, it definitely isn’t eight. In a bit of foreshadowing that I’m pretty sure is coincidental, our second song that night is “Cubist Grid,” (“Hey, James?” “WHAT!” “Are you used to it yet?” “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it”) and we encore with “Shape of Things to Come.” Last year, when members of our touring party are walking around Boulder before soundcheck and see something, they opt not to say something, but later that afternoon someone else does. (Fortunately it turned out to be nothing.)
And speaking of anniversaries, today is the centennial of the birth of John Hubley.
