the youngsters

Today is a day off, so I slept til noon and am now lying around drinking hot water with lemon and honey. I woke up with a big thick cloud in my chest, and a voice like a bullfrog. A new obstacle. This is typical... ever since I had a run of bad throat infections 8 or so years ago, every time I get a cold, my chest and voicebox get the worst of it. I'm not stressed yet. I don't have to sing til tomorrow night, and I'm doing steams every hour or so, which is already loosening things up. Ultimately, I can't do much other than rest. Worst case scenario for tomorrow is having to cancel the show, but I don't think I'll need to. If I'm careful and rest my voice completely, I think I'll be able to vocalize at 50% at least, and we'll beef up the instrumentals. The nice thing about this being my tour, is that the only person I can disappoint is myself. And it's up to me whether or not I want to give myself a hard time about it. I'm tired of being a mean boss.

Last night we played to a tiny little audience of youngsters in London. There were 12-15 people, and I'm sure none of them could've been a day over 24. I had a feeling that it was going to be a small show, and I didn't mind. The kids were the most enthusiastic, excited audience we've yet had. They were very vocal - sometimes cheering halfway through tunes, after a blazing riff. It made it a lot of fun. One girl, a member of the band who opened for us, came on stage after the show, and hugged me in total overwhelmment. She was almost speechless, and I had the sense that all of those kids were going to go tell all their friends about the show. We drove all day to get to London, and it might've felt like a waste. But it wasn't - truly it wasn't.
I should mention that earlier, when we were loading in, a man came up to me outside, and asked if I was "x". I said yes, I was, and he said, "I saw the article about you in the paper, and I was very moved by the story, and wanted to make you this dream-catcher." So he presented me with the said dream-catcher, and asked if he could take my picture and get my autograph. It was surreal, I tell you.

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