bacon here. writing from the back seat of our freshly repaired and cozily cruising chariot, vance. we're heading south from chicago after a weekend full of wonder and delight at the ears and eyes festival. currently, i'm fielding phone calls in a last ditch effort to book tonight's show in saint louis after it was cancelled by the venue yesterday. this is crazy, living on the road and rolling with the punches as they fall. in almost every case, what begins as a seemingly crushing blow winds up being an opening for totally unexpected opportunities. the universe keeps on testing our meddle with these challenges and obstacles and if we respond with the right balance of active and decisive engagement and detached, intuitive flow then we are rewarded with a full technicolor display of the synchronous beauty of creative experience. we just have to remind ourselves of this when we're driving all day to a show that may or may not even happen or when we're broken down on the side of the road wondering if we'll have to cancel one of the biggest gigs of the tour.
that was a good one....ten minutes outside of bloomington, indiana vance started shuddering violently enough to arrest our journey out of concern for his well being. this was at 4pm saturday afternoon. things were not looking good for us making an 11 o'clock set in chicago. but after much deliberation, a visit from a suspicious but well intentioned highway patrolman, and a healthy dose of encouragement from an amped up and enterprising young tow truck driver we found ourselves rolling up to the hideout in chicago on a flatbed truck with air horns blaring and full disco light show in effect....just in time to set up and play to a packed house of some of chicago's best informed and most attentive music lovers. (sweet...our saint louis gig was just confirmed. unbelievable.) and the story gets even better. during our set in chicago, our buddy chuck happens to strike up a conversation with the owner of the club, tim. our predicament comes up and it turns out that tim's buddy joe runs a garage that specializes in van repairs for touring bands. so joe diagnoses the van on sunday afternoon while we're playing in the fallen leaves by lake michigan and has us back on the road by noon today. oh, and yesterday we just happen to be seated next to tim and his wife katie at a breakfast joint on the other side of town. this is the kind of stuff that makes you redefine coincidence.
sure we've been getting a little beat up on this tour but ultimately it's been our most ambitious and rewarding trip to date. we're continually blown away by the hospitality and generosity we're shown by these communities that we join for any given number of hours. the connections that we make on a nightly basis with friends old and new run so deep and are simultaneously so fleeting that our hearts sometimes feel like they're going to burst with joy and loneliness. huge love and thankfulness to everyone who has supported us on this journey. we feel that the musical experience is more relevant than ever before as an analog for the kind of cooperation and celebration that can exist in creative communities. let's keep pushing together to make this world and especially this country a more positive and conscious place to live.

Love loVe and more LOVE,

D Numbers