Blame Sally’s Northwest Tour

It was great. We arrived in Portland separately on Sunday night – Pam, Jeri and Rob drove the big van and equipment up – Renee and Monica flew up together – Monica completely jetlagged from her flight home from Barcelona less than 48 hours earlier and Renee fresh off of Mom-duty. But at least they got to have a relaxing dinner with Monica’s relatives in Portland while P, J and Rob plowed through the night in our Rockstar van, equipped with a DVD player and Gameboy. (Hey, is there a Gamegirl? Shouldn’t there be?)

Renee on the morning news in Portland with anchor Jenny Hansson.Renee and Monica woke up at 5 the next morning (well, Monica was already awake – still on Barcelona time) in order to get Renee to the local CBS station for her star interview. She looks pretty good for 6 AM and no photo re-touch.

We had a pretty lazy day in Portland and then headed over to Mississippi Studios on Portland’s North side for our double bill with Tim Easton, who was a revelation. Check him out if you have a chance and you’re in the mood to be rocked.

Lindley, who does our tour promotions was there and took some pictures:

Blame Sally at Mississippi Studios in Portland 2
Blame Sally at Mississippi Studios in Portland 1

Going to dinner for Pam's b'day in Portland...

The next day, our only day off, was Pam’s Birthday. We walked to a great restaurant in downtown Portland called Clyde Common’s, ate, drank, laughed….

If at this point you’re wondering who the dude is, well, that’s Rob and he’s playing bass with us. More on that later.

From Portland, we drove to Seattle where we had a great show at the Columbia City Theater, then up early the next day to head for Vancouver, CA. What should have been an easy crossing over the border turned into a bit of nightmare for Jeri when the border agent decided to toy with her. We’ve never seen Jeri so flustered or so guilty looking – and she wouldn’t stop talking (or flapping at the mouth, as Renee prefers to say).

Next thing we knew, they had us out of the van and into the headquarters explaining ourselves. We couldn’t help but feel that there was a little bit of resentment towards the US behind the treatment, and while we COMPLETELY sympathize, it was a little sad that they didn’t know just how much we’re in their court! The inside agent was quite a bit kinder, and maybe even a little impressed when she found Blame Sally on a website and realized we weren’t the horrible terrorists that Jeri’s behaviour implied. In truth, we all think Jeri had a bit of a crush on Agent # 1, who was quite attractive in a domineering sort of way.

That night we played the legendary Rogue Club in Vancouver. Here are some pictures from that show, taken by our host, Steve Edge.

Blame Sally at the legendary Rogue Club in Vancouver

Blame Sally at the legendary Rogue Club in Vancouver - Monica

Blame Sally at the legendary Rogue Club in Vancouver - Jeri & Renee

Blame Sally drinking after the show in Vancouver

After the show we were definitely ready to relax...

Lounging

That night, Jeri was shocked at the state of Monica and Renee’s room…Monica has been a corrupting influence on the neatnik, (this next picture may be disturbing to the young and/or sensitive and should be viewed with extreme caution):

That’s the last time Monica saw her hat. How in the world is it possible that she could have lost anything in that room?
Next day we drove to Olympia, and the day after that to Gleneden, Oregon and both shows were really fun, with lots of returning fans and even more new ones.

Lindley makes us these wonderful tour itineraries with very precise time-tables. However, every single drive seems to be double the projected length of time. Four women in one van…there are many, many, many, many, many, many bathroom breaks. Lindley, in the future, please factor those in. Rob is no problem at all in that regard, but was almost speechless with disbelief every time Renee piped up from that back seat that it was time for another stop. The only thing he asked for was the occasional frisbee break – unfortunately, there was no time for such nonsense, what with all the bladders complaining in the back seats.

Last day of the tour, Sunday, we drove to Eugene for our second to last show. It nearly rained out, but miraculously, the sky cleared up minutes before we took the stage and from out of nowhere, hundreds of people showed up to listen. Here’s Rob with some of us back stage. At last, someone in this band who likes to accesorize as much as Monica!

Rob with pink bow

Our last night we played at the Brandbourg Winery in Elkton, OR. Pam’s life-long dream was granted when Sue handed her a beautiful, attachable horse-hair tail that Pam put on over her clothes for the show. This was misunderstood by several of the men in our audience who were rather overcome with excitement. If there’s a picture, I haven’t seen it yet.

That was our 2nd sell-out of the tour and after the show we had an amazing home-cooked meal then slept in a converted barn that was something like the Winchester Mystery House. Next morning a leisurely home-made breakfast, some wine purchasing, a quick skinny-dip in the Umpqua River (Sorry, no photos available) and then the long drive home.

Pam, annoyingly, was able to sleep almost the entire way home. One of us whose name shall not be mentioned, but who was still extremely jet-lagged and can NEVER sleep in a moving contraption, suffered a deep and overwhelming resentment towards her.

Comments & Discussion

  • Deb Chorney Posted on September 19th, 2009 at 10:47 pm

    It was so great meeting you all, and getting to see your show in Elkton. My sister Linda and I enjoyed your show so much, and it was a wonderful sister bonding experience for us as well.

    I have been listening to your newest CD and really loving it. My 8 year old son Eli is liking your music – it’s really fun listening to him sing along to “Pass the Buddha”.

    I’m looking forward to whenever my next Blame Sally show is. I have a few friends in Boulder, and I’ll let them know about your gig.

    Love to you all!

  • Rose Momsen Posted on September 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    George and I saw your Rogue show gig which was excellent! I was the lady who provided one of the sharpie pens. I found this link and thought you’d want to see it: For your viewing pleasure, some mountains in BC: http://ross-park.net/images/pinnacle_panorama.html

    from a friend’s webpage, her husband took the photos. Made me think of you all traveling up to BC and finding the mountains the next morning. Love your work. Want to tell the world about you, and then to run away with the band!

    Rose