IWTDI tour blog, Volume 4 (Day 14), 6 April

Saturday we got to San Francisco intact, and we played a superfun show at Hemlock Tavern with The Trophy Fire and Glass Trains. Then we split up, Joe and Curtis staying with our good friend Ben, and John and Rachel sleeping with our friend Jamie. I slept in the van, of course! Those chilly NoCal nights are right for me, and I found a spot near Diane Feinstein’s residence, which had its very own security guard. Prime real estate for van sleeping in a big city.




Sunday was a day off from playing shows, but not a day off. I woke up early and when to this amazing little spot by the water where some cliff dwellers had set up dwellings and a giant set of pools. It was spectacular and I felt all renewed and ready for the day. Then I realized that I had locked my keys in the van. I spent the next hunk of time waiting to be rescued by John and Rachel, driving a car that Jamie has graciously let us use for the day. I did make it back to Jamie’s in time for crepes and some songwriting.

Jamie McGoldrick is an amazing fellow and a very talented songwriter. He played in Io with John back in the day, and John has never lost his admiration for Jamie’s skills. Jamie has been toying around with a song called Save Your Life for some time, and John likes the song so much that he asked Jamie if we could have a crack at it. Jamie said sure, and since then we have been working out a version of the song. That Sunday morning, John, Rachel, and Jamie sat down with some acoustic guitars and started ironing out all the bugs and putting the song together. Then we did some laundry, walked around Haight Street, and picked up some pizza before heading out to Jamie’s practice space in South San Fran to work Save Your Life out as a full band.

We had originally worked off a little demo that Jamie had given us, but we got a couple of things wrong, and we got the song sounding great in a few different ways. We rocked out some, we tried quieter versions, we just played with it, something we don’t do a ton of at home. It was great working with Jamie, and we look forward to recording the song in May up in Minneapolis. We got some drinks at a nice bar near Jamie’s place, and I ate some kickass late night Thai food. We went to bed somewhat well rested and ready for our trip back down to SoCal. We still had a trailer snafu to work out…