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• 08
• PDF

• _
• _

Sorry for under-publishing last month! Shit has been a bit overwhelming lately. I wanted to share what I had written about Letterman, its lacking editing (as usual) so please forgive the informalities:

7/31/2009

What an amazing day– I hustled to get out of work so I could be on time for soundcheck. I had a small idea of what to expect in terms of getting in, but how awful would it be to miss your girlfriend play The Late Show with David Letterman because of some security or list flaw. I didn't want to leave anything to chance.

Anyhow, I arrived just early enough to check out the pre-show scenario. Everything was just a little smaller than I would have imagined– the Ed Sullivan Theater, the dressing rooms, and most importantly the studio itself! It was about 1/3 the size I had expected. They do well to make it seem spectacularly larger. Not taking anything away from it– it was just surprising! I had to cut across the stage in order to sit and watch soundcheck, and it was a tad surreal to see the miniature model of the city which surrounds the stage, Dave's desk, and Paul Shaffer- who was actually up on stage at the time doing his thing but in street clothes (he had some weirdo glasses on still). Super funny.

Diane killed it in all of her run-throughs, and it was also a pleasure to see the trombone quartet in action– something that already has had that community buzzing post performance. I guess when you have four of some of the more highly regarded trombonists in the world: Tom Malone, Birch Johnson, Joseph Alessi and David Taylor.

Following, I sat around in the back, ate the band's sandwiches, and helped dress Eric, the trumpet player. Easy thing to do considering Converse had laced everyone with clothes from their John Varvatos line and a bunch of Chucks (Huge thanks to Jason, Keith, and Matthew at Converse!!)– rock clothes, right?

I heard that I just missed Tracy Morgan when I joined Diane in hair and makeup– I was bummed! I'm a fan, and apparently he's just as crazy behind the scenes– I guess he was doing his usual screaming, as well as other antics, and talking about loving women with scars and shit..?

The moment of truth arrived, Diane's radio promoter and general homeboy Brad and I stood in the back of the crowd and watched as she brought the house down. Dave seemed genuinely impressed as well, which is apparently pretty rare!

After that we killed time, entertaining ideas of champagne on rooftops and blablabla. In the end all that mattered was finding a TV to see it all go down, check it if you hadn't already: