So many non-venues…

A coworker recently took a look at all the stickers on my guitar case, a spacious patchwork in a familiar outline. “Have you played at all these places?” he asked, leaning down to read the collection of breweries, local restaurants & tourist attractions.

No. I have not played all these places. I’m a fraud.

Most of these stickers came from places that don’t even have live music - a restaurant in a Georgia strip mall, a historic cemetery in Philadelphia, an ice cream shop in Montana. I collect them not as keepsakes of past performances, but as more of a travelogue. Some of them make me laugh, like the sticker for the all-night taco stand in Tampa. More than a few inspire nostalgia that’s a little too painful to dwell on for long.

But maybe I could play at all these places, just show up with my guitar and play a short five-song set (or play until I’m asked to leave), and move on. Like a guerrilla tour.

I could take my time, stretch it out over several months: a swing through New England in the fall, spend a summer day hitting the Jersey breweries & shore attractions. The Philadelphia leg alone would take me to a firehouse in Chinatown, the aforementioned cemetery, the Mütter Museum, and Dock Street Brewing.  Not a bad mini-tour.

But the more I think about it, the more I think this is an effort in retracing one’s steps, revisiting the things I meant to do but never got the chance. Looking back is always comforting, but stare too long and it can be intoxicating. I think I’ve got too much going on ahead of me to get stuck drinking in the past.

I might have to play South of the Border, tho.