The "We're Not Here To Help" Tour 1.0, July-August, 1998

This was a rough one. Our first nationwide tour on our own, a transportation-procurement nightmare that nearly derailed the tour before it even started, a brutal route, a skeleton crew.and that was before Tour Manager Scott Chatfield's father suffered a health-related emergency, forcing yours truly to be in charge of everything for eight days. Again, copious documentation of this tour exists at www.keneally.com (live performances; Tales From Them Tours, etc.), but here are some previously unseen tidbits:

That's me, smack dab in the middle of my week as Emergency Tour Manager, working the phone and advancing gigs and hotel rooms as the other guys in the band (out of frame) partied down with some locals in Muncie, IN at their pad. Note the briefcase and itinerary in the upper left part of the shot.

 

During my reign of terror as Tour Manager, the one leisure activity I had time to plan was a group excursion to a bowling alley in a scary part of Detroit. Left to right: 'J' (videographer, vehicle provider), Jason Harrison Smith (drums), me, and Cami Slotkin (merch), who was recruited into Assistant Tour-Managership and saved my ass from a complete nervous breakdown. Tour Managing we could handle. Figuring out how to use the electronic scorer was a different story.

 

Taken the day after a night at the Bottom Line in New York City, this shot is an inside glimpse of my boyhood home--Casa Beller--in Westfield, NJ, where my parents were kind enough to house the entire entourage. If I recall correctly, we were minutes from departure and some friends had stopped by, creating a scene close to chaos in my poor parents' living room. Left to right: Keneally (with head cut off), me, 'J', Scott Chatfield, Teresa Christ (friend, masseuse), Thomas Nordegg (on couch).

 

Behold, a side stage shot of Jason and I playing Cowboy's Bar-B-Que in Wilmington, NC, site of what I considered to be the best gig of the tour. A hurricane was approaching shore and the audience was sparsely populated, but the food was great and we played our asses off. Rarely did I smile this wide on this tour, especially south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but this gig was something special.