Kevin Bronson on December 10th, 2008

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[Some Very Bad Person made off with Morgan Kibby’s digital camera at the recent Los Angeles show. So instead of her behind-the-scenes photographs, the shot below is one of our indefatigable M83 tour diarist during the show. Meanwhile, if you have any information about that camera …]

Chapter 19: Ending our American tour in Los Angeles was rather epic for me personally.”  The line around the corner outside the Music Box @ Fonda was thick as we came back from dinner, and I kind of spent the next 24 hours pondering the humor of the universe.

Last year I was playing to maybe 20 people at Bordello, so, as you can imagine, playing with M83 has been a huge step up.”  It was odd being home, and, customarily, I couldn’t wait to get back on the road as wonderful as it was to see family and friends.

To summarize the West Coast in a nutshell: Thanksgiving in Portland was a wash; in Seattle, Anthony and I had a lovely solo dinner at our favorite sushi place next to the venue where we had a rare moment to reflect and connect; and once we hit San Francisco I felt an almost cinematic urge to jump off buildings. Maybe this was due to playing the iconic Fillmore, I don’t know, but by the time we arrived in L.A. (P.S. — we pulled up to my house in the tour bus, hilarious), I was looking towards a mountain of laundry, Christmas presents for the boys and tearfully saying goodbye to my favorite three new people in the universe: Ally, Claudia and Benjamin from School of Seven Bells.

It is so rare to meet amazing people on tour that you connect with and all three of these talented and wonderful human beings are siblings from another mother.”  If you haven’t listened to “Alpinisms,” do yourself the favor of picking it up and seeing the incandescent trio live.”  Their music is blissful and they are three of the funniest, most compassionate people I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with.

I look back on this tour and certain things stand out: the incredibly portly but fabulous gentleman who caressed his ample belly while dancing on stage with us in Minneapolis; the sweet guy who shared his bread pudding with me and Lotje at the bar in Portland; the two-day drive from one side of the country to the other while watching a mountain of crappy horror films with my crew (perfect!); and our incredible New York adventures. … It was an incredible trek and I couldn’t be more proud to be onstage with the three people I consider family at this point.

It’s been an absolute pleasure, United States of America, and we will see you soon when we open for the Killers. In the meantime, there will be missives from the U.K., where we are playing with the Kings of Leon.”  And on to the next adventure …

||| Previous entries in Morgan Kibby’s tour diary here.