slime + i decided on a whim that we would live up to the promise we'd made the band in October03, in Boston, to see the band again on the next tour. so we booked flights to sanfrancisco and vegas, to catch the western leg of the us 12 memories tour. a few hours before our flight to sanfran, i found out that b105 in sanfrancisco was going to have an acoustic gig before travis's show at the metreon. before i ran out of the house with my luggage, i copied down the b105 number, and went to the airport with slime.

our mid-afternoon flight got delayed several hours, so we passed the time at the airpot by... harassing the b105 deejays. not harrassing really, but calling and trying to win tickets to this radio-winners only gig. the deejay who spoke to us was so impressed that we were flying cross country for the show that he told us he'd just put us on the guestlist - no winning necessary.

so the next day, after a morning of sightseeing, we hopped a trolley downtown, and RAN to the metreon. we got there late so we couldnt even get seats. we had to sit on the floor on the side near the front. it ended up being a good seat, because travis had to walk by us to get to the stage, and they saw us right away and gave us pats and waves.

they played 6 songs acoustically; quicksand, love will come through, re-offender, sing, why does it always rain on me, and beautiful occupation (not in that order). in between, the band talked a lot, and had a q&a afterward. the q&a was possibly the funniest i'd ever witnessed:
- fran & dougie looking at each other and giggling for really no reason
- a member of the audience asked about "blue flashing light" and commented that he loved how crazy it is. fran replied that they had to make it a hidden track because it was so different fron the rest of the album which is feminine and the song was so masculine. when they recorded, they taped it in a tiny room and went crazy and mad, and dougie apparently fell over because it got too masculine for him, and andy passed out because it was waaaaay too masculine for him as well
- fran explained that they were going to have a real q&a after the acoustic set, just like "inside the actor's studio" (cue american impression here), said it's the funniest show on tv, and someone in the audience yelled out "yeah like what's your favorite swear" and everyone laughed. fran asked "is that a serious question?" and the guy sayid "yeah, answer it" so fran thought it over and says, "i'll have to say, fuck." everyone laughed, and fran said "douglas, what about you?" dougie thought it over, and said "cock" and everyone giggled, and he asked neil. neil thought about it and said "pud", which dougie explained: "pud is the glaswegian cock" (everyone laughed some more) and fran asked andy. andy agreed with "cock", and by then, the band had all just finished saying "fuck" and "cock" over and over again and everyone were giggling like schoolgirls.
- fran made a comment with a sexual innnuendo, which dougie commented on. fran laughed and said "you have a one track mind" to which dougie replied "yeah, like the underground. one track and dirty." everyone laughed, and fran giggled "oh man... that was.... brilliant."
- a fan asked how it was to tour with oasis. fran did an impression of how liam sat him down and played "songbird" for him, then stuck his face in fran's and asked "what do you think?" and fran gulped out "that's... brilliant" and liam replied, stone-faced, "i know."
- the deejay waited for fran to finish his llast comment behind dougie, and spoke into dougie's mic to signal the end of the session because "your tour manager is about to heart attack". but dougie, who was going to say something into the mic, was so shocked that the dj had snuck up behind him, that dougie almost jumped out of his seat and said he thought he "was going to expire myself."

after the session, travis had to rush out to soundcheck, but they all stopped to say hello to us and give us big hugs. we half-ran over to the warfield, which is in THE sketchiest district in this lovely, clean city. a venue security guard invited me over to his "big house in tahoe" and volunteered to "take care of me" next time i was in sanfran. the warfield is next to a stripjoint that we had to wait on line in front of, and every 2 minutes for 4 hours, the other people on line+slime+i were accosted by homeless/crazies/random people asking for money, drugs or cigarettes (or... more personal stuff).

still, this radio show was one of the best travis experiences i've had.