Hold Me Closer Tony Danza

Every tour is alloted a Tiny Dancer moment or two.

For those of you who aren’t aware what that is - it is a reference to the great scene in Cameron Crowe’s iconic Almost Famous - the best tour movie of all time. (Also maybe the only tour movie?? If not, please enlighten me…).

In the movie the band Stillwater drives away from Topeka, Kansas after a night of debauchery. The band is a little tense, very hung over, and road weary. But someone, a genius, puts on Tiny Dancer by Elton John and everyone just sorta shuts up and sinks in, ending with them all triumphantly singing the songs chorus. It’s one of the best and most memorable scenes of all time.

Anyways, like I said, every tour is alloted a great Tiny Dancer moment and if you’re lucky you’ll get a few. For me personally this often comes after a show. Usually a big one - a milestone - when we put on music in the bus while driving away from a city that we just performed in.

For example I remember playing Webster Hall in New York in 2022 and we put on Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side and turned the lights off as we drove out of the city, watching Manhattan blur all around us. That was a great Tiny Dancer moment.

I also remember distinctly my band the Babies, after a fight, getting in the van and driving away from a gas station outside Reno towards Portland and putting on Courtney Barnets Depreston for the first time. We all went from whatever animosity was between us to suddenly living inside the song for it’s four and a half minute runtime, as if all of our lives had lead to that cinematic moment.

I am writing about this now because this past tour was lucky enough to have had a few Tiny Dancer moments. Notably as we drove away from Chicago, watching the skyline get smaller in the rear view after our great show at The Metro. We listened to Chicago artists; Chance The Rapper, Twin Peaks, Whitney, Kanye, etc. But it was Jesus, Etc. that took the crown. When Jesus, etc. came on we all sorta just stopped talking, locked in, and started singing along. Again, as if all of life had lead to that moment.

My favorite moment, though, and maybe the most Tiny Dancer of the Tiny Dancer moments — at least on this tour — was as we drove out of New Orleans after hitting the bars after playing the iconic Tipitina’s.

Erin Rae had just joined the band for our final week and one thing I know about Erin, amongst the many great things, is her depth and knowledge of music. Hand that girl an aux cord and she’ll blow your mind. So as we drove outta the swamp and towards Beaumont, Texas at two in the morning, we put the windows down in the front lounge of the bus, turned the lights down low, and got into some more beers and a muffaletta my friend Andrew had given us for the ride.

Erin put on banger after banger but it wasn’t until Lucinda Williams Jackson came on that we all fell silent and sorta drifted into the song. Something about listening to Lucinda in Louisiana, man. It hits like nothing else. And that song, that recording, the arrangement. It’s just untouchable magic. Proof that magic exists and that magic is music.

At one point I opened my eyes to see everyone else with their eyes closed, singing the song, the thick humid wind blowing through the bus. Erin next to me, eyes closed like all the rest, sang harmony to Lucinda, bringing the song into the third dimension. Liam snapped a pic of me and Erin during this moment. It’s really so sweet.

Hold me closer Tony Danza!

More moments like these to come I hope, up ahead, when we set off to tour Europe next week. Tickets here.

xoxo km