Hi, I’m Devon Welsh and this is my newsletter. If you’re confused, that’s okay. So am I sometimes.
I’m writing to thank everyone who was at the shows I did this past week or so in Chicago, Bloomington, Nashville, Atlanta, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. They were all, by varying degrees, transcendent experiences, and I am grateful to have met and performed for all of you.
I’m also writing to thank Abandon for touring with me. Jenn Pelly, Liz Pelly, Stephen Lee Clark and I all had a wonderful time (as far as I can speak for them). Led by Liz, we published a daily newspaper called the Tour Gazette Daily Chronicle! Please Read! Please Submit! which features news stories about what happened to us on tour as well as poetry, columns, and reader submissions. I will hopefully be able to send out a collected digital version of the newspaper in my next newsletter.
I am leaving for the last, (maybe even best?) shows of the tour:
(Ignore the shows that have already happened by checking your calendar. Only pay attention to the dates that fall on or after the current date on your calendar. The rest have disappeared in the flowing river of time, for better or worse.)
If YOU want to be at these yet-to-come shows, you can guarantee that by purchasing a ticket online (or in the case of Santa Cruz, contacting your local elected official to inquire about the ticket link).
Thurs. November 14th, Seattle, WA, Auditorium
Sat. November 16th, Vancouver, BC, Paradise
Sun. November 17th, Portland, OR, Mississippi Studios
Wed. November 20th, Oakland, CA, Crystal Cavern
Thurs. November 21st, Los Angeles, CA, Bootleg
Fri. November 22nd, Santa Cruz, CA, Crepe Place
(Excuse the strange humour in this newsletter, I’m writing it at 4:15am in a dark room.)
This is more or less all I had to say, so I will share two things and then leave you in peace. One of them is a photo of myself and Abandon at the end of our tour dates:
The other is a poem I published in the first issue of the Tour Gazette Daily Chronicle! Please Read! Please Submit!
Memory Screen
Robotics will attend to you in future months
when fine-tunement through and through
has soaked into our bones like morning dew
and brought the kneading of our minds to further fronts.
Behind the screen it’s weaponized to give you what your heart desires.
So in your scene you’ll play a queen with flowers on her eyes.
And I’ll be in another room fulfilled by other things.
In mine I’ll have my memories come back.
A pine cone on the floor between the needle mulch
covering the fissures where the tree roots showed their bulge,
the setting sun on every colour, full and flat.
Behind the screen it’s weaponized to give me what my heart desires.
So in my scene I’ll play a happy child who has come upon a prize.