Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
We return to our rare graphic novel look, which I only keep bringing up for anybody new here not knowing this is normally a prose novel review. That’s how many chapters we have but thus far, including this chapter, it’s around 20-22 pages per chapter and a rather big book for a graphic novel. So this is how I chose to review it.
Last time the tour left area close to where Pocket Vinyl lives, so the fun of finding places to stay comes into play. We have cat people rooming on the couch of a family with dogs. Also not very good at communicating there are guests staying there.
Returning to the theme of “I could never do this”, I don’t do much travelling. We went on vacation to Vermont a couple of times and I took a school field trip to the New York ferry (I live in Connecticut, as does the duo that make up Pocket Vinyl) but anywhere else I’ve stayed has been in my home state. I’ve done a few conventions that required me to stay in a hotel for three or four days, but I’m the kind of guy who likes to sleep in my own bed. So I applaud them just going outside the area they’ve usually performed. We saw that not every venue is going to bring a large crowd, but that they still put the same amount of effort in, which I also applaud. How long that lasted, since this is based on actual events? We’ll found out as we go on. For now, the next chapter.
The first part of the chapter races through a bunch of shows, possibly because the anecdotes are limited. Snow concerns, forgetting a favorite pillow at one of the residences, crossed wires when it came to the venues (one thought there was a full band, another turned out to be open mic night so they did a shorter show), more fans cheering them on, and having to restock their merchandise. At one point Elisabeth seems to be waking up in the middle of the night with a panic attack at only the ninth show. This is already starting to look bad.
The story slows up again when the couple stay at a stranger’s house, a friend of a friend. This leads to another wall break as they discuss what it’s like to sleep at a stranger’s house. Back to the story, Elisabeth has another panic attack in the middle of the night. I had a mild one once and the usual issues waking up from nightmares, including one in the hospital, so I kind of relate to how bad that is, but this early out makes me worried about her. Eric is already up and meeting their host when she wakes up. We learn Eric doesn’t drink coffee in the morning. Me, either. Milk, cereal, and donuts with the occasional biscuit replacement, maybe a glass of apple juice, protein shake, or finishing my water bottle from the night before. You are not alone, Eric!
By now they’re in West Virginia, and this is the first time this chapter they have a lot to tell about their concert. At Thunderbirds they’re again part of a multiband performance, with a camera crew doing a documentary on the place. A number of their fans show up, as well as a band highlighted by a “famous person” who is apparently not happy that by the time they go on so many people went home. (There’s a one panel wall break where Eric calls out bands leaving early after their performance in this scenario.) Meanwhile Eric meets an Erik, whose daughter is an artist and connects with Elisabeth. It all seems to be going well, but on the drive out Elisabeth shows even more signs of stress. Eric hasn’t caught it yet because the panic attacks happened when he was sleeping and I only picked up on the end of the chapter’s scene with Elisabeth being too tired to discuss the evening because I saw the opening pages of the book and the two panic attacks.
The stress is starting already. I don’t know if the then-current record holder slept in a tour bus, which probably would have helped a little, but I hope everything worked out. They’re still together as a couple and a performance duo so I guess it worked out at some point, but was it during the tour? I’m enjoying this graphic novel more than I thought. Originally this was just a case of “this is the only way I can review this”, but it’s quite interesting so far. We’ll see what happens in the next chapter next time.
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