alexa dexa | little piano//Big Mouth National DIY tour

Alexa Dexa sits on the floor in Austin, TX playing their toy piano, desk bells, and an alarm clock.

little piano//Big Mouth National DIY tour

February 2nd – March 6th 2013

The stops (via Megabus): DC – Charlotte, NC – Atlanta, GA – Mobile, AL – New Orleans, LA – Houston, TX – Austin, TX – Dallas, TX – Memphis, TN – Nashville, TN – Indianapolis, IN – Chicago, IL – Detroit, MI – Pittsburgh, PA – Philadelphia, PA – Long Island, NY

Tour buddy (Aka the Big Mouth of the little piano//Big Mouth tour): conscientious rapper AllOne

Some Notable Points:

* My favorite cosmic surprise on tour: I was riding a bus in Houston and saw a sign pointing in the direction of the Rothko Chapel, a place I’ve been interested in visiting for a few years due to my love for abstract expressionism and Morton Feldman’s piece “Rothko Chapel” inspired in part by the chapel and Rothko’s life and death. I spent Valentine’s Day meditating in the middle of Rothko’s glorious paintings and reading “Sanctuary The Spirit in/of Architecture” and the “Tao Te Ching”.

* I was fortunate enough to make it to Soulsville, USA in Memphis to check out the Stax Museum. It was a really humbling and inspiring experience to see the breeding grounds for so many amazing artists. I may or may not have sampled myself in the replica studio room. Now I have to make it to Hitsville, USA in Detroit to check out the Motown Museum.

* A new question regarding me and my toy piano arose in Nashville! “Can you play that with your booty?” I kid you not. In Philly, I decided I could live with the consequences of discovering the answer to that question. It turns out my rump is capable of a few different tone clusters.

Tour Glossary:

*Tikanis Stou Spitti Mou: phonetically spelled Greek for “What the hell are you doing in my house?” (Taught to me as an essential Greek phrase to have on hand by a Greek man at the house show I played in Atlanta)

*Craw Plause: when two hands come together at the base and open and close to mimic a claw and clap continuously for an appropriate length of time in honor of craw fish. (An AllOne/Alexa Dexa invention brought into existence in New Orleans during Mardis Gras)

*Sanctuary: a place where fearless birds open their wings to measure the arc of an endless sky. (I guess you could say this whole tour was a sanctuary for me and my toy piano.)