The wolf is more afraid of you than you are of it!

Harlem Shakes w/ Deerhoof
Diary #2

On Tuesday, North Carolina—land of Blackbeard, Michael Jordan, and prose-master Allan Gurganus—welcomed us with open arms. After a satisfying set at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, we said goodbye to our bearded, Ashkenazi guardian angel, Jon Natchez from the band Beirut, who had been playing bari sax, French horn, and flute for us. After the show, our friend Daniel from 8088 Record Collective kindly lent us his floor.

We met his neurotic timberwolf, Treebeard. Daniel told us: “I swear, the wolf is more afraid of you than you are of it!”  We tried to tell the animal, “dude, you’re the wolf here, we should be afraid of you—in fact, we’re totally goddamn terrified of you! Oh my god! Oh Jesus Christ! It’s a wolf!!”

But, ultimately, the wolf turned out to be adorable, non-homicidal, and almost embarrassingly shy. No one made a joke about bands with wolf names.

Then we went to Asheville, NC and played at the glorious Grey Eagle, a former motorcycle-repair shop that serves alligator meat, among other cajun treats.

What a town! Asheville is famous for its hippie culture, but only several hundred of the people we met were wearing ponchos and had gray ponytails to their waists.

At our lovely hosts’ house, it was art night—everyone had to make something. We asked if tour-blogging counted as an art; we then sat in a dense haze of silence until Kendrick remembered that, back in NC, he had peed outside and spotted the wolf watching several feet away. A muted, cough-like scream sprang from his lips. The rest of the night we danced ecstatically with our hosts to Petula Clark, “Heat Wave,”
“Got to Give it Up (part one),” and a remix of a remix of remix of a pirated dub-version of “Galang.” Asheville, you brought us such joy!
We will surely return!

Onward, Thevandra!!

Adieu!

HARLEM SHAKES
p.s. check our myspace for a one-act play written by our host Katie Fuller about the unspoken spiritual understanding between Lexy and Treebeard.

—Harlem Shakes