May 2008

Hiya, it’s Russ. I’m doing all of my Backstage “homework” right now… going through to see if we missed covering anything in the last week… and indeed we did, here in the Road Journal. We played on Friday night in downtown Denver, at Appaloosa on 16th Street. Enjoyed a delicious salmon-and-mashed-potatoes dinner before the set, and then proceeded to play 3.5 hours of mostly original stuff. Saw a half-dozen Backstage members there (thank you!), along with a bunch of people who had no idea who we were or what we were about… but we educated ’em for a few hours and they seemed to enjoy themselves (enough to buy CD’s for themselves and friends who they “know would LOVE [us] guys”). Good times. I’ll post the setlist here as soon as Beers gives me his notebook, where we jotted it down at the last minute before taking the stage. We did try a new cover song – “Yellow Moon,” by John Hiatt (and made famous by the Neville Brothers). It went fairly well for our first time playing it. We’ll probably pull it out for longer sets when we need to fill some space and get people up and dancing. By the time we finished at 1:45am, it was pouring cats and dogs downtown, so we loaded out and headed home. We were all saying that it’s really strange playing in Colorado after being on tour. Every show feels like it’s a random city… when we load in to the venue in Denver, it could be Des Moines or Manhattan or Phoenix… really starts to feel like any stage is “home,” which is a great feeling. Head over to the “Music” and “Forum” sections of the site… I posted some updates from the studio, where we’re recording our follow-up album… posted some MP3’s and pics from the recording session tonight. It’s going to be a busy summer, between tours and recording sessions and family stuff… can’t wait. Oh, and I just added a few more photos retro-actively to the Road Journal posts below, so scroll down and you might see some stuff that’s new to your eyes…

Why would I update the “Road” journal tonight from our hometown of Boulder, you ask? Because I absolutely cannot let a week go by without reporting on this past Saturday’s show – Ogallalapalooza.

We headed up to Ogallala, Nebraska on Saturday (05/03) to play at an Elks Lodge. I’ve never spent any time in the Ogallalalopolis, nor in an Elks Lodge – so I had no idea what to expect. When we arrived at the lodge, we found that they’d sold 100 tickets for the show (at $10 a pop… a steep ticket in a tiny town), and the crowd was quite eager to hear us in person. Evidently our album had been circulating in the months prior, to the point that there were people singing along to “Hazel” as if we were playing here in Boulder. Crazy.

Let’s just say that Ogallalaliliputians know how to have a good time. From the very first song we played at 9pm to the last song at midnight, we had people up and dancing… people of all ages and demographics. At one point I looked up and saw a couple in full authentic Mexican garb (sombrero, colorful shirt, dungarees, boots) country swing dancing to “Turn My Egg”… and let’s just say that when we broke into “Don,” “View From Way Up Here,” and “Park,” we had to improvise on the spot to extend the songs to double their typical length, as the floor space in front of us was packed with more and more couples with each verse. They loved our dip into the alt-country genre on those tunes. Surprisingly, we were able to rock Marula Binge for almost 10 minutes… not a song that we would have guessed would go over well… but they loved it. It may have been the best song of the night, in terms of the folks having a good time dancing and “whooping” it up (literally).

It’s funny how when we reflect back on the tour to the Northeast, some of the best nights we had were in small towns – be it Des Moines or Portland – and now this town of 5,000 in Nebraska. These were some of the friendliest, most out-to-have-fun people we’ve ever had the pleasure of performing for. They’ve asked us to come back this summer to play a beach party at the local lake, and we’ll likely take them up on it. It’s guaranteed to be a great time. Here are some pics courtesy of Bob Alberts, an Ogallala photographer who shot the event:

The end-of-the-night DieHards; midnight and still goin’ strong!

Thanks to all of the people in Ogallala who gave us such a great time. We had an interesting show on Thursday night in Denver (live recording of it will be up online shortly, show described in the post below), so this was a nice pick-me/us-up to keep us jazzed!

FYI, loyal readers, we’re heading into the studio this week to record our second album. We want to have a really strong follow-up to This Room Becomes A Crowd, and we’d love to have it out by the end of the year. We’ll post initial recordings and ideas here on the Backstage over the coming weeks and months (see “Music > Backstage Sessions and/or Scratch Tracks”)… we’re excited to get you a full new album of material. We’ll be back on the Road in June to the mid-Atlantic and southern East Coast, and recording in the time between. More later…

We’re back in Colorado, enjoying springtime in the Rockies. When we arrived on Monday night, it was warm enough outside that we had a BBQ on my deck that evening, watching the sun set over the mountains. Tuesday and Wednesday were in the 80’s. Thursday – the night of our gig – the high was 37 and we had so much snow blowing sideways that I couldn’t see 100 feet out my backyard. Indeed, we’re in a couple of days of slush and cold weather before returning to the 70’s this weekend. Crazy. We had a fun show in Denver tonight, though a quiet one. There were maybe a half-dozen loyal RabbitReps in the room… and we opened with “Park” and “View From Way Up Here”… and the owner of the place came up to the stage in the middle of “View” to tell us that we were “way too loud.” That’s a first. We’re not exactly the loudest band on the planet, and those two songs are among the quietest in our repertoire… so it was weird. Despite that interruption, we barreled through a full 90-minute set and concluded with a LOUD version of a Talking Heads tune… figured we’d go out with a bang (and not plan on booking the place again). Here’s the setlist:

Park
View From Way Up Here (with aforementioned interruption)
Story Of…
Heat
Don
Eoghan, Late Saturday
Marula Binge
Around The Bend
Nightlite Jesus
Hazel
List (EMINY)
IIOKYN
ZED
Turn My Egg
Obey –>
Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)

Thanks to all who made it out, including a bunch of RabbitReps and world-traveling Sticker Presenters. One of the Reps taped the show, so if the recording comes out decently, we’ll be posting it here on the Backstage… (thanks, Ed!)… today (Friday) a day off before climbing back in the van to drive 3.5 hrs to Ogallala, Nebraska on Saturday. Jason and I are playing golf in the morning, then meeting Anton and Beers in the evening to load in and rock the Ogallalans for an evening. More Road Journaling then… hasta for now.