Go Spartans. (Dubuque, Iowa)

Good morning. Hanging out in our suite at the hotel, watching Cable Guy while Anton practices guitar in the other room. Anton, Fred, and I (Russ) are sharing one suite, while Jay and Beers share one a few doors up. Nice setup, actually – big rooms and no asbestos warnings. Fun show last night at the University of Dubuque – here’s how the setlist turned out:

Emil
Diminished Returns
View From Way Up Here
ZED
Hazel
From The World I Have Known
Marula Binge
Nightlite Jesus
Story Of…
Don
IIOKYN
Flume
Turn My Egg
Eoghan, Late Saturday
Obey >>
Life During Wartime

Nice stage and lighting rig, and the kids from DBQ were awesome. The weather was in our favor for the outdoor show on the quad, with clear skies, a light breeze, and 70 degree temps. After the show, we loaded out and headed into downtown Dubuque for some drinks. Fred ended up arm wrestling a construction worker, and meeting a 40-something woman who claimed to have spent a night with Pauly Shore (yes, Encino Man). Suffice it to say that the scene in Dubuque was pretty strange – felt like we were in the Twilight Zone. We settled at a table at The Bank, the place that had the least amount of people in it, where we could relax and have a chat… and we were back at the hotel by 1am – where there were a couple dozen people in their 80’s playing cards in the lobby. At 1am.

Today we drive a couple of hours to Madison, Wisconsin – nice easy day. We’ll check the town out for a bit and then load in at 7:30pm or so for our show at The Frequency at 9pm. It will be nice to play a club with house sound, where we don’t have to load all of our gear. We’ve been told that Madison is the “Boulder of the midwest” – we’ll see!

More from Madison…