Goodnight Moonrabbit. (Wisconsin)

Greetings from La Crosse! Just got back to the hotel from a night out on the town, and may I say that Hampton Inn has done a fantastic job stepping up their brand and services. Wow. Super nice rooms, super nice staff, and evidently a breakfast to look forward to in the morning (not just the usual cereal carousel). Woot.

The gig tonight at The Root Note was fun, though completely different from Madison. It’s more of a coffee house atmosphere (full stage and house sound, but coffee house) – so we had to hold back a bit on the more rockin’ (read: “fun”) tunes. But there were a good number of people who heard our music for the first time, the staff was great, and we played well. The highlight of the night was local artist Sam Gavic, a University of Wisconsin La Crosse student, who came out to do a live painting during the show. He was set up over in front of Anton’s side of the stage (stage right), and had the canvas facing the room for the crowd to watch him at work – but we couldn’t see it from the stage. When we finished the set, we stepped off the stage to see his rendition of “Goodnight Moon” (the children’s book), with the rabbit tucked into bed. The only deviation from the book artwork is that the rabbit is wearing an iPod, listening to SoundRabbit. Nice! We bought the painting from Sam and took it with us in the van. I can’t wait to hang it up back at the studio in Colorado.

We went to a bar called “Bodega’s” after the set and visited with Sam and some of his friends, including the owner of The Root Note. We enjoyed classic Wisconsin Reuben sandwiches and beers, and now we’re settling in back at the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we head to De Pere (near Green Bay) to play St. Norbert College. It’s about a 4 hour drive across rural Wisconsin, so we should have time to post an update or two. More then…