Kansas –> Indiana –> Ohio
Howdy from the van, everyone. Sorry I didn’t post an update here yesterday, our internet connection was spotty at best through Kansas. I’ll make up for it now with a nice long post here.
We had a great show at Jazzhaus in Lawrence last night. An incredibly friendly town and room, we made a bunch of new fans and friends, and they want to have us back in April when we swing through again. Good times. We recorded the show, and I’ll be posting it here to the Backstage ASAP… some highlights were the debut of “Blame” and “D9” live. They both went pretty well, considering that I wrote the lyrics in the van between Denver and Lawrence and we’d never tried them in front of listeners. Many versions of lyrics will be tested on this tour, so we can return to the studio in November with some ideas for the album versions.
Here’s how the setlist panned out:
Story Of…
Park
Emil
Heat
D9
Hazel
Turn My Egg
IIOKYN
View From Way Up Here
Blame
Obey –>
Life During Wartime
List
I’ll Race Ya
ZED
Don
Around The Bend
Eoghan, Late Saturday
Nightlite Jesus
Stop/Starts
Relief
Marula Binge
We’re cruising down I-70 in Indiana as I write this, just east of Terre Haute. We got in to our hotel room in Lawrence just after 3am this morning and had to leave there at 6:45am to hit the road, so we’re all taking naps as we can get them. The hotel was pretty funny. We arrived at 3am and parked the van and trailer out front. I said to the kid at the front desk, “hey, man – we have a lot of equipment in our trailer, is this a safe neighborhood?” His reply was, “Umm… what day is today? Thursday? You’re probably fine.”
Hmm.
We got to our rooms and Anton and I noted that our door had been kicked in at least once…
Forced entry = classy hotel.
Packing up the trailer at Anton’s house
Group shot with Anton’s dog before we hit the road.
We have a stowaway.
Russ providing “driving music” vis a vis some incredible dual-pennywhistle playing.
Beers riding shotgun through eastern Colorado.
Anton takes the first shift.
99% of the country that we see on tour looks like this.
Kansas truckstop – Anton yells, “Hay! Hay! Wait up!” (wokka wokka).
Okay, so here’s the first thing worth stopping for on the tour. We’re driving through western Kansas on I-70 and we see signs for “World’s Largest Prairie Dog – next exit!” Not inclined to miss an opportunity like that, we pulled off and decided to check it out.
We walked into “Prairie Dog Town” in Oakley, Kansas at around 2pm and met Larry, its proprietor. He gave us what I’m sure is his typical salespitch – “It’s $6.95 per person to go in, which is cheap considering it costs me $100 a day just to feed the rattlesnakes.”
Hmm.
“Well, you can wait and pay $25 to see the 5-legged cow when it dies. Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not museum already paid me for it, they’re gonna take him when he dies and have him on display forever… for $25. You can see him now, alive, for $6.95.”
Hmm.
Okay, we’ll bite.
Beers and I paid the fee and walked through the door to Prairie Dog Town. I’ll let the photos say the rest:
The guys check out the inconspicuous, understated entrance to Prairie Dog Town.
“Roscoe’s” small stature pales in comparison to extra bovine limbs.
Beers says “how can I count the legs? They’re laying down!”
The famed 5-legged cow.
Russ says, “uhhh… this is the world’s largest prairie dog?”
It is, indeed, giant. I used to own one of these as a kid (for real). They yell when cornered.
Prairie Dog Town (aka “Bubonic Plague Village”)
Larry, owner of Prairie Dog Town – and the prairie dog he swears he ‘bagged’ in the 1970’s.
I had to buy this postcard, which is now pasted to the ceiling of the van.
So ya… it was interesting. I have some great video that I’ll have to edit and post on my blog when we get back to Colorado. Let’s just say that Larry is proud of his 42-year old business.
(Side note: as I write, Anton has selected the Goonies theme by Cindi Lauper as our driving music)
Anton hates the popparazzi.
Awesome midwest sign.
Rest. Stop. Rest. Stop. Rest. Stop. Rest.
The future…
“Oh, Anton – tell me another.”
The musician’s worst nightmare – “the load in upstairs.” (Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS)
Loading in… Lawrence, Kansas
Beers warming up in the green room / storage room B.
Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS
Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS
Jazzhaus – Lawrence, KS
Jazzhaus green room has been tagged.
The new Merch setup.
Beers’ homework before we left for tour was to set up an easily packable and easy-to-set-up merchandise display. He found an old steamer trunk on Craig’s List and created an “open, set it, and forget it” table display that makes life much easier for us before shows (see last photo above).
Okay, so it took me an hour to make this post… and we also crossed into another timezone and state, so it’s now 6:18pm Ohio time. I’m going to sign off as we watch the sun set on another day spent in the van aaallll day. Can’t wait to play the show tonight.
More later…
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