Latitude44 – Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Wow, what a great night we had last night here in Sioux Falls. Too many stories/anecdotes to share here in a short road journal post, but I’ll cover some of the highlights.

We rolled into Sioux Falls around 4pm, checked into our hotel, and headed straight to the FedEx office, so I could pick up my bag of gear (piano power cables, pedal, tuner pedals, etc.). An important bag, to say the least – and it was sitting at FedEx as scheduled, Good times.

Fred picked up a bad cold somewhere along the trip, so he stayed at the hotel for the night. We were bummed not to have him (especially with the way the night turned out), but he’s feeling better this morning, so it was a good thing that he rested. We headed to the venue, Latitude44, and found it to have a really, really great vibe. Our friends from the road, Jason Spooner and Ryan Montbleau Band, played it a few weeks ago, so we figured it was probably a good spot.

While we were setting up, I chatted with the owner, Cindy, about the Montbleau/Spooner show. As it turns out, her daughter went to Bates College in Maine (Jason Spooner is from Maine), and I told her that Anton had gone there. She flipped and called Anton over, and they had a nice long convo about Lewiston (Maine), Bates, etc. Not a conversation he expected to have in the middle of South Dakota.

After soundcheck, we walked up the street to grab some dinner at a Mexican place. Jay, Beers, and Anton headed over there first, and ended up missing the place, walking a couple of blocks too far. They realized they were lost, and saw a girl walking by herself up the street toward them. Jay asked her if she was a local, and if she knew where Jacky’s Mexican restaurant was. They got to talking and she told them that she was “heading to a show.” Anton said, “At Latitude 44? We’re playing there tonight.” She stopped and said, “wait – you’re not SOUNDRABBIT, are you?! No way.” Haha. I wish I had been there to see the guys’ faces. So as it turns out, she was given a copy of our album, This Room Becomes A Crowd, two years ago by a friend from Colorado Springs. She’s been listening to it since, and was shocked to hear that we were playing up the street from her house in Sioux Falls. Better yet, she’s friends with the guys from Harriet Tweed, who helped us set this show up (we played with them in Madison, Wisconsin six weeks ago and Sioux Falls is their hometown, and we played this show with them). Small, small world.

After dinner, we headed back to the venue to catch Harriet Tweed’s set. It was their first time playing acoustically, so they weren’t sure how it would turn out (they’re usually a heavier punk/rock/funk band). They sounded fantastic, with a totally different take on their songs. The room filled in with people, and we all enjoyed chilling out and watching their show. We took the stage shortly thereafter and were beyond warmly received by the fine people of Sioux Falls. We started off with “View,” and had an explosion of applause at the end of Anton’s solo in the middle jam. Nice to play for a room full of people who are excited to hear new music. We got a great singalong going for “Nightlite,” and played for about an hour and a half. Here’s how the setlist panned out:

View From Way Up Here
From The World I Have Known
Story Of…
Park
Emil
Heat
IIOKYN
Nightlite Jesus
Don
Marula Binge
Lift
ZED
Turn My Egg
Obey –>
Life During Wartime

After the show, we signed CD’s and posters for people, visited with locals (and even a guy from Boulder who was just visiting), packed up and then headed over to Harriet Tweed’s studio space, a few blocks away. It’s in an old office building, a former Attorney’s office. Pretty funny. There are still labels on the doors (“Office of Joe Schmoe, Attorney at Law”) and the upstairs has the feel of a 70’s-style office – but it’s now filled with music gear, beer cans, and musicians hanging out with their friends. Definitely one of those “only on tour” moments, where we were all thinking, “man – I never thought I’d be in a former-Attorney’s-office-turned-band-hangout in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at 2:00am on a Thursday night.” Hehe. They showed us all of their gear, played us some of their new album cuts, and we met the band in the studio next door, a jamband that occasionally gets down to the Denver area. Another great networking connection, and really nice guys.

We stayed at the studio until almost 3am, and then cruised back to our hotel to grab some zzz’s. We’ll definitely make our way back through Sioux Falls (and play at Latitude) again, possibly as early as March when we’re en route to Minneapolis for our scheduled gig and NACA events.

So now we’re packing up in the hotel room here and we’re hitting the road to Grand Forks. It’s about 5 hours directly north from here. We’ll have time to check in to our hotel around 5pm, grab dinner, and load in at the venue on the campus of Univ of North Dakota at 7pm for our 9pm show. Nice, easy schedule. And nice driving weather again today, with blue skies and temps in the 60’s. Woot.

More later from the road or Grand Forks…