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We’re taking it as a sign and pulling off for the night. The road has not been our friend today. The morning brought us the van search in Indiana, and tonight on our way out of Erie, two big deer ran in front of us and one caught our front right bumper, bending it under so it’s touching the tire. Loooong day.

That aside, the gig in Erie was a blast tonight. Great people, and we even had a local sit in with us on harmonica and he rocked it (Nice job, Nick!). Met a guy who makes percussion instruments, met a hula hoop instructor who performed during our set, and had an all around great time.

On to Boston tomorrow after we get the bumper repaired… G’night!

We’re just pulling out of Willoughby, Ohio after enjoying an early dinner at one of our regular stops on tour, Europa Cafe. Visiting with the owners, John and Anna, is always a highlight of these trips. Anton and I (Russ) enjoyed the goulash with a side salad. Fred and Beers had a special order of rice and German sausage, and Mario had the wiener schnitzel, which he had there on the last tour. This place is incredible, as John and Anna make everything from scratch, and you can taste it. I had a piece of their Berlin Square chocolate pastry for dessert and we chatted with John about the tour for a bit before heading out.

We also managed to book a gig tonight in Erie, Pennsylvania at the Erie Ale House, where we played last year. We should be there around 8pm for load-in and playing by 9. MUSIC!!

We’re just coming into the West side of Chicago… easy drive today, perfect weather and zero traffic… pretty amazing. Unfortunately we had to skip the World’s Largest Truckstop for the first time ever… we had a nice long lunch at The Machine Shed in Des Moines, one of our favorite breakfast places in the midwest… but it caused us to run a bit behind. It’s 7:24pm right now and we have to load in at 8pm at the venue, and we’re probably about 45 minutes out, sooo ya. We should be perfectly slightly delayed. Not bad.

The set tonight is only supposed to be 40 minutes, but we’re going to try and get set up super fast so we can maybe start a bit earlier and get a longer set in… ideally we’ll play our hour-long Festy set beginning to end, to get it warmed up and feeling good for Sunday.

It can not be overstated how GREAT it feels to play music after sitting and driving for 8 hours… so the longer we can play, the better.

See y’all Chicagoans shortly!

Hi, all. Russ here. Man alive, it was a fun show tonight… the support band, Pancho and the Contraband, were absolutely unreal. One of those nights where there’s a bill and you’re not sure what the other musicians will be like (personality-wise and music style), and you come out of it thanking your lucky stars that it all came together as it did. I can’t remember how many people were on stage, but it was at least 8… with 5 and sometimes 6-part harmonies, incredible rhythm section, great horn section, and talking with them afterwards, it turns out that most of them are related (cousins, brothers, etc.). A bit ska, a bit indie rock, a bit reggae, a bit folk… all around excellent.

The venue itself is awesome, too… really cool room, good sound, super nice staff, super receptive people… and the crowd singalong during Nightlite Jesus was absolutely epic. These people had pitch, let me tell you, and this was the first time ever that we tried singing our 3-part reggae harmony over the crowd’s “Niiiightliiiight Jesus!” harmony… and it worked GREAT. Kudos to any of you who were there singing your lungs out, we love you for it.

Here’s how the setlist panned out:

Eoghan, Late Saturday
Story Of…
Sister, Brother
September
Obey –>
Life During Wartime*
Park
Hazel
Diggin’ In The Dirt**
Emil
Marula Binge
IIOKYN
Nightlite Jesus (with sick crowd singalong)
View From Way Up Here
Turn My Egg

Encore: Relief

* Talking Heads
** Peter Gabriel

Oh, and before the show, we went to The Oven, a phenomenal Indian restaurant in downtown Lincoln that we discovered a few tours ago. We went in and they sat us at the exact same table we had years ago, and the food was as tasty as we remembered. Nice little Tuesday in Lincoln, Nebraska for the SoundRabbits.

We hung out after the show for a while at the venue, enjoying some beers and the gorgeous night air out on their patio on the street, then headed to our hotel. Tour – as in life – is sometimes about some big things, but largely about the little ones. We found this hotel randomly online, and we’ll be back again the next time we play Lincoln for sure… super nice people, affordable suites (2 Queen Beds and a pullout sofa in each room, meaning I don’t have to spoon with Fred), a 24-hour pool and hot tub (no one does that!), late checkout, and breakfast that runs until 11:00am. Talk about a setup.

Tomorrow we have an 8 hour drive to Chicago, mostly on cruise control through farms, so it should be easy. We’ll grab breakfast here in the morning and then hit the road… the World’s Largest Truckstop is on our way, which is always exciting for us.

More from the road tomorrow…

Hi, All,

We’re packing up the van and getting ready to head out for a short Fall tour. We’re calling it “The Road to The Festy Tour,” as the anchor show for the trip is our October 13 show in Roseland, Virginia (just south of Charlottesville) at The Festy, with some incredible artists sharing the bill and an unbelievably beautiful setting (I, Russ, went last year as an audience member).

We’ll drive about 7 hours today, to Lincoln, Nebraska, where we’re playing at the Bourbon Theater. It’s supposed to be super cool – we’ve never played it. Can’t wait.

Signing off to give hugs to family we’re leaving behind… catch up with you later.