More Midwest Madness

Minneapolis was really cool at the radio station and then we played at First Avenue. The crew there was really good at what they do but they were none to plussed by the fact that I wasn't there until 1 and a half hours after load in started because of the radio gig so there was a little smoothing over to be done. We had a descent show. The energy from the band was nothing to write home about and the sound was alright. We got some food after the show and it was a fairly uneventful night.

The next day, Monday, we had a studio performance at Daytrotter Studios in Rock Island, Illinois. It was a very different experience from the Public Radio performance. The Public Radio performance was a very polished experience and we went direct for most of the instruments which means that we used as many acoustic instruments as possible and no amps. At Daytrotter we used all amps and did a full setup in the equivalent of a garage studio and we were told that bands often get scared when they come in and see the size of the room but things usually work out. Our set ended up turning out really well as he said it would, and then we hung out around Rock Island. We had dinner, and Kyle and I advanced a number of shows for the tour. I ate at my first Bennigans which is only relevant because of the reference to the Butters themed episode of South Park. We ended up eating there twice and I don't need to eat there again soon.

Tuesday we had a show in Chicago. I was sharing a hotel room with our merchandise guy, Patrick and my alarm for the 6:30 a.m. bus call did not go off and his alarm was set for p.m., not a.m. so we got a call at 6:25 a.m. and ran down to the bus. To our credit, we were there by 6:31 a.m. but I couldn't fall back asleep for an hour and a half because of the adrenaline. When we got to The Metro in Chicago we had a good sound check and then I ran around Chicago taking pictures of Chicago and Wrigley Field for an hour while Copeland sound checked. My friend Jason Frank show up for the show and hung out for a pretty decent show. Our Viola player, Lauren had her parents there and they had an after-party for us.
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The Metro had a Midas Heritage 2000 and a new EV system. It sounded really good and the Midas EQ was so much better than a Allen and Heath or Soundcraft board.
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After the show I grabbed a drink with Jason and my friend Annie Gloyn who I have not seen in almost 6 years. It was great to get to spend some time with them and it is always great to have relationships drop right back into a comfort zone even after having not seen each other for so long. After Annie and her boyfriend took off, Jason and I went to the after party. Lauren's parent's house was amazing, her dad is an architect and they had some originals Dali etchings, a Miro, and a Renoir. They were pretty amazing to see and her parents were so welcoming towards all of us.

Last night, we were in Sauget, IL. Sauget is 3 miles from St. Louis right across the Mississippi. We played at a venue called Pop's which is open 24 hours a day 364 1/2 days a year. They close for half a day on Christmas Eve. If you have seen the Blues Brothers, think the stage in the bar in that movie, but without the chicken wire. It was full of a lot of truckers and factory workers when we got there around noon and there were warnings on the news for people to stay inside because it was 108 outside. When I asked the house techs what the industry was around there they said; paint, fertilizer, and pretty much anything that causes a lot of pollution. Awesome. We actually had a good turn out to the show but then again, there wasn't a lot to do around there either. It reminds me of some advice I heard years ago from someone in the record industry, "If you want to be successful, go somewhere where you are the only thing in town and get everyone behind you". To any aspiring bands out there, if you can deal with bars, strip clubs, and pollutants, Sauget is the place for you.
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I was compressing the vocals as groups of backup and lead vocals and I recently changed to female and male vocals which works much better.
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I am going to hit the sack since it is 4 in the morning but I have one thing to talk about in regards to tonight when I post tomorrow.... Shampoo.