Oh me Oh my Ohio

I had no idea that Cleveland was such a cool city. I got to walk around for a while right after sound check and I really liked the feel of the city. The football and baseball stadiums are right downtown. The waterfront was nice and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is right on the water as well. There was all kinds of art all over the city. Lots of sculptures and a lot of decorated guitars in honor of the Hall of Fame. There is a gigantic "FREE" stamp sculpture right across the street from, ironically, the Department of Justice Building. The show was great, the House of Blues venue was really nice and it sounded great. The Rentals made up a song about me on stage. Matt told people to turn around and wave to me and then he explained how many of us on the tour are growing facial hair and he commented on how mine was not quite all in yet and then broke into a song which pretty much involved my name and "don't want to mess with". It was a great show and the first one of this tour where the band looked like they were really just having a great time on stage.

Yesterday our show in Kentucky (right across the river from Cincinnati) got cancelled due to "technical difficulties" so we had the day off. A group of us went to see the Simpson's movie which was a let down and then we went to a boat show and sat in a hotel room for a couple hours recording station IDs. Station IDs are when you are listening to the radio and you hear, "Hi, this is The Rentals and you're listening to KITS" or whatever so I recorded 120 of those yesterday with the band and then went out. We went to a house that was built by the inventor of the Tommy Gun in Kentucky 2 blocks from the Ohio River. The owner put a ballroom in the back of his house for ballroom dancing and it is now a venue. It's funny to walk into a house, go down the front hall, and step into a concert venue. In the front living room there is a bar and Greensky Bluegrass was performing last night. They are a 4 piece bluegrass band, banjo, mandolin, guitar, upright bass and one mic that they all sing into. It was amazing, we were in this historic house with pictures of Southern gentlemen on the walls such as Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, and Abe Lincoln, listening to bluegrass. As Dan the drummer said, "This is scratching me right where I itch." It was such a great contrast coming from 33 inputs on a soundboard and recording radio IDs which feels incredibly corporate to me, to go to 4 guys with one mic hanging out in the living room of a house playing music. We stayed there until close and then hung out with the guys for a bit.

Today we are in a giant ballroom in Detroit and all we need is some people. I'm off to dinner, take care party people.