Archive Sunday #33

SD: Right from Champaign we headed to Chicago to play the historic Thalia Hall. But before load-in, we had a taping for a public-access TV show farther into town. So we opted to play with mostly back-lined gear for the short, early performance to not put our second show later that night behind schedule. Once we entered the JBTV studios I immediately recognized the show from the intermittent channel my TV antenna would pick up late at night. And when we were wandering through the studio we were amazed how many artists came over it's thirty year history to perform. I think we only had time to play five songs and do a short interview, but it was super cool to check out the whole operation that was dedicated to music.

After load-in at Thalia Hall, Ethan and I went to a convenience store and he pointed out this weird energy drink he used to love as a kid called Venom.  I was already tired from a long day at that point, so naturally I had to try it haha. It definitely gave me the energy to finish out the night, but not something I'd seek out. The show went well, and Lucy had everyone super hyped by the time we came out. 

The next day we drove to Cincinnati to play the Midpoint festival. Andrew always remembers this guy who came out yelling at us when we were parking on his street. He must have already upset at the unusual traffic in his neighborhood for the weekend festival, because when we were getting out of the van he came storming up saying we were clogging up the street. We double-checked the van wasn't blocking anything and kinda just shrugged it off. I think Andrew asked him if there was anywhere nearby that was a better place to park, when the guy noticed our van had Oregon plates. All of a sudden his attitude completely changed and he said, "Ah, I'm just raising hell out here." He said we were fine there and he was from Oregon too. Andrew had a short conversation reminiscing about growing up in Oregon, then we went on our way. We just laughed later about the complete 180 the guy did, but it worked out. The rest of the festival was fun, and we got to catch some of the Mountain Goats set after we were done.

We must have found a cheap hotel in nearby Kentucky because I remember we went to this huge Chinese place there for dinner. John said the bathroom was full of pictures the owner and various celebrities he probably didn't want his wife to see haha. The next day we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. We were kinda surprised they had normal shows there, but they had us set up in the huge, glass lobby. I vaguely remember checking out a few exhibits, but I'm pretty sure once I had time most of them were closed. They had our makeshift green-room in this kind of board room which Andrew had a lot of fun making videos in.

The following day we went to Madison, WI to play the Majestic Theatre. It was this old multi-tiered room that kind of only veered off to one side. I don't remember much else apart from Will doing a Leonard Cohen cover to start out the night. After that, we played our last show with Lucy Dacus at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. We got everyone together for a nice dinner around the corner to celebrate a successful run together before doors. Plus we did a new arrangement of Drunk Drivers with Will on piano that they had laying around the venue that people really seemed to enjoy. 

We had a couple of small shows after that around Green Bay to hit up some smaller markets that are harder to hit on a full tour. Then we flew to Boston to play a college show at Northeastern. Andrew showed us some spots around town he frequented when he lived there for a few months. The college show was extremely fun and definitely brought me back to some of the early CSH shows we used to play. I remember we were so delirious at the time Ethan came up to me at the venue saying he completely forgot where we parked the van. I just looked at him and laughed as I said, "dude, we flew here. remember?" Thankfully we had about a week off after that haha.