Road Dispatch #4

Hello Friends! Greetings from Kansas! on the bus, rolling through cow country on our way to Lawrence, where we have a day off!  Our drummer Josh is from the area and is excited to show us around. It's gonna be HOT, so we may lay low. I'm relieved to have a night off, after a very fun but taxing run through Texas! Fun Fun Fun shows all the way through... Austin was special... A drop dead gorgeous and historic theater that I've played a few times, so it felt a little like home to me. The crowd was right there with me the whole night and everything was clicking.   It was such a good time, I even ventured out after for a beverage.  Houston was cool too, a bit of a smaller venue, and a quieter crowd - Especially for the stand up act... It was strange... I think people were legit scared for a bit. It warmed up and turned out great. Dallas was fun too, somehow a ton of new little things got added to the show, little bits of stage banter and transitions that just worked and I was kicking myself didn't occur to me earlier in the tour - The only negative was the stage was just a little too big, and high off the ground and I didn't feel as connected to the crowd as I like to be.  Backstage did have some fun carnival style basketball hoops and that helped pass the time and keep us active. 

We swapped one crew member on the road - our sound guy Kris had to depart (expected and planned) and we added Matt Ottley who was our sound guy on the last Tim and Eric tour. Love Matt and he's quickly folded himself into the gang, nicely - another record collector geek, and now this bus is about to blow a tire from the weight of the records we're carrying. 

5 more shows on the road. Shit. (not counting our run in NY coming up which will be fun and great but... not the road)  We're in a state of denial. It's moving so fast, trying to enjoy it the best we can. I'm sure everyone's excited to get back home (I am) but there's also the pull of - shit, this is fun and every night we get to have this incredible, moving experience together and then suddenly it will be over. 

Last night, we we were outside of the bus, about to leave when 3 BEEF Boys and a woman walked on by... These boys were big, and normal - I'd say, Jocks, or just regular folk... I don' mean in a negative way, but I just assumed they were stumbling back from a night out at a sports bar or something, but then they stopped, recognized us - they were at the show and had an amazing time. They were stunned to see us, and just raved over the show in the nicest way, and then moved on. Damn, I said to Ellie..."I sure didn't peg them as fans."  But the truth is, when I look out into the audience, I'm seeing all kinds of people. Hipsters, punks, normals, older people, younger people... (however the racial diversity isn't very impressive I must admit) but overall it's just a nice group of people that have been so giving and respectful of the show, that it's one of the reasons the shows are so fun and mostly effortless for us.  So.... if you've made it out to one of the shows.... 

THANKS! 

P&L, T