On Tour With the 7th Best Band in America: Part 2

So I slept a lot less than I thought on the road to Cleveland. The journey there included listening to some great albums by a diverse set of artists including U2, Warren G, a Flannelgraph Records sampler, Mercyful Fate, Teenage Fanclub, the Either/or LEM, the That Thing You Do soundtrack, Monahan, and some other stuff that I can't remember cause I'm not cool like that.

It is fun to get a music education, but it is awkward not knowing all of the music they know. I try and handle it a lot differently than I did when I was younger. Back then I would just always pretend that I knew exactly what those smarter people were talking about, and I got nothing from it (sorry Ben Syversen). Now I just try to ask even if I come off stupid, and I get exposed to better music because of it. And that is the most interesting aspect about being in different musical worlds; not what the average person says when they are saying rock, country rap or whatever, but truly different cultures that just happen to form around music. I am not really sure what musical culture I belong to. I've just always wanted to be a part of the culture of music itself. But that is an ideal. The real world is a lot more complicated and a lot more interesting.

All whiney introspective crap aside we played our Cleveland show at a place called The Happy Dog. They have crazy awesome hot dogs for which you can get pretty much whatever toping you want (a fried egg, habanero peppers, and chunky peanut butter were some of the highlights). After we scarfed those down we played a show to an audience of fans were sat down casually and gave us strange looks. Tim was sick; I kept missing notes; Mike had technical issues. We got through the set, and I felt as if I may have brought down the band. Really the whole vibe was off from the evening with the strange audience (and yet the band still made money for themselves which was cool).

The band decided to head straight for Columbus that night, where we stayed at a friend of Tim's. Fun fact: rock bands sleep in. I was the first one up at a little after 10. We set out for lunch at a killer German restaurant called Schmidt's where we were educated on the vaunted history of 6 generations of Schmidt family. But really we just ate a ton of sausage. From there we hit the record store called (a great store, but you have to delve through a sea of crap and stuff you haven't heard of to achieve any kind of success).

The show we played on Thursday night was at a house called The Purple Room. The show stared about 2 hours late with a band that none of us could figure out the name of. A house show is a thing of itself for those who have never been to one. I have played at a couple, and sometimes I think it is one of the most b.a. shows to play. There seems to be a lot less pressure, which makes me play more relaxed and better. We played a heavy set of tunes that night (on the last blog post I might try and post our set lists) and just went nuts. The people who were there were into it and the band was into it. This show was definitely more comfortable than the first, and I hope it keeps getting better from here.

Unfortunately due to my strange schedule, yesterday was the last pure aspect of the tour. I will driving around separately now, and that will be a new sensation. I'm still looking forward to all the great shows though. Tonight we play at Luna Records in Indy. Here's hoping the journey continues to build momentum.

Go team.