Notes from the Midwest . . . BBQ, ORU, PDA
Reports from the road . .
PF here folks, just sitting in downtown, underground Eureka Springs, Arkansas. That’s right! The Hot Seats have invaded Arkansas. We are halfway through our little jaunt through the lower midwest, and have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves thus far, let’s have a quick recap, shall we?
Thursday, February 18th: Indianapolis.
This was a big day of driving. Luckily, we have our new van, which handles the hills and valleys like a greased up stallion, snorting and hoofing the dirt, haunches all a’glisten, just taunting the inclines and synclines with it’s haughty whinny . . . wait, what was I talking about? Oh yes, it was a 11 hour drive (with all of our pee breaks and constant pulling over at every scenic byway), and we rolled into Indy right before showtime. The Vollrath Tavern is much like many of the places we play – a neighborhood-y type of establishment, TV on, regulars well-planted at the bar. An uneventful setup and performance, the crowd was pretty into it, however, hooting and hollering. We were supposed to be on a three band bill, but The End Times Spasm Band, our Fort Wayne pals, weren’t able to make it. The other band on the bill was a group from Indy called Harley Poe. Kind of a Dead Milkmen vibe, I thought – very high energy and quirky, with lots of songs about vampires and also cannibalism (so right up our alley, you might imagine). Another typical Indy night for us, inasmuch as we had almost no repeat customers, but those who attended were happy with our product, which is to say that they hooted and hollered, as I said before.
After the show, we cruised to Bloomington, the current home of our very own Heironymous Volcano and his lovely wife, Esmerelda Campbell-Volcano. We stayed up too late, and crashed out.
Friday, February 19th: Press Photos and St Louis.
In the morning, we (I) got fully caffeinated and sat around, goofing on this and that – much of our general conversation is hilarious to us, but probably every group of friends feels the same way, we’ll get back to this in a little while. Given that we have a new member of the group Graham “Nickname Not Yet Established” DeZarn, it seemed prudent to take new press photos. Which we did in the Campbell-Volcano’s kitchen and backyard. I’ll post a few for your consideration. The taking of a press photo is a hard thing for us. The last thing you want is a band in front of a brick wall, or any wall, really, it’s just terribly cliché and overdone. Same thing with bluegrass bands near trains or tractors or some relic of the good ol’ days. Not our thing, you know? So . . . well, you can see for yourself what we came up with and let us know what you think.
Around midday we departed for St. Louis, our first foray into the state of Missouri. We rolled in and went immediately to the house of Mister Pokey LaFarge. Now, Pokey is certaionly someone you’ve heard me mention before, and perhaps you are now a fan. If not, please allow me to ask you to consider/reconsider the man and his band – The South City Three – for they are fabulous. Unlike so many of the modern stringbands, who distill the sound in order to present something more modern or palatable, Pokey and his boys keep it gritty and raggy, but also full of ingenuity and non-standard/cliche lyrics. Also, they look great. Ok, so anyway, we have a little dinner with Pokey and then head off to the club – a great spot called Off Broadway. By the time we get on, the crowd is large (maybe 170 people) and ready for action. We play a great show, they especially like the Beef Suite (everyone does), and hen Poke and his boys get up and rock the crowd for a bit.
RANT #1 I would like to pause for a moment and mention a little show-etiquette point. If you, the crowd, want an encore – you HAVE to clap and shout and ask for it! Otherwise, the soundman will pipe in house music after about 3 seconds of silence. After Pokey and the South City Three stopped their final song, the crowd kind of petered out in volume, so they got off stage. And then, I heard many folks talking amongst themselves, “Why didn’t they do an encore?” Well . . . because you didn’t cheer for one. There’s nothing more humiliating as a band than asking for your own encore. So, if you want it . . . stomp and cheer and clap. Otherwise, don’t be surprised when you don’t get one. And, one person in the back going “one more song!” or “don’t be lazy!” ISN’T gonna cut it.
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Saturday, February 20th: Kansas City, MO.
I’ll try and keep the fluff down here. To that point, if I don’t mention anything specific about our set, it just means that we were well received, but not in some totally unique way. So here’;s what was notable about Kansas City. (1) It was snowing like crazy! Alas, that meant there was a low-ish turnout for our early show. Our good pal Betse Ellis, of the Wilders, has sent a message out to their hometown folks, so we had a few that braved the snow, but a lot of folks were there for our cobill (2) The Kansas City Bear Fighters. A great band. In some ways, much like The Two Man Gentlemen Band – up tempo novelty songs, sweet harmonies, etc – but in song content, almost entirely different. A lot of post-apocolyptic themes, and a lot of randomness, just like we like it. We have another favorite band!
(3) Gates BBQ. After our show, we treated ourselves to a BBQ feast. Of course, everyone had their suggestions – Missourans take their BBQ VERY seriously – and Bates was the closest. We walk in and are greeted immediately by an almost threatening “Welcome to Gates, what do you want?” It’s one of THOSE kind of places. We ended up with a massive platter of ribs, pork, beef, and also lamb, plus beans and slaw. Oh man, we feasted like kings. It was a funny late night scene, BBQ at 11pm, but, as you know, we live for these moments. You can witness our before and after carnage here.
(4) The lengths to which bands will go: Our show was the early show at Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Lounge. The late show was a mess ‘o’ rock bands, one of them was a group from Houston. Now, Houston is about 13 hours from KC, and this band had driven all that way for ONE gig. ONE GIG!! A poorly attended gig in a small dive bar on a snowy night. Folks, musicians in the USA should garner the same respect as firefighters and policemen, well . . . at LEAST mailmen. Risking life and limb on dangerous highways, snowy mountain passes and vicious windy Oklahoma straightaways. For what . . . $40, split 5 ways, one free pitcher of PBR or Highlife . . . occasional applause. All I’m saying is the next time you see a small band in a nearly empty venue, give them a pat on the back and maybe cradle them in your arms for a while. I guarantee they are tired and broke and feeling unappreciated.
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Sunday, February 21st: Tulsa, Oklahoma
A wonderful house concert in Tulsa, a great time. Nothing especially remarkable about this day, though nothing terrible. We really enjoy these kind of shows – no mics, no stage, but a very attentive crowd that listens to your bad jokes and also the lyrics to your songs. After the show, Ben and Jake went to a club and saw a cool group from Dallas called Mount Righteous. Another of these highly charismatic, large brass ensembles, all tattooed and indie and sexy (I didn’t see them, remember, this is just my imagination). Seems like these kind of groups are getting more and more prevalent. I guess that’s OK. Tulsa is the home of Cain’s Ballroom – the spot where Bob Wills became popular and really formed his texas-swing style. So that’s something, right? So, OK, not much to report, but the real glory of Tulsa happened the next day . . .
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Monday, February 22nd: Oral Robert University and Eureka Springs AR.
In the course of the evening before, we had engaged our hosts – Nathan and Kristen – in conversation about things to do around Tulsa. It came out that Oral Roberts University is in town, and is a sight to behold. Now, keep in mind that we are from Virginia, home of Liberty University. However, in comparison, Liberty is a fully reputable place. Have you BEEN to ORU? Have you seen the city of gold? Well, if not, have we got some pictures for you! The whole place looks like it was built in some sort of 1970’s not too distant future. Gold plating on every surface. A fantastically absurd prayer temple that looks, in the word of heretic and part time ranter Edward Brogan like, “an interstellar escape pod.” Massive praying hands! OK, yes, it’s an easy target for agnostic and cynical East Coasters such as ourselves. And we love easy targets! Low hanging fruit also. Just look at the pictures. Please take notice of the many many MANY “No Weapons Allowed” signs on every door. I’ll also point out that there was an article in the student newspaper about how the fire alarms had to be removed from the men’s dorms, due to an overabundance of pranks. Those crazy kids! If they can’t have premarital sex, false fire calls are second in line!
After leaving Tulsa, we drove the scenic route through Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation towards Arkansas. Needless to say, the Cherokee Nation, at least that we could see from the road, could have been less depressing. Signs of poverty abound, and the one shiny thing was the casino, right on the AR/OK border. Yech.
We arrive in Eureka Springs, just on the SW end of the Ozarks. It is a lovely little town, much like Thomas, WV or Dahlonega GA. A resort town that specializes in spas, hills, and curatives waters. One of the springs apparently had the power to heal the blind! Anyway, in keeping with our “born loser” mantra, we decided to visit this town in the off-season. The good part of this is that the locals were out, and it’s always good to get in with the locals! We posted up in a corner of the bar – Chelsea’s Corner Cafe – and rocked out with some stringband-y madness. The beers were flowing, the dancers were dancing, and we had a great Monday night on the road.
OPEN NOTE TO VENUES: Dear venues, do you want happy musicians who speak well of your club and want to return? Here’s a few tips. Feed them, drink them, and lodge them. Wow, a novel concept to be sure. Of course, payment is also great. But, just as good is making them feel like it’s worth driving 4-8 hours to play at yer establishment. So frequently, you treat them like a nuisance or freeloaders when they are brazen enough to think that you might prepare a pizza or salad for them, or that they might get a free drink or two, you know, for whipping it out and bringing customers to your bar. A small thing, I admit, but just think about it.
Anyway, back to Eureka Springs. We had a great walk around town, and Jake had a flashback to his tween years in Arkansas. We picked him up, dusted him off, and pulled the mouth screw out of his teeth, and kept going. We will DEFINITELY return to this town.
And now I’m just about as caffeinated as possible (eyeballs are vibrating, depth perception is failing), and we are exploring options for hikes before heading off to Memphis for the day. More BBQ is in our future! Talk atcha soon!
