Wednesday: Bloomington, IN
Allright! The big driving distances are behind us and we’re all still in one piece, although JB has a nasty case of the sniffles. We’ve been throwing every conceivable OTC immune system builder at him, and he seems happy and stabilized. No sniffles allowed on stage! We’re currently on the road and on the way to Milwaukee where we’ll be doing a live performance and interview at the radio station WMSE before playing at Shank Hall. Personally, I’m really excited, as I’ve never performed on the radio before. No flubbed notes allowed, as it’ll be recorded, archived, and whatnot… Bloomington was such a positive and homey experience! Jon and I graduated from Indiana University and both adore this town. It really is a little cultural mecca in the middle of the Midwest. I hadn’t been back since the day I left for Brooklyn, and it really felt wonderful to walk down Kirkwood and see the beautiful courthouse square with its annual Christmas lights strung up around the entire square. We stayed at the home of one of my good ol’ friends, the lovely Lyuba and her boyfriend Eugene. Their hospitality made us feel so warm and welcome. And their dog Sampson was a real trip. If you howl, he’ll howl right along with you and try and match your pitch. Quite a sight to behold.
The show was at Uncle Fester’s and was a hot set. Because the students were out of town for winter break and the show was confirmed too late to actively promote, we knew walking in that this wasn’t likely to be a packed house. But oh, the old friends that came out! It was such a joy to see all these wonderful people gathered in the same place: and then rock for them! The sound man handled our complicated needs with grace and aplomb. This may be an obvious statement, but I’ll say it anyway: whenever we can hear well onstage, we have a great time, play a solid set, and walk away satisfied. Fester’s was no exception. We tried on a rather “experimental” set, playing only 3 songs from the record and really stretching our unannointed audience’s expectations of what we were capable of. We even debuted a new tune for the audience. Usually when you perform a song for the first time live it doesn’t quite hit on all cylinders. It takes a show or two to work out the live kinks. We all agreed that we had the strongest debut ever for a brand new song. It’s a new tune of Danny’s called “Engram”. If we’re coming to your town, look for it, as we’re likely to play it at our next couple of shows. Engam, if you’re not familiar, is a word used to describe the chemical traces in the brain after a new memory is created. Yup. Heady.
