4 States in 4 Days Recap…
For those of you that aren’t following us on Twitter (shame on you…still) then you’re probably wondering about the wackiness that ensued during our 4 states – 4 days run. Let’s just say it was everything we hoped it would be and more. We had a killer time, played to a whole bunch of new Damn Quails converts, and got to hang with one of the coolest groups of guys on the scene in the Josh Abbott band. All around, an ultimately successful trip on a number of different levels.
Day 1 involved our usual rendezvous at the Quail house, but this time we had an extra special member rolling along to keep our production running smooth. Our good buddy Jared (who used to run our monitors and front of house sound at the Deli) was kind enough to bring his Ford E-350 and his expertise along for the run, which made it a much more comfortable trip than Dan the Van would have provided…plus we didn’t break down and get stranded anywhere, which probably would have happened had we decided to take Dan anyway. He’s getting a little shaky and worn out in his high-mileage days but still going strong for the time being. Not exactly extended-up-north-road-trip strong though.
The driver...man.
This brings me to the members that went on this particular run, which brings me to another point that I’m going to elaborate on first. As much as I hate it, we’ve been paring down the group when it comes to the long-haul traveling gigs as of late, which consists of stripping down the Quail Philharmonic to a more manageable size while we’re on the road. It’s not something we’re necessarily happy about, but it’s also something that we can’t do anything about at this point for numerous reasons that I’m not going into here. Suffice it to say that Biggie, Steve, and Blake are most definitely still a part of this band and will be back on the road with us again as soon as humanly possible. Until then, our current touring lineup is consisting of Gabriel and myself, Thomas Young on drums, Luke Mullenix on Bass, and Jon Knudson on fiddle, mandolin, keyboards, and dobro. So if you’re wondering what’s going on, that’s essentially the gist of it.
We headed north for our first show of the run on Wednesday to play what was supposed to be the Last Chance Saloon (a.k.a. Rusty’s…a.k.a. several other names in the previous year for reasons that will soon be clear) in Manhattan, KS. We rolled into town right on time for load in and soundcheck and were astonished to find that the venue we were playing was “under construction” and “closed til Thursday”. Hmmm. That suited us about as fine as a ten dollar suit with no alterations, so Tom went to work getting with CTK (our ever-lovin’ booking agents) to straighten out the sitch. It turns out there was some mass confusion and we were going to have to find another venue. Mike and Carrie Krug landed us a gig at a smaller place across the street called “Pat’s Blue Ribbon” (see what they did there?) where we got setup and waited around for some microphones to arrive before we could start soundcheck. We were all a little shaken up over the events of the previous few hours when something magical happened…via twitter.
Seeing as I am the twitter guy, I served up a couple of tweets about what was going on with the change of venue and where the kind folks that came out to see us could actually get to see us instead of wandering around a bar that was under construction. As it turns out, the kickass guys in the Josh Abbott Band were playing at Longhorns right up the street, the bar we played at last time we were in Manhattan and also had an eye on the old twitter account. They saw our conundrum and sent me a direct message on twitter that I actually didn’t end up getting until way after the fact. Luckily, @texas_at_heart ran into Josh at the chinese buffet up the way and sauntered herself down to Pat’s Blue Ribbon to inform us that Josh and the fellas had invited us down to Longhorns to play a surprise opening spot to a sold out crowd. I set Tom about the business of figuring out logistics, packed up my stuff, and hauled it (physically) down the block with the rest of the Quails to prepare for a romp ‘em stomp ‘em short set to a huge room full of folks. We had no monitors, few mics, and a strong urge towards rock and roll excellence as we ripped through the set. The crowd dug it and the experience gave us a little taste of what lay in wait for the Chicago and Columbia gigs.
Gabriel and WhiskyDan from the Josh Abbott Band Crew at Longhorns
After our opening set at Longhorns, we packed up (again) and hauled our gear (via trailer, thanks to Jared and his infinite knowledge of planning ahead) back up the street to Pat’s where we caught up with another group of twitter fans and a fairly full bar of folks ready to hear some Damn Quails songs. It was a great feeling when the best crowd responses came from songs on “Down the Hatch” and we proceeded to give it our all on a system with limited capabilities on a stage that was roughly a third the size of the Deli. We packed up the trailer (literally packed…we had so much stuff that it was like working a fairly complex Tetris puzzle every time we loaded out…luckily, Jared is the tetris master) and headed off to our place of residence for the night to rest up for the 10 hour drive to Minneapolis the next day.
If it weren’t for Tom and Jared, I would have been a less than happy camper to wake up a mere 4 hours after I closed my lids and have to drive ten hours to Minneapolis. Luckily, Jared and Tom split driving duties and the rest of us had the luxury of sleeping and/or screwing around all the way to Lee’s Liquor Lounge. The kind folks at Lee’s were extremely warm and friendly, despite the fairly extreme drop in temperature from the previous night’s gig in Manhattan. Most of the concert goers were adorned in light sweaters and jackets while those of us in the band were bundled up tighter than that younger brother from that Christmas movie with the Red Rider BB gun and the leg lamp. Evidently, we lucked out in a supreme fashion as this time last year there was about 4 feet of snow on the ground in Minneapolis. I got made fun of heartily for my constant “Jesus it’s cold” exclamation by the weather-hardened Minnesotans, not to mention the crew that drove all the way down from Fargo to catch the show. I’ve determined that @Al_Winmill is our @Amy_Stillwell of the north country…super loyal and a huge fan of the tweet machine. We played another kick-ass set for a bunch of incredibly attentive show goers and were really impressed with how many folks in Minneapolis and beyond showed up for a band that plays a genre of music that’s almost unheard of up in those parts. They were ecstatic about the show and the energy showed through in the set. We’re looking forward to getting back up there as soon as possible, though hopefully it’ll be a little closer to the warmer months next time.
In front of the historic Lee's Liquor Loung in Minneapolis
The crew headed back to our fairly swanky Holiday Inn Express highrise rooms and ended up hanging out until 5am or so, which gave us another night of 3-4 hours of actual bed sleep and made for another day of 4-6 hours of van sleep. All the gear and suitcases were loaded up and we headed off for the gig we were probably the most excited about to that point…the infamous Joe’s Bar on Weed Street in Chicago, IL. This marked my first time to see and step foot in the Windy City, which is a place I’ve been wanting to get to every since I first saw the Blues Brothers as a kid. It was every bit at breathtaking and large as I’d ever imagined it would be, and we all got a sense of childlike wonder as we drove through the fog toward downtown Chicago. After making our way to our fancy dancy digs at the Hotel Indigo, we enjoyed a cup of coffee, got settled in, and headed down to Joe’s.
Blues uniform as we roll into Chicago
Josh Abbott and the boys were just finishing up soundcheck when we unloaded the trailer into the venue. Joe’s is a great bar and food destination that also features one of the coolest live performance stages I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing on, not to mention the fact that they had an incredible sound rig. As musicians, there’s no better way to top off a gig than by having a high-quality and high-octane sound system with a competent engineer to run it. We had both for this show and we took full advantage of that fact when showtime came around. Our set was particularly rockin’ that Friday night, due in large part to the sheer amount of people in the crowd and all the energy that was coming back at us throughout the night. Chicago folks turned out in droves and I even got the chance to hang with a couple of buddies from my college days: Preston Williams and Jonathan Freeman. Preston was my original live sound engineer and the co-founder of “Using Ellison”, the rock and roll project we worked on together for a few years. He’s been living in Chicago and begging me to come up for a visit since he moved and it was truly a pleasure to get to hang out with a friend from back home so far away from it. Joe’s on Weed is one of those places that really takes care of their performing artists and we soaked up the VIP treatment like it was going out of style. We had a driver and a bunch of free drink tickets, both of which were used for maximum effectiveness. After Josh Abbott Band rocked the hell out of the crowd, we all retired to the bus for a mandolin/dobro/banjo jam (as all the acoustics had long since been packed) with Austin Davis and Whisky Dan, not to mention most of the other guys in the band. Once again we stayed up way past our bedtimes and eventually made our way back to the Hotel Indigo for another 3 hours of sleep.
Josh Abbott band on stage at Joe's in Chicago
The last stop of the trip was Columbia, Missouri, home of the Tigers and a whole bunch of red dirt/whatever the hell you want to call us type fans. The venue was the Blue Note, a remodeled theater that had a huge stage, huge sound rig, and plenty of space for a rabid crowd. It was a beautiful venue and a really fitting way to wrap up such an awesome run for us. We even met some more twitter fans out back of the venue as we were loading in and were more than happy to hang out with them as they had driven a pretty substantial way to see us. I’m forever sold on Twitter and it’s ability to bring folks together in the real world after this run. It’s nice to know that people actually give a damn about the random ass stuff that I end up putting on there. Thanks for following and for making it out to see us, you guys are the best.
@trainwreckbeck and @dirt_rd_dreamer behind the Blue Note in Columbia
The Blue Note was about as sold out as it gets and the crowd was intensely interested in the Missouri/Kansas basketball game that they were projecting onto a huge screen that hung directly in front of the stage. It was an extremely close game that teetered on the verge of Missouri losing to Kansas, one of their biggest rivals. Had they not come back to win it in the final seconds of the game, the crowd might not have been in such a good mood. As it happened, the crowd was in an extremely good mood when the final score was posted, a fact that we took full advantage of by kicking into one of the most rockin’ versions of “Midnight Swagger” to date. The crowd came alive when we all ripped into the tune and we ended up playing our best show of the run for a raucous crowd of Missouri folks that couldn’t have been any happier to be where they were. We wrapped up with a huge version of “Iceman” and left them wanting more…just like the vaudevillians used to do it. Josh Abbott Band took the stage and had the crowd eating from the palms of their proverbial hands. They put on an energy packed show that really got the crowd going and we proceeded to the bar to talk to folks about the band and nab a couple of Jager bombs in celebration of a really good run.
On stage at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO
We can’t thank Josh Abbott Band enough for letting us tag along for a few shows, they truly are some of the nicest guys in the biz that we’ve had the pleasure of hanging out and laughing our asses of with. Keep an eye peeled for some future pairings, we’re looking forward to playing with them again. Heading back up to Kansas this weekend…make sure and tell your homies. We’re also up for 3 nominations on the Lonestar Music Awards. Help us out and click on over to vote for your favorite fowl.
