Cold rains from Baltimore to Columbus yesterday seem to have cleared out the weather for today and the highways of the almost-mid-west are clear and filled with golden sunshine and overturned trucks. 18-wheelers seem to be filled with joyous glee and have cavorted themselves right off the highway a couple of times on this trip – and we’ve been out for less than 48 hours. It’s the first Trip in the new Heathermobile and it’s a pretty wonderful ride. Looks like ilyAIMY could turn to Hundai as our Saturns go under. I have yet to drive the Heathermobile, but Kristen’s Weaselmobile is Lovely to drive and I expect this car to be even sweeter, what with its manual transmission.
IF Heather lets me drive it. We’ll see.
Yesterday we set out from our fair Charm City and were quickly enveloped in mists as we headed through western Maryland and off to Columbus, OH. After a bit of angst… no… a LOT of angst over parking we finally met up with our old friend Eric Nassau to perpetrate a show with his band The Devil Doves. From what I know of Eric’s music (often uplifting, charming storyteller singer/songwriter fare) and Eric (charming, friendly, one of the best damn people we know!) and Eric’s beard (lengthy and tentacular) I was pretty unprepared for the Devil Doves.
Their website doesn’t do them justice.
I think the Devil Doves could be explained thusly: take the spectacular Hooten Hallers out of Columbia, MO (the only band that has ever sort of made me wish I could go drag racing a post-Apocalyptic Camaro under the influence of cocaine through an opium field) and hand them a barrel of grain alcohol. Watch as said Hooten Hallers drink the Violent Femmes under the table with said blindness-inducing judgment-impairing substance and then avert your eyes as they proceed to engage in unwise sexual decisions. The Devil Doves could be the spiritual offspring of such an unholy union.
High energy, really SMART storytelling, and wonderfully creepy stories to boot. I think somewhere in the above paragraph Tom Waits got into the mix, but no-one could remember when he got there, what he did, or when he left again. Beautifully off-colour, centre-piecing the percussive madness of Kyle Davis on trejon (which is like a cajon but with more cajones) and the songwriting of Junior – Eric Nassau seems a bizarre inclusion at first – but it really works and it looks like SO MUCH FUN.
Anywho – my point being that we had a LOT of fun playing with them. Shame we only had a couple of familiar faces in the room (not that many unfamiliar faces either) to share this madness with. Still – good times were had last night at the Three Legged Mare in Columbus, OH.
After we made our way from the Arena District we headed over to Short North and crashed with my old grade school friend Jason and his wife Alyssa. We hung out around the dining room table slowly becoming incoherent with fatigue, called it a night and crashed. Hard.
I’ve been having worse and worse trouble sleeping over the years. 4 ibuprofin and the fact that I haven’t slept more than 3 – 4 hours for most of the week combined to get me unconscious after a minimal amount of tossing and turning – but my alarm still came far too early and 8.30am was decidedly unkind to my skull. Still – a long drive today and the inclusion of Kristen means that I’ve got to get in and out of the bathroom even early so everyone gets their turn…
By now we’re waving to Indianapolis as we round the city on our way to our friend Susan’s place on the Western end of Illinois. We’ll play in Indiana on the way back home, but for now it’s just a turning on the interstate. Jane’s Addiction is keeping us company on the stereo and my headache has receded with the assistance of a fruit smoothie and the ingestion of an exotic lavender latte from Chocoholique back in Columbus.
Damn I Love that town.
About four hours till we stop at Susan;’s, have dinner and maybe catch a nap, and then it’s off to what will be the most brutal gig of the trip : the Stagger Inn in Edwardsville, IL. The most bariest of bar gigs. [asshole Prius nearly cuts off our bumper merging randomly on top of us… sigh…. They’re practically driving like East Coasters!)
The drive today was brutal, and we’re headed to play a brutal gig. I’m so grateful that Susan’s willing to drive – but holy shit. About 6 hours in the car already and another hour each way to the show for a four hour bar gig that doesn’t even start till 10pm – and that’s not even accounting for the fact that we’re still on east coast time. We’ll be getting off stage at 3am according to our bodies – and might not get to bed before the sun hits Baltimore.
Not that we’re in Baltimore. We’re in Belleville, IL headed towards Edwardsville. The Stagger Inn probably isn’t ideal, but it can be a lot of fun till the exhaustion catches up with you. Susan will dance and we’ll rock our little hearts out and Kristen will finally see
the venue that she only ever caught glimpses of through the infamous Zebra Girl Incident.
No problem! ilyAIMY IS MIGHTY!!!
