The rain hit at around 9am. Pitter-pat on the window and kind of louder than it had any right to be. Pittsburgh is less attractive in the grey, drab of fog and drizzle, especially when I’m thinking about dragging all of our stuff down several flights of echoing ironstairs and across the muddy yard to a moistened Saturn. Fortunately the rain let up do merely an overcast sky just as we were wrapping up our morning prep. Last-minute Facebook invites, email updates, catch-up with friends scattered all over the country, finding coffee in an unfamiliar section of town… and then fitting everything back into the car.
some sort of beer monk at World of Beer in Columbus, OH. Heather and I setting up at World of Beer in Columbus, OH. Pretty cool bar, another balcony space like Columbus Bar in Columbus, IN – but house sound and a wider staircase! 500 beers and no food. Meep! So, when our friend Matt said “it’s an Abercrombie and Fitch party up in here” I figured he was being sarcastic about the number of 20-somethings in nice clothes who were attractively fit and perfectly made up. Turns out that no, A&F’s headquarters is around the corner and they were having a party at our show at World of Beer in Columbus, OH. Go fig. They sang along with a couple of the covers. Good thing they LOOK pretty…
Funnily enough, I don’t mind the actual packing of the car – the thing I hate most is wiping down my shampoo and conditioner, emptying the water from the little lid where it collects, and shoving those inevitably still-wet packages into my backpack. For some reason that always seems inordinately laborious.
By now we’re 20 minutes west of Steel City and headed towards Columbus listening to one of the best rock bands in Baltimore – Tears of Mars is simply beyond the pale – a sound and performance that would overshadow most any radio-known internationally-touring rock band on the planet. I’ve run sound for them twice and they are also inherently the LOUDEST band I’ve ever heard. Josiah pushes vocals out of his frame like nothing I’ve ever heard. He was the person who first acquainted me with what a “pad” switch was for. Acoustically. A drummer that changed the entire sound set-up for the last 8.13 Festival because he upped the necessary decibel output of the whole rig.
I have very fond memories of that event. Not just because of them, and not just because of the noise, and not just because that was where I learned about “cornholing”.
The patches of snow on the ground are getting bigger and bigger and I’m sure that further west they will begin to run together and cover the landscape. I’m looking ahead on the schedule and I think the world remains overcast but dry through our time in Ohio, and then we head north-west over to Chicago… where the rain / snow should hold off till Wednesday, by which time we turn south for the slightly warmer climes of Saint Louis.
Hopefully this crazy plan of February in the Mid-West doesn’t bite us in the ass…
