It’s nice to come back to a place that even slightly feels like home. After all this travel to Houston, and Atlanta and New Orleans and other places that have been totally alien to us, Belleville with its familiar central fountain and familiar faces (even though I haven’t seen them in a YEAR) feels very, very comfortable.
After leaving Nashville on Wednesday morning, we headed through one last new state of this leg. Kentucky, after the multi-dimensional beauty of Tennessee and the caves of Alabama and armadillos of seemingly everywhere else, singularly failed to overwhelm. This of course will set me up for angry emails from the en mass population of Kentucky, but until we get an excuse to wander the state a little bit more, the highlight of that drive will still be all those happy cows standing chin deep in the pond.
We came into Belleville and collapsed on Susan’s doorstep. She’s a woman we… well, I think we only marginally met her last time around, but she’s been in touch all this time, and has been really helpful in planning our time out here this time. And with her, we’ve encountered a new animal…
Birds.
And as with almost all the other animals we’ve encountered on the Trip, I start with the impression of “oh God a ___________” and get proven completely, and utterly wrong. As usual, I’ve had some negative experiences with parrots, but these guys are Lovely, and even like to sing along as we practice. I’m amazed by how clear Karma’s
voice is when she speaking, invariably out of turn.
From Sue’s we ran over to the open mic at the Stagger Inn… Again. All one name. I wasn’t at all sure what to expect – our experience with midwest bars over the past two years has lead me to expect a particular type of decor and a particular type of clientele… but, like the news article on the wall states – though “you can go and purchase ambience, you can’t buy mystique” – and the Stagger has a good metric tonne of that.
Even the food is really, really, really good. Belleville is determined to spoil us before returning to Maryland.
It’s also looking to return us to our home state in a state of optimism. Last night’s gig was a lot of fun. We went by our usual strategy of “fuck’em. If they’re not listening, play harder” and generally played feirce from just before 10pm to 1.30 in the morning, getting a huge audience response and a very, very happy owner. We met a lot of fun people, including a woman with incredible, Lovely long dark hair who figured greatly in my dawn-lit dreams.
