Illinois stretches flat and endless and Indiana waves good bye. There’s a trinity of trucks ahead of us and scatterings of families in their minivans and campers. I’m slowly losing my longing for my Saturn and have slowly settling into my Love for the truck.
But I still can’t park it too good. Someday I’ll be a REAL boy.
Staying with Robin Coleman of Segment of Society is always an experience. Her cat is clearly a Cerebus-like guardian of the nether-world and Hell resides in her closet. Though the fear of losing my soul to Satan as I slept or losing limbs to Cicely the Hell Cat kept me jumpy for the first twenty-four hours or so, it’s amazing what you’ll get used to. Whether it’s amputation or a weird noise or the smell of the farms near your grandmother’s house, we are adaptable creatures and I’d ceased to notice her steady, unflappable malevolence until it stopped.
Over the course of the week we’d wandered and looked at boots and lots and lots of earrings. We looked at tattoo parlours (nothing to compare to Columbus, IN) and drank lots of coffee. I lost my glasses and found my glasses and lost them again. Then found them again. We played to no-one at Locals Only and played Radio Radio to a good number of smiling humans. I got to be a sound guy and got to be bitched at by a sound guy and at a lot of Heather’s food. All in all a pretty standard week at the office.
Last night we played Radio Radio in Indianapolis. The night started slow and we were worried about turn out, but as the club filled in we got things rolling and I had a great time. Until the first act hit the stage, Rowan and I sat at the bar drinking whiskey and watching bizarre music videos, waiting for the night to fire up. Kelly Zullo was the first performer – percussive guitar, cool riffs – afterwards I got a lot of hair tips from her… we have similar long, fine locks but she’s done wonders with hers, stopping short of dreading but still managing to create that thickness of substance. I’m back and forth as to whether or not I’m eager to try her techniques. Rowan found it greatly amusing that as soon as I was left to my own devices I got to sharing hair tips with a lesbian…
The main act of the night (no illusion there, even if we were technically the headliners) was Little Voice. They were a local Indy indie band with fun torch-singeresque vocals and a neat guitarist / bass player. Even though I think musically we were a better match for Kelly, personality-wise we’re more akin to Little Voice with their excitable antics and on-stage playfulness. The night was wearing on and we were kind of afraid of losing their audience out the front door… Not wanting to play to an empty room we hit the stage in record time and played out all the frustration of the past couple of days. Made a lot of new friends, a lot of new fans. Had a really good time.
This morning we woke up in Terre Haute and wandered down to the Pioneer Festival to kill some time and eat some food. I ate a genuine Pioneer Era Philly Cheese Steak while sitting and watching a genuine Pioneer Era Elvis Impersonator who turned out to be the mayor. Indiana is weird.