Denton… is a blur. We were an hour late to the show. Set up as fast as we could possibly manage. Ate free pizza at J&J’s. Watched the glory that was Western Giants… then loaded up and headed to Austin. We were probably there 3 hours and then it was Austin or bust. Drove through the night in order to beat the morning traffic and head to Husband&Wife’s 1:30 showcase at the Buzzgrinder day party and our 2:15 showcase with Thunderhawk at the Standard Recording Label day party. And somewhere between the Denton departure and Austin arrival, Bryant managed to get a touch of the stomach flu. And by touch, I mean more vomit than I’ve ever heard come out of a human being in my life. All night. All morning. Husband&Wife somehow managed to play their 1:30 show and just when it seemed like Bryant was down for the count, he picked himself up outta the van and played our bands’ evening show at the Space12 gallery. Day 1 was a complete blur, but a success none the less. We ended the evening watching Danielson’s Space12 performance. Totally. Amazing.

The bar we played reminded us of the classic scene in Blues Brothers…minus the cage. 1/2 the crowd was made up of students taking part in the Oklahoma U “UniverseCity” concert series—1/2 the crowd were the locals. To quote Ben Stiller in “Heavyweights,” we could feel a “life force” in the room. Sometimes touring with another band just means that no matter what city you end up in and what kind of energy the crowd has, your better half is there to sing along, hoot and holler or just clap louder than anyone in the room. And in turn, even the locals start wondering if they’re missing something in those moments. “This doesn’t sound like Kid Rock, but all those kids up at the stage sure seem to be having the time of their lives. Maybe we should get a little unruly too.” And next thing you know a mismatched audience has turned into one of the funnest shows of the tour. We made some friends, made some fans and left just before what looked like was going to end in Nate getting his ass kicked for reciting Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Raven” from the stage and playing “Don’t Stop Believing” two times in a row on the juke. Some choice words were shouted by a few guys at the bar who apparently had had their fill of the shenanigans. The night ended with a $58 Taco Bell order (between our two vans) and a full night’s sleep.

Husband&Wife had tried to describe for us what our night at Vertical Violet was going to be like, having played here once before. And we were still floored with everything that was Vertical Violet and the Barnhardt family. The most gracious and hospitable people one could even dream to come across while on tour. Truly. The free spirited Barnhardt family hosts house shows (called Vertical Violet) several times a month (and often several times a week)—puts the bands up in their basement which has been modified to hold 9 people (how lucky for us) and has its own shower—a back yard that finds itself somewhere between a magical mini golf course and a whimsical the labyrinth—and home cooked meals for both dinner and breakfast. Dinner meaning.. everyone who came to the show. Which was easily just under 100 kids.
 
You feel like you’re one of the Barnhardt’s before the night’s over. And by the time you leave—you are. There’s a pole in the basement signed by all the bands that have played at the Barnhardt’s Vertical Violet shows. Reading through what seemed like hundreds was pretty incredible. Bands that have gone on to achieve greatness like Gentleman Auction Band, Dignan and our great friend Timbre—and a whole slew of bands who have somehow found their way to a beautiful home full of beautiful people in Wichita, Kansas.
 
Oh.. and they have a pet pig named Ethel who cleaned up on all our enchilada leftovers—as well as the paper plates they were served on.

The venue gave us a discounted rate on the downtown Fort Des Moines hotel. But the cheapskates that we are, we only purchased one room. Andrew, Kevin and Nate purchased the room and got settled in. Then 2 or 3 at a time, we wandered through the dark corridors of the hotel, taking emergency exits and carefully walking through empty ballrooms of the way-to-reminiscent-of-the-Shining hotel bowels—working our way back out to the street to sneak in all 9 of us. In the end, I’m sure the hotel security was well aware of the entire plot and just chose not to bother with some idiot kids who thought they were getting away with something. But for us, it was a great way to close our night.

Just when a long day of roaming a deserted Sunday in Des Moines couldn’t get any dimmer—we find we are “the evening show” at a club who’s spent the better portion of the day hosting a southern rock and metal show. Ill fitting denim and “NRA” tattoos were the names of the game and we and H&W were very quickly realizing this was going to be “one of those nights.”
 
To kill time and get our blood sugars back in order, we ended up at “Fong’s Pizza.” Des Moines’ downtown Chinese pizza parlor. It was recommended to us by a man we met outside the Science Center who approached us to ask if we were in that night. A few hours later we saw a playbill for “Jersey Boys.” Had we been on our toes, we would’ve broken into an impromptu rendition of “Big Man in Town” with Mike Adams taking Frankie Valli’s parts and Cheek doing a brief dance number. We rehearsed it later on our own.
 
Orders at Fong’s:
 
Tim, Kevin and Ty - Fongolian Beef
Jared, Mike, Will and Bryant - Crab Rangoon
Nate and Andrew (the adventurous ones) - Pineapple and green olive :(
 
For a $30 deposit, there was talk about getting the “Funky Monkey”—which comes in a massive monkey head—or the “Kamikaze”—which is drank with a vintage Japanese Kamikaze helmet. Why a $30 deposit is going to keep someone from walking out of a restaurant with a helmet on or what a Kamikaze helmet is doing in a Chinese pizza parlor was beyond any of us.