9/25/09 Redstone Room, Davenport, IA

It seems that each time we play at the Redstone Room, it's more fun than the previous time, and last night once again exceeded all my expectations.

Our opener for the evening had canceled, which made for a little more of a relaxed set up for our light show and soundcheck. After all the work was done, we grabbed a quick dinner at the sandwich shop downstairs, and then awaited showtime as the fans started to stream in. Hanging out at the bar, I ground-scored a dollar...wooohooo!



The first set flew by, with the fans raging super hard in the front row. The venue had set up a "riot fence" at the front of the stage, and this probably enticed the crowd into being more rowdy than they may have been had the fence not even been there, climbing on the fence, shaking it, lifting it, and all sorts of other craziness. We even had a kid jump up on stage and dive out into the mass of people, successfully crowd surfing for a full 15 seconds or so. Totally epic!!



We didn't think it could get any crazier, but the second set got even more rowdy, with the crowd grooving hard and going absolutely apeshit. All I wanted to do was watch them go nuts, but the distraction made it hard to concentrate on my bass playing. I even got a "Janis is hot / Janis rocks!" chant between a couple tunes, though Adam swears they were saying "Janis sucks!" Hmmm, I'll need to review the recording. However, there was undeniable Janis support in the form of many WWJD shirt sightings:



After the show, the tear down took forever, and we didn't get to the hotel until well after 4am. Luckily, the continental breakfast was already out, so we raided it like hungry savages.



Now we're off to Ames, Iowa for a show at DG's. I don't know what it is about Iowa, but the people here freakin' ROCK. Will the Ames crew top the enthusiasm of Davenport?? Stay tuned for an update!

9/19/09 Mojo's, Columbia, MO

On Saturday, we had a nice leisurely check-out of our hotel and headed to lunch at a local pizza place that I had a coupon for. This lunch turned out to be a very exciting one, as thanks to a combination of my coupon, the house specials, and an order screw-up, the total to feed 5 people was only $12.11. Nice. We left for Columbia happy and full.

The Mojo's show started out as a bit of a clusterfuck, with the opening band deciding to take over the stage with their setup before we even got there. Good thing we didn't pull that stunt with Victor Wooten the couple nights prior...sheesh. After braving the opening band, we hit the stage for a small but appreciative crowd. The vibe was totally different than our short high pressure opening sets the two nights before, and we all seemed to play a little more adventurously and with less inhibitions. We did a particularly fun version of MSMW's "Little Walter Rides Again," a tune that we used to play quite frequently but hadn't ripped out in some time, so it was fun to revisit it. Another event of note during the show was that Mattias raged so hard that his drum stick caught on his glasses and flung them across the stage, bending up the frames quite a bit. Yes folks, we are too rock-star to smash our instruments and amps, and instead go for the eyewear.

After the show, we hung out with some fans, seizing the opportunity for two WWJD tshirt photo opps. Then back to the hotel for a short night's sleep before heading back home to Chicago the next day.



All in all, a fun weekend!

9/18/09 Granada Theater, Lawrence, KS (with Victor Wooten!)

Night number two with Victor Wooten started out with polite complaining to the Days Inn staff about our disgusting hotel rooms (and their subsequent promise to refund the points we used to pay for them...yes!) and then a long sleepy drive down to Lawrence Kansas.

A nice change from the previous night at the cramped and sweaty Picador, the Granada Theater is a spacious room with a great sound system and it was good to be back. We arrived to find Vic jamming out on stage with three of his kids: 8-yr-old Adam on the drumkit, and his 6 and 11 year old daughters on vocals....musicianship definitely runs in the family!

We got set up and soundchecked, and the crowd filed in as soon as the doors opened, vying for their spot at the front of the stage to get close enough to study Victor's technique...though I pretended it was for me. :) We were instructed to hit right at 9pm sharp, and it was a little nerve-wracking waiting backstage and counting down those final minutes before heading out to face that bass-critiquing crowd. The show went off without a hitch, though, and I felt good about the impression we made on this crowd of mostly new faces for us.

Victor hit the stage thereafter, throwing in a few of the same tricks from the night before, but the sound and sightline were so much better at this venue that it made even the repeats enjoyable. He gave yet another shout out to us, introducing FGC as one of his favorite bands and adding, "What would Janis do? That is the question." I was also completely entertained by Vic and JD Blair's freakin' hilarious on-stage banter -- JD in particular is such a goofball. Plus, as I hoped, Victor brought out his kids to play the tune they were going over in soundcheck. The kids didn't seem at all fazed by the crowd of several hundred people, and the 8-year-old drummer especially was a real treat to watch.

Post-show, we hung out with Victor a bit, and once again, I'm so pleasantly surprised by what a genuine and down-to-earth person he is. We then made the 45 minute drive to our hotel in Kansas City, where we settled into our cushy free rooms at the Sheraton with the best "Do Not Disturb" signs I have ever seen:

9/17/09 Picador, Iowa City, IA (with Victor Wooten!)

This show was a special one for me, given that we were to be opening for one of the greatest bass players of all time, and thankfully I wasn't the nervous wreck that I was for our first Wooten opening last year at Chicago's House of Blues.

We arrived to the venue just as Victor was finishing up soundchecking. He greeted me with a booming "Janis!!!" and introduced me to his wife and four kids who were all on the road with him. I had assumed this tour would be a small operation, given that it's just a duo of Victor and drummer, but no, they had a full tour bus and the family factor, not mention a monster bass rig and an even bigger monster of a drum kit.

Out set went off well. We were kind of crammed onto the small stage, but I think the close quarters made for more tight playing. The room was packed when we started, and it was easy to tell that the majority of them were musicians, since there was much more staring and much less dancing than we're used to. (I instantly got flashbacks of playing shows with Steve Kimock!) But the crowd's motionlessness turned out to be no indication of their enthusiasm, as we got cheers in all the right places and lots of great feedback after our set.

Victor hit the stage a little later, giving a sweet shout-out to me personally as well as the band after a few songs into his set. Needless to say, I was walking on a cloud for the rest of the night. His show was phenomenal, with the usual Victor virtuosity, along with some cool looping and harmonizers and backed up by an insanely funky and tastefully simple drummer named JD Blair, aka "The Groove Regulator." Go check these guys out! www.victorwooten.com

Off to Lawrence Kansas for night number two with the Woot-ster!

9/12/09 Wuhnurth Festival, Muncie, IN

Wuhnurth (pronounced "One Earth") Festival. Interesting spelling. Fun festival!

We made most of the trek to Muncie the night before our set so we wouldn't have to get up early and drive from Chicago, instead crashing in a cushy Candlewood Suites in Indianapolis using our points.
This hotel made us feel like royalty, with a gift bag upon check-in, no questions late checkout, free goodies from the "Candlewood Cupboard" pantry shop, and awesome rooms with full kitchens.

We started the day with a hot breakfast cooked in our rooms, and then headed out to Wuhnurth Fest. The band schedule was running a bit late, so we enjoyed some time in the great weather, hanging with a few other bands and friends and fans.

The set went off well, and it was nice to see some of our die-hards from Chicago raging the front row. We opened with the new "G Song," which is really starting to gel, and also played probably our last "Sittin on the Dock of the Bay" of the summer, in honor of the small lake behind the stage.



Post-show, the hospitality people were excited to feed their first band of the evening, and we loaded up on awesome pasta, salad, and garlic bread.



Adam, Jordan and I headed out later that night, leaving Mattias behind as the ambassador to the fans. On the way home, Adam spotted a drunk driver on the highway during his shift, so I called 911 to report it. We passed the crazy driver and went through an interchange, but about 20 minutes later, Miss Crazy Drunkie in the PT Cruiser whizzed by us once again, weaving in and out of the lanes, and slowing and speeding up randomly. I called 911 again, and while I was on the phone, Crazy Drunkie smashed into a truck about 5 car lengths in front of us. We narrowly escaped a sticky situation and were very grateful for it....we were "wuhn" lucky band!

9/5/09 moe.down, Turin, NY

The trek out to moe.down in upstate New York started out with kind of a stress. Two nights before the show as we were loading up our gear, we find that our van's "Check Engine" light was on once again (see posting from the 8/12/09 show for the previous hellish encounter with this pesky light). Not wanting to drive 1,500 miles round trip with a potential serious problem, we took the van into the shop the next morning. A day's work turned into a day-and-half's work, and Friday's departure time got pushed back a good four hours.

The van was in good shape though, and we hauled ass out to New York, arriving at our hotel well after 3am. We would have to depart the next day by 9:30am to make the rest of the drive and arrive at the festival in time for our noon set, so we were less than happy campers about the lack of sleep, but glad to have made the drive without incident.

Saturday's weather was gorgeous, and festival grounds were set in the mountains, with a chill vibe all around. The "second stage" that we were playing on was actually not too shabby, and was of decent size with killer sound. We were all a little groggy though: While setting up, I thought my amp was broken, but it turned out just not to be plugged in; Mattias and Jordan both had mid-show brain farts with Mattias counting off the wrong song, and Jordan blowing the chords in another; and Adam openly admitted to momentarily falling asleep during the set.

But despite the lack of sleep, we played 2 great sets to a surprisingly big crowd for that early in the afternoon, and received tons of great feedback as we hung out at the festival the rest of the day. Even though we were far from home, it was nice to hear folks calling out song requests during the set and meeting fans afterwards who had seen us at Summer Camp or on our past tours through the Northeast.

The festival also had awesome hospitality, with great a great vegetarian spread, and extras like fresh squeezed orange juice and a secret freezer full of fudgesicles. I was once again the driver at the end of the night, so the rest of the band was obligated to get super drunk, especially Adam, who was in rare form.

Thanks to moe. for an awesome festival, and we hope to be back in future years!

8/29/09 Tanner's, Kimberly, WI

The Tanner's show was a benefit event put on by Organik Entertainment and quite an elaborate production -- great sound and lights, a raffle, vendors, etc. We were well taken care of from the minute we arrived till the end of the night when we crashed in our super comfy comped rooms at the Hilton next door.

It ended up being a very long day and night with the early soundcheck and multiple bands prior to us, but the show was fun. Lots of new and old Wisconsin friends came out, and we stretched out with a long set, in the middle of which Mattias decided to kick my ass with our "Bass and Drum" jam by setting up a wicked fast groove. Thanks, buddy!! I hung in there, though, and will find some way to retaliate.

8/28/09 Urbana Sweetcorn Fest, Urbana, IL

This was our second stint at the Urbana Sweetcorn Fest, our first being 2 years ago. The fest is well-run with great production, but is more of a family event rather than the usual hippie festivals that we play. A different vibe, but fun nonetheless.

The drive down to Urbana went smoothly, but as we were getting set up, the sky became dark and threatening clouds started to roll in. Would this be our third rained out festival set of the summer (6/27 Peoria and 8/9 Denver being the first two)?? Thankfully, the sky magically cleared up within the next 30 minutes or so, and it turned out to be a beautiful evening.

The crowd gathered as we played, with a smattering of our usual fanbase alongside "normal" folk. I knew something was wrong with this crowd when the merch table stats revealed many "Air Jordan" shirt sales and no WWJD sales. ;)

After our set, I got to meet some great fans and enjoy some hella-buttery sweetcorn, and Adam was very pleased with himself for tracking down passes to the VIP section where we stuffed ourselves with free food and beer.

8/20-21/2009 Fat Fest, Wabasha, MN

Fat Fest began with an early departure for the long 6 hour drive up to Wabasha MN. We got nailed with the rain at last year's Fat Fest performance, and the outlook was not boding well for this year either. We crossed our fingers, and while keeping an eye on the sky, got set up and soundchecked, arming ourselves with nearby tarps and towels in the event of a downpour.

We managed to make it through the set with just an intermittent drizzle that thankfully did not blow much into the stage, and the crowd was raging and didn't seem to mind at all. A couple highlights were a sweet "Tutear" > "Trying To Live Up" segway that we magically nailed, and a set closer that started off as "West Egg Party," but melded into "Falling Off the Fence" after Jordan changed his mind midway through the intro. Again, no train wrecks with that segway...Go us! Band photo by Adam (aka "New Adam") Zareczny

Kyle Hollingsworth Band was supposed to follow our set and use some of our gear, but shortly after we finished, the impending downpour ensued and the stage became trashed. Kyle ended up being moved to the other stage, toting along Jordan's vintage Rhodes, while thanking us profusely for subjecting the gear to inclement weather. It was well worth it, though -- Kyle's band rocks, especially the bass player. These guys are on tour this fall...check 'em out!

We partied it up for the rest of the night and then headed back to our hotel, where we received the good fortune of both a 2pm check-out the next day, and coupons for a free hot breakfast at the Perkins attached to the hotel. Ahh, life is good!

The next day we headed back to Fat Fest where Jordan and I would be joining the Everyone Orchestra set. A couple notable members of this incarnation included Michael Kang (from String Cheese Incident) and Vinnie Amico (from moe). It was a fun set, with Jordan rocking the keys for the entire show, and me jumping in on bass halfway through. Vinnie welcomed me to the ensemble with a lightning quick drum-and-bass groove that I could barely hold on for. Gee, thanks, Vinnie!!

After the show, my bandmates got super drunk, and it's always such a joy to babysit them...Thanks fellas.

Back to the hotel, then back to Chicago the next day. On the way home, Adam bugged me with his usual catch phrase, "Ice, I'm hungry. What're you gonna feed me?" Usually I ignore him, but this time offered him a SoyJoy nutrition bar (that I was never going to eat because they are so disgusting), under the condition that he had to eat the whole thing. This picture sums up Adam's SoyJoy experience pretty well, ironically quite absent of joy: