Late night on Thursday May 14th hi8us finished packing up on Main Street in Park City. Precious was all loaded up and a big run of consecutive gigs was behind us. You could feel somewhat of a collective exhale from the five of us. The next night would mark our first night off in two weeks, and all we had to do was drive for a couple of days. A mother of a haul across Middle America and one last tour closer date in Chicago on Saturday night was all we had left of this big run. The mood was definitely up amongst everyone in the bus. There was a little pad of time built into this two day driving leg, and we had fun driving that long straight road that stretched for over a thousand miles to Chi-town.
Friday night we scheduled a stop in North Platte Nebraska to catch the puck drop on game seven of the Bruins/Flyers series. I was all fired up for the game, Sam wasn’t, but he was a good sport. Plus, if there was WiFi nearby, Sam would be occupied for hours, and I could watch the B’s on their road to the Cup! I called the Touchdown Club in North Platte, NE from I-80 to see if they would have the game on and they gave me a confused “huh” like they had never heard of hockey before. After I explained my situation, they agreed to put the game on for me if we showed up. Sure enough, we arrived in N. Platte and pulled up to the Touchdown Club. As we walked in, I immediately understood why they were thrown off by my inquiry. As you looked around this huge bar you were able to relive the legacy of the Nebraska Cornhusker Football organization in exact detailed chronological order through all of the Husker memorabilia that littered the walls. For instance, there was an entire corner wall of the bar devoted to Bob Devaney. I learned that he was head coach through the 60’s and into the early 70, and he brought the Huskers to two consecutive National Championships and was National Coach of the year in 1971. He single handedly made them Huskers a perennial contender in college football. Little did I know that as I was being educated at the walls of the TD Club, the B’s were imploding on the ice of the Garden. The TD Club did have $5 pitchers though, so as history unfolded I was able to drown my sorrows in economically priced macro brew. Eventually, I stumbled back into Precious and crashed out hard and tried to put the reality of this colossal collapse out of my mind.
When I came to, we were somewhere near the end of Iowa, and making good time. We eventually arrived in Chicago, and met up with Colin’s cousins Jill and Mark. These guys provide us with a mid-west oasis of comfort every time we come through town, and it seems to get better with each visit. This time through Jill and Mark had an awesome BBQ for the band with a crew of their friends in attendance, and then dragged that crew out to our gig at the Abbey Pub.
Our show was excellent, and we even chilled out late night back at Jill and Mark’s with Tom the owner of the club. Tom was all about The Human Centepede, and was even able to turn Sam on to the film before the night was over. My favorite part of Jill and Mark’s this year was Jill’s parent’s little overweight dog Bamboo that no one seemed to like except me. Bamboo and I bonded immediately, and I scratched under his collar all night. He loved me too; ) Late night we watched a sweet Blind Faith concert DVD that I keep thinking about. That was the last thing I remember. No wait, I actually remember Tom from the Abbey saying with confidence that this was the Blackhawk’s year to win the cup. Damn, that Tom was a visionary!
The next morning Mike and I said our goodbyes, and split to O’hare for a flight back to the Bean. Max, Mike and Sam would travel back with Precious over the next few days. We were sad to part with the dudes, but I think we all shared in the good feeling that our tour was awesome. Sitting back at work the very next morning, I thought back to the blur that the last three weeks had been. None of us even had a minor tiff during the whole trip, and our music had definitely taken this major leap forward from the awesomeness it already was; ) To think what a few weeks of playing every night did for our sound and to imagine getting to do that all the time… maybe someday. I always feel blessed that I have this bond with the dudes in the band. We are able to share something that most people never even know.
jim
After a gig at The Farm in Essex Vermont the previous Friday, the weekend of the highly anticipated Ofest had finally come. Our bus “Precious” and the band, sans Mike, who had to work Friday, made the trip down to Coatesville, PA for this annual party in the woods. Mike would follow later on that night to join up with us for our set on Saturday evening. Our friend Preston and his brother Paul own and run a high end concert lighting business and put on Ofest each year so they can showcase their skills and have a big party for their extended network of friends. The small festival has an amazing vibe. Everyone that attends has heard about the event through word of mouth, and the capacity is capped at 300 people. We were excited to be asked to play this year, and went down a day early to take in the event and party with our friends who were also going. Our buddy Tommy contributed beer for the fest, and came with hi8us in Precious along with a bunch of beer.
We arrived to find a sweet little oasis within the rolling farmland of Amish-country PA. As you roll in you see a high cliff off to the right, and a full-on concert stage just below. Off to the far off left sits the schoolhouse which has been strategically lit to provide the most pimp backdrop to the festival once the sun goes down each night. The renovated schoolhouse sports a little patio area off to the left where the food for the fest was centralized. At the nucleus of this little area stands a field stone, wood fired grill that runs 24 hours a day for the entirety of the fest.
Our set at the festival got cut short due to threatening rain just as we were really starting to get going Saturday night, but the overall enjoyment of the weekend made our lack of time on the stage sting a little bit less. The highlights of the weekend for me were the beer tasting summit that took place of Saturday afternoon. I tried about 25 samples of beer I had never even heard of. The highlight was a stout known as The Abyss. I need to look it up, but it was so smooth and tasted like a milk shake made by the devil… in a good way; ) Also, after our abbreviated set, I dropped about 5 pounds of Bob’s Ah-So Marinated Steak tips on the grill, and sent the scent of sweet cow-flesh heaven across the field of hippies. Like Yogi being drawn to a pick-a-nick basket, folks gravitated towards the grill and a fortunate few experienced the sacrament of Ah-So. A second late-night 5 pound batch was dropped at about 3am that night, and all hell broke loose once again. I felt like I made my mark at this festival more at the grill than I did on the stage, and I am okay with that. Sometimes you take what is dealt to you. This time around it was a piping hot BBQ, and about 10 pounds of premium beef I had in tow with me. Thanks to Preston and Paul for a great time. Viva Ofest!
jim
After breakfast we went to our buddy Andrew’s up on the cliffs of Pacific Palisades. We chilled out at his place for the afternoon and decompressed a bit. Andrew’s backyard overlooks Santa Monica to the left and Malibu to the right. It felt like we were in a scene out of Entourage, except while we taking in the view we were doing our laundry in a coin operated washer/dryer downstairs. Whatever though, life was good. We were looking out on the Pacific. The Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier was off in the distance. Everyone was psyched to get to play our stuff in LA. 
