Day 7, Dispatch 1 - My last correspondence found me nearing my destination in Des Moines last night only to find that upon arriving around 7:30 or so, we wouldn't play until after 11:00 and had several hours to kill before loading into the venue. Our last stay in Des Moines in March of this year we discovered Kung Fu Tap & Taco just by accident. As it turns out, this is the place to be.
We were walking around late and looking for food when we happened into the joint and we met and befriended Brad "Fatty" Smith. With almost 4 hours on our hands, I grabbed the wheel and piloted our fearless time machine over to Kung Fu. Fatty was there playing host to what seemed like a whole crew of outcast pirates and was excited to see us darken his door. After catching up a bit and enjoying a Fat Tire Ale and 5 crispy beef tacos, we headed over to Fort Des Moines Hotel to check in for the evening and powder our noses before tearing up and burning down the Vaudeville Mews. The hotel room looked just like I remembered it (save for the lack of toilet paper all over the floor - Dennis and I threw a pretty good party for each other last time we were there...) and we caught a little of the Packers/Bears game before having to change clothes and split for the club. Rumble Seat Riot opened our show and they were all out and about hanging around outside as if waiting on us to arrive. We met another fellow whom Dennis was pretty sure was not pirate, but we never quite could tell what he was due to the lack of any intelligable words spoken from his gob. He made sounds, we just couldn't seem to make heads or tails of what he was muttering. After loading in and catching their opening set, we took the stage and gave a blistering performance to a crowd of really eager fans. While we don't draw the large numbers in the midwest the same way we do in Texas, the fans that come see us are no less zealous in their excitement and appreciation for what we do and it's always great to get to hang out with them. Our travels also keep us hip to the trendiest graffiti art across our nation. Both inside and out, Vaudeville Mews is easily as cool as any other place we play in regards to green room graffitti.
Because the set wasn't but an hour, we slayed the crowd with our most-rippenist material that really revv'ed everybody up. We dropped Kev off at the hoyel after departing from Vaudeville Mews and wound up again at Kung Fu for last call and then it was back to the fort for me while Dennis and Rhoades sought another late night adventure.
I awoke this morning to another beautiful autumn day and I'm currently awaiting our arrival in Minneapolis, MN where we'll play Lee's Liquor Lounge tonight. We had a blast there last time & I'm sure tonight will be no different. I just hope that at the end of all this morphing from one space in time to the next that I don't wind up looking like Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly". Somedays I feel like that though... Best wishes to all out there following this post and I hope your day is as beautiful as mine is here. More soon...
- Dodds
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