TTS Fall Tour - Day 12

TTS Midwest Tour

Day 12, Dispatch 1 - If you ever have the chance to see a show at The Cotillion in Wichita, KS, you should. The place is a giant dancehall - and I do mean giant - and it although it was built sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, it has the same feel of a room that Gene Krupa's or Artie Shaw's big bands would have performed in.




We arrived yesterday afternoon and were welcomed by stagehands that dwarved us all and one of the guys told us our trailer was "cute" while another guy let us take pictures of him pressing down on the top of it.




They could have been vikings for all I know, but these boys were well fed! And friendly! They assisted us by unloading all of our gear into the hall while we waited our turn to setup and soundheck. We were there to open the show for Delbert McClinton and we were all excited to play such a neat room. While we setup in front of Delbert's band in a line across the stage, there was still plenty of room for us all to fit comfortably.




The crew finally brought down the house lights and fired up the stage lighting just before the doors opened at 7:00 and the illumination of the stage was fantastic! See the pics below to understand what I'm talking about. So cool!













Our show went well but we didn't stick around too long afterwards. A 6-7 hour drive to Plano meant we needed to hit the road last night and cover some ground while we could to help split the drive up since we have to be to Plano by 1:00pm today. We all function highly late at night and nobody enjoys the early morning alarm call-wakeup like we do, so we decided to stay up late and drive rather than wake up early and drag ourselves out of our biscuits, shielding our eyes like vampires at the break of day. And here we are again in our vessel that has propelled us through space and time for the better part of 2 weeks.




One last road trip to one last venue on this run. We're headed to Love and War in Texas (in Plano) for a benefit and the weekly Shiner Sunday series. Love and War is a fun place to play and while it's only been 12 days on the road, it seems like we've been out for a month. 12 days seems like a lifetime ago. Like I've said before, for better or for worse, somehow we always seem to pack more into a few days than others do in several weeks. It will be great to be back home in Texas and to perform in front of our friends and family. I'm not sure what time we start, but look it up online and if you're in the area - stop by and say hello. Tonight is a "home" game! I'll have one final tour post tomorrow recapping this run but until then, I hope everybody out there has a fantastic day and hopefully we'll see you tonight in Plano!

- SuperDodds


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TTS Fall Tour - Day 11

TTS Midwest Tour

Day 11, Dispatch 1 - Last night in Kansas City will easily stand out as one of the most memorable evenings from this trip (that has had so many memorable evenings!) We pulled into Davey's Uptown Rambler's Club only to find it wasn't so uptown.




More importantly for me, as I was loading in my gear for the night, I glanced across the street to find the hand of providence had gifted me a crazy nice laundromat only steps away and with plenty of time to get my drums set up and all of my dirty threads laundered and smelling fresh and clean. I was down to my last pair o' boxers - and that's not the most pleasant place to find yourself, staring at the prospect of a suitcase full of dirty chonies. Several days on the road with consecutive shows and the incosistancy of regular showers will leave a man with a bad case of what Dr. Rhoades-Bomb has diagnosed as...




Fortunately for me I was able to get all my laundry taken care of and repacked away just in time to get changed for the show and walk across the street and go to work. We played another fantastic set to a room of quite a small crowd. No matter. The folks that came were not there by accident. They were as animated as any crowd we've played to before and everybody had a great time. We played the early slot which meant once we were torn down and loaded out, it was still really early. This is where my memory of last night will stay so vivid for many years to come. A big part of what makes these evenings spent away from the comforts of home in Anywhere, USA is not the fact that we played a certain bar in a certain town. On one hand, a bar is a bar is a bar. We play lots of them in lots of towns and they all start to kind of blur together after awhile. It's the memories of experiences that happen before and after and around these performances that make these trips seem real long after we've returned home. Shane is a new pal of mine sent out to see us from a mutual friend back home. Crazy nice guy and a fellow musician as well. Jeff and Stacy are fans of the band who have followed us and supported us in Kansas City on past excursions into town. Jeff and Stacy were kind enough to treat us to a barbeque feast that included almost every conceivable kind of meat that could be cooked! A few pitchers of some very tasty and locally brewed witbier along with several sides and lots of delicious barbeque sauce made for a wonderful meal amongst friends new and old. It was nice to take a break from "the road" and escape to a place similar to where an evening meal might find me at home in that we were out with friends and sharing stories and laughter. Always lots of laughter.







So thank you, Jeff and Stacy, so very much for your warmth and hospitality and for making Kansas City such a wonderful stop on this tour.




Due to many things going on in town over this weekend, we were forced to drive an hour over to Topeka to find lodging last night. This morning I made my way down to the van to find that once again the heartland of America had dawned on an absolutely beautiful day with a light breeze and quite a chill in the air (and only just a short drive to Wichita, where we'll open the show tonight for Delbert McClinton tonight.) The only thing that will make this day any better is if I can find somewhere to watch my 'Horns play OU after we arrive in Wichita. Gonna be a great day everybody -- Cheers!

- Dodds


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TTS Fall Tour - Day 10

TTS Midwest Tour

Day 10, Dispatch 1 - The Gramophone is located in an older part of St. Louis that is slowly coming back to life. The improvements to the area in the last 6 months are noticable and help to make the area friendlier to folks passing by. Roo and Matt and everybody at The Gramophone are waaaay cool.




Matt always makes us sound so great and the staff are just hip. It was fun to catch up with everybody before our set and to relax in their newly remodeled green room in the basement. Some nights we play, our performances are better than others. Seems the shows on this trip have been really consistant from night to night and the sets have become increasingly easier to play. Roo (who owns the place), complimented me on my playing last night too and my ability to play appropriately to the room. It's great to have the owner of an establishment give you kudos for your efforts but truth be known, I couldn't do it without my band. Because those guys are also professional to be able to play appropriately to the room, it helps to make me look great - especially since the staff at The Gramophone probably see way more than their share of rhythmatists come through their doors that overplay, overpower, and blow the place up! After the show we hung out in the parking lot awhile and talked surfing with Fallon, and BMX with Rhoades, and skateboarding with me. I rode around the parking lot on Matt's board popping little ollies along the way while Matt told of the local skatepark being constructed under a highway bridge (a-la Burnside) by local vigilante skate guerrillas. (Like I said, everybody there is just hip!) It sounded like fun to go see too but due to lack of lighting, we abandoned that idea and made an effort to seek out lodging for the night.




We don't always get along in this band. Just like any relationship, there's give and take. Somehow we keep it all together though as we head up and down these paths that run like arteries through our nation. Today we're headed to Kansas City to play Davey's Uptown Rambler's Room. Just the name alone sounds like fun! I think we're done relatively early tonight too so maybe we'll venture forth in search of excitement after the last note's been played for the night. Who knows. Que sera sera. Much love friends...

- Dodds


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