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


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TTS Fall Tour - Day 9

TTS Midwest Tour

Day 9, Dispatch 1 - When we pulled into Fitzgerald's yesterday, I was feeling great & in a great mood. Fitzgerald's is more a pub than what I'd call a "bar", and everybody involved there is friendly and hospitable. I was glad to be back in Chicago and was excited to catch up with an old friend I hadn't seen in years. Turns out that Dennis knows him too - he used to give him guitar lessons! (Who hasn't Dennis given guitar lessons to?)







Rhoades also had some friends come out to the show early and we arrived late enough in the evening that after a quick setup and soundcheck, we were getting hungry. Dennis, myself, Rhoades, and our entourage of Chicago friends exited the venue and walked nearby to enjoy some Chinese food for dinnner and lots of great conversation.




I was glad we had enough time to eat (withOUT rushing!) and once we had finished dining, we arrived back at Fitzgerald's with plenty of time to catch the Hoyle Bros. The Hoyle Bros. are a Chicago band playing Texas Honky-Tonk and they are really great! All the players are very good at their instruments and all of them are crazy super cool. It's always good to see them in either Chicago or in Texas, and it's always fun to hear their set.




Once they were finished, we tore into our set and KILLED for almost 90 minutes. Over the course of playing every night for two weeks, I find myself in great drumming condition and I'm super relaxed onstage behind my kit and we're 3/4 of the way through the set before I realize it. Some nights 90 minutes can seem like an eternity. Other nights (like the nights on this run), 90 minutes is gone before I know it. We finished out our night with an encore of a couple of songs and then made our way into the crowd to visit and cool off. Don't know what it is about all this cool weather up here. In Texas, we all open our windows and are thankful for some respite from the heat of the long summer months. Up here, everybody's already in windbreakers and all the windows are closed which makes for some stuffy rooms. Anticipation of the long winter months to come perhaps? Once we were torn down and loaded up, we said our goodbyes and Bill Fitzgerald pulled me aside to tell me how much he enjoyed our set and my drumming. He's been there for 30 years and he's seen a lot, so his kind words were extremely appreciated and made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We made our way to our hotel and after dropping off our belongings, we ventured out into the cool Chicago night air for a nightcap and hopefully more laughs. If there is anything we do well, it's make music and make each other laugh. There's always somebody saying or doing something silly that has all of us busting our sides. Last night was no different.




We found a little pizza joint/bowling alley still open and we arrived just in time to bear witness to a good old fashioned bar room brawl. Some dude said something to somebody and next thing we knew, KA-POW! Sucker punch! Despite the vulgar expletives and the blood on the floor, the bouncers were successfully able to contain and remove the parties involved and it was back to fun and games for everybody. We stayed out til stoopid o'clock (again) and I was glad to get back to our room.

Today's skies are clear and the breeze is cool and the temperature is perfect. I hope this weather follows us home to Texas upon our return. Summer's fun, but I'm ready for the seasonal change that the comes with the annual planetary trajectory around our star. Tonight we're playing the Gramophone in St. Louis. I'm looking forward to being back there too. Good times. Have a great day out there everybody and I'll report from there soon.

- Doddsy


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TTS Fall Tour - Day 8

TTS Midwest Tour

Day 8, Dispatch 1 - It's strange to me that I'm closer here to our suitemates above our northern national border than I am to our friends below the border to our south when I'm home. We're moving steadily across Wisconsin making a beeline for Chicago. Last night at Lee's Liquor Lounge was a good time catching up with fans who caught us the last time around as well as a nice evening visiting with new fans who had yet to hear us spread the gospel of Two Tons. The stage there is kind of small but the room sounds great and Joe, the house sound engineer (and all around nice guy), always does such a fantastic job! I had an enjoyable time talking with the drummer from the opening band and then we were headed out.







It seems I'm always running. I'm always running from one place to the next, in a rush to make it here or there on time or just a few minutes behind schedule. Because we had in excess of 7 hours to drive from Minneapolis to Chicago and we always stay up all night anyway, we decided to drive part of the way after our show last night. As luck would have it, after two relatively easy days of travel, I was employed by my wife to assist in the 5th grade Student Council campaign my son Casey is currently in the middle of. Elementary school politics can be cut-throat, so it was necessary to pull out all the stops to help him even while I'm away. After plowing through a good portion of the night, we arrived at our stop and once we checked in (around 2:30 or 3:00am), I set to work on Dennis's laptop doing my best to help create campaign propaganda that will hopefully help "Rock the Vote" on Friday morning in my son's favor.




For those who don't know, I'm also an I.T. guy. I'm kind of a tech nerd and thus, I had one of my older boys copy a photo editing program into an image that could be uploaded to a server online that I could then log on with Dennis laptop and download from the server and install so as to create said propaganda. (Talk about pulling some high tech magic outta my... hat...) I kicked off the download before crawling into bed for a few hours and awoke this morning bleary-eyed and groggy, but ready to tackle the task at hand.

Back to the rushing... We rushed outta the lounge, rushed down the road, rushed into bed, rushed to get up, rushed to get Casey's project done and rushed to get a shower in and now we're rushing to Chicago. I was born almost a month after my mother's original due date and I've never caught up - I've been late ever since. Anyhow, while the world slept last night, I was Karl Rove creating the next great political campaign strategy. Meanwhile, my wife is at home with a nest full of hatchlings. She's bravely facing each new day with the resolve of a general hell-bent on conquering the day's adversaries at hand while I'm out here on walkabout until my arrival back home on Sunday night. She works harder than I do but doesn't get paid to do her job. So here's to you, Crystal Dodds, you're a fantastic mommy, your hard work is not in vain and I'll make it up to you when I get back home!




That's it for now, kids. I'm looking forward to Fitzgerald's tonight in Chicago and catching up with an old friend I haven't seen in years, a friend who followed the first part of my career in my teens. Only 5 more hours in our time machine...

- SuperDodds

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TTS Fall Tour - Day 7

TTS Midwest Tour

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

TTS Fall Tour - Day 6

TTS Midwest Tour

Day 6, Dispatch 1 - Rose Bowl Tavern in Urbana last night was just as much fun as I remembered it being and easily as much fun as I was hoping it would be! The stage is tiny but the volume level in that place is perfect in that I'm not slammin behind the kit but I don't have to hold back either. I can just play my instrument and enjoy myself. I feel like a kid practicing in my room again when we're there. Fun!




Our pal Corny Leonard came out for a visit too. I met Corny last March when he was there and informed me he was from El Paso. Then I was hoodwinked to find he was from El Paso, Illinois! The ol' bait-and-switch. Hardy-har-har. We've kept in touch though and it was good to catch up again with him.




It was also cool to see some of the same folks from our show with Big Sandy in Springfield drive over to catch us in Urbana at The Rose Bowl last night. Steve also went out of his way to provide us with more Shiner Bock and I was a very happy boy. While I didn't even drink any of it last night, when we show up and I see Shiner, it's a sure sign that somebody's reading their contracts and cares enough to make sure we're taken care of. (Steve sent it with us to enjoy for later!)










After hanging around just a little while and visiting with fans we loaded out our gear and began the trek across town to find Merry-Ann's Diner. Dennis were looking forward to getting reckless with the #5 on their menu -- The Diner Stack. This is a full plate of delicious goodness made by my new favoite late night cook, Juan. Hash browns topped with cheese, topped with two giant sausage patties, topped with biscuits, topped with two scrambled eggs and then smothered in gravy. In the words of the late Big Bopper, "Oh baby, that's what I like!"




I hadn't eaten but just a tiny bit at the Rhoades' home and was starving when got to Merry-Ann's. By the time we finally checked into the hotel, I was absolutely wiped out and so happy that nobody wanted to afterparty with us in Urbana. Urbana is a town we can rest and recharge our batteries. We were in our rooms before midnight and I was tucked into bed shortly thereafter. Dennis and I watched some classic boxing footage from the late 50's before I drifted off to sleep.




We didn't have to check out of our rooms til noon today and we didn't have to be on the road til 2:00, so after posing wuth the police bomb squad truck parked outside or hotel (what was that all about?) Dennis, Rhoades, and I found a nice Indian Buffet and ate til we felt like we were about to pop! The last several hours have been spent inside the belly of our time capsule. We crawl in here together and arrive somewhere else at a much later time. We're less than an hour from Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines, IA and this is a dimly lit room that also has such great vibe and character. Rhoades played here several months back with The Bar Brawl 3 and the same band that opened for them is opening the show for us tonight. This will be fun and then afterwards, it's Kung Fu Tap & Taco for everybody! More on that tomorrow. Happy trails and safe travels. Much love from...

- The Doddster

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Interstate 80,Grant,United States