This day in tour life takes us to the local coffee shop near Rogers, Minnesota to use our day off for booking and promotional activities. It's also the first time we've had internet access in several days.
After leaving Nebraska, we stopped in the home of the Iowa State Cyclones, Ames, wedged some Frisbee golf into the schedule, played to an energetic audience, and ate really good hot dogs at 2am after the show. Next was La Crosse, WI and Bluffland Bloom and Brew, one of the more unique venues I've ever played. Instead of the typical smoky bar where us Frogs congregate for music, BB&B was more of an eclectic tea house atmosphere, complete with indoor water-garden, plant life growing up the brick walls around you. We drank many good cups of tea, played an intimate set, and slept until late in the morning on the many comfortable couches set around the venue.
Our set the next night in Rochester, MN proved to be the first lacking an energetic audience in eight gigs or so. The lackluster night's hangover was curbed by a fantastically fast water slide at the Ramada where the club put us up. Little kids, parents, and the concerned lifeguard looked at the five of us questioningly as we repeatedly ran up the slick stairs to the top of the slide, probably giggling too much for 10am. But on tour, you break the monotonous cycle of endless travel any way you can.
We did just that the next night in Lake Howard, MN with a group of Portwood's (guitar, FGF) old college friends. They were gracious enough to invite the band to a lake house where we barbecued, played a private set on the deck for fifeteen people or so (and the boats who arrived to listen), and wakeboarded in the morning.
Long story short, tour has been sweet the past few weeks. Most places we go there are friendly people waiting, ready to listen and dance. Folks in the Midwest are warm and inviting and always want to make sure that we are comfortable, even though I sometimes feel like bringing a smelly/hungry band of five into a decent midwestern man's home is the height of imposition.
After several shows in Minneapolis this week, we head to Chicago to absorb Lollapalloza and play a show. Then back to Colorado to regroup, plan fall tour and decide on a timeline to record a follow-up album to "Tell Me True".
You consistently hear about musicians who find life on the road really hard, almost unbearable. There are a couple hard aspects, notably uncertain notions about where you will sleep on a given night and extended periods going without a shower. You have to adopt a nomadic attitude and realize that hey, for most of human history we probably slept on or close to the ground anyway and didn't shower for weeks (I hear the smell repels bears and zombies).
From a psychological perspective, what doesn't kill you on tour probably makes you harder. The question remains, does becoming harder help, or hurt creativity? The answer depends on one's conception of the artist as creator. If you believe artists should be hard, rejecting the outside world to protect their own viewpoint, then tour away! But if artists need to be soft, receptive to the world around them, then tour could potentially skew or even drown that ability.
As long as Ramada's have water slides and Minnesota has lakes, I don't think I'll become either one of those extremes.
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