We woke up in Knoxville, TN in the home
of a couple of very generous strangers named Charlie and Beth. They
made us breakfast and we swapped storied to kill a little time.
Before too long we took off for Louisville, KY.
A few days before our friend Chad, who
set up the show, reached out to see if we needed anything. We replied
with possibly needing a place to stay along with the rider below.
“We'll need a stuffed bear that is at
least 8 feet tall. Type of bear does not matter. The bear should then
be dressed in an Alf costume. The bear should be equipped with a
mechanism that when you punch it in the stomach the bear say 'OH YEA'
in Randy Savage's voice and pukes out watermelon gummy bears.
Strawberry will also suffice.”
Obviously this was a joke and was not
meant to be taken seriously by any means.
When we got to Louisville our first
stop was at another musicians house by the name of 40rty. We pulled
up and he was sitting on his porch half naked with a beer by his side
and his banjo in is hands. We hear “Oh! Hello Swamp Rats” as we
walked up the path to his front door. This is where we also met one
of the other acts playing that night by the name of Alan Tubs. We
had a couple of drinks there and then started out to the venue which
we were told is internationally known but when this information comes
from some of the best trolls we know it's easy to dismiss such a
thing. We were off for Mag Bar.
When we got there we met the other band
playing that night. They were a touring punk esk band from California
called The Orange Blossom Special. Very nice and talented fellas so
we definitely recommend looking them up. There wasn't a bunch of
people that night and we were told not to expect very many people
since it was on a Sunday and it was also the ass end of a major
festival there in Louisville. We usually like to see what is
happening around where we are playing to kind of feel out what the
crowd might be like. Our shows being scheduled on the same date as
other bigger shows or festivals is a rather common occurrence. We
have come to learned not to expect much crowd wise when we play
outside our comfort zone. As long as there are at least a few people
who dig what we're doing word gets spread around.
After we loaded everything in we ran
into Chad. He greeted us with a hug and produced a couple of packs of
watermelon flavored gummy rings. As he handed them to us he stated
that he didn't have any luck locating a stuffed bear though he tried.
Even though our list of demands were an obvious joke he shot back by
attempting to fill the demand. A man by the name of Alan Tubs went on
first. About half way through his set a man in a bear costume came in
complete with a vest sporting the local gun clubs name and logo. We
can't say for sure that they did that for us but either way you look
at it we got the bear!
Like I had said there wasn't very many
people and if a couple people went outside to smoke it was dead on
the dance floor but if everyone is inside, which most everyone was at
the start of everyone's set, then it was by no means an empty room.
Alan finished his set, we went on then Orange Blossom Special. The
night went pretty quick and then we found ourselves in a late night
jam session with Sam from Call Me Bronco. We ended up crashing on
Sam's floor for the night. Keep in minds we had no definite place to
lay our heads but the stars aligned just right for the right people
to be in the right place at the right time. We are so extremely
grateful for all these people indeed and hope to return the favor
some day.
The next day we were off to Cincinnati,
OH but you'll have to check back later for that tale!