Right across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio is a neat little town called Newport. Our show tonight is in a ballroom attached to an amazing old mansion that was built in 1808. Abe Lincoln apparently stayed there at one time along with the inventor of the Tommy gun and other historical figures. The ballroom downstairs reminds me of the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. Charming and rustic. Upstairs was a smaller room with a swing band playing, and up another flight of stairs there were four more bands! Very cool idea. I wish Vancouver had a place like this. That’s where I would be spending my entertainment dollar.
A lot of days out here on the road have a theme. Today’s was the trashy “Girls Gone Wild” video collection. In the morning we were revisiting the scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry disguises his voice on the phone when he orders the videocassette. Later we briefly parked in front of a retail bbq place called Grills Gone Wild, and when we got to the venue we found out the opening band was called Earls Gone Wild! Maybe it’s a sign we need to order the series. Who knows, maybe someone in the van already has:)
After sound check we grabbed a bite to eat then headed back to watch Elli Perry and the aforementioned Earls Gone Wild. A nice crowd had begun to gather and we had quite a few road trippers show up from different places including Steve and Heather all the way from Drew Carey’s hometown: Cleveland! Elli and Tyler played great and sold a whack of her new CD. And EGW added their traditional bluegrass to the night and sounded terrific. Next up: Us! We were happy to have a fairly large festive crowd primed and waiting for us to take the stage. And we were off! It seemed like everyone was firing on all cylinders musically, we were loose but not too loose and the crowd even seemed to like our attempt at witty Canadian banter. One of the highlights of the set was a new tune Devil May Care that sounded really anthemic. The energy was good throughout the set and we got a standing ovation. Maybe they were just tired of sitting all night ! Thanks to everyone at the Southgate and most of all the crowd for being so kind. Now it’s a drive across Tennessee to get to Little Rock Arkansas tonight…
Trevor Rogers 