Kansas City is a cool town we’ve been to quite a few times over the years, but we’ve never played at a place called the Trouser Mouse. Brad the friendly owner will tell you how they came up with the name. I didn’t fully understand his explanation but it apparently came from an expression I’ve never heard of involving having a mouse in your pocket that does helpful things that you don’t want any thanks for. Aren’t you glad I cleared that up for you? Google it if you need more info.
We set up and had a little time to visit with some friends that came in from Wichita, Weston and other places. Elli and Tyler played their customary opening set and we played until midnight or so emphasizing tunes from the new album. Ended up selling quite a few too at the end of the night so that helps put a little gas in the tank. A lot of these venues out here in the Midwest/South are a tad smoky though if I do say so myself. At the end of the night we often smell like we’ve been trapped in a Volkswagen Beetle with George Burns and a couple of supermodels. Actually that would be fun too…Sometimes smoky clothes are the price you pay for putting on a rock and roll show I guess. Good times at the Trouser Mouse. Thanks to everybody there for being so nice!
The next day we drove a few hours to St. Louis. The travel times this week have been relatively short compared to what we are used to. Short enough to not have cabin fever fully set in. And what are we doing right now to pass the time? Looking around I see that Tyler is driving and listening to Death Cab For Cutie on the satellite radio. Rebecca is listening to Jon and Vangelis on her brick-sized IPod, but for some unknown reason she would rather I write that she was previously listening to Kelly Clarkson. Oh Reba…Chris is sporting his Canuck’s shirt and watching season 5 of The Wire, and Jason is reading a page-turner entitled Light From The Christian East. I’m typing and just noticed that the car in front of us made a beeline to the shoulder on Highway 44 as their right front tire just fell right off. Lots of smoke but everybody’s o.k. We’ve seen a lot of weirdness on the highways over the years.
The past few times in St. Louis we’ve played Off Broadway, but this time for a change of scenery we are playing The Halo Bar that is affiliated with another place called The Duck Room where we have also played a few times. Chuck Berry is somehow involved and occasionally plays there. Still rockin’ in his eighties! The Halo Bar is attached to an awesome theatre called The Pageant. Tonight Split Lip Rayfield was opening up for a jam band called Railroad Earth. The idea was we would play immediately after they hit their last note so some of their crowd would hopefully filter in to mesh with our crowd. But because we didn’t need to play until 11:30, and the Vancouver Canucks by some miracle coincidence happened to be in town to play the St. Louis Blues, guess where we went? That’s right. A Clumsy Lover fieldtrip to the Scottrade Centre to watch the game! We were able to snag super cheap tickets online. It was a great atmosphere. The two hottest teams in the league and St.Louis fighting for their playoff lives. Vancouver started strong controlling the play but were hampered by questionable penalties(IMAO) that gave St. Louis the momentum. Vancouver never fully recovered from the resulting onslaught and they ended up losing 4-2. There were some beautiful goals. And some beautiful saves. It was quite a game. And man that crowd was loud. Especially the two shrieking girls behind us who ended up spilling their beer on Elli when St. Louis scored their second goal and everyone leapt to their feet to cheer.
We hustled to the subway after the game and made it back to the club by eleven. Checked out a little Railroad Earth in the theatre. We had seen them before at a little place called the Neurolux in Boise but judging by the shiny red bus out back and the seven or eight hundred people in attendance things are going well for them out here in the middle part of the country. It was a really good festival-like atmosphere. They are phenomenal musicians. As their last notes rang out, we fired up the Clumsy Lover engine and rocked The Halo Bar. Some of our crowd didn’t get the memo that we weren’t starting until 11:30 and arrived early so their anticipation was building for three or four hours. But with the crowd ambling in from the theatre it made for a full room and an opportunity for us to play to some new ears too. Good vibes from the staff and crew and kind words from the audience made for a fun evening and a long day eventually came to a close in a comfy bed at the Airport Marriot in St. Louis Missouri.
Trevor Rogers 