‘You’re driving where? Ugh. I hate that drive. It’s so depressing!’ says the Denver hipster barista while handing us our delicious over priced boutique coffees.

Great.
Now we’re really in the mood for a 13 hour drive across America’s majestic Midwest. But with true TTM gumption we suck it up & try to make the best of a less than ideal situation. Photos are duly taken & posted. Paul faithfully begins scouring his phone for good eateries as we begin a post mortem of last night’s Denver show. We’ve played the Marquis before and it’s a great rock club. Nice mellow people run it & there’s a pizza joint in the venue. What’s not to like?
Familiar faces like Cee & hubby cram down to the front but there’s also plenty of new fans.
( Thank you so much for our care pack Cee. Great to have some home comforts in the van with us. ) It’s a Tuesday night & there’s been a lot going on in Denver so we’re not expecting a riot. But boy do these guys & girls like a sing a long!
New songs.
Old songs.
They know the whole hymn sheet. Maybe those lyric books are actually working. White Bear goes down particularly well & why not? These Denverites love a good riff when they hear one.
The Stone Foxes play their first show of the tour & are really quite excellent. Try to make the effort to get down early to see their opening set. It’s well worth it.

Once the chat about last night dies down in the van headphones & novels make an appearance. Phil gets to work on some ‘music curating’ and we get to know a bit more about the new boy. Dillon is our new sound guy / tour manager & we decide he’s the most unflappable dude we’ve ever met. Hailing from New Jersey he’s the one who’s drawn the short straw to cheerily get us across this vast chunk of America known as the bread basket of the US.

The Midwest gets a bit of a bad name & I’m still not sure why.
We have brilliant memories of some really good times here. Most of my favourite shows that we played last year were in the Midwest.
Detroit. Kansas City. St Louis. Madison. Des Moines. Indianapolis. Chicago. Minneapolis.
The list goes on.
Fantastic crowds. Music fans. Big hearted people that don’t shy away from telling you what they really think. Good or bad.
I’ve got great memories of our last show in Springfield IL. The snow was three feet deep in the car park as we unload the van. We walk into this enormous wooden shed with a stage in it. We start setting up but the locals won’t have it. They lead us into the bar round the front & introduce us to our very first American BBQ.
Brisket. Ribs. Coleslaw. Amazing.
And they don’t want your money. They just want to make you feel welcome.
I guess the worst thing the Midwest ever did was not be cool. Apparently farming & pick up trucks aren’t hip. But I don’t really care about all that. This part of America goes a long way to making this country such an epic place. If you can survive here you can survive anywhere. The wide flat terrain can make you feel lonely but the people sure don’t.
There’s hope here. And modesty.
Most of all there’s an acceptance of the natural world.
Sometimes I wonder what these folks make of us when we roll into town with our blacked out van & strange accents. But we’re always welcomed.

Bring on Chicago & the rest of the Midwest I say.

Damon