At one point, it looked as though our set in Hamilton, Ohio was going to be rained off. As we arrived at the festival site, the sun was shining but some very ominous clouds loomed on the horizon. As our set time drew nearer, so did the clouds and loud claps of thunder announced the arrival of rain and lightning. Not ideal weather for an outdoor stage with just a token gesture of a roof. As people scrambled for cover, we devised an alternativeplan to perform some acoustic tunes in the hotel lobby next to the site. It panned out eventually however that the storm passed and the stage was mopped up sufficiently to set up and play some music.
A few tunes into the set, we had to temporarily abort as, what began as a small plume of smoke quickly became a thick grey cloud belching from somewhere behind us, completely engulfing Damon. Like Kurt Russell in Backdraft, our heroic backline tech, Spidros (no – not his real name) came charging onstage, waving his arms frantically to evacuate the stage. Turns out, it was just an over enthusiastic smoke machine that had unwittingly been covered over by a tarpaulin but thanks Spidros, nice to know you’ve got our backs!
All in all, it was a short but great set and we we’re thankful that we got to play. The festival is organised by Dave Shaw – singer of the Revivalists whom we are currently supporting. Hamilton is his home town and only in its third year, the festival has become a well attended and much loved event. It’s inspiring to see musicians being pro-active and making things happen. Nice one Dave and thanks for having us.
After saying goodbye to Hamilton, we actually got to say “Hello Cleveland”. We didn’t have a show on our first night there so, after a couple of tacos and a good strong margarita, I took myself off to the cinema with Spidros (pronounced speed-ross) comfortable in the knowledge that, in the event of a fire, I’d be in safe hands.
So after a thoroughly enjoyable show last night at the Beach Ballroom in Cleveland we’ll shortly be arriving in Syracuse to play the Westcott theatre. Look forward to seeing all you sexy Syracusians later.
Thanks, by the way, to the kind souls who helped us load out after the show last night – it’s a shit job but made a lot less shit by your help!
– Nick
