Day 2 – Akron
It started out a beautiful Tuesday. We were enjoying a sunny drive through he green Ohio hills. Gradually we noticed a repetitive clunking noise. “Is that the road?” I ask. As soon as the words leave my lips, I see a bolt fly out from the front passenger tire area and the Dirty Yeti starts rumbling and grinding, forcing us over to the shoulder.
We go on a brief quest for the bolt, but no one likes walking through broken glass and road kill, so we gave that up pretty quickly. We try driving the van again and it sounds worse that ever, so we pull back over and call AAA.
The Tow Truck arrives in about an hour. It was actually a gorgeous day for hanging out on the highway. We load up the van and within a few miles, the tow truck starts overheating and has to pull over. After a brief phone call, the driver decided to take it easy and go on ahead to Akron.
Go figure, the place we found in the GPS was all the way across town, so we had a long, nerve-wracking ride full of crossed fingers, wondering if there would be a tow truck for the tow truck. But, we got to service station ok and the people there were super nice. We got to see the cab of the tow truck flipped up and steam billowed out as soon as he added water. It would’ve been awesome if it hadn’t foreboded ill for the poor guy’s truck.
But in the end, all we needed was a bolt. All the truck driver need was a radiator cap. We were all back up and running.
We went to the venue and had a couple of hours to spare, so we hung out in the grass by the train tracks and rehearsed our new songs.
Tasty Jones is an awesome Akron bar, complete with giant Jenga set, rock fountain, and bocce court. It’s casual and understated but really unique. They also have a big screen TV that lifts into the ceiling. We got to play on the floor by the front window, just part of the party. It’s our favorite way to play.
General Riot and Monkey Day Parade showed up before long and we were so happy to see them! We met the guys from General Riot on our last tour when we played at Old Glory in Canton and they blew us away with awesomeness.
MDP opened up the night with a rich and beautiful set full of clever lyrics and heartbreaking harmonies, killer riffs and solos. It was some of the greatest live playing we’ve seen.
We played a short but intense set, sweating and screaming at everyone- Too Much Fun. Spider joined us on drums for the middle of our set and just like Mark at Bar Monkey, seemed like he’d been doing it for years. Man, do I love playing with a drum kit. It really gets my blood boiling.
The Akron Crowd was “all in” all night. They’re definitely music lovers. We had so much fun playing to them.
General Riot came next. They do my favorite kind of straight punk, a power trio and everyone sings. They’ve got tight sections, fun riffs, and lyrics that make you want to growl and fight. They were too cool for school up there, relaxed but intense.
We really enjoyed talking to people after the show. It seems like there are so many talented musicians in the Akron area. I really wish it were closer to home.
We got a lot of lowdown from Dancing Chuck, who has been in the Akron music scene for a while in various jobs, but now mostly filming bands and pressing CDs. He’s done almost all of the videos for Simeon Soul Charger, who we highly recommend. Ick and Spider from MDP cover bass and guitar in SSC and they’re all heading off to Germany in March.
Chuck was grooving through our whole set, suggested lots of helpful venues and contacts, and then very kindly put us up for the night, which we appreciate more than we can say.
We slept like the dead after a pretty crazy day. This morning, Chuck showed us some of his awesome footage from SSC and Waterband, another project Rick used to be involved in.
We had to go back to the car place, but the van was OK, so it was all good news.
It’s been a bright smooth trip so far. Can’t wait for Howard’s tonight!
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