Another Monday on the road, another Punk Rock Night at Uncle Fester's in Bloomington. PRN in Bloomington is one of the most golden of oases in the world of DIY punk rock touring: a guaranteed hot crowd on a Monday night, which is a dead zone in any other city. Playing shows on the road on a Monday usually result in the locals saying, "man, come back on a weekend and it'll be much better." Yes, because bands are able to magically route their tours so that they're only traveling on weekends and the rest of the time they're home in their beds. Someday transporter technology will render weeknight shows obsolete.
Anyway, enough rambling. Despite a sudden decision by the state of Indiana to adopt Daylight Saving Time, thus denying us the extra hour we thought we had to get to Bloomington from Lansing (seriously, Hoosiers, wtf? My world has shifted), we still arrived in town early enough to find the bar still closed. After consulting the flyer to note that there are only three bands on the bill (us, Sump Pumps, and a local called Landlord), we drove to Rob and Kyl3 Sump Pump's place to chill out. As we made conversation, we asked Rob about the other band on the bill; he knew nothing. He then brought up how our Milwaukee pals Terrior Bute contacted him to get on the bill, as they needed a show on their way home from Baltimore. Rob had referred them to Josh at Fester's (as had i), but had heard nothing since.
Then the phone rings, and Rob has a conversation with Josh. Suddenly we discover that 1) Terrior Bute have arrived, having never heard anything from Josh and hoping to hop onto the show, and 2) ON TOP OF THAT, Josh had allowed two other touring punk bands to hop on last minute before Bute even showed up. Suddenly we had gone from three bands to SIX on a Monday night show that normally starts at 11 and ends by 2 (the bar closes at 3). WTF.
We arrive at the club and starting giving Terrior Bute good-natured shit when we see them. Obviously this isn't entirely their fault; Josh never responded to their email, and they showed up understanding that if nothing else, they'd get to hang out at the show. Admittedly, we were a little annoyed at the prospect of smashing six bands together on a Monday night, but fuck it--that's sort of what punk rock, DIY touring is about. Plus, Terrior Bute are our pals and a great band, so of course we're gonna help 'em out if we can. No question. Arrangements are made to have all three of our bands (Bute, Pumps, and us) share our gear, and away we went.
Credit Josh at this point for running the show like a goddamn machine. He started the show a half hour early (10:30), and instructed the other two late-arriving punk bands to share gear and play 15 minutes each. And to their credit, the switchover was quick and painless and both bands were done by roughly 5 after 11. Suddenly we were back on schedule (especially considering Bute play for 20-25 minutes, tops). So credit the first two bands for being efficient (but don't credit the second band's singer for being a dick and throwing a bottle up into the second level area and almost hitting Kyl3. Douche move, Massengill).
After Landlord's solid Dinosaur Jr. cover, we set up our gear for Terrior Bute, and the boys do us proud, slamming through their keytar jams and easily winning the crowd over (as we knew they would--c'mon, a crowd that likes us and the Sump Pumps? No-brainer for Terrior Bute). We hit the stage and blasted through some new tunes for the Bloomington crowd (i think last time we came through we treated them to "Paulding Light" and some Hot Nuggets! songs, but i think everything else new we're playing was new to them as well), and the Sump Pumps just killed. Their new material is seriously incredible, as the CD-R Rob burned for us confirms. Just...wow.
The other amazing thing about Bloomington is that you can buy beer until 3 AM there. Thus, on the way back from Fester's, a last-minute run to Kroger's was executed before closing time so we had beers to consume at the house. We kicked back and had a few with Matt the BattleBot (Murder By Death's bass player, who lives with Rob and Kyl3) as we watched Lewis Black on HBO. Yup, real livin'.
And so, our first multi-day road trip with Rev.Ever ends without a single hitch. I think the dude can hang.
