The Barn Party:Building a foundation, and a stage

"Eric is going to have to start helping with this night shift part of the job!" Or at least, that's how I feel when it's 4am, and Matt and I are the only one's unloading equipment. My annoying dog doesn't help - it would be nice if she would carry something!

I've been up since around 11am Saturday morning waiting for Eric, and Matt to come over and pick the equipment up then head out to Brown County. I've got a headache, but at this point I really don't care. I'm lucky that Jessika microwaves me 3 burrito's, and turns out my lights. I'm unlucky that I got Herbal Ben Ben so drunk that he can't help unload anything.

Matt and I quickly unloaded everything, but I still have barely had any time to look back on the night, however I can tell you it was one of the better show's we've done. We played everysong at least once, a few twice, and even put in a crazy rock version of Rocky Raccoon.

The night before I had got a call from Matt telling me his brother had finished the banner for us. It's an awesome peice of artwork, and definately helped with the vibe in Brown County.

All week we had worried about rain, and Friday we were unable to get out to the show to help set up because of rain. By Saturday morning, our 4 hours of road crew work from the days before had been swept away. It would now take a truck, or a damn good driver to manuver out to the show. Thank god we were playing in the county where everyone owned a truck.

At 3pm. no one was at the party that was supposed to be all day. Around 5 I started getting drunk. Really drunk. That kind of drunk you get when you try to throw a party, you're afraid no one will show up - so you start drinking all the alcohol you spent your money on. It made me feel better...kinda.
Six hours later people began showing up. All of a sudden it seemed like 40 or 50 people were there. We had played 2 small sets, and stopped to let the White Lightning Boys do their thing - which by the way if you've never seen them DO IT.

Around 10:30pm I think is when we went back on stage to play. We were introduced by Justin Smith, and really got into the show. I can say honestly I've never played better (though I had plenty of mistakes). We played until around midnight, and then again around 12:15pm, and didn't stop until 2 or 2:30am. Every muscle in my body ached, and my ears were ringing so bad that 2 hours later when I layed down in bed they were still ringing.
From behind the drumset I can't ever see much of the crowd. I can't see how many people are listening, how many are even there, or how many even are paying attenion. But if you didn't hear it, I tossed a chair at the end of the show to let everyone know that we just threw it down.

I've never put so much into an event. We didn't make money. Hell we basically paid people to come get drunk and listen to us play. We made some money back, we got to rock, and it was fucking awesome...But one thing came very clear from this weekend.

It will take us a long way to the top if we want to rock and roll...

Thanks this week go to: Larry and John M! Herbal Ben Ben from Texas, Nate Dog, Matt's brother Ian, Jessika, Crystal, the White Lightning Boys, Sadie, Sally, and Sammy, and anyone else who came out to check us out!!!