Ambers tour diary 8/15 Rhythm Records / B Side - Bismarck, North Dakota We spent 3 days hanging-out in Bismarck and I promise you its like being in Scott Pilgrim the movie. The scene IS the community and you easily find yourself all over town in one night. Our show day started with the typical admin-paperwork-blah-blah-blah before we rushed downtown to play a short set at Urban Harvest, the local weekly street fair. We were invited on to the street-side open mic by Mike-of-All-Trades-Swenson. If you go to Bismarck, hes your man, he books shows, runs Juke Joint Comics, (an awesome comic shop), ranches and sings songs thatll tear your eyes and place a cowboy hat squarely in your heart. Hes all heart. After a completely stupid encounter with a delivery truck at the corporate coffee chain (I refuse to give the name unless they want to donate to the cause of rock n roll ie., FREE COFFEE) whos driver thought it was acceptable to double park and block Turbo Blue in his parking space. When we kindly asked how long hed be offloading his corporate cargo, Driver responds with, About an hour and a half, sorry. As if there was no way the truck could be moved 10 feet and allow us to back out and be on our way. Not f-ing acceptable, 45 minutes till show time, yo! He spins some bullshit about not being able to move because his cargo is on the hydraulic ramp and itll fall. Sorry, we are not responsible for gravity our your lack of foresight - were in a plains state, theres nothing but room here and any prairie pirate with a single eye and some common sense can see that if hed parked 10 feet forward from where he did he wouldnt have suffered the pleasure of tangoing with my drummers negotiating vocabulary. Anyway, after refusing to accept this really asinine moment, he moves his truck the measly 10 feet and we book it down town. Lessons to be learned here: do it right the first time. Something I need to internalize. Dont be lazy. Also, something Im working on.... And dont be a jerk when youre being lazy. Rock-n-roll doesnt suffer assholes. We park the van half a block from the street fair and walk back to the stage. We do the usual pre-stage-the-gear-to-the-side of the stage (beneath a GIANT tree!), gab with our new awesome Bismarck family and Im warming up my fingers when a lady approaches us with a hamburger in hand. Hi, Im Stacy Stern. I run the radio station you just parked in front of, would you be interested in coming in for a quick interview after your set? Tactical smiley deployed. Yes! Yes we would! Stacy disappears as magically as she appeared and Mike- Stormy (To me, there are two major Mikes in Bismarck, Mike-of-All-Trades-Swenson and Mike-Stormy. Ive given the latter this moniker because his best friend for life is Stormy, they roll together and as far as I can tell have a friendship destined to inspire the next great buddy movie) anyways…Mike-Stormy says, I totally thought she was gonna offer you that hamburger! Everyone stage-side agrees. But I think Johnson was maybe more interested in the burger than the radio spot. We play a windy set beneath the big tree then pop over to URL Radio and get featured on The Rock Ranger show! Super fun! They played Road Trip, By the Bushel, Wooing House and Why So Cold from our new LP. And chat a bit about how we recorded our latest album. Amanda Butcher, DJ and host of the show, was awesome and tons of fun. Hope theyll have us back someday, Id love that. Fast forward to our show in the back of the record shop. Our opener was a super fun insta-group formed by Rhythm Records owner Richard Loewen on vox & guitar with Mike-Stormy on Drums and Stormy on guitar. They sounded very warm, sincere and fantastic - like if the Mountain Goats actually rocked. (They dont. Shut up. Leave your angry indie comments below. Ill read them and reconsider. Oh wait, probably not.) Then it was Yev time! We rocked for an hour or so. Super fun, and post show the entire Rhythm Records family grabbed instruments and we jammed until quiet hour. So much fun. Before heading out of town we hit up another local watering hole, LUFT, to see Roger (rad local drummer) read poetry over accompanying guitar and hand drums - think electrified beatnik - dig? I wish we couldve stayed longer but it aint rock-n-roll if you dont roll. Still Bismarck was huge fun and Im looking forward to a return stop. Bismarck / Minot bands to check out: Bummer! Kids With Beards Anonymous Phenomenon Mike Swenson Wild Hands Yer Lips Are Blue
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 21:51:20 +0000