Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Saturday October 18, 2014 - Louisville, KY

Tour Blog - Day 10 - Louisville (& Epilogue)

Saturday was a rough day after the late night revelry in Huntsville. I spent most of the day in the back of the van, being in the worst shape of The Tucos, drifting between nodding off/faux sleep and watching the Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky scenery pass by. I wasn't able to get much food down and by the time we pulled into Louisville, I knew I had to rally. The TCR guys weren't gonna sit by idly while I nod off at the bar, or whine about poor, tired hungover me, so I took the boys out to dinner for some Kentucky BBQ at Smoketown USA (thanks for the awesome recommendation Jett!) and ordered a beer.

The Mag Bar was a great setting to end the tour. It wreaked of rock & roll with graffiti and stickers everywhere, classic pinball machines, and an awesome jukebox. I pumped a few Washingtons in and continued to rally with some help from the Dead Kennedys, Iron Maiden, Replacements, Stones, Clash and Black Flag. Between my tracks, hearing Slayer and the Misfits helped too! There was no local on the bill last night. We started late - around 11:30, and a couple car loads from Lexington had arrived and a good handful of locals were watching too. It wasn't the best room we played to on this tour, but there were plenty of friendly faces applauding and encouraging us yanks. By this point I was back in full-on gig mode, no more hangover, not tired, just pumped to be playing again, and armed with the knowledge that it was the last show, so there could be no excuses. Those Crosstown Rivals came on after, and this was their turf, their fans, and they were on fire. As the tour went on the crowd participation during their sets became more and more rowdy, and last night was the capper. People were singing along, grabbing mics and generally going nuts. I got up and sang Bastards of Young and played guitar on Daddy Was a Trucker, as I'd been doing since Denver. It was a blast and got better every night. I'm gonna miss that.

After the show we loaded out and hung out for a bit as we'd done for each of the last 9 nights, but tonight was different. In the morning, we're not heading to the same city to do it all again, we were heading home. Us to Detroit and TCR to Lexington. It was a sad feeling, but at the same time, we were all happy with how the tour went, and already talking about when the next shows together might be.

** EPILOGUE **

We crossed the Michigan line around 2:30 this afternoon and we're home now. Ears ringing, bags under our eyes, various health inconveniences between us, lots of terrible smelling laundry and gear, stacks of new records and CDs we bought and traded with all the bands we played with, and some great memories of another adventure we'll never forget.

4682 miles, 10 shows/10 cities/10 days, 13 states, 11 support bands, 50 tacos, 5 pizzas, 3 BBQs, 1000 PBR-Lone Star-Millers and 100 shots of cheap whiskey.

For me it all comes back to the TCR guys who took us out with them, shared their crowds with us, and were just generally about as cool as any dudes could be. Parting ways always sucks, but there will be more shows, some north of the Sweet-Tea Line, some south.

Be well Kentucky, and as the tune goes - "`till we meet again at some ol' watering hole......we gotta roll." xo. - JP&T