Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday March 11, 2016 - Columbus, OH

Road Blog
Columbus, OH
March 11, 2016

After some down time at the Motel 6 on the outskirts of Columbus, we headed into the city for some Indian food and Gabe’s birthday dinner. The restaurant was Aab – suggested by Brett at Spoonfed Records. Fantastic selection! Great food, a couple unique selections, and nice atmosphere. From there it was a short drive to The Tree Bar for load in. The Kentucky boys were already there and the Cincy crew were pulling in just as we were. A couple quick greetings and we were soon dodging each other in and out of the bar with arms full of amps, guitars, keyboards, merch and gear bags.

Jeff Clowdus was a late addition to the bill as local support. We had a short chat before his set and, like everyone else we’ve met from Columbus, he’s a good dude with some solid roots in the local music scene and some fantastic songs. His short set also included a Meat Puppets cover and a song by The Amps – an Ohio band lead by Kim Deal.

Up next was Alone at 3am. This is probably my 4th or 5th time seeing them. They’re always great – but tonight there must have been something in the air because it was a special set. The mix was perfect, they seemed to have a little extra gumption, and it was just a pleasure to take it in. Feeling very lucky to see these guys (& girl) work each night of this run!

We were up next and played a decent, but loose, set, complete with a broken string and a mic that was electrocuting Patty. After us Those Crosstown Rivals hit, and, not to be outdone by their brush with the law in Newport the night before, they blew up the electricity in the building a few songs in. This shit ONLY ever happens to them! The fine people at the Tree Bar soon had them back in business and rocking out the rest of their set in a few short minutes. Cool to hear these boys belt out a couple new ones on this run.

A couple night-caps and birthday drinks for Gabe and it was loud-out and back to the hotel where we inhaled our left-over curry and broke into the Rebel Yell Small Batch Rye I bought in Kentucky. By then it was approaching 4am so we called it a night.

We met at the van at noon and headed up to our go-to Columbus spot – the Starliner Diner – for breakfast. TCR met us up there, and between the 7 of us there was the full gamut of hangover severity range, with the birthday boy Gabe leading the charge, looking a little peaked as he put on his best game face and worked on his coffee. The bloody marys and Cuban-flare breakfasts were enjoyed by all and soon we were on our way Northeast towards Akron.

Tonight we’re playing a house show in Akron, Ohio. It’s not our usual situation, but everyone seems pretty excited and our host at The Spacement has been really cool about everything. Time to rally and finish of this run with these great bands and great friends in style!