Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Saturday June 25, 2016 - Waynesburg, KY

Road Blog
June 25, 2016
Waynesburg, KY

We crossed the river from Indiana into Louisville, Kentucky just after noon on Saturday and it was already well into the 90s. We were heading to the annual Fun Ranch party, hosted by our dear friends the Vibrolas, and their bass player Leila, who also celebrates her birthday with the event. It's in a dry county and in the middle of nowhere, so you come prepared. We stopped at a nasty, smoky, city liquor store in Louisville, and got loaded up on booze and beers for the party and continued the trek southeast. We hit a Kroger in Danville, about a half hour out, and got some ice and some food to share, a little snack for lunch, and headed into the hills.

We arrived at the Fun Ranch around 3 and parked next to a familiar sight - a white minivan with New Hampshire plates - When Particles Collide's vehicle. A bit later we ran into Chris and Sasha (from WPC), and soon saw J Tyler from Those Crosstown Rivals. Not long after that we ran into Chris and Leila from Vibrolas, Greta and Derek from The Dirty Socialites, Ringo from Mad Anthony, and soon after, Bryan, Will, and Cory from Those Crosstown RIvals, and Erica Minks - Bryan's wife and the life of the party - and a bunch of other friends. It felt great to be in the presence of so many good friends and great bands!

Over the course of the next 8 hours we drank, ate, watched a lot of rock and roll, took a bunch of photos, drank some more, got caught up with everyone, had a lot of laughs, made a bunch of new friends, and some of us even did some time in the pool. Each band played a 30 minute set and each one was great. I got my first taste of some new WPC songs, and picked up the vinyl, as I was instructed by my wife to not come home without it. TCR sounded great, as always, and they're continuing to gel with Will, who's playing is having a great impact on their sound.

We went on around 5:30 or so, not exactly sure, but it was hot as hell and we were the only band dumb enough to wear pants, so we were drenched. We had a blast playing and left everything up there, drenched and ringing. After us was TCR, then Mad Anthony, who we hadn't seen since last year, and they were fantastic again. Stagecoach Inferno, a killer metal band, finished the night off in fine-thrashing fashion.

By 10pm the music was done and people were heading down to the woods for the bonfire. Unfortunately, it was time for us to bail. We don't have room to travel with camping gear and it was a good hour back to our AIrBB. We made the rounds and said our goodbyes, always a sad routine. There was talk of sobriety checkpoints, so our DD Patty had to be on his best behavior, which didn't apply to Gabe and I who poured ourselves into the truck for the drive. An hour later, to the soundtrack of The Fags and Joe Jackson, through miles of winding, hilly, Kentucky horse farm back roads, we arrived at our Air BB, just south of Lexington. Gabe was done and promptly crashed. Our friend from Lexington Virginia stopped by to hang for a bit and soon after a nightcap I crashed too.

On our way out of town we stopped by Bryan and Erica's new farm north of Lexington. We got to meet their dogs, cats and birds and see their beautiful property. Another round of hugs and sad goodbyes and lots of talk of future plans together and we were back on the road. We stopped for some Waffle House and gas and pretty much shot straight up I75, though a good rainstorm and some moderate construction, arriving home at 5:30. Each of our wives texted us within 30 minutes of noon requesting our ETA, which gave us a good laugh. The boys are home now, time to decompress and come down from this whirlwind of a run. We had virtually no downtime between all the driving, the Daytrotter session, and the party, and the whole run was under sweltering hot sunshine, but it was a capital blast and we wouldn't change a thing. These shows were all booked around the Fun Ranch Party and we'll miss our friends until we see them out there on the road again.

Tcr Minks, Erica Minks, Cory Hanks, J Tyler Gregg, William Morgan, Sasha Alcott, Chris Viner, Leila Ann Coppala, Chris Hosner, Gretta Smak, Derek Gullett, Ringo Jones, Vibrolas Fun Ranch Party 11! Patrick L. O'Harris, Gabriel Doman,