Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday May 03, 2018 - Dayton, OH

May 3, 2018
Dayton, Ohio

We met at Gabe’s house and headed south on I-275 into Ohio, through Toledo, and into Dayton. The drive was fairly uneventful with Patrick driving and me navigating and riding shotgun and Gabriel in the back. Gabriel was pretty wiped out from a bunch of recent travel and crashed out most of the way while Patty and I rocked out to some Jeff Beck and Loretta Lynn Official and debated who were the worst drivers – SUV or pickup truck owners (lame stereotyping, I know). We stopped at a back-country Casey's General Store for a quick leak and I picked up a couple scratch-offs only to suffer the ridicule of Pat, who suggested I just give him three bucks and he’ll holler out a couple numbers and I’ll be further ahead. I scoffed as we rolled through Findlay and eventually into Dayton where we parked in front of Blind Bob's Bar – the venue for the night’s show. The first scratch-off was a dud. Haven't done the second yet.

We were a couple hours early so we parked the van and walked around the The Oregon District of Dayton for a bit and hit the two record stores near the venue. You can now find our albums at OMEGA MUSIC. It’s a great store with a massive inventory and friendly staff. The Oregon District is the oldest neighborhood in the city, with the brick-paved 5th Street as the centerpiece, lined with cool buildings that house offices, bars, restaurants, tattoo parlors and boutique stores. Blind Bob’s sits in the middle. We went in and I was promptly greeted by Tyler, one of my favorite bartenders in the world, and a big reason why Bob’s is one of my favorite rooms. It’s always great to see him and get caught up over a Tommy Gun (also known as a pickleback, a shot of Tullamore Dew chased with pickle juice). We ordered food and beers and were eating when our pals in Dirty Socialites walked in. We’ve known these guys for a few years from gigs at the annual Fun Ranch party in Kentucky, and shows at Bob’s. Great people, great band. More beers, load in, and pretty soon they were soundchecking.

Bob’s is a big square room with a bar at the back and a deep but narrow stage against the front window. There’s a nice patio out back where people smoke and drink, and it’s especially pleasant on nice warm nights like yesterday. Dirty Socialites hit around 10 and played a loud and noisy set in all the best ways. Derek runs his vocals through effects and he and Gretta have an aggressive dual guitar attack. We went on second and played to a pretty thin room, but people were engaged and we played pretty well for the most part, despite being less rehearsed than we’d like. I blew the bridge on a tune called Real Damaged Girl that we recently put back into the set, but the boys bailed me out, as usual. Up next were Water Witches from Athens, OH, Super nice guys with a sorta psychedelic rock sound and great guitar tones coming out of a modded up Melody Maker with a P90 and Bigsby bar. Closing out the night were Streetlamps for Spotlights. These guys played well written indie pop through a killer sounding Jazzmaster. Really nice guys from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I had a good long chat with singer Jason, who runs a studio in FW and we agreed to keep in touch.

We sold a little merch, did one last shot and got a photo with Tyler, said our goodbyes to Gretta, and hit the road. We had a one-hour drive south to our hotel. Gabe crashed out and I did my best to navigate while Patty drove. We finally hit the tomb around 3:30 with ringing ears. I woke up at 7:30 this morning not feeling as chipper as I would have liked, but not as bad as previous mornings after Blind Bob’s. Today we’re off to Knoxville, Tennessee for our second show there. Last time was a gas, and we’ve been trying to get back for a couple years. We’re playing the Preservation Pub with Andrew Leahey & the Homestead from Nashville, and things might get weird. See ya in a few Tennessee!