Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday May 13, 2022 - Brooklyn, WI

Road Blog
May 13, 2022
Brooklyn, Wisconsin

After I posted yesterday’s blog, we signed the guest book in the apartment, right below High on Stress, gathered up Jake from the smoothie-coffee shop, met Danella back at the bar, and loaded out our gear from Thursday night’s show. We headed north with me at the wheel and Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance on the stereo. The drive was uneventful, under blue skies and in sweltering, oppressive heat. We tried to pull off a lunch stop at either Taco John's or Beef-A-Roo but neither was optimal, so we grabbed some quick Burger King in Rockford and kept moving.

We checked into our hotel around 2:30pm CST. Jacob and I chilled and dozed a bit while watching The Andy Griffith Show. It was a great episode where Barney has to meet the governor, but he accidentally gets drunk and Andy has to help him sober up in short time. Hijinks ensued and it was a quite a finale. We met Gabriel at the van at 5:15. We drove the 5 miles into Brooklyn – a small Midwestern town about 20 minutes south of Madison – and parked next to the Main Street Music and Event Venue. We loaded our gear in through the green room and right onto the stage and ordered a pizza, which was pretty awesome. We were still a little peaked from Thursday’s shenanigans, so it was mostly waters but the boys eventually transitioned into light beers.

The Main Street is a honkytonk, road-house style joint with a bar in the front and bands in the back, but it’s basically one big room. There’s outlaw country memorabilia on every wall, with an emphases on Waylon Jennings, and a lonely acoustic guitar in front of the stage with a black cowboy hat draped over it and the spread wings of a real, once-live hawk attached and covering the body, as a tribute to the great =W= logo of the outlaw.

We did a soundcheck, then Mackenzie Moore went on shortly after 7pm, as a massive thunder and lightning storm moved in and cleared the streets, in all-too typical Tucos timing and fashion. She played a set of originals and covers with a bit of an overall Sheryl Crow vibe and we enjoyed watching her. We went on around 9pm to a thin crowd that made up for with enthusiasm what they lacked in size.

Late into the set we went into one of our slower, whiskey-soaked songs called “Urge to Cry.” Unbeknownst to me, the sound guy (who was a super great dude, but sorry can’t remember his name – hmu!) had snuck on stage and engaged the smoke machine. So we’re going into the second verse and this smoke starts bellowing out from behind me and I thought my amp had caught fire. It was a brief moment of panic, then everyone saw what happened and we all had a laugh. Anyway, the stage was big and the sound was great, so we had fun despite the turnout, and wrapped it up around 11pm. My friend Angela showed up and we had a nice chat before we loaded out and headed back to the hotel for a quick nightcap and relatively early and sober lights out.

It wasn’t an overall memorable day, and not a highlight show we’ll be telling stories to our grandchildren about, but we are grateful for the hospitality. Morale is high, we’re glad to be out here, and today we go Rockford, IL to play Marys Place – a gig I’ve been chasing for years. We’re due for a good one folks. Stay tuned. X