Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday June 10, 2022 - Fairport, NY

Road Blog
June 10, 2022
Fairport, NY

We left our nice Airbnb in Buffalo around 11am yesterday morning and headed east. First stop before leaving town was the newest of three Revolver Records locations. It was right next to a Mighty Taco, which our new Buffalo friends were touting, and we’ve made the tentative, if-possible decision to hit one for lunch before heading into Canada on the way home. We’ll see. The new Revolver is nice and big with a small stage and performance area. I had a few things picked out but nothing I needed-needed so I left empty handed. They are carrying our records now, so if you’re in Buffalo pick one up at the Revolver Records – Tranist Road location.

The drive to Rochester was uneventful but pleasant and short. It’s beautiful country, upstate New York. We listened to The Smithereens and Neko Case and arrived at The Record Archive around 1pm. This is one of my favorite record stores. It’s huge – tons of used vinyl and a great selection of new too. It’s well organized and curated, the employees are friendly and helpful, and they also have a great selection of novelties, souvenirs, knick-knacks and trinkets. The used metal section is surprisingly small, but that’s where I did most of my damage. Also found a Record Store Day title by The Wipers that my pal Woody from Toronto has been after, but it was a hefty price tag and he was unfortunately incommunicado so I left without it. Always a great stop, and like Revolver in Buffalo, they too are now carrying our records, so please stop in and pick one up!

Speaking of incommunicado, our AirBB was not responsive to our requests to check in early so we bolted over to The House of Guitars. This is a guitar/record shop that is floor to ceiling merchandise, often literally stacked on top of each other. They have an incredible selection – like 20 SGs, a bunch of weird vintage guitars, and a giant basement just full of records, but I get a little claustrophobic in there before too long, if I’m being honest. Friendly people too, but all they had that caught my eye were a couple Dean Explorers (no, thanks) and a vintage Gibson korina Explorer locked away in storage for $10k (yes, please, but…um, I better not). They had a cool signed by Nancy Sinatra Nancy & Lee LP that wasn’t for sale, and no shortage of bins to peruse though, but we were tired and decided to take our chances at the AirBnB.

The neighborhood we’re staying in is sketchy AF – the convenience stores don’t even sell white milk, just Froot Loop flavored (which I guess is a thing now) and chocolate. A fella can’t even get a pint of regular, white 2%. A mini bag of crunchy Cheetos and a small bottle of orange juice will have to do. We got into our AirBnB no problem and while it was a little concerning on the outside, it’s really nice inside. We’re in the lower-level apartment of a big, old house, and it’s a beautiful and in great shape – plaster walls, big rooms, beautiful hardwood floors, and a big, open sun room with a comfy futon that gives a half-panoramic view of the corner. There’s a big puffy leather couch that called my name so I played with my phone and dozed off for an hour or so.

Meanwhile, Mister Woody had surfaced and really wanted the RSD Wipers album so we looped back to The Record Archive on our way to our show in Fairport, which is on the opposite side of Rochester as our Airbnb. I was glad to do it. I like hunting for records for people, I like supporting the stores, I don’t love buying records online, and I think I go to more record stores in more cities than most people, so it’s fun. It was a quick detour off the highway, in and out, and back towards Fairport. They call Fairport “The best place to live in America” but when I asked about that from the stage, it seems not a universal opinion. I told the crowd I’d do my best to help facilitate that moniker.

The Tucos played the FairportBside with Patrick Patty Two Shoes back in 2018 I think. It was a Thursday, a bit crazy and strange, despite the fact that it’s a fairly clean, restaurant-ish type place. We loved the room and the staff and owner are super nice. We had a show booked in the spring of 2020 that didn’t happen, so we were glad to have the makeup date. It’s a square room with an attached room with a small bar. All high-top tables, very much geared towards watching music. This dude River Lynch was playing when we got there and we enjoyed his set. We chatted a bit after he wrapped up and agreed to stay in touch. I think we may cross paths again. They have a small but awesome menu at the Bside. Jake got the mac and cheese and I got the Green Eggs and Hamburger, which is an 8oz burger made of a chuck/brisket/short rib trio blend (I know right!?) with American cheese, smoky shoulder bacon, pesto cream sauce, and a sunny-side egg. It was cooked to an honest (and requested) medium rare and g-damn it was righteous. Best burger I’ve had in some time.

We started the show at 7:30 and followed the Buffalo format. Jacob played a few songs first and did a fine job, especially for a dude who hasn’t played a guitar in three months. I played a few after him, then we did and acoustic guitar and bass set. We had a great room of people with more or less every table occupied, and people were listening and engaged. Dan and Dawn from Ohio were in attendance again, and River Lynch was cool enough to stay and catch a good part of our set, which is something a lot of other people wouldn’t have done, so we really appreciated that. We took a short break and wrapped up at 10:30 as it was last call, and the crowd was thinning out. We chatted it up with a couple locals (Terry and Lori, I think? Reach out!), sold a little merch, loaded out, said goodbye to D&D, and headed west back to our sketchy neighborhood but nice inside AirBnB.

Once again, the convenience stores only had Froot Loops milk (wtf?) or chocolate, so I got some beef jerky and Acai-flavored Hi-Chews s and a tall boy double IPA for a nightcap. We paid an amazing $4.74.9 per gallon of gas, which seems silly to say, but $.55 less than I paid in Michigan last week. Back at the AirBnB I ate half of the half of my leftover burger, had a rocks glass of IPA, checked in on the internets, and crashed out pretty hard at 1am.

This morning the upstairs tenants got moving with a BOOM around 5am and this being an old house I could track their every move. I dozed on and off `till I emerged ftom the tomb at 8am. I had the option of a pot of coffee or Keurig, and I’d take the pot any day, but it looked like it’d been ridden hard and put away wet so I opted with the cleaner-appearing Kuerig. A quick call to TrooperGirl22, who’s quite upset that someone has taken it upon themselves to trim some of our sidewalk-facing shrubs much more aggressively than she would have, but at the same time elated to find a $6 bouquet of peonies at the Plymouth Farmer’s Market this morning, seems to be fine, if you’re concerned. Don’t tell her about the damage I did in the metal section of the Record Archive yesterday. I hope she likes Whitesnake and Michael Schenker, both of which will be cranked next week.

Today we’re off to Albany where we’ll play Paulys Hotel tonight – the oldest tavern in Albany. The Va Va Voodoos will be opening. Not sure if there’s a third band, but it’ll be a gas. Thanks again to The Fairport BSide for another super fun night! The two-man tour rolls on through upstate New York. Xx