Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday May 08, 2025 - Rochester, MN

Road Blog
May 8, 2025
Rochester, Minnesota

I left my motel in Matteson, Illinois at 10 am headed northwest through the western suburbs of Chicago towards Rockford. As I drove through Rockford, I got my first glance of the giant checkerboard Explorer guitar outside the new Hard Rock casino there, celebrating Cheap Trick. I’m playing there tomorrow (in Rockford, but at Marys Place, not the Hard Rock) and hope to check out the Cheap Trick exhibit inside. I crossed into Wisconsin and worked my way west to La Crosse where I crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota.

I was dealing with a digestive event to I stopped at the welcome center/rest area where a nice lady behind the desk and I got to chatting. Well, she did most of the chatting. She seemed very concerned that my tour doesn’t have any nights off and what does my wife think of this? She refused to let me leave without a Minnesota state map, a Rochester tour book, a couple stickers, and some wild rice recipes for my wife. She was a bit torn up, however, staying “Oh gosh, I wish we had something more for your wife.” I assured her TrooperGirl22 will be elated with the wild rice recipes and resumed my drive. That part of Minnesota is really beautiful, driving along the Mississippi for a few miles through bluff country (as they apparently call it) before turning inland.

I’m staying at BnB in Chatfield, Minnesota, and it’s basically a giant, 1897 mansion that I pretty much have the run of. It’s full of antique furniture and decorations. My room is on the second floor and overlooks the street. It’s an awesome setting. I chatted with the host, Ruth Ann, for a few minutes, explored the house, and chilled out for a couple hours before heading into Rochester.

After an 18 mile drive, complete with a construction-major-road-closed turn-around, I pulled into Boxcar Hippie, a Cheech and Chong themed burrito joint. I didn’t know it was Cheech and Chong themed, but there I was. Service and food were amazing! The burrito was the size of a small loaf of bread and the spicy guacamole was aces. From there it was over to Kathy’s Pub for the show.

Kathy's Pub is a long bar with a stage at the back and a bar in the middle for about the first half of the building. The Tucos have played here a few times and it’s always a strange gig. Sort of the definition of a dive bar, in all the best ways – complete with some local tension and plenty of drinking. Watching the Hurricanes/Capitols game was my pal Burk, who I haven’t seen in nearly 5 years, so we spent some time getting caught up between load-in and pre-gig responsibilities. Greg the sound guy got me dialed in, and at 10pm I was on.

My first set went fairly uneventfully. The crowd was thin when I started but filled out as the set went on. My second set started around 11:45 and there was a pretty respectable crowd at this point. This was the Kathy’s Pub I remembered. Local sharks were playing pool, guys were chasing girls, and every so often someone would stumble by the stage, not sure exactly what they were doing. One dude stood awkwardly next to merch and swayed back and forth on his long, skinny legs as if he was about to pass out or puke. This went on for about 2 songs. I was watching him like a hawk. “Please don’t puke on my merch skinny leg dude” I said to myself as I played. He didn’t, but it wouldn’t be his last appearance of the night.

I was playing my song “I Lost My Wallet in West Virginia” when a large guy from the billiards table came over, stood 18” in front of me, and started telling me something, like, mid-song, while I was playing. He wasn’t giving up, so I stopped the song, explained to him that I was working, and sorry to interrupt him, but, ya know. And he said in a thick African accent “Play that song…. ‘take me home, country road” and I explained that I don’t know that song I and play my own songs and besides, he wasn’t throwing any Jacksons in the jack-o-lantern tip bucket was he, so… what the hell, I’ll give it a shot. After my Wallet song, I fumbled with the chords. It has to be in G right? So I started strumming the verse and that sounded more or less right, so I started singing, and wouldn’t ya know the ENTIRE bar started singing along, and that would prove to be the most engagement I got all night by a longshot.

My third and final set started at 12:45am and the air was thick with tension and alcohol. I kept the third setlist mostly quieter, sadder, late-night kind of stuff, thinking that would be the vibe. Two fellas at the pool table got into a fairly heated squabble about something related to the game, or who was up next, or something – I’m not exactly sure. It escalated quickly and they almost took it outside, but cooler heads prevailed and things quieted down eventually.

I wrapped up at 1:45am and packed up my gear. Two Rochester squad cars were outside and the police were standing in the doorway to the record store a couple doors down. They were talking to….? Yup, skinny legs “please don’t puke on my merch” guy, who looked even worse now; a shade of purple-green that was new to me, and the pungent aroma in the air indicated that my merch was possibly spared a shower for some unfortunate business owner’s doorway. I pulled my truck around and parallel parked between the two cop cars and loaded out, telling the cops about my run in with puke guy earlier. They got a good laugh, teased me about my jack-o-lantern tip jar that I bought in Portland, Oregon for $2.87 and has paid for itself 100x over, and said he was heading home and should be ok.

I made it back to the mansion around 2:45am pretty beat, heated up a slice of my leftover burrito, did some business work, and crashed out pretty hard just shy of 4am. This morning it’s bloggin’ and breakfast, then heading east towards Wausau, Wisconsin, where I’m playing Nevermore on Third tonight with CASHED and Elk Startled By Thunder.

Thanks to Kathy’s Pub for always being an adventure and part of what this dive-bar circuit I play is all about. I like nights like these. Hope to come back and do it again some day soon! xx