Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Wednesday October 01, 2025 - Sioux Falls, SD

Road Blog
October 1, 2025
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I flew out of DTW Detroit Metro Airport on Tuesday afternoon into beautiful, sunny skies. Traveling with a valuable instrument is always stressful, but I have to say that every time I’ve done it so far, and that’s not many, Delta Air has been awesome. I know others haven’t had that same experience, but I’ve been lucky and have no complaints. After landing in MSP Minneapolis, waiting 20 minutes to get my readers that I left in my seat pocket, then another half hour in the rental car line, I was heading southwest towards South Dakota. Traffic was light or non-existent on I-35S and I90-W as I flew past endless corn fields and farms.

First stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was at Booze Boys Liquor for a little motel whiskey (a must for a non-beer drinker playing mostly breweries and beer-only Bars). The nice lady asked me if I’d ever been told that I look like Billie Joe from Green Day, which I have a time or two, and I invited her to the show. She has a friend who’s a musician and the night off, so she said she’d try to make it (she did not).

Next stop was Taco John's, the A-list destination on any travel itinerary through the Midwest. If you’ve read these blogs you know I have an unnatural attraction to this place. I can’t defend it, but I maintain that it’s the best bean burrito on the market, if nothing else. On a whim I tried the Chicken Fiesta taco and take it from me – it’s awesome. I’m not gonna lie, their nachos are shit and their normal tacos are serviceable at best, but that Chicken Fiesta is righteous and with a TJ’s bean burrito next to it, you got yourself a fine, affordable meal.

I had a bit of a debacle getting into the hotel I had booked so I ended up at another one that will basically wipe any profit margin I may have had for this run off the books, but it’s a nice room and a free breakfast and a working ice machine, so I’ll roll with it. They have the Outlaw Channel, so I was treated to back-to-back-to-back episodes of Kung Fu yesterday morning, including the Sondra Locke episode. If you thought she wasn’t a great actor when she played Lynn Halsey-Taylor, just watch that episode of Kung Fu and see her refining her craft at a young age. Yikes. Meryll Streep she ain’t (or wasn’t, RIP), but Kung Fu was a great show and she’s been in some of my fav Clint movies

On Tuesday night I checked out the venue for the Wednesday show and met up with my pal Scott for a couple beers. Scott does The Ledge podcast and has been very supportive of my music from the earliest days of The Tucos. It was great to finally meet in person, and we had no shortage of things to talk about – The Replacements, Lydia Loveless, The Sioux Falls scene and history, on and on. He’s a great guy and we have a lot in common. I hung out with a blue heron fishing for some dinner in the Big Sioux River for a minute then crashed out after a long day.

On Wednesday I hung around the room most of the day, doing some work-work, some music-machine work, and watching Kung Fu and the Detroit Tigers lose. I did a lap around the downtown, stopped in at Crosstown Vinyl and grabbed a flatbread meat lover’s pizza (no pepperoni, double sausage) and a pale ale at Remedy Brewing before heading back to the room to get ready for the show.

Full Circle Book Co-op is a bookstore, bar, and music venue. The bookstore and bar are on the left side and the performance space is on the right is a separate, but open room. The (not really a) stage is against the front window and there’s low-tops and high-tops on each side. It’s cozy, maybe 40 people cap tops, but a great listening room, and perfect for a Wednesday night in a new city.

Trish Darell went on a little after 7 and played a great set. Her songs were awesome - dark and angry, and mostly in minor keys, but her real strength is her singing – great, passionate, dynamic vocals that were the best of the night. She also has great hair and a great smile and was super nice. Tony DePaolo went on after Trish and played a fantastic set that reminded me of my pal Matt Charette from Boston. Great guitar parts and vocal lines with a cool punk edge. Like Trish, he’s a great person and we had lots to talk about. I went on 3rd to a decent enough room of people and just winged the setlist on the fly. Tony had a song about a cat so I did my song “Josh,” about a cat, that always goes over well. The audience was engaged and responsive and while it wasn’t a huge turnout, I had no complaints.

As I was finishing up there was a ruckus in the bar room were some dickhead had to be 86d for something and it took some work to get him out. I wasn’t completely clear but the bartender (who’s name I never got, but she was awesome) had some help and eventually got him out. I sold a decent amount of merch and took a few pics, loaded out, and headed back to the motel for a nightcap and a dip in the jacuzzi before bed.

Big thanks to Scott, Tony, Trish, and everyone at Full Circle for a fun night to kickoff this run! I am off to Bismark now, staring down a 6-hour drive to my first ever show in North Dakota. I predict lots of farms and not much else, but we’ll see. See ya tonight at Laughing Sun Brewing for a couple sets between 7-9PM!