Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday September 19, 2025 - Louisville, KY

Road Blog
Louisville, Kentucky
September 19, 2025

The feeling that comes with staring down a drive on a sunny day, the morning after a good show (or a bad show), is something I always enjoy. It’s the familiar and comforting beginning of the drive-hotel-show-sleep cycle that repeats itself daily and becomes routine after a night or two out. Brush off last night’s gig and let’s do it again. Sometimes there are factors that make it less enjoyable – inclement weather, lack of sleep, gear issues, hangovers… but none of those were factors yesterday as I set the cruise for 78mph, cranked Aerosmith’s Draw the Line album, and hit the blacktop. I left Columbus, Ohio around 10:45am and headed southwest toward Cincinnati.

The drive was, again, largely uneventful. I got an AirBB in Columbus, Indiana because there wasn’t a hotel room or AirBB within an hour of Louisville that wasn’t sold out or at least $450. I’d have a longer-than-preferred commute to and from the gig, but I’d be significantly closer to my show in Indianapolis on Saturday, making for an easy travel day today, and hopefully a little time for record shopping. I skirted the northern suburbs of Cincy, passed into Indiana, stopped for gas and a much-needed windshield cleaning, and pulled into Columbus, Indiana around 1:45pm. Not sure I’ve ever been here, excepting a fleeting glance through a van window from the interstate to the east, but it seems like an ok little town in central Indiana.

My AirBB is an apartment above a garage that’s laid out like a nice hotel room with a full-size kitchen and gigantic TV. It’s really clean and easy in-and-out, but they have these plug-in air fresheners that make me nauseous and want to puke, so I quickly mitigated that situation. I put on the news, immediately changed the channel to some less-terrible but still terrible sitcom, fired up the laptop, played with my phone, and shook the dust off of the short drive for a couple hours before I had to start heading into the city.

One of my AirBB hacks is to always make sure there’s ice in the freezer when you get back to the room after the gig. When you’re the designated or only driver, ya better make some before you leave or you’ll be drinking your nightcap neat at 1am. The ice maker isn’t operational and there are no ice trays, so I was forced to improvise. I disassembled the measuring cup set that was attached at the handles by a ring, and filled them up to make ice-bricks of various sizes. The struggle is real, friends. Take these lessons and don’t make the same mistakes I have.

I drove to Louisville, about an hour fifteen due-south, then through the city to the south side to do a little shopping at Liquor Barn. I passed the Expo Center and there were cars parked for as far as the eye could see. What the hell is going on? I wondered, thinking Comicon or something, then I saw the giant, LED billboard: Louder Than Life festival with Slayer is in town. Holy smokes that was a lot of people, and also explains the lack of motel rooms available to under-appreciated traveling singer/songwriters playing in the corners of patios in front of dive bars. Anyhow, I stocked up a bit at Liquor Barn, but didn’t go too crazy, and headed back north towards the venue.

The Highlands Tap Room sits on busy Bardstown Road in Louisville. There are 2 buildings, each sort of house-like, but with bars and pool tables and high-tops. I played the bigger room in 2014 when the band toured with Those Crosstown Rivals, then we played the smaller room in 2023 when we came through on a run, and last night I was on the patio. That’s a bit of a double-edged sword because on one hand it was a beautiful night and there were people hanging out there, but on the other side it’s a busy street and an aging punk rocker with an acoustic guitar is no match for 14 dudes on overpriced crotch rockets flexing their lack of manhood size by revving their engines, doing wheelies, and flying up and down the street as if my audience already knows the words to these songs or something. Still, it was a nice setting – I got set up, scarfed down a burger and an IPA, and started playing at 7PM.

The crowd was thin, some opting to distance themselves from the music as soon as I started. Nothing like the morale boost that comes with watching the rolling eyes, pick-up-your-beers, and move further away from the music to boost a fella’s confidence. Others, however, do the opposite and get closer, looking forward to listening. My pal Brad and his wife Angela came out and said hello. He plays in Low-Grade Mortals, who The Tucos have played with in Lexington, and lives between Lexington and Louisville so made the trek in for the show. Great guy who loves taking music and has some cool history. Then shortly after, my ol’ pal Tab and his wife Sandy came in and grabbed a seat. I haven’t seen them in many years and it was a real surprise. I was grateful to have some familiar faces there, and while it wasn’t an audience of substantial size, there were enough people watching for it to be fun. I played ok, vamped a bit when the traffic got loud, and made it through three hours.

The jack-o-lantern tip bucket was a bit lonely and light last night. Early on two cute punk rock girls looking like a million bucks in their ripped-up jeans and black camis were walking up Bardstown Road on their way to something more exciting. From the corner of my eye I saw one of them tell her friend to wait, ran from the sidewalk onto the patio and over to me and my merch table, threw a couple bucks in the jack-o-lantern, gave me smile and a nod, and went on her way. A random act of unnecessary and unexpected kindness at a moment when I needed it - that seriously made my night. Thanks doll!

I wrapped up at 10pm sharp, sold a little merch to a guy who enjoyed the show (thanks Mike P!), said my goodbyes to Tab, Sandy, Brad, and Angela, packed up, and loaded out with he help of the giant security guard who insisted. I offered him a job as a roadie, promising piles of drugs, parades of hookers, and pretty much no cash, and he seemed to be legitimately pondering the offer for a minute. He said he’d think about it and to check back in a bit. I grabbed my envelope from behind the bar and headed back over the Ohio River into Indiana.

I called TrooperGirl22, as I like to do when I’m looking to break up a late-night drive, and she did her best to hang with me for a while before she faded out. She’s keeping the house standing, despite some serious cantankerousness around the lack of snacks in our cupboards. She finished off the TV-set junk-food loot (that Woody gave me in Canada a couple weeks back) and wasn’t able to forage much beyond that. I told her I’d share my leftover pulled-pork spring rolls with her if I could, but she may have to do some grocery shopping and here’s the 18 things I need too and I’m not sure she was having it, but I think she’ll survive the famine.

Back at the AirBB I had a wonderful ¼ cup ice-block waiting for my nightcap and I flipped through a Little House rerun (not a huge fan of the Mr. Edwards era), then Rio Bravo, and ended up on the great 1970 Spaghetti Western Shango and did a little business work before crashing out hard around 1:30am. Big thanks to Kristin and everyone at the Highlands Taproom, and my friends for coming out, and especially to the cute punk girl who smiled at me and put a couple bucks in jack-o-lantern tip bucket.

Tonight I’ll wrap this run up in Indianapolis at Centerpoint Brewing. It’s my first solo-acoustic show in Indy and my first at this venue. I’m on 6:30-9:30 and would love to see ya there. Good luck against Nebraska today, Wolverines. xx