Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Sunday May 17, 2026 - Syracuse, NY

Road Blog
May 17, 2026
Syracuse, NY

We were up and at `em at a fairly reasonable 10:30am on Sunday, given the late-night insanity that ensued at The Ontario House aka "Stone Jug" Saturday night. Spirits were high from the great night as the boys drank coffee on the porch of the old inn, overlooking the mouth of the Niagara River flowing into Lake Ontario. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, and we were ready to take it on. We had breakfast at the Youngstown Village Diner and it was awesome; ham, Cheese & egg sandwich (minus egg), with home fries and sausage gravy. Back at the Ontario House we loaded our luggage and guitars out, and got to meet Dave Thurman, who we’d been hearing about from the people we’d met in Niagara Falls and Buffalo all weekend. He was loading in for a couple sets that afternoon and had gotten wind of us as well, so we agreed to keep in touch and connect in the future on some shows.

We opted for the coastline drive rather than the interstate, as it was a lovely day and we weren’t in a real hurry. Jacob Riley put on Sheryl Crow (don’t @ us, we have a pop side too) and we headed east. It was a really nice drive along the southern coast of Lake Ontario for a while, before a detour diverted us south through farms ripe with the opaque smell of pungent manure and small villages gearing up for the summer with shirtless, overweight men on their riding mowers and banners of their fallen veterans on their streetlight posts. It was a little slice of America, with sightings that included a peacock, a confederate flag at full mast, and multiple roadkill coyotes.

We stopped for a bio-break and some snacks a little gas station/party store called Byrne Dairy in Baldwinsville where a pimply-faced fella who must have been about 16 years old was doing his best to please his manager, making sure each soft-serve ice cream cone was properly layered and pointed, only to get scolded and growled at with every twist. We felt bad for the fella, just going his best to get by, his first job, actually trying to be constructive rather than playing video games with his friends all day. Jake’s ice cream cone was a sorry-ass, flat and skewed mess, but he smiled and told the kid it looked awesome anyway, and we wished him well in his new career with a wink and a smirk in the direction of his dickhead manager as we drove off.

First stop in Syracuse was The Sound Garden Syracuse, a place Jake and I stopped last time we played here. It’s a cool, well stocked shop, but we were about record-stored-out and left empty handed. We checked into our motel and got some good chill time for a couple hours for a couple hours as the excitement of the last day finally started to catch up.

Jake picked a nearby Mexican joint called Margaritas Mexican Cantina for dinner, and we figured it’d be nice and fast, being Sunday night and all, but turns out there was a big rock concert – Joe Satriani and Steve Vai – and a comedian show – Nate Bargatze – all within a block of our hotel and venue. Troy boasted with determination that he was NOT getting a margarita with dinner and exactly 17 seconds later he was ordering a margarita with dinner. Jake got a Pina Colada and I stayed with water. My bandera burrito was easily the most behemoth burrito ever placed before me, and I wasn’t even that hungry, the egg-cheese-ham sandwich minus egg from Youngstown still holding its own in my guts. I ate about a quarter of it and took the rest to go.

We loaded in to Al's Wine & Whiskey Lounge and geared up for our set. On my way back from parking the van I met a little baby bunny that was a bit apprehensive about being friends but let me take a couple pics before he hopped back into the bushes.

Al’s a long, dark bar right downtown that has a wall of whiskey as impressive as I’ve ever seen. We had a hard-start time of 9pm and were set up and ready to go with 7 minutes to spare. It’s a smaller place, so we had to temper our volume a bit, but we locked in and played pretty well. The crowd fluctuated but was always at least decent, with plenty engaged and hootin’ and hollerin’ and others hanging and drinking with friends, lookin’ for some action, or playing with their phones.

We wrapped up at midnight, sold some merch to a nice girl from Cleveland named Erin who was talking Syracuse to Detroit logistics with me. You were right, E, we’ll save lots of time going through Canada. Good thing we found and passed along that joint to someone the other night who will appreciate it rather than some over-zealous customs agent who would throw us in a dungeon for the next 2 years. Anyhow, Al's was a gas, the staff was awesome, their whiskey selection was second to none. Big thanks for having us!

Back at the motel we had a nightcap and the boys finished off the pizza that had been cooking in the van for the previous 24 hours and watched some South Park. I crashed out at a reasonable 1:30am, relatively clear headed, and exhausted.

This morning we met in the lobby for some powdered eggs from a bag (no eggs for me), boiled ham discs, bagels, OJ and coffee. We recognized some people from the bar last night, probably in town for the Satch/Vai show, and they could’a gotten out of the way of the bagel toaster a little quicker, but all good.

The drive home was largely uneventful except for the sighting of two bald eagles a couple hours apart. In Tucos’ tour lore that’s an omen of good fortune and it paid off again as customs in and out of Canada was a breeze. The lady in Niagara Falls asked me if we were bringing home the millions of dollars we made and I fumbled with my retort for a minute before admitting I had nothing clever to say. She laughed and sent us into Ontario.

We hit a pretty good downpour on our way to Troy’s house, but it let up in time to unload some gear, then Jake and I hit a massive thunderstorm and gridlock traffic jam 8 miles from my house that took 40 minutes to get through. 7 ½ hours to go 400 miles and over 40 minutes to go 8. FML. Well, we made it, and it’s now time for a night off and hang time with the wives and maybe even some hockey. As difficult as it was to compete against the Sabres/Habs series when we were in Western New York, and the fact that the Habs are my #2 team…. I’m kinda pulling for the Sabres tonight on the count’a all my new and old friends in WNY and the great time we had with all these wonder people (sorry MTL fans, I love you and the Habs too). THANKS to everyone at each show – it was a fantastic run and we’ll be back next summer!

Tune in again in 10 days for Dayton, Dubuque, and Rockford! Xx