Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Saturday May 30, 2026 - Rockford, IL

Road Blog
May 30, 2026
Rockford, IL

We left our dive motel in Dubuque around 11am with Jacob JakeE at the wheel, Troy riding shotgun, and me in the back, wedged in between a kick drum and the door of the van. It was my first time in the back seat of the new van and it felt pretty comfortable, but a bit difficult to get into a good napping position. We worked our way back east, over the Mississippi River, through small towns and rolling hills, and into Machesney Park, Illinois, in search of Robin Zander Way, the fourth and final of the 4 Cheap Trick designated landmarks in the neighborhoods where they grew up, or so we thought. JakeE and Troy could hardly contain themselves on the count of the excitement of seeing a small street sign in some random midwestern suburb with one of the Cheap Trick guys’ picture on it, but I told them to just chill out and try to be cool and act like you been here before. Rookies.

When we pulled up, I thought to myself, well, this looks familiar. I scrolled through my photos and low and behold, last May when I played here on my solo-acoustic tour I was at this very intersection grabbing a selfie with Robin’s likeness. Goddamnit – it was Tom Petersson we needed, not Robin Zander! Sometimes my cup filleth over and I make these kinds of mistakes. Drives TrooperGirl22 bonkers when it happens in civilian life. Anyhow, the boys hadn’t been here before, turns out, so we grabbed a selfie and headed 20 minutes south into Rockford. See ya next time Tom!

First stop was Binny's Beverage Depot where I stocked up on party supplies for the summer. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say I contributed healthily to the local economy and that the added weight Had a negative impact on our gas mileage back to Michigan! Always a good stop for shopping, not so much for the wallet.

Next stop was Culture Shock Records where I got to get caught up with my pals Jared and Skyler (and Bean the puppy). Always great to get caught up with these guys and thumb through their record bins – well stocked and curated with many temptations. I left with an Allmann Brothers Band LP but regret not grabbing that Little Feat live album.

We grabbed a photo with Skyler and Bean and headed south to the (possibly, undocumented) oldest Beef-A-Roo in Operation. If you’re a reader of these blogs you know that Beef-A-Roo is a long-time tradition. The boys, again, brimming with unbridled anticipation like children on Christmas morning, had to be gently scolded to calm down or no cheese curds for them! Food was great, as always: double olive cheese burger + bacon, cheese curds, and a milkshake – half chocolate, half salted caramel. JakeE, while gulping down his avocado smash, saw that there’s now a Beef-A-Roo in Royal Oak, practically our back yard. I texted TG22 a pic of my burger with that juicy little nugget of news and she promptly responded with the Lou Gehrig / Carl Fulsher “Today (today today)… I consider myself (myself myself) the luckiest man on the face of the earth (earth earth)” speech (IYKYK) on the count of the good news.

We checked into our AirBB across town and enjoyed an hour or 2 of downtime. It’s a really cool old tri-plex that sits on a corner in a nice neighborhood. It also happens, by coincidence, to be owned by a local guy with some cool rock and roll history. Our apartment was upstairs, with plenty of space, a bed, futon, and nice big sectional, and a freezer well-stocked with ice. I called home and talked to TrooperGirl22 who was as excited about her peonies blooming as the boys were about seeing a Robin Zander street sign. She was heading out for a bike ride so we kept it short and “see ya tomorrow have a good show.”

Marys Place is a townie bar that sits on the Rock River. It’s kinda dark and there’s a fun bit of tension in the air with a very diverse and occasionally inebriated clientele. Everyone is friendly, of course, and a little tension in the air at a rock and roll show isn’t a bad thing. We checked out the river below, I photo-bombed a selfie with a nice Asian couple, and we loaded in. It’s a wide bar with the stage at the back corner. Cheap Tricks’ former drummer Bun E. Carlos does an occasional Monday-night residency here and I keep hoping he'll make an appearance at one of our shows sometime. Erica and Daryl showed up, all smiles and ready for round 2 of the rock show, and again, always nice to have friends in the room.

We went on around 9pm to a decent crowd that ebbed-and-flowed throughout our set from a bit sparse to respectably populated. We had some great sound and played ok, maybe not as good as Dubuque, but had a lot of fun. After us, locals Half Catholic went on and played a killer set of original indie pop-rock that fell somewhere between Weezer and Bouncing Souls (JakeE and I debating the influences). I spent some time talking to singer John, really good dude, and we commiserated about ongoing albums we’re working on, and comparing notes and talking shit about common pals The Stick Arounds back in Lansing. From the first time we played Rockford, Mary’s Place been trying to get us together with Half Catholic, and it finally worked out. Loved them and know we’ll be working together again. THANK YOU to them and to Mary’s Place and Jason, and everyone who came out for another great night in this awesome city.

As seems to happen more often than not, the night got away from us and before we knew it we were in the kitchen of the AirBB at 2am having a nightcap and recalling the events of the day. We crashed out shortly after 2, with a 9:30am departure agreement, a solid compromise between my desire to leave early and the boys’ desire to sleep in.

We hit McDonalds on the way to the highway, the boys got a glance at the giant Rick Nielsen checkerboard explorer in front of the Hard Rock Casino, and it was pedal-to-the-metal to Chicago, through the western suburbs, and into Indiana. Jake and I cranked some Dinosaur Jr. (Live in Hollywood), SUGAR (F.U.E.L) and Lee Bains + The Glory Fires while Troy slept like a baby in the back despite the jams. We hit the trifecta in Michigan City of a Love’s (the best of all truck stops), Taco John's (the second best of all fast food Mexican joints), and $3.49/gal gas. We dropped JakeE off at 4 in Ann Arbor and pulled into my place at 4:30. TG22 and I are gonna take a walk and get a bite so I don’t fall asleep on the couch, and I’ll reconvene with the boys later in the week. One more run this spring down through Indy and Marion, Illinois, but more about that later.

THANKS to everyone in Dayton, Dubuque, and Rockford – love you all! So great to be back out with the boys and seeing all our friends again. Be good to each other, see ya next time! Xx