Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday June 12, 2026 - Marion, IL

Road Blog
June 12, 2026
Marion, IL

Our day started with an awesome breakfast at the Lincoln Square Pancake House near downtown Indianapolis. Jacob JakeE is all about the breakfast destination, and he looked like a kid on Christmas morning when they placed his enormous veggie omelet with hollandaise sauce before him. It was a good notch above a greasy spoon, and we headed south with a thumbs-up to the kitchen and full bellies.

Next stop was Square Cat Vinyl where I had a little business to settle, in the cool Indy Fountain Park neighborhood. Friendly crew there, and a nice, clean, well-stocked inventory. I left with only a Whitesnake sticker, but on another day I could do some damage in there. Lots of great stuff.

Troy drove to Marion, Illinois, I was shotgun, and JakeE was in the back. We cranked the new Deer Tick album, which I think is their best in years, some Sparrowhawk, our new pals from Minneapolis, my #1 Nazareth album – No Mean City, and some Pixies. I also played Broken Fantasy, my favorite NP Presley album, and it's so fucking good. It made me more sad than happy to hear it, still missing my friend. We gassed up for a wonderful $3.09 a gallon at a Love’s in Indiana (Love’s is the greatest of all truck stops), and felt like we’d won a small victory when the price jumped about 30% once we crossed into Illinois.

The ride was mostly uneventful, except when a deer bounded across the expressway in front of us, Frogger-ing between cars and trucks flying around 80mph. I thought she was a goner, but she made it across all 6 lanes and into the woods on the other side. As we pulled into Marion, traffic came to a halt as we approached an overturned semi and a demolished little silver car – a Prius or something. Not sure if anyone survived in that car, but it didn’t look like it. On the positive side, it was nice to see Marion using the zipper merge after I pontificated it’s merits from the stage last time we played our song “Zipper Merge” there. Nice to see we’re making a difference!

Our first stop in Marion was at Byassee Music where I strummed a Taylor acoustic guitar model that I’ve had my eye on for a year or two now, Jake plucked at a mandolin, and Troy tried to buy a cymbal stand, which they were happy to sell him, but only attached to the rest of the kit, which he isn’t in the market for. Met a nice guy named Jeff who gave me the lowdown on the Taylor, and joked with an old-timer there about how I value my marriage more than that guitar at this particular moment, but if he wants to explain to TrooperGirl22 that I’m coming home with some new hardware, I’d consider the purchase. He laughed and we agreed it’s always easier to seek forgiveness than permission, but it wasn’t the day for a new axe.

We checked into our motel and it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to switch from heat to AC, but I eventually conquered, after a call to the front desk. I called TG22 and told her she can count herself lucky on the counta dodging the new-guitar bullet, and she wasn’t really impressed. No time for a very-needed nappy, it was out of the civvies and into show clothes, and down to the van for dinner.

JakeE picked this place 618 Tap House for food, which is your standard strip mall bar and grill. The servers all looked like supermodels, and the food was decent – better than most (ok, all) other meals we’ve had in Marion, though I was still campaigning for Taco John’s until the bitter end. My medium-rare burger was medium-well but otherwise pretty tasty after some mayo was added, and my Printer’s Ink dark ale shook the cobwebs and kicked the night off nicely.

We loaded in to John Brown’s On The Square and hugs and smiles for John and the birthday girl Missy. John is such a character and they’re both amazing people. Picture a Midwestern Tom Arnold, if he was a Cubs fan. He’s got a great rock and roll history in Chicago and endless stories about the shows he’s played and the shows he’s booked. It’s a great room that sits just off the town square, and is a favorite for locals of all varieties, ages, nationalities, and sorts-team allegiances (though the bar is unmistakably Cubs-centric). The stage is great and the sound is awesome. He’s none too happy about the Bears’ likely move to Indiana.

We played 2 sets between 8 and 11 and it went pretty well. The audience was a respectable size, thinning out near the end, but very engaged and responsive. I told a few stories, about the Pizza Girl who stood me up at the Ted Nugent Little Miss Dangerous Tour with special guests Honeymoon Suite, and the Christmas Dance girl who I had to cancel on when my grandpa died and I had to go downstate. The crowd seemed to enjoy the history and the back and forth, and I did a little rock star posing for some solos for the young couple sitting at the end of the bar video-recording a bunch of songs. As we finished, one girl came up and handed me a small, open bag of jalapeno potato chips. “Here, you should take these chips and eat them. I had some, but you can have the rest. You all look emaciated.” I thanked her profusely and teared up a little as that’s about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.

We sold some merch, had a nightcap, grabbed a photo with our hosts, loaded out, and headed back to the motel. JakeE was done, but Troy and I had a nightcap (canned margarita for him, motel whiskey for me) and I crashed out around 1:30am, exhausted. Huge thanks to John and Missy and their team for the amazing night. We feel very lucky to be part of the rotation here, and we don’t take it for granted. We can’t wait to come back!

After tossing and turning all night, I managed to squeak in my usual 5-6 hours and got up around 7am. JakeE has made it clear that we’ll be doing Bojangles for breakfast, and he’s the boss, so Bojangle’s it is. I tried to tighten up my jammie bottoms for a quick trip to the motel breakfast buffet for some coffee and the tie snapped so I had to throw on some shorts. I was starving and had 3 hours to kill before the lobby call, so I grabbed a wet little sausage patty, a stale mini-muffin, and a cup of close-to-expired yogurt (what’s the worst that could happen?) and headed back to my room at the other end of the motel. As I was fumbling for my key card it all hit the ground (except the coffee) so I let out a pretty loud cuss word and threw it all away, on the counta this ain’t the kinda joint where you drop a wet sausage patty on the carpet then eat it.

After a shower and some internet catching-up, mostly about Nate and with the people who were in his life, it’s down to the van for the long drive to Maumee today. It’s gonna be a marathon, 7+ hours in the van (+ lose an hour), a 4-hour set at the village idiot maumee tonight, then driving home, then an early load-in at The Magic Bag in Ferndale tomorrow where we’re opening for The Avengers. We’ll see ya at The Idiot tonight, where they have the BEST pizza and a wonderful staff – two of our fav rooms on back to back nights. It’s exhausting, but it’s great to be out here at it. Xx