Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Wednesday October 14, 2026 - Goshen, IN

Road Blog
October 14, 2026
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Goshen, Indiana

Troy got dropped off at my place at the ungodly anti-rock and roll hour of 7am. We were on the road by 10 after and scooped up JakeE Jacob in Ann Arbor and headed West. The sun came up as we merged onto I-94 then south towards Indiana. We took a page from The The Wild Honey Collective and picked a band to Explore their discography, and, also like WHC, picked Pink Floyd, as we are each familiar with the hits, but not the deep catalog. We put on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as we approached the Indiana line, read the tale-of-the-tape (personnel, dates, studios, other noteworthy facts) and dove in. Not a bad record. Not entirely original and maybe better suited for a late night hallucinogenic binge than an early-morning drive though Indiana, but it was cool. We got into Saucer Full of Secrets too, which brought David Gilmour into the band as Syd Barrett started to lose his shit, and we liked it better from a production standpoint, but lots of psychedelic filler noise and still, barely shades of what was to come.

We arrived at Sweetwater just before 10am and loaded in. Musicians and readers of these blogs know that Sweetwater is a massive compound outside of Fort Wayne that’s not only a massive music store (instruments, recording, DJing, used gear, on and on), but also has recording studios, a learning institute, a theater, a coffee shop, a cafeteria, a hair salon, a medical clinic, and more. Randy the sound engineer was already laying speaker cables and setting up monitors while we loaded in. We got coffee, even though we were probably sufficiently caffeinated, and had a rare and lengthy soundcheck. It’s a big room, but basically a lunch cafeteria in a giant space, so volume had to be controlled. I used half of my own guitar rig and half of the house rig, which saved me some backache, but cost me some tone.

We went on at noon to a better crowd than I had when I played there solo last year, and while they were spread out across the room, it was nice to have their attention and applause. We played ok, despite the early hour, restrained volume, and foreign setting, finished up, tore down, sold a little merch, talked to some folks, and got some lunch. It’s a weird gig for us, a far cry for our comfort-zone dive bar circuit, but it’s fun and got us on our way west with bellies full. JakeE got some bass strings, Troy got a snare drum head, and I got a tripod and memory card for my new video camera (left my old one in Canada 2 weeks back, another story…) and we were on our way west again.

Goshen is about an hour northwest of Fort Wayne, so we arrived mid-afternoon with an hour to spare before our night-show load-in. We hit the Ignition Music Garage record store where they had a The Holy Cows record and a Nils record, and I sent photos to interested friends Mike and Woody/Jason, but left empty-handed. I love record shopping but there’s little I need and even less real estate back home to put it. I left the boys at the record store and wandered over to a nearby vintage store that smelled like a Paris sewer on an August day, and saw a KISS belt buckle that caught my eye right away. I’ve been casually looking for a belt buckle, and this might just be the one. The kid behind the counter with his whitey-tighties sticking out of his ill-fitting vintage jeans he’d obviously snatched from the racks of his own store looked at me like I was an alien when I asked him how much it was so he called the owner out who barked “ONE HUNDRED” at me. “A hundred bucks?” I said in disbelief. “YES.” “Ok thanks see ya.” The fresh air on the sidewalk tasted good, but the whole experience was minorly traumatic. I gathered up the boys back at the record store and we headed over to the Venue.

The Goshen Brewing Company is another place I played last year. It sits on the edge of downtown next to a river at the bottom of a hill. It’s an old and repurposed public-service building with a couple rooms inside, a high ceiling, a nice patio with fire pits and an outdoor stage. But last night it was just on the other side of cold, so we played inside. It’s a small room, but Simon the sound engineer got us all dialed in in no time. It was great to see pals Erica and Daryl show up from Illinois, and my pal Russ who takes care of us there.

I was glad to have my own rig behind my last night. We played pretty good and had a great room of people. Crazy good for a Wednesday night, or any night really. We told some stories played some songs, took the piss out of each other when we messed up, and had a great time. Merch sales were solid, people were awesome, and their Korean-fried “Seoul Chicken” sandwich is seriously as good a sandwich as I’ve ever had. Worth the trip alone!

We wrapped up, loaded out, said our goodbyes, and continued heading west through small Indiana towns until we hit I-94, south of Chicago. We landed at our dive motel in Joliet, Illinois with sticky floors (Rule: Flip-Flops: NEVER on stage/ALWAYS in a nasty motel) and noisy neighbors around 11am (gained an hour too!) after 2 hours of driving, with me at the wheel, Troy shotgun, Jake in the back, and Black Sabbath Live Evil 2023 remix on the stereo. Chicagoland traffic was a little hairy, but not too bad. Before bed I did some band business and hygiene and crashed out around 1am.

It was a great kickoff for our 12-shows-in-11-days tour with two great sets. Indiana was kind to us. We have a long drive today to Lincoln Nebraska where we’ll play Bodega's Alley tonight. Big thanks and love to everyone at Sweetwater and Goshen Brewing Company for a great day! Xx