Day 4 - Cleveland Agora

After the longest day of our professional music career, we all had our longest night of sleep yet and woke up in the quiet little town of Bellefonte, outside of State College, PA.  Before we could even sit down to breakfast with the Zimmerman's we were already receiving calls from the venue in Cleveland.  Problems with sound, problems with costs ... the list went on and on.  Nothing like last minute problems on the day of the show.  But given how well the tour had gone so far, we were determined to have a great final day.

On a crisp clear day in Western PA, Benny was outside making phone calls and he snapped a great shot of the bucolic scene in front of us as we ate breakfast.  Needless to say it was a great place for us all to get some shut eye and we are so grateful to the Zimmerman's for hosting us and our giant tour bus.  After we consumed enough food for a family of 20, and most of the venue issues had seemingly been handled, we all took our first "real" showers in a while ... just ... don't ask.

We hopped back on the road for a relatively short drive to Cleveland.  We were extremely excited for this show as the Agora in Cleveland is one of the most famous venues in all of the United States.  The Beatles, Elvis, ZZ Top, Springsteen, The Ramones and many many others have graced the Agora's stage and we were very excited to be playing such an established venue.  Just before we pulled into the Cleveland city limits we encountered the storm to end all storms, with heavy winds, rain and pitch black clouds overhead ... but we still refused to let it dampen our hopes for the show.

The next three hours included, load-in in the rain, meeting Shannon Finch (who brought sweet snacks), one band getting arrested before their set, a broken bass amp, and a host of other "fun" items.

 But, reason #41,000 that this band rules ... it did not matter.  Regardless of how long the trip had been, how many hours of sleep we had all lost, the weather, broken gear, the pungent smell of dude on the bus, it all did not matter.  We all agreed that the Cleveland show was maybe the best show we had ever had.  For those of you that were there, thank you so much for the support.  I am continually impressed by how this band comes through even when things seem down.  


We have a new saying inside the band ... "Tokyodome."  The idea is that no matter what happens, no matter where we are playing or who we are playing to, we play like it is the biggest show of our lives.  It all came together in Cleveland and to all the boys in the band I must say thank you.

Some 2,500 miles later, six performances, tons of meetings, 45 driving hours and many many mugs of tea later ... we are still alive and ready for more.

Until the next time we are on the road ...

VB