Day 13 – A Day with the Bros in FoCo

It’s a weird feeling knowing everything you have is in a bag.  In my case, two bags because I overdo everything.  I count my things all of the time in fear I’m going to lose something and losing something small like a phone charger can be life changing.  I consider asking Ed to install a pay phone and a roll of dimes into the sled just in case.  Nah.  Not enough time, we have to get to Fort Collins for our first show back in our home state. I do my morning count of my belongings and load up into the trailer.  Damn I’m fast.  I’m like rain-man-counting-toothpicks fast.

On our way to Fort Collins, we stop for gas in Chugwater, WY.  I think it’s Wyoming still.  Shit, it could be Utah for all I know.  When we started this trip we would all point it out when we crossed state lines, but that died about 5 states ago.  Chugwater is a small town, famous for their chili.  It even has free samples in their gas station.  They also sell mini branding irons that you can heat up with a lighter.  Mike is wise beyond his years to pass on making this purchase.  The last thing I need is to pass out drunk and wake up with the letter L on my face. 

Tragedy strikes when we lose a member of our crew forever outside of Chugwater.  I call her Carla (Inside joke from Medford). Carla is the power converter that allows us to plug things in like phone chargers, laptops and anything else requiring power.  When it goes down, we all go down.  Ed’s GPS, phone, hotspot and my spirits.  All down.  Thankfully Mike has an old atlas on standby.  He calls out the turn by turn to Ed in his best GPS navigator voice and we make into Fort Collins early.  Our first point of business is getting to Walmart for a new converter.  Simple as that sounds, with no navigator or internet in an unfamiliar place, it’s not so easy.  To this day (which is just the next day) I’m not sure how we found one.  Sometimes the Ed-Sled just comes through.  We’ve been in a handful of Walmarts on this tour.  Weird how their all the same.  Weird how someone is always killing it in the bathrooms there.  They must have comfortable seats or something.  We get the new converter and head to the parking lot.  The last two weeks have turned us into a pack of animals.  I didn’t realize that until Mike and Ed devoured a whole chicken in the parking lot of the Walmart.  No tools, no sauce.  Poor bird never saw it coming. 

We get to Hodi’s to sound check.  Cool place that I haven’t been to in years.  Fort Collins is a really cool college town and I’m just saying that because I went to college here.  It is cool though.  A lot of bands we love came from this town and it is an honor to be here.  No hotel for us tonight.  We’re driving home afterwards to save money.  There’s a live stream of the show tonight as well so we need to play well and I need to do those long overdue pushups.  The first band Pterrorrdaktyl kills it and then we’re up.  We have a couple of technical difficulties at the beginning but we pull through.  Even when things aren’t perfect, we’ve become a tight enough band to pull through when we need to.  The crowd is in to it.  We all move around stage quite a bit so it’s always a gamble with cords.  Tonight is no exception.  Mike and I are tangled up from the get go and never quite untangle.  Assessing the knot tying damage post show I realize if we ever fail as a band, I think we have a bright future in the boy scouts.  We meet a stout young fellow post show who offers up a view of his tattoo for a t-shirt and says we won’t be disappointed.  This is the first time this has happened.  I thought the band handbook clearly stated only beautiful women would make this offer, but when in Rome…

Yeah ok it was worth it.  In lieu of “thug life” across his stomach, it said “Delicious” in gummy worm font.  Nice guy.  Funny tattoo.  Thanks for the laughs, and thank you to Kira and the Local MC for streaming the show.  We got emails and texts from multiple states after the show that loved the stream.  Congrats to Brandon and the rest of the dudes in Teenage Bottle Rocket…great talking to you. It took us forever to load up after the show and I learned a lot from behind the building at Hodi’s.  First, there are a lot of cops doing cop things in Fort Collins.  Second, college kids love to piss in alleys and parking garages.  It’s like a frat house wiener convention out there and I’m wishing I brought some galoshes…