Kevin's Birthday Week

Okay, picking up where I left off from last week’s entry.  I’m still in the van writing as we drive down the road.  I think it’s about 1am or so right now.  With writing this and then taking over the driving duties in a couple hours, I’ll probably see the sun come up in the morning.  Oh the joys of traveling for a living. 

After stopping by the Bergstok warehouse and playing our Sunday afternoon show, we had a much needed two days off.  Much needed for two reasons: we were all pretty exhausted from the previous week, and we had a big week coming up and needed to rest up for it.  We had two shows in Proctor, MN at the Powerhouse Bar for the town’s Hog Head Festival.  We played the Hog Head Festival a few years ago; we knew it was going to be a fun couple of shows.  Plus, Kevin was going to be celebrating a birthday while we were there.  Like I said, we needed to rest up. 

Let me start the discussion about this week with my least favorite part of the week.  I always say that this lifestyle is definitely not as glamorous as people perceive it to be, and this is about as much proof as I can offer.  We checked into the hotel on Wednesday for our two night stay, and when I opened the door there was only one bed.  I walked back to the office and let the desk attendant know that we needed a different room with 2 beds in it, at which point he nicely let me know that there were no other rooms available.  He did offer to bring me a cot though.  I immediately lost my cool, stormed out of the office, and told Josh we were stuck with that room and that he could have the bed.  I actually probably yelled it at him.  Sorry about that Josh.  I guess I didn’t have my big boy pants on at that moment.  I’m sure I came off like an immature asshole to both the desk clerk and Josh.  Well choosing to sleep on the cot was a bad idea.  Easily the worst night’s sleep I’ve had in ages.  It was so bad that the next night I decided to ditch the cot and just sleep on the floor.  This is just one of those things that really piss me off: we’ve been traveling for over five years now, and I’m in my thirties.  We are already away from home and the comforts of our own beds so much; I feel that each of us at least should get a bed to sleep on at night; not a couch, not a pull out, not a cot, but a bed – mattress, box springs, etc.  Being basically forced to sleep on a cot (and then the floor by choice) should not be part of it at this point.  If I was like 22 years old and we were all staying in one room to save money and didn’t give a crap, then it would be one thing.  But this just sucked.  I know, I’m complaining here.  Just let me vent for a moment and I’ll move on.  I took a photo of the cot so you could see that it is not all glitz and easy living out here on the road… ha. 

I guess that’s enough complaining for the time being.  I should move on to more entertaining stories from the road.  I’m sure you’re not reading this to listen to me gripe.  

As I was saying, we were scheduled for two nights in Proctor during the Hog Head Festival.  The first night there I met a couple that had a really cool story for me, which I’d like to share now.  They told me they had seen us play at the Spooner Rodeo the past few years, and that last year their daughter was with them at our show.  I can’t remember the daughter’s exact age, early twenties I think.  Anyway, their daughter was out there dancing and saw this guy and motioned for him to come over and dance with her; which of course he did.  Apparently they hit it off at our show that night and started talking, and pretty quickly started dating.  A year later they are still dating, and have moved out to Washington state (I think) because he is in the military (Army Ranger I believe, but I could be remembering that wrong).  I just think it is such a cute story: Two young people met and fell for each other at our show.  You know how I’m always saying how cool it is for me to hear about our music having some sort of effect on people’s lives – this is a great example of that.  And think about it, what if they end up getting married and grow old together? The story they will tell their children and grandchildren will involve us.  That’s a big deal for me; so cool.  Fifty years from now, if they’re together, will they remember the band they went to see that night?  I certainly hope so. 

The moral is this: come to our shows, meet the love of your life, get married and live happily ever after.  Uh, I guess that is just for the single people though.  This moral doesn’t apply to people who are already in relationships.  Not to say that only single people have something to gain from coming to an MDB show; we want you all there!!!

The next night was Kevin’s birthday.  You can’t let your boy have a show on his birthday and not expect to party with him.  So I did.  We might have gotten a little wild that night; at least Kevin and I; but I didn’t want him partying by himself on stage; it was the responsible thing to do, right?  We actually didn’t get that out of control or anything.   We weren’t missing lyrics or playing poorly (that I noticed), and the crowd seemed to really enjoy getting to be a part of the celebration as well.

I think maybe I’m more susceptible to the power of suggestion though when I’m drinking and partying (well, aren’t we all though).  I sometimes think things are a good idea that I normally wouldn’t.  Usually nothing criminally or morally wrong, just silly things: like putting on a head band and sun glasses at our show.  Why do I do stuff like this?  I’m pretty sure in my buzzed state I thought ‘hey this will get a reaction out of the people here tonight’.  But why do I need to get more of a reaction out of our crowd?  I already have them listening to our music and watching our show.  Do I really need more?  Well, apparently I do.  I guess I really am an attention whore sometimes.  So, since I did it, I might as well ask: is it a good look??? EMAIL me your thoughts.  Maybe I’ll pull it back out sometime.            

Well, at the end of that night the coolest thing happened for me.  The crowd was chanting for an encore, which was great (and appreciated), but then they started chanting for a specific song.  I’m not sure if that has happened to us before.  But the cool part was which song they were chanting for.  They wanted to hear “Friends Like These” off of our ‘Back In Town’ album.  I am positive no group has ever requested one of our songs for an encore before.  This may have become one of the coolest moments of my music career to date.  In a small bar in a small town in Minnesota, the crowd was chanting for my song at the end of the night.  I will admit that I got choked up a little.  Kevin and I just looked at each other with a look of surprise and maybe a little astonishment.  So Steve got up from behind the drums (since there are no drums on that song) and Kevin, Steve and I stood in front of everyone with just an acoustic guitar and sang the song.  And not only did they request it, they sang along.  I almost lost it.  At the end of each chorus, I’d sing “… I’m glad I get to be” and then stop singing and playing, and the crowd would finish the line “…with friends like these”.  It was very humbling and surreal.  I’d kill to have it on video.  This is the whole reason I do this: for people to like my lyrics and songs so much that they know all the words and want to hear them at our shows.  It was just the coolest way to end a night.  I couldn’t have been happier then I was at that moment.  For those people who were at the show that night and chanted for the song as the encore and sang along: thank you.  It meant so much to me. 

Our next show was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at a small casino.  Unfortunately, there were not a lot of people there that night.  There was nothing really out of the ordinary or interesting to report from this show or the trip there.  So I’ll just move on.  

The next night we were back in WI at the Pickle Fest in Boyceville, just north of Menomonie.  Again, with small town festivals like this we never really know what to expect going in.  Are people going to show up and stick around?  What will the stage set up be like?  Will there be enough power to run all our equipment?  We just never know how it’s all going to turn out until we get there and find out.  We were definitely pleasantly surprised though.  The stage set up was nice.  Plenty of room, big stage, under a tent, beer area set up properly.  And there was a great crowd there that night for the show. They were ready to party, got wild with us, and didn’t want to stop at the end of the night.  Those are the kind of shows and crowds I love; those are the easy nights.  We do our thing, everyone has fun.  As long as we put everything into our show, we know a crowd like that will respond; which in turn makes us want to put even more effort and energy into it.  We had a blast that night.  We could have played for two more hours and they would have stayed and partied with us the entire time.  I wish every night was that intense.  But I guess I wouldn’t appreciate those nights as much if I didn’t have the slower nights mixed in as well.    

 

Switching gears a little bit here:

I’ve heard the expression “don’t forget the little people when you guys get famous” more and more lately.  For some reason that saying bothers me.  I understand and appreciate the sentiment behind it, and am completely flattered that people think we are talented enough to reach our goals and therefore ‘become famous’.  But I just don’t see it as a ‘big people’ / ‘little people’ kind of thing.  I don’t know, I have just never viewed celebrities or rock stars as more important than anyone else; and hope I would never consider myself more important than anyone if I happened to become that successful musically.  Maybe I just see things from a different perspective because of the path we’ve taken with our career.  We’ve been up close and personal with our fan base; and I would hope we continue to be.  If we ever become successful on that scale, I feel that it will be because of those people who have supported us and our music throughout the journey.  How could you ever forget that (or those supporters)?  I hope I don’t.  If I ever get to a point where I feel like I’m better than anyone else (for any reason actually), I hope someone will slap some sense into me.  I was brought up better than that.  I hope we all were.  If we ever are able to meet our goals, get our music out there on a level that makes us famous, I will be sure to never ‘forget the little people’ who have supported us and rooted for us from these early days.  Well, now that I have that off my chest…

Note: I did not finish this entry in the van that night.  But I did see the sun come up.  I took over driving in Tomah, WI and drove to Chicago that morning.  I did end up seeing the sun start to come up somewhere between Rockford and Chicago. 

I guess it is about time to wrap this entry up.  I have a great song quote at the end by Corey Smith, and also want to mix things up a bit with a few other song quotes.  Let’s have a contest with it.  If you are the first person to correctly guess the artists for both of the last two song quotes, you will win a free ‘Michael D. Band T-shirt’ at the next show you attend (you’ll have to remind me at the show that you won though; I’m kind of forgetful).  So if you know the artists of the last two song quotes, post your answer in the comment section of this blog.  If you’re receiving this entry via email, you might have to go to our actual blog website to post a comment.  If so, the site is: http://michaeldband.blogspot.com/

Before the weekly song lyrics though, I want to remind you to check out all of our online tools to keep up with everything we have going on.  I just updated several things on our website, including updating our schedule, so go check it out to see when we’ll be at a venue close to you.    

www.themichaeldband.com

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Now for the Song Quotes.  I feel like this first one sums things up for me pretty well. 

“Times are a changing but I'm still the same ol' son of a bitch in the wind. I act like I did back when I was a kid but it hurts me more than it did back then.  I go out on the town and make a fool of myself, I run around with the same rowdy friends.  I get drunk and obnoxious and wake up the next day swearin' I'm never drinkin' again” … “Still got the same dirty mouth that I've had since my first cousin taught me to cuss. And I just quit my 9 to 5 occupation to play a whole bunch of songs I made up” – Corey Smith ‘Maybe Next Year’

And lastly: The ‘Guess the Artist’ Contest

These are from our youth; or at least my younger days.

The first person to correctly guess the artists who sang these lyrics will receive a free Michael D. Band T-shirt at the next show they attend.  To submit your guess, just post the answer in the comment section of our blog.  You have to get them both correct to win!

   

1. "Never trust a big butt and a smile"

2. "... rhythm is life, and life is rhythm"