Mitchell, SD

Mitchell, South Dakota never disappoints. We rolled into town yesterday and knew exactly what to expect. We got a room at our favorite trashy motel (the Siesta). We asked for the corner unit with all the extra beds. They had it ready for us.

The motel staff remembered us from previous tours and welcomed us back. I was a little surprised since a traveling band is not usually the best sort of guest. Never the less, they had our room ready and were glad to see us.

My friend Austin booked the Mitchell show for us after the Moonlight was shut down for liquor violations. They canceled our event just a week before we left on tour. I was really concerned, because the Moonlight is our spot. Austin said not to worry. He would handle it. And boy did he come through for us. Austin and his buddy Aaron coordinated the whole thing on short notice. They found us a new venue and they got us our guarantee. They even came through with press in the local paper and radio play.

So when we got to Signatures, we already knew we would have the support of the town, but we didn’t know much about the venue. Well I’ll tell you now it’s safe to file this one under the category of “happy accident”. Signatures RULES! Here is a pic of me and the owner of the club.

We got to the club/restaurant and Aaron was waiting to greet us. The Rodeo is always looking for a price break on food, so I asked if there were any food discounts for bands. Aaron replied, “Do you guys like rib eye steak?” Do we like steak? Does a cow like to chew its cud? Hell yes! Next thing I know Aaron is ordering up steaks for everyone in the band and throwing it on his tab. Now that is a serious welcome for hungry cowboys. The evening could not have started any better. And them were some damn good steaks too!

By the time we had eaten our food the bar was already filling up. It was becoming clear that this was the big Saturday night event in Mitchell, SD. We’ve always had a lot of support in Mitchell, but people were filing in and I wasn’t recognizing any faces. Looked like the word was out and we would be welcoming a whole new crowd to the Church of the Rodeo. We had a couple of hours before show time, so we decided to run back to our room and relax a bit. In this type of situation, hanging around would only mean a lot of free drinks from friends and patrons. I knew how things would end up and it was way too early to go down that path.

And besides, our oasis at the Siesta was waiting. We needed to make sure we got our full $48 worth and enjoy our little home away from home. We crashed out in our big room and watched Jeremiah Johnson on AMC for the next hour. This was one of the few moments from this month long tour when we actually had a chance to stop and relax. Perfect.

And as expected, the party was on when we returned to Signatures. The opening band “Rubber Gloves” were already into their set, so we made the rounds and caught up with some familiar faces. I even got to meet my good friend Quentin's dad.

All of the drinks were on the house for us. As I talked to regulars, I discovered that this place doesn’t normally host events of this type. Austin and Aaron had brought in a P.A. and our stage was an area on the floor in the corner of the bar. There was even a small light system set up especially for this show. This was going to be rad.

The bar was packed. We could hardly walk through the room without stopping to talk to new fans or old friends. Everyone was getting their drink on and anxiously awaiting our set. It wasn’t long before Rubber Gloves wrapped up, and we were loading our gear onto the imaginary stage.

Here is a little taste of our set.

When we play Mitchell, we always play multiple sets. Because this is our home turf, we play as long as people want to drink. In Mitchell, people want to drink as long as the bar will let them drink. We went on at 11pm knowing that we would be playing music until last call. Here is and example of some crowd response between sets.

They even continue singing the “Rodeo” outro after the music stops.

So this is the way it went throughout the night. We did our usual whiskey baptism and I was extra sloppy. I’m sure everyone went home smelling like a bar room floor. The crowd kept drinking and they kept getting rowdier until some drunk bastard collapsed into my mic stand and broke it over my nose. The band kept playing music and as I struggled to put the mic stand back together. Sugar pushed me out of the way and said “let someone else handle it”. I turned around to look at Ben and he screamed “there’s blood running down your face!” Awesome. I was rocking out in Mitchell and blood was running down my face. This made me really happy.

The band kept it together and some guys jumped up and replaced my mic stand. As soon as it was up, I launched back into the vocals and kicked in the afterburner. I felt like I was living out some crazy cowboy version of fight club. I was ready to kick some ass!

The rest of the set was a blur, but I never stopped to check out my minor injury. Later that night we were having some beers at the Siesta and a big chuck of scab fell off my nose. Thank you Mitchell, SD. You always know how to show this cowboy a good time.

We stayed up late and shot the shit with my good friend Nick and eventually crashed. Our alarms would be going off at 7AM so we could start out on our12 hour drive to Bozeman, MT. This would be the last big push of the tour. Sunday night at the Filling Station and then it’s back to Seattle. Hard to believe this one is coming to an end.