Tales From The Road: me-o-MI-OH

After an abbreviated and rare spell of post-show insomnia I'm here once again blogging a fun-filled, jam-packed update...this time from my very own huge hotel room in Marietta, Ohio. Today's magic number is 67. That's how many songs we've cranked through (two shows) since my last blog and doing so has afforded us a couple days rest in East Sparta, Ohio (about a hundred miles from here) at one of the most beautiful and picturesque KOA campgrounds we've ever seen. You may remember reading about it in my blogs from last year's tour. One word: WOW! Jeff, David and myself are truly looking forward to taking it easy and catching up on life a bit (it's one of the things that seems to disappear while working out here on the road).

Before I describe the shows, I have to say that pictures don't even begin to do justice for either of the beautiful campuses we found ourselves on this week. None of us had even BEEN to the state of Michigan before parking the bus in the sports complex parking lot on the campus of Adrian College in Adrian, MI. The campus, which boasts many buildings from the 1880's alongside state-of-the-art buildings fashioned with an old school aesthetic. Everything intermingled with beautiful trees, spring flowers blooming and sprawling foot-paths. The other campus we marveled at was that of Marietta College in Marietta, OH. We strolled through campus late Thursday afternoon to find a good spot to park the bus and were simply AMAZED by the architecture. The brick work and attention to detail of every building was staggering. The school logo, an elegant M C, is chiseled in a crest atop each building and the grounds are laced with fairy tale-style green grass, rolling hills and small bubbling brooks. Both campuses were simply breath-taking and, with no offense to our respective alma maters we agreed that if we had to do college over again, it would be a toss-up between the two campuses.

Show #3 at Adrian College had a neat twist. We were put-up the night before and the night of the show in a two bedroom guest house on campus behind the Admissions Office. With the bus parked on the other side of campus in the sports complex lot, we got a ride to the house with our luggage from campus police. What a sight it must've been to see three road-weary rockers helped into a campus police SUV by a uniformed officer. LOL. After a good night's sleep, we all explored the campus. Jeff and David got in a workout in the gym while I sat under a tree to read a book. It was peaceful and really prepared us for a hectic night. With narrow streets and smallish parking lots, our load-in distance was long (which means we had to carry, push, stack & pull all our stuff a long way). We were perfectly cool with that and decided to get an earlier start than normal. Incidentally, that distance always seems twice as long AFTER the show, so we woke up the next morning being sore in places we didn't know existed. LOL. Anyway, back to the show...we were in this giant ballroom which sounded like an arena. The bass swelled. The guitars and vocals soared. The drums sounded huge and epic. Students shuffled in and weren't shy about having a good time. Darting right to the front of the stage, they sang, jumped onstage, danced and had a blast! At one point, a campus dance group showed up and stirred everyone into a frenzy with coordinated dance routines to nearly every song we played. It was bananas. Here is the set list:

LITTLE BIT MORE
CALIFORNIA IS THE END
WHAT YOU DO
MY HIGH LIFE
DISPENSE WITH THE PLEASANTRIES
TURNIN' IT UP
TAKE IT OFF
THIS LOVE
HOLIDAY
BAD ROMANCE
DISTURBIA
TWIST & SHOUT
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
LIVIN ON A PRAYER
AUTHORITY SONG
KISS
BILLIE JEAN
AMERICAN GIRL
ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL
I GOTTA FEELING
BEVERLY HILLS
I KISSED A GIRL
WALK THIS WAY
SUMMER OF 69
I WON'T BACK DOWN
STARLIGHT
USE SOMEBODY
SWEET HOME ALABAMA
YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU
I WANT YOU TO WANT ME
WHAT I GOT
LOVE SHACK
CLOSER
BROWN EYED GIRL
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
HOT IN HERRE
POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME
SWEET CAROLINE

Show #4 also had a twist, well, many twists actually. Playing DURING THE DAY is always a trip. I remember heading to dinner afterwards wondering how it could be possible that everything was packed-up and that we were done already. Truly an odd sensation. The show, though, was extraordinarily fun as it marked the first official outdoor festival-style show 7k has played since reforming as a trio. It was cool (and a bit jarring) to look out and SEE everything: the grass, the huge inflatable slides, the beer garden, the food tents and padded jousting......yes, American Gladiator-style huge-Q-tip jousting. It was awesome. Earlier in the day there was a 34 team mud volleyball tournament, so muddy people were running around having a great time. The festival, called Doo Dah Day, kicked-off with fellow SoCal rockers We Shot The Moon (from San Diego). They rocked the college students, who were clearly in party-mode for about an hour, and then we took the stage. Students everywhere in brightly colored Doo Dah Day T-shirts, with the obligatory mud spatter of course, rallied near the front of the stage throwing frisbees and footballs while singing every word. It was a little cool and windy at first, but as the show went on, the wind died off, the temperature warmed to perfection and the crowd roared in a way only made possible by a combination of a beautiful spring day, a couple cold drinks and fun rock music. Here's the set list for that show:

LITTLE BIT MORE
CALIFORNIA IS THE END
WHAT YOU DO
MY HIGH LIFE
DISPENSE WITH THE PLEASANTRIES
TURNIN' IT UP
TAKE IT OFF
THIS LOVE
HOLIDAY
BAD ROMANCE
DISTURBIA
TWIST & SHOUT
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
LIVIN ON A PRAYER
BEVERLY HILLS
I GOTTA FEELING
I KISSED A GIRL
USE SOMEBODY
STARLIGHT
ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL
YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU
I WANT YOU TO WANT ME
WHAT I GOT
CLOSER
BROWN EYED GIRL
HOT IN HERRE
SWEET CAROLINE

Well, I'm off to meet the boys for breakfast and then we'll push on to our beloved campground. We're stoked to finish off watching the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy while munching on leftovers from yesterday's healthy and GORGEOUS catering table. With a sincerely satisfied sneer, I'll just say this doesn't suck. :)

Til next time,
Jeff, David & Corey