Adventure #34: 2011 Tour (Cleveland, Cleveland and Pittsburgh)

I've always had a tough time landing shows in Cleveland. I've wanted to play there on both of my last tours, but it never ended up working out. I had gotten in touch with Joshua from 19 Action News who's a friend of Nate Allen's (from Destroy Nate Allen, of course) to see about playing a house show in Cleveland. He said he'd set something up, but two weeks out was still having trouble and told me it probably wouldn't happen. I called up the Root Cafe and asked to play a set there. The next day Joshua came through. So now I had two shows in Cleveland! W00t, as it were. I set out from Indy early pretty much running on fumes (and still despondent from my epic bowling fail). About midway through Ohio, the great weather I've been having this whole tour decided it was nostalgic for winter and I found myself in a hailstorm. I had intentions of getting in early and exploring Cleveland a bit, but obviously that wasn't happening now. So I headed to the Root Cafe and got set up. By sheer coincidence, the illustrious oboist, Buick enthusiast, nearly roomate, and fellow nomad Katie Ike was in Cleveland that day. She showed up with her friend Kathryn and saved what had thus far been a kind of frustrating show (although the reaction from basically the whole place when I played As The World Falls Down from Labrynth made the whole show worthwhile).

Dear patrons of an establishment where live music is happening,

I understand that not everyone is in a venue for the music. It could be the food, the drink, or you were just looking for a place to sit and work. That's cool. But please don't ever sit 2 feet away from a performer and spend their entire show with headphones on listening to other music. Sit in the back if you don't want to listen. Otherwise, you're just a douchebag.

Thanks,

Nathan

The people who worked at the Root Cafe are amazing though. Haley especially was awesome and told me she often does house shows and that I should get in touch next time I'm coming through. This is Pen Pen pittying the fool who listens to music on giant noise cancelling headphones while I'm playing 2 feet away.

Ike, Katherine, and I jetted off to the next show as soon as I was done. The snow and sleet and mush had only gotten worse since I'd started and the 4 mile drive on local streets was pretty harrowing. Luckily the Albatross made it to Agape House in once piece. Zach (the guy who lives there) was playing when I walked in. He played some badass anti-folk and got his assembled tribe of friends clapping and shouting along. Joshua and Jacob also tore it up doing a rare acoustic set of their usually pretty heavily electronic music. They passed out tambourines and suitcases to everyone there and we made some great noise. Playing coffeeshops and bars is nice because you get food and usually there's a decent crowd there, but this is more my scene. There really is nothing like a good house show. Even when sparsely attended, a good house show is pretty life affirming. After the show proper ended we all hung around and jammed on Springsteen and Pedro the Lion songs for a while which was awesome. This is Pen Pen killing fascists.

Kathryn and I dropped Ike off at the bus back to Brooklyn and headed back to her place where she had a spare room! On the way I ran through a puddle and my check engine light came on. Which was exactly what I needed. Sidebar: They're playing TLC in the coffeeshop where I'm writing right now and I couldn't be happier about that. In the morning I headed to Autozone (who will read the on board computer for free!) who told me it was either a problem with my catalytic converter or just a momentary short in something from driving through the puddle. Hoping for the later, I headed off to Pittsburgh with a brief stop in Berea to meet my friend Chelsea for lunch.

Around the Ohio / Penn border the snow started to hit hard. It took me 4 hours to get to Cannon Coffee. My check engine light was still on. Basically it was the best drive ever. I made it to Cannon Coffee which was totally deserted. A few friends I had met last time trickled in, despite the ongoing blizzard. I played a little, and we had a few great singalongs, but mostly we all just drank beer and hung out trying to avoid going outside. I had hoped to see my friend Eliza while I was in town, but I couldn't even move my car down the street, so I gave up that dream and headed back to Nate, the owner's, place which was only a few blocks away. This is Pen Pen, a flightless bird of the Antarctic, really not into the snow at this moment in time.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.

Just Can't Get Enough (Depeche Mode Cover) by nathanleigh