Cincinnati, Ho!

Cincinnati, Ho!

By John Miller, Super Producer

Founder, Hollywood Upstairs Tour Management

This was the most strenuous tour the band has seen so far. Luckily they had prepared for it with ample mixtapes, clean clothes, comfort foods like brownies and cookies, and a great tour manager.

Fri

4:45 AM, Sam picked me up. We made our way to the rendez-vous point and the second we started to load gear, it started pouring rain. This may seem like a handicap, but it kept Casey from burning 3-4 cigarettes and got everyone on the bus quickly. We were soon on the road. Mixtapes were plenty. Smooth sailing down to Rock Island where we did a Daytrotter session.

What a cool studio. And engineer. More vintage tube compressors and EQs than you can shake a stick at. Mr. Knight and HFL banged out 4 songs in record time, and had just enough time after the session to listen to playback.

Sean the engineer told us of a Mexican restaurant on top of the hill that we made short order of.

We got in the Knight Train and sooner than later we were in Burlington, Iowa. It’s a beautiful, old river town. And the more I thought about it, a convenient tour stop. The Band played The Washington, and busted out an amazing set. We made a lot of friends and we all agreed that it would be a fun town to spend some time in. The show was ON.

All the hotels in Burlington were sold out, so we slept in a gross hotel in a gross town. Did not party too hard. I shared a bed with Sam, who was nothing less than a gentleman.

Sat -11AM call

Up around 10. Sonny had a radio interview at 10:30. Told the dude on the radio that the Lakers are crazy. He is not wrong.

Due to a cancelled radio session later in the day, we had an extra 6 hours, so we were able to leave the hotel at 11, and leisurely make our way to Cincinnati. It was a good morning to drive because I just got to take in the beautiful hills of the area. Getting into Cincinnati was even cooler because I’ve never seen a city so big in terrain like the Ohio River Valley. Good job, Colonel Robert Pattinson!

Stopped at Camp Washington Chili prior to the show to try some of this famed Cincinnati Chili.

Reviews were mixed. I was happy to eat something that wasn’t soda pop and chips, but others were not so gracious. For the uninitiated, Cincinnati Chili is basically meat gravy that has been doctored with chocolate and cinnamon. Then they put on spaghetti (wtf). At sometime in the day, it got really damned hot. Like 97 degrees hot. This was not hot weather food.

Once we got to the neighborhood of the show, Over-The-Rhine, it was like stepping back in time with the beautiful music hall, crooked-ass streets, italianette architecture, and lager beer.

While the band was setting up in their parking-garage-office-dressing-room, I was setting up merch and people kept coming up and asking when Sonny was going to play and expressing how excited they were to see him.

A few people had seen some videos and spread the word. It showed that the people were excited because they danced like it. One lady even knew all the words to When You’re Gone.

The ominous inclement weather finally came right before the encore and I got the order from the Stage Crew to shut it down.

Packed up, drank some more Yuengling (yum) and made our way to the hotel. Partied very, very hard.

Sun

7:00AM call, on the Road by 7:15. Late night last night. Some Lakers might not have passed their pre-flight inspection, but that’s ok. Tony Tromboney was responsible and at the helm. We started the long haul from Cincinnati to Madison. 5.5 hour drive turned into 8.5 hours, and we came in to Atwood Fest hot. The crew at Atwood Fest in Madison was amazing, and it was a nice rest between the haul from Cincinnati and the haul home.

The set in Madison was the best of the show and people were prepared with their dancing shoes. A partially re-worked set kept the band, and most importantly the crowd on their toes. The breaks in Baby, Baby, Baby caught the crowd off guard and made them drop twice as hard once the band kicked back in.

As they walked off stage, everyone headed for the Jerk Chicken food truck and ate the Jerk Chicken and curried tofu I had skillfully negotiated in trade for a CD.

Rokker, the stage manager, also had his mom cook what seemed like all the penne and meatballs in the world. It felt good to sit in the sun, fill our bellies up with great food and listen to the supreme Steely Dane before hitting the road. As soon as we knew it, it was time to hit the road and embrace a real mattress, our significant others, and pets.