Big Fun in Uranus
Tour barrels through the south and midwest
Hello again! I am writing to you from a long and rainy drive on Interstate 71N. Emily is driving and I am in the passenger seat. Between us, we have four beverages currently going (Coke Zero and coffee for me, water and water with electrolytes for her). We’re on our way to Rochester for the last show of tour. It has rained every day for as long as I can remember now. Most days, it seems like it’s 96 degrees and 100% humid right until load in, at which point the skies open and we get drenched along with our guitars, amps, drums, and electronics. If we’re lucky, it’ll also start raining again when we load the gear out of the venue.
Despite our sodden circumstances, spirits are high. I’ll work backwards from right now and catch you up on where we’ve been.
We play in Dayton, OH at a house called The Tooth Lodge. I’d never been to Dayton before, all I knew was that the Deal sisters, Bob Pollard, and Brainiac are/were Dayton-ites. Apparently, the Deals still live in town. In Chicago, our soundguy tells me to “go to Blind Bob’s” and “get the pickle soup”, which kind of sounded like a euphemism to me, but I file it away.
Tooth Lodge used to house a preschool until the school went out of business. The house was sold to some local musicians who have turned it into something of a headquarters for their musical and artistic pursuits. This is the kind of situation you might read about in a book about 80s or 90s indie rock — a house so cheap that a band can afford to buy it in cash and not even live there. These people have a studio setup and a rehearsal room. Oh and a fully upside down room.
I talk with Ash, who is one of the folks who runs the place, and they tell me that Dayton is much maligned by other Ohio cities. Apparently, people from Cincinnati and Columbus like to look down on them. I’d tell those folks to kindly shove it, our Dayton show experience was great.
This is my first show of tour on DRUMS, an instrument that I have spent my entire life playing. Until this point, Ian has been holding it down behind the kit but he lives in Chicago and was unable to make it to these last 2 gigs. I told Oliver during the planning stages of tour that I’d have no problem hopping behind the kit after 2 weeks of playing these songs every night. This Dayton show will put my confidence to the test. We finish our rainy load in to Tooth Palace and set up our gear in the show area. With an hour or so to kill until showtime, we quickly and quietly run through some songs instrumentally. Jack describes the feeling of playing a song you know really well on a new instrument as “painting in a dream” and he was exactly right. At this point of tour, I DO know the twists and turns of these songs like the back of my hand but now my hand is doing something different than before. After our run through, I feel pretty confident that I can do Ian’s drum parts justice and our set bares that confidence out. Oliver informs the crowd that I’m playing my first ever Bellows show on drums with no real practice and from that point on, they cheer me on between songs. I appreciate the support. House shows can be very supportive and these folks in Dayton, maligned as they are by their neighbor cities, are extremely kind.
After we play, we strike all our gear so that Neil aka Terror Pigeon can set his rig up. Neil is a true blue DIY lifer and I am willing to bet that if you’re a musician between the age of 25 and 45 and you’re reading this blog post, you have played a show with him or interfaced with him in some form. He’s been touring as Terror Pigeon since the late 00s. The “band” is ecstatic performance art meets electro-pop meets a kid’s birthday party. There are multiple giant blow up props. There are crazy lights. Neil’s “day job” is touring with Rubblebucket as their lighting designer so it makes sense. He brings his own PA and uses it in addition to whatever the venue has, which is an amount of gear schlepping that I can’t conceive of. Next time Terror Pigeon is playing in your town, you owe it to yourself to go see this one of a kind setup. These last 5 shows on tour (Asheville through Rochester) are all with Terror Pigeon and while it’s musically an incongruous combination with Bellows, I’ve come appreciate the completely different tonal vibes between Bellows and Neil. Neil is a total sweetheart and a true touring professional and I’m happy he’s out here with us.
Emily and Jack and I hang out in the upside down room during much of Neil’s set and play upside down Mario Kart. It’s kinda wild how quickly the brain adjusts to the upside down backwards controls. Emily tells me that our eyes actually see things upside down and our brain corrects things for us. I take her word for it on that one.
The show rolls on and I think about how I used to spend so much of my 20s at places like Tooth Lodge. I don’t really sit at home and lament the loss of this element of my youth that often, but it’s nice to visit this life again. I’m 39 years old and while I’m sure I’ll always occasionally find myself at house shows, I do wonder how long I can credibly be confused for a young person in these spaces. I’m a little thicker than I was when I was in my 20s and I certainly have greying hair. Maybe I’m already giving old guy. Either way, it’s warm and a little nostalgic to be here and I’m happy to take it in.
After the gig wraps, we hightail it out of town to a hotel in Columbus that Oliver booked for us to crash before the long drive to Rochester in the morning.
The night before Dayton, we play in Chicago at Sleeping Village with Cusp, Terror Pigeon, and Girl K. Sleeping Village is the kind of place I play on Remember Sports tour — the 300 cap club. Bellows tour has played a much wider variety of spaces and it’s fun to hop back into small club land again. This is Frank and Ian’s last show on the tour as they’ll be hopping off to attend to other things while the rest of us play 2 shows on the way home. I’m truly sad to see them go, I feel we’ve become a surprisingly tight knit 6 piece group both musically and socially. This is also my last show on guitar, I’ll be sad to put the axe down but the drums call.
Before the gig, we grab burritos from Taqueria Mazamitla down the street. Now I want to say something and I want to make sure I’m really clear in my message, I don’t want to leave any room for misinterpretation. Chicago has the best Mexican food in the United States. I’ve had transcendent tacos in LA, I had a quesadilla in San Diego that was so good I cried. But nothing matches Chicago. The average Mexican joint will absolutely bring you to your knees, and this one is no different. When Remember Sports was recording our album at Electrical Audio in mid 2024, we ate carne asada burritos Carneceria Guanajuato, enchiladas at Traspesada, or al pastor tacos at Taqueria La Zacatecana. Many Ava Luna tours have built in a trip to La Chaparrita for huitlacoche huaraches washed down with delicious tepache. As Chicago resident Ian notes, the whole Chicago pizza debate is absolutely a false flag. Who gives a shit if that stuff is pizza when there’s this level of Mexican food?
The gig itself is fine. I don’t have my best night as a send-off to my guitar era but our energy is right and we’re certainly tour tight. We squeeze into Sleeping Village’s tiny photobooth and have a chaotic photo session. Once we get the shot, it’s time to bid adieu to Frank and Ian. I’ve enjoyed hanging with them immensely and they’ll certainly be missed for the last two nights of tour.
The night before Chicago, our show is in Nashville at Neil’s house. I’ve never been anywhere like Neil’s house. Rolling into town, Frank wonders aloud whether Neil might have a crazy zany house that is representative of his public facing persona or perhaps he’d live in a very “normal” boring house as an antidote to his artistic life. Turns out it’s…both. Neil gives us the tour upon arrival and at first, the house seems nice, quiet, average. But as you go deeper into the property, things get interesting. Neil and his partner Jen have built a compound full of endless delights. There are multiple treehouses with air conditioning. There’s a synth that is played by a miniature watermill. There are sculptures everywhere. There’s a VHS Criterion closet of sorts. There’s an outdoor theatre area where Neil and Jen show movies. And there’s a little zone where our show will be. Emily describes the place as “overwhelming the way things are when you’re a kid”. Here are a couple of photos that truly do not do this place justice:
Our gig here’s an absolute blast. We play after a really excellent band called Doomfolk Starter Kit, who I make a note to remember to check out later. Our set’s great, I feel the power of rock at this one. It’s also Frank’s birthday! Neil brings out red velvet cake and homemade white chocolate macadamia nut cookies (baked by Jen!) and we lead the crowd in birthday song for Frank. After the set, I start to feel overheated and overstimulated. I decide to go lay down in the house during Neil’s set and I end up dozing off. A first for me on this night: showering and shaving at the house show, during the house show.
The night before Nashville is Asheville. Em and I get really good hippie style vegan food at Rosetta’s Kitchen. I’ve always liked Asheville a lot. The gig is at Static Age Records, which is a record shop that magically turns into a venue at night. We play with two great locals who are just starting their own tour together: Slow Packer and Sofia Corrine. Emily and I sit on the floor for Sofia’s set and I am mesmerized by her use of my favorite DADF#AD tuning. Slow Packer brings a spinet piano to the gig and Frank is able to use it for our set. Fun!
Before Asheville, we play in Durham at the Pinhook, a venue I’ve frequented on past tours. Grumpy soundguy aside, it’s another winning gig. We play with Alli Blois’ band Dirty Flowers — Alli and I worked together on the new Palehound record and it’s great to catch up with her a little bit. Not much else to report here. Load out is during some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen.
The show before Durham is in DC at Black Cat. Emily specifically has an awesome show. She says it’s one of those shows where “you feel like you can sing any note and nail it”. The setup of this gig is really funny — we’re playing a small roped off area of the venue called the “Red Room” that can fit about 60 people. Our green room for the night is…the rest of the venue, which is empty on this night. I’ve never had this much space to spread out at a show before. I take a solo trip to get a sandwich across the street and relish the rare alone time. This show is probably the first one where I feel really locked in with the band. Playing guitar is SO much fun! I need to remember to do this more often…
That should catch us up here in blog world. I’ll be back soon with a report on our final show in Rochester and a tour post mortem. Pray for a dry load in for us tonight!
