2011 Fall East Coast Tour - blog #1 (day 5)
Driving Stats:
Miles Driven - 638
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33.5
Well.... unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to share about the tour so far. The first few days have been somewhat uneventful. The tour began on Saturday the 17th in Cincinnati, Ohio, at a venue that I have known about for several years now. This show was a late addition to the tour, and increased the number of days on the tour by 3 or 4. The bill for Saturday's show included 2 OH performers, one of them a Cincinnatian. So I was hopeful that there would be a good crowd, and was told to expect one. When the local performer didn't even arrive until after the first act went on, and I learned that the venue had failed to post fliers that were sent to them, I started having my doubts.
When all was said and done, we had 2 paying audience members, one of whom I had met during my summer shows in the Outer Banks and would be staying with for the first two nights of the tour. Neither of the OH acts brought any people out for the show. It was a definite disappointment. But my host bought a couple of CDs (even though I tried to give them to him), so I guess things could have gone a little worse.
The venue didn't have meal food, so by the end of the show at about 11 pm, I still hadn't had dinner. My host noticed that there wasn't food at the venue, and asked if I had eaten dinner. He then insisted on taking me out to grab a bite to eat. He hadn't had much to eat for dinner either, and we stopped into a Steak & Shake outside of Cincinnati, on the way to his place in Dayton. This worked out well, because I had coupons! If I wasn't allowed to pay for my dinner, I would at least save my host some money. I guess it's not technically fast food, but I would consider this my first fast food meal of the tour. I try not to have fast food more than a couple times while I'm on tour (and usually go to Taco Bell if I do - a guilty pleasure of mine). Anyway, we stayed up talking music and a variety of other topics before calling it a night.
On Sunday, I slept in a bit, and we headed to a local diner for brunch. I meant to take a picture or two, but I didn't. The diner was an old school one, with old ads and table-top jukeboxes and other nostalgic things within its walls. It was called The Hasty Tasty, and there apparently used to be 9 locations in and around Dayton back in the day. I don't know if there are more than just this one location now, but I think there are. Any Dayton readers care to comment?
My host showed me around town a little, and then we headed back to his house, where we would watch the Pittsburgh Steelers handily defeat the Seattle Seahawks in a game of American Footy-Ball. Here is a still of one of the plays from that very game:
I had no shows on the schedule for this second day of the tour - a first for any Fall Tour that I've ever done - so I had checked out some open mics, and we went out to one around dinner time. We went to a venue that I had tried to book shows at in the past, and it was a pretty cool room in an apparently music-supporting small town called Yellow Springs. My host brought out a couple of people, and I played a few songs. I sold a CD there, maintaining my fragile consecutive-days with CDs sold record. We hung around a little bit after I played, and I asked about their booking process, with little solution offered (only one person does the booking, and she isn't easy to get a hold of).
We headed back to the house and hung out a bit, and I retreated to the guest bedroom for the night. I perused my host's Netflix lists, and watched a movie that wouldn't keep me up too late. It was not very good. I was a bit surprised, because it was the first Adrien Brody film that I've seen that I didn't like. The movie was...
The acting was fine, and I still think that Brody is a great actor, but the movie just wasn't that good. I don't recommend it.
On Monday, I would head back to Cincinnati for another show. This one was at a non-profit coffee shop, and the owner told me not to expect a huge crowd. Mondays are probably the most difficult days for finding shows with good crowds, so I was appreciative of his honesty, and approached the show accordingly. It was, in fact, very low on the attendance side, with only about 5 people there, and maybe 2 on a consistent basis. I decided to only play one set. I still managed to sell 2 CDs, which was about 1.7 more than I expected to sell. And the friendly barista there offered me a lot of info on the music scene in the area, and potential venues and areas to look into for future visits.
That night, I stayed with a friend who I originally knew from his days in Nashville, and his family. I watched another movie that night, before hitting the hay.
This one was much better.
On Tuesday night, I would again head to Cincinnati for another coffee shop show. It was starting to feel like
This time, though, there was finally a crowd, and our first good show of the tour. Thank God. There are inevitably going to be some bad dates on any tour, but after three unusual days in a row, this was an extremely-welcomed change. The owner and other worker were very nice. The owner did her best to spread the word about the show, and it was apparent. For a Tuesday night, it was a good number of people, and at least a few of them came out just to hear the music. I wound up selling 8 CDs by the end of the show.
I had eaten lunch earlier in the day with my host, at an Indian buffet. We stuffed our faces, so I was in no condition to eat dinner before the show. So they made me an order to go, and sent me on my way, asking me to come back for shows in the near future. It's nice to have a good potential musical base venue in Cincinnati now; that city has been an enigma to me over the past few years.
I watched yet another movie to accompany my late night dinner eating.
This one was just okay. I wouldn't recommend it. But it did contain some good acting again, and Christian Bale really made his body suffer in order to play his part in this movie.
Well, I shall bid you adieu here, on a good note for the tour. I'm currently writing from the town of Troy, OH as I sit at one of my favorite places (and the location of last night's show) - Night Sky.
Thanks for following along - please spread the word about this tour's shows, and come back soon for the continuing tale of this year's Fall East Coast Tour.
Miles Driven - 638
Average Speed - 48 mph
Miles Per Gallon - 33.5
Well.... unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot to share about the tour so far. The first few days have been somewhat uneventful. The tour began on Saturday the 17th in Cincinnati, Ohio, at a venue that I have known about for several years now. This show was a late addition to the tour, and increased the number of days on the tour by 3 or 4. The bill for Saturday's show included 2 OH performers, one of them a Cincinnatian. So I was hopeful that there would be a good crowd, and was told to expect one. When the local performer didn't even arrive until after the first act went on, and I learned that the venue had failed to post fliers that were sent to them, I started having my doubts.
When all was said and done, we had 2 paying audience members, one of whom I had met during my summer shows in the Outer Banks and would be staying with for the first two nights of the tour. Neither of the OH acts brought any people out for the show. It was a definite disappointment. But my host bought a couple of CDs (even though I tried to give them to him), so I guess things could have gone a little worse.
The venue didn't have meal food, so by the end of the show at about 11 pm, I still hadn't had dinner. My host noticed that there wasn't food at the venue, and asked if I had eaten dinner. He then insisted on taking me out to grab a bite to eat. He hadn't had much to eat for dinner either, and we stopped into a Steak & Shake outside of Cincinnati, on the way to his place in Dayton. This worked out well, because I had coupons! If I wasn't allowed to pay for my dinner, I would at least save my host some money. I guess it's not technically fast food, but I would consider this my first fast food meal of the tour. I try not to have fast food more than a couple times while I'm on tour (and usually go to Taco Bell if I do - a guilty pleasure of mine). Anyway, we stayed up talking music and a variety of other topics before calling it a night.
On Sunday, I slept in a bit, and we headed to a local diner for brunch. I meant to take a picture or two, but I didn't. The diner was an old school one, with old ads and table-top jukeboxes and other nostalgic things within its walls. It was called The Hasty Tasty, and there apparently used to be 9 locations in and around Dayton back in the day. I don't know if there are more than just this one location now, but I think there are. Any Dayton readers care to comment?
My host showed me around town a little, and then we headed back to his house, where we would watch the Pittsburgh Steelers handily defeat the Seattle Seahawks in a game of American Footy-Ball. Here is a still of one of the plays from that very game:
I had no shows on the schedule for this second day of the tour - a first for any Fall Tour that I've ever done - so I had checked out some open mics, and we went out to one around dinner time. We went to a venue that I had tried to book shows at in the past, and it was a pretty cool room in an apparently music-supporting small town called Yellow Springs. My host brought out a couple of people, and I played a few songs. I sold a CD there, maintaining my fragile consecutive-days with CDs sold record. We hung around a little bit after I played, and I asked about their booking process, with little solution offered (only one person does the booking, and she isn't easy to get a hold of).
We headed back to the house and hung out a bit, and I retreated to the guest bedroom for the night. I perused my host's Netflix lists, and watched a movie that wouldn't keep me up too late. It was not very good. I was a bit surprised, because it was the first Adrien Brody film that I've seen that I didn't like. The movie was...
The acting was fine, and I still think that Brody is a great actor, but the movie just wasn't that good. I don't recommend it.
On Monday, I would head back to Cincinnati for another show. This one was at a non-profit coffee shop, and the owner told me not to expect a huge crowd. Mondays are probably the most difficult days for finding shows with good crowds, so I was appreciative of his honesty, and approached the show accordingly. It was, in fact, very low on the attendance side, with only about 5 people there, and maybe 2 on a consistent basis. I decided to only play one set. I still managed to sell 2 CDs, which was about 1.7 more than I expected to sell. And the friendly barista there offered me a lot of info on the music scene in the area, and potential venues and areas to look into for future visits.
That night, I stayed with a friend who I originally knew from his days in Nashville, and his family. I watched another movie that night, before hitting the hay.
This one was much better.
On Tuesday night, I would again head to Cincinnati for another coffee shop show. It was starting to feel like
This time, though, there was finally a crowd, and our first good show of the tour. Thank God. There are inevitably going to be some bad dates on any tour, but after three unusual days in a row, this was an extremely-welcomed change. The owner and other worker were very nice. The owner did her best to spread the word about the show, and it was apparent. For a Tuesday night, it was a good number of people, and at least a few of them came out just to hear the music. I wound up selling 8 CDs by the end of the show.
I had eaten lunch earlier in the day with my host, at an Indian buffet. We stuffed our faces, so I was in no condition to eat dinner before the show. So they made me an order to go, and sent me on my way, asking me to come back for shows in the near future. It's nice to have a good potential musical base venue in Cincinnati now; that city has been an enigma to me over the past few years.
I watched yet another movie to accompany my late night dinner eating.
This one was just okay. I wouldn't recommend it. But it did contain some good acting again, and Christian Bale really made his body suffer in order to play his part in this movie.
Well, I shall bid you adieu here, on a good note for the tour. I'm currently writing from the town of Troy, OH as I sit at one of my favorite places (and the location of last night's show) - Night Sky.
Thanks for following along - please spread the word about this tour's shows, and come back soon for the continuing tale of this year's Fall East Coast Tour.
posted by Jeff Miller at 2:13 PM
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