As some of you more adventurous folk may know, Orwell spent the last 3 days on the road with Blue Ox and Our Judgment. We started in Merrill, went south to La Crosse, and then back north to Minneapolis.
Overall, the weekend was a blast.
Friday night was unfortunately a bit of a trainwreck for us. My(Tim) amp decided not to work once we got loaded onto the stage. Then over the coarse of the next 3 songs, both of my guitars went. On top of that, Cris was caught in a snowstorm on his way to the show, and literally made it to the venue with enough time to walk directly on to stage. Luckily Dan from Blue Ox is a righteous fucking dude, as he let Cris use his kit to save time. Anyway, we owe you one Wausau! hahahaha Honestly, we still had a great time, Ox, OJ, and all the other bands destroyed and we met some awesome people. Also, we did karaoke with Blue Ox at the bar after the show, videos coming soon!!! hahaha
Saturday was crazy. We got to the Kwik Trip about a mile from my house in Wausau and had to change a tire. Not a great start to a morning. After getting the van moving again, we high-tailed it to La Crosse, and took all of my non-working gear to Dave's guitar shop, where our muscly, bald, goateed savior Bern waved his magic shred hands and made all our problems go away. A few pots, selectors, and tubes later, my rig was back in working order and being backlined on the warehouse stage.
The warehouse was amazing as always. Our brothers in Heir to the Throne and Climactic absolutely destroyed. Blue Ox put on one hell of a show, and Our Judgment were as tight as I had ever seen them. Our set also went great. Steve at the WH provided some fog, and what seemed to be very specific lighting throughout the show as well as gave us maybe the best stage mix we have ever had. Plus, the kids, fans, and all of our amazing La Crosse friends made the show a huge win.
After tearing up the downtown area for a while and making a stop at the wonderful JB's Speakeasy, we crashed at Erik's.
Upon slamming down a shitload of coffee and bacon, we all hit the road. The drive, was not fun at all. Freezing rain, icy literally EVERYWHERE. Luckily our van is a beast and a half. We had a few moments that freaked us out a bit, but hey, nothing is quite as scary when you are only going 45 mph. lol So yah, it took us forever to get to the cities, but we got there. The Triple Rock is one of my favorite venues on earth. The sound is amazing, the stage is perfectly sized, and there are always a ton of righteous people there. Without making this longer than it needs to be, we had a great set, met up with some awesome friends, did some interviews, said a bunch of goodbyes and jumped back on the icey roads at about midnight. It took us somewhere near 5 1/2 hours to get home from the cities (and Cris still had to drive another couple hundred miles to get to his house). This was pretty close to the most scared I have ever been behind the wheel. White knuckle, 25 MPH feels to fast, slippery, blizzard, shit.
Either way, we made it home safe and crashed hard.
ANYWAY. Thanks to our brothers in Blue Ox and Our Judgment, and everyone who came out to the shows and chilled this weekend. We had a blast!
-T
Pictures courtesy of Jeanette photography in Wausau and our friend Laura Godden in La CrosseMerrill, WI: Jan 20, 2011
The Warehouse: La Crosse, WI, Jan 21, 2011
