October 9, 2011

The Road To Somerville: The Hush Now Memos Tour Diary Dispatch 2 (Rochester to Cleveland)

The Hush Now in Cleveland
[In this episode of The Hush Now's Memos Tour Diary, drummer Barry Marino recounts the Boston-based indie rock quintet's sojourn to Cleveland. We don't want to give too much away, but we will say what is below is NSFW, if your co-workers are sensitive about hot dogs being served with a sunny-side up egg on top. THN is taking the long way around, touring a large swath of the U.S. over the next couple weeks en route to a hotly anticipated homecoming show at Precinct in Somerville, Mass. Oct. 22 with Soccer Mom and Chandeliers. We reviewed The Hush Now's new record Memos right here. -- Ed.]

When we awoke, we found ourselves in a dark and smelly La Quinta hotel room. We cracked the door immediately. Ater Noel had sauntered in from sleeping in the van, we packed our things and walked the 15 feet to our breakfast destination, a midwest staple: Bob Evans. Our server, Linda, took pride in the turnaround of our orders and we appreciated her overall good-natured mothering. You're a doll, Linda. After breakfast, Pat and I had an impromptu songwriting session in the parking lot while Jenny, an employee of the restaurant, watched from the shade of a tree while enjoying her smoke break.

We arrived in Cleveland with time to spare before load-in. The next hour was free-time for the kiddies. we headed over to local music store to pick up some supplies. Pat, Adam, Joel and Jon found a nondescript bar with a patio out front. Noel chose the darker bar with less patrons (as usual). I was on my own mission. Armed with a smartphone, I located the closest FedEx office so that I could print out our tour itinerary. Having to switch between clipboard, emails and text messages for the previous day proved frustrating, and I finally had the opportunity to put all of our information in one place (for safe-losing later). Once the itinerary was printed and organized into an OCD approved binder, I made my way back to other guys. I arrived just in time to finish off Noel's scotch and cajole the fellas into heading to load-in on time.

The ROC Bar is a cool venue, off a side street and on the river. It has a large main room with a big stage, and with 30 bottles of Jameson lining the top of the bar, we knew we were in a fun place. There's a bar on the back patio with a great view: right on the river and underneath a bridge. Throughout the night you could see debris in the water. I think we saw an entire tree float by, though... in the dark it could have easily been mistaken for the Loch Ness Monster.

We did 2 interviews before our set. one with the Corey King Radio Show and another with IndieNation.FM. Both were great interviews, with great people. We also ran into our friend Jim, who had filmed our set in Cleveland last year. He already had his camera set up for this one! Regarding our show, there were some problems with the sound system for most of the night. Apart from the difficulties though, we managed to have a fun time, get through it happy and make some friends on the other end.

Afterwards, Joel, Pat and Noel headed a couple miles out of the city to get a good night's rest, as we had a long drive in the morning. Jon, Adam and I decided to tempt fate and wander the Cleveland nightlife for a bit. We made our way to Tina's Nite Club, a hole in the wall off Detroit St. A couple of Great Lakes (great beer!) and jello shots later we made our way a couple blocks over to The Happy Dog, which serves gourmet hotdogs (hello: egg, sunny-side up on a hotdog?!) our friends 28 Degrees Taurus had just finished their set there. At the end of the night, it was great to run into our old friends in a different city, and ride out a last call together. We then had to part ways, them finishing up their tour, and us just starting out with ours.

Our friend Carly, who had seen us play Cleveland the year before, was kind enough to give us some floor space to crash on, along with a promise to give us a ride to the hotel in the morning! Some people are so kind! we owe you one, lady. The last thing I remember of the evening was sharing a bag of Doritos with a nine-year-old Golden Labrador. He looked hungry. -- Barry Marino

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Memos Tour
10.06 -- Rochester, NY -- The Bug Jar
10.07 -- Cleveland, OH -- Roc Bar
10.08 -- Chicago, IL -- Miskas
10.09 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Acadia café
10.11 -- Milwaukee, WI -- Frank's Powerplant
10.12 -- Indianapolis, IN -- Melody Inn
10.13 -- Knoxville, TN -- Preservation Pub
10.15 -- Asheville, NC -- Fred's Speakeasy
10.16 -- Nashville, TN -- The Muse
10.17 -- Lexington, KY -- Cosmic Charlies
10.18 -- Columbus, OH -- Skully's
10.19 -- Pittsburgh, PA -- Arsenal Lanes
10.20 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Fire
10.21 -- New York, NY -- Sullivan Hall
10.22 -- Somerville, MA -- Precinct

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