Inching toward home

Pittsburgh, PA -> Cleveland, OH -> Detroit, MI

Things improved after Chicago. A good show (with actual paying showgoers!) at a club that was worth a damn (kind of reminded me of Towne Lounge), followed by 8 full hours of dead-to-the-world sleep. 8 hours of VERY necessary sleep.

As the drive to Cleveland was only a couple/few hours away, we took our time in the morning, getting ready slowly, eating slowly, generally moving slowly... and it was so nice. The momentary reprieve from intense schedules was welcome to all.

Now, Cleveland is effing rad. We played at a ramshackle house-turned-club in "the flats," an area south of downtown on the Cuyahoga River, which, as far as I can tell, is most famous for being the place where the river famously burned in a series of famous fires from oil pollution and famous floating debris. Nothing but gas containers and gravel for miles around. It was awesome. And the bands we played with were awesome. Dare I say, we bonded that night with our travelmates, The Best Laid Plans, over beers in the patio at Pat's in the Flats, and we weren't even phased by Jon's particularly nasty hangover. But he was.

The next morning we took our time again, as we had another short drive. We also went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which, I have to say, was the highlight of the tour. Whoever put this policy in place should be canonized: touring bands can bring a copy of their CD to the R&RHofF and get in for FREE. AND it's put into the HofF library, which apparently is under construction somewhere. So yes, we all got in free (except Jon, who had to stay in the van because of the barfiness due to alcohol the night before).

Aw, eff this. I just finished writing a blog for Willamette Week. I'm all blogged out.