pale beneath the blue

Road stories and more from singer/songwriter, pale beneath the blue.

Friday, October 29, 2004

The Greeks come out at Night

A good time was had by all, last night at the newly re-opened, Holy Grail in Clifton (next to U of Cincinnati campus). The Beta boys and the Kappa Delts came out to hold their "graffiti night." With white T-shirts and markers in hand, they wrote foul, funny and sometimes disgusting things all over each others shirts. They couldn't stand it that Patrice and I were just sitting there listening to music and made us get in on the action. Jenny Schmidt (Chicks Rock Fest founder) took some group shots which we will post as soon as we can get our hands on them. Fun time.

The music all sounded great--we love the sound man. I would have to say it's one of my new favorite places to play. I love the cool underground lair feel of the place--it's very cozy. My prediction--the Holy Grail will be a mini Bogarts. We wish the best for Don and the crew.

Off to Nashville--
Rhonda

Monday, October 25, 2004

Patrice and Rhonda in Ikea-land

So, we headed out to Columbus on Thursday, only to find that our friends from Stepford Five were headed to NY and wouldn't be able to come see the Chicks on the Road Show. Bummer. But still looking forward to meeting lots of cool girls from around the Midwest-- Lojo Russo (MN), Athena Reich (NY), Red Dahlia (Columbus), Adam Evil and the Outside Royalty (Pittsburg)[Adam, btw, is not a girl, but has a female violist, who we, unfortunately, did not get to see.] All in all it was cool and since we started off the show, we got home by midnight, which never happens. Before we left, we met Will--one of cool new fans and Danny, the sound guy from Brazil.

Friday, Patrice had to work and I had a million things to do, so we left late. But we reached Gunther Murphy's in Chicago in enough time to load-in and grab some Subway before we had to go on. We ran into our new fan Will, who oddly enough had never been to Chicago so we gave him a good excuse to go. His advice, don't stay at the hotel next door to the club--apparently, if you have an overnight guest you must take them to the front desk to get their I.D. checked to make sure they are over 18. Scary, eh? All in all, a good night. This time we heard from Sunspot (WI), Goldman (Chicago) and KK and the Flying Hamsters of Doom (Chicago). Lojo and Athena played too, but all the other bands from Columbus went to Pittsburg. They all ROCKED!

On Saturday, we finally made it out of our hotel (around noon) to find the only IKEA in Chicago and head to Milwaukee. See, I recently bought a condo and figured that Ikea was a great place to pick up a few things for the new pad. Pulling up to the place was like finding an oasis in a desert, though the Chicago suburbs are not exactly desert—you can find anything you’ve ever dreamed of. But the store is the size of a small shopping mall and the parking lot was completely full. We finally made our way to the door and whoa! It’s crazy. There are people everywhere and merchandise everywhere. I remember just standing there, completely overwhelmed. I didn’t even know where to begin. Patrice commented that it was like shopping inside the Internet. That’s certainly how it felt. She never even made it up to the 3rd floor. 3 ½ hours later, we decided that we should leave or we might be late to Milwaukee.

On we forged, driving N to the land of Cheese and Beer. Milwaukee wasn’t as bad as I expected. In fact, it seemed pretty nice. Windy, and everything closes really early, but nice. Points East Pub was a really nice bar and the crowd seemed warm and inviting. I met an old man, a regular there, who had been drinking quite a bit who told me some things he did when he was a young man—let’s just say, he was keeping it all in the family. As if that wasn’t weird enough, Lance from KK, started singing the Laverne and Shirley theme with Wendy (Sunspot drummer) and myself on the steps of the Pub at 2:30a. Then some guy in a Corvette came flying around the corner and did a donut in the middle of the street. It was super funny when the cop sitting across the street from us took off after him. I was amused.

Sunday, we began heading back home when Patrice received a call from a friend of hers from Cincy, Doug, who happen to be in Chicago. We ended up stopping downtown and eating real Chicago pizza (three times to Chicago since August and we finally got pizza). We made it home with all our Ikea goodies—back to the chilly fall whether of Ohio. Wait a minute…we were just 7 hours North of here and it was warm. What’s up with that?

‘Til our next adventure,
Rhonda

Monday, October 18, 2004

Gogirlsmusic.com takes a ride on the Trolley

Whew! Another weekend gone and I'm beat. Friday night was an amazing crowd at the Trolley Stop in Dayton, OH. My band, A Pretty War, was joined by fellow Gogirls, The Walker Project and Whitney Barricklow Band. Since no one wanted to drive down from Cleveland, we enlisted a couple of other local faves, Amy Hedges and legend, Sharon Lane. All the ladies performed fabulously and I can't wait to do more shows with them. They all rock in their own unique ways.

The Trolley was hopping. Maybe folks thought Gogirls Music Fest was some kind of burlesque thing. Anyway, I don't think they were disappointed. Gee, I don't think I've seen it that busy since our 80s Power Ballad night a few years ago. The one where the sound guys got pissed and left Ryan Smith to play "Every Rose Has it's Thorn" on his acoustic guitar, standing on a chair with everyone in the club standing around him singing. Ah, that was fun. Back to reality. This was almost as transcendant. It left Thadd Brittain(Poor Devils) and I talking about doing a Prince Tribute. Maybe soon. At any rate, the crowd was great. They enjoyed every morsel we threw at them, from Amy and Sharon's soul-filled piano greatness to Whitney's, "The Kissing Song"--Carol Walker soothed them with her sweet voice and the Chris Walker's bass grooves seemed to stun everyone. Thanks to everyone who came out and stayed out--especially our buddy Jay Bruns who was nice enough to keep an eye on the merch for us.

A big thanks to Chris Walker for helping out with sound, Frank Woods who seemed to manage the stage that night, and Danny Sauers and Sharon Lane for the PA. I was calling folks frantically the night before trying to come up with everything we needed and these guys came through for me. I am eternally grateful.

So, we had a blast, but what was your favorite part?
Rhonda

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Music Conferences and Pennsylvania

I never did get to finish posting about Midpoint, Dewey or our trip through Pittsburgh on the way from Dewey to Columbus. It's all been pretty crazy recently and it's becoming a blur. So here's what I do remember:

Midpoint--fun, met lots of folks from cool bands. Did I already mention 500 Miles to Memphis? I also got a tutorial on My Space.com from my new buddy Kevin. It was awesome to see Messerly and Ewing on stage with their band as well as with Clabbergirl. Sean is such a rock star. Shrug was cool and I had a good time running around with Jim from Sonicbids, Whitney Barricklow and Dale Johnson (City Beat photographer).
Dewey Beach--Fooled by April--need I say more? And what's up with the guy from Modern English? Does he need to take more drugs? I heard that he almost got into a fist fight with the other panelists on the producer's panel.

And yes, Patrice and I once again got lost in Pennsylvania. I swear they do it on purpose, but I may have just been distracted. I missed the I-70/I-76 split and we had to drive through Pittsburgh. I've never been to Pittsburgh so it was somewhat exciting, but once we made it to Ohio, I handed Patrice the keys and immediately fell asleep leaving her to drive through massive amounts of fog at midnight. Thankfully, she managed to get us to our hotel and we managed to not get shot the next day when we stopped at Kroger to pick up a few things. Scary.

More soon and please feel free to post comments on any post.
Rhonda

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Has Mt. St. Helen's erupted yet?

Hey, folks,

Patrice Schlick and I just got back from our crazy tour and I have only watched TV in bits and pieces while in hotels. I'm hoping to never again feel the need to drive from Delaware to Chicago in two days.

We started the whole thing at the Austin Grill in Silver Springs, MD. My new buddy Jim Steed (met at 2nmc)came out to support us as did Human Factor. That was fun, but the next day we headed to Dewey Beach Music Conference--it was gorgeous. We met so many cool folks there--Beatle Bob, Eric De Fontenay (www.musicdish.com) , Vlad (our new Russian friend), and many, many more. I finally got to see Fooled by April--I saw them in Cincy several years ago and hadn't been able to catch up with them until now. They rocked.

More about our fun in Pennsylvania, the shows and Chicago later this week.
Rhonda