It seems we have traded the rainy weekends of early summer with some very hot and humid midwest summer weekends. This last weekend was one of the hottest so far. A/C was our best friend in every situation. If we were traveling in the ice man (which we are now thinking about changing the name of our trusty mini van to the White Wing) then we had the AC cranked. And after a long hot sound check nothing sounded better than a cold beer in nice cold bar or hotel room.
It was an interesting weekend. Us western SoDak boys showed up in Sgt. Bluff, IA to find a five man crew and sound guy from last weekend down to two guys trying to set up everything. Needless to say we had a lot of work to do to get everything set up in the hot humid Friday afternoon. We did get everything set up in time for a very good local band Gypsy Lover to open for us. Scott Gooch showed up in time to save us from doing sound for the opening band and take over the controls for the rest of the night.
Judd Hoos had an early start time, and when we had quickly showered and got back from the hotel there were quite a few people waiting to hear us start! The first set we were all in kind of a funk, but we got out of it quickly and made the second one fun, entertaining, and full of energy. There were definitely some party animals out in Sgt. Bluff! We also had Anna Taylor from the band November 35th come up on stage a couple times and sing with us. It was fun to hear her again and perform on stage with her. None of us had eaten all day and were running off of beer and energy drinks… and maybe some protein bars. So when one of the bar tenders came out during load out with a bunch of cheeseburgers I think all of us just about freaked out! They could of been the worst tasting cheeseburgers ever and they still would have been the best thing ever. Load out was a challenge with our limited road crew but Cam Cam and Walker (our loyal hardworking Hoos Hands) stepped up and helped us get out of there.
There was nothing too exciting about our Saturday morning in IA. We did find us a Chipotle to get some burritos! We got on the road and were headed down to the great state of Nebraska where they really know how to party. Judd Hoos arrived in York in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. So… why is it so hard to check in guests at a hotel? I mean every weekend it seems to be such a process to get us into our rooms! Anyways.. we hung out for a little while before heading to sound check. The two man crew had done a great job and we didn’t have too much to set up. Which was good because we needed to run through a new song medley that we have been putting together. Instead of telling you what is in it you will just have to wait until you come to the next show and hear it! We spent some time running through it and figuring out how to make all the transitions and parts work. We also put together the end of the Hotel California solo to put into the show. It is bad ass! We couldnt wait to get out of the heat. All of us were pretty fried. Devin and I got to experience Runza for the first time for dinner. yummmmmm. Talk about a gut bomb!
Just like Friday night there were lots of people hanging out to hear us play. Although when we started they were all very hesitant about coming up to the front of the stage and get into the music. No one wants to been seen acting like a fool and dancing until a few people start doing it and then everybody wants to act the fool. That is what makes it a good show! Both for the crowd and the band. We ended up playing two long sets. The whole first set people didn’t want to get up in front. But they were ready by the second set to get crazy. It was a very fun night and on the band side of things we all played really well together. By the end of the night we were all super hot and it was a very muggy load out. We got done pretty quickly. We ended the night by going over to a jam space downtown and Shane Dawg, Devin, and I jammed on some old songs. It was super fun. It was weird and refreshing to just play for ourselves.
Another hot and successful Judd Hoos weekend in the books! I can’t say that it was really really crazy, but the weekend was fun and we made some new fans and showed the old fans what we can do. This new medley we have put together is going to be very strong. I know all of us are very excited to play the Sturgis motorcycle rally for 6 nights in almost a week! It is going to be fun, crazy, and exhausting. We cant wait to see all of our friends in the other bands that are playing and play pretty close to home for most of us. I suspect we will be posting some video blogs next week of our adventures and shows in Sturgis. Thanks so much for supporting us and being such great fans! Stay tuned for more on the road blogs with Judd Hoos!
– TBills
Highlights of the Weekend:
turdburps
late night jam session
Air conditioning