UMASS, MSU, OSU

Overall the last week of the trip flew by…I’ll quickly recap the last three shows which were all great but very different from each other…

After University of Maine we traveled to UMASS in Amherst Massachusetts.  I woke up outside the UMASS event center, on what looked like a chilly day outside.  When I gathered my stuff to shower and walked out the door of the bus I was correct with my assumption…it was freezing outside.  I considered bundling up and going for a run, but it was too cold and I had slept later than I wanted.  The town hall forum was very intimate because only a few people showed up.  This was the least formal of all the THFs and we sat around and just conversed with each other.  The sampling at the show was pretty slow as well.  Even though we were set up at the back of the floor, opposite the stage yet center of attention, it didn’t attract as big of a crowd as I thought it would.  The bummer of the night was that it was Josh’s last show, he was leaving us to head back to Boston, and it was going to feel a lot different without him around because he really did a lot of the set up and making sure everything was going smoothly. 

Next we had a long drive to Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI.  This was a solid 15 hour drive so I tried to stay up as late as I could that night on the bus.  This way I would sleep late the next day cutting down on the time during the day to sit on the bus.  I knew how boring it could get sitting for 6 hours, and I awoke around 1 pm the next day, only to sit on the bus for a little longer.  Those three hours flew by and before I knew it we were at the Marriott in downtown East Lansing.  The town was a great college town with a few blocks of restaurants and bars, and we were staying in the middle of it all.  That night we had off so I asked my friend that had just graduated from MSU a few good spots to go.  We also met up with some of the OAR guys and had a pretty fun time.

We were only a half-mile from the Event Center and headed over there early the next morning.  It was lightly snowing which I enjoyed because it finally felt like it was getting to be late November.  I had to concentrate on getting out a lot of samples during the day because this venue would not allow me to sample that night until after concessions closed, which was about 45 minutes after OAR went on.  I knew this could potentially be a problem because the majority of our traffic was before OAR went on.  I sampled a few cases at the town hall forum, which was in the student center.  I really liked the MSU campus it was pretty big but felt organized and easy to get around.  The buildings were older but seemed nice.  There was a decent crowd at the forum all who enjoyed the samples and some t-shirts.  The students seemed very aware and had some really involved student groups on campus.  Later on at the show I set up just the raffle with the guitar, and then planned later on to hand out samples.  I had a lot of people sign up for the raffle and sampling after went a lot better than I thought.  In between songs a lot of people came out to go to the bathroom or get a drink, and since concessions were closed, a cold chocolate Silk was the perfect answer for them.

On we traveled to Ohio State, our last stop on the tour, so it was our last night on the bus.  I had a lot of things to organize but kept on pushing them off.  I couldn’t believe the tour was over already!  I felt like I could live on the bus for another few weeks, because I had grown so accustomed to it.  We had to be off the bus by 9am the next morning because Dave our bus driver was just dropping us off and then making his way back home to Nashville.  Luckily I got in contact with my friends Joey and Quinn who go to OSU and they just happened to live 10 houses away from the Newport, a downtown club in Columbus where the show was.  I was able to bring all my stuff, which had accumulated over the trip to more I had come with, and pretty much took over Quinn’s room.  I quickly showered at his place and then rushed off to the town hall forum on campus.  Once again, I was trying to do as much sampling as I could during the day because the show that night was not a typical one.  It was a Bud Light sponsored over 21 event, and I wasn’t sure how many of those people would want to sample a chocolate Silk vs. a Bud Light.  The venue was also very small so we only had one table to fit all of Silk, Reverb, and Oxfam’s stuff on it.  We decided considering the type of show, and that it was our last we should try and enjoy.  We had the table set up from when doors opened to a little after OAR went on, but the interest died down after OAR started playing, so we then broke it down.

This show was an interesting way to end the tour, because it didn’t feel like a college show, what we had been used to, but it felt like a regular concert.  The OAR guys all went to OSU so it felt like they were right at home, and the crowd was fun and into the show.  The venue also was older but perfect for a 1500 intimate show, because it had a small floor and a balcony that overlooked the floor.  I tried to enjoy the show as much as a I could knowing it was going to be my last one for a while…a really bittersweet feeling because it felt good that it was all over, but at the same time I didn’t want it to end.