The drive was long but very beautiful. Maria (our trusty GPS unit) once again guided us along back roads and state highways, rather than interstates, and we got to drive through the awesomely dramatic Cumberland Gap. We sat in stopped traffic on a two-lane stretch for an absurdly long time while they were blasting a mountain, but other than that, it was cakes and pies.
(Gabriel stuck in traffic but unruffled)
(At the command center)
One of Maria’s truly brilliant features is that she can find not only addresses but specific businesses and types of businesses, either along your route or near where you are. We typed in “barbecue” and found a place just off the road that we were very excited for. Sadly, it was a total bust – it seemed to have been crock-potted, rather than barbecued, in store-bought sauce. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess. We’re looking forward to getting back on track this evening, at Birmingham’s legendary Dreamland Bar-B-Q.
We pulled into Bowling Green in the late afternoon and went directly to Bread and Bagel, where we were booked for the evening. It’s a café that doubles as a venue at night, with good food and a small but excellent selection of beers. Jordan, the booker, was working when we got in, and we hung out a little bit and then went to work on songs on their beautiful stone patio.
We ate some fantastic pizza (perhaps the best we’ve had outside of Chicago, Boston and New York) and then Miss Umbrella, the band we were sharing the bill with, showed up and loaded in. We talked about music a little bit, they soundchecked, and I got up and started playing.
Now (backtracking a minute), when we were on the way to Asheville, we ducked into a Guitar Center to pick up a power adapter for Gabriel’s pedal, and the mohawked clerk mentioned that he was from Kentucky. We told him that we were playing a gig in Bowling Green on the 10th. He said, “oh, at the festival? I’m so pissed I can’t go.” “Festival?” “Yeah, there’s a huge free music festival put on by the radio station in Bowling Green on the 10th.” Oh great, said we to ourselves.
Anyway, we were warned again when we got to town not to expect too many folks out after a long day of free partying, and anticipated the worst. But by my second song, the audience had nearly filled the seats in the café, and everyone seemed real into it. Gabriel came on and did beautifully as always, and we chatted a little bit with folks while Miss Umbrella set up to go on.
(Live MP3s - Jared doing "They Will Never Give You Nothing in This World" - http://econo-graphics.com/superdupersecret/TheyWillNeverBowl.mp3 - Gabriel doing "Someone Like You" - http://econo-graphics.com/superdupersecret/SomeoneLikeYouBowl.mp3 )
Then Miss Umbrella came on and WAILED. They were fantastic. Please, please go to their myspace page (http://myspace.com/missumbrella) and check them out. Gabe and I sat through their set in a certain degree of awe and talked about how we never get to see bands like that in New York, and what a shame it is. We talked to them afterwards and asked them if they ever tour up north, and they told us they never tour at all. Which is ridiculous. We’re trying to convince them.
Anyway, they had offered to put us up, so we went back to the apartment where Aaron, the singer, Daniel, the drummer, and Logan, the bass player, live. We watched some South Park (tasteful as always), drank a little of the cheap whiskey we loaded up on in North Carolina, and fooled around on Aaron’s pedal steel, which none of us had any concept of how to play. By the end of the night, Gabriel wasn’t sounding bad, but I’d still not bet on him in a duel with Don Helms. But that’s beside the point.
In the morning, we went out for doughnuts with Aaron at the Great American Donut Shop, a recent discovery of his that proved to be the best and cheapest doughnuts either Gabriel or I had had in quite a long while. And then we headed south to Birmingham, very happy about all we had seen in Bowling Green.
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