If I had a boat… (Mauston, Wisconsin)

We’re driving up I-90 to La Crosse for our show tonight at The Root Note. Had a fantastic time in Madison last night. The club was great, the staff there loved our stuff and invited us back for a weekend night in the spring, and there was a good little crowd of new fans. Madison seems to be a great place for us to plan to try and build in over the next year, similar to Charlottesville (Virginia). We spent the night last night at a beautiful lake house outside of Madison, and spent the day today out on the lake on a boat, enjoying the breezy, sunny day. Really helped to recharge our batteries.

On our way out of town, we stopped by The Kiltie, a classic 1950’s Wisconsin drive-in diner. We enjoyed some cheeseburgers, onion rings, fries, and frozen custard – the quintessential Wisconsin “ice cream.” It’s like soft serve, but much creamier and richer (I believe it’s got eggs and heavy cream).

No one seems to be regretting it yet, a couple of hours later.

Beers is driving right now, and we’re about an hour outside of La Crosse. We just passed an exit for the Wisconsin Dells, which we’ll have to skip on this trip, but could be a cool “RBT” photo opp for next time. This area is super cool – lots of pine trees and big rock outcroppings that almost look like what would be typical of the Colorado/Wyoming area. Strange to see them in Wisconsin.

Rock spires south of La Crosse

Gas.

The show tonight is at a smaller place (The Root Note), which is more of a listening room than a rock club (last night was definitely a rock club). It’ll give us a chance to pull out some of the mellower tunes like Blame and Park, etc. A student from University of Wisconsin La Crosse is going to come out and do a live painting during the show. We met him at the NACA Convention in St. Paul back in March, and he helped us set up the show. It will be awesome to have him there, and his artwork is really cool.

Here’s how the set lined up last night:

Eoghan, Late Saturday
Turn My Egg (with a new ending!)
Emil
View From Way Up Here
Story Of…
Relief
Diminished Returns >>
Life During Wartime

More later from La Crosse… hope you’re all well.