Southerly: This Is What Happens When Hank Rearden and Howard Roark Meet at a Cream Corn Wrestling Competition (Pierre, SD)-- Local Cut

Southerly: This Is What Happens When Hank Rearden and Howard Roark Meet at a Cream Corn Wrestling Competition (Pierre, SD)

August 29th, 2008 [12:00PM] Posted by: Southerly | 0 COMMENTS

…and warm regards to you Miss Avette, our wonderful trusty steed that holds the form of a compact Chevy Aveo with a Bigfoot (thanks Waffle House of Bloomington for the monster truck trivia in your menu) spirit.

Every time I look at the wheels it makes me think of the line in Dazed And Confused where they’re standing outside of the pool hall examining each others’ cars and someone states “you gotta get some wheels on this thing man, those are cookie cutters.”

We’ve been averaging approximately 30 miles a gallon and a little better at times, though if there’s any serious wind it’s like a bee caught in a box fan. Needless to say it suits our every need and somehow even cools down the cabin without having the AC on. This is only the second time in all of my touring where I’ve had a vehicle with AC in the summer time. It’s quite the luxury.

This is the first tour where I’ve performed under my own name in the attempt to create a further separation between SOUTHERLY as a full band and my solo performances. It’s been absolutely amazing! My good friend Mike Dixon, owner/operator of People In A Position To Know Recordings, is on tour with me playing drums on a few songs. This is our third summer in a row together.

I love the highline! The perfect example of what this tour has been would likely be Pierre, SD. We arrived in the early afternoon. The evenings’ events were being held at the park by the river so we went directly over there once we arrived in town.

It was blazing hot that day as it typically is in South Dakota in the summer time. We found the beach at the river and went for a swim. That was the first time water had touched my skin since Portland five days prior. Needless to say it was incredibly refreshing.

Afterwards, I got a hold of my good friend Taman—who throws all of my shows there—to find out where exactly we were to congregate that evening.

We drove through the park and met up with him and a bunch of other friends to barbeque. The grill was already hot and ready so Mike and I made a quick trek to the grocery store to pick up a few things to contribute (sauerkraut, corn on the cob, veggie burgers and a few other choice BBQ items).

The next couple of hours were spent cooking and gorging ourselves on amazing food in the gazebo on a beautiful summer day until the waffle ball tournament began. A group of 15 or 20 of us all gathered, picked teams and decided on bases and baselines which consisted of three trees and a patch of worn dirt.

After we had all had our fill of that we took a moment to smoke and relax while the sun was going down. Afterwards the show began. I was the only one playing and pulled out some old ones that I hadn’t played in a while. The mosquito’s were everywhere and apparently waited until I started a song, knowing that I wouldn’t stop until it was finished, to dive bomb and drain me of whatever blood they could communally draw. I still have spots from bites two weeks later.

Thankfully you can also drink in the park there without concern of being reprimanded or fined by police, so we filled the cooler with beer and spent a good part of the evening after the show relaxing, drinking and conversing before heading over to a bar near the park to drink on the deck outside and dance to Bowie.

We have a tradition there where we always go to the truck stop for food after the show or bar so we made our way down there. The bugs were everywhere and not just in Pierre but throughout the Midwest. I’m unsure what exactly is causing it outside of the fact that there has been an abnormal amount of rainfall in a very short period of time.

I’m using Pierre as the example here so as to not be long-winded, but I definitely owe full entries to all of the wonderful spots that have treated me so well over the years including Pendleton, Missoula, Minot, Williston, Sioux Falls, Fargo, the Twin Cities, my lovely and wonderful Madison and so many others. I’ll have to get to work on those entries.

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Photo courtesy of Southerly

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