Memories, Daydreams, Reflections - Part 3: BADA BING!

Friday morning I woke up feeling like crap. I should have been hung-over, but my head and stomach felt fine, though my right shoulder which I was sleeping on, was throbbing in pain. I remembered then that as we were loading the trailer the previous evening I crawled in there to push one of the amps in only to ram my shoulder into the top of the door of the trailer, then fell backwards and busted my head on my cabinet. Not a pleasant moment. With everyone else asleep, and being in a somewhat unfamiliar place it’s always confusing on what to do when you first wake up, you know? I wasn’t sure where the hell my Explorer was (turns out they parked it just down the street and it wasn’t lost or impounded), and all of my books were in it. So I grabbed the latest Playboy and decided to read the whole thing. Seriously, the articles were entertaining. I realized that Frat hazing is some messed up shit, and that Steve Jones of the Sex Pistol’s is an interesting chap. I also read the Ludicrous interview, and 20 Q’s with Johnny Knoxville. After everyone woke up we kicked on the teley, and it turned out Donnie Darko was on! I’ve seen that movie more than any other movie, but I can’t resist it every time it is available for watching. Beautastically perfect. After that was over, I think Ocean’s 12 was on, and then we watched that show on MTV where the parents try to pick new mates for their kids. The scripting is so terrible, yet the show is so horrifically addicting.

We finally decided to depart for Milwaukee around 4pm. A bit of traffic between the two cities, but for the most part it was a smooth ride. Drew once again came through with a cozy place to stay, and we were given two bedrooms, a few beds and a few air mattresses, with lots of food and beverages which we were told to consume. A very hospitable family, and a nice home. We stayed with a somewhat older couple and their son Adam, who is our age. Adam had told us that he and his friend Liz would be joining us for the evening, and we guaranteed an “interesting” evening…it was definitely an “interesting” evening…

We rolled into “Heartbreakers” around 9pm, and were greeted by the doormen with instructions. Basically, don’t harass the girls, you get these free drinks, and if you want you can usually get two girls to come dance for you during your set if you go over and ask them nicely. Yup, our first gig in a strip club. \Turns out we wouldn’t be going on until 10:15, so I decided to chill and have a few drinks. I was somewhat curious about the other side, as one part of the bar was where the bands play and has a stripper pole, and the other is solely for the strippers. Haha. So I wandered over to the other side, because, I’m a guy, alright? A single, healthy 24 year old guy. Haha. So I go over there to grab a drink with a few of the other guys, and I’m only in there for a few seconds before I’m even able to get a Newcastle and one of the strippers asks me if I want to tip. I didn’t have any cash, and I told her I was a poor musician. She ended up being really cool, and we started talking about being a poor musician and how I didn’t look like a musician but I looked like I had money. Oops…so she had my back for the next 5 minutes when other strippers came up to me. Eventually, it was uncomfortable, and a little sad so I went back to the other side.
We took the stage at 10:15, and there were no strippers there during our set. I tried to strip, but I couldn’t get to my belt between chords in “Contusions of the Forehead”. Too bad for that crowd…The set went over pretty well with an O.K. response, and we were greeted with the usual “wow, that was neat” stuff. Then the evening got weird. I was wearing a silly old shirt that says “Wanna Play?” on the front, and it’s an old BSU rec T-shirt that I stole from JE Rhinesmith (sorry Justin). Anyways, I was walking around the club after the set and some lady stopped me to tell me we had a great set, and she loved my shirt. I assumed she was just being friendly, and so I said thanks, and as I attempt to breakdown all social barriers I may still possesses in this point of my life, I decided to talk with her. No intent on my part, as she wasn’t my type, and I didn’t figure she had much intent on her part. I was eventually shown to be wrong.

After we loaded up our gear we went back into the club, and everyone had a seat around the stripper pole area (there were no strippers, so we expected it to stay that way, but we were eventually wrong, misfortunately for our new friend Adam) and the last seat available was next to the lady that had said ‘hi’ earlier. So I sat down and she started talking to me again. She was pretty talkative, but it was cool. The band was a cover band and didn’t require too much attention so I continued to talk to her for quite awhile. Eventually she asked how old I was…when I told her I was 24 she kind of looked weirded out. Of course I find out she is 38, and I’m thinking ‘well, this is uncomfortable.’ As I said, I wasn’t sure of her intent at the time so I played it cool. Until one of her friends leans over and whispers to me: something I don’t want to repeat. Luckily we were ready to go about 5 minutes later…wow…weird.

So Adam and Liz then took us to a local Piano bar. A rather plush place with middle aged folks dressed nicely, and drinking wine. It turned out Adam knew the bartender and we slipped into the VIP area which was cozy with nice couches and tables. We kicked back and drank some Chardoney (so rock and roll, I know), and I went up to the bar to grab a wine and beer when I was spoken to by a group of three women, again, obviously way older than me. I told them my woes of talking to the 38 year old at the strip club and how we were a band traveling around playing. I think I threw off the one lady who was 37, when I told her that I was only 24. So at that point I’m wondering what the hell is wrong with Milwaukee. Though I decided to play it off and talked to them for about a half hour. They were very nice people, and I have no idea what we talked about for the most part. But it was pleasant! The evening finally ended with us following Adam home, Drew screaming in the back seat, “oh goddamnit!” and “I can’t feel my teeth!”, and me chucking almonds out the window at Adam’s car, to no avail. Tip for the day: almonds go backwards when thrown forwards out of a vehicle traveling 65 miles per hour. Finally we watched really cool videos on AOL music like “Let’s go to Bed” by the Cure. I soon fell asleep.