Little Red Wolf - Midwest Domination Tour DAY 4: WINONA

It's always strange coming back to Winona. I was born here lo those many years ago but my family moved away when I was in the third grade, so I can't say I spent any formative years here. Mostly my memories are of riding my bike everywhere, swimming in the mighty, muddy, probably horribly polluted Mississippi, and church functions. As a consequence of the former, then, my sense of direction here is well out of proportion with the amount of time I actually spent growing up here - though I haven't been back in well over a decade, I still remember exactly how to get everywhere in town.

Which is why I was able to find our venue for last evening - the Acoustic Cafe - with little trouble, along with a quick drive past my old house, elementary school (now sadly decommissioned, but hey, asbestos will do that to a building), and dad's church.

We didn't know what to expect going into the gig, being that Winona is by far the smallest stop on our tour and I only knew for sure that my brother and his wife would be coming out to see us. So we were very pleasantly surprised to end up with a really attentive crowd of people for the show - including some fans we'd made last time we played in La Crosse, and some folks who'd just looked us up on Facebook when they saw we were coming to town and decided to check it out.

The set was extra-long and much more stripped down and acoustic to fit the venue - which was a good chance to stretch some more subtle musical muscles. Honestly I think we'd all like to play more acoustic shows to balance things out a bit.

Stayed up a bit later than usual last night after the show to get drinks with my brother and his wife back in La Crosse (where we stayed) at one of my favorite bars on Earth - Yesterdays (aka "The Daze"). And now we're up and at 'em for day five, ready to head out to our final gig tonight in Des Moines where we're pretty sure we're not going to know a single soul. Should be interesting.

I'm relieved to note that the drives thus far have been uneventful - our $25 car topper is holding up well, as is our collective band friendship. The van does not yet stink, but I think that's a product of this being a band composed entirely of women. Things are getting a bit messy, though I think some amount of disarray at this point is to be expected.

We've also been fortunate to have a series of great hosts - in Minneapolis we got to stay in a lovely home with actual beds, very friendly hosts, and two grossly adorable kittens who made a point of harassing Meg while she was trying to fall asleep.

The Minneapolis gig - at the Acadia Cafe - was also really well attended and good fun. We saw some friends and made a few new ones, including the other two bands that played with us (Lingua Luna, and The Dead Flowers). And, happily, the onstage sound mix was great - it's been great every night since Chicago, actually, so there you go.

It's kind of awesome to be visiting new cities and playing music for people who've never heard of/us before. We've sold a respectable number of CDs, too. I think I could keep at this for another week or so, even, though I'm definitely missing my fella. And I'm running out of clean clothes.