Des Moines, Doors, and Dirty Dan

We arrived in Des Moines in the late afternoon on Saturday. With 25 hours to showtime there was really not much to do other than promote and do some research in the Des Moines area. After a short visit to a local mall, Brad and I stopped and printed up fliers at a Hyvee. A majority of the night we spent watching Gabe Cordova, a bartender at "The Mews" (Vaudeville Mews) sing folk music for us. Shortly after to a nearly empty room. Reverie caught a fantastic set from Larry and His Flask out of Oregon. This band really delivered "Thrash-Grass". For all of you out there that are unaware exactly what that means, it is Thrash Punk Rock done in the standard of Bluegrass and YES...IT ROCKS. God help me for I cannot remember one of their names, but they all rocked and they all were sweet as pie. Upon conclusion of their set we headed out and did some heavy promoting and seeking out any rockers that we could find that may be interested in our show on Sunday.

When we returned to Vaudeville Mews, Larry and His Flask were setting up in the alley. Disappointed by the lack of an audience inside of the club they decided to deliver another fantastic set which yielded much better results. 40 or 50 people gathered around the band, knee slapping, dancing and screaming out random "YEAHs". It was quite fantastic. Make sure to check them out if they are coming through your town. We drove back to Wal Mart and crashed in the parking lot. There are some short videos of our living quarters that can be seen here:



Sunday we revisted the mall and hit up every teenage boy and girl we could find who looked like they may enjoy a set from Reverie. This being our only all ages show it was important for us to try and reach out and let Des Moines kids know that Reverie was in town. It was fun and yielded great results.

When we arrived at Vaudeville Mews we were given the option by the in town bands to take a later slot so we could get some exposure. This is A. usually unheard of and B. everything a band on the road can hope for...naturally we obliged. The first two bands both rocked hard and their shared group of friends decided to stick around and check out the set. The set was high energy and translated well to the crowd. It was rewarding when a bunch of the kids signed up for our mailing list and bought some merch. The Thundertones were sweet to give us a slot and it is much appreciated. You can check them out HERE.

We would like to throw out a special shout out to Kiki, our bartender at Vaudeville Mews, for taking care of us and grabbing a MONSTER tee. She had one of the best selections of "pre-show" music that Reverie has ever heard (Coate wouldn't stop drooling over her musical taste) and her fiance performs in the Autumn Project, a local Des Moines favorite! Thank you Kiki!

After our show we loaded up and proceeded to meet up with some fans we had made last year when we came through town and played at the now closed down "Shooters Hideaway." Mandi and "Dirty Dan" whom works at The Lift and The Mews took us out for quite an evening that involved, Karaoke (Brad sang "Walk" by Pantera and I nearly pissed myself you can view that video below), a lot of PBR, Jameson, Coffee and Cake. "Dirty Dan" offered up his house to us and we took up his offer. Coate and I slept in his 6 year old daughter's bed and Kevin and Brad took up the couches. We left promptly when we woke up. Sadly, we passed up an opportunity for Bloody Marys on the beach, but Topeka was awaiting our arrival.



When we went to load our luggage back into the van we discovered that one of our back doors would not open. This was very upsetting considering that it is nearly impossible to get our equipment out without both doors being opened. We had to disassemble the van door and manually unhatch the door. For now we are going to continue open and close the door manually until we can decide whether or not it is a worthy investment to bring the van to a "rape my pocketbook" dealership. More on this fiasco later.

Only on day 4 and almost nothing has gone according to plan. Everything you have ever read or hear about touring is true. Every turn holds an unexpected surprise, which may or may not be your manager hitting an illegal immigrant in the parking lot with an oversized van and having the other car drive away before you can get out and apologize. It may include 18 year old punk rock kids asking you the difference between a groupie and a fan. It may include waking up in a 6 year old girls bed still covered in plastic sheets in case she wets herself and noticing that her father painted a rain forest on her walls and hung a bunch of fluorescent colored butterflies to keep her distracted while she falls asleep at night. On occasion it could mean that you want to punch your best friends right in the balls for being pushy, controlling, or down right oversensitive. YES... I love every minute of this.

But the most rewarding part of this tour is performing for strangers and connecting to them. Learning about new towns and telling people why Chicago is the best place to reside in the Midwest. It is about selling a piece of merch to some excited new fan and feeling like Reverie won the lottery because we only lost $17 dollars on this particular show. Tomorrow night we are playing for tips. Now we can officially sell video footage to MTV. "True Life - I am a professional musician part time stripper". Can't lose money on that one.

Thanks for reading.

Stephen