The Explosive Nature of Life on the Road

QUINCY - May 11th

Picture this, you are in a nice-peaceful sleep enjoying dreams of fresh fruit and a magical minotaur when you are abruptly awaken by the sound of cannons. No, this is not a bad hangover-wakeup in the parking lot of Medieval Times, it was Model Stranger’s Saturday morning in Quincy, IL.

We made the voyage to play at Johnny Bang Bangs (an absolutely great club with the staff to match) a couple Fridays back. As we rolled into this pleasant place of about 40,000 residents I was delighted by the active & quaint river-town; Johnny Bang Bangs turned out to be a beautiful venue and made way for a nice evening.

Nice projector behind the stage at Johnny Bang Bangs!



Post show we shot the breeze on the riverbed with some expired Fosters (which I do not recommend) and decided to crash in the trusty van. Little did we know in a few short hours Quincy’s big half marathon/Fest would be taking place.

See our van on the right? This is the view of the club from the Mississippi.

My last memory had been finishing my beer next to the Mississippi, crawling in the van and putting on my sleep mask. The next thing I know there are cannons firing and the pitter-patter of hundreds of feet; I had to ask if we were accidentally sleeping in Bill & Ted’s phone booth after a time travel. Nope, just three guys sleeping in a hotbox-of-a-van in the middle of a half-marathon on the Mississippi River, a normal wakeup in Strangeland. We followed this wakeup call with a drive into Burlington, IA and a hearty breakfast.


BURLINGTON - May 12th
Burlington is another town that tickles my pickle. It's a great little place with old architecture and places like The Buffalo, Weird Harold’s and Mr. Motos that can consume a free soul for hours. Anywho, we continued to The Crazy Coyote; we love this place and the owner, Jason, is doing great things. For instance, this show was in correlation with a Special Olympics fundraiser (in which we also donated a percentage of our merch sales to).


As we pulled into town and made our way towards KQ92 for an interview, we dialed into station and were surprised to hear "Dreams and Bones" on air. Very exciting! The interview went quick and we headed to the venue.

The show at the Coyote was a racous one ending with a foot stompin’ and wild dancin’ crowd; much to our liking and overwhelming approval. So I’ll just say it; Burlington, we love you. It is scenes like this (and others like ndianapolis, Macomb, etc.) that plant seeds of sincerity which will hopefully spread like wildfire through the masses and revive the dying conscious of local, and more importantly, sincere music... Sometimes autographs too.

Who is Brandi?



There is a video of the show somewhere - hopefully we can get it in here shortly!

I will be honest, I love our travels and I love the people that enjoy what we are doing. I look forward to continuing the recording process and more importantly, completing a project in order to help the wildfire accelerate.

As Model Stranger carry’s our own torch I plan on enjoying the scenery along the journey… and waking to alarm clocks rather than cannons.

Sexual.
 

VJ.

The Last Few Weekends

03.23 - The Rock House - Indianapolis, IN
We had to battle through a killer thunderstorm as we ventured from Chicago to Indianapolis to perform at the Rockhouse on this raucous Friday night. 


Although our show was plagued with technical difficulties, we had a great time with the crowd. The promoter for the show hired a photographer and videographer and they documented the night for us. The show was highlighted with an uncharacteristic abandon.


You can check out the photos from The Morning Sleeve HERE!

ROCK!

The video is in the process of being edited. We will link to it when it is available.


03.24 - Be Here Now - Muncie, IN

This trip was only our second time through Muncie and our second time performing at Be Here Now. This venue is quite eccentric. With a nice craft beer selection at the bar and homegrown art lining the walls – We feel right at home when we visit. In December when this show was lined up we had no idea we would be performing the same night as “Muncie Gras”.  We spent the first part of the night watching potential, already half naked, show goers - pile into free trollies. From here they would be dropped off downtown and pay $5 to drink in the street and try to convince fellow co-eds to show some skin.  

The crowd never quite reached it’s full potential but we made the most of the night with what we were given. Despite the lack of a full crowd, sold some merch and made some new friends. The bill was shared with Ryan Pruett.  Here a few pictures from our performance.

photos courtesy of Elizabeth Ambs

03.30 - RME Café - Davenport, IA

We haven’t ventured through Davenport much as a band – just one time in the Spring of last year. We didn’t really know what to expect but outside of some new and enthusiastic fans we found two other really great things!

When we arrived we found out we were the “Band of The Week” in the GO! Section of the Quad Cities Times.

 Also the venue we played was a real intimate place with a rich history of performers. It turns out that even Jimi Hendrix had played this room in 1968 – Where the stage was pre-renovation – we have no clue. The upstairs has a museum feeling with a larger room. We played the Café downstairs. It was a free show – John June Year was on the bill. 

Jimi Hendrix Shrine at The RME 

Once again we had equipment failure when Kevin’s back up amp (his amp fried out during recording two weeks ago) overheated and only worked intermittently. This forced us to exit the stage a little early.


03.31 - The Buffalo - Burlington, IA


We have been playing Burlington just about 2 years now. Ironically, this may have been the first time we performed on a Saturday, at least it felt like it. With the radio support we receive on KQ92 we have built up a really great crowd for ourselves here.

We were competing with friends of ours in Toology, a Tool Tribute act, down the street. This made for a treat when we saw so many Strangeloves present when we took for our first set of the evening. We missed some familiar faces but all in all it was a real treat. 

A group at the front of the stage wore fake moustaches; they were ready to party and party they did.

4 am. Last glass of Whiskey.

We performed for nearly three and a half hours before our night was eclipsed with a last minute decision to make the trek back to Chicago overnight.

We made it home safe and sound. 


04.12 - 04.13 - Macomb/Peoria
PURE AWESOME.

Setting the gear back up and getting back to writing and stopping this damn.. NOW. 


Most of the new music is translating well live. More to come soon! THaaaaaaaaaaaaaankssssssss.

Model Stranger

The Road, My Birthday and an Impressive Photo Bomb

Things have been going great. Life is great. The road is as wonderful as ever. We have amazing fans (yes, YOU!). We got to spend some of the final days of our final dates of touring in 2011 in a few of our favorite cities.


Speaking on behalf of all of us, Burlington, IA has developed into a home away from home. The fans, atmosphere and city itself is awesome! We couldn't have done this year in Burlington without the support of Mike Savage and KQ92. The station has consistently spun tracks off of Dreams & Bones and every show we see more fans dancing and singing along. It’s been a great ride for us so far!


If you're ever traveling through I highly suggest you stop in Burlington and at the very least visit Mr. Moto's and Weird Harold's. You'll thank me later. Look at this pic of some Strangeloves... sexy staches!

Loving the photo bomb

What can I say about Macomb, IL?  Well, it's a college town, it rocks and it’s crawling with Strangeloves. That's certainly one reason we keep returning.  We have amazing fans there and Guy, manager of The Cafe, is like the Father we never had. He heavily influences us to drink Jameson and calls us derogatory names if we don't consume enough, ha!  But really, we actually played at The Cafe 7 times this year and every show was something different.  Acoustic sets, bringing friends on stage to sing along, diving into drums...it has been a wonderful year for us there and we look forward to what Macomb has to offer in 2012.

Another Macomb Strangelove shows off her I <3 Moustache nails.

And finally this past weekend we celebrated my birthday just as I would've liked, by playing music with two of my best friends.  We rocked with our good friends’ bands, Red City and Blue Eyed Jesus.  City Limits has always been a great place for us to play and we look forward to seeing you at a show there in the future.

"Operator" - 11/24/2011

Finally after 70 odd shows and a whole lot of traveling we are devoting the Winter to completing some new tracks. It’s been too long since we released anything. This year the road became a vacuum, this Winter the studio will become our home.

:{) -Kevin James