Small Towns, Big Hearts & Bigger Creeps

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So Model Stranger rolled into the quaint and beautiful town of Greenfield, IA yesterday (4/9/10) for a show at a place called Wrangler’s Pub & BBQ. As we drove into the town square (literally a square) it seemed as though we were zapped into “Pleasantville.” Architecture from the late 1800’s lined the streets and people shot us some glares, as though we were from outer-space. However, the glares soon turned to smiles and kind greetings. After we filled our bellies with hashbrowns and ketchup we thought we should head over to the venue for the evening.

When we got to Wrangler’s we saw it wasn’t open yet...but it wasn’t until we read the sign from the Iowa State Department of Health that we realized we were up sh*t creek without a paddle. We called our contacts at the venue to find out that the previous day they had been shut down for not renewing their liquor license. What were we to do?

We were walking back to our van to organize a plan-of-attack when a very nice girl named Lindsay approached us. She greeted us, “Hey, I recognize you guys from your posters.” We responded with the story of the Wrangler shutting down and not having much to do that evening. She was such a sweetheart and immediately began calling all of her contacts in the immediate and surrounding areas (she just so happen to be in the service industry and worked at multiple establishments in the area). After about 15 calls we still had nowhere to play. Then off of a whim we called a placed called The Pub in Creston Iowa (a biker town about 20 miles south of the celestial Greenfield) and we were told we could play, but outside.

We arrived at The Pub and were greeted by Randy, a badass biker and owner of The Pub. He was the kindest and most inebriated man in the joint, but immediately gave us a tour of the small-one-room pub. He then brought us outside to what seemed like a dog-fighting pit and told us to play loud; he expected to go to jail that night. We were definitely out of our element but didn’t feel like it until we were setting up.

A brooding character in a long leather duster, black leather cowboy hat, sporting hair down to his mid-back and a beard to match decided to hang out on our trailer and van. He was a lurker, the epitome of a creep; leaving us very uncomfortable and just confused. Would we be robbed, beaten, hassled, gutted…who knew? After all, we were completely off the grid; no GPS signal, low cellular signal and in a town of rowdy people who like to party. 

Check out THIS VIDEO about our experience...

We locked up the van and trailer and started to play some rock n’ roll hoping that we hadn’t gotten ourselves in over our heads. The man in the duster lurked a bit more and even followed

us into the bar; but soon after we started playing, the crowd was loving it and the lurker was MIA.

Model Stranger played throughout the night and the crowd grew warmer and warmer. A nice lady even decided to do some PR work and rounded up all the people from the surrounding bars and clubs (the ones that wouldn’t cancel karaoke for us). Even the club owners that wouldn’t have us came over and voiced their regret. One bar owner even bought "Dreams & Bones" to place in his jukebox at the bar! Some people came out from their homes and bonfires because they heard us playing - we were THE attraction for Creston, IA that night.

People were dancing and just having a good time; some even tipped us with flashing their body-parts (thank you Austen). The night actually turned into a success and we made the most in merchandise of any date on the tour yet. Not to push our luck we decided to split from town that

night before the lurker returned.

Oakland, Iowa - you're up next.

-Vincent Joseph