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| All photos by John Bachman at D&G Pub and Grub in St. Joeseph, MO |
For this blog I don't want to talk to much about the upcoming run of shows that will take us down to Rocklahoma. I will save that for next week. I want to wrap up the "Unrest in the Midwest" tour and you know exactly where we came from. Starting back in Sept. 2016 Sniper and I decided to take the leap of faith and make The Midnight Devils into a full fledged rock n roll band. We brought in The Playboy on the drums and started rehearsing songs to make a full set. It was a long shot but the challenge was presented and we went at it full steam ahead. For the first couple shows we didn't have enough material that I could sing so we enlisted Pat Algire from Shoot to Thrill and Pranxter to basically come in and front the band on songs Sniper or I couldn't sing. That was very cool of Pat and he saved us on those first few shows. After that we knew we couldn't sit around and wait for the shows to come to us. We'd been down that road. We wanted to travel and play our music on our own terms in every city we could drive to. We hit the tried and true places we knew would welcome us with open arms like RD's Place in Fremont, NE and The 21st Saloon in Omaha. Not good enough. Next thing you know we are in Topeka at The Boobie Trap Bar for Thanksgiving. We are traveling to St. Joe, MO in an ice storm. We are hitting Des Moines, IA during the coldest part of the year. It started to snow ball and we got some momentum. Most importantly we got out and started meeting people, like minded people that were ready for some high energy boogie woogie rock n roll.
The "Unrest in the Midwest" run of shows from Sept to this week was our trial by fire. Basically we wanted to see how far we could take it. Now after 8 months we are leaving for our biggest adventure ever and this is exactly what we have been preparing for. I wish I could name off all of the awesome club owners and promoters that took a chance on us. For you we are eternally grateful. Our die hard fans followed us to almost every show. We played in some of the coolest venues in the midwest and met so many great bands. Most importantly we played our own dirty boogie woogie heart-and-soul rock n roll songs every night and no one can take that away from us. There were good nights, there were bad nights, and there were nights that gave me goosebumps. There were clubs that closed that we will never forget. There were clubs that we will never make it back to. Each time we put the van into drive and left Sniper's drive way I knew we were in for some sort of wild adventure. The stories you wouldn't even believe. I think we hit ever Casey's gas station within a 100 mile radius of Omaha. Now coming out the other side and preparing for this big journey I believe we have something unique and exciting under our belts. The Midnight Devils are a rock n roll band and we will caring on as the great ones did before us. The blue print is there and we fully intend to follow it. Write. Tour. Record. Repeat. Stay humble and always say "please and thank you". Simple as it gets really.
ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD
Sam Spade
