@ WhySound.
Cristina drove us out of Denver and Meghan kept her company, while the rest of us tried to sleep. After a couple of hours we pulled off at a rest stop outside Laramie and passed out for a while. Meghan cleared herself a nook in the back after shifting around the gear, which was hilarious and adorable. After a few hours, Cristina felt ready to get back behind the wheel, so she drove us into the dawn. We stopped at a podunk gas station for a break, and I took over for the rest of the way into Logan.
Logan is the only city we are playing on this tour where I once lived. It was a long time ago, like 1995, but it’s pretty surreal to be coming back. I hated Utah when I lived there, mainly because I’m not interested in being a member of any organized religion, and Utah is different from other states because the massively dominant culture there is based on a single belief system. That being said, Utah is a beautiful place. Incredibly beautiful landscape. Driving through Wyoming, we began to see mountains again in the distance, which was a good feeling. Mountains = home.
Winding up into the Cache Valley, where Logan sits, I tried to point out bits and pieces of information I have in my head about the place. Mainly this is an odd mix of Mormon trivia and houses I once lived in. One place I was happy to visit again was Caffe Ibis. Back in the day, the Ibis was virtually the only cool place to hang out in Logan. We all had some food and coffee, ran a couple errands, and pulled up to the Cache Valley Mall for our early Hot Topic show. HOT TOPIC DUDES.
One mall looks like another, but they all have their way of reflecting their locale in subtle ways. I can’t really define what made this mall specifically Loganesque, but it was. The employees at Hot Topic were dubious that there would literally be anyone watching CT4 play their pared-down set, so we all made an effort to pull people walking by into the store. Val used her tap shoes and a shaker (which was really my bottle of ibuprofen), Meghan played sitting down with her pedals switched off, and Cristina stood but played quieter. It’s nice hearing the lyrics! Kids started trickling in, along with curious adults. Meghan got the crowd clapping along on “Fiscal Year”, and they yelled on “Shook” – it turned out to be a pretty fun experience. We plugged the show that night, sold a CD, and shook hands and stuff with the people we met.
There was some spare time between engagements, so Valerie took a nap on a mall couch, Crisitina accessed the Internet, and I ran some more errands with Meghan. It was fun driving around the campus at Utah State University, where I worked in Logan for a while. We noticed the temperature was over 90°F, making Logan officially the hottest stop of the tour. Birmingham and Memphis may have been more uncomfortable due to humidity, but Logan wins the hottest-so-far award.
The show was at WhySound, an all-ages venue that recently also became a recording studio. We met Robert, the man who promoted and booked the show, and loaded into the clean, crisp space.
The first two openers were from Provo, who apparently had a show fall through elsewhere, so they were added to our bill. I didn’t catch the first act’s name, Forest Something, but they are a male/female duo that perform electropop like the Postal Service or Her Space Holiday. I wasn’t paying attention, but I was told that all the songs were spiritually oriented.
Next was OK Ikumi, which was a fellow named Carl playing GameBoy electronic music. I managed to miss watching his brief set (I could still hear it), because a vending machine stole a dollar from me and I was trying to reason with it. Oops. Tour! Salt Mine Circus played next.
When it was CT4’s turn to set up, Meghan and Crisitina decided to play on the floor in front of the stage, which let Valerie play up on the edge, closer to the room. The energy was charged, and within moments of the first note there was, I kid you not, a mosh pit. Okay well it wasn’t proper pit, since it was mostly the dudes from American Attic, but it was still pretty pit-like. I was mpressed that I could stand right in front, however, and never be grazed by a flailing rocker.
The set did rule, as per usual, and after it was over there were calls for an encore – just like in Denver! Leave ‘em wanting more, yes? Toward the end of the set, the band even taught the Loganites the Owl Eyes game we learned from Hunter back in Pierre. We’re trying to help him spread it across the country, but we’ve been neglecting our duties, so there was an effort to make up for it tonight. Trying to explain the rules here feels like a violation of those rules though, so please just find one of us when you see us back home and we’ll gladly explain.
The first two openers were from Provo, who apparently had a show fall through elsewhere, so they were added to our bill. I didn’t catch the first act’s name, Forest Something, but they are a male/female duo that perform electropop like the Postal Service or Her Space Holiday. I wasn’t paying attention, but I was told that all the songs were spiritually oriented.
Next was OK Ikumi, which was a fellow named Carl playing GameBoy electronic music. I managed to miss watching his brief set (I could still hear it), because a vending machine stole a dollar from me and I was trying to reason with it. Oops. Tour! Salt Mine Circus played next.
When it was CT4’s turn to set up, Meghan and Crisitina decided to play on the floor in front of the stage, which let Valerie play up on the edge, closer to the room. The energy was charged, and within moments of the first note there was, I kid you not, a mosh pit. Okay well it wasn’t proper pit, since it was mostly the dudes from American Attic, but it was still pretty pit-like. I was mpressed that I could stand right in front, however, and never be grazed by a flailing rocker.
The set did rule, as per usual, and after it was over there were calls for an encore – just like in Denver! Leave ‘em wanting more, yes? Toward the end of the set, the band even taught the Loganites the Owl Eyes game we learned from Hunter back in Pierre. We’re trying to help him spread it across the country, but we’ve been neglecting our duties, so there was an effort to make up for it tonight. Trying to explain the rules here feels like a violation of those rules though, so please just find one of us when you see us back home and we’ll gladly explain.
American Attic earned my respect. They play a somewhat disparate style of rock, containing elements of emo, to be perfectly honest, but there are elements of simple pop and even reggae on certain songs. They are all very good at their instruments and have a ton of stage presence (dude jumped off the wall twice!), as well as a charming, self-effacing, humorous banter. They totally won me over. American Attic is on my list of best bands CT4 played with.After the show ended we met Brian, who owns and built WhySound. He offered us a place to crash, which made us grateful; my attempts to find us a place using my dusty connections was a resolute failure. He has a big home nearby with a huge back yard, a barn, a work shop, a garden, and a basement riddled with couches and beds for sleeping. He’s also got a giant pile of questionably-legal fireworks and evidently very patient and/or tolerant neighbors. We ended the day with explosions and card games.
