How do you follow up a great (yet rowdy) show in Louisville? A final show in Bloomington that’s equally as rowdy. A sold out crowd at this lovely pre-Depression theater called the Buskirk-Chumley and we end up with probably the best backstage hospitality of the entire tour.
Patton starts off with two completely insane crowd members, one on the floor and one in the balcony, that completely derail the early part of the show. Much like the Louisville show (which I forgot to mention, I had to physically escort a rowdy heckler off the venue property) I had the ushers personally warn both guys that they’d be walked out if they spoke up again. I actually got a text from Brian during Patton’s opening set saying "get them out now" which I obliged only because that Louisville heckler completely ruined Brian’s set the night before.
So with asshole duties out of the way, I quickly noticed somebody filming and told them to stop which they happily obliged. Even deleted their camera.
However, there was a photographer with this enormous National Geographic-style lens on the other side of the stage which was both annoying and terribly self-important. Now, as a rule, the CoC don’t allow photographs. That’s just our policy. When I asked this guy for press credentials (a simple business card would’ve sufficed), he had nothing. So, being the "asshole" tour manager that I am, I asked him to leave. He huffed and then attempted to make a scene in the lobby as the staff looked on. He waved his "student newspaper" affiliation around like he had a 18-inch long dick. I didn’t care. No credentials. No permission. No photos. It’s that simple. After he left for the second time (yes, he was THAT self-important) I was told that his last name was "Prick". Not kidding.
We decided not to do a meet-and-greet after the show because we didn’t have anything to sell, but instead I got one of the Magnolia Electric kids to sell CDs for me for 15 minutes. Very nice.
After the show, I drove Doug, Patton and Brian to Indianapolis where they had rooms near the airport. I got a few hours of driving in before I started nodding off.
So the tour’s over, but it’s not over for me. I am currently in a hotel room in eastern Indiana getting ready to drive to my mom’s house in south central Pennsylvania tonite. It was fun, but I’m not out of the forest yet. Wish me luck on this long drive back to Boston.