Day 17 - Bloomington - March 6

Tonight's venue was called Art Hospital. We were greeted by CJ Boyd standing outside his car, waving his arms to and fro. We got out of the car and he showed us where the entrance was. "It's that big door with the red cross on it. Do you get it? Do you get it Alex? It's an Art Hospital. They're gonna HEAL you with art!"

I have a weird knack for remembering random quotes.

So anyway, that place was cool.  IT was a small gallery space that they open up for shows. And like almost everywhere we've played, someone lives there. 

This guy pulled out these crazy stilts and we tried to walk on them.  I tried, balanced on it for a whole 2 seconds annd then jumped off.

 There are some funny pictures of our attempts.

  

Both the trapdoor and balmorhea sets went well.  Things were all acoustic on the Trapdoor side and we played an awesome version of All is Full of Love, featuring CJ Boyd and an extra little jam at the end. So fun.

Next up was the CJ Boyd Sexxxtet. If you don't know anything about them and you're modest, well, be glad I'm debriefing you before you see them. Tonight it was CJ on bass, then cello, violin, and clairinette. So they all took of their shoes. Then picked up their instruments. Then took off their clothes. Yes, they played naked, and then they turned off the lights. The entire show was played in absolute darkness. It's crazy because you can't see any body language, or people preparing to play a line. You're just continually surprised by different sounds. As another surprise, dave and I, who were posing as audience members, crept up to our instruments once it was dark, and joined in. I'm not sure how many people noticed. But the entire set is completely improvised with singing, playing, whatever you feel. It was awesome. There's something really freeing abot just making things up as you go while you're in the dark, and hidden from the audience. And because i know you were wondering, no, dave and i were not nude.

After the show, we ate at a Waffle House (which did NOT have a yellow and black sign. crazy) and had a lot of fun just hangin out. Afterwards, we got a cheap hotel ($30 a room) and slept (only after watching 2 episodes of the office of course). good times.