More of Day 20 - Omaha - March 9

THE SHOW

Walking into the Suckau Chapel was the first time in 20 days that I walked familiar ground. There's a good feeling you get when you enter a place that held good and special memories. It just instantly feels comfortable. And from a person who has never traveled much, and definitely finds comfort in familiar territory, it was so soothing to be at this church again.

This past summer, an abridged version of the Trapdoor Band (including Alex, Nicole Kern, John Hoover and myself) took a 5 day trip to Omaha and back and played at the very same chapel. We walked through nearby neighborhoods and took lots of pictures. It was fun to pass all those places again.

Before the show, we hung out in a little "green room" area, complete with a table of snacks and sandwiches and a classroom-style dry erase board. nice. The guys picked up markers and began to write all kinds of ridiculousness. "Homework: Read Revelations 24:12. Name 5 prophecies that have come true in the last 10 years. (ex: that ten-headed beast that came out of the ocean)"

Adam started a collaborative brainstorming activity titled: Ideas for the Suckau Show list, including (but not limited to) the following:

all new unrehearsed songs, capes, strutting, top hats, sunset backdrop, nickelback pre-music, Wall of Justice (inside joke), lots of onstage crying, Creed Covers, Be Sober (Mike)

crazy. 

The show was made especially exciting for me because for the first time all trip I got to see friends from home in a place quite far from it. As random as it is, a group of 20 people from my church in Austin were on a mission trip to the church we were playing at in Omaha! I accidently ran into Heather Lods and said hello to everyone. They sat in the front row for both sets. and man, it's hard to explain how glad I was to have all of them there. For a good while I was longing for friends from home to cross paths with. Everyone else in the band had old friends in some of the different cities we went to except me (yeah, you can whip out the tiny violin and play me a sad song. haha.). So yeah, it was extremely nice to have everyone there.

I thought both sets went really well. There were

 a few tiny flubs here and there but we have learned to recover gracefully. Rob got to play on a beautiful piano, which had to have been refreshing for him, having played through his keyboard for so many nights. Besides a few issues with our abilities to hear everyone, the music was great. I made it through lament, the piano-vioiln duet without screwing it up (honestly, I always make it. That's just the only song that always makes me nervous). AND trapdoor got a mid-song energetic applause during Revolution Choir! First mid-song clap ever! haha. I don't remember the set, but maybe I can get it from Adam. He's been very faithful about writing down the set every nighti n a little book. That and Earth Mouth were my two favorite Trapdoor songs to play.

After the show, we went out to a diner (as usual) with Will and some of his friends from the chapel. I think the dinners after the shows were my second favorite part of touring (after the actual show of course). They're so fun. And everyone's in such high spirits.

Afterwards, we went back to the awesome mansion house we were so graciously allowed to stay at. Mike, Adam, Rob, Dave and I watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, till about 2am (what became our normal bed time). That house is crazy. We had surround sound, a big screen wide screen TV with a huge L shaped couch to enjoy. The house was two stories, with a huge basement that could've been a house in itself (it even had a kitchen). They gave us full reign over their pantry and whether we should've taken that to heart or not, we did...gently...kind of. Everything was high class, and completely comfortable. We even drove down a long lit curvy road to get up to the house. They had lots of land. Lots of space. lots of autographed baseballs. It was awesome. We felt like we were in a palace, especially after some of the places we'd been.

Lots of good people in the world.