Madison, 1/7/11

Joe and Jordan harmonize

Our first show of 2011 was a momentous one - we traveled to Madison, where our good friend Cactus Joe had set up a show at The Dry Bean, a restaurant/club with a killer stage.  We were told it used to be a country music club many years ago, but now it caters to music of all types.

Unfortunately, our regular bass player Greg couldn't make the jaunt, but Joe volunteered to learn a set and play with us.  The show was for his birthday party, with his kick ass band The Guppy Effect headlining, so Joe had to do double duty on his own birthday!

Buzz and his drink

We sent Joe a set of tunes to learn, and he agreed, liked them, and asked for more!  So we ended up doing nearly two sets' worth of material.  Joe is an animal, and put in the time to learn the whole thing, and nailed the set.

Rat jams on Pedro's set

The Guppies were very generous to us, letting us use their drum set, and in return for learning all our material, Joe asked us if we'd learn the vocals to a White Zombie song, "Black Sunshine."  We listened to the song over and over again on the van trip out to Madison, and during The Guppy Effect's second set, Joe invited us up, creating a hybrid we dubbed "Strong Like Guppy."  It was a blast having that many people on stage, and we may have biffed a lyric or two, but, overall, it was a great way to celebrate a birthday, the union of rocking.

Joe, sporting his SLB shirt

The next morning we were all pretty tired, but by afternoon we were once again filled with the rocking spirit, and we recorded one of Cactus Joe's famous "couch concerts," where Joe invited musicians from all over to sit on his couch and play some acoustic tunes, which he then records and spreads across the interwebs.  It was great fun, and once it goes up, we'll have a link for you.

Madison is a very friendly, very musical place to be, and we were happy to bring a slab of Ames musical love, and bring back a little bit of Madison with us in the process.