Silo Halo’s Christin Durham greets us from Big Red Liquors
Local guitar-and-bass trio Silo Halo is on an eight-day tour of the Midwest. We’ve asked the band to send us thoughts and photos from the road. Today’s transmission spans both days the band spent in Indiana.
Christin Durham writes:
Our two days in Indiana have been a whirlwind of reuniting with old friends and meeting new ones, including the amazingly smart and cute offspring of the Brothers McClain as well as James (I think I’ll call him… Mini James). We took 37 South into Bloomington and I insisted that we go to Big Red Liquors, which is no longer painted red, but nonetheless filled me with fond memories of my drunk punk days in Indiana when I lived with Uncle Sparky, Sloah and Michelle on Walnut Avenue, drank my weight in Red Bull forties and formed many special, lasting friendships (emphasis on the special). It’s pretty amazing that Sparky’s house is still standing. I think it almost burnt down once. “Yo vivo por el rojo grande!”
I called Michelle on the way in and we planned to meet for dinner at the Upland Brewery, but it was a 90 minute wait for a table for nine, so we followed the Matty Mobile to a parking garage and ultimately decided on sandwiches and pizza at Butch’s, which had a lot of flat screen televisions and pizza with stuffed ziti on it. I added some Jameson to my soda and I began to comprehend, slowly, that I was, in fact, actually with Michelle, and we were both in Bloomington. Michelle now lives in Scotland, so it was the most fortunate of luck that she was back home visiting at the time of our tour. We originally planned to play in Louisville after Chicago, but the show was cancelled due to illness. Michelle arranged for us to play Mark’s graduation party, and she also organized a lunch get-together for the following day. On top of that, she and her mother Liz were in the midst of planning for Liz’s mother’s 75th birthday two days later. Michelle is awesome at making things come together and has an entrepreneurial business helping people promote themselves and their work. I should mention that creativity runs in the Izzo family, as evidenced by the beautiful art that Liz makes.
At Mark and Amanda’s house, we were greeted by two kitties and two doggies, as well as a fire pit, tunes, snacks, drinks and more old friends. We set up our gear on their little back porch, surrounded by tiki torches and rope lights. It was a gorgeous night and playing outside is my favorite way to perform. Unfortunately, the neighbors were not feeling listening to music at Silo Halo volume for 30 minutes, so someone complained and the cops arrived the before the first song ended and we had to turn way down. But, we made it through the set, and I was thrilled to be able to play for my Bloomington beloveds. We have all changed so much but somehow, also not at all. Cate made sure a donation jar made its way around to everyone, and we made a decent chunk of gas change. Some nice acoustic rockabilly followed our set, then singing with a guitar from Austin and others around the fire. At some point, I realized Chris had passed out in the back of Mother Whale and Greg was looking likely to do the same on Mark’s couch, so everyone rallied to get our gear out of the yard and into the van and we piled Keddy in to guide us to his place, a giant Bloomington punk house with plenty of couch and floor space and at least two cats. I got a text message from Michelle and Austin asking me to join them at Atlas bar. Keddy was decidedly against the idea, and as he was touting the benefits of drinking at his place instead of the bar, I got another text saying “Don’t let Keddy convince you to just stay at his place.” Keddy won because I was tired and probably couldn’t have walked a block without falling into a ditch at that point.
Chocolate Moose
The next day was spent eating at Roots, record shopping, wandering, hanging out with Austin’s dog Radar, and sitting in a gorgeous park watching the kids play. Greg picked up two Perennials singles, a Burnt Ones LP, and a Microphones’ Live in Japan LP. Chris picked up the new Disappears LP, Pre-Language, and the latest Terry Malts LP via Slumberland Records. Everyone had lots of time to catch up on each other’s lives and/or get to know each other. Ice cream from the Chocolate Moose was consumed and they had lots of vegan options. Greg heard from Brandon in Indy about load in for our show at the Melody Inn, and he said that we would be way better off staying in Bloomington until at least nine 9:00 p.m. due to the location of the venue and a lack of places to eat vegetarian food nearby. We headed back to Keddy’s via Big Red Liquors for some beers and fellowship. All the offspring went home after we left the park with the exception of Keddy’s daughter Atlantis, who played soccer and climbed trees with various friends while we sat and talked. Rachel regaled us with crazy stories of piercing genitals for the BDSM community in Oregon, and we learned all about Keddy’s band Coconuts who claim to be from Guam. I attempted to explain what I do for a living. I kept telling everyone to visit me in D.C. The time to head to Indy eventually came, so we headed to Bloomingfoods to get some quick food on our way out. Altantis gave me a big hug before we departed from the yard, a huge highlight of the day for me. At Bloomingfoods, a man with a huge parrot on a perch attached to his bicycle pulled up and parked, so we got to gawk at and talk to the bird while we ate.
Aforementioned parrot
We arrived at the Melody Inn at 9:30 p.m. to the sounds of The Cousin Brothers (oh yes, that’s their name) playing a song about eating more pork than Kermit the Frog. We loaded all of our gear into a corner and escaped back outside, where we were hit up for money by the locals. Rachel and I went to the BP/McDonald’s complex at the intersection to get water and use the bathroom and it was sketch city, although a nice lady did squirt me with her pleasantly scented body spray while I was putting on makeup at the mirror. There was a crazy costume store on the block with a mannequin in a dress with a bunny’s head in the display window. Rachel was pretty excited about that. We eventually saw Brandon walking up the street with his kick drum. He was pretty annoyed that the early show was going so late, but our gig was well attended. The people who had arrived before ten stuck it out until the redneck crowd cleared out. The Melody Inn end was an excellent venue. Great music on the jukebox, generous drinks, interesting décor, clean enough bathrooms and a great crowd of locals. The sound guy talked to Greg about the history and legends of the venue. According to the stories, its longtime owner, Louise, started working there as a waitress in the 1930s, then became a bartender, and ultimately the owner. It’s said that she still haunts the place. Ancient Slang played first, and I danced uncontrollably. We played second, and I dedicated “Meg’s Rest” to “the ladies.” Learner Dancer played a hypnotic closing set full of psych and soul. I think they are coming to D.C. in early June, and I very much look forward to it.
Sign at the Melody Inn and proof of existence of the Cousin Brothers
We went to a bar called Dorman’s on the other side of town (or so it seemed, Indy is very sprawling) after loading out from the Melody Inn. Oh yeah, I spilt my beer all over some guy. Obviously, I needed to go drink martinis and eat toaster oven heated frozen cheese pizza. I don’t remember much about passing out at Jordan and Liz’s house in the wee hours besides their super cute doggies playing in the guest bed with Rachel and I before we passed out. I woke up in my clothes extremely dehydrated but happy to be in a clean, lady-loved home (no offense to the generous bachelor pads that hosted us this tour!). Liz made us delicious coffee and we chatted some more with her and Jordan before heading off to Mojoe to find wifi and food, then it was off to Cleveland for the last gig of the tour.
Ancient Slang at Melody Inn
