Tour Diary – Omaha and Salina (April 19 and 20, 2012)
Omaha, Nebraska
We spent the day in a parking lot in the rain. It was a nice parking lot, and at least there was a cafe that we could run to throughout the day, but we saw nothing of Omaha. The complex where the club is located, is part of a relatively new development on the outskirts of Omaha that has at its centerpiece a beautiful Triple A baseball stadium that is the annual home to the NCAA World Series. It wasn’t a bad place to spend a day. The club (The Slowdown) was clean and well run and comfortable. They even had a washer/dryer that they let us use and the staff was helpful and friendly. It doesn’t take much to keep a band on the road happy, just a smidge of TLC….It was another very light audience, but once again they were mighty in their appreciation and enthusiasm and did their best to keep us propped up and rocking forward.
Salina, Kansas
It’s one of those gigs that you look at on the tour itinerary and say to yourself, “…Salina, Kansas..??…”. You have no idea what you’ll find when you show up. What we found was another classic mid-western town with wide -streets, three story buildings with those 100 year old brick facades and not a whole lot happening on the downtown strip. While walking the wide empty sidewalks one keeps checking to see if ones six-shooter is easily accessible….no telling when Black Bart will emerge from the saloon looking for a fight. But what we also found was a beautiful venue (the Steifel Theater) and an enthusiastic, decent sized audience. We were again treated royally by the promoter and the theater staff. We had a really good show.
