A fresh new day on the Doob Tour.

We woke up this morning to the most jolly old time piano music ringing out from my phone. I thought it was a cheerful way to start the day, but I don’t think anyone else was very impressed. We all brushed the poopy taste out of our mouths and headed out to find a coffee fix and some WiFi.

We had spied a small coffee shop on our way to Denny’s the night before which had advertised “Wireless Internet Access,” but we found that, due to “recent upgrades,” they were charging two bucks for half an hour of WiFi access. No thanks, we’ll try someplace else. Walking down the street we noticed String Bean, a coffee shop/music store. That’s what the sign said. There was even a small table with chairs and a napkin dispenser in the middle of all the guitars on the walls. However, the clerk informed us in a somewhat sour tone that they don’t serve coffee anymore. He was not having a very good day at work, apparently. Being musically inclined, we decided to have a look around, despite the lack of caffeine and friendly service.

Andy found a pretty sweet pedal he wanted to test out, but when he asked the ever-helpful employee to take it for a spin, the guy ripped it out of Andy’s hand, took him straight back to the demo room, plugged it into a marginal amp with a mediocre guitar without saying anything, and spun around to make sure the rest of us weren’t stuffing our pockets. Andy plucked out a few notes to be polite and we bounced. It looked like we were going to have to pay for internet after all.

We headed in to the first coffee candidate, the Coffee Break. Andy paid for internet and he and Jake slurped down some coffee while Charlie and I both whipped out our MacBooks to upload stuff, all with CNN blaring in the background. As soon as we were finished, we beat feet off to the Kirkwood mall to pick up a sleeping bag for Jake and a sweatshirt for me. I also copied Andy and got a sweet roll out inflatable sleeping mat. We then sampled some awesome zucchini bread and got the hell out of Bismarck as fast as we could.

While on the way to Grand Forks, we stopped in a quaint little town called Castleville, or something. It stank. Bad. The prevailing stench as we pulled into the gas station was piss, but as we got out and walked inside, there was a subtle tar undertone. We did find an AC adapter for the van, which allowed me to plug in my MacBook, so it wasn’t a total stink-fest.

After much lolly-gagging and many stops, we arrived in Grand Forks. The show was to be held outside. There was a large group of people standing in front of a long trailer which was acting as the stage for the night’s events. The crowd was already double the size of the last show’s, so we had high hopes.

The first couple of bands to play were calling themselves Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovels. D.O. followed. Only a small number of folks enjoyed us. I think a few more people enjoyed the Ooblecks, but I can’t be too sure because I was too busy ROCKING OUT. Damn, I love the Oobs. Taking shelter in the van from the thick cloud of mosquitoes, we listened to Kentucky Sound Arsenal, a hardcore duo sans lyrics. I guess we looked like them because Suspenders Joe showed up at our trailer looking for their merch later after the show. Towards the end of the set, our whole crew jumped out for a crazy dance fest. We danced through the next band, Kimmy Gibbler, a ska cover band.

Once the show was over, we packed everything up and wandered over to the house of she who threw the show: Jamie Mulligan. A couple cute kittens were waiting for us on the stoop, so we gave them plenty of lovins. Inside, many guitars rested on many guitar stands, surrounding an upright piano in her living room. Us being musicians, we all descended upon them like vultures on baby kittens. Except with less blood.

Jamie showed up with pizza for everyone, so we sat eating, talking and swiping at all the flies that had snuck into the house. After a while, she and all her friends left. Before going, she invited us to make ourselves at home, and especially to sleep in her bed, as she was going to be staying at her parents’ house. I certainly wasn’t going to sleep in it (I just bought a new sleeping pad and I wasn’t about to pass up my first chance to use it) and no one else really thought it would feel alright, but it was very nice of her to offer. It was also very trusting of her to leave a whole house full of musical instruments to five strapping young lads with a trailer full of plenty of extra space. We resisted the urge to take everything and run, and just set up our sleeping bags instead.

So ends the second day of the Doob Tour. It still hasn’t really dawned on me that I’m on tour and won’t being seeing Minot for another three weeks. It’ll probably hit me on the way back home.

-Jimmy