Well, we've been home for about three weeks on and off and we're just itching to get back out for real. . . it doesn't take long to get cabin fever when you're used to being in a new place every day! We've gotten some much needed relaxing time as well as a chance to perfect and practice some new material that's been jangling around the brains for a while. The last few weekends we've taken off for Charlotte/Chapel Hill and Knoxville after enjoying the "home crowd" in Athens, GA and our very own Asheville. We've got some live tunes from our Asheville show that we'll be posting later this week. This weekend it's off to Newport, KY and Spartanburg, SC for one last "regional" (admittedly it's difficult to consider western KY regional to NC) run before really hitting the road next Thursday. Well it's off to practice some more and get some new merch ready (it's a suprise!) for this tour. . .

Thursday night was a great time in Grand Rapids, MI at Founder's Brewery. The room is a huge beerhall style and, lucky for us, lots of festive beer-drinkers were there enjoying themselves.
We played with our pals the Total Blam Blams -- in fact, it was dubbed the StereoBlam battle, complete with a red dinosaur flyer. Amazing. And fun.Friday we drove south into Northern Indiana to play at the Beanery in Mishawaka. Since we were there last spring, they have literally raised the roof, making it a much better acoustical space and so we were able to rock out with all of our gear. Much fun! (Special bonus: they spelled our name right on their little window-scrolling marquee.)
We caught up with some college friends and spent the evening post-show visiting. The next afternoon we visited some more, driving up to Zeke's to visit over one of the area's finest bottle selections. . .Last night we drove back north a bit to Kalamazoo to play at Papa Pete's with Dooley Noted. They also (mostly) spelled our name correctly on their marquee, although the "stereo fid-three-lics" is probably even more difficult to remember. . . It is raining and chilly; we've come to the conclusion that the Midwest (particularly the northern part) hasn't gotten the memo that it is April and clearly spring rules have been in effect for a few weeks now. . . As we drive south we are, yet again, trying to outrun a snowstorm. But, we're heading south!

Yesterday's show in Madison was a blast as always-the Alchemy is a fun venue to play, despite having a very small stage. Maybe we should release our hypothesis (that doesn't always hold true, but quite often) about the inverse fun to stage size ratio. . . science fair project anyone? But I digress. . .
Today we returned to the Jelly Belly factory north of Chicago to get some tasty fuel to finish out this tour. We were lucky enough to be able to park next to the official JB car. Boy did our car feel special.
Ah, the midwest--check out the marquee message on this corner store sign. . .
This evening we finally found our home venue in Chicago. We played at the Red Line Tap, a venue with great sound, wonderful employees, cheap drink specials, a safe neighborhood, and an enthusiastic crowd. What's not to love? We'll be back in the late summer for sure. . . but now we're searching for a Steak 'n Shake after just losing an hour crossing into EST--wish us luck!