Yesterday, we enjoyed our first day off by driving through parts of Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas.

We camped in a beautiful Kansas state park; now we're ready for Wichita tonight and then Colorado!

It's been raining so much out here in the midwest, we've run into storms just about every day since we set out and yesterday was for sure no exception. Weather.com had wind advisories for the entire state of IA yesterday, warning us to take special care with our garbage cans and lawn furniture. . . but the result of the storms was a beautiful rainbow that appeared when we arrived in Spencer, IA.

It was so good to see everyone again at Shaky Tree; it's such a warm and supportive venue and audience. Thanks to Levi who took pictures!

One thing we saw often in the lake country in both MN and IA was live bait machines! We managed to snap a picture of one just outside Spencer.

Brainerd, MN, home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox
was much fun! It was great to get back to see all the nice folks we met in Brainerd on our Spring tour. Unfortunately, the Eclectic is closing its doors this Sunday, so there were quite a few sad faces. We felt honored to be the last touring group to perform at the Eclectic. It's a great place and will certainly be missed.

Yesterday we left Wisconsin, saw a big moose

and arrived a little early in Minneapolis, home of . . . Mall of America! We had to go

and Chris found himself something to do as well. . .inside the mall!

We played at the Acadia in downtown Minneapolis and met (and re-met!) some fine folks and talented Minneapolis/St. Paul bands. We're on our way to the furthest North stop on our tour today, then it's westward!

***written very late Wednesdsay evening but, sadly, no wifi until today!***

Cheese!!! We got free milk at the Wisconsin welcome center this morning, a real luxury when you're living out of your car. . . and Chris made a new friend.

Don't forget the cheesehead though. . .

We headed into the captial for the evening and loved playing for the Madison, WI crowd; what a great audience at a swell venue. There's even a plaque to that effect on the bar. . .

Chicago!!! We played at Reggie's in downtown Chicago tonight with local celebs Mr. Blotto and since we forgot about the time change, we got a chance to hang out in the south side of Chicago for a spell. . .We were advised not to leave anything in the car, so the extra time came in handy figuring out what to do with all our food, tent, pillows, teddy bears, blender, lawnmower. . .in the end, we managed to get ourselves and our belongings safely into. . .

. . .and out of the south side of Chicago.

We had a few friendly Chicago folks taking pictures of the performance this evening, so we should have a few show photos to post soon.

Goodnight, Chicago!

We've got some reading material for you all in blog-land: we just got a review of our singles by Red Banana, out of Philly (http://redbananamedia.blogspot.com/2008/06/stereofidelics-definition-of-indie.html)

We played at the Rumba Cafe in Columbus, OH tonight with the Gread Mad Hoax, an awesome band from Columbus. We got a chance to jump onstage with them:

The McGinley parents attended their first TSF show and were kind enough to snap some photos.

Our friend, everybody's friend, Eric Nassau, the made a guest appearance this evening as well, a real treat. The night felt like a show of friends and it kicked ass!

Good night and sweet dreams!

We had our first show of the tour this evening in Thomas, WV; definitely the way to kick off a long stretch of shows! Great, attentive crowd, excellent sound system and a purple moosedeer head. Seriously.

(and amazing baklava. . .)

I (Melissa) was especially happy to get to play a show in my homestate; the first TSF show in WV! We'd like to thank the awesome crowd in attendance for helping us start our tour on the right foot and thank you for reading!

It begins. . .we officially left today for our summer tour. We're starting out in Thomas, WV tonight and from there we'll be heading west. . .we'll be going through a lot of the cities we visited on our last tour and a lot of new cites--all the way out to California!! The StereoFidelics are going to Hollywood!

Tune in here frequently to see some pictures, catch some video and say you saw it first!

We've dropped off a bit in blog-land. . .but once we're back on the road later on this week, I promise to do better. . .


So here comes a recap of this last week:


Wednesday we played with Aaron LaFalce and Kellin Watson (with Aaron Price)at the Shear Art Showdown, a benefit for the Asheville Arts Council put on by Bad Ash of 105.9 The Mountain that turned into a live music/live art/hairstyle show/dance-off extravaganza--much fun! I even got an Asian inspired doo for the evening. . .

Friday evening we made the trek to Chapel Hill to play an acoustic show at the Cave, an awesome downtown basement bar with a "my-dad-used-to-hang-out-there" kind of vibe. Saturday morning came too soon after the trip home from Chapel Hill and we were off to URTV in Asheville to be the subject of a workshop and to tape for an episode of Mount Dungeon. Being on TV is so much fun but such a strange experience. . .we'll keep you updated as to when the episode will air. Then we headed down to Fletcher Park and got out our [figurative] boots and clogging shoes for an acoustic show. . .we'd like to thank the folks that sat outside in the rain while we were warm and dry under a big blue tent.

Monday we went down to Athens, GA for a spot on WUGA and a show at Flicker Theater with Mad Whiskey Grin. We managed to cram into the control room at WUGA and play without poking any eyes out. . .here's the audio from the radio show.

Cheers!

Wow. It sure is summer here in Athens, Georgia! Last night at the Farm 255 with Joanie Musselman was a blast. We're really grateful for all the folks who stuck it out in the heat with us; even the mayor was there! We'll be back in Athens at Flicker on Monday, June 16; we'll be indoors this time. . .

Just got done with our VA/TN weekend--remembering what it's like to be crammed in the car for hours on end. . .don't want to get too comfy before we head out again for our next big trip! This weekend was definitely fun-packed though. It was awesome to get back to the 202 Market in Roanoke Friday night and to play with The Wading Girl again; Saturday with fellow Asheville-based duet Speedsquare in Morristown was a treat for sure! We'll be heading out to Memphis next week and making our way through Georgia (Athens, Dahlonega, Washington) but in the meantime, we'll be diligently working on our upcoming album. . .