More than one person mentioned how drunk I was after the show at the House of Shields. I think it was notable only insofar as I finished playing by about 8:30 and was therefore pretty well blotto before everyone else was on to their second or third drink. But, fuck it, I had fun at this show.

We played upstairs in this little balcony room, the songs went just fine, and lots of good friends showed up. Dan played melodica for about half the set. James and Steffi took some pictures, of which the above is representative. Then the Matinees played. Then a burlesque thing happened, which, I swear to god, I didn't even pay any attention to. And then a ska band played, at which point I left. I ended up hanging out with some new friends till late, hanging by my knees from a doorway, and losing my voice completely.

Aug 4 * Duluth * Beaner's

Taken in reverse chronological order, the short Rhombus and Roommate tour in the summer of 2005 begins auspiciously as Kent engages Beverly and Chris, a gray haired couple of Air America supporters in the audience, in a conversation from the stage of Beaner's coffee shop, leading ultimately to Beverly's kind offer to trade a 2-person tent to us for a Roommate cd. While the new Roommate cd is indeed a valuable item, we were clearly the big winners in the trade, and armed with a dusty scotch sampler seized (with permission) from my parents' laundry room the day before, we closed out our tour camping upon the Fond du Lac (which is French for "something something lake") in a comfortable tent, campfire roaring briefly, sipping fine scotch from those tiny bottles (Oban was my favorite), eyes adjusting to the dark, Friday the 13th connotations, quiet sounds, talking about the value of looking at things through screens and how much we like cats.

Night, performed by me and Kent and recorded by Chris at Beaner's on Aug 4, 2005.

Aug 3 * Iowa City * Gabe's Oasis
w Miracles of God, Petit Mal, and Super Gender

This was my favorite show. So many friends said nice things to me afterwards. The photo above is of headliners and buddies the Miracles of God.

But blah blah blah, show this show that, what you really want to know is that we visited Whitewater University, a piece of shit waterpark on the outskirts of Des Moines, earlier in the day. Here's high school chum Todd dismounting one of their few functioning slides.

Here's a place for your valuables while you get nauseated in the wave pool.

And here's something scary sitting on an abandoned stage next to the path to the Lazy River.

So I was pulling the van around back to load in and Kent went to find Zach, who was still at the coffee shop next door. Kent comes back and says Zach is in some kind of stand-off with this kid out front of the coffee shop. As I was able to piece it together over the course of the evening Zach threw his ice coffee in the kid's face when the kid made some smart-ass comment for the second or third time in as many minutes. Though Zach later considered the possibility that he was maybe being a little paranoid, the fact that the kid bought him another coffee suggests maybe not. Either way, it was an interesting beginning to an evening of sensitive pop music played to a few old friends and fewer strangers.

That night I crashed on Zach's sister's porch (to avoid her gigantic slobbering dog) and was greeted at 4am with a great thunderstorm with that beautiful downpour-in-Iowa smell, and the night lighting up, and I've maybe never been happier. I sort of decided right then to move back to the midwest as soon as I can. And the cot wasn't even comfortable, y'know?

Earlier that day we ate pork chops at Zach's folks' place and wandered around his home town. Kent and Zach posed as hunters and held branches aloft.