"Parachute," acoustic, for Kansas City

Nothing but wood, strings, and the human neck on this one

We’re back on the open road, this time flying like a hell-bat (a bat who makes his home in hell) headed out for the night. In our sights is Kansas City, about which more in a second. First a quick recap on what you’ve missed since yesterday’s post:

• Minneapolis was mostly a delight, although it’s a little sad that the residents, mostly good people, have been cursed with such cold damn weather. We brought this up on-stage at the show — the fact that Minneapolis is the coldest city in the world — and folks in the crowd responded with a mix of denial, proud acceptance, and consensus that whatever one thinks, yesterday’s weather was considered “warm,” even “really warm.” Guys, it was 40, at best. It was so cold. In any case, a man in the front row who was among the climate deniers later showed his hand when, during a different between-song discussion about merch, he insisted that we were foolish not to be selling hoodies in Minneapolis. Exactly, friend. Exactly.

• One cool thing about playing Seventh Street Entry in Minneapolis is that there always seems to be a revelatory show happening next door in the vaunted First Avenue venue. A few years ago it was Ingrid Michaelson. Last year it was Orville Peck. And last night, we were absolutely blindsided by DragonForce. Words really do fail in describing this act, but here’s a feeble effort: It’s six people on stage, four guitarists. “How do I encapsulate what the guitarists are doing?” I just asked Keith. He said, “They are shredding.” Elaborating: “There’s some two-hand tapping, there’s some speed sweep arpeggio; you know, typical harmonized solos, and then apparently one of you guys saw everybody fretting one another’s guitars.” It’s true, I saw it. The guitarists and the bass player were picking their own instruments with their right hands while fretting another member’s instrument with their left hands. It was a sort of muso-theatrical consensual human centipede, and glorious. Photos are as clumsy a tool as prose for giving shape to DragonForce, but here’s one Keith C. snapped that at least shows how the guitarists often stand on top of giant arcade video game machines:

DragonForce’s show is pretty psychotic.

• When we checked in to our Ramada hotel at 2am, 90 minutes south of Minneapolis, the amiable and chatty desk clerk, after learning that we were musician, asked if we were a jazz band. We think that’s because we had already told her we were headed to Kansas City tonight, and KC seems to have a big jazz reputation. Keith C, asked to comment, says: “Robert Altman is from Kansas City, and I’m really excited to go to this jazz cocktail place near the venue.”

The Ramada we stayed in last night was frozen in time 50+ years ago.

Well, today’s track isn’t jazz, but our analyst says it’s an appopriate choice for Kansas City because the song’s “cautious and protective themes” line up with KC’s “protective pride in its unique blend of jazz heritage, barbecue culture, and Midwestern resilience.” If any of that’s true, then the shoe fits! See what you think. Here’s “Parachute,” but acoustic…

Tomorrow’s a drive day, no show. We’re going to pause the Lobes Reduced drops till Tuesday, when we’ll release the song whose meaning is inextricably, inarguably, permanently bound up with Denver in our minds (maybe you can guess it).

In the meantime, enjoy yourselves! Maybe throw on an old Stones record and dance around on your roof!* (*Only if your roof is covered in velcro and you wear the paired shoes.)

Keith Carne after the show taking a picture of DragonForce’s drumkit, which does ask to be photographed.

🫲🤡🫱