ST. LOUIS
The last day of any tour is always bittersweet. It’s often difficult to keep up the energy you’ve put out in every other city knowing that you’re so close to rejoining your everyday life. You’ll do anything you can to make sure you don’t deliver a stinker of a show as your last memory of the tour. Drinking a bunch of really good free beer is usually helpful. Thankfully, our last show was at the Schlafly Tap Room, and they gave us a bunch of great beers for free.
We made our break from Oklahoma and decided to stop in Joplin, Missouri for lunch and an oil change. Dan found this place called Hackett’s Hot Wings that seemed intriguing. I’m a big fan of chicken wings, and I’m pretty sure the woman at the counter could tell: she recommended I try a beer-based hot sauce that wasn’t on the menu. Sign me up. Once we sat at our table, they brought us 4 free wings as an appetizer, 2 cajun and 2 lemon pepper, all dry spiced (no sauce). At this point, I knew we were in for something good and I wasn’t disappointed when the real deal came.
Fast forward the length of Missouri. We pulled into St. Louis too late to do the things we had planned to (Vintage vinyl + City Museum), so we just went straight to dinner at The Shaved Duck. Kyle had been talking this place up for quite some time, on recommendations from the Bunnygrunt folks. To describe The Shaved Duck’s offerings in two words, I’d choose haute barbecue. This place is pretty much the exact opposite of Archibald’s (see Tuscaloosa entry), and by pure coincidence, as we were walking up to the place, two locals crossed our paths and talking amongst themselves said “That place isn’t that good. It’s just fancied up barbecue.” Those guys were right.
I think anytime you try to gourmet up comfort food, you’re treading on thin ice. We’ve been hopping from BBQ joint to BBQ joint this whole tour, and The Shaved Duck was easily forgettable. Not bad, just not as outstanding as the delivery and prices should warrant. Dan said (and I agreed) that their technique was great (tender meat, smoke ring, etc.), but it all just lacks flavor. They say the pork smokes for 20 hours, but it doesn’t taste like it. I guess we’re Pappy’s people for life.
We headed over to the Schlafly Tap Room after dinner and started loading in. Schlafly is a local brewery in St. Louis that offers up some damn tasty beers. I was really impressed by everything I tried, most notably the Pumpkin Ale (“Tastes like drinking pumpkin pie!” says Kyle Sowash), and the Oktoberfest. Lonn is a big fan of the Spiced Belgian Ale and buys a gallon of it to take home to Ohio. Since we were getting them for free, I entertained the idea of taking the tour de beer and trying them all. Of course, I forgot to ask if they offered flights, so I just kept ordering a different full glass every time. Guess what happened.
Tight Pants Syndrome opened up the show with a great set of pop tunes. Turns out one of their guitar players posts on the same gear geek forum that Dan does, so those guys got along really well. They really impressed me: tight harmonies, catchy songwriting, and tasteful but skilled playing.
We followed TPS with another solid set, but I think we might have been too loud for the wood lined Tap Room. Without any acoustic deadeners, people were apprehensive to stand right in front of us for fear of losing their eardrums. There were people watching from the back of the room - which is better than nothing - but I guess you always want the last show on the tour to be something really special.
SETLIST:
Blast From The Past
The College Try
Nothing Interesting
The 8-Track Recorder
Sharpshooter
Can’t Make Up My Mind
My Resume
Impatient Man
Rumours
Ordinary Man
(It’s Not) Easy To Be Hard
I Would Like To Speak To Your Manager
The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory (Guided By Voices cover)
Our good friends Bunnygrunt finished up the show and were fantastic as usual. This is at least the 5th time I’ve played with them, and every time they reveal a little bit more of their charm and depth of talent.
Karen and Matt put us up at their house and we went out to breakfast at a place called the Ivory Coast Bistro. Not too bad, despite the surly service and the fact that I had to wait until everybody was finished with their food before I got my Breakfast Skins:
After breakfast, we went to Vintage Vinyl (where Matt from Bunnygrunt works) and picked out some choice pieces. After some other miscellaneous gift shopping, we hopped aboard the Silver Fox for the last time, an 8 hour trek back home to Columbus, bidding adieu to St. Louis and the tour altogether.
