Cleveland

From the moment we woke up we heard it: Ohio was singled out as the victim of an intense blizzard/snowstorm and Cleveland was so affected that people were being arrested for driving on roads without an urgent reason to do so. Great. And then we heard it again and again and again. Didn’t need to hear it, though, because we were driving right through it. By a long stretch it’s the most treacherous terrain I’ve ever driven over (though Rebecca deserves all the credit for actually *driving*).

The highways were terrible. Totally white with little to no black pavement to be seen anywhere. Fine, we managed that ok. The city streets, though - the closest I’ve seen to post-apocalyptic. Total freestyle. I mean, main roads are just totally, totally under 4+ feet of fresh snow. Unreal.

So, we get to the venue and load-in is clearly going to be something of a headache. Turns out, the spot we need to park in is totally under snow, so we all grab shovels and start clearing it. Unfortunately, the van is more or less in the middle of the street with a city bus that needs to get by. We share some nice words with the fella driving it. I finally get the shovel and clear some snow from under his wheels and he’s on his way. 2 seconds later, the police are behind us with their insistence that we move as soon as possible. ‘Have you seen the weather outside?’ he asks.

Once inside, we do the very quick soundcheck and all our monitor issues from last night are resolved after a little troubleshooting session. The set needs to be shortened for a couple reasons so we get onstage and do the set for about 30 minutes. The best we’ve played so far, is what I hear. The brave souls that made it out despite everything going on outside were really responsive.

I just went outside to grab something from the van and reality has set in about us getting from the venue to the hotel in a couple hours. It’s going to be rough.

RYAN