Bicycle Rider/Scooter Boy Presents, Madison, WI

with Animal Chin, Porcelain Boys, Lucky, John Brown Battery. Setlist: Appolonia James, It Won't Be Long, Anonymous, Now I Disappear, Water Carrier

This trip and this show were the exact opposite of playing at Kerrigan's- scary, depressing and not at all fun- to the point that merely saying the word "Madison" in JBA band practice is enough to get a shudder from any of us.

As you may know, U-W Madison is known as a top "party school," which means the students there like liquor. Well, to say they only like liquor is like saying teaching special ed is slightly challenging, or that MTV is a bit repetitive. U-W Madison parties are large, loud collective drinking binges, without food or conversation to get in the way. After our fairly uneventful trip north (once again crammed into the Corolla), we show up in time to get accosted by a homeless guy who told Melodie he knew where she lived and was coming to get her. That, and the fact that the house where we were playing was so loud and crowded that it was actually better standing outside in the freezing cold, kind of set the upsetting scene. Things picked up when we saw that Laura, Melodie's very best friend, had driven all the way from Minneapolis to see the show.

John Brown Battery was very emo-corish to my ears- the singer had a habit of jumping right into the audience, shoving some of them back while he sang. Lucky and Porcelain Boys, both pop-punk bands from Minnesota, followed in that order. (Amy wondered why the P-Boys sounded so familiar to her; when we got home, she discovered that they're a Lookout Records band and that she owned a couple of their singles.) Animal Chin "headlined" even though we played last- they're a skacore band from Minnesota, and they were two or three shows away from finishing a tour. They put in the longest set of the night at about an hour.

So it's about midnight, we're in a strange town surrounded by drunk punk rockers who might not be into our music. So we play full-throttle through our five loudest songs, and end up playing pretty well, despite tuning problems from our instruments being out in the cold. The crowd stayed for our set, though they applauded more for Laura, to whom we dedicated Water Carrier, than they did for us. Scott and Adam, the promoters, were very cool and accomodating and gave us some gas money, and finally the show was over.

But, of course, we had to get home. At 1 am, as we're packing up, Melodie's cousin Nate, a sane voice in this insane world, offers to put us up for the night, but our plan is to get a quick bite to eat and then gun it back to Chicago and put this night out of our minds. Unfortunately, it becomes immediately obvious that we're all too physically and emotionally drained to drive any further than the International House of Pancakes. We're all kicking ourselves for turning down Nate's offer to crash for free. Soon we're all mesmerized by the elderly couple at the booth across from us, who are arguing about who gets to use the butter on their pancakes. "It's my butter!" "No, it's our butter, and I can use it if I want!"

At 2:30 am IHOP becomes completely packed because the bars have closed, so we're surrounded by drunk guys who are amped up because the Badgers football team is in contention to play in the Rose Bowl. I head to the restroom for a moment, and Amy turns to Melodie and says, "Cabrini Green doesn't scare me like this does." When I return, Amy heads to the restroom and I tell Melodie, "You know, Cabrini Green doesn't scare me like this does." Finally we head to a the nearby Aloha Inn, get a room and pass out in about four seconds. Eight or so hours later we drive away, vowing never to return.