The Poison Control Center

SEPTEMBER 9 – CLUB GARIBALDI’S, MILWAUKEE, WI [SHOW #78]

Day 91.  42 states.  We return to Milwaukee, which was the second stop on this tour all those months ago.  We first swing by the airport to pick up our friend Andrew Roger, who is to ride along with us for the weekend to document the shows leading up to Kansas City on his digital video camera.  We drive over to Kinnickinnic Ave to have a late lunch at a local diner, and Andrew has the camera out already.  David is digging into a Cheeseburger, while the rest of us are holding out for a complimentary burger at Club Garibaldi’s later.  “Pretty damn good,”  David says, and I realize that I have yet to have a burger here that isn’t pretty damn good.  “Milwaukee must be a good burger town,” I say.  Later we head over to the club and load in.  The friendly bartender, Joe, welcomes us in and we load in our gear.  We reunite with Chris (a.k.a. “Lucky”), the excellent soundman who manned the board the last time we were here, and we fill him in on some of the highlights of the tour since we first saw him.

Pretty exciting night for Patrick and I: the NFL season-opening game, a rematch between the Vikings and the Saints, is on the TV.  We park ourselves at the bar with some beers in front of us, and chat away with Joe (a dedicated Packer fan) all throughout the game.  He loved us because we were “Minnesota boys,” and talked all things Vikings, Packers, Favre and more.  He also took pity on us because the show’s turnout was tiny, and let us sample all of the area microbrews that they had on tap.  “You guys don’t need to be drinking Miller,” he said as he gave us free reign to have any beer we chose.

At one point David summoned us over.  “You gotta try these hot wings,” he said, “They’re fried then grilled.  They’re the best.”  I bit into one and my eyes lit up.  “These are incredible!”  As the opening band begins the show, I look over my shoulder to Devin who is running the door as a means to avoid the expense of hiring a club doorman.  His chin is resting on his hand.  He turns to me and slowly shakes his head.  I turn back and lean into Patrick and say “looks like we’re in for a rough night.”  And we’re not the only ones.  On the TV the Vikings have slipped behind the Saints in a pretty lackluster football game.  “This is not the high-profile rematch that NBC was hoping for,” I remark.  The game ended, Saints winning 14-9, and I walked into the other room to watch the rest of Blane Fonda’s set.

The word we heard:  “The Vikings and the Saints are both great teams, but against each other they don’t play well” –Patrick

Our friends the Bartends:  Joe / Tag

Sound Tech we respect:  Lucky

The fill of the bill:  Blane Fonda / Disaster March

Devin you won’t be a beer spiller in the town of Miller