Touring the Nation, One Living Room at a Time

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 20, 2007 9:11PM

In a past life we worked as a talent buyer for a local club, and one of the pleasant surprises of our life at that point was bringing in bands from out of town that were so much better than their demos. The Milwaukees, out of New Jersey, were brought to our attention by a friend, and while their demo was so-so, we took a chance on them anyway and gave them a show. The band packed a punch fitting in somewhere between Tom Petty and mid-era Replacements, with a live show that was both ear-splittingly good and bone shatteringly fun.

The band fell off our radar for a few years, but popped back up with the recently released new album American Anthems Vol. 1. We listened, and while the production was much slicker than their older material, the scruffy melodies were still there and we held out hope they'd swing through Chicago in the near future.

Imagine our surprise when this appeared in our in-box:

We want to play in your living room! No shit. We really do. We don't care so much how small your place is, so long as it can fit us and 20 or so of your friends, it'll do. It doesn't even have to be a living room, it could be a basement, a den, a dorm lounge, whatever. We're not picky.

We're going to the grass roots for the rest of the year, looking to play where the fans live (literally). You don't have to pay us (just let us sell CDs).

We're doing these shows acoustic style. No drums. No PA. Just a couple of guitars and some singing. So you won't get evicted for noise violations.

They're looking to play somewhere in the Chicago area either December 6 or December 9. This could be an awful lot of fun, and a rather unique way to enjoy a really talented band. Here are all the details if you're interested in throwing a show in your living room.

Photo from the band's MySpace page