Day 7 -- Malarkey's Pub, Wausau WI

Friday July 5

Awoke to the kids gone (thank God). But however their mess in the kitchen was not. Son of a bitch. Which meant that Eric and I would have to clean it, lest Amy and Ryan think we trashed their house and left it for them to come home from vacation to.

Also the kid was supposed to get cat food, as the cats were completely out, and being very vocal about it. No such luck. We found a can of food for them, but Rick later saved the day when he came to pick us up.

Made myself an egg breakfast, which helped to a point. Plan was we had 2 nights at a hotel outside Wausau (wherever that is) as a base of operations for the next 2 shows, in Wausau proper Friday and then Minocqua on Saturday. Another Fairfield Marriot. Very nice. Complimentary breakfast as well, good to know.

Drive to Wausau uneventful, getting into north central Wisconsin, not quite Michigan, middle of nowhere. Beautiful country, but definitely Sasquatch turf. Stopped at a gas station with a Subway en route. Had a footlong Italian BMT. Ate the whole damn thing, and glad I did. Was good to feel full for the first time in several days.

Downtown Wausau was very quaint, Malarkey's Pub was on the main square. The old school small town downtowns you don't see too much of anymore. Very nice place, run by Tyler who is a very good dude. Usually around 4th of July all the locals head "up north" to stay in cabins, and he usually closes down. But he knew Rick and kept his bar open so Rick would have a place to play. The type of guy into music for the music, rather than trying to make a buck. We need more people like him.



Parked behind in a parking lot ringed by a pipe which we had to load the gear over to get it into the back door. Not the end of the world, I am constantly impressed by how light we are traveling and how little our gear weighs. The only piece of gear with any real gravitas is Matt's chopped Fender Bassman 2x10, and it's more bulky than weighty.

Very nice place, small stage that served as a drum riser. We set up on the floor, my amp by the unused fireplace. Not a huge crowd but the people there dug it and were having fun. Drank a few pints of whatever local brew made a mile from the venue, which I still can't remember, and could never remember at the time anyway. Damn.


The sets went well, nice to not have a steady stream of people in varying states of intoxication constantly walking by coming to or from the bathrooms, heh. I would occasionally peak over at Matt's charts, but mainly for the opening chord. After than I was usually fine. Glad the music is finally starting to sink in. Remembering the lyrics for harmonies... still working on that.

Afterwards stayed past close hanging out with Tyler, him and Rick trading off on acoustic guitar and playing Bib Dylan songs. Finally said our goodbyes and went back to the hotel for rock star partying. Which in Eric and I's case was playing games on our iPhones. Either of us have yet to turn on a hotel room television. Which I am very happy about.