PARACHUTE MUSICAL

Greenville, SC - Day 2 PM / Winter Sounds Tour

Greenville, SC – Day 2

I woke up in a child’s bedroom in a mansion, or at least what I consider to be mansion. I’m sure some people more affluent than I would just think of it as a large house.  The whole place smelled of cinnamon and nutmeg, and low and behold coffee and an egg casserole awaited us.  This was a good start.

Time to kill. Clean towels and several showers to choose from.  When you’re bored you tend to eat more, thus we were all skating the thin line between satiated and too full.  Hospitality like this is rare and when it does come it touches you in a happy peacefully place.  It’s easy to succumb and let the TV and never-ending snacks take over, but the clock is always ticking and BAM!, we are back on the street.

Going to Greenville. This town has been kind to us.  It feels as though we cannot play it enough.  I’d say that the growth has been steady, people sing along, they bring their friends and their friends become our friends and sometimes they buy our merch.  Merch sales is what keeps the van rolling. 

The club has an older vintage feel and Scott in an excellent bar owner.  He’s a very pale, very talkative musician who decided to start his own scene.  He understands what we do.  Moments after walking in we end up behind the bar with him taking shots of Coca-Cola and chatting about the traveling life.  If YOU had walked into the bar before the doors opened you would have found four bands worth of musician’s and their traveling pals eating free pizza and drinking free beer, chatting it up like old friends and watching bad movies on the big screen.  It reminded me of grandma’s basement during a family reunion where all my cool older cousins would talk about older guy stuff and drink grannies beer.  It felt like home.

Performing was fun. It almost always is. The crowd was attentive and the rocking was loud.  All pretty standard.  One thing that was unique about this show for me was Jennifer Justus.  She’s a writer who has been traveling with us to gain material for a book she is writing about modern day gypsies.  I have not known her previous to this tour but I think it’s pretty safe to say that she’s drinking and smoking cigarettes more than she’s used too.  This is how many people deal with the boredom.  It’s how I deal with it.  From load in to load out we spent 8 hours in that bar all for 35 minutes of stage time.  Anyhow, my favorite part about last nights show was watching Jennifer from behind my drums, lighting yet another “boredom” cigarette.  I understand, and I really feel like she does too.

Thank you Greenville. I continue to enjoy your people and your places and I’m glad you let me come back. See you in the future.

Ben Jacoby