Last Friday, we were given the opportunity to open up for Nine Days at Legends of Notre Dame. Nine Days is the band that sang “This is the story of the girl…” It’s weird, that was one of the biggest songs of 2000, but by some strange phenomenon, nobody (that I know, at least) chose to associate the name of the band with that song. I tried telling people who we were opening for and, almost without exception, the conversation went thusly:

Me: “We’re opening for Nine Days!!”
Other Person: “Who?”
Me: “You know, (singing) ‘This is the story of a…girl’”
OP: “OMG I love that band!!!”

You know, if you really love a band, you should at least take the time to commit their name to memory, Other Person. In any case, the show was a blast. The students at ND are awesome. They are one of the most fun, attentive and gracious crowds I’ve played for. Then again, that may have been due to the fact that I didn’t announce our band’s name at first, and they may have thought we were Nine Days for a little while. We even talked about playing ‘Story of a Girl’ just to see what would happen, but decided that would be wholly distasteful. In any case, Notre Dame was great to play for and I can’t wait to get back there.

Setlist:

Love it or Leave it
Songs of Separation
Lie to Me
Professional
Count Me In
Hip Hop Medley (raucous crowd participation, thanks guys)
Pride and Prejudice

Eventually, the crowd got their Nine Days. And when they got to “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)”, the place went nuts. I think they played that chorus 6 or 7 times, and it never got old. They’re a really fun band, and they’re really great guys as well. If you get a chance to see them, make sure you do.

The next night we played an acoustic duo show at Alpine Valley. Yes, Alpine Valley. No, not the place Dave Matthews plays. The resort next to it. But whatever, I’ll take it. There’s actually talk of us playing there when DMB plays the real venue. If that happens, book your tickets to Alpine early, it’s gonna get wild. I would just feel bad for Dave, since he would lose a good half of his crowd to the resort.

Big thanks to the Matt Johnson house in Milwaukee (and Jill Bodensteiner) for unwavering dedication to good tunes, good times, and to sheltering the Tim Stop Trio when in need.

Talk to you soon

- Tim