Two weeks back, Noah (singer for
) had reminded me that it’s been a year since we traveled to Manitowoc, Wisconsin to play Metro Jam, a yearly local festival in which we got to play right before the headliner, Drivin’ N Cryin’. It was a whiplash weekend, like all of them lately, and even though we played a great show and made some fans, there was one thing from that weekend that I’ll likely remember as much as the actual show…
When I’m on the road, playing in a new town or vacationing, I like to run as a way to get to know the city more intimately, and I feel seeing things on foot versus in the car is a more direct way to experience a new city. During my run, I saw a sandwich board in front of an old building for a place called The Shrunken Head. It claimed to be “Wisconsin’s most unique watering hole” and it had pictures of tiki cocktails served in skulls and fun kitschy decor, so being the tiki nerd I am, I made a mental note to check that out on the way back, because it was closed. Oh, it also claimed to be “…World’s only Creepeasy” whatever the hell that meant…
While I was working my way back from the run, I got a text from Noah, who had noticed the sign while he was in search for a record store, which is his way of exploring a new city, with a photo of the same sandwich board. Clearly, we were on the same wavelength. Being that we were in Manitowoc and likely to never come back, I thought this would be the place to go after the show to celebrate, not a Budweiser bar. This of course, was before I knew exactly what it was…
I came back to the hotel room, showered and walked to meet Noah at the store with Sam, our bassist. As we approached the building, I noticed, to my pleasant surprise, there was a giant evil bunny in the window. Tiki drinks, a “creep easy” and an evil bunny? In Wisconsin? Ok!
To see something curious, strange and unique in a small town like this always peaks my interest so without hesitation, I went inside. To my surprise, it was not just a bar, but rather a retail store filled with horror film paraphernalia, books about serial killers, and new age, witch, gothy-things like incense and spell books. Needless to say, it was right up my alley and frankly, pretty amazing to see something like this in such a small town. Behind the counter was an incredibly sweet woman, maybe mid to late '60s, who sort of looked like a witch. I don't mean that in any offense… She just had that vibe. Either way, she was very sweet and so when I asked about the “tiki” and the “creepeasy” of it all, she told Sam and myself about her bar upstairs which she unfortunately couldn't take us to at the moment because there was already private party happening up there at the moment, which was 11am.
We told her we were from Los Angeles and we were a rock band playing at Metro Fest and we'd love to check out the place after if we could. Without hesitation, she obliged, gave me her phone number on a piece of receipt paper and said to call when we were done with the show. Not really how a bar or business works normally, but hey, we’re in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. So, I grabbed some incense ($3!!) and as I tried to buy it, she realized her “credit card thing” was upstairs and said the incense was on the house. As nice as that was, I didn’t accept the freebie, so I told her this would be our insurance to come back, as if $3 would make ANY difference… She said “Great! See you tonight” and Sam and I were off, incense in tow and met the rest of the boys Dr Freud’s, the record shop. (Funny enough about Freud… It was this weekend where I finalized my application for grad school, in which I am studying Psychology. Funny little coincidences like that are neat…) The record store, by the way, was one of those great old school flea market, wet wood and moldy smelling stores you’d want to spend the day excavating so you could find that rare XTC record for only $2 because it has a slight bend on the sleeve. Noah, of course got some goodies. All in all, a good stop and morning hang before we got ready for the show.
We played the Metro Fest and once our show was over and we were packed up, we were in high spirits, and wanted to celebrate so we figured we should check out The Shrunken Head so I called the woman, kinda sorta hesitantly, and she answered. She sounded to me like she had had one too many White Claws, but according to her, she was still game for us to come on by…
We pull up to the spot 5 minutes later (small town!) and sure enough, she's standing outside with her husband who, even though was wearing a tropical shirt, did not look like he was too happy to be there or to see us. We made the introductions and walked upstairs past the retail shop into the bar…
TO BE CONTINUED…
Thanks for reading. Part 2 will up next week. Be well.
ETC:
are back on stage on Sunday, August 3 at Permanent Records Roadhouse in Cypress Park (North East LA) and opening for Faulty Cognitions; presented by Sid The Cat. Tickets and info here! | A guest post by
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Putting Aug 3 on the calendar