Cattle Tour Checkpoint #2
The Bowery Ballroom Awaits.
We’ve officially reached the end of the first leg of the tour. 20 shows in 24 days.1 Thousands upon thousands of miles tread under our Chevy’s tires. Hours upon hours in close quarters. Chapter upon chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula narrated by Tim Curry and the one and only, Alan Cumming.2
And most importantly: new face upon new face we encountered at shows along the way. So many new faces this tour! It’s truly incredible to meet you all at these shows, out in town, or digitally afterwards. In my last post, I talked about the perilous nature of this endeavor we were undertaking, branching out to so many cities we’ve never played in—some of which were in states that members of Gooseberry had never even stepped foot in before.
Cattle Tour Checkpoint
For the semantic scholars out there, the tagline of this newsletter is technically “Personal reportage from a fledgling rock and roll band.” The idea at the outset of founding this newsletter was simple: give our fans a look inside a touring band out on the road trying to
Here’s a list of the cities we’ve played this tour that we’d never played before:
Burlington, VT
Des Moines, IA
St. Paul, MN
Davenport, IA
Omaha, NE
Kansas City, MO
Milwaukee, WI
Madison, WI
Nashville, TN
Knoxville, TN
Asheville, NC
Charlotte, NC
That’s the majority of our tour! And I won’t sit here and tell you that each show was sold out, packed to the gills. Our low watermark for a show this tour was seven (7) people at a show. But you know what? We rocked with those proud few just as we would with 700 or 7,000.
We’ve talked a lot as a band about how this tour feels like we’re paying our dues. I’m not sure whether you ever stop paying, to be honest. If you are chasing your dreams, laying your passion bare on stage for anyone and everyone to interact with as they please, you’ll probably forever be running up against some next obstacle. How you face and overcome those obstacles, though, that’s the gold. That’s what we’re learning right now. And I know we’re succeeding because every single show this tour has been on fire. I don’t care if there are 10 or 10,000 people, this band is cooking right now. I know the crowd feels it whether they drove hours to see us or just stumbled upon us on a whim. That energy is infectious. It can transform any empty room into Madison Square Garden.3
As our agent Trip4 says, if you play a great show, 10 people in a market now becomes 20 next time, 50 the following, and so on. That’s the approach he took with RHCP and it worked out alright for them in time. Making art requires a healthy dose of delusion. So why not us?
Album Release Show NYC
We’re less than two weeks out from the release of our debut album, All My Friends Are Cattle. That drops on Friday, September 6th. The very next day, we celebrate with a big album release party at Bowery Ballroom in New York City.
I won’t sugarcoat it: this is our favorite place to play in NYC and this is our biggest headline of the year. I don’t know when or where we’ll be playing next in NYC, but it won’t be until at least 2025. That means this is your LAST chance to see Gooseberry in our hometown.
Do not delay. Buy your tickets. They will run fast and may sell out. Buy your tickets.
To help us celebrate, we’ve got our good friends The Upsides and B. Miles on the show, which means you should get there right at 8pm to ensure you catch an incredible full night of music.
Playing these new songs on the road has been a profound joy. Especially as some of them were conceived entirely in the studio prior to being battle tested on stage—a first for us as a band. To see how audiences react and connect with these songs breathes new life into them, even before they’ve officially been released.
I can’t wait to celebrate them with all of you next Saturday. <3
Okay, technically 18 because of two cancelations. It’s not my fault a literal TORNADO came and wiped all of Cleveland’s power out. If it were, that would mean I could conjure up tornados at will. Does that character exist yet in the MCU? Someone please let me know, I will not google this.
If you haven’t seen The Traitors, what are you doing with your life?
For the cosmic scorekeepers, I would like to put all of my paid dues towards playing MSG, please let that happen, thank you.
Trip Brown, of New Frontier Touring.
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