Nurse the Hate: Cowslinger Aftermath

This weekend The Cowslingers hit the road in the van together in what was the first time since 2004.  Despite 13 years passing, everyone assumed their old places in the van without a word.  I’m behind the wheel, Krusty in shotgun, and The Chumleys in the back seat.  I’m in charge of the music.  Every third song Bobby asks “Who is that?”.  Leo weaves his patented “15 minutes of shit talk” before falling asleep with his eyes slightly opened.  It is 2018.  It is 1999.  

It was overwhelming the response we received on these three shows.  I was genuinely surprised not so much that people turned up, but with the passion that they exhibited for the band and music.  To be clear, I still feel like a fraud up there singing.  Plus I know that most of the songs came from ideas that came to me on a ratty old couch in Lakewood Ohio or were scribbled down in my car while idling in gritty Cleveland parking lots while I was theoretically working.  I suppose Mick Jagger came up with “Satisfaction” while riding a train to go buy cat food, but he’ll never come clean on that.  I wonder if he feels like a fraud singing that while 50,000 people go crazy in Brazil?  Probably not.  He’s got people kissing his ass all day and he most certainly doesn’t drive a Chevy van to get to the gigs.  It’s really just a matter of scale I suppose.  

As I concentrated to remember words I hadn’t sung in over a decade and in some cases wrote 25+ years ago, it felt great to see the joy it brought to people’s faces in the crowd.  I never expected to be able to come up with a song that connected with anyone, much less crowds of people connecting with that many of the songs.  It was a gift to feel that kind of positive energy coming back to the stage.  I also took advantage of some members of the crowd knowing some lyrics better than I did as I was able to read their lips to get a cheat on the next line.  A quick Cowslinger fact…  Despite having played “West Virginia Dog Track Boogie” at essentially every show since we wrote the damn thing, I still forget the third verse almost every single time.

It was like old times, or should I say “new old times”, on Saturday during load out when Leo dove on top of two guys wrestling on the venue floor to put them both in a hold, my phone buzzed to alert me that our appearance on “The Super Satan Show” had posted (a Satan puppet does a traditional style TV interview), Bob had wandered off, The Land Sailor and The Enabler exchanged pleasantries ignoring the madness, and Krusty got involved in The Krustography of finding the hotel.  We then got to the hotel to discover two cops and a paramedic trying to rouse a passed out drunk wedding guest from a lobby chair.  They lifted him up and he remained completely limp for a solid ten minutes until he regained consciousness and the cops shoved him out into the night to the jeers of the bride and his date, presumably the bride’s maid of honor by virtue of the dress she was wearing and commitment to their taunts.  Thanks to that distraction, I was able to sweet talk us into comp valet parking.  Cowslingers 1, Hotel 0.  Then it was time to be lulled to sleep with horrifying tales of Leo’s version of Penthouse Letters.  Ah, the road…   

It was so much fun for us to play those shows.  Middle aged men don’t get the opportunity to drive around in a van together, drink beer and act like assholes often enough.  Those guys are all my brothers (and Sugar is my sister).  I have had some absolutely insane experiences I have shared with those people that “normal” people couldn’t possibly grasp.  Those of you at the shows, you get it.  You're in that circle.  The bond you form while playing music together is extremely powerful.  To be able to connect with other people out there that get turned on by the shared musical vision is either the flipside of the coin, the icing on the cake, or some other platitude that doesn’t quite sum it all up properly.  I would like to thank all of you that came out to see us and supported us in any way.  You look like you had a good time out there, but I’ll bet we might have had an even better one.  Thank you.  Hopefully we will manufacture an excuse to do it again.  And hey, buy our record.  I gotta get these out of my house and into yours.

  https://thecowslingers.bandcamp.com/releases