Temple Theater Viroqua

The Temple theater in Viroqua is beautiful. They may be fairly new to the business of running a theater, but they get big points for effort. They had sold out the show and were very proud of it, unfortunatly the storm had other ideas and we ended up playing to about 2/3rds of a house. But they laughed a lot and made up for their diminished numbers.
The stage was a little narrower than we're used to and Jimmy and Lee were practically off stage in the band. It was tight backstage too -


under our road box was the only place Becca could be backstage without being in sitelines! Because of the storm they wanted to open the house early so that they didn't have people stranded in the lobby in the cold, so we had our sound check a half an hour earlier so they could start letting people in to the theater at 6:30p. It wasn't a total loss though, the green room was comfortable and there was plenty of sandwich fixin's left over pizza, veggies and fruit. This last picture is the view from the loading door of the theater at intermission. Hello winter storm!

Driving to Viroqua

The storm was in its "lull" period by the time we got up and headed out Saturday. We had a wonderful breakfast at the Kitchen Table restaurant in Marshfield and maveled at the huge snow drifts that had been plowed down the middle of the street. The road conditions on the drive to Viroqua were pretty clear by the time we got on the road around noon. Not everyone was upset by the snow - This view reminded me of the Lyric "When there's a Winter Storm, safe in your shanty warm" Around 2:15 or so, the storm started to move in again, we saw the beginnings of the 35 mph winds and our visibility dropped as if someone had switched on the Storm Switch. I don't think the weather service is exagerating what we're in for!

From the National Weather Service...

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST SUNDAY.

SNOW...OCCASIONALLY MIXED WITH SNOW PELLETS AND SLEET...WILL FALL ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT. A BAND OF HEAVY SNOW WILL WORK EAST ACROSS THE AREA TONIGHT. SNOWFALL RATES UP TO TWO INCHES AN HOUR WILL BE POSSIBLE IN THIS BAND. ALONG WITH THE HEAVY SNOW... SOME RUMBLES OF THUNDER WILL BE HEARD AT TIMES. ACCUMULATIONS OVERNIGHT WILL RANGE FROM 3 TO 8 INCHES. ANY ICE ACCUMULATIONS IN THE VICINITY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER SHOULD REMAIN A TENTH OF AN INCH OR LESS.

A LULL IN THE SNOWFALL MAY DEVELOP LATER TONIGHT OR EARLY SATURDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE INTO SATURDAY AFTERNOON AS THE MAIN STORM SYSTEM GATHERS STRENGTH OVER THE CENTRAL PLAINS. AS THIS MOVES TOWARD THE AREA...ANOTHER ROUND OF SIGNIFICANT PRECIPITATION...OF LONGER DURATION... WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA... WITH THIS EXPECTED TO FALL MAINLY IN THE FORM OF SNOW. ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE FROM SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

TO COMPOUND THIS SITUATION... INCREASING SOUTHEAST WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH...GUSTING TO 35 MPH...WILL BECOME THE NORM SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT. THIS COMBINED WITH THE SNOW THAT FALLS TONIGHT... AND THE SNOW THAT FALLS SATURDAY NIGHT...WILL CAUSE SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN VISIBILITIES...WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS TO DEVELOP SATURDAY NIGHT.

SNOWFALL TOTALS FROM THE STORM OF AT LEAST 8 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED TOTALS NEAR 15 INCHES...ARE EXPECTED BY SUNDAY. THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE CRIPPLING AFFECTS ON TRAVEL ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET... AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT STORM AND TRAVEL THIS WEEKEND IS NOT RECOMMENDED.

Spencer

We played our 23rd performance in Spencer WI, about 10 miles outside Marshfield and about half an hour from Wausau. We are back in the land of the Sold Out House. We had about 500 people tonight who loved the show. Spencer/Marshfield is a really friendly town, everyone has been extremely nice to us here. Judy Berdan's mother brought us freshly baked cookies (they didn't even make it to intermission!) The theater is another High School Auditorium type, a bit of a cinder block box (in which the trombone was REALLY loud!). We are coming up on some weather this weekend - anywhere from 6-16 inches of snow between now and the end of the tour. So tonight at the end of the pre-show announcements, Sally (doing the announcing) said she was glad we were at the show tonight because we were going to probably spend the rest of the weekend shoveling snow! We brought our pre-show music in under her and actually got a laugh for "Oh the weather outside is frightful"

The booth was small, there was a small perch that we could have gotten to by climbing a series of straight ladders attached to the wall, but Craig and Bill opted to kick me out of the booth to the back of the house. It was pretty tight in there, even though none of us had had bait and bowl chili!



Our hotel was happy to have us, even if they couldn't spell our name! and the ushers dressed up as fishermen, one even threatened to had out leaches to all of the ladies in attendance ! We really liked Spencer.

Eau Claire Part II

Our second night in Eau Claire, we had more people than the first house. They were much more responsive too, which made for a fun show. The wind had died down, so there was no mystery sound of wind blowing through the smoke vents like last night, it was a quicker, fun show. After our trip to the Leinie Lodge we headed out to find some lunch and all of us (except Craig) independantly wound up at the same sandwich shop a couple of blocks from the hotel. It was a relaxing afternoon of good food and good conversation. We may still have been a little punchy from the afternoon, but it made for a good show.

When we left Friday morning, the desk clerk at the Ramada told us how much she enjoyed the show and that a lot of people drove in to town to see the show and stayed at the Ramada. She got many positive reviews from the guests as they checked out each morning!



One of the features of the State Theater is that they have a piano player playing in the lobby before the show and during intermission. It's a nice touch. He said that he used to play piano at the theater a long time ago and one day asked if the piano was still in the lobby, if anyone played it and if there was anything wrong with it. The answers being Yes, no no, he asked if he could play during the shows that were booked in. He played for tips and an oportuniy to hawk his CDs and it was a really charming touch.

We came, we saw, we tasted the beer!

One of the highlights of our tour was our trip to the Leinenkugel Brewery (in Chippewah Falls, Wisconsin!) Since we were only 20 minutes away we couldn't turn down a chance to play at the real Leinie Lodge. Bill, Becca, Craig, Steve and I made the trip and took the tour. It was a beautiful day for it, sunny and chilly, but not cold. We had a nice tour guide (who had actually seen Guys On Ice in Milwaukee) and our tour of the brewery was quite informative.
Both before and after the tour we had some time to shop and taste in the gift shop. A good time was had by all and everyone came away with some fun purchases. I'm surprised that no one went home with an adirondak chair, the guys couldn't stop talking about how comfortable they were!

Eau Claire

The last time the Rep toured, we played in Eau Claire as well, we played The Zorne Arena or the Zorina as we called it. It was a basketball arena, very strange. The State Theater in Eau Claire resembles the Zorina in that it was a huge "Barn" of a place. It looked a lot like an old movie theater and the house was very dark, it was hard to get any pictures where you could actually see what the place looks like. Even though our two shows in Eau Claire were not sold out, they were still good houses that enjoyed the show a lot. Jimmy was not with us, we had Jake Endries on the piano, it was a much different show with someone else driving the train (musically) but he was a nice guy and we had some fun. Our hotel was only a block from the theater, so we were able to walk between the two easily. The people were very nice and overall, we had a good time.

Unique surprises at the Al. Ringling

During the half time show today Ernie picked a contestant in one of the boxes that surrounded the second level. Instead of picking a prize, the winner, a 6th grader from Madison, said “Surprise me” so Ernie said “You look like you could use a pickled egg” We had a lot of trouble in Baraboo with the audience not wanting to pass the prizes and this was no exception but they reluctantly passed the egg. We had no plan in place to get prizes to the boxes since the lighting was so low Ernie could barely see the audience as it was we didn't think he could see the folks in the boxes, but we were getting ready to improvise as the egg made it’s way back toward the booth. But as it neared, it took a turn in the audience and headed off to the left and surprisingly, when it got to the back of the house, the person with it stood up and tossed it up to the waiting winner in the box at least 10 feet above him. Let’s just say, no one was really listening to the final word from our sponsor!

When our 'booth' is in the middle of the audience as it has often been on this tour, we get a lot of visitors. When a young woman stopped into the booth today and said "This is going to sound strange but..." we thought 'probably not!' We were wrong! The woman's name was Vicki Kvernen, the sister of the real Cubby Kvernen!!! Chris “Cubby” Kvernen went to High school with Fred Alley and was in attendance this afternoon in box number 7 with his family. Vicky told us that when Cubby and Fred were in high school together Fred always loved the name... Cubby Kvernen!

This afternoon we had a lot of trouble prior to the show with a short in one of our lighting instruments. Unfortunatly it was the primary front light on Doug. We thought we had it fixed but about 15 minutes into Act I, it started to flicker and then went out. Moments later it was back on and though it flickered a couple of times during the show, it worked when we needed it for the rest of the show. Bill's opinion was that it was the ghost of Al. Ringling helping us out and taking a cue from his buddy, PT Barnum's, The Show Must Go On!!

Some fun in Barabooo

We did have some fun in Baraboo, The lamps in the horseshoe hallway around the theater were gas lamps that still ran on gas, they were cool. Bill worked hard on the focus and looked good doing so! Lee found a few extra costume pieces in his dressing cell, we thought this was an interesting look for Ernie.

Baraboo

Baraboo, our last stop of the week. We have two shows, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The Al Ringling theatre is a beautiful old space, just in a sad, sad state of disrepair. Though it looks like there were some add alterations made that involved bashing holes in the wall, the art work and cornices are beautiful. There is one chandelier in the center of the ceiling and sconces on the walls surrounding the space, so even with all the lights at full power it is still very dim in the theater.

Hartford the last!

Our final night in Hartford the results of the raffle were in, unfortunatly we didn't win anything, not even a bobber cooler! After the final performance the theater hosted a small reception in the lobby so that the audience could meet the Guys. It was a small, nice affair and some of the audience was very excited to meet the Guys - we all had a beer, signed some autographs and schmoozed Hartford a bit. On the other side of the wall, the load out was going on - the theater had another show coming in right after us, so they were very efficient about getting us out! Although it was 'country' and 'kareoke' two things that just shouldn't be allowed in the same room, we celebrated our final night in Hartford at the Mindshaft with a couple beers.

Hartford Part 2

We played three nights in Hartford, although we did three performances in Wausau, we did it in two days, which meant we loaded in on Saturday and loaded out on Sunday. Here we actually stayed in one place for three days and it allowed us to get a little comfortable.

It was a good space for it too, comfortable green room, nice theater and dressing rooms, nice people. Overall we had a great time. Here Becca demonstrates a throw-back to the old style boom box by listening to music on her lap-top.