Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers, The New Dimension, and "was that Waldo?!"

A few weeks ago, one of my best friends and I embarked on an adventure to...wait for it....Aitkin, to see Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers. The story that follows is all true, I couldn't make it up if I tried. It was all that an adventure should be. So without further ado....are we all here? Are we all together? Let's get down!

The morning came entirely way too fast, it may have been because I had a few in my shop the night before while rocking out to RCPM. Fun fact....RCPM = Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers. I got up, with one eye half open, crawled into the shower, now I have no real idea of how much time I spent in the shower, why I included that I have no idea, no relevance to the story at all but it's ok we like it. I make two rounds of cuban coffee, btw cuban coffee is the equivalent of riding a unicorn, through the rainbow of Skittles, searching for the leprechaun's pot of gold, high octane to say the least. This fact will be prevalent in the story later.

Do we downed our coffee and embarked on a truly odd, interesting, and wtf was that adventure. From my house on Lake Six to Menagha was waiting for the coffee to kick in, nothing spectacular. When we reached Menagha is when the story starts getting interesting. You see I've been through Menagha many times in the past but I've never gone straight ahead on 87, never ever. One curve didn't look like a curve but it was haha. We followed that road for some time until coming to a stop sign. It was at this time I didn't know where I was, ah ha! GPS! Turn left now, in a half mile take the second right....ok...so there's a right....where's the second? Well flark, flipping a bitch. There was no first right to constitute a second right. Now through the power of deduction I figure this is where we slipped into a different dimension, because after that, reality was kinda gone.

Ok find our turn, now the only left, not first left.... Now I'm still foggy at this point but pretty straight road and I'm not sure if it was this road or one of the fifty that followed but wherever we were....cruising down the road and here's a truck with a camper going 49mph....this wasn't ok. Check the road, maximum warp, engage! I passed that guy like he was standing still. While passing I see what can only be described as a horizontal silo driving down the road. It was a ways off but through the heat coming off the road I saw a horizontal silo. (Fast car, truck, semi noise) It passes going the opposite direction. I glitched, I glitched hard, trying to find the words. It came out kinda like....did you? Was that? You saw that too? Wtf is happening? It was a 60's - 70's era tour bus flying by. I had to make sure my friend saw it too because wtf was that?!?! Not much farther down the redneck road was a mannequin, laying in the ditch dressed like Waldo. Yes that Waldo, we found him and he let his life go, maybe if he turned the GPS off on his phone he would've had a better career. Needless to say, when I see this, "Was that flarking Waldo?!?!" Old ass tour bus and Waldo on the same road. The whole time we are both saying..."what is going on?!?!"

So whatever road we were on at this point, I seriously have no idea but the next batch was dirt. All I could think was....oh car don't fail me now. It felt like driving through deliverance and the trees had eyes. Opening the windows I thought I heard wind chimes, although it may have been banjos...

Now we end up somewhere around Pine River and wow we found the traffic. So we go south according to the car until somewhere around Pequot Lakes or Jenkins or wherever. Bam left and immediately right. Now this new road shouldn't exist and part of me want to go back to see if it actually does exist. This road looked like it had 9 different asphalt patch jobs and none of them matched up.

Side note, through all of this, I realized my friend was fizzing from Cuban coffee, yes fizzing. The only other time I've heard someone talk so fast about anything is when people say I'm talking so fast about everything. At one point I looked over and said, spaces between words are what make sentences work....

So back to the weirder road. I'm cruising along, kinda zoning out, my friend is on their phone and all of a sudden I get slapped by reality and let out a shriek that can only be described as someone flushing a toilet when you're in the shower. I thought their phone was going through my front windshield and the turbo caffeinated person sitting next to me starts freaking out wondering why I'm shrieking. "I have no idea where the hill goes!" This all happened in the course of 2 seconds. All I saw was going up a hill and not being able to see the side where I go down it. Damn ski jump if I wouldn't have slowed down. If I didn't slow down we may not have landed yet. Over this hill was the equivalent of going down a damn rollercoaster, through your arms up and scream!

Well this was not my favorite road. Ups and downs and all of a sudden a stop sign for no reason at all other than some county worker saying...."eh this is a good spot for one." So we get around whatever the stop sign was for and into more of a road thing. Then there are two 18ish year olds standing at the end of a driveway. One of them looked like he was wearing girls volleyball shorts, and that's it. Reminded me of the hockey bros from letterkenny. The bro on the left, wearing the girls volleyball shorts, well call him volleybro, was fist pumping or making the motion for me to honk, so I honk and they lose their damn minds like we were the only car they had seen ever. The road goes on and all of a sudden there is a giant line up of cars at a stop sign. Like where the flsrk did all these cars come from, we hadn't seen a car the entire road?!?!

At this point the end of the driving adventure was coming close to an end. The weirdest feeling of dejavu pulling through town. I had been there but I had no idea when. Then the worst placed holiday gas station ever, that part of the story is going to die haha. Bathroom break is all we need to say hahaha!

I find a place to park, a CVS, next to a car that had "magnum bro" in a giant sticker on the trunk. Yes that happened...wtf. now to find food. Well it turns out Aitkin is closed on Sundays, everything, the church was closed. Ooooo a diner, with a long wait but good now yes please. Amazing fried pickles and a country friend steak sandwich, I'm going for it. Delicious.

So we wander around town to look at all the closed stores and look at the alley stage we are going to, um ok. More walking, flark it a dollar general on that side of massive road construction. The biggest DG I have ever seen. The way back we stopped for a cocktail at the muni? The had no knob creek but holy Hanna that bartender could pour a drink. I didn't call this one a barbeque, that's a different story haha.

Bam off to the show. Fun fact....RCPM was The Refreshments in the 90s. Ahhhh the merch! So here we are and a few hundred other people in an alley, aka the terrace and it hot. Met a few people that had the same hate for the jug of watermelon margaritas that we did....yuck. first band was just a warm up sound check kinda thing. One bald guy and two guys that looked like they were high school history teachers. Well the bass player looked like Mr. Olson and after I said that, we couldn't unsee it.

Now for RCPM...getting chills typing. It was hot people were rocking the flark out...until the rain. Oh the rain, so much rain. Roger Clyne said...."so should we all take a break and pony up to a bar or should we play on?" Play on! An absolute downpour and not one person there was in a bad mood about it, except a couple kids. There was a girl there named Marie and her favorite song since she was 5 was Marie by RCPM. When they played that song, man it all clicked. She was the happiest person I have ever seen. She ended up with a guitar pick and I've never seen anyone smile that big before. Now it all clicked because here's a few hundred people standing in a downpour and nothing else in the world mattered. Every thing happening in all of our lives just stopped and we were just jamming. That's how a concert should be! That girls smile and reaction to all of it was absolutely priceless. If I had known all of this prior I would've said hey Roger come here, here's a dedication to end all dedications. I mean we were right at the stage, no rushing the stage like normal, just a group of people vibing and living!

The clouds cleared, everyone is soaked, and then it came time for Banditos! Well he started by telling the story of The Refreshments and such and then call those of us old enough to remember that "vintage." Not gonna lie, I dig it! I could type for hours about banditos but you get it at this point. They played a lot longer since we hung out in the rain and man I never wanted that show to end.

Now I have been to more concerts than I can put to words, but this was by far the best concert I have ever been to. The whole vibe, small show, not an ounce of anger in the place, and the most memorable road trip ever.

I'm closing, RCPM wasn't a bucket list show, they are my life bucket list band. From now til whenever, road trip, rain, shine, or fly, I'm going to rock out to these guys live as much as I can.

Here's some an advice from a "vintage" guy, when chances like this happen, don't think about doing it, do it! In the last decade I haven't lived as much as I did in one day. Life is for living, not wondering how to live.

Here's to life and play on!!!!