On the road with Bloomington’s traveling bands

A crowd of people has gathered to witness an unusual scene: Chris Barth, of local band The Impossible Shapes, is blindfolded and kneeling in the grass behind the statehouse, a suburban home turned concert venue.

“Feed on your own filth! Eat up your own excrement!” he yells out repeatedly as a few people behind him pound on drums and cardboard boxes.

He opens a jar of jelly and begins eating it and feeding it to the other participants, smearing it all over their faces and his own. After a few minutes, Barth collapses in the grass and the noise behind him stops. He rises, removes the blindfold, and tells everyone that his band is playing next. Some members of the audience look amused, others baffled and appalled, but the basic message is clear: The Impossible Shapes have returned home from their tour.

After releasing their self-titled seventh LP in late June, the Shapes hit the road with the new material for a slew of dates all around the eastern half of the country. Many local bands have already gotten out of Bloomington this summer on similar tour routes, including husband&wife, Kentucky Nightmare, Alexander the Great, Prizzy Prizzy Please and Good Luck.

The bands said  the location of each show plays a huge part in its success.
“The Midwest is a really welcoming place,” Bryant Fox of husband&wife and Alexander the Great said. “If nobody knows who you are they’ll come out and see you anyway because there’s nothing better to do.”

Big cities such as New York and Chicago can be difficult venues for independent bands to sell tickets because of the music saturation that exists in those places.  But Barth’s experience this summer was a different one.

“I’ve always felt that way about New York, and this year we ended up having the best show of our tour there,” Barth said. “It seems like we always do really well in cities like Boston and Philly.”

The band’s fanbase could account for the Shapes bringing in bigger crowds in cities, but Barth also believes that his group’s music is more appreciated in those kinds of places.

Singer and guitarist Simon Moore has similar doubts about music-rich cities, but his band Kentucky Nightmare also did well in the Big Apple. Moore said their Brooklyn show, a CD release party for a local band there, brought in about 150 people, a far bigger crowd than their tour average of 27.

Even with a few good nights, it can be hard to actually turn a profit from an independently organized tour. Driving a minivan full of equipment all over the country with gas prices above $4 is an expensive feat, and when gigs fall through or not enough people come to shows, breaking even becomes the goal.

“Everything got progressively better, but the last few shows were canceled, which left us in a financial mess,” Ben Lumsdaine, drummer for Alexander the Great, said. The band was left with a gas bill to Georgia and no shows to make their money back.

Fox, who had similar financial experiences on tour with both of his bands, laughed when asked about profits from his tours.

“Well, we didn’t lose money,” Fox said.

Though most independent local bands set up their route and shows themselves, The Impossible Shapes have begun to use a booking agent for most of their road shows. With the added security of an agent, the Shapes’ tour had a more profitable outcome.

The number of people on the road can change the success of a tour as well.

Alexander the Great and husband&wife shared a few dates on their tour, as did Kentucky Nightmare and Brooklyn-based Akudama. To them, having multiple groups together on the road is both a blessing and a curse.

“It was really nice to have other personalities thrown into the mix,” Moore said.

He said Kentucky Nightmare spent two weeks alone together on tour. However, making money with two out-of-town bands sharing shows can be difficult, Moore said.
Touring can be a lot of work, especially with a busy schedule like husband&wife’s 16 shows in 16 days. Being on the road may not pay well, but the effort can pay off in other ways.

“It felt kind of like a job, but it was counter-balanced by the amount of fun we were having,” Lumsdaine said about this summer’s tour, which was his first.
For most musicians, the quality of the music and its ability to move people can be the biggest reward.

“As long as there’s at least one person getting something out of it, the show is worth it,” said Karen Jensen, bassist for Kentucky Nightmare.

Kentucky Nightmare plan on touring again this fall following the nationwide release of their second album Take Her Favor with Russian Recording from Nashville, Ind. Fox said that husband&wife may release their new album in December, and plans on touring sometime in the winter. Alexander the Great will also release new material in November.

For The Impossible Shapes, however, this summer’s tour is likely to be their only outing this year. With drummer Mark Rice on the road for the rest of the year with his other band, the Shapes will keep a low profile and do some recording in their home studio, Barth said.

But the band will be playing a few shows at various venues around town in the fall. Though The Impossible Shapes have a decade-long history in Bloomington, they and similar local acts continue to gain new fans in town, even at shows as small as the Shapes’ homecoming show at the statehouse.

“I’m not really into this type of music, but I enjoyed it. It was definitely worth the wait,” IU senior Ali Camara said about the Shapes’ homecoming show.

If you can’t make it to any shows these bands put on while still in town, fear not, you may still see Barth on the streets of Bloomington, orchestrating more bizarre spectacles like the one on the Statehouse’s back lawn.

“I’ve had a lot of ideas for setting up some strange kind of street performances around town in the next month or two,” Barth said. “Only better planned, maybe even rehearsed. Watch out for those.”