Duffy's Tavern - Lincoln, NE

Upon arriving in Lincoln, we headed to a small vegetarian/vegan food joint called Grateful Bread. Tricia had heard about their legendary macaroni and cheese and was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to compare it that of Schubas in Chicago (the best that both of us have ever had by far), but alas, they were "sold out." We settled for some black bean soup and a dish called the Creole Hoppin' John instead. Both were fairly tasty, but I couldn't help but wonder why the employee couldn't just make some more mac 'n cheese with all of his spare time. (In the 30 minutes we were there, he had a few more customers come in and and ask about the sold-out mac 'n cheese, and the only thing he did behind the counter was change the vinyl playing over the store's speakers.)

After polishing our bowls, we checked out the capitol building just down the street. Before seeing this statue, I should've figured that Lincoln was the Nebraskan people's attempt to claim old Abe for themselves. This seems to be a widespread phenomenon across many states, but we all know that Illinois is the place where Abe sprang from the womb (hence the name of our capitol, Springfield).

I suspect that the final line of this poem, inscribed tastefully on the hide of the stone bison below, is the earliest known incarnation of today's popular insult.

"Born of the Earth
And touched by the deep blue sky
Out of the distant past I came into you
Your mother corn"

Here's a sculpture we spotted across the street from the capital. I have two thoughts: 1) Why is the little boy so ripped?, and 2) We can see where these people's pants end, but where do their pants start?

Plagued by these questions (which rank among life's greatest) we drove to Duffy's Tavern, our venue for the night. We had performed at Duffy's last summer and had a great time. The atmosphere was somewhat rowdy, but people seemed to really care about the music. Not to mention that the talent buyer, Dub, genuinely wanted to make sure we were taken care of. It was no different this time around.

The Betties opened the show. Their sound check alone sounded like it could've been the soundtrack to a Ken Burns Civil War documentary, and I mean that in a good way. It's also worth mentioning that they crocheted their own koozies and put out tortilla chips and homemade salsa on their merch table. The latter was a delicious accompaniment to their set, a string of rootsy folk/country songs anchored down by Heather Berney's twangy vocals and Jordan Ellis' viola playing. In the video below, Manny Coon (whom we played with and stayed with last summer) joined them for some drunken washboard percussion.



Tricia played next. Each one of her songs was punctuated with a loud cry ("YEEESSS!") from the back of the bar, which I interpreted as a good sign.

I followed, setting the stage for the final act of the night, a pop-rock quartet called The Sleepover. They had recently been featured in an Al Jazeera news video about the Lincoln music scene. Apparently, when their lead singer Cory was told about the possibility of being interviewed for the piece, he wondered who this "Mr. Jazeera" was. An honest mistake, but a hilarious one nonetheless. Speaking of hilarity, Cory was quite the comedian in between songs. It was a nice way to end the night.





We're in Laramie, WY right now, which means we're behind with our blog -- we have not one, but three fabulous days in Denver to write about, so check back soon!