Some of the Roadshows were HOT, and by that I don’t mean “cool.” I mean they were hot, like sweaty, humid, disgustingly hot. Of course, there were lots of comments about how the heat made it feel like a real, old-timey revival, and lots of jokes about us wearing three-piece wool frock suits. The funeral fans from Wesley Seminary came in handy.
Honestly, the worst part wasn’t even the massive amounts of sweat dripping off of the revivalists. The worst part was putting the wet frock suit back on after the 2008 monologue. There’s nothing like donning a soaking wet shirt.
So, here are my top five hottest stops on the Roadshow:
5. New Orleans (weak A/C in a third floor loft)
4. Oakland (no A/C in a gym/worship center)
3. Minneapolis (no A/C in Solomon’s Porch)
2. Dallas (broken A/C in an old church)
And, the hottest show of all….
1. Atlanta!
The Atlanta Roadshow stop took place at the B-Complex, a collection of old warehouses now owned by a collective of artists. Our performance was in the main warehouse, with broken out windows and plastic sheeting loosely hanging from the walls. The whole scene made me whisper-shout, “Derelicte!” (Some incredible photos of that show, by Daley Hake, can be seen here.) The weather that night was hot and sultry, just like you’d expect in Atlanta in late July. The revivalists were hot, the crowd was hot, but, the beer was cold!
And, finally, one of the top quotes of the whole tour came from Troy Bronsink, head the Atlanta revival committee. After the show he said to me, “When I booked this venue in April I thought, How hot can it be in Atlanta at the end of July?”
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