Day Eight: Soundpony Lounge. Tulsa, OK. bicycle bar.

We arrived in Tulsa mid-afternoon and made our way to the Soundpony Lounge where we ended up hangin out for the rest of the day. Really amazing place. Turns out that the Soundpony is owned and operated by bicycle enthusiasts who also have a semi-pro bike team. There were old bikes hanging from the ceiling and scattered around the place as well as a bike chair, a bike tire hung disco ball and lots of numbers and uniforms from old bike races. It was beautiful. Staff was fantastic -- rad guys. We were pumped to be there.

My cousin Scott came down and met us for a few hours before he went to his night shift as an airplane mechanic for American Airlines. He informed of us of the history of Cain's Ballroom, which was right next door. The place was essentially built by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys way back in the day and had seen a lot of country music history and had played host to amazing artists throughout the years, including the Sex Pistols on their one American tour. We benefitted from there being a show there that night as a bunch of people flowed over to the Soundpony once the big show got out.

Motown Blood from Oklahoma City opened for us. They were great. Raw classic soul rock ala early Beatles. Super nice guys too. We were on by midnight to a fairly full room of rowdies. Fun set and met some fantastic people. Thanks Mike, Josh, Tony and everyone else that made the night there so rad! We also met the production manager from Cain's, who happened to also be from Idaho. He was all excited about the Idaho connection and ended up giving us a tour of Cain's Ballroom after the show. Running us through a bunch of its history -- pretty wild -- took us to the production office and showed us all the signed photos of the artists who had played there throughout the years. And showed us a framed piece of wall that had been punched in by Sid Vicious and they had salvaged it during a recent remodel. It was a living breathing rock 'n' roll museum. He's going to see what he can do to have us playing there next time, and we're going to continue to do our part to further justify it.

We crashed that night with my cousin's inlaws Jim and Pam. They were incredible. We had a great time hanging out with Pam late night and the next morning. Beautiful people.

Reporting from the road for all of us Finn Rigginses.
gilbert