I performed Wednesday night at THE Ohio State University (Newark Campus). The “THE” in “The Ohio State University” becomes much more funny and ironic when describing a branch campus. The campus is actually a LOT larger than I thought it would be. And there were many more traditional-age college students there than I anticipated too. All good stuff.
My call time was 5:45pm and since I had been on campus earlier in the day to do some other stuff, I was already in town. I had some free time, so I decided to grab a nap in my car until the tornado sirens woke me up at 4:50pm. I turned on the radio and they said a Tornado Warning was in effect and was headed right toward me. The sky, however, was still clear and tornado free. 5 minutes later, the black wall cloud of doom appeared over the western horizon and I decided my call time was now 5pm. I loaded in my gear so I didn’t get all wet and stuff.
We watched the clouds as they passed over. Lots of twirling rotating clouds in the sky, but nothing crazy happening on the ground except wind and sideways rain and angry students.
Performing near the presence of tornadoes is apparently becoming a thing with me. In my career, I can think of several near-run-ins. Last Thursday, I was performing in downtown Dublin, OH. There wasn’t really anyone there because there had been tornadoes earlier in the day. No big deal. Didn’t stop me. Then earlier this year – in the summer – I showed up at a country club in Philadelphia only to find out they didn’t have power due to a tornado or microburst or something. All I know is it took me WAY to long to find a detour that got me to the gig because there were so many trees down and blocking roads. Then back several years ago, while on the way to perform at Purdue University, a tornado crossed the highway less than half a mile in front of me and my friend Mark and we got the experience on video. Note that I say we got the “experience” on video, as it has been pointed out by numerous YouTube commenters that no funnel cloud actually appears in the video. The rain was coming down too hard to see anything anyway.
Back to tOSU(n), the show went great and we had a pretty good turnout, despite the weather. Here are some photos from the show!
peace, love and droppin houses on wicked witches,
mk