Well, that was odd. Earlier in the week, David Zollo posted on his Facebook page “we will be at the Okoboji Store Thursday”. So we went. It seemed like nobody else did.
Apparently, the Okoboji Store is primarily a restaurant with a lower level bar and near the bar there’s a stage with a couple of tables nearby.
The Hyper-Capable Staff virtually insisted that we make reservations at either the restaurant or the bar, so we did that, but subsequently discovered that if you were ONLY going to listen to the band, you didn’t need a reservation, and you could just sit at one of the tables, which we did. They cancelled the reservation.
It seemed as if nobody ever goes there just to listen to the band.
But the table next to us filled up with some talkers right about the time things got underway, and it took our Intrepid Taper about five songs to decide to relocate his mics to the conduit running up the side of a tree, and that pretty much took care of those guys, who moved as soon as Intrepid Taper took the trouble to make that tricky relocation in the middle of a song.
So we got the sound the way we like it at the sixth track “New Man Blues”.
At the end of the songs there was some scattered applause from the diners and the bar patrons, but it was sparse enough that Zollo could thank individual tables.
People strolled by on a nearby sidewalk and occasionally bobbed their heads like they’d heard something catchy. And kept walking; nobody came up close around the stage.
We virtually had one of the best bands in Iowa to ourselves.
Okoboji is a funny place-they’ll pay $50 to see Night Ranger but negative nothing for a really hot band that probably spent the entire night hoping for some synergy with crowd.
The Okoboji Store has valet parking for big boats though. Really big boats.
