July 15, 2024 • 46 mins
Welcome to the first tour recap episode of Merman Mondays Podcast! Join hosts Alexis Babini and Andrew Grau as they dive into the magical TOURING world of The Little Mermen, the nation's premier Disney tribute band. In this special tour debrief, Alexis and Andrew share unforgettable highlights from their recent tour from June to July, including magical moments, new bits, and their first-ever Golden Fin Awards.
Get ready for behind-the-scenes stories, from Spaghetti Man antics to epic birthday celebrations, and find out where you can catch their upcoming shows. Whether you're a longtime fan or a first-time dreamer, this episode is a perfect blend of Disney magic and rock 'n' roll fun.
Don't miss the chance to connect with the band and explore deeper band lore. Tune in and enjoy the ride!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to Merman Mondays, the podcast where the Little Mermen share behind-the-scenes
tour stories, discuss popular Disney content, and celebrate Disney's musical legacy.
I'm your host, Alexis Wabini, founder of the Little Merman Band,
and joining me is our co-host, Andrew Grau.
(00:30):
Thanks, Alexis. So whether you're a longtime fan or first-time dreamer,
The Little Mermen is the country's premier Disney tribute band,
bringing the magic of Disney music to life with live performances all across the U.S. and the world.
Our mission with this podcast is to connect with our fans on a deeper level,
give a behind-the-scenes glimpse at touring in an indie rock band,
(00:52):
and share in the joy that is Disney content and culture.
So today, it's our first tour debrief episode in Merman history.
We'd like to take the time to talk about tour highlights from our last outings,
some magic moments, and some new and old bits that may have surfaced,
and our first ever Golden Finn Award.
(01:17):
So stay tuned to find where you can connect with us and get into the deeper
band lore. Well, before we go the distance, remember, we are still a touring
band with some shows coming up. So let's get down to business.
Thursday, July 18th, Jenkinson's Boardwalk, Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
Saturday, July 20th, Union County Summer Arts Concert Series,
(01:40):
Clark, New Jersey. Sunday, July 21st, Winchendon Community Center, New Jersey.
Winch in massachusetts friday july 26th fountain
park van wert ohio more information
like ticket links or rspp links can be found
on our website at the little merman.com slash tickets
well partner it's been about 10 days since our june to july tour have we recovered
(02:04):
yet have we thought about spaghetti man who sounds like this hey it's me i'm
spaghetti man spaghetti i think spaghetti man has spent a lot of time in my
brain whether or not I would like it.
We had a rehearsal. We have some really great subs coming in.
We have a really big roster now of just like incredible musicians.
(02:24):
So it was cool to get back into it and kind of debrief a little bit with Alexis
yesterday and share with some people we haven't seen in a bit.
So a lot of these memories were coming back and big fan of how things shook out.
Dude, I was I was thinking about so because we're
a Disney rock and roll band bringing the Disney magic with
like a stadium rock sing at the top of your lungs I really
(02:47):
feel like our show is like like seeing
your favorite classic rock bands like 80s rock the
rock groups of today crushing it like I there's this Axl Rose interview for
when Guns and Roses first blew up and when they first started like doing a lot
of shows and I think about this all the time and Axl Rose is basically talking
about like when you have this great show You give it your all,
(03:09):
you're bouncing around on stage,
you're loading in, you're loading out.
And yes, it takes a mental toll. Yes, it takes a physical toll.
And if you have a great show like that, it's going to take you three days to recover.
And oh no, imagine you have like 20 of those in a row.
So like, you know, and, and it's sort of like, we, I feel so blessed that we
get to do what we love and it really does feel magical to bring the show on
(03:34):
the road and connect with all these people.
But it really is just like the, the physical act of like touring,
you know, aside from all the travel we do in the van. Yeah.
Yeah, this past week, you know, I came back and the crazy thing is we were just
so booked and blessed this summer that we have another stretch of dates coming
up at the end of July and we have all this stuff coming up.
But I had like kind of one day off and I got to chill and I watched the new
(04:01):
Star Wars show, The Acolyte, which I'm sure we'll be talking about in this podcast very soon.
Very much so. And subscribe on Patreon to get our Disney extras,
you know, the, the vacation, the, like the tour recovery, the finding yourself
centered, waking up in the same city more than one night in a row is really,
it's something that as humans we take for granted.
And like on tour, it's sort of been like, like I'll wake up and,
(04:25):
and like, in that maybe like the two minutes of like, when you're coming from
dream state to reality, you're kind of like, oh, I'm, I'm awake. I'm alive.
Where am I? And you're like, okay, so last night we were in Indiana.
No, we're in Ohio somewhere.
And so it takes me like five days after tour to be like, I'm in my apartment in New York City.
(04:45):
And to wake up and be like, here I am. I know where I am. It's still like,
where am I? Who am I? What am I? What's happening?
And not to mention, we crisscrossed the central time zone no less than three
times in a 10-day stretch.
That was miserable. Dude, I love
that you're archiving all these things on tour. Like, I love that you...
(05:08):
Yeah, no, we're going to try and keep them positive and keep it light.
But, you know, listeners, we just want you to know that, like,
we are working so hard to, like, really put on the show of a lifetime.
And, you know, I have big dreams for the Mermen.
And quote me saying it here on the podcast, we're bringing the show to the Las
Vegas sphere. It's going to happen. I don't know how. I don't know when.
(05:31):
But I know where. the Las Vegas sphere.
That's where I see this show going. We're speaking it into existence.
This podcast is going to be such a cool memento.
And I really think those of you out there who are like wondering about not only
the love and magic of Disney, but just like touring in a band and being a full-time
(05:51):
musician, like we have a lot to offer here.
And I also had a funny thought just now. I was thinking about a movie called Inside Out,
but instead of about being about the emotions inside your brain it's about a
musician's digestive system it's inside out but not in your head it's the.
(06:12):
Digesting all the food you eat on lord now that
we're kind of caught back up and now that we're back in the
swing of things we're back in new york bagels over
here that's what we say in new york we say
hey i got bagels over here as everybody knows oh
that's there's an oh in the middle of
this thing of bread oh canceled we're
(06:34):
all canceled it's all all right one more
thing i want to say two is just like for our listeners
again this is a podcast for you and we're
gonna give you fun little nuggets and fun little joyful bits
but one of the things about kind of
like the reality check is like i think
about us in the way that like you know r.i.p to jimmy buffett because jimmy
(06:58):
buffett's whole brand is like come take a vacation with us come to margaritaville
come escape the the doldrums of your life and experience, you know, this fate.
And that is very similar to the brand of Disney and to the brand of The Little Merman.
It's like, come escape and come on a magical adventure with us.
(07:18):
So for the audience and for our listeners, like, this is a vacation for you.
And sometimes it gets forgotten that, like, for us, like, this is our job, you know?
Like, and on big tours, you're going to have this, the crew and the sound people,
They get there at like five in the morning.
The band might not load in until afternoon and you have this great show.
(07:40):
Audience might be tailgating before or after the show. There might be a cool after party.
But yeah, behind the scenes, there's just people working very hard to bring
this magic to life. Like imagine in the credits of your favorite Disney movie,
all those names in the credits, all those names in the art department.
And so it really is this magical puzzle. And when it comes together, it's such a treat.
(08:04):
And there are often times that like doesn't always come together.
And there's also some fun stories around that.
So we're going to talk about that on episodes of this podcast.
We also don't want to discourage people from touring or people that are in indie
bands that want to tour. Touring's hard.
Touring's, we're not going to lie to you and say it's super easy and super fun all the time.
It's a lot of work and it feels very much like it doesn't go rewarded sometimes,
(08:28):
but then you knock the heck out of a show and that feeling is still better than
just about any other feeling that I've ever had.
And it happened a few times on tour and I always feel really grateful about
that. We still have our tour calendar, June 19th to July 1st.
So we can really go line by line and just talk about each of these experiences.
(08:50):
And we still have our schedule. We have, not to get too nerdy,
but in the Google document format, we have all our dates and all our call sheets and call times.
So I can see right in front of me right now, as a matter of fact,
exactly where we went, exactly where we stayed. Yeah.
And yeah, okay, so I know what you're going to give your Golden Finn Award.
(09:15):
Again, the Golden Finn Award is an award for an accommodation and then a separate
one, kind of like the Emmys for, you know, best meal or best restaurant experience.
You know, but if we're going to start kind of at the beginning,
it has to be brought up that our first tour day was my birthday.
Yeah, oh my gosh, yes. We have to talk about this.
(09:38):
I am i'm not someone that necessarily likes
likes my birthday i'm also glad that i was
with people that you know force a bit of a celebration
on me but also respecting my wishes that i
was like i don't want anything mexican restaurant well
that was that was later that was later but the real highlight for me was we'll
(09:58):
put it up in the patreon as we have three angles of this but i got surprised
by a waffle cone full of ice cream as a as a treat they put a candle in it and
And the whole mermen troupe sang happy birthday,
but to the tune of the national anthem.
Happy birthday to you.
(10:20):
Happy birthday to you. Yeah.
I think they get it. I think they get it. So it fits so well.
And it was just one of those things, man. It was like the start of the tour.
We're celebrating you. We're celebrating G-Man. Yeah.
And it was just like, yeah, it just kind of came together. And that was sort
of like, gosh, yeah, that was like a really fun kickoff for us. We have video of that.
(10:46):
And for our Patreon subscribers, you will be delighted to know that video extras
if you hit that subscribe button.
But it's also you got to hit over that $1 mark.
We're talking $5. If you want to see the Growl birthday celebration,
that's the $5 and above. And if you think that we just stopped it after the
first little bit, they went through the entire happy birthday song entirely.
(11:09):
And I think Jane, who I cannot wait for her episode to come out,
a pleasure to interview, a pleasure to work with.
She even remarked afterwards saying, yeah, I didn't think we were committed
to this, but we really committed to it. Yeah, we're going to talk more on her
episode, but that was the first time we had a Tinkerbell in the band.
Yeah, crushed, crushed.
(11:30):
It was a great look. You know, Tinkerbell playing keyboards.
And she is now, she's doing the Rent production, and she came to our gig directly
from her Broadway gig, doing the Sufts show on Broadway.
So just like, I don't know, just imagine the shenanigans that are going to ensue on our next episode.
Anything you want to talk more about Sykesville? But yeah, to talk more about
(11:53):
Sykesville specifically, this is the first show of tour.
We played the Sykesville, Pennsylvania Fair.
Last year, they put us next to Demolition Derby, cars smashing into other cars in Disney show.
This year, we were right next to, I think it was just kind of drag racing.
But not like drag racing with drag queens, but actual packet cars.
(12:13):
Because when- That is true. And next to the dog show, which we had to compete with some banter with.
Is so like in between the song the the dog stage like blasted some music and
i think i said into the mic like i was like hey man turn those dogs down yeah
hey somebody turned and i kind of made it a fun bit but i think it worked they
(12:35):
they they like were like they cut the sound they're like oh they're actually having a concert,
And it was a cool, it's sort of like, we do a lot of really big state fairs.
Yes. And this is a county fair.
And the difference between a county fair and a state fair is probably what you would imagine.
Like a state fair, like we played Texas State Fair on the same stage as CeeLo Green.
We played Washington State Fair. We played the Big E on the same stage as Chubby
(13:00):
Checker on the same night as Bachman Turner Overdrive.
So at a county fair at a county fair
it's it's just not quite as spectacle but it
still is a fun thing for us but it's sort of like a mixed bag
as what you can expect in terms of like i don't
know just the entertainment the rides i would
say i would compare a state fair to playing
(13:21):
at disney world theme park and i
would compare playing a county fair to playing at
coney island coney island theme park oh so you can kind of
that's make out of that wow hey i love coney island
i i went there right after tour but that's maybe that's that's
well i was gonna say if we take as much time on the first gig
as we do on all our gigs we're gonna be here for two hours it's gonna be
(13:41):
five hour episode and i'm gonna push it i'm gonna
push us along next is the chateau aeronautic winery
and onstead michigan one of the most
different places i think that i've played with the mermen chateau
aeronautique winery slash blue skies
brewery this is a brewery and a winery in onstead
michigan shout out to this venue lorenzo right we're gonna give them lorenzo
(14:06):
is the owner of the man live planes and now he owns this place the bar and in
that venue is made out of an airplane wing and his his pilot uniform is just
like on display on a mannequin yeah i'm like.
And so, man, that was a cool venue. I just want to talk about my one highlight.
I am going to try to keep it brief. I don't want to make this a two-parter.
(14:28):
We're about to take the stage.
And this guy, Lorenzo, is going to introduce us. And the sound guy and our other
merch girl that I provided was like, all right, so he's going to come.
And it's his venue. He's going to come and introduce you guys.
So we're waiting. And Lorenzo is sort of like,
Shout out to this guy because I love the way he runs this venue.
He's just kind of a laid back dude delegating all the work out.
(14:51):
And he's like, hey, let's try these cocktails. So he's got a cocktail in his hand.
He's walking slowly up to the stage and he's like, all right,
guys, I'm going to introduce you.
And at this point, we're probably like five minutes behind when the show is supposed to start.
So we're like, okay, what do we do? And he points to the stepladder by the stage
and he goes, hey, that's my stepladder.
I never knew my real ladder. her dad joke
(15:14):
and then and then goes up and introduces us and
literally he just goes ladies and gentlemen the little merman and then it was
amazing like that's it yeah now i want to say the highlight for me was actually
got to see you do solo acoustic time without any without any of the princess
pals because you don't it hasn't happened in a while yeah it hasn't happened in a while.
(15:35):
And I think the two times you've done it this year, Rehoboth and the Chateau
Aeronautic, I just, it's, it reminds me of what you're, what you're so good
at and why, you know, so many of us love playing with you.
And then in general, everybody who worked there was sublimely kind to us.
(15:56):
The Maxwell, the sound guy, incredibly nice, worked so hard, made us sound so great.
So let's get to the weekend. So we are now in Illinois.
We went to Wheaton, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago.
And I remember stepping out of the van and it was very windy.
It was very hot. It was again, another heat dome, heat dome gig.
(16:18):
And everyone kind of looks around like, oh, it's kind of windy.
And I was like, well, I guess that's why they call it the windy city.
And only one person went, ha, I think it was Jane. So shout out to Jane.
Wheaton was awesome. And we have some of those Chicago sausages and the sausages
with the bears for great dab bears. All right, there we go. That's my one.
My one bad accent. Da Bears. Da Bears. Da Bears. Yeah, We In is basically Chicago.
(16:41):
It's like the outer of Chicago.
And my one thing after that show was just we got to share the stage with another act. Yeah.
Shout out to the Divas. They crushed. They crushed.
They did some Lady Gaga. They did some 80s girl rock songs.
And like yeah man i mean like that was
(17:04):
that was a cool one we have a we released a
clip of our video highlights gonna follow us on socials you'll find he's got
a lot of videos from the stage all right so i think that's that's kind of like
a good overview of our chicago time it was very fun it was the the weather wild
card which is great we do a lot of outdoor shows and And look,
(17:25):
like Mother Nature sometimes has other thoughts. Sometimes Mr.
Thor, the God of Thunder, wants to swing by our concert. Yeah,
but the thing is, it's like if there's thunder in the sky, we got to either
cancel or reschedule. But it was all good.
It worked out. The elements were on our side.
And now we are on to La Porte, Indiana, Sunday, June 23rd.
(17:47):
So La Porte was actually a reschedule from when we did a little Great Lakes
Midwest tour in January because we were basically inundated with snow,
and La Porte is just far north enough.
They were like, yeah, we got three feet of snow. There's nothing we can do, so we were scheduled.
And La Porte was a real class act. It was this beautiful old school that they
(18:10):
turned into basically a civic center and a concert arena.
So it does have basketball courts, but actually has great stadium seating.
The sound people, again, always super nice.
I thought that was the most amount of wands that we sold. We get creative with our merch.
And we did sell out of our magic wands. Which is great.
(18:32):
In La Porte. Another thing about La Porte was, I think you might have mentioned
this earlier, there's a very star-studded lineup that has played the stage.
And we had this guy talk about what it was like having Stevie Ray Vaughan,
when he was still alive, play the venue that we were about to play around the
stage. And he was like, so right over there, that's where Stevie Ray Vaughan stood.
(18:54):
And that's just, you know, like as a guitar player, as somebody who's delved
into the world of blues, bending notes, we're going to get a little musical
here talking about the blues approach,
you know, and having some nice tasty diddly do's.
Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my North Stars as a guitar player. Has to be.
(19:15):
So then June 24th, the next day on our tour began. This is a day off.
We went to Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Ra, what do you think about Kenosha? I mean, Kenosha really is just a stunning
place. And I'm always reminded by just how beautiful it is.
And we're on like the inlet that goes right to the lake. And I had nothing but
like really great meals.
(19:36):
Everyone was super nice. I will say my one memory of just like that whole,
because we had a day off before and after Kenosha.
Show yeah we were out at dinner and jane
had a bug on her like you know we
were eating outdoors and some type of critter had
landed on oh my god and she was
like alexis can you get this i forgot about that and i was like of course and
(19:59):
so i have my finger ready to flick it off of her and i'm like here yeah let's
get it right off of you but i didn't really i didn't really do a full like read
the whole room and kind of zoom out and so directly behind jane was one of the servers.
Who also who also was deathly afraid of insects and she saw i was about to flick
(20:21):
the bug like directly in her direction and so i and i like i was like yeah just
and the bug goes flying by the way directly at her directly at her and yes and
unfortunately it got it went directly into like the face of this waitress.
So this waitress dodged, screamed, had like, uh, she had either, uh, drink on a tray.
(20:41):
She had beers and she was just like, and it was sort of like, Oh, I'm sorry.
It was just sort of like, I, I, I, yeah, I turned, I turned,
I saved Jane, but at the expense of a waitress, this place who maybe got a,
it was, it was, we actually went there two nights in a row and they had, uh,
this gosh darn bacon-wrapped shrimp that was so gosh darn good.
(21:06):
And I got myself one of the best black bean burgers I've ever had that was called
the Mustard Tiger, because that's a joke in Trailer Park Boys.
And this is also a place where you could put like a dollop of peanut butter on any of your burgers.
And I was so in. What makes Kenosha always so memorable for me is because there's always a great hang.
And the night before, I think we were all burnt out from traveling and I hung
(21:28):
out with Chelsea and we did laundry, which was nice.
I just kind of had a night to myself which was kind of nice and that was the night either that
or was the next day we had off where you and i watched the
weezer spotify series yeah
it was just generally like good
hangs all around every meal i
had was excellent and i just felt it
(21:49):
was also one of the last times that it was everybody was there
because melinda flew out the next day so it was like the
whole fam damley was there yeah kenosha
always always kind of feels like that and then two years
prior there was always some really good hang and i
am big fan yeah all right so then after kenosha
we went to springfield ohio now on thursday june 20 now springfield ohio was
(22:15):
one of my favorite gigs that we did two years prior and they they they have
this big rock like stage there they They have in Springfield, Ohio.
They just really roll out the red carpet for what the show is.
And everyone brings their lawn chair.
And early in the day, they'll come in before sound check. And here's where I'm
(22:38):
sitting. I'm getting my spot.
And so by the time it's showtime, there's over 1,000 people on this kind of meadow.
And now we're like four shows in.
So now we're feeling confident and tight about the show. We added a new song on this tour, by the way.
No spoilers, but I might give it away. We added the Hannah Montana theme song,
(22:58):
and we rocked out to it so hard. It's one of my favorite editions.
Not to get too behind the scenes, but we have a lot of middle Asians,
people who are based at different areas of the country who we have a relationship with.
And there's one guy, his name's Steve, and he is who we have to thank,
who brings us to a couple of these great venues in Ohio.
(23:19):
And I'd never met him in person just through, you know, mutual agents and emailing,
but he came out to that show and kind of saw us just give a hack of a show,
greatest performance, heck of a show, heck of a show.
I had a call with him the other day. He was just like, you know,
like he recently had a loss in the family and he was going through some stuff,
but still made it out to the show that night.
(23:42):
And, you know, I think that really speaks to just like,
I mean, just, just hearing him like talk about seeing us and seeing like what
the show meant to him really like got me in the feels,
you know, this guy had just recently gone through a family tragedy and he came
to see the little merman and had his spirits lifted and really felt that,
(24:02):
you know, what we brought was magical.
And the way we engaged with the crowd that night, there was just,
it was, it was, it was everything.
It felt like Taylor Swift. There was like screaming fan gals.
And, and there was also, we, I, we have a video of the audience,
just, you know, the, there's these audience partition patient moments and it's
(24:23):
just like, kind of this like roaring audience.
And yeah, I remember being like, Carly
pointed out that there was like a couple girls in in the
audience who were just like screaming at the top of their lungs and and
i and i said something like you know taylor swift eat your heart
out and then i realized wait you can't don't uh
don't rest t swift never that's when they'll come for you but yeah it was just
(24:45):
sort of like this beetle mania type of experience that i've always felt merman
is capable of if if you know if all the stars align and everything comes to
be and we can just do our full show i i just I don't know.
I mean, I mean, this is coming from somebody who's been in this band and seen
it grow for 10 years. Yeah. It's just like.
(25:08):
When, when really, when you just really kind of feel, and then we had a meet
and greet and it was just like all these people wanted to come meet us.
And we had this person who was one of our artists liaisons of the last time
we played there. But this year she just came back as a fan. She's like,
I've been following you guys.
I'm so proud of like what you've accomplished and what you've grown.
So anyways, words of affirmation is my love language.
(25:31):
Yeah no they i mean that's that kind of goes
with the territory with springfield it's they they
treat us so well the booker
or kind of the sound guy even said yeah we
kind of do everyone every two years and if you stick with us then we want to
get you every year and he said we got he's like it was a such shame we didn't
have you back last year and they it's such a pleasure playing that stage it's
(25:54):
a really wide open stage it's beautiful it's they just treat us so great Everyone has a jazz there.
There's this great food court that's across the street from where we stay that
is absolutely slamming food.
I mean, I only eat there because there's so many different stalls.
And I basically had almost everything there. And I remember how good the sushi was.
So I got the sushi and I got a bento box. I was like, yeah, this is one of my favorite places.
(26:18):
Great coffee, too. It's just what I really like when these kind of smaller towns
really revitalize themselves with great food, great entertainment, and great people.
So I know John Legend's from there, which is kind of cool that we played in a legendary town.
But yeah, Springfield has always been a huge highlight.
(26:38):
I've always played a great show there. It's always just felt like a good show.
And it's wonderful. And yeah, we can move on from Springfield and go to one
of my My favorite, which I haven't done in another two years,
the Devon Amphitheater in Decatur, Illinois.
Back on that lake, baby. The Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater. And this is Devon
(27:00):
Buffett. She's married to Howard Buffett.
And that is the second son of the famous billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
So this is the Warren Buffett family, as we all know, is one of the first.
One of the big names in the lexicon of United States wealth and philanthropy.
(27:25):
It's great to see a family like the Buffetts give back to the community.
Howard Buffett's wife, Devin. This venue only opened in 2019.
We were actually one of the first shows there because we've been back there
a couple of times. It's got the biggest LED screen, so it's ultimate video time, which is great.
Again, sound, always wonderful. They're super nice. The food is excellent.
(27:50):
They always get these great food trucks. I know I harp on the food.
I'm the food guy. Me and Ryguy, the food guys.
Me, Ryguy, and Cody, the food guys. Anyways. Another highlight here is just
because, you know, when you're in a band like this, you're doing a lot of events
all over the country. it's nice to know that we can sell over a thousand tickets
in these markets so far outside of New York City.
(28:11):
We're out here doing this great big show and it's really great to see,
just to see it connect on so many levels.
Also what's really great about Decatur is it's another one of those towns that,
you know, former a lot of industry, a lot of heavy industry,
and they're revitalizing their downtown.
They're revitalizing with arts and breweries. And we actually stopped by a brewery
(28:32):
on our way and met the owner. It was Golden Fox Brewery, if I'm not mistaken.
That's right. Wow, yeah, we went to Golden Fox Brewery. They were so sweet.
It was just, the owner came over and talked to us, and we actually met someone
that was just a friend of the owner that has another podcast,
and we might actually have them as a guest, so stay tuned for that.
But in general, it was just...
(28:53):
Just very great vibes it was really
a fun hang and then we went and played the heck out of a show and
very hot out but yeah summer scorcher but we like but we we left it really all
out on on the on the stage for that which was really which was really great
yeah man that that would that was a great night cool i maybe maybe we'll keep
no i actually want to say one yeah man go ahead highlight about
(29:17):
to cater you know i think for us it
may have been the sound
team had like everyone
there was just a parent everyone there had kids and so
we had a lot of kind of children just sort of like it kind
of speaks to just like the joy of our show that these children feel so comfortable
to like walk up to us and start talking to us to give us you know to be like
(29:41):
i'm your best friend now and i just remember when i after our final loadout
we're getting back into the van we're about to drive to the hotel and I had
my arms full of all these cupcakes.
All these children had just given me cupcakes because they were like,
we loved your show and we had so much fun.
And so it's just, yeah, I don't know. It's just sort of a funny little anecdote
(30:01):
that I remember from Decatur.
It's one of those places that you feel like a real rock star.
And I've said it once and I've said it a million times.
People said, what's it like being a freelance musician? musician and i
said well sometimes you play to three people and you
play the best show of your life and then the next day you play to
10 000 people and you're super nervous and you mess up
(30:21):
but you still got to play for 10 000 people and like
i've played to zero and i've played to 30 000 people before it doesn't really
matter at all it's all about the show that you put on and you if you as long
as you can bring it for the three people that you can bring to the 10 000 that's
what it is to be a musician in new york and that's just but decatur is one of
those that always reminds me, yeah,
(30:42):
this feels like a rock star. Hey there, listener.
Editing Grau here to explain what's going on.
Alexis had to go answer the door where he was then kidnapped by the aliens from
Lilo and Stitch and we're still searching for him. Just kidding.
Alexis did go answer a knock at his door. We had to edit out the whole exchange,
but when he left, his separate audio stopped recording and we missed the last
(31:05):
20 minutes of our podcast.
The remaining 20 included our last tour stop, Golden Finn Awards.
And some amazing bits we talked about. So instead of doing a two-parter,
we just used the backup audio from Zoom.
Thanks for understanding, and we'll continue the show.
We get to go to Goshen, Indiana, to a really fabulously beautiful theater in
(31:31):
downtown Goshen. You know, this one, it felt like we had to send it out in the best way possible.
And I think we all brought that little extra zhuzh.
Wasn't, you know, expecting it to be like floor to ceiling people.
But we had a really stalwart crowd of people dancing and it was fun.
And the owner of the theater, Susan, shout out to Susan.
(31:52):
She was there for every song, came up, shook all of her hands and said,
we're gonna get you back here.
It was so fun the sound people were
great the in the indiana pizza i think we
they get they got us so much food and we demolished all
of it it was just we all left it out on the
on the floor we had a great time the bits were
(32:14):
all hitting on stage the all the
all the onstage jokes that we have with each other hitting we
played a heck of a show yeah and then we got
to go to what ended up being like a palatial mansion
with a hot tub in south bend that i got on
airbnb which was a real highlight now yeah that
was your find the the local lodging i think
(32:34):
about the goshen show that was our last
night of tour and they they reached out to
some of the local summer camps yeah it was it
was just one of those moments that like sort of came together in.
A really nice way to kind of wrap rap the
tour anyways yeah i i'm really i think
overall i'm i'm really
(32:56):
pleased with the way that goshen accommodated us
because i think goshen maybe like
an amish part of the country and so a lot of
the a lot of like the online like advertising a
lot of the outreach i mean i don't know i mean that's the
that's the interesting thing about touring in this band is we're learning so
much about the different parts of the country and every
(33:17):
time we think like all right this city we it's just gonna be like
the last city we got this and then it's just there there's
just a lot to learn we've seen america a
lot of our our country and and our country's time yeah but yeah then the airbnb
itself we had a really special moment there was the the hot tub was so clutch
(33:38):
because we all you know and sometimes when we all stay in a place together we
don't always hang Some people were like, you know what?
I'm just going to, I don't feel like hanging. I'm going to stay in my hotel room.
But it was a hang. But every single person on that tour came for the hot tub
hang. And we all kind of talked about.
Our tour highlights and it was just like this gratitude circle this
(34:01):
sort of like kind of like really nice way
to end it off and i put on
my banana costume and surprised everybody i popped out of a
door and i said banana it's the the video of alexis getting me first that will
be in the patreon so please subscribe but yeah i mean get that a video of course
i did dude there was so So what was very special also was that this actually
(34:24):
can go get into our bits a bit because there are some bits I want to talk about.
But the bit was we were talking about Carly had never seen this show or the
movie Alien. So we've been making Carly watch Alien.
And then we were going to try to do Predator this whole dang trip. Predator!
And Jane was like, is Predator really worth it?
(34:44):
And Cody went on maybe a 30 minute talk about how it's such an important movie.
And then he goes oh yeah by the way it's my favorite movie
and we literally were not
we just never found the time there was never enough time and
the last night we watched it
we turned it on at midnight and i had to be up at four in the morning for
a flight and you were just on the couch you and i were
(35:07):
up but kind of the latest and you were like yeah i do is anyone watching
this because everyone went to bed after nobody lasted but we
had the one line from predator editor is when
arnold goes get to the chopper and like
that was the whole bit yeah we made it that way and it was just
like yeah it was like at the end of a long day so like one by
one the band started like peeling off it's like all right
(35:27):
guys i'll see you in the morning i'm not gonna make it to the end and then it
was like me and you but you were mostly asleep and then jane was asleep but
jane was there and she fell asleep and it was sort of just like man i don't
know like that's that's one of the that's one of the magical gifts that cody
ron brings is it sort of like.
He we've been talking about the movie predator for almost like
(35:49):
i feel like though all our tours for years yeah and movie not to mention every
time we were like oh this we're totally gonna be able to do it we didn't have
hdmi cable we're totally gonna get to do it the house doesn't have internet
we're totally gonna get to i'm just like absolutely nonsense i got in the way
of it but we tried to watch predator like four nights in a row and it was it was so crazy
(36:09):
but it was so fun that we finally got to do it the
best part though of the whole thing because
i ended up getting like a few z's and i got my cab to
the airport and i went off to oregon for a week jane fell asleep in in the little
love seat she totally does talk in her sleep super loud really mentioned that
to us and i'll ask her if it's cool but like she was like that's my kind of
(36:32):
like fact that about me that i i sleep talk and she talks very complete sentences It says very loudly.
Music.
(36:53):
Another bit that was a
resurgence we had two resurgence bits one was
the randy newman bit what if randy newman wrote the music to inside out it's
like she's got a joy she got an anger she got a sadness depression on a wing
and that's how we have the inside out too yeah boy how we What happened inside out?
(37:20):
It's one of the bits that Alexis brought and he brought up at top.
Would you describe Spaghetti Man?
Spaghetti Man is based off of a voice that sort of came to be in our DuckTales song.
And I think when I first, we started doing DuckTales, it was like,
here's one of our favorite Disney songs about some of our favorite Disney ducks.
(37:43):
But then the more we did it and the more, you know, the showmanship of announcing
the next song and it evolved into like, here's one of our favorite Disney songs
about our favorite Disney.
Spaghetti man, he talks like this.
(38:03):
The way Spaghetti Man talks is how spaghetti looks.
And he's got spaghetti limbs. gyms
everything about him is like a wet noodles and
alexis mind you is also full hot
dog outfit waving his arms around a starbucks with his
giant tumbler which was a bit did you end up losing your tumbler i do have an
(38:24):
enormous tumbler that is covered in mickey mouse ears it's so inconvenient i
would bring it into diners and they would be like can i get a coffee and i would
be like Like, can you fill this tumbler with coffee and ice?
If I just have this enormous cup
with me, I'll just always have all the coffee and all the water I need.
It's a mystery where the tumbler ended up. It might be somewhere in there.
(38:48):
Or like boxes of gear.
Or maybe it got left behind. But it's the tumbler of tort.
God, we had to like pull over in Indiana because we saw a truck kicked up a
rock. We had to check to make sure the van was okay.
And you went into the bathroom. room and he's like where's alexis
you're like he's filling up his dang tumblr we use like hey
(39:09):
guys i got some coffee it was it only became a
bit because you kept doing it and you had to basically teach a lot of people
how to make iced coffee just bring me ice and coffee there was a really bad
bit that i did when we ever went into like a rest stop and we were going to
the bathroom i'd always be behind alexis and i would just say in my demon voice
like daddy daddy daddy daddy.
(39:33):
I just like talked to him like that in these truck talks,
hello daddy hello daddy that was
a good bit oh good bit good okay and now
alexis it is time for you to present the
golden finn award for accommodations so cue
the cue the trumpets or whatever that to
(39:58):
me that would have to go to some of our airbnbs but
just in terms of like a a nice pristine airbnb we
had cuyaga falls cuyaga falls
and our host was this guy
named hey man his name
oh that's right hey man and that
(40:18):
was just a really nice one but the hot tub the
hot tub thing is the obvious choice south bank like
alexis gave the golden fin award which is a prestigious honor that we award
to an accommodation that was above and beyond we love all of our theater stages
festivals fairs casinos clubs hotels we want to give that kind of same kindness
to restaurants i have the honor of presenting the golden fin award for restaurants to.
(40:46):
Black dog smoke and alehouse and champagne illinois,
oh wow that was a great spot we all had a super delicious meal i had a top tier
jackfruit barbecue sandwich, excellent brisket, chili, outrageous Southwest
potato salad, stellar barbecue case on one of the best wings I've had this side of the Mississippi.
(41:07):
Okay. Next comes my special shout out.
To La Fiesta in Dayton, Ohio. They did a song and dance for somebody else's
birthday when we got there.
And you were like, I don't want them to do that for me. And I was like,
okay. At the end, towards the end, Ramiro was like, hey, do you guys want some
margaritas? Do you guys want tequila?
And he was just sort of kind of like egging us on. I was like,
(41:28):
oh no, but you know, we were celebrating.
This guy did have a birthday last week, but don't do anything.
And maybe it was kind of like me saying that with like a wink wink.
Yeah. But then anyways, cut to like five minutes later,
that all the restaurant comes out every
every server like everybody there and there's
that they put a sombrero on you yeah but
(41:49):
they sang this crazy song and then there's one
guy who just like he like pretended to hit
you with a chair or something well he did he did he did
hit my head a bunch in the in the bro he was
lapping your hat yeah please obviously we have
the full video and picks will be exclusive to our patreon
um so thank you la fiesta the i that
(42:09):
was one of the best mushroom quesadillas i've ever had so keep it
keep it up and that also kind of concludes tour food so join
us on said patreon for exclusive content bonus episodes behind the scenes insights
and more so visit patreon.com slash the little mermen to become part of our
mer fam enjoy all the extra perks we have to offer if you are not already please
(42:31):
follow the podcast at mermen Monday's pod. That is all one word.
Please follow the subject of the podcast, The Little Merman,
at TheLittleMerman on Instagram.
You can find Alexis at Alexis Babini, and you can find me, groww, at groww,
Underscore music band. Thank you for joining us on this latest episode of Merman Mondays.
(42:55):
We hope you enjoyed our stories and discussions.
Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on all the platforms you mentioned.
We'd love to hear your feedback on Patreon. So please leave us a comment, send us a message.
You can also drop us a line at the little Merman at gmail.com until next time.
Remember to dream, believe and achieve.
(43:17):
See you next Monday.
Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti
and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Balls, balls, balls Balls,
balls, balls Spaghetti and meatballs,
Balls, balls, balls Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs,
(43:42):
Spaghetti and meatballs In a spicy kitchen on a special night night.
The chef was cooking up pasta and what a sight.
Once his magic sauce was sprinkled in, out came Spaghetti Man with a twist and a grin.
Whoa, Spaghetti Man. Whoa, Spaghetti Man.
Music.
(44:06):
Get ready for a silly Spaghetti Guy with noodley arms and meatball eyes.
Spaghetti and meatballs, Spaghetti Man, whoa, Spaghetti Man.
He escaped the kitchen, he went on the loose.
He wandered into a concert with catchy tunes.
(44:28):
It was the show of the great little merman band with a great big crowd of music fans. Whoa.
Music.
(44:59):
Groove while the band played tunes he danced
on the stage with his cheesy moves and
the crowd cheered in joyful delight they
created saucy flavors they sure did like
whoa spaghetti man whoa spaghetti man get ready for a silly spaghetti guy with.
Music.
(45:25):
Noodley arms and meatball eyes But as the concert came to an end,
the hungry crowd stormed the stage, and in a rage they all descended.
They passionately gobbled his pasta body up, they ate each tasty strand.
(45:49):
Old Fork Spaghetti Man has met his end.
But in the audience was the chef so keen Who had just fulfilled his pasta dream
So we promised to cook it all up again Spaghetti Man's return is just around the bend.
(46:13):
Music.
Welcome to Merman Mondays, the podcast where the Little Mermen share behind-the-scenes
tour stories, discuss popular Disney content, and celebrate Disney's musical legacy.
I'm your host, Alexis Wabini, founder of the Little Merman Band,
and joining me is our co-host, Andrew Grau.
(00:30):
Thanks, Alexis. So whether you're a longtime fan or first-time dreamer,
The Little Mermen is the country's premier Disney tribute band,
bringing the magic of Disney music to life with live performances all across the U.S. and the world.
Our mission with this podcast is to connect with our fans on a deeper level,
give a behind-the-scenes glimpse at touring in an indie rock band,
(00:52):
and share in the joy that is Disney content and culture.
So today, it's our first tour debrief episode in Merman history.
We'd like to take the time to talk about tour highlights from our last outings,
some magic moments, and some new and old bits that may have surfaced,
and our first ever Golden Finn Award.
(01:17):
So stay tuned to find where you can connect with us and get into the deeper
band lore. Well, before we go the distance, remember, we are still a touring
band with some shows coming up. So let's get down to business.
Thursday, July 18th, Jenkinson's Boardwalk, Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
Saturday, July 20th, Union County Summer Arts Concert Series,
(01:40):
Clark, New Jersey. Sunday, July 21st, Winchendon Community Center, New Jersey.
Winch in massachusetts friday july 26th fountain
park van wert ohio more information
like ticket links or rspp links can be found
on our website at the little merman.com slash tickets
well partner it's been about 10 days since our june to july tour have we recovered
(02:04):
yet have we thought about spaghetti man who sounds like this hey it's me i'm
spaghetti man spaghetti i think spaghetti man has spent a lot of time in my
brain whether or not I would like it.
We had a rehearsal. We have some really great subs coming in.
We have a really big roster now of just like incredible musicians.
(02:24):
So it was cool to get back into it and kind of debrief a little bit with Alexis
yesterday and share with some people we haven't seen in a bit.
So a lot of these memories were coming back and big fan of how things shook out.
Dude, I was I was thinking about so because we're
a Disney rock and roll band bringing the Disney magic with
like a stadium rock sing at the top of your lungs I really
(02:47):
feel like our show is like like seeing
your favorite classic rock bands like 80s rock the
rock groups of today crushing it like I there's this Axl Rose interview for
when Guns and Roses first blew up and when they first started like doing a lot
of shows and I think about this all the time and Axl Rose is basically talking
about like when you have this great show You give it your all,
(03:09):
you're bouncing around on stage,
you're loading in, you're loading out.
And yes, it takes a mental toll. Yes, it takes a physical toll.
And if you have a great show like that, it's going to take you three days to recover.
And oh no, imagine you have like 20 of those in a row.
So like, you know, and, and it's sort of like, we, I feel so blessed that we
get to do what we love and it really does feel magical to bring the show on
(03:34):
the road and connect with all these people.
But it really is just like the, the physical act of like touring,
you know, aside from all the travel we do in the van. Yeah.
Yeah, this past week, you know, I came back and the crazy thing is we were just
so booked and blessed this summer that we have another stretch of dates coming
up at the end of July and we have all this stuff coming up.
But I had like kind of one day off and I got to chill and I watched the new
(04:01):
Star Wars show, The Acolyte, which I'm sure we'll be talking about in this podcast very soon.
Very much so. And subscribe on Patreon to get our Disney extras,
you know, the, the vacation, the, like the tour recovery, the finding yourself
centered, waking up in the same city more than one night in a row is really,
it's something that as humans we take for granted.
And like on tour, it's sort of been like, like I'll wake up and,
(04:25):
and like, in that maybe like the two minutes of like, when you're coming from
dream state to reality, you're kind of like, oh, I'm, I'm awake. I'm alive.
Where am I? And you're like, okay, so last night we were in Indiana.
No, we're in Ohio somewhere.
And so it takes me like five days after tour to be like, I'm in my apartment in New York City.
(04:45):
And to wake up and be like, here I am. I know where I am. It's still like,
where am I? Who am I? What am I? What's happening?
And not to mention, we crisscrossed the central time zone no less than three
times in a 10-day stretch.
That was miserable. Dude, I love
that you're archiving all these things on tour. Like, I love that you...
(05:08):
Yeah, no, we're going to try and keep them positive and keep it light.
But, you know, listeners, we just want you to know that, like,
we are working so hard to, like, really put on the show of a lifetime.
And, you know, I have big dreams for the Mermen.
And quote me saying it here on the podcast, we're bringing the show to the Las
Vegas sphere. It's going to happen. I don't know how. I don't know when.
(05:31):
But I know where. the Las Vegas sphere.
That's where I see this show going. We're speaking it into existence.
This podcast is going to be such a cool memento.
And I really think those of you out there who are like wondering about not only
the love and magic of Disney, but just like touring in a band and being a full-time
(05:51):
musician, like we have a lot to offer here.
And I also had a funny thought just now. I was thinking about a movie called Inside Out,
but instead of about being about the emotions inside your brain it's about a
musician's digestive system it's inside out but not in your head it's the.
(06:12):
Digesting all the food you eat on lord now that
we're kind of caught back up and now that we're back in the
swing of things we're back in new york bagels over
here that's what we say in new york we say
hey i got bagels over here as everybody knows oh
that's there's an oh in the middle of
this thing of bread oh canceled we're
(06:34):
all canceled it's all all right one more
thing i want to say two is just like for our listeners
again this is a podcast for you and we're
gonna give you fun little nuggets and fun little joyful bits
but one of the things about kind of
like the reality check is like i think
about us in the way that like you know r.i.p to jimmy buffett because jimmy
(06:58):
buffett's whole brand is like come take a vacation with us come to margaritaville
come escape the the doldrums of your life and experience, you know, this fate.
And that is very similar to the brand of Disney and to the brand of The Little Merman.
It's like, come escape and come on a magical adventure with us.
(07:18):
So for the audience and for our listeners, like, this is a vacation for you.
And sometimes it gets forgotten that, like, for us, like, this is our job, you know?
Like, and on big tours, you're going to have this, the crew and the sound people,
They get there at like five in the morning.
The band might not load in until afternoon and you have this great show.
(07:40):
Audience might be tailgating before or after the show. There might be a cool after party.
But yeah, behind the scenes, there's just people working very hard to bring
this magic to life. Like imagine in the credits of your favorite Disney movie,
all those names in the credits, all those names in the art department.
And so it really is this magical puzzle. And when it comes together, it's such a treat.
(08:04):
And there are often times that like doesn't always come together.
And there's also some fun stories around that.
So we're going to talk about that on episodes of this podcast.
We also don't want to discourage people from touring or people that are in indie
bands that want to tour. Touring's hard.
Touring's, we're not going to lie to you and say it's super easy and super fun all the time.
It's a lot of work and it feels very much like it doesn't go rewarded sometimes,
(08:28):
but then you knock the heck out of a show and that feeling is still better than
just about any other feeling that I've ever had.
And it happened a few times on tour and I always feel really grateful about
that. We still have our tour calendar, June 19th to July 1st.
So we can really go line by line and just talk about each of these experiences.
(08:50):
And we still have our schedule. We have, not to get too nerdy,
but in the Google document format, we have all our dates and all our call sheets and call times.
So I can see right in front of me right now, as a matter of fact,
exactly where we went, exactly where we stayed. Yeah.
And yeah, okay, so I know what you're going to give your Golden Finn Award.
(09:15):
Again, the Golden Finn Award is an award for an accommodation and then a separate
one, kind of like the Emmys for, you know, best meal or best restaurant experience.
You know, but if we're going to start kind of at the beginning,
it has to be brought up that our first tour day was my birthday.
Yeah, oh my gosh, yes. We have to talk about this.
(09:38):
I am i'm not someone that necessarily likes
likes my birthday i'm also glad that i was
with people that you know force a bit of a celebration
on me but also respecting my wishes that i
was like i don't want anything mexican restaurant well
that was that was later that was later but the real highlight for me was we'll
(09:58):
put it up in the patreon as we have three angles of this but i got surprised
by a waffle cone full of ice cream as a as a treat they put a candle in it and
And the whole mermen troupe sang happy birthday,
but to the tune of the national anthem.
Happy birthday to you.
(10:20):
Happy birthday to you. Yeah.
I think they get it. I think they get it. So it fits so well.
And it was just one of those things, man. It was like the start of the tour.
We're celebrating you. We're celebrating G-Man. Yeah.
And it was just like, yeah, it just kind of came together. And that was sort
of like, gosh, yeah, that was like a really fun kickoff for us. We have video of that.
(10:46):
And for our Patreon subscribers, you will be delighted to know that video extras
if you hit that subscribe button.
But it's also you got to hit over that $1 mark.
We're talking $5. If you want to see the Growl birthday celebration,
that's the $5 and above. And if you think that we just stopped it after the
first little bit, they went through the entire happy birthday song entirely.
(11:09):
And I think Jane, who I cannot wait for her episode to come out,
a pleasure to interview, a pleasure to work with.
She even remarked afterwards saying, yeah, I didn't think we were committed
to this, but we really committed to it. Yeah, we're going to talk more on her
episode, but that was the first time we had a Tinkerbell in the band.
Yeah, crushed, crushed.
(11:30):
It was a great look. You know, Tinkerbell playing keyboards.
And she is now, she's doing the Rent production, and she came to our gig directly
from her Broadway gig, doing the Sufts show on Broadway.
So just like, I don't know, just imagine the shenanigans that are going to ensue on our next episode.
Anything you want to talk more about Sykesville? But yeah, to talk more about
(11:53):
Sykesville specifically, this is the first show of tour.
We played the Sykesville, Pennsylvania Fair.
Last year, they put us next to Demolition Derby, cars smashing into other cars in Disney show.
This year, we were right next to, I think it was just kind of drag racing.
But not like drag racing with drag queens, but actual packet cars.
(12:13):
Because when- That is true. And next to the dog show, which we had to compete with some banter with.
Is so like in between the song the the dog stage like blasted some music and
i think i said into the mic like i was like hey man turn those dogs down yeah
hey somebody turned and i kind of made it a fun bit but i think it worked they
(12:35):
they they like were like they cut the sound they're like oh they're actually having a concert,
And it was a cool, it's sort of like, we do a lot of really big state fairs.
Yes. And this is a county fair.
And the difference between a county fair and a state fair is probably what you would imagine.
Like a state fair, like we played Texas State Fair on the same stage as CeeLo Green.
We played Washington State Fair. We played the Big E on the same stage as Chubby
(13:00):
Checker on the same night as Bachman Turner Overdrive.
So at a county fair at a county fair
it's it's just not quite as spectacle but it
still is a fun thing for us but it's sort of like a mixed bag
as what you can expect in terms of like i don't
know just the entertainment the rides i would
say i would compare a state fair to playing
(13:21):
at disney world theme park and i
would compare playing a county fair to playing at
coney island coney island theme park oh so you can kind of
that's make out of that wow hey i love coney island
i i went there right after tour but that's maybe that's that's
well i was gonna say if we take as much time on the first gig
as we do on all our gigs we're gonna be here for two hours it's gonna be
(13:41):
five hour episode and i'm gonna push it i'm gonna
push us along next is the chateau aeronautic winery
and onstead michigan one of the most
different places i think that i've played with the mermen chateau
aeronautique winery slash blue skies
brewery this is a brewery and a winery in onstead
michigan shout out to this venue lorenzo right we're gonna give them lorenzo
(14:06):
is the owner of the man live planes and now he owns this place the bar and in
that venue is made out of an airplane wing and his his pilot uniform is just
like on display on a mannequin yeah i'm like.
And so, man, that was a cool venue. I just want to talk about my one highlight.
I am going to try to keep it brief. I don't want to make this a two-parter.
(14:28):
We're about to take the stage.
And this guy, Lorenzo, is going to introduce us. And the sound guy and our other
merch girl that I provided was like, all right, so he's going to come.
And it's his venue. He's going to come and introduce you guys.
So we're waiting. And Lorenzo is sort of like,
Shout out to this guy because I love the way he runs this venue.
He's just kind of a laid back dude delegating all the work out.
(14:51):
And he's like, hey, let's try these cocktails. So he's got a cocktail in his hand.
He's walking slowly up to the stage and he's like, all right,
guys, I'm going to introduce you.
And at this point, we're probably like five minutes behind when the show is supposed to start.
So we're like, okay, what do we do? And he points to the stepladder by the stage
and he goes, hey, that's my stepladder.
I never knew my real ladder. her dad joke
(15:14):
and then and then goes up and introduces us and
literally he just goes ladies and gentlemen the little merman and then it was
amazing like that's it yeah now i want to say the highlight for me was actually
got to see you do solo acoustic time without any without any of the princess
pals because you don't it hasn't happened in a while yeah it hasn't happened in a while.
(15:35):
And I think the two times you've done it this year, Rehoboth and the Chateau
Aeronautic, I just, it's, it reminds me of what you're, what you're so good
at and why, you know, so many of us love playing with you.
And then in general, everybody who worked there was sublimely kind to us.
(15:56):
The Maxwell, the sound guy, incredibly nice, worked so hard, made us sound so great.
So let's get to the weekend. So we are now in Illinois.
We went to Wheaton, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago.
And I remember stepping out of the van and it was very windy.
It was very hot. It was again, another heat dome, heat dome gig.
(16:18):
And everyone kind of looks around like, oh, it's kind of windy.
And I was like, well, I guess that's why they call it the windy city.
And only one person went, ha, I think it was Jane. So shout out to Jane.
Wheaton was awesome. And we have some of those Chicago sausages and the sausages
with the bears for great dab bears. All right, there we go. That's my one.
My one bad accent. Da Bears. Da Bears. Da Bears. Yeah, We In is basically Chicago.
(16:41):
It's like the outer of Chicago.
And my one thing after that show was just we got to share the stage with another act. Yeah.
Shout out to the Divas. They crushed. They crushed.
They did some Lady Gaga. They did some 80s girl rock songs.
And like yeah man i mean like that was
(17:04):
that was a cool one we have a we released a
clip of our video highlights gonna follow us on socials you'll find he's got
a lot of videos from the stage all right so i think that's that's kind of like
a good overview of our chicago time it was very fun it was the the weather wild
card which is great we do a lot of outdoor shows and And look,
(17:25):
like Mother Nature sometimes has other thoughts. Sometimes Mr.
Thor, the God of Thunder, wants to swing by our concert. Yeah,
but the thing is, it's like if there's thunder in the sky, we got to either
cancel or reschedule. But it was all good.
It worked out. The elements were on our side.
And now we are on to La Porte, Indiana, Sunday, June 23rd.
(17:47):
So La Porte was actually a reschedule from when we did a little Great Lakes
Midwest tour in January because we were basically inundated with snow,
and La Porte is just far north enough.
They were like, yeah, we got three feet of snow. There's nothing we can do, so we were scheduled.
And La Porte was a real class act. It was this beautiful old school that they
(18:10):
turned into basically a civic center and a concert arena.
So it does have basketball courts, but actually has great stadium seating.
The sound people, again, always super nice.
I thought that was the most amount of wands that we sold. We get creative with our merch.
And we did sell out of our magic wands. Which is great.
(18:32):
In La Porte. Another thing about La Porte was, I think you might have mentioned
this earlier, there's a very star-studded lineup that has played the stage.
And we had this guy talk about what it was like having Stevie Ray Vaughan,
when he was still alive, play the venue that we were about to play around the
stage. And he was like, so right over there, that's where Stevie Ray Vaughan stood.
(18:54):
And that's just, you know, like as a guitar player, as somebody who's delved
into the world of blues, bending notes, we're going to get a little musical
here talking about the blues approach,
you know, and having some nice tasty diddly do's.
Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of my North Stars as a guitar player. Has to be.
(19:15):
So then June 24th, the next day on our tour began. This is a day off.
We went to Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Ra, what do you think about Kenosha? I mean, Kenosha really is just a stunning
place. And I'm always reminded by just how beautiful it is.
And we're on like the inlet that goes right to the lake. And I had nothing but
like really great meals.
(19:36):
Everyone was super nice. I will say my one memory of just like that whole,
because we had a day off before and after Kenosha.
Show yeah we were out at dinner and jane
had a bug on her like you know we
were eating outdoors and some type of critter had
landed on oh my god and she was
like alexis can you get this i forgot about that and i was like of course and
(19:59):
so i have my finger ready to flick it off of her and i'm like here yeah let's
get it right off of you but i didn't really i didn't really do a full like read
the whole room and kind of zoom out and so directly behind jane was one of the servers.
Who also who also was deathly afraid of insects and she saw i was about to flick
(20:21):
the bug like directly in her direction and so i and i like i was like yeah just
and the bug goes flying by the way directly at her directly at her and yes and
unfortunately it got it went directly into like the face of this waitress.
So this waitress dodged, screamed, had like, uh, she had either, uh, drink on a tray.
(20:41):
She had beers and she was just like, and it was sort of like, Oh, I'm sorry.
It was just sort of like, I, I, I, yeah, I turned, I turned,
I saved Jane, but at the expense of a waitress, this place who maybe got a,
it was, it was, we actually went there two nights in a row and they had, uh,
this gosh darn bacon-wrapped shrimp that was so gosh darn good.
(21:06):
And I got myself one of the best black bean burgers I've ever had that was called
the Mustard Tiger, because that's a joke in Trailer Park Boys.
And this is also a place where you could put like a dollop of peanut butter on any of your burgers.
And I was so in. What makes Kenosha always so memorable for me is because there's always a great hang.
And the night before, I think we were all burnt out from traveling and I hung
(21:28):
out with Chelsea and we did laundry, which was nice.
I just kind of had a night to myself which was kind of nice and that was the night either that
or was the next day we had off where you and i watched the
weezer spotify series yeah
it was just generally like good
hangs all around every meal i
had was excellent and i just felt it
(21:49):
was also one of the last times that it was everybody was there
because melinda flew out the next day so it was like the
whole fam damley was there yeah kenosha
always always kind of feels like that and then two years
prior there was always some really good hang and i
am big fan yeah all right so then after kenosha
we went to springfield ohio now on thursday june 20 now springfield ohio was
(22:15):
one of my favorite gigs that we did two years prior and they they they have
this big rock like stage there they They have in Springfield, Ohio.
They just really roll out the red carpet for what the show is.
And everyone brings their lawn chair.
And early in the day, they'll come in before sound check. And here's where I'm
(22:38):
sitting. I'm getting my spot.
And so by the time it's showtime, there's over 1,000 people on this kind of meadow.
And now we're like four shows in.
So now we're feeling confident and tight about the show. We added a new song on this tour, by the way.
No spoilers, but I might give it away. We added the Hannah Montana theme song,
(22:58):
and we rocked out to it so hard. It's one of my favorite editions.
Not to get too behind the scenes, but we have a lot of middle Asians,
people who are based at different areas of the country who we have a relationship with.
And there's one guy, his name's Steve, and he is who we have to thank,
who brings us to a couple of these great venues in Ohio.
(23:19):
And I'd never met him in person just through, you know, mutual agents and emailing,
but he came out to that show and kind of saw us just give a hack of a show,
greatest performance, heck of a show, heck of a show.
I had a call with him the other day. He was just like, you know,
like he recently had a loss in the family and he was going through some stuff,
but still made it out to the show that night.
(23:42):
And, you know, I think that really speaks to just like,
I mean, just, just hearing him like talk about seeing us and seeing like what
the show meant to him really like got me in the feels,
you know, this guy had just recently gone through a family tragedy and he came
to see the little merman and had his spirits lifted and really felt that,
(24:02):
you know, what we brought was magical.
And the way we engaged with the crowd that night, there was just,
it was, it was, it was everything.
It felt like Taylor Swift. There was like screaming fan gals.
And, and there was also, we, I, we have a video of the audience,
just, you know, the, there's these audience partition patient moments and it's
(24:23):
just like, kind of this like roaring audience.
And yeah, I remember being like, Carly
pointed out that there was like a couple girls in in the
audience who were just like screaming at the top of their lungs and and
i and i said something like you know taylor swift eat your heart
out and then i realized wait you can't don't uh
don't rest t swift never that's when they'll come for you but yeah it was just
(24:45):
sort of like this beetle mania type of experience that i've always felt merman
is capable of if if you know if all the stars align and everything comes to
be and we can just do our full show i i just I don't know.
I mean, I mean, this is coming from somebody who's been in this band and seen
it grow for 10 years. Yeah. It's just like.
(25:08):
When, when really, when you just really kind of feel, and then we had a meet
and greet and it was just like all these people wanted to come meet us.
And we had this person who was one of our artists liaisons of the last time
we played there. But this year she just came back as a fan. She's like,
I've been following you guys.
I'm so proud of like what you've accomplished and what you've grown.
So anyways, words of affirmation is my love language.
(25:31):
Yeah no they i mean that's that kind of goes
with the territory with springfield it's they they
treat us so well the booker
or kind of the sound guy even said yeah we
kind of do everyone every two years and if you stick with us then we want to
get you every year and he said we got he's like it was a such shame we didn't
have you back last year and they it's such a pleasure playing that stage it's
(25:54):
a really wide open stage it's beautiful it's they just treat us so great Everyone has a jazz there.
There's this great food court that's across the street from where we stay that
is absolutely slamming food.
I mean, I only eat there because there's so many different stalls.
And I basically had almost everything there. And I remember how good the sushi was.
So I got the sushi and I got a bento box. I was like, yeah, this is one of my favorite places.
(26:18):
Great coffee, too. It's just what I really like when these kind of smaller towns
really revitalize themselves with great food, great entertainment, and great people.
So I know John Legend's from there, which is kind of cool that we played in a legendary town.
But yeah, Springfield has always been a huge highlight.
(26:38):
I've always played a great show there. It's always just felt like a good show.
And it's wonderful. And yeah, we can move on from Springfield and go to one
of my My favorite, which I haven't done in another two years,
the Devon Amphitheater in Decatur, Illinois.
Back on that lake, baby. The Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater. And this is Devon
(27:00):
Buffett. She's married to Howard Buffett.
And that is the second son of the famous billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
So this is the Warren Buffett family, as we all know, is one of the first.
One of the big names in the lexicon of United States wealth and philanthropy.
(27:25):
It's great to see a family like the Buffetts give back to the community.
Howard Buffett's wife, Devin. This venue only opened in 2019.
We were actually one of the first shows there because we've been back there
a couple of times. It's got the biggest LED screen, so it's ultimate video time, which is great.
Again, sound, always wonderful. They're super nice. The food is excellent.
(27:50):
They always get these great food trucks. I know I harp on the food.
I'm the food guy. Me and Ryguy, the food guys.
Me, Ryguy, and Cody, the food guys. Anyways. Another highlight here is just
because, you know, when you're in a band like this, you're doing a lot of events
all over the country. it's nice to know that we can sell over a thousand tickets
in these markets so far outside of New York City.
(28:11):
We're out here doing this great big show and it's really great to see,
just to see it connect on so many levels.
Also what's really great about Decatur is it's another one of those towns that,
you know, former a lot of industry, a lot of heavy industry,
and they're revitalizing their downtown.
They're revitalizing with arts and breweries. And we actually stopped by a brewery
(28:32):
on our way and met the owner. It was Golden Fox Brewery, if I'm not mistaken.
That's right. Wow, yeah, we went to Golden Fox Brewery. They were so sweet.
It was just, the owner came over and talked to us, and we actually met someone
that was just a friend of the owner that has another podcast,
and we might actually have them as a guest, so stay tuned for that.
But in general, it was just...
(28:53):
Just very great vibes it was really
a fun hang and then we went and played the heck out of a show and
very hot out but yeah summer scorcher but we like but we we left it really all
out on on the on the stage for that which was really which was really great
yeah man that that would that was a great night cool i maybe maybe we'll keep
no i actually want to say one yeah man go ahead highlight about
(29:17):
to cater you know i think for us it
may have been the sound
team had like everyone
there was just a parent everyone there had kids and so
we had a lot of kind of children just sort of like it kind
of speaks to just like the joy of our show that these children feel so comfortable
to like walk up to us and start talking to us to give us you know to be like
(29:41):
i'm your best friend now and i just remember when i after our final loadout
we're getting back into the van we're about to drive to the hotel and I had
my arms full of all these cupcakes.
All these children had just given me cupcakes because they were like,
we loved your show and we had so much fun.
And so it's just, yeah, I don't know. It's just sort of a funny little anecdote
(30:01):
that I remember from Decatur.
It's one of those places that you feel like a real rock star.
And I've said it once and I've said it a million times.
People said, what's it like being a freelance musician? musician and i
said well sometimes you play to three people and you
play the best show of your life and then the next day you play to
10 000 people and you're super nervous and you mess up
(30:21):
but you still got to play for 10 000 people and like
i've played to zero and i've played to 30 000 people before it doesn't really
matter at all it's all about the show that you put on and you if you as long
as you can bring it for the three people that you can bring to the 10 000 that's
what it is to be a musician in new york and that's just but decatur is one of
those that always reminds me, yeah,
(30:42):
this feels like a rock star. Hey there, listener.
Editing Grau here to explain what's going on.
Alexis had to go answer the door where he was then kidnapped by the aliens from
Lilo and Stitch and we're still searching for him. Just kidding.
Alexis did go answer a knock at his door. We had to edit out the whole exchange,
but when he left, his separate audio stopped recording and we missed the last
(31:05):
20 minutes of our podcast.
The remaining 20 included our last tour stop, Golden Finn Awards.
And some amazing bits we talked about. So instead of doing a two-parter,
we just used the backup audio from Zoom.
Thanks for understanding, and we'll continue the show.
We get to go to Goshen, Indiana, to a really fabulously beautiful theater in
(31:31):
downtown Goshen. You know, this one, it felt like we had to send it out in the best way possible.
And I think we all brought that little extra zhuzh.
Wasn't, you know, expecting it to be like floor to ceiling people.
But we had a really stalwart crowd of people dancing and it was fun.
And the owner of the theater, Susan, shout out to Susan.
(31:52):
She was there for every song, came up, shook all of her hands and said,
we're gonna get you back here.
It was so fun the sound people were
great the in the indiana pizza i think we
they get they got us so much food and we demolished all
of it it was just we all left it out on the
on the floor we had a great time the bits were
(32:14):
all hitting on stage the all the
all the onstage jokes that we have with each other hitting we
played a heck of a show yeah and then we got
to go to what ended up being like a palatial mansion
with a hot tub in south bend that i got on
airbnb which was a real highlight now yeah that
was your find the the local lodging i think
(32:34):
about the goshen show that was our last
night of tour and they they reached out to
some of the local summer camps yeah it was it
was just one of those moments that like sort of came together in.
A really nice way to kind of wrap rap the
tour anyways yeah i i'm really i think
overall i'm i'm really
(32:56):
pleased with the way that goshen accommodated us
because i think goshen maybe like
an amish part of the country and so a lot of
the a lot of like the online like advertising a
lot of the outreach i mean i don't know i mean that's the
that's the interesting thing about touring in this band is we're learning so
much about the different parts of the country and every
(33:17):
time we think like all right this city we it's just gonna be like
the last city we got this and then it's just there there's
just a lot to learn we've seen america a
lot of our our country and and our country's time yeah but yeah then the airbnb
itself we had a really special moment there was the the hot tub was so clutch
(33:38):
because we all you know and sometimes when we all stay in a place together we
don't always hang Some people were like, you know what?
I'm just going to, I don't feel like hanging. I'm going to stay in my hotel room.
But it was a hang. But every single person on that tour came for the hot tub
hang. And we all kind of talked about.
Our tour highlights and it was just like this gratitude circle this
(34:01):
sort of like kind of like really nice way
to end it off and i put on
my banana costume and surprised everybody i popped out of a
door and i said banana it's the the video of alexis getting me first that will
be in the patreon so please subscribe but yeah i mean get that a video of course
i did dude there was so So what was very special also was that this actually
(34:24):
can go get into our bits a bit because there are some bits I want to talk about.
But the bit was we were talking about Carly had never seen this show or the
movie Alien. So we've been making Carly watch Alien.
And then we were going to try to do Predator this whole dang trip. Predator!
And Jane was like, is Predator really worth it?
(34:44):
And Cody went on maybe a 30 minute talk about how it's such an important movie.
And then he goes oh yeah by the way it's my favorite movie
and we literally were not
we just never found the time there was never enough time and
the last night we watched it
we turned it on at midnight and i had to be up at four in the morning for
a flight and you were just on the couch you and i were
(35:07):
up but kind of the latest and you were like yeah i do is anyone watching
this because everyone went to bed after nobody lasted but we
had the one line from predator editor is when
arnold goes get to the chopper and like
that was the whole bit yeah we made it that way and it was just
like yeah it was like at the end of a long day so like one by
one the band started like peeling off it's like all right
(35:27):
guys i'll see you in the morning i'm not gonna make it to the end and then it
was like me and you but you were mostly asleep and then jane was asleep but
jane was there and she fell asleep and it was sort of just like man i don't
know like that's that's one of the that's one of the magical gifts that cody
ron brings is it sort of like.
He we've been talking about the movie predator for almost like
(35:49):
i feel like though all our tours for years yeah and movie not to mention every
time we were like oh this we're totally gonna be able to do it we didn't have
hdmi cable we're totally gonna get to do it the house doesn't have internet
we're totally gonna get to i'm just like absolutely nonsense i got in the way
of it but we tried to watch predator like four nights in a row and it was it was so crazy
(36:09):
but it was so fun that we finally got to do it the
best part though of the whole thing because
i ended up getting like a few z's and i got my cab to
the airport and i went off to oregon for a week jane fell asleep in in the little
love seat she totally does talk in her sleep super loud really mentioned that
to us and i'll ask her if it's cool but like she was like that's my kind of
(36:32):
like fact that about me that i i sleep talk and she talks very complete sentences It says very loudly.
Music.
(36:53):
Another bit that was a
resurgence we had two resurgence bits one was
the randy newman bit what if randy newman wrote the music to inside out it's
like she's got a joy she got an anger she got a sadness depression on a wing
and that's how we have the inside out too yeah boy how we What happened inside out?
(37:20):
It's one of the bits that Alexis brought and he brought up at top.
Would you describe Spaghetti Man?
Spaghetti Man is based off of a voice that sort of came to be in our DuckTales song.
And I think when I first, we started doing DuckTales, it was like,
here's one of our favorite Disney songs about some of our favorite Disney ducks.
(37:43):
But then the more we did it and the more, you know, the showmanship of announcing
the next song and it evolved into like, here's one of our favorite Disney songs
about our favorite Disney.
Spaghetti man, he talks like this.
(38:03):
The way Spaghetti Man talks is how spaghetti looks.
And he's got spaghetti limbs. gyms
everything about him is like a wet noodles and
alexis mind you is also full hot
dog outfit waving his arms around a starbucks with his
giant tumbler which was a bit did you end up losing your tumbler i do have an
(38:24):
enormous tumbler that is covered in mickey mouse ears it's so inconvenient i
would bring it into diners and they would be like can i get a coffee and i would
be like Like, can you fill this tumbler with coffee and ice?
If I just have this enormous cup
with me, I'll just always have all the coffee and all the water I need.
It's a mystery where the tumbler ended up. It might be somewhere in there.
(38:48):
Or like boxes of gear.
Or maybe it got left behind. But it's the tumbler of tort.
God, we had to like pull over in Indiana because we saw a truck kicked up a
rock. We had to check to make sure the van was okay.
And you went into the bathroom. room and he's like where's alexis
you're like he's filling up his dang tumblr we use like hey
(39:09):
guys i got some coffee it was it only became a
bit because you kept doing it and you had to basically teach a lot of people
how to make iced coffee just bring me ice and coffee there was a really bad
bit that i did when we ever went into like a rest stop and we were going to
the bathroom i'd always be behind alexis and i would just say in my demon voice
like daddy daddy daddy daddy.
(39:33):
I just like talked to him like that in these truck talks,
hello daddy hello daddy that was
a good bit oh good bit good okay and now
alexis it is time for you to present the
golden finn award for accommodations so cue
the cue the trumpets or whatever that to
(39:58):
me that would have to go to some of our airbnbs but
just in terms of like a a nice pristine airbnb we
had cuyaga falls cuyaga falls
and our host was this guy
named hey man his name
oh that's right hey man and that
(40:18):
was just a really nice one but the hot tub the
hot tub thing is the obvious choice south bank like
alexis gave the golden fin award which is a prestigious honor that we award
to an accommodation that was above and beyond we love all of our theater stages
festivals fairs casinos clubs hotels we want to give that kind of same kindness
to restaurants i have the honor of presenting the golden fin award for restaurants to.
(40:46):
Black dog smoke and alehouse and champagne illinois,
oh wow that was a great spot we all had a super delicious meal i had a top tier
jackfruit barbecue sandwich, excellent brisket, chili, outrageous Southwest
potato salad, stellar barbecue case on one of the best wings I've had this side of the Mississippi.
(41:07):
Okay. Next comes my special shout out.
To La Fiesta in Dayton, Ohio. They did a song and dance for somebody else's
birthday when we got there.
And you were like, I don't want them to do that for me. And I was like,
okay. At the end, towards the end, Ramiro was like, hey, do you guys want some
margaritas? Do you guys want tequila?
And he was just sort of kind of like egging us on. I was like,
(41:28):
oh no, but you know, we were celebrating.
This guy did have a birthday last week, but don't do anything.
And maybe it was kind of like me saying that with like a wink wink.
Yeah. But then anyways, cut to like five minutes later,
that all the restaurant comes out every
every server like everybody there and there's
that they put a sombrero on you yeah but
(41:49):
they sang this crazy song and then there's one
guy who just like he like pretended to hit
you with a chair or something well he did he did he did
hit my head a bunch in the in the bro he was
lapping your hat yeah please obviously we have
the full video and picks will be exclusive to our patreon
um so thank you la fiesta the i that
(42:09):
was one of the best mushroom quesadillas i've ever had so keep it
keep it up and that also kind of concludes tour food so join
us on said patreon for exclusive content bonus episodes behind the scenes insights
and more so visit patreon.com slash the little mermen to become part of our
mer fam enjoy all the extra perks we have to offer if you are not already please
(42:31):
follow the podcast at mermen Monday's pod. That is all one word.
Please follow the subject of the podcast, The Little Merman,
at TheLittleMerman on Instagram.
You can find Alexis at Alexis Babini, and you can find me, groww, at groww,
Underscore music band. Thank you for joining us on this latest episode of Merman Mondays.
(42:55):
We hope you enjoyed our stories and discussions.
Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on all the platforms you mentioned.
We'd love to hear your feedback on Patreon. So please leave us a comment, send us a message.
You can also drop us a line at the little Merman at gmail.com until next time.
Remember to dream, believe and achieve.
(43:17):
See you next Monday.
Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti
and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Balls, balls, balls Balls,
balls, balls Spaghetti and meatballs,
Balls, balls, balls Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs Spaghetti and meatballs,
(43:42):
Spaghetti and meatballs In a spicy kitchen on a special night night.
The chef was cooking up pasta and what a sight.
Once his magic sauce was sprinkled in, out came Spaghetti Man with a twist and a grin.
Whoa, Spaghetti Man. Whoa, Spaghetti Man.
Music.
(44:06):
Get ready for a silly Spaghetti Guy with noodley arms and meatball eyes.
Spaghetti and meatballs, Spaghetti Man, whoa, Spaghetti Man.
He escaped the kitchen, he went on the loose.
He wandered into a concert with catchy tunes.
(44:28):
It was the show of the great little merman band with a great big crowd of music fans. Whoa.
Music.
(44:59):
Groove while the band played tunes he danced
on the stage with his cheesy moves and
the crowd cheered in joyful delight they
created saucy flavors they sure did like
whoa spaghetti man whoa spaghetti man get ready for a silly spaghetti guy with.
Music.
(45:25):
Noodley arms and meatball eyes But as the concert came to an end,
the hungry crowd stormed the stage, and in a rage they all descended.
They passionately gobbled his pasta body up, they ate each tasty strand.
(45:49):
Old Fork Spaghetti Man has met his end.
But in the audience was the chef so keen Who had just fulfilled his pasta dream
So we promised to cook it all up again Spaghetti Man's return is just around the bend.
(46:13):
Music.
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