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| Justin Bornemann of Dentist |
Road Dog Travelogue
By Justin Bornemann
[Dentist released their third LP, Night Swimming, in 2018; and they spent a good chunk of the year on tour. Here, guitarist, co-songwriter, and co-producer, Justin Bornemann, shares some of the band's favorite places from their 2018 travels. Check out Night Swimming on Cleopatra Records. You can even order a very limited edition of the album on vinyl. And make sure you seek out Dentist if they come to your town in 2019. -- CoolDad]
We were in the lucky position to be able to tour and travel a decent amount in 2018, so when CoolDad asked us to do an end of year list, we thought it would be fun to give our top 5 cities we visited this year. Everything is subjective, though, right? While people who travel will have certain criteria about what makes a city great, our perspective was heavily influenced by how the shows that we played went. I can't complain about our tour. Every show was special in its own way, but here are the cities that really stood out to us.
Austin
We got to see Austin twice this year. The first time was in March for SXSW. Then, we got to go again over the summer as part of our month-long tour.
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| Dentist at Austin's Valhalla on 3/17/18 |
Austin has everything a great city should have: tons of live music, a lot of really cool venues and bars, great food, an element of weirdness, and really cool people. We had a great SXSW experience this year. We played some awesome showcases, saw some great bands including Wavves, No Bunny, and White Reaper, and also met up with a bunch of friends and bands that were also in town. It was a big party basically.
But, how can you really judge a city when it's taken over by a festival? Luckily we got to experience it over the summer, and even though it's hot, it still holds up as an amazing place. Locals took us to a swim hole; we had some great tacos; and our show at Cheer Up Charlie's was awesome. We also got to hear one of our songs on a local college radio station while we were being driven to the swim hole. Overall, a great city that's always treated us kindly.
El Paso
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| Photo via Dentist's FB Page |
The next place that made a serious impression on us this year was El Paso. This may end up being a highly subjective review, though. I've heard that El Paso is referred to as the armpit of Texas, and I believe there is a pun or two about taking a pass on El Paso (I'll Paso, or did I just make that up?). We, however, had a great time during our visit. When we arrived, we had time to kill and went to the bar that was across the street from the venue. It was a strange place, but I remember its being really cheap, which is what we needed; and I also had my first red beer (like a Bloody Mary, but with beer). El Paso had a great, supportive scene filled with people who were really stoked on live music. The crowd was awesome. People were very friendly. There was a taco truck outside, and we were asked to sign our records by some fans.
San Diego
This leans more towards an objectively amazing place. We were mostly taken aback by how nice it was out and what a beautiful place it is. We actually stayed at a hotel while we were there and got to go swimming and relax a bit. Our show was really cool, and we were filmed for a television program called Soundiego, which airs right after Saturday night live in San Diego. If I really thought about it, there was probably a show that would bump this off the list; but there was no way San Diego wasn't going to be mentioned just because of what a beautiful place it is. It definitely felt like we were on vacation while we were there.
Denver
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| A little advance press for Dentist in Colorado |
First thing we did when we got to Denver was get some free burritos courtesy of Illegal Pete's. For any touring bands reading this, that's a good place to hit up while on tour for some free food, and there are a couple of locations in the country. Anyway, we started off with a good taste in our mouths, so it was probably easy for Denver to win us over, but our show there was one of the best of tour. It was a very cool venue called Lost Lake, and I'd definitely recommend catching a show there if possible. We also experienced the city a bit, and did that thing you should definitely do in Denver *wink wink*. That was also cool.
Cincinnati
This was the biggest surprise for sure. We went in with very low expectations for Cincinnati. I have never heard anything good about it before, and didn't picture cool things happening in the area, but I was proven very wrong. The area we played in had one of the highest crime rates in the country at one point, but they are going through a renaissance, and it seems like a very exciting time to live there. Before our show, we stopped at a local watering hole, and quickly became friends with the bartender. There was also a couple hanging out, and we ended up telling them about our show, and both the couple and the bartender later came to our show. I tell that story just to show the kind of people that are living in the area. The show ended up being awesome. We made new friends, and we had a really fun night. We will be sure to go back.
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