Kickstarter

My brother and I have been making music together since we were kids.  Over the years our band has explored many different incarnations and many different sounds.  Most of those sounds have been enjoyed in the basements we've called home.  "The Two Boys and a Bow Tie Tour" effectively takes us, Dark Blue Dark Green, out of the basement.  The Tour will be our first full length and it marks a move to share work we've been tinkering away at for well over a decade. 

Donations specifically enable us to cover the costs of crossing the country.  Those costs are primarily gas and food.  The tour will take us nearly 5,000 miles on a trip that'll begin and end in our hometown, Columbia, Missouri.  At four dollars per gallon and 20 mpg, that'll run us about $1000.  For the curious among you, we've managed to pack our "set-up" into a Ford Station Wagon.  Food for the two of us at $20/day will make for a total of about $950.  We originally budgeted an additional $50 in miscellaneous tour expenses, but after breaking a reverb pedal in practice today, we're realizing it's probably smarter to anticipate about $250 in unexpected costs.  That makes for a total goal of $2200.  If we're super lucky and folks pitch in past the goal, we'll put it towards gear we're buying to video document the trip.

As for the shape of the adventure, we'll be winding an easterly loop that'll touch Texas, North Carolina, New York, Kentucky, and Illinois.  In total we're trying to hustle out 33 stops from mid-April to the end of May.  So far we have 12 confirmed dates, double that including solid leads, and many times that when considering the full number of opportunities in play.

As for work we've thrown in so far, I hardly know where to begin.  We'll go with the music.  We've written, performed, recorded and mixed an album that we're touring behind.  This work was, of course, accomplished in a Missouri basement.  These days we're a two piece, so we spent a solid chunk of time figuring out how to squash all the instruments my brother played on the album into a live set.  In a lot of ways this was like making a second album.  All of that building happened in a different basement beneath the Diva Haus.

The Diva basement has it's own story.  A need for a place to practice gave rise to hopes for something more community oriented.  The Haus bought in and with a lot of hard work from a lot of folks, we transformed that bombed out basement into a DIY safe space for events both local and touring.  We helped gut, frame, insulate,  plumb, wire and birth this contribution to the town we love.  We continue to help host events.  As a point of pride, we shot the video above in the neighborhood entrance to this basement space. 

Other work: we've had a hand on every piece of merch we'll cart around.  Details are sneaking about in the rewards.  A number of Diva Haus members: Alia Alafaireet, Colin Immenschuh, Alyssa Montoya, Mik Mroczynski, Matt Verges, Kelsey Day and Mary Sandbothe (the paper pulp queen) provided immense help with merch design and creation.

For us, this tour (and the future tours it'll enable) are the culminating expression of energy we've been pouring in like water to fill a thousand bathtubs.  I really can't express how grateful we are to anyone who sees fit to help support our first genuine attempt to share our adventure with a larger community. 

We listen.  We imagine.  We build.  We celebrate.  Tell a friend :)

-Ben

www.darkbluedarkgreen.com

P.S.  Thanks Bea.  Ms. Wallace shot and co-produced the video above.

P.P.S.  Additional Thanks to Ryan Walker, Paul Marinaro, Etan Wenger, Cara Giessing, Joe Mitchell, Mac Falby, Mikiya Matsuda, and Brian Van Reet.  Special thanks to Silvia Sarais who may be solely responsible for Jack's emotional/spiritual health.  We're Dark Blue Dark Green.