Doors have been open for about a half hour at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, and I’m slipping through the crowd incognito in my aforementioned puffy jacket and fucking scarf. Most nights, I’m mistaken for our opener Nick Waterhouse, also a nondescript white guy with brown hair and glasses, and it brings me great joy knowing I’ll later be congratulated for my unique take on Brian Setzer inspired throwback soul.

Nick and his band have been awesome - musically, of course, and with the unenviable task of a) keeping up with a bus tour in a van, and b) having to fit in with a crew who’s known each other for a decade, been through every trench imaginable, and uses a coded language that’d put Cockney Rhyming Slang to shame.

For example:

“That Darrell and pack of Jerrys made a think about tomorrow, so how ‘bout a shobbataqeeba and trip to Dabadelphia? Ska music.”

Translates to (roughly):

“That disagreeable gentleman and his compatriots made a particularly offensive bowel movement, so let us postpone our own ablutions in favor of a pour of agave spirit and inhaling potent cannabis products. We accept our fate with admirable stoicism.”

Hanging with a close knit crew’s intimidating at the best of times, and the Waterhouse squad’s been great sports.

Check out their music here.