I liked the Divine Cup. I liked it a lot. It was a coffee house built into an
 old Salvation Army building. They were adjacent to the SA's gym, which had a
 huge stage, so they hosted bands and music. I found them online while I was
 booking the World Domination Tour and exchanged emails. A nice young couple
 ran the place. It was a family atmosphere - not really Christian but kind of 
that neo-Christian, Buddy-Christ kind of a feel to it. The kind where they 
never shovel God at you, they're just really nice. 

So, of course, we needed to clean up the show - never really stated by the 
owners - it just seemed like the right thing to do. We cleaned up what we'd
 been doing and headed to Rockford.

And then things got slightly surreal. 

The owners had decided to create a comedy/crepe night. Apparently they 
were a little concerned about drawing a crowd with a sketch comedy 
group and decided to bribe them with food. Which we thought was great. 
Nobody had done it before and we thought it was cool. Crepes just 
seemed like an odd choice. Most people don't equate comedy and crepes. 
Pizza. A taco bar. Even brats seem logical. But crepes? 

That being said, the crepes were great. They brought in some 
outside chefs and offered crepe after crepe. The gym was set 
up with tables and chairs and, of course, it was big and echoy. 
The stage itself wasn't built for sketch comedy. It was built 
for dance recitals and awards dinners. There was no backstage. 
Instead, in the center of the stage, between the area where we 
played, and the deep back wall, there was a 8 X 12 foot black 
cloth. So that was our back stage. We would duck back there 
and change, and make our entrances. This wasn't a problem 
except once. We did the Frijolier Than Thou sketch where 
Millie has to manhandle a giant tray of refried beans. There 
was no place to wash her hands, so, in the middle of 
another sketch she snuck off in full view of everybody. 

The other problem was that the CD player they provided us 
with was a "shock resistant", sports discman. We couldn't 
simply pause and move to the next track for the "in-between" 
music. Because of this there was nearly a 20 sec delay between 
the end of a sketch and the start of the music. It threw 
out timing off and Zack who was running the sound and lights 
was tearing his hair out. We got a replacement hooked up by 
the second act. 

We lost a bunch of people during intermission. There weren't 
honestly that many to begin with, but a few left. Crepes got 
cold. So, byt the end, there were about 15 people sitting 
in the middle of a huge gymnasium, munching on cold crepes. 

There are 2 other things I remember about the show. First, when 
the time came for our show closing number I had misplaced all 
my guitar picks. When I announced this right before launching 
into Night Food, someguy got up out of the audience and gave 
me one he'd been carrying around. The second - this incredible 
coffee/ice cream punch stuff that the owner wheeled in at the 
end of the show. It was delicious and incredible.

The owner was happy enough. He had tried something new and 
intended to keep moving forward. He thought it was worth trying 
again. After we performed there they became much larger in the 
Rockford music scene. Booked well in advance. Then, after 
those tragic night club fires in Chicago and the one with 
Great White out east, everybody cracked down and they didn't 
stand up to the code. They closed in 2003. 

The evening ended with all of us blowing our door take at a 
mexican eatery on the way out of town. We closed the restaurant 
and headed out to the parking lot to climb into the van and 
head home. As we stepped out of the door we found a man pissing 
on a tree right outside the door. And not a big old oak that 
hid him. He was pissing on a year old sapling in the middle 
of the grass. As we tried to ignore him he rounded the "tree" 
to hide himself. Then there were the two drunked middle aged 
guys helping two hot chicks try to get into their locked car 
(where their keys were) - and obviously hoping for some kind 
of payment in return.

Nothing more could faze us as we headed home. Another surreal 
Gag show ended perfectly.

Eric (2005)