Let them eat cake
The minds of women are convoluted, intriguing, and mystifying. Ask any man and they’ll tell you they’re clueless how we arrive at the things we do. Hell, even I crack myself up at how I come up with things sometimes. This particular post isn’t going to try to explain how our synapses fire. That would take an entire shelf of 1500 page books to even attempt it. Instead, I’m going to relate how our love for music tends to get us into situations for which there is, more often than not, an amusing anecdote to share later. Such as conducting an interview in a vintage airstream trailer, lit only by a half burned out string of christmas lights, or driving a musician down the road to Walgreens to get lotion for his white man’s ashy skin.
This one starts all the way back on February 25th when I read an interview by Zavvi with my favorite band, The Dunwells, and Joe Dunwell mentioned they would be onstage at SxSW for his birthday on March 17th. I remember thinking, “his birthday is on St. Patrick’s Day. huh.” and then proceeded to completely forget all about it. Or so I thought…
Fast forward to Wednesday, March 14, and I’m completing a not very challenging task at work. As a side effect of complete boredom, my mind is wandering and thinking of several other things all at once. The first is what I should do for my dog, Tempest, whose 6th birthday is that day. The others happen to be my upcoming trip that weekend to Nashville for a good ‘ol visit with Laura and Krissy. Our monumental plans to include a pub crawl on Saturday for St. Patrick’s Day and to see The Dunwells in concert on Sunday. The most bothersome thing about this trip being I had just cleaned out and given most of my closet to Goodwill, so I no longer owned anything green to wear. I was going to have to break down and buy something so I didn’t get pinched.
These three things kept rattling back and forth in my mind. Tempest’s birthday, Nashville, need something green for St. Patty’s Day… Over and Over. Nashville + St. Patty’s Day + Birthday = Joe Dunwell’s Birthday! Why this popped in my head I don’t know, but it was obviously a culmination of all the other thoughts that triggered this memory. So what would any normal person do who is going to see their favorite band the day after the lead singer’s birthday? Probably not decide to give them cupcakes but hey, where would be the story in that?!?
Knowing that I wouldn’t have time to make my famous Caramel Chocolatini Cupcakes (full of healthy things like vanilla vodka and Bailey’s Irish Creme), due to our intended pub crawl the day before, I decide to sub-contract this out to a local bakery in Nashville. This seemed like a good idea, especially since there was a very strong possibility the Caramel Chocolatini Cupcakes would not have made it to the venue anyway. Just a few crumbs remaining here and there and us with big alcohol induced smiles. In the end it was a big mistake and let’s just say if it weren’t for Laura talking me off a ledge the guys wouldn’t have gotten those cupcakes.
When placing the order, which was to include little fondant heads made from photos of the band I emailed her, I also asked the bakery lady to add colored sugar sprinkles or something to jazz it up so it didn’t look like a bunch of heads sitting on icing. We picked them up to find out that there were several problems. The most obvious being that there were no sugar sprinkles and it did in fact look like heads on icing, but also that the paper wrappers were already peeling off the cake. What was not so obvious a problem, but quickly became apparent, was that the heads should not have been put on the cupcakes at that point. The bakery did not use toothpicks to secure the fondant heads to the cake, and on top of that, did not put them in a secure container for transport. The result was that, by the time we drove back to Laura’s house, the heads had slid around in the icing and fallen backwards. They looked like a hot mess.
Everyone who knows me also knows that I am just slightly OCD. If something does not work perfectly, I will scrap the idea. Laura on the other hand, says #1 they’re boys with cake so they won’t even notice and #2 let’s try to fix it. So off we go to Hobby Lobby for edible glitter sprinkles and cute little cake boxes. Nestle them in enough tissue paper and it hides all sins. Now to just get them to the venue and give them to the guys without making an even bigger disaster out of them.
The show was incredible and exactly what I’d come to expect from a live performance from The Dunwells. It was my third live show, as I saw them in California a couple times in February, but it was the first time for Laura, Krissy, and our friend Jennifer. Possibly because it was in the city I consider a second home, or just because I was with my best friends, but I believe it was the best of the three that I’ve seen. However, I will take a page out of Laura’s recent post, 10 Things That Piss Me off…In no particular order, and say that the girl next to us needed to have SHUT THE HELL UP in the worst way. This happened to be a Lightning 100 broadcast on the radio and she wouldn’t stop asking them inane questions during the show. They’re on the radio, moron. Leave them alone and talk to them after the show.
Speaking of after the show…we did jump in the meet and greet line to give them the cupcakes. Laura knows me very well. In this particular instance she knows that I would just hand them the bag then cut and run, so she took charge. She walked straight up and said, “I heard a rumor that someone had a birthday yesterday”. Joe looked half confused and half oh shit, what am I in for as Laura started pulling the individual boxes out of the bag. The next few minutes was spent in mass confusion trying to figure out which box belonged to which guy in the fairly dark venue. Let’s just say lead guitarist, Dave Hanson, was pretty spot on. After a few pictures, we got the hell out of dodge. We were exhausted from the extensive pub crawl the day before and had barely made it through this evening as it was.
Rob Clayton, Dave Dunwell, Jonny Lamb, Joe Dunwell, Dave Hanson, tour manager Jody
So what did I learn from all of this? Well… first thing was something I already knew. If you want something done right, do it yourself. Laura and I are positive we could have created those fondant heads ourselves and done a much better job. Second, Laura’s right. Give a man cake and he’s happy. Doesn’t matter what it looks like. Third, I should probably apologize to Joe. I doubt any guy wants a dog’s birthday to be the trigger that reminds someone of his. No matter how adorable she is.
And what did you learn? Mostly that I have an amazingly strange mind. But after watching this video, you’ll learn that The Dunwells are just flat out amazing. 
You best check them out next tour.
Cheers,
Tara
girlvsdrink
PurrrSnickety
Sitatara
OMG I’m still laughing!! Those damn cupcakes! And poor Jonny’s head just rolled around in that icing!! When we finally got it back in place all that chocolate icing around the bottom of his head made him look like he was wearing a brown turtle neck! And I can imagine what would have happened if you would have just handed them the bag and walked away.
Tara: Good Show guys. Here. ****ducks head and runs for the parking lot****
Joe: Ummmm….Thanks ***waves with confusion written on his face***
Dave Hanson: What’s in the bag mate?
Joe: I don’t know. I’m afraid to look.
Rob: Give me the bag.
Rob and Dave Dunwell looking into the bag: ****screams like little girls****
Jonny:****looks into bag and immediately goes pasty white before falling to the floor***
Jody: ****panics and screams”. “Oh, God…I’m so fired for letting this happen…whatever it is”
Joe: ***leans over and peers into the bag that Rob had dropped onto the floor in a state of shock*** “Bloody Hell….IT’S A BAG FULL OF HEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*******
Dave Hanson: “cool”
Nice commentary Laura lol I was amazed that Tara even spoke to them actually and said as much – let alone hand them their individual cupcakes. I still think its the coolest gift I’ve ever seen a fan give a band & I’ve already stole it. It is quite amusing that your furbaby’s birthday triggered this whole idea, T.
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