Performing shows night after night, circumnavigating the globe, resting eyes on city sights, spotting famous landmarks, and flirting with gorgeous crowds are just some of the perks that come with the job title: touring artist.

But sometimes I forget my flip-flops for the after-show shower. I wonder how many bands before mine made their mark in that flimsy, soiled shower, leaving remnants of past celebration clogged in the drain as the dishwater fills up around my ankles, flooding a dressing room barricaded with wet towels. We sometimes bath in makeshift showers that resemble portable toilets, forgoing hot water and volunteering to smell of eggs, while contracting athlete’s foot and an HPV, all for the love of music and this raw chance at seeing the world. Health and Safety make touring the art that it is.

You also never know what parking lot you’re going to wake up in or what the facilities are going to be like until you step off the bus in the morning. I compare this kind of lifestyle to camping, being a Paskowitz, or a joining a circus. Yesterday was the perfect example. The gig was the Indiana State Fair. Our convoy and canopy was pitched and set up within the dusty pill-shape of the horseracing track. Our dressing rooms were underground, where I assume the jockeys’ suit up or suit down, showering the fertile dust and poop from their sweaty post-race faces.


I’ve been all over the world and marveled at some of the most magnificent things man has crafted. The Eiffel Tower. The Synchronic Victoria Harbor Light Show over Hong Kong. The gorgeous twin towers of Kuala Lumpur. The Temple of Hanuman the Monkey-King in Hampi, India. The Roman Coliseum. Disneyland. Yet nothing moves me more than watching the crank of the midway rides at a good old-fashioned county fair.


Won over by the smell of corn dogs, cotton candy and candy apples, I woke up to all that and the crow of the contesting roosters. In the heart of America, progression happily reared its curious head in as soy-biodiesel farming-tractors gave 75cent shuttle rides around the fairgrounds, making stops along the way at the FFA pavilion, the biggest tomato contest, and the livestock barns. It’s not everyday you get to sit nose to nose with the world’s largest boar.


Just before show time, the band huddles. We make a promise to each other to not let the evening’s performance be the world’s 2nd largest bore.

Around 11pm, at the end of the show, I jumped on the microphone one last time and said goodnight, requesting,"...to carry out whatever you may have brought in – to leave the world looking better than you found it (and that includes people” I say, “if you come upon someone who is down, pick em up!”)

About 20 minutes after the show, I was leaving the dressing room, fresh from my shower in the jockey’s lounge wondering if I could be brave enough to the leave the drain working better than I found it, when Glen, a yellow-shirted security guard pointed out a young woman who stayed behind, taking my words to heart, cleaning up the whole of the concerted standing area where the audience had gathered for most of the afternoon. I was moved. And I jumped at the chance to acknowledge her!


Meet Deborah Batz, concert goer, mother of four, good deed doer. Turns out she already has a good sense about environmentalism. She told me about a time when she visited her sister in Florida, she couldn’t help but tidy up the beach to make it more enjoyable (and safer) for herself and her family. Her sister even rescued a pelican from its unfortunate entanglement in plastic. She reminds us that beautification is just a day at the beach.

As I’ve mentioned before. Environmentalism isn’t a giant task. It is simply about caring for your immediate surroundings, i.e. your room, yard, office, etc... That’s your true environment and the most practical place to put your attention.

Thank you Deborah for being a good deed doer! And thanks for letting me share your story and photo. I know your action will inspire others to leave their environment and all of its inhabitants looking and feeling their best. Check out these before and after photos of the concert. You can imagine what Deborah was up against.



Thanks again to Deborah and all attendees who transformed the Indiana State Fair into the Indiana State Great.

-Jason