Four friends, one van and the idea to follow a band on tour led to one spontaneous road trip over the winter break. After attending an Oh, Sleeper performance at The Brewery on Hillsborough Street, Katherine Nieman, a student at Meredith College, met up with friends at Cup of Joe over the winter break. While there, the group encountered one of Oh, Sleeper’s band members, who mentioned an upcoming show in Ohio. From there, Nieman and her friends gathered money, supplies and a van, and headed to Ohio. After Ohio, the group travelled to Indianapolis, Indiana to continue being groupies, having fun and getting into sticky situations.
“I thought it was a joke at first, but we decided to go,” Bradley Monroe, a junior in education, said about the first talks he had with Nieman and two others about taking a road trip to Ohio.
Nieman knew some people in Ohio the friends could stay with, made some calls and the plans were finalized to leave the next day.
Once in Ohio, the four hitched a ride with a local band, Far From Abandoned, to hit up their first venue.
“At first [the venue] wasn’t going to let the band play, which was completely stupid, because of something in their contract saying they had to sell a certain amount of tickets,” Nieman said. “Eventually, they let the show go on and we got in and it was hardcore.”
After the show, Monroe said the group went searching for a White Castle restaurant that was open.
“We stayed up all night looking for White Castle, because we don’t have that here. The first place we went to was closed. We kept driving around and finally found one,” Monroe said.
After hearing of a show in Indianapolis, Indiana, Brandon Gaster, a senior in industrial engineering, said the group decided to draw out their trip a little longer, again using Nieman’s contacts to find a place to crash.
“It was only two hours away, and we convinced ourselves it was sort of on the way back to North Carolina,” Gaster said.
The weather was cold and miserable, according to Monroe, and their trip was longer than expected.
“We had already stayed a day after our parents thought we were going to be home. A two or three day trip turned into a week,” Monroe said.
The group did not have tickets to the show in Indianapolis, but thanks to Nieman’s newfound friendship with Oh, Sleeper’s drummer, the four were able to get into the venue.
“[Nieman] talked to the drummer at every show, nonstop, so they had that connection there. He was like, ‘I can just let you guys in,'” Monroe said. “He snuck us in and put a wristband on us if we wanted to go out or go to the bathroom.”
Gaster said they passed by the line of people with tickets on their way in with the drummer.
“The line stretched for about 100 yards and was four people wide at practically every point. And we just snuck in behind the drummer,” Gaster said.
The venue was the second floor of an old building, and Nieman said the venue’s owners kept pausing the band to warn the guests against jumping up and down.
“Apparently, the floor kept looking like it was going to cave in. They kept telling us to stand still,” Nieman said. “It was so metal.”
Monroe said the floor was like a moon bounce.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal and then they said ‘you might not want to jump so much because the floor might collapse,'” Monroe said.
At the same time, one of the bands announced that people were getting towed outside and people might want to check their cars.
“[Gaster] and [Kyle Jack] went out to the car and it was gone. Everyone was getting towed — it was ridiculous because the sign was in a dumb spot and was painted black,” Monroe said.
While Gaster and Kyle Jack, a student at Wake Technical Community College, got a free cab ride to the impound lot, Monroe left Nieman behind at the venue to find enough cash to get the car back. Nieman discussed the group’s money woes with a band member at the venue, who then traded his VIP pass to a stranger with a car in exchange for Monroe and Nieman’s safe – and free – passage to the impound lot.
“We got the van back at 11:45, right before midnight, meaning we didn’t have to pay any extra towing fees. It was ridiculous, the towing place made it so hard for us to get our only transportation back,” Gaster said.
The group made the 13 hour ride back to Raleigh the next day, satisfied with their adventures and craving the slightly warmer N.C. weather.