The band made their first trip to an old stomping ground since changing their name to Valentiger.  It was good to see the boys touch base with one of the locations where early successes showed their face.  And although most of the attendees of those days are long gone from the city of Hastings, some of the older songs such as “Summer’s Gone,” “Have It All” and even “In Your Head” felt right within these walls from the past.  Things are going well for State Grounds, the songs sounded as good as ever in that long, hall of a room and Kehoe raves about their cranberry-walnut muffins.  It was an all-acoustic show for Valentiger and they made it a point to go around the room, playing the name game.  Highlights included “Sunshine Arms,” “Straight Street” and a surprisingly upbeat cover of Bob Dylan’s “You Aint Goin’ Nowhere.”  Rider noted that Shirey needed more “crotch moves” for his solos, but other than that, things were all polished nicely.  The ride home asked the age-old question of what one would do and/or pay to acquire everything in a gas station (i.e. lotto tickets, booze, gas, etcetera).  Well…?

A big thanks goes out to Bob for having the band out to play over all these years.  Cheers to continual success!