Squelch ’97

Mrs. Fasnacht had the poster printed in Wichita in April: navy stock, gold ink, a globe, and twelve cities in capital letters. It reads WORLD TOUR. In BRRRRRRT We Trust had a shirt printed in Tucson the same spring, in an edition of seventy-two. It also reads WORLD TOUR. The back of the shirt lists nine dates.

The poster lists twelve. Both are correct. In BRRRRRRT We Trust stood down for the dates in Memphis, Naples and Troy, per its operations order. Marcus Webb has said the operations order was approved in February and was not reopened.

In Paris the show was booked into a roller rink for the evening. Mrs. Fasnacht also borrowed a flatbed trailer from a feed dealer and parked it on the courthouse square at four in the afternoon. In BRRRRRRT We Trust played five songs from it. Marcus Webb delivered the full five-minute briefing first, from the flatbed, to the square.

That night forty-seven people paid at the rink. It was the largest crowd of the tour. The rink's snack bar sold out of pickles by nine.

Mechanical checked every floor on the route. Florence had concrete. The feed store dock in Cuba had concrete. In Moscow the fish-camp pavilion stood on a slab, and Del Krantz knocked on it twice and nodded.

In Italy the dance hall had a wood floor, maple, recently waxed. The band set up outside on the concrete loading apron behind the hall and played through the open double doors. The audience stood inside on the maple and faced the doors. Nobody found this unusual for long.

The last date was a community hall in London, Kimble County, on Friday, June 13. Twelve people paid. It was the smallest crowd of the tour. Marcus Webb delivered the full briefing to his band before the set, as before every show. He has said there is no audience size below which the briefing becomes optional.

Sass Master Flash played their final tour date that night, to twelve people. Nothing was dialed back. Machine Gun Kitty played theirs. Beth Lindqvist counted in every song out loud, at full voice. She had been admitted to law school that spring.

Afterward Machine Gun Kitty drove north for Olympia and played their last show in the basement where they had played their first. Sass Master Flash drove east for Atlanta. Their last show was there that summer. Mrs. Fasnacht drove back to Wichita. There was no fourth Squelch.