River City Extension is a new folk band that was formed in 2007 by Joe Michelini and they have been proving themselves worthy. The band started off with an ever changing number of performers but the same great sound. But now the eight members have gotten a national tour under their belts and a lot of new music. Nicole: What food or any other thing is absolutely necessary on tour. Joe: In general or my band specifically? Nicole: Your band. Joe: Well, we’re pretty open. What we keep in the van though, we keep water and Kliff Bars at all times. Nicole: What’s your favorite flavor of Cliff Bar? Joe: Probably the chocolate peanut butter. And it gets tiring after a while, but it’s good sustainable, like if you can’t stop, it’s a good thing to eat. Nicole: If you weren’t a rock star, what would you be? Joe: I would be a chef. I would go to culinary school. Nicole: What discipline? Joe: I don’t know enough about it. I love to cook, I cook at home and I try to learn as much as I can. And we cook in the band all the time. WE all love food and love to cook. We spend a lot of time at each other’s houses drinking and trying out recipes. Nicole: What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done on stage. Joe: I have to think about tha tone. I mean, there are times you do ridiculous things like roll around on the ground and stuff like that. I went though a phase where I was like duct taping a hat and a pair of glasses to my head. Nicole: So they won’t fall of? Joe: Yah, I would wear like a hobo hat and a pair of black rayban knock offs and take a roll of duct tape and duct tape it around my head and go out like that for the show. And that lasted for about two months. That was pretty ridiculous. Nicole: Do you have any bras in your collection that have been given to you or thrown on stage? Joe: No, only the ones that are floating around the band. We have two girls in the band. Nicole: Not quite the same Joe: Yeah. Nicole: Has anything crazy been thrown on stage… other than that? Joe: No. I don’t think anything crazy has been thrown on stage. People are pretty polite. Offstage, people might be like “Hey, thanks, check out this flyer” and there’s a phone number and that’s the best as… Nicole: Is that like the craziest thing you’ve been given then? Joe: People gave us (and I don’t want to call it a ‘weird gift’ because it was great, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen). We were on tour with this band called “Steel Train” and we were in Houston and these people had made Steel Train these cake balls (and if you’re not familiar with cake balls, you can get them at Starbucks). So I think it was the same people who ended up becoming fans of ours and made us cake balls the next time we were in Houston. And then we announced we were writing a record and we got cake balls in the mail, for writing. But that was pretty awesome. Nicole: Cake balls are fantastic. Joe: They are real real good. Michelle: I’ve never had one. They’re really expensive at Starbucks. Joe: I would imagine. They’re like hard on the outside and really soft and doughy on the inside. Michelle: They look pretty. I’d be afraid to bite one, they’re so pretty. Nicole: Do you have a good luck charm? Joe: Let me think if I have… no, I mean, I like to play in a hat. I like to think that a hat makes me more confident on stage. And I’ve gone through a series of hats like I had an old sailor cap from our singer Sam’s grandfather that I wore to our press shoot that I wear on stage a lot. And then Pat, our keyboardist, gave me a straw fedora that I wear all the time. It’s kind of like my good luck charm. It makes me feel good to wear it on stage. Nicole: The last one is Peanut M&Ms or Regular? Joe: Oh, peanut. No question about it.