One-man band ends 100 day tour at Sister Lake Brewing Company

Published 8:11 am Friday, January 3, 2020

SISTER LAKES — Jack Adams, a one-man jam band, knows the song “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” better than most.

On Saturday, he will sing the folk song during the final show of his Takedown Tour at 8 p.m. at Sister Lakes Brewing Company. The performance will mark the end of his endeavor to play 100 shows at 100 breweries in 100 days. He will also be deputing a video he created composed of videos and selfies he recorded during each performance.

The tour, which started as a joke between family and friends, quickly became a reality for the St. Joseph singer and songwriter after he hopped on the idea before anyone else could take it.

“I was thinking about how funny it would be to sing a verse of ‘99 Bottles of Beer’ at 100 different bars and make a big video out of it,” Adams said.

Next thing he knew, he was reaching out to breweries, pitching his music and teaming up with TagaBrew, a company that makes copper memory tags for patrons to collect as they brewery hop.

Now on the last shows of his tour, Adams, who has been playing music for more than 10 years, is doing the most intense traveling he has ever done in his entire life.

With family scattered around Michigan — up in the U.P., on the east side of the state and in metro Detroit, Adams is familiar with exploring Michigan. During the tour, he has also played at breweries in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Canada.

He kicked off his first show on Sept. 27 at the Livery in Benton Harbor. This show particularly stuck out for Adams because of its proximity to his hometown of St. Joe, which also inspired his performance name, St. Joe Jack. He feels the same way about Sister Lakes Brewing Company, a venue he has played at several times.

“I’ve gotten the chance to know the owners. We’ve hung out a couple of times,” Adams said. “They are super cool, and I thought it would be a great idea to tie everything off at home. They’ve been really good to me there, too.”

Along the way, Adams, who turned 21 on Sept. 27, has shared a beer with his audience at every venue — except for one. He was too busy “yapping” at that show, he said.

Along the way, Adams has been grateful for the people he has met. One person, a man called “Crazy Dave” stands out. Crazy Dave introduced himself to Adams after his set at a brewery in Mackinaw City after Thanksgiving in the dead of November.

“He was a very accomplished goofball,” Adams said. “He has done some really cool stuff in the automotive industry, and he has definitely busted it up in the work field. He got his nickname because in meetings he’d always just be giving off these ideas and people would go, ‘Aw Dave, that’s crazy Dave.’ After that happened for so long, people just started calling him Crazy Dave. He was a fun guy. They were all just really good people.”

Another memorable moment for Adams was playing at The Peoples Cider Co. in Grand Rapids on Dec. 29. The gig acted as pseudo-birthday party for his friend. Adams, who attended Grand Valley State University for two years, used to spend a lot of time in the city.

“It was nice to be back in a familiar area and have all these friends come out and throw a surprise party for a friend,” he said.

With two shows to go, Adams is anything but burned out. If you catch him before 10 a.m. he might be tired, he said, but every day he wakes up ready to play.

“I’m really excited to be tying the bow on this 100-day venture,” Adams said. “It went by quick. Then again, it definitely feels like 100 days or three months. I am really thankful for all the press and all the people I have met along the way. It’s just been a whole barrel of monkeys.”

After Saturday, Adams plans to take a break but is already thinking ahead to recording a possible album in 2020, taking a couple of online classes and working towards a degree, and he is already brainstorming future tour ideas.

“I was thinking of doing a ski hill tour or just playing at ski hills,” he said. “In light of everything else going on people are like, ‘You can do an East Coast thing. You can do a West Coast thing. You can do 100 breweries wherever you want.’

The “where” is still to be determined, he said.