Margarita Madness At The Purple People Bridge : May 17th

Touring Musician Arrested for Peeing in Mason

Stepdad’s Nathan K. returns to Cincinnati next month for a legal defense fundraiser

Nov 21, 2013 at 10:27 am

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click to enlarge

Nathan K.'s booking photo from the Warren County Jail

One week ago today, on Nov. 14, the fun and increasingly acclaimed Michigan-based Electro Pop band Stepdad was bringing its nearly two-month, nationwide tour to a close and was set to perform at Cincinnati’s MOTR Pub. The band had a great fall tour; outside of some trouble with its tour van, things had gone smoothly until that point. With a few final shows on the tour after the Cincinnati date in their home state, the band members were heading into the homestretch and returning home triumphantly.

Then one of them them got arrested. Stepdad had played Pittsburgh the night before its MOTR date, driving through the night and grabbing a room at the Super 8 motel in Cincy exburb Mason, Ohio, (north of the city and near the Kings Island amusement park, where the Brady Bunch once frolicked) to get some rest. Early in the morning of Nov. 14, Stepdad’s Nathan John Klages — a multi-instrumentalist and also a solo singer/songwriter who works under the name Nathan K. — was arrested at the motel, charged with public indecency and “obstruction official business,” according to the police report. Klages got arrested for doing something many, many men have done — taking a piss outside. He was booked into the Warren County Jail. The look on his face in the above mugshot is one of understandable confusion, probably a little anger and definitely a lot of fatigue after working all night and then traveling.

Fortunately, according to a press release from MOTR, Klages was fined and released just prior to showtime and Stepdad was able to fulfill the date. But because sometimes you gotta go when you gotta go (especially when traveling in a van for hours), Klages now has to deal with the financial fall out of the fines and the cost of traveling back to town for court.

MOTR’s people and Klages aren’t saying much more about the arrest, or his defense, on the advice of his lawyers, so the facts surrounding the great pee incident and exactly what happened — did he or didn’t he? — are currently vague, outside of what was in the police report (which wasn’t much).

MOTR Pub is stepping up to lend a hand to Nathan K., welcoming him back to Cincinnati on December 17 to perform his compelling Indie Folk and raise some cash for his legal defense. The Nathan K. Legal Defense Fundraiser will start at 9 p.m. that Tuesday and the club is asking for “fans of Stepdad, and fans of blind justice, and fans of rock 'n' roll, and fans of Nathan K. to attend the show and join us in throwing a fiver or a ten-spot in Nathan K.'s hat to offset his debts and to make something good of the bad.”

You can also help Klages out, of course, by purchasing some music from him. Here is his Bandcamp page and official site. Below is the title track from his most recent release, last year’s Dishes album; click on the player for a free download sample (on the page, hit “Buy Now” and simply put “0” in the price field). Dishes also includes a track called “Criminal,” oddly enough, that features the opening lines, “I’m not a criminal though I've killed people in my dreams/And I've never had to steal/Though I've been known to dine with thieves/And to tell the truth they're just like me.” Anyone who’s had to pee outside out of necessity is just like Nathan. Though most of us don’t get shackled and tossed in a cell for it.

Below is MOTR Pub’s full press release about the incident and benefit:

Those souls in attendance at MOTR Pub for the November 14 show by underground pop superstars STEPDAD won't soon forget it. Neither will Stepdad's NATHAN K. He might never forget it — because of a very wrong reason.

The evening before the show, the band, which hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan, was staying at a motel in Mason, Ohio. It was there where Nathan K. was arrested for — allegedly — urinating in the great outdoors. Nathan was subsequently charged with public indecency and taken to the Warren County Jail, where his arms and legs were placed in shackles and he was placed in a cell.

He was fined, processed, and eventually released just before showtime, so as to avert what would have been the compounded injustice of having to cancel the show.

Taking into account the advice of the legal defense, we will say nothing about the charge levied against Nathan. However, Nathan is saddled with fines and travel expenses related to this episode. He must return from Michigan to Southwest Ohio on Tuesday, December 17 to face the judge, and we, at MOTR Pub, want to help.

Nathan has agreed to play a set at MOTR Pub on Tuesday, December 17 at 9 p.m. We are asking fans of Stepdad, and fans of blind justice, and fans of rock 'n' roll, and fans of Nathan K. to attend the show and join us in throwing a fiver or a ten-spot in Nathan K.'s hat to offset his debts and to make something good of the bad.