Yesterday everything turned around. After our morning bout of answering emails and website maintenance and scheduling and Life the Universe and Everything, Heather and I went a wanderin.
I’m not actually sure what the local area is called – if it’s got a specific name – But Wayland Avenue has a short run of cute little shops, mostly things that would be classed “boutiques”, and we window shopped for a while, before moving underground for some serious antiquing. Heather got a really good deal on about twenty keys for her jewlery in this incredibly packed, tiny little place called
Our adventures continued on Wickendon Street. I’m not quite sure how everything’s layed out in Providence – I don’t literally know where RISD is – I think we’re pretty close to Brown University where we are… but Wickendon seems to be a major arts district. If you’re too lazy to actually explore the street, there’s a painted bridge that has all the shops and little illustrations next to their addresses. Heather and I walked up and down Wickendon for a while, exploring music shops and art stores and the Noggin’s Nest (where Heather tried out on a towering white witch’s hat).
A good outing.
We got back to the apartment just in time to run some songs with Rob in preparation for the weekend, and then we ran off to the Custom House.
Our friend Kris Oleth, who runs the Jammin Java open mic, happened to be visiting Providence this week – and so I invited her along for the night. It was good to see another familiar face… but we’ve got this superstition: whenever someone comes along with us to an open mic, the open mic is invariably shit.
I think we should update the superstition: whenever someone comes along with us to an open mic and doesn’t sign-up for their own slot on the list, the night is invariably shit. Kris played a couple of country tunes (including Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash and a very “blue” song – in multiple ways – she asked if it was okay to curse in Providence – called “Straight White Republican Males”) before having to run back to where she was staying. Fortunately, she stuck around long enough to see Rob’s set – high energy punk. God, now HE’S a rock star.
Later on, we played with much the same response – high energy – enthralled crowd… we did really well. The Custom House – best open mic in Providence – no question about it.
Our patron for our stay in Providence, Rob Spectre – is a fascinating creature. I’m pretty intimidated by him, and he falls into that category of “cool people” in a way that I end up thinking “it’s so COOL that he LIKES me!” I’m a fanboy at heart, and it’s sad. Rob is this amazingly well-read, philosopher-reading-going-to punk musician, who creates high speed, hurtling tunes with awesome lyrics. He’s one of the most gregarious people I’ve ever met, and goes out of his way to make you feel welcome. I think it’s the Midwestern in him coming out in contrast to a New England town… I remember first meeting him back at the WestTown Arts Open Mic last year (it’s been over a YEAR since we’ve been here!) and being a little taken aback at just HOW friendly he was… it took me a little while before I was convinced that this wasn’t an act…
Rob really is just one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. He’s like a big happy well-read punk bear, and I Love our time with him. Unfortunately, he’s pretty busy – between his band, his work… we haven’t seen him nearly as much as I’d like while we’ve been here. I’m looking forward to this weekend.
Anywho, it’s kind of cool – the last time we encountered Rob, we felt kind of guilty – the whole time we were there, he’d been running around cleaning up his world in preparation for the arrival of the girl he was “sweet on” who was going to be visiting from Iowa. This resulted in the amazing Anti-Spider Pee Story which I shall not recount at this time.
Visiting him this time around finds him Living with Rochelle. Apparently, they’d only spent two days together during some poorly-defined previous encounter before she went home to Iowa. She came and visited him for a week the last time we were in Providence – and then went home, completed her degree, packed up her car and moved in with Rob.
We were really curious about what kind of woman could hold a guy like Rob in such thrall. Apparently our gig this weekend at Westside Arts will be surrounded by her artwork… maybe we’ll have greater insight then…
Hehe – random note – funny to see their separate takes on the universe. People we stay with often end up leaving us notes as we pass in the night… always they leave them wherever they’re SURE we’re bound to look, wherever we’re bound not to miss it… Rochelle leaves notes for us on the bathroom mirror. Rob leaves notes for us on my Alienware.
