(excerpt from a letter to a friend)
We also rolled into a really nice open mic last night – against all expectations. The place wasn’t answering their phone and when we drove up all the lights were off… but we spotted a little sign saying the tiki bar was open round back and we settled into pizzas and acoustic guitars and it eventually turned into a small but intensely talented night. Amazing vocalists coming out of the woodwork and though most everything was covers, they were well-performed and enthusiastic and the music was ecstatic.
There was one couple up front who made-out fiercely in accompaniment to every song (and to many of the silences, and occasionally to applause). Jeff and Amanda were cute as Hell together and after a while I whispered suggestions, but after I suggested she bite him she rounded on me and almost bit ME (but I am swift!!!!). She was very art-chick and I liked singing to her. He was very relaxed and I liked singing to him… all in all, people who I’d probably commandeer into my little circle of friends if we all Lived back in Maryland.
The host, Chris, was a great piano player, fun vocalist – at one point my friend Katie leaned over and said something about how white guys shouldn’t be able to sing that way. Cool blues tunes, awesome Damien Rice tunes – even a number of acoustic Nine Inch Nails covers that would’ve made Rowan weep cause he hadn’t thought of them first.
We’re passing through Hartford now, gold-topped churches and smokestacks mingling freely as we suck butterscotch candies and dodge 18-wheelers. Tonight will be our first show in Maine and I’ve heard a lot of good things about Portland… I’m eager to see it. We’re camping tonight (though you wouldn’t consider it REAL camping by any means). I’ll NEVER be that hardcore – I need my showers and I’m squeamish about toilets that don’t take my excretions anywhere. It’s like if you’ve grown up with your father always out on business – you never learn to Love it quite right and you’re used to its departure. When it sticks around you’re kind of uncomfortable, don’t know how to act, and you’re not used to the smell.Ah, poo.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA It’s always good to see the Boston Legal Bridge which isn’t called that but is called something lengthy and too difficult to remember. Dan always makes the best posters! Orange Nichole performing at Dan Blakeslee’s CD release at the Grog in Newburyport, MA. Dan Blakeslee and his band performing at the Grog last Thursday night. It was the first time I’d seen Dan with his band and though I usually get kind of turned off by the bands that singer/songwriters collect around themselves, these guys simply amplified Dan. They even sort of pushed him into a slightly darker, edgier space which was beautiful to behold in the dark cavern of the Grog. Dan Blakeslee in post-gig delerium in Newburyport, MA.
