Ugh – weird dreams last night (or wyrd, which is weirder than weird? – no, not THAT weird). Perhaps it comes from sleeping on floors for weeks at a time, but I’m awake and it’s late and my brain is still muddied from gig-dreams.
We were playing some bar – a huge bar – and it was a gig that we’d been EXCITED to play. The only one in the area and people were absolutely massing to come see us. We were the headliner act, playing a two-hour set from 1-3am and despite that, we still had 50+ people there specifically for us.
In any case, last night’s show at Your Inner Vagabond in Pittsburgh, PA was as amazing as I’d hoped, though hardly stress-free. A comfortable environment, it’s earned the nickname of “Pittsburgh’s Living Room” many times over. The entire concert space is made up of a tumble of rugs and pillows, hassocks and tiny tables – and they serve coffee and delicacies. I’d probably normally use the term “dessert” but this is Turkish Delight and raspberry baklava and drinking chocolate. It’s pretty amazing.
Unfortunately, because there were SO many random elements that we’d introduced things just careened on a catastrophe curve all night. Between schedule insanity and broken strings, non-arrival and then arrival… feedback, “do I play on this song”ness and whipping Coal Boulder out of our collective asses, it was a helter skelter night.
And then there was Bob Bannerjee. Our smiling Indian fiddler had said he’d probably be able to make it for our second set and so we’d placed a couple of fiddle-appropriate songs in the middle of the second set, some he’d played, some we just wanted him to try… and he arrived JUST as the last of those songs was being wrapped up.
And so we brought him on stage for the last three songs, none of which had we imagined fiddle on before, but Drift, rearview and Can You Love a Girl Gone So Long were nothing short of breathtakingly amazingly spectacular. I was floored.
And he told us how he never gets to play the heavy stuff, but next time we’re in town he’ll bring out his five string electric violin.
*melt*
