We’re driving in the rain, rounding the Beltway in the nightmare that is Monday evening rush hour traffic. We’ve literally been straddling the DC border and now have broken federal capital orbit in the hopes of making our 6.30pm sound check.
It was an interesting dynamic in the store today. A bunch of us had gigs this evening – some at the same venues! But we all had different sound checks… Keith Carr (of Celtic duo Rosemary Gano) was first, trying to escape to get to a 6.30pm sound check as well, but his was at an Irish bar in Arlington, VA – a beastly drive to say the least – I last saw him wiggling the lines of google maps trying to avoid a particular bridge in DC.
Then Kristen Jones came next – she’s performing both on cello AND steel pan tonight and has a 6pm sound check at the same Pete Seeger tribute that we’re playing at. She ducked out at about 5.45pm, hoping to evade the worst of the traffic by taking backroads all the way there. The Paul2 tied down the loose ends in the shop as I took care of an errant fiddler and a banjo player who’d secreted himself away in the banjo magazines – our 6.30 sound check was a 18 minutes away without traffic and 40 minutes with and we managed to leave Takoma Park right at 5.50pm.
…And now we’re departing the Institute of Musical Traditions’ Pete Seeger tribute where I kind of wish we were able to hang around and talk to people, place our faces next to our merch – I sort of figure we’re potentially shooting ourselves in the foot by going to another show, but on the other hand I’m pretty SURE our response at Ron Goad’s showcase at Jammin Java is going to be a LOT more hearty than the polite applause received in Rockville.
Oh, and polite it WAS. In the continued adventures of “folkies just don’t know what to make of us”, the reserved hand patting was almost painful! We got a couple of carefully sourceless whoops from the back after Heather’s tune “Ask For Me”, but for the rest it sounded like the hands were slapping together muffled by feathers and pillows.
I’m still not sure of the strategy of that – do we continue going to oddball events when invited even though our response is invariably luke-warm (at BEST)? It’s interesting to be the black sheep but it’s beginning to get kind of old, not to mention disheartening – the contrast to the screaming and whooping at some of our more energetic shows is like pleasure and pain (but without the leather). OR do we just say “no thank you” and when asked why we’re not interested just stare at the inviter like they’re insane? Oh – I DO enjoy looking at people like they’re crazy! It’s one of my favourite past-times.
In any case, there will never be a situation where everyone likes us anymore than I’ll EVER agree with the millions of people willing to shell out money for Miley Cyrus.
…And Jammin Java IMMEDIATELY rubs me the wrong way by eventually getting me to pay a $2 cover to play their fucking open mic. It’s like New York City but with parking! Woo HOO!
A much better reception at Jammin Java, there was some whooping and some hollering and a lot of clapping. But I have misgivings and in general by the end of the night I’m feeling discouraged and taken advantage of.
Perhaps I’ve simply been doing this too long and to receive a modicum of a certain kind of respect is actually too much to ask – but I’ve become VERY opinionated and am still trying to figure how much of that opinionated commentary should be held back for the sake of political expediency…
It’s at about this point I should shut down my typy typy for a little bit. Oh yes indeed.
In any case, it’s a rainy night and tomorrow I’ll find out how everyone ELSE’S gigs went. I have great doubts that anyone else is having the amount of grrowl in their diet as I am right now. (add to rob’s list of disappointment – for some reason I was sort of thinking it was Sunday and that I’d be getting home just in time for Adult Swim – but no.. it’s Monday – sigh).
