Saturday morning at around 3am we were finally leaving Club Octane. We retreated to an actual HOTEL in Star City, WV and quickly crashed, only to have to get up again five hours later for our 11am checkout. That was far more painful than most things. Still, getting up early meant we really filled the day. First with a great breakfast back at the Blue Moose – and then off to Pittsburgh to do a bit of tourism before making our way to Howler’s for our gig.
We roll into Pittsburgh and meet up with our friend Aleta (an old friend from House of Musical Traditions – and an even older friend from the Java Head) who welcomed the break from her post-graduate work and took some time to show us around where she works.
After spending a couple of hours running amok in the city – visiting the Cathedral, checking out some of our favourite craft stores, a music store – et cetera, we got dinner at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern. They make the best pierogies. Kristen had been craving pierogies. I ALWAYS crave pierogies…. QED.
From there we walked across the street to Howler’s to be met with one of the most Lovely greetings ever. “Hi – I’m Jo! I’m the music manager and it’s my job to make sure you guys have a great time!”
Fucking. Awesome. I Love this person. I Love her job. I Love everything about this. We have wireless, free ginger ale, pizza’s on the way even though we’re already full of pierogies, we have a friendly person telling us it’s her job to make us happy… Life is good.
Unfortunately we’re absolutely exhausted and I think it was only inspiration from the Weathered Road that kept us going.
But inspirational they are. The new tunes where they’re REALLY taking advantage of their three interlocking voices are like nothing I’ve ever heard. Not since We’re About Nine’s heyday have I heard such perfectly interwoven harmonies and such exciting changes of vocal intervals. I am NOT a voice guy and I’M excited!
The show’s good, but by the end of it I’m barely able to drive us back to Aleta’s place. I can feel myself zoning out and I’m just so glad to have everyone else in the car keeping me conscious. We got back to the house and slept dreamless sleeps.
