We’d been at Teavolve a LOT last week – I guess my last Journal entry was about the open mic there – Acacia Sears’ night of Everyone Who Is Awesome is every Monday night and hasn’t let me down yet. Sharif and Rowan have both been regulars, and Kristen and I have decided it’s a pretty nice way to windup our day. On Wednesday the 28th, ilyAIMY had an Acoustic Baltimore show there … this was scheduled far in advance of either Acacia’s open mic’s existence or Ash’s show…. It was meant to be our debut at the venue but was turned into a mere mid-week appearance between two other very strong, full-band appearances. Probably didn’t help our turn-out.
Ashraf Dawod performing with his trumpet player and sahffi at his album release on Friday, April 30th at Teavolve in Baltimore City. Man – Ash had a great audience at Teavolve in Baltimore, MD. ilyAIMY being Ash’s rocking backing band. Kristen got in there, James played drums… it was a Force
Wednesday was actually a very frustrating show. I didn’t run sound myself and had that nagging feeling of being slightly out-of-control all night, and my guitar was completely non-cooperative, swinging wildly out of tune shortly after every bout of tuning…. My onboard tuner had died a couple of weeks before and I’ve been relying on a Kala clip-on (yes, a ukulele tuner, don’t laugh – it’s a great tuner!)… it does work great but it’s a little extra niggling pain in the ass that, when combined with a night where my Alvarez is being finicky was enough to just drive me over the edge. By the end of our set I was furious and fuming and had to go for a walk around the neighbourhood lest I take it out on someone…. fortunately someone in the area was walking their boxer puppies and that was enough to lighten my heart again. I followed them around the block for a while, probably enough to freak the owners out a little, but boxer puppies are just what my soul needed.
ilyAIMY performing at Ash’s album release at Teavolve in Baltimore City. It was a great show, a full house, much passion was perpetrated.
So I walked back into Teavolve a little more sensible than when I’d left and was in an accepting frame of mind when David (Heather’s Dad) came up to me and had a pretty sensible conversation with me about how it was POSSIBLE for me to get a new guitar and that it really, really was time. I hashed out the details with my bandmates (I don’t personally have all the money, but the band does) and tracked down the instrument I wanted (you all know I’ve been craving a particular one for a while) and discovered that the company had gone out of business!
Making our way from Frederick to our show at the new Dogfish Head in Fairfax, VA we stumbled across the Design House at the Old Luckett’s Store…. then we stumbled on in… I found a good set of minions for my rabbit army somewhere wandering Northern Virginia One of the cooler things for sale at the store was a collection of old keys. Unfortunately they were being sold as a set with their box (for about $400 or so) but had labels for all SORTS of cool stuff in meticulous, beautiful handwriting.
I fought with that panic for a while and started reading up on things. Apparently Composite Acoustics of Louisiana had very quietly gone under a couple of weeks before (mid-March?) setting off a desperate grab for their last couple of guitars. I had thought I’d formed a couple of good relationships with some of their people while at NAMM in January, and it explains why my emails had suddenly gone unanswered. Though it’s scary to purchase an instrument that is essentially unserviceable from a company that’s just folded, I talked it over with Kristen and Heather (let the lady-minds be sensible for me) and decided that I’d a) tried out a lot of these instruments and I knew I wanted one, that b) the Alvarez needed to be at least semi-retired, c) I’d found one for a good price and d) well, they’re supposed to never need servicing and e) I really, really wanted one and shouldn’t I go ahead and get what I really REALLY want and the store that was selling it had a satisfaction guarantee so I was at least semi-covered if I really didn’t like it…
Kristen admiring a “found object” lamp at the Design House at the Luckett’s Store somewhere in VA. What a cool place. It’s basically a chance for them to show off what you could do with their stuff if you had enough money to buy it all. I spent about $20 but could not make my bedroom look like this.
Meanwhile – Ash’s album release was back on the 30th of April and was an amazing night. There are a couple of videos of it floating around online, bits and pieces captured. I ran sound and have audio of the whole show and have been listening to the “full band” version of “Whole Lotta Love” in the morning to get my blood going. With James on drums and ilyAIMY as The Band and Ash’s vocals, it’s just a lot of drive. Having an actual kit to play with changes the dynamic of everything and makes me hunger for a rock band setting… just every once in a while! Teavolve was packed with Ash’s friends and fans and family and it was a huge honour to be a part of it. ilyAIMY played a full set as the night kicked into gear and really got people riled up. It was an amazing night – every night should be like that.
We was ferocious.
