May 15th, 2011.

The Faerie Festival.  It’s awesome!  Despite the rain and sprinkle and grey the day went off without too much of a hitch (the schedule ran a little late, but most festival schedules do).  I was pleased to see a lot of ilyAIMYites out and about – ilyAIMYites in this case being defined by “people in the audience singing along with our songs”.  Even though it’s no longer unusual, and frankly, hasn’t been that unusual for years, it’s still one of my favourite things.  Certainly one of the most flattering things out there… Hell, I can’t even remember my lyrics.  The idea that someone else out there, increasingly people that I don’t recognize, care enough that my words sit in their brains… it reminds me that all this struggle, this whole FIGHT, is worth it to someone out there.

After the whimsy of the Maryland Faerie Festival we then covered the decidedly non-whimsical miles betwixt Upper Marlboro, MD and Northern Virginia for a late-night show at the Parallel Wine Bar in Broadlands, VA.  Heather’s been playing solo shows here for the past couple of months, but this is the first time I’ve been able to join her.  Almost as flattering as the people who sing along with our songs – bar owners that Love us so much that they ask us to be their Anniversary entertainment: Parallel was celebrating its first year of business and they’d gone out of their way to make sure Heather and I would be able to perform for them.  Hell, we just got an email from the owner saying “I know this might be a bit selfish, but the date your playing in July, I’m going to be out of town… can we move it?”  Love it!

The show itself was a four-hour bar gig, but unlike most bar gigs, our audience was highly appreciative and the food was absolutely delicious.  Though we were crammed into a tight space smack dab between the bar and the tables of the restaurant, balanced like either guardians of the wait staff station or the restrooms, we managed not to take any mics to the teeth or give any headstocks to the ribs and overcame our spatial challenges to give a rocking performance.  In most gigs like this, you get the distinct feeling that you’re interrupting something and this is usually reinforced by the staff sidling over and asking you to turn down.  Last night we got encouraged to turn UP, to step up and rock OUT.  It felt really good – at least in part because it’d been a while since Heather and I had played as a duo and there’s a purity to those performances that I really enjoy.

The last couple of weeks have seen me performing with a number of different iterations of ilyAIMY, including a couple with guest players (like Trevor Specht on saxophone and flute at Six Mile Coffee) and a number sans Heather.  Though I enjoy changing it up, and I Love that communicative jam sensation that comes from playing with different blood, Heather and I fit one another so well musically that it’s like coming home when  we relax back into one another like that… it was a good night.

A good, LATE night.  We didn’t get out of the bar until after one in the morning and we were due on stage in Bethesda at noon thirty the next day.  We spent the night over at Heather’s brother’s place in McLean and that night was spent too fast and passed far too quickly.  We were up by 9am and out and looking for breakfast not too long thereafter.  We joined up with the rest of the band behind the stage in Bethesda and played the longest outdoor show we’ve ever played.  Two hours without a break on a warm spring day is a LOT of playing, especially when you play the way we do… I need new, light, canvas boots of some sort lest I face DEATH.  Even as I type this, my feet are still swimming in the grossness of my flaming boots, but I’m kind of afraid of taking them off lest Kristen just shove me out of the car  without slowing.

In any case, it’s been a good weekend – a hard-working weekend.  My fingers are pretty sore and the new shred spot on my right hand is sorely shredded.  I don’t know what I’m doing different but I’ve got to fix it.  I’m way too old to still think that bleeding on my strings is cool, and that one knuckle is just being sliced to bits.

Okay, it’s beginning to hurt too much to type, so I’m going to shut myself up, shut my machine down, and go relax for the remainder of my Sunday.  I think I hear a delicious dinner calling me – there’s a local Mexican restaurant that I’m craving… and I think I’m suffering a cilantro deficiency.  I need to fix that… right soon.