It’s a wonderful feeling when another musician you truly admire comes out to one of your shows and displays every evidence of enjoying the Hell out of himself.
Not James Hetfield – that other guy. Brian Gundersdorf. Of We’re About 9? He’s marvelous – arguably the best songwriter I know, and possibly one of the best I’ve ever heard. A great performer, an admirable businessman, and part of one of the finest folk trios ever, with incredible harmonies and a very modern take on the genre.
And he popped out to our show Saturday night! Yes, we’re old friends, and yes he’s just moved back to the state, and to be honest there was another mutually adored band playing around the corner, but he didn’t HAVE to come out to see our bar show in Falls Church, VA – and he didn’t have to have an awesome time, bring a lot of friends, or give every evidence of enjoying our music intensely.
Makes me wanna hug him. I forget that we do something that a lot of people in our genre are simply unable to do. I don’t know that We’re About 9 would be able to overcome the sheer noise threshold of a venue like Dogfish Head, where half of the audience is paying attention to a football game and the other half is slow to realize that a band is happening to them… we did actually own about half the room we were in, but “room” is a strong term for a mostly-open-plan building where there’s no real separation from the bar where the tv volume is still up or from the main dining rooms where families are still finishing their late sups…. It’s always an interesting night.
Brian was a very welcome surprise on a night that had been derailed by a recalcitrant couple of guys who refused to give up their seats to allow us to set up.
What better way to kick off the New Year than by bringing the open mic a new instrument and forcing someone else to learn it!? Bruce Lebovitz brought a tanpura along (sort of like a sitar, but dronier), taught fellow-TPOM-regular Matt Holsen how to play a particular riff, and the traditional Indian holiday tune Auld Lang Syne was perpetrated….
Heather and her parents and I had all driven down together. Traffic came up aces and we got there at around 7pm (for an 8pm load-in, 9pm start) which allowed us plenty of time to sit and get a table. I ran around to the other side of the shopping centre to hit up the Barnes and Nobles for a book I’d been hunting for and found Rowan hanging out at the book store chatting with another old friend from College Perk… I found the book I was looking for, checked out, caught a ride back from Rowan, came back and we all ate together, had a great time, talked about mens’ fashion and started loading in and then…
…Gear-blocked by two guys who wouldn’t take the hint. We caged them with gear and they ignored me. Their waiter chatted with them and they declined to move to the bar. The manager had a conversation with them and they said they were just fine, thanks a lot. I chatted with them in a not very polite fashion explaining that I needed them to move so that we could set up – “Well, what kind of music do you play?” “I’m sorry, did you ask what time we play?” “No, what KIND of music do you play?” “OH – what time do we play? We were supposed to set up an hour ago and we’re supposed to play right now”. The guys offered to move if the manager bought them a round of drinks…
It was just stupid. They were finally ousted to a table by the bar by some managerial means by 9.15 and we were up and running a little after 9.30, all with the biggest crowd we’ve ever had at a Dogfish Head waiting for us to kick in.
It’s ironic that Brian showed up with his crew shortly thereafter, because I can remember thinking to myself that “I bet We’re About 9 never has this problem!” Sigh.
The night before, we’d played Leaky Pete’s in Cambridge, MD to a very energetic crowd. There was much dancing and a lot of requests for Grateful Dead tunes and some other band I’d never heard of – the guy who requested the latter seemed almost offended that I’d never heard of his favourite act. Sigh.
Urgh – can you tell Heather had a rough day? (culminating in her car melting something from its ignition coil into its engine!) I remember when my mom had a small fit because her kids wanted HONEY NUT Cheerios! I sent her a picture of these… and she refuses to discuss.
It was Kristen’s first time at the bar and we had a great time with our buckets of mussels and a salmon blt that was absolutely marvelous…. And despite the rowdiness of the bar, I think we all had a great time right up until I broke a string and ALL the ladies’ batteries went bad in swift succession. We used that as an excuse to wrap up and we were out of there by 12.30am or so – which I guess really I was pretty grateful for since it’s an hour and a half drive to get home from there…
There’d been a lot of table movement at Leaky Pete’s, leaving us a LOT of space, first for the dancers and later for me to step in front of the “stage” for more intense and rob-like rocking.
I had a great time with gigs this weekend – but my body is FEELING it and my internal clock is entirely fucked. Friday night we didn’t get HOME till 3am, Saturday night I still didn’t get to sleep till 3.30 or so – and last night, despite getting home by 10.30 after my open mic and having to get up at 8.30am that morning and this, I was STILL up at 4am.
Back to insomnia. ilyAIMY don’t sleep.
