Over the many years that I’ve known Maureen Andary, I’ve actually NEVER seen her band – so it was awesome that they were following ilyAIMY at the Cafe Stage of Herndon Festival – yay! We finally got to see the multi-instrumentalist sweetness that is The Sweater Set!
We’re crossing the Connecticut River and we are hot, exhausted, dusty, gritty and beat. Yesterday morning we got up relatively early in Philadelphia, PA, piled into the car and drive for five hours to arrive JUST in time for our set at Particle Accelerator. Hot, sweaty and sore we then piled BACK into the car and drove to Providence to play a bar show that basically had financed the weekend. Two hours there, we broke down and drove back to Putnam where despite a desire to be social we crashed by 2am and slept soundly till it was time to spring back into action with a noon o’clock load in over in Plainfield, CT. Three-hour gig our in sunshine, another breakdown and another 2.5 hour drive has us in our current raggedy state.
Yeah – cold shower. Except I don’t even want to have to stand up. A cold bath. That’s what I really want.
This weekend has basically been all about Particle Accelerator, and then I booked some things around the area to fund our travels. Good times have been had, but a weekend trip is NOT the way to do New England, and we’re definitely feeling the miles.
ilyAIMY gives one another pre-gig Anubis kisses 
The first headlights came into view and with a road they rolled past at ABOUT 30mph or so. A seemingly never-ending parade of motorcycles – majority American Harleys but with a couple of Japanese bikes and crazy custom steeds thrown in for good measure. Probably the most memorable was some kind of bright yellow trike that had been built out of an old hacked Mustang. They rolled past for a full 10 minutes, which, if my math is correct, rolling at 30mph a mile’s worth of motorcycles must’ve passed every two minutes, right? So that’s at least FIVE MILES of motorcycles!
We THOUGHT we were in for a leisurely morning, but at 11.45am we got a text from our friend Russ informing us that it’s Flag Day and that the road in front of Hank’s Dairy Bar was going to get closed at noon to let the bikers go through… with no time to spare, we hit the gas and managed to be the last car allowed on the road, with a cop dropping an orange cone inches behind the ilyMobile. People were lining the road waving flags and we rolled into Hank’s within minutes of hearing the rapidly growing growl of the approaching bikes.
After the steel stampede, we got everything set up and ready to roll and played to a nice little crowd. The new stage at Hank’s looks great and FELT great and over the course of three 45-minute sets we played to kids and parents and dogs and a chipmunk and bikers and biker babes and everything in-between. We even played to an old friend who had been the girlfriend of the guy who’d inspired Heather to play djembe over a decade ago!
Well – we’ve still got an hour and a half of driving into the setting sun ahead of us before we get to sit still – and then I’ll have to INSIST upon entering the Moisture Chamber before I should be allowed in polite company. Even if the company’s NOT polite I probably shouldn’t be allowed on the furniture till after SOME level of ablutions. At the moment I think I’m so soiled you could grow plants in my wrinkles.
It goes without saying that with great power comes great responsibility – but it should also be stated that with great outdoor gigs come god AWFUL outdoor spiders!
I expose Sharif to melodica and he immediately falls in Love…. 
June 12th finds us on the road up to New England for a VERY quick trip centred around our favourite suicide-prevention festival : Particle Accelerator. The first hop is just up to Philadelphia where we get to be involved in other Good Works – JJ Tizou’s house concerts serve as a great platform for great music – but WE also provide JJ with a great platform from which he highlights worthy causes and local political movements. It’s a good trade. 
Tonight we were also teamed up with Sheltered Turtle who’s simply one of the best solo guitar performers I’ve had the pleasure of booking, performing with, and hanging out with. Tonight he closed the night with characteristic beauty, passion, grace and charm. 
Our audience June 12th at JJ Tizou’s in Philadelphia, PA. 
Sheltered Turtle at JJ Tizou’s house concert in Philadelphia, PA. 
JJ and Frankie enjoying the music – Frankie didn’t want to be around a LOT of people, but also didn’t want to be left alone – after a good deal of caterwauling during quiet moments of Sheltered Turtle’s set (which he took in stride) this solution was deemed workable. 
Oh – this picture should’ve gone first! We got to JJ’s place early to avoid traffic, help set up and play with his cat… not necessarily in that order. At all. Also, Nosferatu. 
A new-to-us act – My Antenna from New York was the opening act for us at JJ Tizou’s in Philadelphia, PA.
