October 31st, 2020. The House of Musical Traditions.

Yesterday we played the first show at the Stage of Musical Traditions and as I back away and look at it all, this sure seems like what Dave Eisner meant all along. HMT has occupied a couple of spaces and when he moved to this space about a decade ago he really was in Love with the idea that it was finally a HOUSE. We could have ROOMS! A house filled with MUSIC.

Over the years he’s had a couple of ideas… THIS is where we could serve coffee! (c’mon Dave, we’d say, you’re a music shop and you don’t WANT to be a coffeehouse!) and THIS is where we can have SHOWS!!! (c’mon Dave, the space is too tight… )

Today is kind of a gloomy day here in Takoma Park, MD – and the House of Musical Traditions is filling the neighbourhood with eclectic music stopping passer-bys in their tracks and it LOOKS like a house and it LOOKS like music and … I can’t help but think that THIS is kinda the culmination of Dave’s dream.

Kristen plays the Mandolorian theme while my mom talks to my friend Other Rob and Rowan, his wife and their daughter cavort at the Stage of Musical Traditions in Takoma Park, MD.

It would’ve been better on a sunshiney day. It would’ve been better without a pandemic. Though I think Dave, coming out of the heyday of the folk revival probably is happy to have signs of politics and protest on the lawn, it would’ve been better without the necessity of them. The giant speaker murals don’t particularly speak of “folk” music like the rest of the shop does, they’re definitely reminders of Woodstock and though at the moment the “stage” can only really handle what 3-piece ilyAIMY threw out at it, I know as we were leaving Dave and Oscar (the handyman behind the mural and the construction) were already talking about setting up additional platforms to make the space more viable for bigger bands.

The Takoma Urban Park across the street provides plenty of space for people to spread out, especially in warmer weather. Over the course of the afternoon we played to the above Stormtrooper, Zombie Unicorn, NASA Astronaut and Clown as well as a couple of Jedi, Captain America, Black Panther and … his mom? A number of cats and the various non-costumed (but still masked) people who were merely Halloween ADJACENT.

This guerilla space is classic Dave. He hasn’t REALLY sought permission and this may well cause him trouble down the line, but he’ll apologize later if he has to. I mean, with the way the space is set up it’s not like an audience (and the liabilities thereof) can really gather on HIS property… it makes more sense to set up chairs in the public park across the street. And this first show, on a gloomy cold Halloween afternoon, was the result of Takoma Park canceling their Halloween parade and asking for Main Street businesses to “do something” in its stead… I think Main Street Takoma probably meant a store display or sidewalk sale. Only a very broad interpretation allowed for pointing 2000 watts of amplifiers at the neigbourhood play park.

On a whim I’d picked up these two full-body, fuzzy Baby Yoda costumes when they went on a flash sale from Hot Topic. Don’t judge. I was expecting them to be kinda meh and worth a laugh, but they were wonderfully warm, the zippers are hidden by fabric (and so don’t scrape on the back of an instrument) and were a LOT of fun to play in! I should’ve bought one for Rowan!

We played to fans and friends and my mom. A good number of pedestrians stopped to see what was up and we had a good time. Probably at its height we only had about 25 people gathered and they were spread out on the lawn below us, the sidewalk, in stopped cars on the street, across the street in a couple of clusters, on the field off across the way… very, very spread out. I was … well… what’s the word for it? I bet the Germans have a word for it: That COVID-inspired mix of disappointed-by-the-small-numbers while simultaneously-relieved-by-the-small-numbers emotion resulting from looking out an a result that would’ve looked pathetic a year ago but today seems like a fairly good showing…. (additionally, probably not TOO bad for 48 degrees with 96 hours notice on a Holiday during a pandemic at a brand-new-never-heard-of-before spot).

Dave was happy, and looking back at it in my camera, looking at what the House of Musical Traditions LOOKS like … like a HOUSE of MUSIC… well, I absolutely can’t blame him.

The place finally looks like it should.