We should never have been allowed to play here. Blues Alley is an almost-60 year-old blues and jazz club in the heart of Georgetown. It’s dangerously legendary, having hosted artists like Eva Cassidy (who I knew peripherally), Charlie Byrd (who I got to see in Annapolis), Ella Fitzgerald, Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillepsie… and now… ilyAIMY.
Hell, their big 40 year-old celebration write up in the Washington Post was written by a guy I punched in the face.
There is NO reason for ilyAIMY to be invited on to this stage, and yet, through a really cool program courtesy of SAW (Songwriters Association of Washington) and the tireless efforts of Jay Keating (in the midst of liver transplant recovery no less) and Kelly Diamond, ilyAIMY was invited to play this legendary club … on a Tuesday … in the middle of July.
Yeah – I was pretty worried about this gig. 150 = sellout? Georgetown? I was pretty sure we were fucked. But we had a great audience, a responsive audience, incredible sound, incredible room. And recently we’ve been the best of ourselves. On the one hand, so soon on the heels of the fantastic full-band show at The Refuge the absence of Sharif was keenly felt, AND they had a baby grand for him to play – on the other hand 5-piece ilyAIMY filled their stage to overflowing and though the sound guy, Chris, can talk about how they’ve had 11-piece jazz acts there, 11-piece jazz acts must not OCCUPY space like ilyAIMY does.
Trombones get all expandy… but that ain’t nothing compared to Rowan’s elbows during LooseN or my hair during the breakdown of Good Enough.
Thank you to everyone who made this night possible. We’ll be trickling out videos from the evening as I polish them up and make them available. Though we came far shy of selling out the room, it looked pretty damned full from where *I* was standing – and though the video will never capture the energy of this show (or how freakin’ good the New Orleans-inspired food is) – it’ll be a good way of sharing with those who couldn’t be there.
