The last couple of nights have been a lot of fun. Scratch the fact that we could get out of the house – that was a bonus. These would’ve been fun shows nonetheless.
Thursday night was my open mic. I was sort of stunned that they’d managed to shovel out. As of the end of the blizzard the previous day there was 40” of snow in some places and Java Mammas doesn’t have the easiest of parking lots. Still, I was really glad to get the call that they were open, and we redoubled our efforts to get Kristen’s trusty Subaru out of the drifts that had engulfed it. Finally freeing the beast, we slipped and slid and finally made it out of the neighbourhood to my coffee cult.
ilyAIMY performing at the Senator. Ashraf Dawod joined us on djembe – but it’s just not the same.
We were very under-populated by our standards perhaps but still a decent turnout at a tiny coffeehouse. The only unfortunate thing was that we had such a top-notch featured-artist: sahffi deserved to have the fullest of full-houses rather than the tiny knot of hard-core regulars. Her performance was passionate and delicious. I’d forgotten how flat-out GOOD she was. We had about 40 people tune into the webcast, but they couldn’t have gotten the full effect.
sahffi is a performer that I knew from years and years ago, though I have scant memory from where (perhaps places like Kiss Café?). I remember being absolutely stunned by her vocals and by her hair – and then she dropped off the map at some point while we were touring. It wasn’t until years later (gosh, possibly 2008?!) that she exploded back onto the scene having taken time off for family. But wow – she was now performing with a band, with her twin-voiced sister – what a marvelous show.
Joining together at Debi’s house, the PLOJ kicked off with flue error.
But Thursday night was the first time in a very, very long time that I’d just seen pure, unadulterated, solo-sahffi. Her voice and her guitar, her songs, her strength – her glow on stage. Though the audience was small, it was good to see them bask in her glow, and to see her electricity leap from face to face. You could feel the snow being pushed back outside.
Rick Millman performing at the latest Pot Luck Open Jam in Lutherville, MD. Kristen playing cello at ze PLOJ. I’ve learned that it’s smart to sit right in front of her and get caressed by her noise wave. Sarah, Sharif’s cousin, popped into PLOJ and played violin. I have the horrible memory that this was them all performing that damned Phantom of the Opera song. S h u d d e r. I whipped out a LOT of old material at the PLOJ. Some of it went way better than I was expecting – but there was a fair amount of almost-disaster too. Still, it made Amy and Brennan smile to hear old favourites dusted off and given Life once again.
(a note on grammar – when starting a sentence with a proper noun that is NOT capitalized – like “sahffi”, “rob” or “ilyAIMY”, one must fight the spell check, as well as one’s own inclinations and maintain the capitalization preferences of the artist over those of such pedestrian things as “grammatical correctness”)
Friday night was a return to Java Mammas for an Ash and rob show. This was really, really underpopulated. I guess all the people who were sick of being stuck inside on Thursday were sick of fighting weather and traffic by Friday. Still, Kristen and I performed admirably. I got to play with Ash through both of his sets and as a surprise guest The Honest Mistakes popped in and played some sets as well – their first escape from their home since they had their brand-new shiny kid.
I hear he’s cute, but I refuse to be down with the cuteness.
Saturday was long, drawn-out and awesome. With Sharif’s cancellation, ilyAIMY was Rowan and Kristen and I and that made me nervous from the get-go. We were playing a big benefit for Haiti but we’d been kind of invited at the last minute (we couldn’t do the original date, but when they had to reschedule because of snow things lined up…). With 6+ individual acts performing over the course of the evening, there was a LOT of administration that had to occur. There was a stage manager that told me where to be. There was a sound manager that told me where to plug my stuff in. People popped out of nowhere and whisked things on and off the stage and in general everything was buzzing with activity. We had dressing rooms.
Backstage at the BlackRock Arts Center. Hopefully I’ll be getting a lot more photographs of the night from friends – the space was absolutely beautiful. It was kind of funny to have all these lights and mirrors and to not get to do my hair or anything. Joining us is Rick Callender of Chapter Three. He is a frequenter of House of Musical Traditions and a fellow evil-genius in need of guidance. My lair was done before his, but it sounds like his might be a little better thought out. Rockin’ out, raising money for relief in Haiti.
The music was good. The sense of comeraderie was better. Sometimes I forget what an excellent music scene we’re in. How good the people are – and beyond that how much fun they are as well. We got to meet lots of people, and re-meet a lot of people that we hadn’t seen in years. Bill Mulroney, who picked his guitar back up after seeing us at an open mic in Virginia. Ellen Cherry, Zachary J who we’ve not seen since the Perk days, and many others.
Ever since music became my JOB I think I’ve forgotten to back off and remember that these people are my friends, and not just the competition. Not even competition, really, because we’re all so very different.
By the end of the night we’d raised almost $2500 and played to a ton of people. Unfortunately, their going to do a DVD of the event and I kind of screwed up my part of “Lean On Me”. Rowan should’ve sung the whole thing, cause I just play guitar!
