2/5 of ilyAIMY moonlighting as the Acacia Sears Band! Those hussies! Still, watching her – there’s no wonder at all that they can’t resist her charms – and Rowan’s voice sounds wonderful with hers! Having Monday off for these two weeks of “vacation” from Everyday Gourmet’s open mic has allowed me to wander up to Acacia’s open mic at Teavolve for a change of scenery.
The weather was misty and thunderous this morning. Cool air was whipping around grey, grey Catonsville and the burning of the Great Dismal had finally been dispersed by an entirely more pleasant miasma. By now of course the heat’s set in and all that refreshing moisture is now oppressive damp, simply sapping my will to Live.
Oh those kids – Michelle and Gino apparently throwing gang sign – because you know, Catonsville is ghetto.
Thunderstorms are promised and have been delivered – but the air continues to swelter as the rain burns off but resolutely refuses to leave the atmosphere. I think it’s funny how our weather forecasters no longer use terms like “t-storms” or “heavy rain”, but now say things like “energy” and “disturbance”. I don’t need the weather of the future, just the weather of the week.
This weekend we played two very different events that were a lot of fun, with their own unique audience quirks. Saturday morning the whole band piled into Heather’s Dad’s truck and drove out west to Paw Paw, West Virginia to perform at the only naked music festival I’ve ever heard of. The Avalon Music Festival runs all weekend and includes a number of great performers including a number of people that we’d last seen at Falcon Ridge. The performers mostly perform clothed, but with few exception, the audience is entirely naked. We’ve been performing there for years so we’re pretty used to it, and even the first time we were there, it wasn’t nearly as odd as I was sort of anticipating – but it was interesting to see that I THINK there were a lot more people who DIDN’T exercise the clothing-optional option than I’d seen in the past. i.e. there was a noticeable percentage of people who kept their clothes on – which is certainly welcomed, but it’s not really the point….
It was a great show. We caught some of Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen’s set and it is just so AMAZING to see them run rampant on mandolin and banjo and bass. At Falcon Ridge they were about the size of my pinkie nail because I didn’t want to deal with the crowds, but here we were able to be right on top of everything – and watching their fingers blur is kind of unreal. We mostly hung out behind the stage (the barn, really – because of the threat of rain they’d moved everything in-doors) and threw horseshoes while listening to the music, ducking inside every couple of minutes to see what was going on. I was also particularly blown away by the harmonies of Gathering Time and the spectacularly polished storytelling of Mike Arganoff.
Cause, you know, it’s not every day you run across Will Smith! (A trio of kids were racing around in a jeep taking pics with him everywhere they went – driving away I overheard “make sure he’s buckled in! Will Smith ALWAYS buckles up!”) There’s a castle out west there. I’ve no idea why.
Driving out and back (2.5 hours each way) all packed into one truck was a great bonding activity for the five of us and I’ve got to admit, that’s about my favourite ilyAIMY moment of the past year or so. I just had a great time. The boys got gross enough to even make Kristen abandon the vehicle for a while. Heather was strong though.
After we were done hanging out with Will, we watched the sun go down over MD, PA and WV across the road from the Panarama Restaurant. Absolutely exquisite! ilyAIMY watching the sun go down.
Sunday we played a house concert at the request of a local friend who has a magnificent home. He invited plenty of his friends over and when I arrived, the party was already in full swing – though mostly because each friend had a kid or three and I think they’d all been doing lines of sugar for several hours before we got there. T’was a fun show though I found myself being very careful about my banter and I got really nervous about Sharif who can sometimes be lacking in oral control. HE was strong also. Great show, great chili – and I finally met someone else who has the old-school BSG boxed set. The one that comes in a toaster head? Another great bonding moment! I broke a string on the last song, almost as if it was all planned – and then we raced the thunderstorms all the way home.
The thunder merged into artillery fire as I decided I needed to watch some of that BSG goodness, and midnight came and went before I was done getting my sci fi on. Short on funds, short on time, gas is too expensive and so are strings, but my Life, by and large, is pretty awesome.
For all that the trip to the Avalon Festival was a good time had, everyone was pretty tuckered out by the end of the day. Sharif demonstrated his much-coveted super power of getting some sleep in wherever and whenever. Sunday afternoon found us driving to the rural area smack dab betwixt DC and Baltinmore. Maryland is always full of geographic surprises and the fact that there’s a bunch of horse farms situated between all the urbaness is just one of them. Our house concert was about a mile from where we could’ve had a horse concert. hee! I’ve actually only played for a horse ONCE. I distrust them on general principles.
