As we all tiredly gather around the breakfast table, coffee in mug, bagels within reach, laptops COURSING WITH POWER (well, almost all, we haven’t kicked Heather yet) I’m just… happy.
It’s a grey day outside, but looking at the weather, the rain showers that have avoided the North East for the past several days are coming to roost in Glastonbury, CT RIGHT as we’re leaving it, leaving the gardens of New Hartford, where we play today, moist and fresh. Yesterday’s weather at Particle Accelerator in Putnam, CT was a little hot and humid, but WELL within a given value of “perfect” for outdoor festival shows, and the days before, where our only concerns for the outdoors were drives and load-ins were kind unto us…
After the show tonight we’ll drive straight home, wrapping up a particularly beautiful trip, the first (and perhaps the only) trip that’s managed to happen for five-piece ilyAIMY. The logistics of it were a bit daunting, especially since Joey had be to be back earlier than the rest of us, but Heather absconding with her husband’s van made it all possible – and JOYOUS – since no-one was ever driving alone and we all got to have different configurations of chat and hang through the to and fro, wending through the backroads of Connecticut.
In the back of my head though, I AM aware that I probably won’t THOROUGHLY enjoy this time till the background clamour of “was this a bad idea as COVID ticks up or are we gonna be okay” is silenced by… everyone being okay.
Thursday morning we all got together at our house and swapped some gear (and EZ Passes) around, traded bandmates so Joey had a partner and got under way in a focusedly leisurely fashion. Rolling up I-95, up and around New York City via the Garden State Parkway. We made one stop in New Jersey, and though some masks were in evidence I was surprised that there was no COVID signage outside of the 6′ social distancing stickers on the floors. We had all had a discussion in advance of the trip and agreed to certain masking protocols – including wearing one indoors outside of singing (eating outdoors) – so we were conscious of being in the minority walking around the rest stop.
I like taking pics of bridges. We’ll have to see how things pan out w Cuomo but I AM just realizing that all the current sex scandal stuff is ANDREW Cuomo, and the replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge is the MARIO Cuomo bridge… oooohhhhhh.
I was definitely afraid I might see some glare and negativity from people who were NOT wearing masks, you know, people often hold the door at spots like that and I guess I wouldn’t have been surprised to see someone holding the door for others deciding to simply walk away when they see the mask – but I don’t think I really encountered that. I sort of WANTED to see some sort of co-… miseration? Understanding? Sense of shared experience? Something in the eyes of others who were masked… but I feel like WE didn’t really make eye contact much either.
Because you don’t know : are they masking because they’re vaccinated and being double safe (not sure of the actual percentage there), are they masking because they CAN’T get vaccinated? Are they masking because they’re strongly anti-vax and the mask is the lessor of two evils? For whatever else a mask may or may not symbolize it DOES say “I don’t trust the people around me”.
Which – is a big truth. It’s a VISIBLE locking of the car door. It’s crossing the street when you see your neighbour. And some people don’t care about how sensible it is. They’re gonna take offense.
So no-one makes eye contact unless you’re ordering chicken fries.
Huh. They were better than I thought they were going to be.
Mom-in-law dinner!! Mom-in-law PIE!!!!
After a quite Lovely truck stop lunch for both us and our cars we fought our way the rest of the way up to Kristen’s mom’s place in Glastonbury CT and had an amazing dinner with her.
I swear – there ain’t NOTHING like having your friend’s mom (or wife’s!) invite you and all your friends over for dinner and a sleepover! It was kiiiiinda like being 12 again, and that was worth the whole drive.
Tuckered out and exhausted by the road, we actually all were in bed (or on the floor) by 11pm. I put in earplugs and was dead to the world.
Weird dreams tho. By the next morning I had MULTIPLE ex-girlfriend dreams that I shan’t expound upon PLUS a dream about Jean Claude Van-Damme using his splits kick while in a bathroom stall at a truck stop to deal with someone who was trying to enter before his fait was accompli.
loading into Victoria Station… just reminding ourselves how wonderful this place is. Why we don’t load in through the FRONT!!! Richard… I mean Joey… I mean Richard… Last time.
Friday morning, dreams draining out of my head, breakfast and coffee slowly flowing IN. We’re boring rock stars who do office work till it’s time to drive to Putnam for our first in-door show in a long, long time. I was dreading it, looking forward to it, worried about it, excited, panicked.
Putnam is every bit as beautiful as I remember, Victoria Station welcoming and joyous. No-one is masked, if it weren’t for the numerous additional vacant storefronts it would seem normal.
Victoria Station Cafe is a favourite place. It has been for a long time. A stumble-upon meeting many years ago blossomed into a long-term friendship and a venue that we’ve returned to time and time and time again. We were the first ‘band’ to have placed at Victoria Station – we’ll be the last one too – as Dave has been looking to relax into a smaller business model than he’s built VSC into and finally has a buyer…
That purchase and the signing of the papers to go with it were a stressor heading into this trip – at first it looked like no problem, for a little while there was the possibility the cafe would sell and change hands before we got up there, now it seems we’re JUST ahead of the game and a local bar owner will take the reins of Victoria Station and rebuild it in HIS image (bar, not all-ages coffeeshop) next month or so. The generally stated plan is to keep most of the staff – but frankly Dave’s always had an eye for vibrant, charming, but YOUNG barristas, few of which are probably old enough to go into a bar, much less work in one.
Neither here nor there. It’s all worked out. We get to play our beloved Victoria Station Cafe one last time.
After we load in.
We’ve got a LOT of gear. Holy shit we’ve not traveled light and since betwixt not having been in town in forever, COVID concerns and whatever else we’re expecting a light turn out we’ll also be streaming AND Dave’s not had music upstairs in about a YEAR we might have to swap in a larger-than-usual amount of our own gear to replace any components that have died, gotten disconnected, or that simply no-one remembers how to use… it’s a LOT of trips up and down a LOT of stairs. Since we’re parked at the end of the block (easy parking has been replaced by outdoor seating years ago), and the entrance is at the front of the block, and the stairs are at the end of the block, and the stage is at the front of the building, load in is a zig zag involving two flights of stairs and carrying everything effectively 3 blocks.
Yeah. Load in is a bitch.
Very glad I was doing the whole rob thing and couldn’t sit still and did that over the course of several hours ratehr than waiting on it.
By 6pm we’re all set up, well sound-checked, slowly feeeeeeding on delicious Victoria Station foodstuffs, warming up, relaxing… at 7pm it’s time to start the show and we kick off to about 5 people which… though potentially expected and perhaps comforting since during the load-in and now with singing our masks are OFF, it’s still disheartening.
By the end of the second song though we’ve got a good looking crowd and Dave’s pulling more tables and chairs into the room and – it’s not PACKED – but it’s enough to remind me that I’m probably taking a real risk here with my band family…
Are we? REALLY we end up with an audience of 20 people or so. It’s still pretty small. Some of them are masked, most are not. We don’t know vaccination rates of our audience. I don’t want to venture a guess. As above – masks are PROBABLY more a sign of people being vaccinated than vice versa… just the Hell knows. Science and numbers is on my side… and we’re here now. I try to put it out of my mind and move forward.
The show is marvelous. The audience is small but mighty, and about half the audience has traveled a pretty long way to see us, including those who drove two hours to see us because they’d seen our webcasts and were eager to actually SEE us for the first time.
That’s amazing to me, and reminds me that the webcasts have done more than simply keep us in the minds of those who already Loved us – but introduced us to plenty of new eyes and ears.
Mark “What the HELL are YOU doing here?!?!” Rooney happens to be in the house and it’s great to have him. Mike Lussier from White Rose Confession. Dave’s family. Joey does an amazing job keeping his drumming manageable in the warm but bright confines of this incredible sounding wooden room… the webcast is well-attended by some surprise audience members including not just those who’d LIKED to have come but didn’t feel comfortable indoors, but also by people who just haven’t been able to attend our Wednesday Live streams. Ruthie of Ruthie and the Wranglers in the house….
We play a great show, break down leisurely, load back out to the back of the building, down the back stairs, up to the front of the building, out the front door, back to the back of the building… and then get it all back to Shirley’s house, unload and COLLAPSE.
ilyAIMY’s tuckered OUT. Let’s do it again tomorrow!